Translator: Larbre Studio
Editor: Larbre Studio
On the morning of June 25th, 1986, a large number of riot police entered Kowloon. The smoke in the Longjin Avenue made Kowloon seem like a ghost town.
That afternoon, the Chinese director of Hong Kong police announced to the public that they had arrested more than fifty criminals for drug dealing, and none of the police officers were hurt.
On that same day, the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau arrested more than three hundred gangsters, including one of He Lian Sheng’s men in charge.
The next day, the boss of He Lian Sheng, Chang Shen, requested to meet the Grand Duke in the Fu Yi Tower. He left after talking to her for twenty minutes.
On June 27th, Red Ghost met Li Yan at Li Hua Hotel next to the Qide Airport, south of Kowloon.
“Yan, here.”
Li Yan was in a denim shirt holding a yellow plastic bag with two of his fingers. He walked towards Red Ghost.
“Wow, new clothes? Nice! Did you just get back from shopping with Judy?”
“Red Ghost, where’s the toilet? I want to change.”
“Change to what? Don’t bother. Follow me,” Red Ghost ushered Li Yan to a table.
“This is Uncle Zong.”
The man with greying temples reached his right hand out, “Liao Zhizong”
“Uncle Zong,” Li Yan shook Liao Zhizong’s hand firmly.
“This is Ruan Hongzhi, you already know him. He’s Zhou’s manager.”
“Wow Red Ghost, stop mentioning that dude. He turned Kowloon around.”
Ruan Hongzhi’s hooked nose gave him an insidious look, but he was a talkative guy.
“Zhi.”
“Don’t need to be so nervous. I wanted to get you on my side but Red Ghost got to you before me.”
“This is Mei. She’s also one of the managers of the Kowloon rings.”
“Hello, Mei,” Li Yan greeted with a nod.
The woman crossed her arms and joked, “You have beaten the shit out of Wu Erlang and made him flee Kowloon. You also made me lose millions of dollars and the support of a rich man like He Hongchang. How do you plan to make it up to me?”
“Oh, Wu Erlang left Kowloon?” Li Yan pretended to be surprised.
“Weren’t you having a great chat with him in the medical room? Didn’t you know?”
Yu Shu joined the table, wiping water from her hands, and casually asked Li Yan,
“Grand Duke.”
“Grand Duke.”
“Grand Duke.”
…
Everyone except for Liao Zhizong stood up.
“Sit down please, everyone,” Yu Shu replied casually.
Li Yan asked, “Grand Duke, why am I invited here today?”
Yu Shu put down her chopsticks and stared at Li Yan.
“You have beat everyone except for Xu Tianci, who you haven’t yet encountered in the ring. But he is only here to have fun. No matter the result between you two, you have already become famous in Kowloon. I, of course, need to know more about my future leading fighter.”
“Stop making fun of me, Grand Duke. I am not qualified yet. And plus, it’s so dangerous to fight in the ring… I’m going to leave as soon as I earn enough money.”
“Hong Kong is a nice place. You should stay. Earn a bonus being a manager after fighting for a few years. Or…”
Yu Shu raised her eyebrows, “Are you not willing to work with me?”
Li Yan kept silent for a second then laughed.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“That’s good. Come and join us for dinner.”
Food was served. Mei asked Yu Shu, “Grand duke, is Chang Shen going to invite all the seniors to try to make peace with you by throwing a party tonight?”
“Uncle Zong will do the talking. I just need to be physically present.” the Grand Duke scorned, “He Lian Sheng underestimated Wu Haoxi. He fought back to threaten their survival. They now want to pressure me into cooperating with other gangs. This is not a good strategy.”
By the end of the Qing dynasty, there were already many gangs in Hong Kong. In the first year ruled by the Emperor of Manchukuo, the leader of Bixuetang of the Tianzhu Mountain suggested that all the gangs name their gangs starting with “He,” meaning harmony in Chinese. This was to emphasize the harmony amongst them. Ever since, Hong Kong’s gangs had been naming themselves with “He.”
As she was speaking, Red Ghost asked Li Yan, “Do you want to follow me and have a look at the boss of He Lian Sheng, Chang Shen, tonight?”
Li Yan thought about it and rejected him. He asked instead,
“Red Ghost, which hospital is Zhou in?”
…
Meanwhile, Chang Shen was talking to an old man in his bathrobe in a fancy villa located on Longjinxiguan Street.
“Le just gained his fame from this battle.”
“Pfft, it cost almost half of the men in He Lian Sheng”
Chang Shen was sixty one years old and even his dark, black eyebrows couldn’t hide his tiredness.
“Mr. Gu, he is my only son.”
The man laughed, “Don’t panic. Yu Shu can’t harm you. You don’t have to beat around the bush here. Although the gang fight sounded like your son’s plan, I don’t believe that he alone could have gotten the committee, the Vietnamese, and the police involved. Destroying the biggest drug dealer in Kowloon in two days… don’t tell me you aren’t behind all of this.”
Chang Shen became awkward.
“I am already at this age. I have to back up my son or He Lian Sheng will be separated.”
“As soon as Wu Haoxi is dead, will you be taking over all of his business in Thailand?”
Chang Shen quickly inferred what Mr. Gu was trying to imply.
“Seventy percent.”
“Sixty percent. The rest will be split with the rest of the gangs. If not, it would be hard for me to defend you.”
Chang Shen frowned and he signed after a while, “Okay, I’ll go with sixty percent…”
He didn’t want to talk anymore. He left the house after addressing Mr. Gu in his black Ford.
“My son risked his life for this, and that person demanded forty percent of the benefits. Damn it!”
Chang Shen fiddled with the leather in his car as he thought about the incident. Though it was a tough win, it was still a win. He had lost forty percent of the gains just to save his son and feed the hungry wolves. However, if he worked with the gangs in Thailand, he would soon earn back that money and could deal with the rest of the gangs later on. He Lian Sheng just lost too many men, and it wasn’t a good time to start another fight. But the Grand Duke…
Chang Shen looked out of the car window and saw an old tree and his emotions became complicated. He tightened his jacket and thought about the old times when he was still a manager. He loved reading and copying down poems he fancied from the magazines. There was this poem that he liked the most.
“I gritted my teeth trying to recall those bad times so I could write about them and be inspired. Then I realized, if I have never tried hard enough to achieve what I want, then I shouldn’t even be alive.”