"You seem to know so much." Kong Sang leaned over the table, propping her cheek on her right hand as she gazed straight at GS.
Her man was quite handsome when he kept his mouth shut, especially with that wild, exuberant spark about him. It burned like wildfire, unchecked and full of aggression.
Kong Sang had never seen it in anyone else.
Too bad he had a mouth.
"Of course. Nobody knows real estate better than me!" GS declared with absolute confidence, sweeping his hand through the air.
"Those experts can only tell you property prices will rise. I can tell you when!"
"When will they rise?" Kong Sang asked, drawing out the words without changing her pose.
"By '84 at the latest," GS said with utter certainty.
He had absolutely no idea what year prices had started rising, but if he couldn't even sound sure of himself, how was he supposed to convince anyone else?
In fact, although GS didn't know the specifics, he was right. In this property crash, prices had already fallen sixty percent from their 1981 levels. They wouldn't start rising again until China and Britain issued their joint declaration at the end of 1984.
"Nothing else, right? I'm going to check out the law firm," GS said, getting up.
Over the past two days, he had asked around about Lawyer Luo's firm. The Luo Shaoyang Law Firm had quite a reputation in the industry, though opinions on it were sharply divided.
He had won plenty of lawsuits for his clients and would stop at nothing to win a case.
No conscience. No limits.
People in the industry called him Scumbag Luo.
No wonder GS had taken an immediate liking to him when they first met.
GS felt that this was precisely the sort of lawyer he needed-one with sufficient professional dedication.
"Won't you reconsider? The Hu Ming Zhang Wang Law Firm is very well known too!" Kong Sang said.
"What good is being well known? Are they as shameless as Luo Shaoyang? In the legal profession, caring about your dignity gets you nowhere! A shameless lawyer is a good lawyer!" GS waved dismissively, scoffing.
He needed exactly that kind of lawyer, someone who would use any means necessary, all for the sake of winning.
"I'm off." GS got up and headed outside, looking forward to finding out whether the lawyers at the Luo Shaoyang Law Firm were really that hot.
"Are you coming home for dinner?"
"No. I still have to go to North Point." GS waved without turning around. He still needed to visit Fatso Lai.
Kong Sang was about to say something else when the phone on the desk rang. She picked it up, listened to only a few sentences, and her expression changed. She hurried outside to catch up with GS.
"Wait. Some employees are in trouble."
"What happened?" GS had been wondering how big the tits in North Point were when he heard Kong Sang and turned back in surprise.
"Our employees have been grabbed. They want us to bring money to get them back."
GS turned to stare at Kong Sang in bewilderment.
"What the hell?"
"Two employees have been working on a sale recently. The market price was over six million. Everything had been agreed on, and the contracts were signed, but the seller suddenly turned on them and refused to pay. Then things got heated.
"Our people were grabbed. The other side called the branch and said our people had hit them. They want a hundred thousand in medical expenses before they'll release them. Then the branch manager called me." Kong Sang quickly finished explaining.
"Should we pay to get them back, or call the police?" This was Kong Sang's first time dealing with something like this, and she wasn't sure what to do.
"Where?" GS asked, putting a cigarette between his lips.
"Right here in Causeway Bay, over on Jardine's Street."
GS smoked half his cigarette, then suddenly erupted. "Someone in Causeway Bay actually dared grab my people? What little punks are these? Have they got a fucking death wish?"
"Pay them? They can have their mothers!"
"I'm a fucking gangster! Why would I call the police?"
GS stormed outside. "Motherfuckers. I'm going to skin them alive!"
"Tell the branch manager to wait outside the branch and show me the way."
"Wait, I'm coming with you." Kong Sang hurried after GS.
"Shark Yan, bring your men. We've got work to do. Whose turf is Jardine's Street? Wang Bao's? Who the fuck is Wang Bao? If he dares show up, I'll skin him too!" GS cursed into his Big Brother Phone as he walked.
Downstairs, he found Ah Tung and Silly Fook leaning off to one side, smoking.
"Where's Mantis?"
"He went to buy milk tea. I'll get him!" One look at GS's expression told Ah Tung something must have happened, and he answered immediately.
He cursed inwardly. Of all the times to chat up girls, he had to pick now.
Luckily, Mantis had gone no farther than the milk tea shop to flirt.
Ah Tung ran into the shop and found Mantis sitting at a table, talking to two girls. He walked over, smacked him on the head, and hauled him away.
"Move. Brother S looks pissed. Something might have happened," Ah Tung said.
"Next time! I'll show you girls a proper good time next time!" Mantis still remembered to call back to the girls.
"Show them my ass! If you don't get back now, the boss will skin you," Ah Tung cursed.
They ran back as fast as they could. GS and Kong Sang were already in the car.
"Go to the main branch," GS said.
"Mantis, drive my car." Kong Sang tossed him her keys.
Kong Sang's car was the Toyota MS110.
Inside a shop on Jardine's Street with its roller shutter pulled down, a dozen or so young men stood to one side.
One of them, a young man with dyed yellow hair, swore as he kicked the two people tied up on the floor.
"You think you can act tough with me? If you don't cough up a hundred thousand today, you're not leaving through that door."
Both men tied up on the floor had battered, swollen faces, and their suits were filthy.
"When my boss gets here, you're dead," one of them sneered, barely managing to open his swollen eyes.
"Hongxing, right? You think Hongxing's so great? Do you know whose turf this is? Even Hongxing has to watch what they say here." Still not satisfied, the blond kicked them twice more.
A closer look revealed a footprint on the blond's clothes and a small bruise beside his eye.
"Ah Wah, you can sort this out, right?" asked a middle-aged man beside him, wearing a shirt and glasses, his hair neatly parted.
"Relax. I'll definitely sort it out for you. This is Master Bao's turf. What he says goes," Ah Wah said, raising his eyebrows.
It was a simple matter, just as Kong Sang had explained earlier.
The middle-aged man owned this shop. He had commissioned Golden Harvest Properties to sell it, but the fee came to over three hundred thousand.
His wife's younger brother was a gangster and had immediately thumped his chest, promising to handle it for a hundred and fifty thousand.
A hundred and fifty thousand was a fortune to a low-level gangster. Even going out to beat someone up only earned fifty thousand in compensation for the risk.
His original plan had been to invite some others over to back him up and pay them a thousand each. A little intimidation, a bit of arguing, and at most another twenty thousand to the other side for their trouble would settle it. He knew this routine inside out.
If things got out of hand, he could slip a few tens of thousands to his boss and still pocket eighty to a hundred thousand himself.
But plenty of Golden Harvest Properties' employees were GS's men. How could they be expected to have mild tempers? A fee of over three hundred thousand meant a commission of more than thirty thousand.
The two sides had started fighting on the spot.
The result was that Golden Harvest Properties' employees had taken a severe beating.
When the blond heard that Hongxing was behind Golden Harvest Properties, he immediately called his boss, Axehead Tung, and gave him an embellished account.
Axehead Tung told him to demand a hundred thousand in medical expenses to cover the cost of bringing his men over, and said he would come back him up.
Ah Wah landed a few more kicks before he heard someone knocking on the roller shutter.
"Ah Wah, open up!"
Ah Wah hurried to raise the shutter and found his boss, Axehead Tung, outside with seventy or eighty men.
"Ah Wah, are Hongxing's people really that fucking arrogant?" Axehead Tung demanded as he walked in.
"My brother-in-law's selling a shop, and they want a five-percent fee. What gives them the right? That's daylight robbery! And they're doing it on Master Bao's turf. Even dropping Master Bao's name didn't work."
"Brother Tung, look. With this many of us here, they still dared throw punches. They have no respect for you or Master Bao." Ah Wah pointed at the bruise beside his eye and the footprint on his clothes.
"Let's see what Hongxing's people have to say when they get here!" Axehead Tung immediately swore.
Before you continue