"Today is a good day, so dress a bit more festively." Kong Sang helped Gu Sheng slip into his suit jacket, then smoothed out the nonexistent wrinkles on the clothes.
Although Kong Sang did not understand much about the initiation ceremony, she had heard the lackeys talking yesterday and knew Gu Sheng was getting promoted, so she dragged Gu Sheng out to buy a suit.
"It's festive enough!" Gu Sheng looked at the orange-red suit on his body, thinking to himself that it was a good thing it wasn't bright red.
Actually, bright red would have been fine too; just as long as it wasn't pink.
Actually, pink would have been all right as well...
"Are you coming back to eat at noon? Do you want me to stew some chicken soup for you?"
"You nag more than my old man." Gu Sheng pulled a long face.
Kong Sang did not speak either, just pursed her lips and smiled.
"Right, here is your thermos!"
"I'm going to an initiation ceremony, and you want me to bring a thermos to steep wolfberries in?" Gu Sheng wore a look of shock.
A moment later, Gu Sheng walked out carrying the thermos, looking thoroughly displeased.
How did things turn out like this?
Where did that pitiful little thing from back then go? It had only been a few days!
"Brother Sheng!" A lackey waited outside.
"Take it!" Gu Sheng shoved the thermos into Big-Eyed Hua's hands.
"What? Chicken soup? Just this little bit? Sister-in-law is so stingy?"
"Chicken soup, chicken soup, all you fucking know is chicken soup." Gu Sheng gave the back of his head a slap. "Hold onto it properly, don't you dare spill it for me."
He pulled some Liuwei Dihuang Pills out of his pocket and popped one.
As soon as they went downstairs, several sedans were parked there.
They were all rented.
After all, he needed to put on a show.
All the way to the venue, he saw quite a few people standing outside, all lackeys belonging to Gu Sheng and Chan Ho-nam.
As for Four-Eyed Kid, Chui Gai, and the others, they didn't even show up.
"Damn, you look so sharp, it's enough to go shoot a movie." Big B laughed and slapped Gu Sheng's arm the moment he saw him.
"Of course, who in the whole of Yuen Long looks sharper than me?" Gu Sheng was in an exceptionally good mood.
After exchanging a few pleasantries with Big B, he stood off to the side smoking and waited for Chan Ho-nam to arrive.
"This guy puts on bigger airs than me, coming this late to his own initiation ceremony, he might as well just get initiated next year instead." Gu Sheng waited for a long time, unable to keep from speaking up.
Not a moment later, two cars pulled up one after the other, leading with a newly released blue Toyota MR.
Chan Ho-nam got out with Chicken, Big Tony, and the others, accompanied by a rather cocky-looking young delinquent girl who was actually quite pretty.
"Is this Stammering Girl?" Gu Sheng immediately found himself taking a bit of an interest in her.
Even though this woman was a bit stupid, she had bonus points on her.
She was someone else's wife, after all.
A moment later, the two entered the hall. Aside from Big B, there was an elder in his sixties, and another person whom Big B had borrowed from another branch as a white paper fan.
"This is Uncle Tak, who followed Mr. Jiang back in the day to conquer the world."
This Mr. Jiang was Chiang Tin-sang's father, Chiang Chun.
"Uncle Tak!" Gu Sheng and Chan Ho-nam handed over their red envelopes.
Uncle Tak accepted the red envelopes, looked at the two of them, and could not help saying, "Times aren't like before. In the past, to join, you had to spend three years as a Blue Lantern under observation to make sure your character was fine before they'd treat you as a brother. Three years as a new Four-Nine, three years as an old Four-Nine-it took at least nine years to get initiated."
Gu Sheng curled his lip. Uncle, times have changed.
Back in the old days, people on the streets talked about loyalty; nowadays, who talks to you about loyalty?
A branch only gave out four spots for initiation a year: two Red Poles, one white paper fan, and one straw sandal.
Over an hour later, the two finished their initiation, both becoming 426 Red Poles.
"Ah Sheng, come with me." After heading outside, Big B called Gu Sheng over to his car and said, "Ah Sheng, Long Ping Estate will belong to you from now on, along with the two surrounding streets. Aside from the money handed over to the branch every month, you can figure out how to arrange the rest yourself."
"No way, right? What's even at Long Ping Estate?" Gu Sheng actually knew Long Ping Estate; it had originally been Long-Haired Kit's turf-a total of fifteen public housing blocks with over eight thousand households.
They were all fucking poor ghosts.
The two surrounding streets were just a wet market and small diners; what kind of grease was there to be made in a place like that?
On top of that, there were plenty of punks in that public housing district, and members of other triads frequently popped up.
"If you don't like it, go out and fight for it. The turf you conquer will all be yours. That's how I got through it back in the day in Tsz Wan Shan, right? You can't expect us bosses to arrange everything for you, can we?" Big B patted Gu Sheng's shoulder.
Gu Sheng gave him the middle finger the moment he got out of the car.
"Fuck, not asking to hand Ah Sin's bar over to me, but at least give me the sauna! The rent on those streets with the bars pulls in a fortune every single day. And in the end, they hand me a public housing turf and tell me to go collect rent from a bunch of poor ghosts?"
Once he got into the car, a lackey asked, "Brother Sheng, where is our turf?"
"Long-Haired Kit's old stomping ground!"
"Long Ping Estate? Even though that place doesn't have much grease, it's crawling with punks-great for recruiting people." Big-Eyed Hua currently had his mind full of swaggering around with lackeys; he didn't think as much as Gu Sheng did.
Gu Sheng couldn't be bothered to say much either. When he went back and called over former lackeys of Long-Haired Kit to ask, he found out that there were still two pool halls and one sauna belonging to the triad there. Combined with the rents from the various shops and stalls, it brought in around three hundred thousand a month.
Gu Sheng blew his top as soon as he heard it.
You had to know that one-third had to be handed over to the books-that was over one hundred thousand right there-and the remaining two hundred thousand was barely enough to pay the lackeys' wages.
At most, he would be left with a measly tens of thousands.
There was no fucking point in playing this game.
That sauna of Ah Sin's was in a bustling area, pulling in hundreds of thousands a month alone.
"Damn it, go find out where Chan Ho-nam's turf is." Gu Sheng dispatched a lackey to inquire.
"Ah Nan, I've always treated you like my own son. This time Quick-Blade Sheng made a huge contribution, so I gave him Long Ping Estate. He's bound to be dissatisfied.
When the time comes, others will inevitably gossip. Even though I'm the boss, I still have to consider what the lackeys are thinking.
So in a few days I'll have a task for you to handle. Once you finish it, no one will be able to say anything."
Meanwhile, Big B and Chan Ho-nam were talking in a bar.
"Boss, don't you worry. I'll definitely handle things impeccably so that nobody can find anything to say." Chan Ho-nam nodded.
Before long, Gu Sheng's lackey returned with the news: Chan Ho-nam had been assigned an entire street right near the bar, along with several triad businesses located there.
His monthly income was at least several times Gu Sheng's.
"Brother Sheng, this time your contribution was the greatest, taking out several prominent Tung Sing figures, yet all the biggest benefits went to Chan Ho-nam. Big B is way too biased."
"The boss arranges things however he wants! Big B practically raises Chan Ho-nam like a son; the guy has a good dad!" Gu Sheng said with a blank expression.
In his mind, he pondered whether the plot was about to kick off now that Chan Ho-nam and Stammering Girl had gotten together. Should he add a little extra fuel for Chan Ho-nam and Big B?
He definitely needed to make some preparations.
Once the plot started, Big B wouldn't be far from death either.
Yet since Chan Ho-nam had already been initiated, would Big B still arrange for him to hack Ba Bi to death and subsequently incur Teem-Kwan's enmity? And after that, send Chan Ho-nam and the others to handle business in Macau?
That latter part seemed to stem from a different matter-something about some branch leader planning to retire?
Gu Sheng's memory of the plot was somewhat hazy, especially regarding details that had seemed unimportant at the time.
Putting that matter aside, Gu Sheng began mulling over the idea he'd had the other day concerning real estate rental agencies.
"Big-Eyed Hua!"
"Brother Sheng."
"Find me a few storefronts in Yuen Long-good locations, low rent." Gu Sheng ordered directly.
"Brother Sheng, what do you think is a reasonable price?" Big-Eyed Hua understood immediately; lately, he was starting to grasp Brother Sheng's style of doing things.
"How about at least thirty percent below market rate? Sign a three-year contract at once, with payments every three months, paid in arrears." Gu Sheng mused. Once they rented them, if they paid the rent at the end of the third month, his own finances should be a lot looser by then.
"In addition, scatter all the lackeys out. I pay them so much money every month; I can't have them idling around all day.
Have them tear down all the housing ads pasted on utility poles and windows all over Yuen Long.
After that, go talk to the landlords one by one. Tell them no more pasting small flyers to ruin the urban landscape everywhere-good citizens like me can't bear to look at it.
Find a few students to go together, write down all those housing details, and take a few photos.
From now on, we'll find tenants and buyers for them."
"For people looking to rent, they only need to fork over half a month's rent as a deposit. We won't take a single cent of the remaining rent; it all goes to them. Even if the tenant rents for a whole year, it all goes to them.
As for those selling houses, we only take a three percent commission fee, with zero other charges whatsoever."
"Brother Sheng, will this actually work? Aren't we charging a bit too little?" Big-Eyed Hua understood the gist of it, but he felt that this sudden venture Gu Sheng had dreamed up didn't seem like it would make much money.
It fell far short compared to bars, night clubs, and things of that sort.
"Are you an idiot? Can't you fleece both ends?"
As for whether it could turn a profit, Gu Sheng figured it shouldn't be a big problem. After all, real estate agencies would be all over the streets in later generations, so this industry definitely made money.
If it didn't make money, that just meant they had the wrong posture.
Before you continue