Chen Desheng

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Chen Desheng (陈德生)
Gender	Male
Age	In his seventies 25 27
Titles / Forms of Address	Master, Boss, Chairman Chen 26 36 49
Affiliation	Hung Hing Group 25 36
Occupation / Role	Founder and chairman of Hung Hing Group; formerly an underworld leader 25 36 49
Residence	A large villa in Wutong District, Deep City 25
Status	Alive; survives a sabotaged car crash with cuts and scrapes 25 48
First Appearance	Chapter 16, as the unnamed elderly passenger rescued by Chen Yuan; identified by name in Chapter 25 16 25

Background / History

Founding Hung Hing

Chen Desheng began his life in Deep City doing manual labor, including carrying loads at the docks and moving bricks at construction sites for eight yuan a day. After suffering harassment from local gangs, he and several companions pooled one yuan and twenty cents, bought three bottles of beer, and swore to share hardship and prosperity in a rented room. This brotherhood became Hung Hing 26.

One of his closest companions, Zhao Tiezhu, once fought several opponents to allow the others to escape, suffering seven knife wounds. When their fortunes improved, Tiezhu left to live peacefully with his wife and son. Desheng initially resented his departure but eventually came to regard it as the right choice 26.

Hung Hing later became the Hung Hing Group, a legitimate business organization involved in real estate, hotels, and entertainment complexes. Its personnel remained largely unchanged, and some members continued behaving like gangsters despite their respectable business identities 25 41.

Family Tragedy

More than thirty years before the present story, enemies seeking revenge against Desheng attacked his home while he was away. His wife and fifteen-year-old daughter were killed protecting his seven-year-old son, Chen Jingshen. After finding them dead, Desheng became colder and more ruthless; Hung Hing's influence expanded, but he spent sleepless nights smoking in the living room 28 47.

Jingshen blamed his father's criminal life for the murders. Although Desheng accepted his son's relationship with Lin Nianwei, he angrily threatened to disown Jingshen when he decided to leave Hung Hing. Jingshen wanted to prevent Nianwei and their unborn child from suffering the same fate as his mother and sister 28.

After the child's supposed death and Jingshen's departure for Sea City, father and son remained estranged for almost twenty years. Desheng also mourned a grandson, Chen Nianzhi, whose grave he continued to visit. Unknown to the family, Lin Zhengye had substituted an unrelated stillborn infant for Nianwei's living baby 2 25 28 47.

Appearance

Chen Desheng retains an upright posture and a vigorous voice despite his age 25.

• Hair: Entirely white and meticulously combed when Zhao Jianguo visits him 25.
• Hands: Broad and strong, with rough calluses, thick fingers, prominent knuckles, and visible veins 34 47.
• Clothing: Wears dark suits for business and light gray loungewear at home 44 46.
• Signs of age: His knees crack after he crouches for a prolonged period at the cemetery 47.

Personality

Desheng is commanding, impatient with failure, and sensitive to challenges to his authority. When his staff cannot locate his rescuer, he questions their competence and whether they consider him too old to take seriously. He is also guarded: when he decides to investigate the crash himself, Zhao Jianguo knows that pressing him for details will achieve nothing 25 26.

His generosity is equally forceful. He refuses to let Chen Yuan dismiss the rescue as a minor favor and presses him to accept hospitality and employment. Once Yuan joins his household, Desheng treats him warmly and allows him to postpone starting work until Zhang Xiu'e has secured a new job 33 34 35 44.

Pride conceals much of his affection for Jingshen. He complains about his son's absence while asking about his career and marriage, and he still prepares Jingshen's favorite foods on his birthday each year. At his family's graves, that stern exterior gives way to grief and an admission that his son may be right to blame him 25 27 47.

Abilities & Skills

Leadership and Influence

Desheng remains a major figure in Deep City's business world even though he rarely appears publicly 36.

• Commands a substantial household staff and a bodyguard team led by Lei Zhen 25.
• Attends Hung Hing board meetings and moves confidently among business leaders at formal events 46 49.
• Uses surveillance footage, staff searches, and Zhao Jianguo's assistance to locate Chen Yuan 25 26 33.
• Treats the proposed match against He Long's chosen fighter as a way to deter further interference from the He family 48.

Character Appraisal

A lifetime of dealing with wealthy people, officials, soldiers, and ordinary workers has made Desheng accustomed to judging people through their conduct 44.

• Assesses Chen Yuan as dependable because of his clear eyes, proper posture, and manner that is neither servile nor arrogant 44.
• Recognizes the significance of Yuan's more than ten years of Baji Fist training and offers him work under Lei Zhen 34.
• Notices Yuan's resemblance to Jingshen and later observes that his eyes resemble Lin Nianwei's 45 49.

Residence & Resources

• Wutong District villa — Located at the rear of a wealthy neighborhood; its interior includes carved rosewood furniture, marble floors, and a crystal chandelier 25 34.
• Household security facilities — The villa has extensive security arrangements and a training courtyard equipped with punching bags and strength-training equipment 44.
• Rolls-Royce — The vehicle from which Chen Yuan rescues him after it overturns 16 33.
• Hung Hing private club — Uses the group's discreet, restricted-access club for dinner with He Qingguo and He Long 48.

Relationships

• Chen Jingshen — Estranged son. Desheng wants him to return home but expresses that longing through anger and demands for direct contact 25 27.
• Madam Li of the Chen Family — Deceased wife. Desheng carefully wipes her shared headstone with their daughter and lingers over the words “beloved wife” 47.
• Chen Jing — Deceased daughter, murdered during the attack on the family home 28 47.
• Chen Nianzhi — Grandson believed dead. Desheng visits his grave in silence, without touching or cleaning its headstone 47.
• Chen Yuan — Rescuer and newly hired bodyguard. Yuan's decision to bow at the family grave in Jingshen's place leaves Desheng visibly moved 34 47.
• Lei Zhen — Bodyguard of more than twenty years. His loyalty to both Desheng and Jingshen puts him between the estranged father and son 25.
• Zhao Tiezhu — Longtime sworn companion from Hung Hing's early years; Desheng now envies the peaceful family life Tiezhu chose 26.
• Zhao Jianguo — Tiezhu's son and Jingshen's childhood friend. Acts as an intermediary between father and son and helps identify Desheng's rescuer 25 26 27 33.
• He Qingguo — Sworn brother, fellow founder, and Hung Hing Group vice chairman. Desheng has repeatedly yielded for the sake of their brotherhood, but his patience is wearing thin 41 48.
• He Long — He Qingguo's son. His attacks on Chen Yuan push Desheng toward a firmer response to the He family 48.
• Lin Nianwei — His son's former partner. Their reunion at a charity gala is limited to restrained, formal greetings 28 49.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Car Crash and Search for His Rescuer

• Chen Yuan frees Desheng from an overturned, burning car shortly before it explodes. Desheng rebukes the security leader who shoves Yuan aside, but Yuan leaves before giving his name 16.
• Desheng orders his staff to find the young man and asks Zhao Jianguo to trace surveillance footage. He keeps the broader crash investigation under his own control 25 26.
• The investigation establishes that someone tampered with the brakes. Desheng reports several leads but no confirmed culprit 48.

Bringing Chen Yuan into His Household

• After Zhao identifies Yuan, Desheng invites him to the villa and offers a well-paid job with meals and lodging 33 34.
• He entrusts Yuan's instruction to Lei Zhen and encourages him to treat the villa as home 44.
• He notices a resemblance to Jingshen, then takes Yuan to visit his family's graves, revealing the losses behind his public stature 45 47.

Conflict with the He Family

• Desheng defuses He Long's demand that Yuan drink a toast at dinner 48.
• After He Long attacks Yuan and is defeated, Desheng accepts a further match on Yuan's behalf and privately orders him not to hold back 48.
• He Qingguo subsequently recruits A Wei through He Long, intending to defeat Yuan and publicly humiliate Desheng. The match has not occurred within the supplied chapters 50.

Resemblance to Lin Nianwei

• At the charity gala, Desheng and Nianwei acknowledge one another without discussing their past 49.
• Afterward, Desheng asks Yuan what he thinks of her and remarks that Yuan's eyes look like hers, adding another clue to Yuan's origins 49.

Notable Quotes

“As long as you love her.”
— His response to Jingshen's relationship with Lin Nianwei 28

“You saved my life. What's a job compared with that? If you refuse, you're not showing me any respect.” 34

“He thought I got his mother and sister killed. … Maybe... he was right.” 47

Trivia

• Chapter 26 renders his name as Chen Diansheng, while the surrounding chapters use Chen Desheng 25 26 27.
• He is distinct from Chen Dehou, the adoptive grandfather who raised Chen Yuan and taught him Baji Fist 4 34.