At dawn, all of Hong Kong Island came alive. Students headed for school, and office workers left their homes.
Many hurried along, eating breakfast as they walked.
The scene was much the same in any era.
After all, not everyone could see Hong Kong Island at three in the morning every day like Mr. Gu.
"Uncle Yang!" A young man with a crew cut walked up to a Newspaper Stand and greeted him.
At the time, most men wore their hair parted in various ways, down the middle or to one side, especially young men.
Recently, though, various crew cuts had become popular, especially those with the sides shaved clean.
Young men with this hairstyle were particularly common in Hongxing territory, and nine and a half out of ten were Hongxing underlings.
There was one exception, though: Mong Kok, where they were all bald.
"Huazai! What brings you here so early?" The Newspaper Stand owner took payment while handing newspapers to other customers.
"I'm off today. Been out having fun all night!" Huazai said with a yawn.
"You spend every penny you have on women!" Uncle Yang laughed. He had watched Huazai grow up and watched him join the triads.
Once, after Huazai had been slashed on the street, he had even hidden in Uncle Yang's home for several days.
But since Causeway Bay had changed Bosses, these young thugs had changed a great deal too. In the past month in particular, they had actually all become security guards.
Their income was no longer as precarious as before, either. They earned eighteen hundred a month, about the same as factory workers.
They no longer had to go around making trouble every day, slashing people or getting slashed.
Most importantly, these punks actually looked like respectable people now.
Sometimes Uncle Yang