Face-to-Face

In the morning, Fish Head Xu woke once again to the tempting aromas of all kinds of food.

"Chu-zai, you bought so much food again this early in the morning. Don't you ever sleep?"

Looking sleepy, Fish Head Xu gazed at the dishes on the table, yawned, and pulled out a chair.

"I woke up early, went for a swim, then bought breakfast."

After Fish Head Xu sat down, Yang Chu handed him a pair of disposable chopsticks. He took a pair for himself, too, and opened the takeout box in front of him.

There weren't as many different dishes as yesterday, but there was still plenty to eat, along with some fruit.

Fish Head Xu took the chopsticks Yang Chu handed him, opened a container, and the rich aroma of beef chow fun swept away his drowsiness. He picked up the container and took a couple of bites, then casually asked, "Swimming? Where'd you go this early? Don't tell me you went to the beach. Better be careful—the waves are rough."

Yesterday, when Yang Chu went to the Sham Shui Po Park Swimming Pool, he'd already told Fish Head Xu he needed to swim every day or he'd feel sluggish.

People had their own habits. Some showered in the morning, others took a bath at night. Fish Head Xu had seen plenty of strange things in their line of work, so he didn't think much of it.

He was just a little concerned about where Yang Chu went swimming.

"I didn't go to the beach. Over by Victoria Harbour Bay, I saw a swimming pool, so I went for a few laps," Yang Chu said casually.

He hadn't gone there to swim, of course, but to sleep. Half an hour or an hour in the water was enough to keep him alert all day.

Yang Chu had originally planned to go to the Sham Shui Po Park Swimming Pool. It was actually close to Tongzhou Street Park, but he'd finished exercising at four in the morning, and the pool wasn't open yet.

He could have slipped inside, but Uncle Kin, who managed the pool, might arrive as early as five to open it and clean up. After falling asleep, Yang Chu lost awareness of his surroundings, so there was a good chance he'd be spotted. He decided not to risk it.

Later, on his way back, Yang Chu passed the upscale residential buildings by the waterfront at Victoria Harbour Bay and spotted a sign for a private swimming pool. He simply climbed over the wall and snuck into the complex, then slept in the pool for over an hour. After waking, he quietly got dressed, slipped out, and bought breakfast along the way.

"If you like swimming that much, make some proper money and buy a big house with a pool. Then you can swim all day long..."

Fish Head Xu picked at the beef chow fun in front of him. Looking up at Yang Chu, he suddenly froze and exclaimed in surprise, "Chu-zai, you look different today. It's like you've—"

"Put on weight?" Yang Chu swallowed a soup dumpling whole and asked with a smile.

"Yeah, yeah." Fish Head Xu nodded vigorously, his crossed eyes scrutinizing Yang Chu from head to toe, full of astonishment.

"I eat so much every day. Of course I'm going to put on some weight, right?" Yang Chu said calmly, ignoring Fish Head Xu's stare.

"That's true." Fish Head Xu thought it over and decided there was nothing strange about it.

Besides, the change in Yang Chu's build wasn't all that dramatic. Only someone who'd spent the whole day with him would notice.

After breakfast, the two of them headed out together.

Yang Chu first had Fish Head Xu make a detour to the public library on Security Road. Perhaps Xu Xi was on a different shift or something, but he wasn't there that morning. Yang Chu used the gangster's ID card he'd brought with him to borrow three books, then went with Fish Head Xu to the film set on Fu Shan Road.

They had night shoots today, so filming would probably go on for a long time. Yang Chu didn't want to sit around with nothing to do at the set. He'd become very interested in reading, and it was helping him understand himself better, too.

When they arrived at the Fu Shan Road set, filming hadn't started yet, but plenty of people had already shown up.

"Big Brother, Ah Le!"

Fish Head Xu led Yang Chu over to the burly, plump director and the action choreographer, Jia Le.

The two men stood among a camera and a crowd of people, gesturing as if planning out the action. When Fish Head Xu and Yang Chu came over, the burly director smiled faintly. "Ah Xu, Chu-zai, you're here pretty early."

"Big Brother, you asked us to come, of course we're going to be early. Wouldn't want to hold you up."

Fish Head Xu chuckled, then pointed at Yang Chu. "Chu-zai's a quiet one. He won't say much in front of you, but the whole way here he kept telling me to hurry up."

"I can see that. You know me—I don't care about that sort of thing."

The burly director waved it off. He'd already noticed yesterday that Yang Chu barely spoke and kept everyone at a slight distance. He wasn't the kind of guy who fawned over people or knew how to work a room.

But he wasn't all that fussy about it. What mattered in the stunt business was having real skills. No matter how slick someone was with words, if he couldn't perform on set, he couldn't perform.

"Master, Black Skin Sha and the others are here."

The tall, wiry young man Yang Chu had met earlier came in from the edge of the crowd and leaned close to the burly director, speaking quietly.

"Got it. Jia Le, take the crew over to the location first. All of today's scenes are night shoots."

The smile vanished from the director's face. Looking a little irritated, he spoke to Jia Le, then patted Fish Head Xu and turned to Yang Chu. "You two go with Jia Le and get things ready at the location."

"Brother San Bao!"

A voice with a touch of swagger called out from far away.

Five or six figures in sunglasses and suits walked in from outside the set, carrying themselves with a brazen air.

At their head was a man around thirty with a silver earring in his left ear and a scruffy beard. When he saw the burly director, he took off his sunglasses, opened his arms without the slightest hesitation, and warmly moved in to hug him.

The burly director shifted slightly to avoid the embrace. His voice held a hint of distaste. "Ah Sha, your scene's tonight. What are you doing here so early?"

"Oh, Brother San Bao, how can you say that? Do I look like the kind of guy who acts like a big shot?"

The man called Ah Sha shrugged. The burly director had dodged his embrace, but he didn't mind. Instead, he casually draped an arm over the man's shoulder and said with a grin, "We've invested in this film, so naturally I've got to show up more often. Big Mouth Wai used to come to your sets to work as an extra and learn how to make movies, didn't he? Now he's dead, so I, Ah Sha, can do the same."

"Fine. Just keep your people back and make sure they don't get in the crew's way..."

The director, known as Brother San Bao, brushed the arm off his shoulder again and spoke with a helpless look.

"Of course, of course. My boys can even lend a hand if you need them." The suited man called Ah Sha pulled his arm back, still all smiles.

As the men talked, Yang Chu watched from a distance for a moment. Then he and Fish Head Xu followed Jia Le and a group of stuntmen to move the equipment and get ready to head to tonight's location.

Several trucks left the set, with Fish Head Xu's battered Toyota following behind.

"Is the director called San Bao?" Yang Chu remembered the burly man being addressed as "Brother San Bao" and turned to ask Fish Head Xu.

"That's Big Brother's nickname. Back when he performed Peking opera and played the dan roles, that's what his master called him. Later, Peking opera went nowhere, so Big Brother got into the business as a stuntman. Everyone kept calling him that," Fish Head Xu replied casually as he drove.

"What about those guys?" Yang Chu asked, thinking of the men in suits he'd seen at the set.

"Gangsters," Fish Head Xu said with a curl of his lip. "Don't let the suits fool you. They're all thugs—selling drugs, extorting protection money, hacking people up. They've done it all. Sigh, come to think of it, hardly anyone hasn't been involved with a gang. There are quite a few in our class, too, though most of them quit later."

At that, Fish Head Xu paused, his voice turning a little somber. "This film of Big Brother's probably has those guys' money behind it. He can't do much about it—he doesn't have the pull he used to. We just have to focus on our own work."