Tam Chung-yiu was a very traditional member of the Triad Society, and his father, Tam Xintian, was an old veteran of Hong Kong Island's underworld.
Though the Xinglong Triad Society could not match Hong Kong Island's top, long-established societies in strength, it had many strict rules.
For instance, Xinglong also strictly observed the Ten Rules of Hung Mun.
Once Zhou Quan had gained sufficient authority within the Police Force, he and the formidable officers of the Security Department's Action Group.
With their repeated successes in cracking major cases and the terrifying force with which they swept everything aside whenever they went into action, they had become a towering mountain bearing down on every society on Hong Kong Island.
The red lines Zhou Quan laid down had therefore also become inviolable prohibitions that none of Hong Kong Island's societies dared cross.
At least in public, no street gangster dared provoke Sir Kwan of the Police Force.
Tam Xintian and Tam Chung-yiu were relatively farsighted gangsters. Both father and son understood that the Motherland would never permit Triads to exist.
As a result, well before Hong Kong Island's official handover, the present-day Xinglong Triad Society had registered with the island's Trade and Industry Department, legitimizing itself as a law-abiding corporate group.
Freight shipping and liquor trading-Xinglong mainly operated legitimate businesses.
Even where it still earned income that violated Hong Kong Island's laws, that came only from a finance company whose interest rates skirted the legal limits and a gambling ship operated privately in international waters.
Yet greed knew no bounds, and there would always be people willing to take desperate risks for profit.
Who within Xinglong was involved in drug crimes and violating the rules Sir Kwan of the Police Force had laid down?
As Xinglong's current leader, how could Tam Chung-yiu