Chapter Summaries

After learning that Bo Cong had been killed by Shui Fong, Chen Tai led Harmony Heroes toward a bloody retaliation. Meanwhile, Song Tianyao refused Angie Pellis and Juliana’s proposal, accusing Juliana of setting him up as Shek Chi-yik had before.

• Chen Tai learned that Shui Fong’s men had killed Bo Cong and mutilated his body.
• Chen Tai grieved, then ordered Tie Tou Su to gather Harmony Heroes and head to Sai Wan for revenge.
• Chen Tai charged into a tavern, vowing to kill its occupants before taking the fight to Sai Wan.
• Huang Liu returned to the Dulles Hotel and found Song Tianyao meeting Angie Pellis, Juliana, and Ji Wenming in Angie’s room.
• Song Tianyao rejected Angie’s comparison between their current discussion and his earlier dealings with Shek Chi-yik, warning that he would not let Juliana set him up.

Song Tianyao realized that Lin Xiaohe had used a contract to expose Lin Yujing and the other concubine-born daughters as Mui Tsai, undermining his plan to challenge the Lin Family’s inheritance arrangements. He refused to let Angie Pellis use their status in court because doing so would turn the case into a fight against Po Leung Kuk and Chinese upper society.

• Song Tianyao left the Dulles Hotel with Ji Wenming and told him that Lin Xiaohe had trapped him with the contract.
• Ji Wenming considered Song Tianyao’s plan to challenge Lin Xizhen’s informal declaration under British law and split the Lin Family through an inheritance dispute.
• Song Tianyao realized Lin Xiaohe’s contract implied that Lin Yujing and the other daughters had been sold to their husbands’ families as Mui Tsai.
• Song Tianyao rejected Angie Pellis’s legal strategy because raising Lin Yujing’s Mui Tsai status in court would provoke Po Leung Kuk and Chinese Big Brothers.
• Song Tianyao concluded that pursuing the case that way would amount to declaring war on Chinese upper society.

Police Commissioner Duncan MacIntosh received reports of deadly gang clashes and a workers’ strike, then ordered the casualty figures suppressed and dispatched police to the Labour Department. The workers’ protest was still ongoing as MacIntosh arranged a response.

• MacIntosh’s assistant briefed him on the Harmony Heroes and Wo On Lok clashes, a workers’ march, and a document from the Political Department.
• MacIntosh saw Lai Man-yau’s report of seventy-eight dead and two hundred and thirty-one seriously injured or disabled, then ordered the figures revised and threatened Lai if the news reached the press or government officials.
• MacIntosh learned that the Indian officers he wanted to send had left the force after completing their contracts.
• MacIntosh ordered officers from Central Police Station, Sheung Wan Police Station, and the Riot Squad to respond to the Labour Department protest and question the striking workers about their grievances.

MacIntosh learned that Wo On Lok members had been executed in Sarawak after smuggling rubber tree seeds, then went to the Secretariat without explaining why. Song Tianyao visited Chu Xiaoxin to ask for help arranging a meeting with Feng Yichang, whose mistreatment of Yunzhi’s family Song planned to confront.

• MacIntosh asked which triad societies had fought in Sai Wan and ordered his assistant to take the Political Department document to the Secretariat.
• MacIntosh’s assistant read that thirty-seven Hong Kong members of On Lok Hall had been executed in Sarawak while smuggling rubber tree seeds, and suspected the document linked them to an attempt to curry favor with Mainland China.
• Song Tianyao visited Chu Xiaoxin, who was reading a newspaper story portraying On Lok Hall’s dead members as patriots.
• Song Tianyao told Chu Xiaoxin that Feng Yichang was Yunzhi’s eldest paternal uncle and had forced Yunzhi’s father out of the family, contributing to Third Aunt’s widowhood.
• Chu Xiaoxin offered to ruin Feng Yichang’s pharmaceutical business, but Song Tianyao stopped him and asked him to arrange a lunch meeting with Feng.

Chief Superintendent Han Desen used a meeting about the armed gang fight in Sai Wan to protect Lai Man-yau while testing whether the other Detective Chief Inspectors would challenge him. He gave Lai one more chance to manage the aftermath and keep his position.

• Han Desen berated Lai Man-yau and the Sai Wan police over the armed gang fight, while Liu Fu dismissed the danger and pledged to prevent major crimes for two months.
• Liu Fu called for Lai Man-yau to be removed and suggested Cheung Wing-kam take over as Hong Kong Island District Chief Detective Chief Inspector.
• Yan Hung supported Liu Fu’s proposal, but Cheung Wing-kam declined to replace Lai Man-yau and warned that moving him could cause problems in Kowloon.
• Han Desen asked Lai Man-yau to handle the aftermath and improve the Police Force’s image, warning that failure would leave him in uniform until retirement.

Feng Yichang eagerly prepared gifts for a lunch invitation from Chu Xiaoxin, expecting to strengthen his ties with the Likang Company. At the restaurant, Song Tianyao revealed that he was Feng Yichang’s relative, leaving Feng Yichang stunned and fearful.

• Feng Yichang recalled how he had supported Chu Xiaoxin and hoped to gain influence and business opportunities through him.
• Feng Yichang gathered shrimp dumplings, jewelry, and the keys to his New Territories estate as gifts for Chu Xiaoxin.
• Feng Yichang traveled to the Kowloon Restaurant and followed its staff upstairs to the private room.
• Song Tianyao told Feng Yichang they were relatives because Song’s younger sister was Feng Yunzhi.
• Feng Yichang recognized Song Tianyao’s influence over Chu Xiaoxin and the Likang Company and broke into a cold sweat.

Song Tianyao met Feng Yichang with Chu Xiaoxin and revealed that Feng Yunzhi was his younger sister, then reassured Feng that he wanted to focus on the future rather than past wrongs. As dinner continued, Feng Yichang guessed Song wanted to draw the Feng Family into his conflict with the Lin Family and asked how Yunzhi and her mother were living.

• Feng Yichang realized that Song Tianyao was connected to the Song household that had taken in his niece Feng Yunzhi.
• Song Tianyao told Feng Yichang he cared only about what happened from then on, and Feng offered to give Yunzhi and her mother whatever they wanted.
• Chu Xiaoxin said he had initially wanted to wipe Feng Yichang out, but Song Tianyao had stopped him.
• Song Tianyao explained that people faced the consequences of their own causes, then accepted the shrimp dumplings Feng Yichang had brought.
• As dinner continued without Song Tianyao explaining his purpose, Feng Yichang asked how Feng Yunzhi and her mother were living and resolved that he would have to side with Song.

Song Tianyao asked Feng Yichang and the Feng family to testify that his third aunt had been properly married into the Feng Family rather than sold as a Mui Tsai. Huang Liu then recruited Lei Yingdong to intercept a shipment of rubber tree seeds and saplings and deliver it to Shenzhen, and Lei agreed to take the risk.

• Song Tianyao explained to Feng Yichang how past family actions had led to present consequences and asked him to help establish Lin Yujing's marriage as legitimate.
• Feng Yichang admitted that Lin Yujing had arrived with a Mui Tsai contract, though the document had since disappeared.
• Huang Liu told Lei Yingdong that Song Tianyao needed him to transport two hundred kilograms of rubber tree seeds and a hundred saplings arriving near Hong Kong that night.
• Lei Yingdong agreed to take a fast boat to Shenzhen with the cargo and use other boats carrying steel plates and medicine to distract the British sailors.
• Huang Liu promised Lei Yingdong that Song Tianyao would give him the shipment if he accepted the job.

Lin Xiaosen paid construction workers their overdue overtime, then went to the United Soda Factory to address the workers’ fear after the clash between Harmony Heroes and Wo On Lok. Lin Xiaohe warned him that the labor dispute was more complicated than it seemed and told him to focus on the factory and On Lok Hall.

• Lin Xiaosen paid the Construction Industry General Union workers fifty thousand Hong Kong dollars to settle their overdue overtime pay.
• Lin Xiaosen went to the United Soda Factory, where four workers had been killed and more than thirty injured in the armed clash, leaving the workforce afraid to return.
• Lin Xiaosen learned that Lin Xiaojie was absent and took a call from Lin Xiaohe at the factory office.
• Lin Xiaosen told Lin Xiaohe that he had resolved the construction workers’ complaint by paying them.
• Lin Xiaohe cautioned Lin Xiaosen not to act hastily and told him and Second Brother to handle the On Lok Hall matter and the soda factory.

Lin Xiaohe ordered Liao Jingxuan to reward and threaten the union leaders who had taken workers to the Labour Department, while Song Tianyao prepared to exploit the Lin Family’s distraction. Liao found the leaders celebrating at a construction site and entered to confront them.

• Lin Xiaosen dispersed the workers at the Labour Department, prompting Lin Xiaohe to order Liao Jingxuan to give the union leaders ten thousand Hong Kong dollars each and threaten them with bullets if they returned.
• Lin Xiaohe also agreed to pay the telephone company employees whatever they demanded for helping connect calls.
• After learning Lin Xiaosen had intervened, Song Tianyao sent Huang Liu to help Yan Hung and Uncle Xiao while he stayed at the Dulles Hotel under police protection.
• Liao Jingxuan’s men located seven union leaders celebrating with other workers in an unfinished building in Yau Ma Tei.
• Liao Jingxuan brought a jar of wine and entered the building to meet them, breaking a wooden strip to announce his arrival.

Liao Jingxuan tried to bribe and threaten the union officers into ending their strike, but the workers revealed they had been paid by someone else and ambushed him. He escaped into the darkness after stabbing Yao Chunxiao, while gunfire erupted behind him.

• Liao Jingxuan entered the construction site with wine and named the union officers gathered there.
• Liao Jingxuan gave Tong Jinchuan money and a bullet, threatening the officers to stop their strike and leave.
• Yao Chunxiao and Tong Jinchuan revealed that Brother Xiao had paid each officer fifty thousand dollars, and three of Liao Jingxuan's men were shot.
• Liao Jingxuan knocked Yao Chunxiao's gun aside, stabbed him, seized his weapon, and fled behind a stack of bricks.

Yao Chunxiao and Huang Liu staged a shootout to frame Lin Xiaohe’s men for killing union members, while Yan Hung covered up the operation for the police. Later, Hong Lai-sau had Ah Jun photograph Lin Xiao qia meeting Wo On Lok’s Big Brother Da Zui Cai.

• Huang Liu shot Liao Jingxuan in all four limbs, and Yao Chunxiao accused him of helping Lin Xiaohe sink Lin Xiaokang.
• Yao Chunxiao and Ah Shun shot the union members, then Yao Chunxiao planted a gun beside a corpse and told Yan Hung to blame the Lin Family.
• Yan Hung claimed he had killed three attackers and wounded Liao Jingxuan, then ordered his men to keep Liao alive and prevent his escape.
• Yao Chunxiao left before the police arrived, while Yan Hung’s men searched the scene and prepared to treat Liao Jingxuan.
• Hong Lai-sau told Ah Jun to photograph Lin Xiao qia meeting Da Zui Cai outside On Lok Tea House.

Song Tianyao gave Shek Chi-yik a first-prize betting ticket intended for Commissioner MacIntosh and arranged to contact him before midnight. He also told Shek to have Mrs. Bess sell her shares after the market opened, while Lin Xiao qia put Da Zui Cai in charge of restoring work at the soda factory.

• Song Tianyao handed Shek Chi-yik a betting ticket worth 740,000 Hong Kong dollars and explained that he had paid 870,000 in total to obtain it.
• Shek Chi-yik said MacIntosh had to avoid anything that could give his rivals leverage and described the ticket as a rare gift he had accepted from a Chinese person.
• Song Tianyao said he would call MacIntosh before midnight and have him wait for further word.
• Song Tianyao told Shek Chi-yik to have Mrs. Bess sell all her shares after the stock market opened the next day.
• Lin Xiao qia ordered Da Zui Cai to get the soda factory workers back to work and offered to leave him in charge if he succeeded.

Song Tianyao prepared to use photographs and press releases to damage the Lin Family’s standing, while explaining why the British officials would only act when they judged the family had no chance of recovering. The police then took Lin Xiaohe in to assist with a murder investigation, preventing him from calling his lawyer first.

• Song Tianyao gave Shek Chi-yik photographs that Shek took home without looking at them.
• Hong Lai-sau told Song Tianyao that the press releases were ready but that he lacked access to English-language newspapers.
• Hong Lai-sau proposed using a police crackdown and renewed attention to Lin Xizhen’s murder to isolate the Lin Family, but Song Tianyao said the British officials already believed the family was finished.
• A Lin Family servant told Lin Xiaohe that uniformed police officers had come to see him.
• Chief Inspector Qiao Dingguo ordered Lin Xiaohe to accompany the officers to assist in a murder investigation and refused to let him call his lawyer before they left.

Lin Xiaohe was brought to Yau Ma Tei Police Station to assist with an investigation into the shooting of construction workers, while his lawyers challenged the police over his detention and bail. Lawyer Chen arrived during the questioning with a whispered message for Lin Xiaohe, leaving its contents unknown.

• Lin Xiaohe told Hu Runsheng to notify Lawyer Chen and wait at Yau Ma Tei Police Station as Qiao Dingguo escorted him there.
• Photographers silently took pictures of Lin Xiaohe outside the station, and Lawyer Chen demanded access to the questioning and an early bail arrangement.
• Qiao Dingguo said the station could take up to twelve hours to respond to the bail application and went aside with one of Lin Xiaohe's lawyers.
• Yan Hung questioned Lin Xiaohe about Liao Jingxuan, the shooting at the construction site, and the workers' protest, but Lin Xiaohe gave no definite answers and referred questions about the protest to Lin Xiaosen.
• Lin Xiaohe considered claiming illness as he faced detention until eleven the next morning, but Lawyer Chen entered and whispered to him.

Lin Xiaohe and Song Tianyao faced off at Yau Ma Tei Police Station while each waited to see how Pedro Lobo would respond. Meanwhile, Lin Xiao qia met Tang Boqi at Fish Tail Rock Pier, where a Marine Police raid on a freighter left them under guard.

• Song Tianyao arrived at the Police Station with Ji Wenming, traded barbs with Lin Xiaohe, and was taken to an interrogation room.
• Lin Xiaohe told Lawyer Chen he would leave for the hospital if Pedro Lobo did not react within four hours, but would urge Liao Jingxuan to implicate Song Tianyao if Pedro did react.
• Song Tianyao told Ji Wenming that he had done all he could and now had to wait to see whether the Lin Family or he would be destroyed.
• Tang Boqi met Lin Xiao qia at Fish Tail Rock Pier and relayed Song Tianyao's warning that Lin Xiao qia should avoid getting drawn into the conflict.
• Marine Police and Customs officers surrounded the pier and a freighter, searched Tang Boqi and Lin Xiao qia, and boarded the ship for inspection.
• A sailor scattered the contents of a sack into the sea, and the officers restrained him and retrieved what he had thrown overboard.

At the hospital, Uncle Bing and Huang Liu fought over whether Sixth Miss and her mother would be taken to the Lin Family mansion, while Customs seized a freighter after finding rubber tree seeds. At the Police Station, Lin Xiaohe sought a hospital examination and learned that Liao Jingxuan had been recognized by men from Lao Fu.

• Customs officers found rubber tree seeds aboard a freighter, and the Marine Police commander ordered the ship and its occupants detained.
• Huang Liu confronted Uncle Bing outside the ward and attacked him when he tried to take Sixth Miss and her mother away.
• Uncle Bing and Huang Liu exchanged blade strikes and kicks, each wounded but neither defeated.
• Lin Xiaohe asked to go to the hospital, and Yan Hung agreed to arrange an escort after Lawyer Chen cited Lin’s heart condition.
• A plainclothes officer told Yan Hung that Brother Wing and Brother Shui had recognized Liao Jingxuan at the hospital.

Huang Liu killed Uncle Bing after a brutal knife fight, then treated his own wounds and revealed that the mother and daughter were not in the ward. The chapter ended with Huang Liu alone beside Uncle Bing’s body, badly hurt but alive.

• Huang Liu repeatedly stabbed Uncle Bing in the abdomen until he stopped moving and died.
• Huang Liu inspected the deep slashes on his thigh and waist, took painkillers, and bandaged himself.
• Huang Liu said the mother and daughter were not in the ward and that Fuyixing’s men had sent the nurses away.
• Huang Liu taunted Uncle Bing’s corpse while wondering whether his injuries had left him impotent.

Huang Liu killed Uncle Bing and left Fuyixing to dispose of the body, while Lin Xiaohe used a staged medical examination to avoid police questioning. The chapter ended with Lai Man-yau confronting Yan Hung at Saint Immanuel Hospital and ordering him to leave.

• Huang Liu stabbed Uncle Bing again after killing him, then told Gao Lao Cheng to have Fuyixing clean up the scene.
• Huang Liu explained that his injuries would earn him extra treatment money and rest, and said Song Tianyao needed to rest too.
• Dr. Ronnie declared Lin Xiaohe unwell and advised that he be admitted for quiet rest, preventing Yan Hung from questioning him immediately.
• Yan Hung tried to arrange guards around Lin Xiaohe’s hospital room, but Lai Man-yau arrived with officers and asserted Hong Kong Island’s authority over the investigation.
• Lai Man-yau told Yan Hung to leave the hospital and invoked the murder of his godson Chai Fa Chiu as a threat.

Lawyer Chen told Lin Xiaohe how he had arranged for Lai Man-yau to have an unidentified body cremated and discussed Lin’s plans to manage the fallout. Meanwhile, Song Tianyao stayed at the Police Station to keep the Lin Family under pressure, and the chapter ended as an officer brought in the morning newspapers.

• Lawyer Chen told Lin Xiaohe that Lai Man-yau had intercepted the body and sent it to the Universal Funeral Parlour for cremation.
• Lin Xiaohe approved the payments and told Lawyer Chen to have A-Sen calm the workers, raise cash through his wife and in-laws, and buy Xizhen Properties shares if they fell.
• Song Tianyao told Ji Wenming that remaining at the Police Station would make the Lin Family wary and keep him clear of events outside.
• Song Tianyao and Ji Wenming discussed Song’s hired stock experts and Ji’s marriage into the Lu Family while waiting at the station.
• A plainclothes officer returned with freshly printed copies of the morning newspapers.