On the afternoon his interview assessment ended, Zhou Quan put on his brand-new rank epaulettes bearing two stars and one bar.
That made him the most eye-catching young man when he went to Lee Garden atop Tai Ping Shan the next day.
Yesterday had been the Hong Kong Island Police Force's last working day before the 1992 Lunar New Year.
Although Hong Kong Island was under foreign control, the foreigners had no tradition of celebrating the Lunar New Year.
But after all, ninety percent of the population here was Chinese, and the Lunar New Year had been the most important traditional Chinese festival since ancient times.
How could the Hong Kong Government possibly disregard the Chinese population's feelings?
Lunar New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, and the second day of the new year were three fixed holidays on Hong Kong Island.
Of those in Zhou Quan's maternal grandfather's generation, only Old Master Lee Shu-tong was still alive.
Thus, everyone in the Lee family would return to Lee Garden to celebrate the Lunar New Year, and Zhou Quan and Wong Bing Yiu were no exceptions.
A twenty-three-year-old Senior Inspector-he was indisputably a rising star in the police.
To everyone in the Lee family, Zhou Quan had already been a dearly cherished junior, and now he was performing so outstandingly as well.
This Lunar New Year, all the elders' attention was focused even more firmly on Zhou Quan.
It would be no exaggeration to say they feared dropping him if they held him in their palms and feared melting him if they held him in their mouths.
Even as the two little ones, Huang Xiyue and Lee Family Ka-chun, clung to their older brother, they could not help pouting their plump little lips in jealousy.
Still young, the two little ones could