Chapter Summaries

Song Tianyao corrected Gao Lao Cheng for putting Chen Tai to work collecting debts and instead had him help Chen Qingwen make medicated candy. After missing most of the interviews, Song recruited the overlooked Luo Zhuankun, whose background remained unknown.

• Song Tianyao ordered Gao Lao Cheng to bring Chen Tai to Chen Qingwen’s shop and keep him away from trouble at the docks.
• Song Tianyao told Gao Lao Cheng that wealth and intelligence mattered more than fighting, and said he hoped to visit Fuyixing elders Lin Man, Tan Changshan and Bai Chunting.
• Song Tianyao and Angie Pellis arrived after the interviews had ended and found only a few rejected candidates still waiting.
• Song Tianyao approached Luo Zhuankun, offered him a cigarette, and asked about his origins and previous work.

Song Tianyao learned that Luo Zhuankun had worked for Shanghai gold magnate Wang Yuanxi and recalled how a Shanghai syndicate’s failed Hong Kong gold speculation had cost its members huge sums. The chapter left Song surprised that the once-wealthy Shanghai tycoons could no longer retain a capable employee like Luo.

• Luo Zhuankun told Song Tianyao that he had worked as a record keeper for Wang Yuanxi at the Shanghai Gold Firm.
• Song recognized Luo’s former employer and recalled the fortunes of the Shanghai magnates who had arrived in Hong Kong.
• Xu Jizhuang, George Hardoon, Zheng Zhongchen, and Wang Yuanxi formed a syndicate to speculate on Hong Kong gold.
• The syndicate bought nearly 800,000 taels of gold, expecting prices to rise after Guangzhou’s liberation.
• The Hong Kong Colonial Government released a large supply of gold, driving prices down and costing the Shanghai speculators tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars each.
• Song reflected on the syndicate’s decline and wondered how Wang Yuanxi had lost an elite employee like Luo.

Song Tianyao arranged to recruit Luo Zhuankun and reflected on the danger of wealthy speculators who overreached. He then went to the Chu family home to find Chu Xiaoxin, who had stayed there to ask his mother for spending money.

• Song Tianyao invited Luo Zhuankun to dinner and offered him a job at Likang Trading Company.
• Angie Pellis warned Song Tianyao that Luo Zhuankun gave her a bad feeling, and Song Tianyao reflected on how failed tycoons had lost everything.
• Angie Pellis prepared Oxfam's registration documents and a water-quality report intended to carry Mrs. Bess's name.
• Song Tianyao took fifty thousand Hong Kong dollars and went to the Chu family home to see Chu Xiaoxin.
• Chen Xingfu told Song Tianyao that Chu Yaozong was out and Chu Xiaoxin was inside keeping his mother company.

Song Tianyao visited the Chu household to deliver Likang’s weekly profit to Chu Xiaoxin, who had been asking Madam Chu for money while blaming his secretary for Likang’s expenses. The chapter ended with Madam Chu meeting Song Tianyao and watching him and her son banter as Chu Xiaoxin secretly counted the money.

• Song Tianyao arrived at the Chu household with an envelope containing Likang’s profits and asked Sister Hong to bring him to Chu Xiaoxin.
• Chu Xiaoxin told Madam Chu that Likang was short of funds and accused Song Tianyao of wasting money while asking his mother for a loan.
• Sister Hong brought Song Tianyao into the back hall just as Chu Xiaoxin was criticizing him to Madam Chu.
• Song Tianyao introduced himself to Madam Chu, revealed that the envelope held fifty thousand Hong Kong dollars, and teased Chu Xiaoxin for his complaints.
• Chu Xiaoxin took the envelope and denied making the accusations, while Madam Chu smiled at their exchange.

Song Tianyao gave Chu Xiaoxin fifty thousand dollars and told him to spend it in public to support the impression that Likang had made seven hundred thousand. Chu Xiaoxin agreed to host an extravagant celebration at the Shanghai Restaurant, though he still balked at the cost.

• Madam Chu praised Song Tianyao and arranged for new suits to be made for the Chu brothers and Song Tianyao.
• Chu Xiaoxin took the fifty thousand dollars Song Tianyao had brought and asked whether it was meant to rent a smuggling boat.
• Song Tianyao insisted that Chu Xiaoxin spend all the money that day, and Chu Xiaoxin left with him.
• Song Tianyao told Chu Xiaoxin to invite the Young Uncles' Club and Zhang Yuliang to a lavish party at the Shanghai Restaurant, including seven or eight popular singers.
• Chu Xiaoxin agreed to spend the money as a celebration of Likang's supposed seven-hundred-thousand-dollar earnings and got into the Ford 49 with Song Tianyao.

Chu Xiaoxin spent lavishly to host a banquet at Lichi and gather his Young Masters' Club friends, while Song Tianyao watched Zhang Yuliang closely. The feast reached its climax when Master Li revealed the final dish, whose contents were not described.

• Chu Xiaoxin ordered Manager Jin to reserve Lichi's Shanghai Restaurant, invite his friends and Zhang Yuliang, and bring Chen Judy and her fellow singers to the banquet.
• Song Tianyao gave Jin Deming red envelopes and asked him to arrange the evening and invite the guests early.
• At the banquet, Zhang Yuliang charmed the guests with stories about his time studying in the United States, while Song Tianyao observed him.
• Manager Jin introduced Master Li, who lifted the silver covers on the final dish.

At a banquet, Chu Xiaoxin revealed that he had invited Zhang Yuliang to publicly end their friendship over a scheme involving Fuzhong Trading Company and Likang. Their followers nearly fought, and Zhang Yuliang denied cheating him as the two men parted on hostile terms.

• Master Li introduced liyunzi, a rare seasonal crab-egg delicacy, and Chu Xiaoxin praised it after tasting it.
• After the other young masters left, Chu Xiaoxin threw tea in Zhang Yuliang’s face and accused him of conspiring with Fuzhong Trading Company to cheat him.
• Gao Lao Cheng attacked Zhang Yuliang’s driver with a short-handled axe, but the driver caught it and blocked Chu Xiaoxin’s kick.
• The young masters returned and pulled Chu Xiaoxin and Zhang Yuliang apart before their followers could start a fight.
• Chu Xiaoxin declared that he and Zhang Yuliang were no longer friends, while Zhang Yuliang denied the accusation and threatened to repay the insult.

Chu Xiaoxin and Song Tianyao discussed their staged confrontation with Zhang Yuliang and planned how Chu would keep up his display of wealth. The chapter ended with Zhang Yuliang calmly telling Zhang Yulin that Chu Xiaoxin was a poor businessman, though he had enjoyed the banquet.

• Zhang Yuliang left the restaurant after his follower handed Gao Lao Cheng the axe, while Chu Xiaoxin and his companions went to the dance hall.
• Song Tianyao questioned Manager Jin about Zhang Yuliang, then spent three hours with Chu Xiaoxin at the dance hall.
• Song Tianyao told Chu Xiaoxin their performance had likely secured their plan and said he would speak to the foreign lawyer when she returned.
• Chu Xiaoxin asked Song Tianyao for money to continue acting wealthy, and Song agreed to lend him five thousand if he put on another show.
• Zhang Yuliang told Zhang Yulin that Chu Xiaoxin lacked business sense but praised the banquet's food.

Zhang Yuliang suspected Chu Xiaoxin was making money from medicated candy and planned to reserve the Santonin stock Chu Xiaoxin needed, hoping to force him to apologize. Zhang Yulin agreed to the plan but warned Zhang Yuliang that he would have to pay for the deposit if it failed.

• Zhang Yuliang teased Zhang Yulin about dining out while describing the Zhang Family's strict shared household and finances.
• Zhang Yuliang told Zhang Yulin that Chu Xiaoxin had made a large profit and revealed that Chu's medicated candy used Santonin deworming medicine.
• Zhang Yuliang proposed depositing one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars with the Gaili Subsidiary Company to reserve its remaining Santonin stock.
• Zhang Yuliang said he would use the reserved stock to make Chu Xiaoxin beg, or investigate and take over Chu's business opportunity.
• Zhang Yulin agreed to the plan on condition that Zhang Yuliang accept an apology and not push Chu too far, and said the deposit would come out of Zhang Yuliang's year-end account if the scheme failed.

Zhang Yuliang told Zhang Yulin he had exposed Jin Weikang for plotting to raise Penicillin prices and won permission to proceed with a transfer of funds. Meanwhile, Angie Pellis persuaded Mrs. Bess to help launch Hong Kong Oxfam and shape a public image as a British philanthropist and hydrologist, leaving Mrs. Bess uneasy about the bargain.

• Zhang Yuliang told Zhang Yulin he had bribed Jin Weikang's finance officer and reported the price scheme to Smith & Nephew's head office.
• Zhang Yuliang asked to transfer a hundred thousand dollars as a deposit, and Zhang Yulin agreed to let him act against Chu Xiaoxin for a week.
• Angie Pellis and Mrs. Bess reviewed and corrected a Hong Kong water quality report late into the night.
• Angie Pellis presented Mrs. Bess with plans for her to chair Hong Kong Oxfam and for the media to publicize its work.
• Mrs. Bess agreed she needed to present herself as a British woman philanthropist and hydrologist, but asked Angie Pellis whether she was entering a deal with the devil.

Angie Pellis secured Mrs. Bess’s agreement to help establish Oxfam, then hurried to the Dulles Hotel to report back to Song Tianyao. Song told her to rest and prepare to appear as one of Oxfam’s founders at its inaugural dinner while he handled the remaining work.

• Angie Pellis left Shek Chi-yik and Mrs. Bess’s villa after breakfast, having won Mrs. Bess’s support for Oxfam and its medicine donations.
• Angie Pellis rushed by taxi to the Dulles Hotel to settle the arrangement before complications arose.
• Song Tianyao was waiting outside the hotel and told Angie Pellis to sleep, buy clothes and perfume, and attend Oxfam’s inaugural dinner as a founder.

Song Tianyao inspected the Flower Pagoda Candy production and urged Chen Qingwen to expand output for the Squatter Area. He offered Chen Qingwen a position at Likang’s new pharmaceutical factory, but Chen Tai confronted him about blocking his dock job.

• Song Tianyao left Angie Pellis at the hotel and took a taxi to Chen Qingwen’s candy shop in Sai Wan.
• Song Tianyao gave the Fuyixing underling money to buy cigarettes and food, then learned Chen Qingwen’s family and helpers had worked through the night.
• Chen Qingwen showed Song Tianyao the two hundred kilograms of medicinal candy they had made, and Song Tianyao asked him to recruit other candy shops to produce more.
• Chen Qingwen agreed to contact other shop owners, then Song Tianyao offered him a job managing Likang’s pharmaceutical factory.
• Chen Tai stopped stirring the sugar, approached Song Tianyao, and asked why he had prevented him from working at the docks.

Song Tianyao arranged for workers and a plastic bag factory to help Likang produce and package medicated Flower Pagoda Candy, then confronted Chen Tai about his recent life on the docks. Chen Tai defended his actions, still unable to see why Song Tianyao was displeased.

• Song Tianyao asked Chen Qingwen about packaging the candies and ordered custom printed plastic bags from a North Point factory.
• Song Tianyao sent Xianyu Shuan to Gao Lao Cheng for extra workers and to arrange urgent production of the bags, giving him money and cigarettes for the errand.
• Song Tianyao warned Chen Qingwen to keep the medicinal powder proportions exact because mistakes could poison people.
• Song Tianyao questioned Chen Tai about enjoying fine food, drink, and respect on the docks.
• Chen Tai explained that he had collected debts for fellow townsmen and sent his earnings home, insisting he had done nothing wrong.

Song Tianyao warned Chen Tai against entering the jianghu, but Chen Tai chose to pursue his own path. Chu Xiaoxin headed to Lichi with Song Tianyao’s money to carry out his plan, while Song Tianyao went to the Zhang Family’s European Coast Company.

• Song Tianyao urged Chen Tai to give up fighting at the docks and offered him steady work, but Chen Tai refused and left to make his own way.
• Song Tianyao accepted Chen Tai’s decision and left the shop to attend to his own plans.
• Chu Xiaoxin complained about Song Tianyao’s conditions but ordered Chen Xingfu to drive him to Lichi, determined to make those who had enjoyed his feast pay.
• Song Tianyao called someone from Likang Trading Company, then visited European Coast Company at 21 Cheung Lung Street.
• Song Tianyao entered European Coast Company and saw the young man who had protected Zhang Yuliang reading a tabloid while drinking tea.

Song Tianyao met Zhang Yuliang to negotiate renewed supplies of deworming medicine for Likang, explaining the scheme that had earned the company seven hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars. Zhang Yuliang praised the plan and recognized that Likang intended to use it for one last fortune before leaving the trade.

• Song Tianyao apologized to Zhang Yuliang for Chu Xiaoxin’s drunken insult and asked him to resume supplying Likang with deworming medicine.
• Zhang Yuliang demanded that Chu Xiaoxin kneel and apologize publicly, or that Song Tianyao reveal how Likang had profited from the medicine.
• Song Tianyao explained that Likang had repackaged deworming tablets as lung tablets for sale in Vietnam, then as Penicillin for sale on the mainland.
• Zhang Yuliang praised Song Tianyao’s scheme and observed that selling the tablets as scarce Penicillin could earn Likang several million Hong Kong dollars.

Song Tianyao failed to secure Santonin at the price he wanted after Zhang Yuliang raised the offer and revealed he planned to profit from the medicine himself. Song then went to the Cathedral of St John to prepare for Oxfam’s founding ceremony, while Zhang began arranging a scheme to sell Santonin as Penicillin.

• Zhang Yuliang offered Song Tianyao seven hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars' worth of Santonin at sixteen hundred dollars per kilogram, and Song protested that the medicine cost far less.
• Zhang told Song he was raising the price because of the insult Chu Xiaoxin had dealt him, then warned that he would let his associates profit from the medicine rather than let Chu have it.
• After Song left, Zhang instructed Lawyer Pan to register a trading company under Kuang Junlang's name and order bottles and packaging labeled Penicillin for four hundred cases.
• Zhang told Dai Feng to arrange a dinner with the young master of Jiyuan Hongxi Pharmacy and then drive him to see Wei Lin.
• Song traveled to the Cathedral of St John, where Oxfam planned to hold its founding ceremony, and expected Mrs. Bess and Shek Chi-yik to visit and donate food.

Song Tianyao met Shek Chi-yik at St John's Church to discuss how Oxfam could preserve Mrs. Bess's influence and continue its work. He asked Shek to act fairly as deputy director and acting director of the Industrial and Commercial Administration Office after a company cornered medicine supplies and doubled their price.

• Song Tianyao bought a Bible and waited until Shek Chi-yik finished praying with his family before sitting beside him.
• Song Tianyao proposed that Mrs. Bess establish a water-survey organization and later become a visiting or honorary professor at the University of Hong Kong.
• Shek Chi-yik asked what Song wanted beyond titles for Mr. Chu, and Song said he wanted Shek to do his job.
• Song Tianyao explained that a company had monopolized cheap parasite-medicine raw materials and raised the price from eight hundred to sixteen hundred Hong Kong dollars per kilogram.
• Song Tianyao asked Shek to handle the medicine-supply matter fairly, impartially, and openly.

Song Tianyao negotiated with Shek Chi-yik over a drug seizure and charity donation, then arranged public thanks for Shek Chi-yik's wife. Zhang Yuliang found his nephew Zhang Weilin gambling and took him away, leaving Dai Feng to settle the debt and punish a gambler who insulted them.

• Song Tianyao proposed that Likang receive seized drugs and offered Shek Chi-yik a share of the savings, but Shek Chi-yik said the money would go to the governor.
• Song Tianyao identified European Coast Company as the firm hoarding drugs and said flowers and rewards for public gratitude had been arranged for Shek Chi-yik's wife.
• Zhang Yuliang found Zhang Weilin gambling, drinking, and groping a woman in a Yau Ma Tei gambling den.
• Zhang Yuliang led Zhang Weilin out and told Dai Feng to pay his losses and knock out the teeth of the gambler who insulted them.
• Dai Feng placed two hundred Hong Kong dollars on the table, and the gambler picked it up and told him to get lost.

Dai Feng violently punished a gambler who had demanded money, while Zhang Yuliang took Zhang Weilin away from the gambling den and confronted him about his gambling. Zhang Yuliang spared him from immediate punishment by arranging for him to study in the mornings and work at Uncle Junlang’s medicine company in the afternoons, warning him not to gamble again.

• Dai Feng beat a gambler unconscious with an iron dice cup after the man demanded money, and the gambler’s companions learned that Dai Feng had been seen near the Shanghainese community in Tsim Sha Tsui.
• Zhang Yuliang took Zhang Weilin to Zhonghe Teahouse while Dai Feng stayed outside to keep watch.
• Zhang Yuliang recalled how Zhang Weilin’s father had brutally punished him for gambling as a boy and warned Zhang Weilin that his own gambling could bring similar consequences.
• Zhang Weilin begged Zhang Yuliang not to tell the family and promised to stop gambling.
• Zhang Yuliang arranged for Zhang Weilin to work afternoons at Uncle Junlang’s medicine company, told him to focus on setting a good example as the Zhang Family’s eldest grandson, and threatened to tell his father if he gambled again.

Song Tianyao met Xianyu Shuan at a Wan Chai food stall after Xianyu had delivered his message to Brother Shing and helped send men to the Chenji Candy Shop. As Xianyu ate with his daughter, he explained his family’s hardships, and Song bought food for his wife to take home.

• Song Tianyao found Xianyu Shuan at the stall with his six-year-old daughter after Xianyu said he had passed Song’s message to Brother Shing, whose men had gone to the Chenji Candy Shop.
• Xianyu Shuan treated his daughter to a meal with the travel money Song had given him, and Song invited them to share his table and bought the girl a soda.
• Xianyu told Song how he had joined Fuyixing for protection, worked as an opium-den bookkeeper, lost that job, and recently been sent to help make candy.
• Xianyu gave Song a State Express 555 cigarette while he smoked a cheaper one, then served most of the meal’s rice and meat to his daughter.
• Song paid for the meal and packed rice and five-spice eel for Xianyu to take to his wife, who had not eaten eel in over a year.