At the villa
After briefly meeting the three wealthy backers of the boxing matches, Song Ren and the other two were taken downstairs again.
Lu Zhengyang was sent straight to a private hospital for treatment. Although his bones and tendons were unharmed, his injuries still required a period of rest.
Song Ren chose to spend the night resting at the villa.
After changing and washing up, he finally took off his prison uniform and changed into a relatively well-fitting casual shirt.
The next morning
Chen Sheng arranged for someone to deliver a mobile phone and SIM card exclusively for him.
Several useful phone numbers had already been saved in it.
Also delivered were a room card for the Hyatt Hotel and ten thousand dollars in cash.
Song Ren toyed with the old-fashioned phone in his hand for a while. The device was quite popular at the time, but to him, it was genuinely rather nostalgic.
He held down the power button, and the phone's small screen lit up. A very familiar voice came from it:
"Hello~ Moto."
Song Ren: "..."
He fiddled with the phone and looked over the few numbers already saved inside.
They were labeled Miss Zhu, Chen Sheng, and one labeled Fook Shing Building boxing-match manager—Feijizai.
While he was looking through the phone, it suddenly began to vibrate.
Brrr~ Brrr~
Hello~ Moto~
Incoming call: Feijizai.
Song Ren answered. "Hello?"
A young man's voice came through the phone:
"Brother, I'm the person Brother Sheng arranged to liaise with you. I'm an independent boxing-match manager."
"Your identities are special, and it's still inconvenient for you to have too much contact with the outside world. I'll be staying by your side for the time being."
"I'll help you deal with some miscellaneous matters. I'll be there soon."
"Please wait a moment, Brother."
The voice on the phone sounded somewhat reserved and obsequious.
Still, Song Ren could guess that this independent manager was not merely there to handle some trivial matters for him.
He probably also had the intention of monitoring them. Otherwise, there would have been no need for him to follow them so closely.
After all, they were death-row prisoners temporarily released from Stanley Prison. Their identities still had to be treated with due caution.
If they caused too much trouble outside, Fook Shing Building would certainly be implicated.
Before long, a silver-white Volkswagen Santana stopped at the villa entrance.
With its flat front and long hood and rear, it was one of the most fashionable models of the time.
The car door opened, and a young man in a floral shirt and jeans stepped out of the driver's seat.
"Brother, I'm Feijizai. You can call me Feiji or A-Fei. Sorry, did I keep you waiting here?"
Song Ren shook his head. "It's fine."
As he spoke, he took the initiative to extend his hand. "I'll have to trouble you during this period. Please look after me, A-Fei."
Feijizai froze for a moment, apparently not expecting a death-row prisoner from Stanley to be so easygoing.
He seemed to let out a sigh of relief. After shaking Song Ren's hand, he immediately opened the car door for him. "Brother, just tell me whenever you need anything. I'll come whenever you call."
After getting into the car, Feijizai took the initiative to ask:
"Brother, where are we going?"
"Should we go straight back to the hotel so you can keep resting, or go to Portland Street and have some fun?"
Sitting in the passenger seat, Song Ren said, "I've already rested. As for Portland Street, I'm not interested in that sort of place. Let's go straight to Fook Shing Building and take a look. It'll help me familiarize myself with the place in advance."
Feijizai glanced at him with slight surprise.
Usually, on their first day out, most death-row prisoners would go to Portland Street for some entertainment.
After all, they had been locked up in Stanley for far too long and were probably terribly pent-up.
Someone like Song Ren, who wanted to go to Fook Shing Building immediately after being released—
This was the first time Feijizai had seen it.
However, he had no objections. Compared to going to a place like Portland Street, where all sorts of people gathered, staying on their own turf was naturally far better.
No matter what happened, they could easily cover for it.
Fook Shing Building was located in Yau Ma Tei.
It had thirty-eight floors and stood roughly 120 meters tall.
The first ten floors were all leisure and entertainment zones.
They contained upscale restaurants, a large cinema, entertainment and fitness facilities, and various recreational venues.
Overall, the level of spending was relatively high for the time, clearly targeting the middle and upper classes.
Above the tenth floor, however, a membership card was required for free access.
As one of the managers associated with the boxing matches, Feijizai had a high membership level and could freely take Song Ren to every floor of Fook Shing Building.
After the elevator rose to the eleventh floor, the moment its doors opened, a wave of noise suddenly flooded their ears.
Everywhere they looked, people were shouting and bustling.
The space seemed to have been opened up across eight or nine consecutive floors.
The vertical height was roughly twenty-six or twenty-seven meters.
Besides the winding corridors and tiered spectator stands,
the most eye-catching feature was the three enormous LCD screens hanging upside down from the ceiling.
The three huge screens formed a triangular structure, with its point facing downward and each screen directed toward one section of the spectator stands.
The clear images ensured that spectators in every section only had to tilt their heads slightly to see the most exhilarating ring action displayed above.
Every frame was rendered in vivid detail on the giant screens.
There were nine circular rings in the hall, divided into levels one through nine.
Only after winning at one level could a fighter challenge the next. They could also choose to defend their ring.
Except for the level-one ring, every other level offered a certain cash prize regardless of victory or defeat.
In addition, spectators outside the rings could place bets using the red and blue buttons on the right side of their seats.
There were roughly a thousand spectator seats in the hall. Most were occupied, and the fights in the rings were fierce, causing bursts of noise to erupt from the crowd every so often.
Whenever blood was spilled, the spectators would grow even more frenzied.
Sexy servers dressed as bunny girls often pushed food carts along the corridors in the hall, stopping and starting as they went.
Song Ren made a lap around the hall.
To an outsider, the boxing matches looked quite intense, but Song Ren lost interest after merely glancing at a few of them.
Their standard was honestly rather mediocre.
They hovered around the threshold of the professional level, and even the more polished fighters were few and far between.
The fact that such scenes could still provoke such deafening cheers was most likely because the spectators had all paid to place bets.
That made them feel deeply involved. The slightest advantage for either side immediately drew a wave of uproar from outside the ring.
Feijizai followed beside him and asked tentatively, "Brother, would you like to enter the ring and have some fun yourself?"
"However, given your identities, Brother, if you really want to fight in a place like this, it would be better to wear a mask."
Song Ren shook his head. "No need. Let's go up and take a look."
They took the elevator directly upward and arrived at the mid-level boxing arena of Fook Shing Building.
Its scale was no inferior to the one below.
However, the number of spectator seats was reduced by nearly half. Instead, circular balconies had been constructed into luxurious private rooms glittering with jewels.
Starting from the middle level, VIP seating had already appeared.
Tickets for the mid-level spectator seats were also much more expensive, while the minimum betting amount had increased fivefold.
The boxing matches there were also clearly more professional. Their standard was above the professional level, and the brutality had increased considerably as well.