Beginning with the Ubume Bird

Chapter 27: The Wily Old Steed

Editor: Larbre Studio

On the morning of June 25th, Year of Bingyin, a large number of riot police poured into Kowloon Walled City, and with the smoke of gunfire clearing, it resembled a ghost town.

That afternoon, Chief Chinese Inspector Li Yaoguang of the Hong Kong Police Force gave an interview to the media, announcing the police had dismantled a major drug trafficking ring in the city, capturing more than fifty criminals. There were no casualties among the police officers.

On the same day, the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau arrested over three hundred people from He Liansheng, including a Nepali individual.

On June 26th, Year of the Tiger, at noon, Chang Shen, the Dragon Head of He Liansheng, arrived at Fuyi Building to request a meeting with Taishuai and left twenty minutes later.

On June 27th, Year of the Tiger, south of the Walled City, near Kai Tak Airport, at the Lihua Hotel.

“Yan, over here.”

Li Yan, wearing a sky-blue denim shirt and holding a light yellow shopping bag with two fingers, walked towards the direction from where the man called him.

“Wow, new clothes? Looking sharp! Just came back from a date with Judy?”

“Red Ghost, where’s the restroom? I need to change my clothes.”

“Why the hell change? Clothes are made to be worn. Come with me.” Red Ghost pulled Li Yan over and walked up to the bar.

“This is Uncle Zong.”

The man before him, with graying temples, extended his right hand towards Li Yan.

“Liao Zhizong.”

“Uncle Zong.” Li Yan shook Liao Zhizong’s hand, responding neither humbly nor arrogantly.

“Ruan Hongzhi, you know him, Zhou’s manager.”

“Wow, Red Ghost, stop bringing it up, because of that boxer of mine the whole city has turned upside down.”

Ruan Hongzhi had a naturally hooked nose, which gave his face a somewhat stern appearance, but when he opened his mouth, it was clear he was a talkative person.

“Brother Hongzhi.”

“Don’t be so formal, I’ve had my eye on you for a long time—just that Red Ghost beat me to it.”

“This is Mei, also a boxing manager in Kowloon.”

“Sister Mei.”

Li Yan nodded his head.

The woman, with her arms folded across her chest, said half joking, half seriously, “Your fight made Wu Er run back home to the mainland. Millions in bets evaporated in the ring, and you even caused me to lose my big cash cow, He Changhong. How do you plan to compensate me?”

“Eh, so that Wu Er I fought last time has left the Walled City?” Li Yan feigned surprise.

“Weren’t you chatting away with that kid in the infirmary? How do you not know he’s left Hong Kong?”

Yu Shu shook the water droplets from his hand and settled at the table with an air of casual authority as he casually asked Li Yan.

“Taishuai.”

“Taishuai.”

“Taishuai.”

…

Everyone at the table, except Liao Zhizong, promptly stood up.

“Please, sit.”

Yu Shu replied offhandedly.

Li Yan asked, “Taishuai, why have you specifically asked to see me today?”

Yu Shu put down his chopsticks and looked directly at Li Yan.

“`

“Apart from Xu Tianci, there’s no one on Kowloon’s boxing ring that can fight like you. That kid is just messing around, regardless of how you win or lose, the title of the sixth challenge’s champion will undoubtedly be yours. Of course, I have to take care of the future pillar of Kowloon’s boxing ring.”

“Taishuai, you’re joking. I’m not qualified to be a champion, and besides, one can’t eyes the swords and sabers in the ring. Once I’ve earned enough for my wife’s dowry, I’ll retire to the countryside,”

“Hong Kong is a good place. Stick around. Fight for a few years, retire, and become a Coachman in Fuyi Building, earning money by collecting Waterpipe fees. Or is it that…..”

Yu Shu’s eyebrows twitched, “You’re unwilling to work with me?”

Li Yan remained silent for a while before suddenly breaking into laughter.

“How could I be?”

“Then that’s settled. Let’s eat.”

As the dishes were served at the banquet, Mei opened her mouth and asked, “Taishuai, is it true that tonight Chang Shen is hosting a banquet with the Hongmen elders to negotiate a truce with you?”

“I’ll have Uncle Zong handle the discussions; I just need to show up,” Taishuai said, then let out a cold laugh. “He Lian Sheng underestimated Wu Haoxi’s counterattack, leaving them on shaky ground now. They’re looking to ally with other Hongmen organizations to pressure me, not knowing how much they’ll have to cut.”

As early as the late Qing dynasty, Hong Kong already had a large number of societies. In the first year of Xuantong, the former Heavenly Master Mountain’s Bixuetang Red Flag’s ‘Five Black Bone Brothers’ convened with more than a dozen other lodges to suggest adding a ‘He’ (peace) character in front of all Hongmen lodge names, signifying the importance of harmony. Since then, Hong Kong’s societies starting with the character ‘He’ have burgeoned.

Meanwhile, Red Ghost asked Li Yan a question.

“Tonight, do you want to see what Chang Shen, the sitting Dragon Head of He Lian Sheng, looks like?”

Li Yan lowered his eyes and thought for a moment before shaking his head and replying.

“Red Ghost, do you know which hospital Zhou is in?”

…

At the same time, on Longjin Xiguan Street, inside a delicate villa.

Chang Shen was sitting across from an old man in a bathrobe.

“Le has made a name for himself with this fight.”

“Heh, but he has also nearly wiped out your He Lian Sheng,” the old man said with a hint of amusement in his tone.

Today, Chang Shen was sixty-one years old, with thick black eyebrows, but his demeanor could not hide his weariness.

“Sir Gu, he’s my only son.”

The person opposite him said with a bit of laughter in his voice: “What’s the hurry? Can Yu Shu really skin your son and tear his bones to pieces and swallow them? You don’t have to play dumb. He Lian Sheng’s people suddenly entered the city. They act fiery and young, but their plans are meticulous—everything’s accounted for—committee, Vietnam gang, even the O unit of the police had been taken care of in advance. In two days, Hong Kong’s biggest drug lord’s power was gone. You’re telling me this was your son’s handiwork?”

Chang Shen’s face grew even more bitter.

“I’m buried up to my neck. If I don’t support my son now, should I just watch as He Lian Sheng falls apart?”

“With Wu Haoxi gone, can your He Lian Sheng take over the Thailand Six-Faced Buddha’s territory?”

Chang Shen was worldly-wise, and he immediately understood the other’s implication.

“Maybe seventy percent.”

“Let’s say sixty percent, and give the rest to the other ‘He’ character societies as brothers, and I’ll help you speak for them.”

Chang Shen furrowed his brow and after a while, he sighed, “Sixty percent it is….”

He didn’t want to talk anymore. Instead, he bid farewell to Sir Gu and got into a black Ford car; the engine roared, and he left the villa.

“My son fights for his life, and with one word from you, Bai Gubiao, you want forty percent. Fine, just fine,” said Chang Shen. He ran his withered fingers over the leather couch. A pyrrhic victory was still a victory. He was throwing out a huge bone of forty percent of the profits. In an exchange for getting his son back, he intended to shut up other Hongmen lodges that were drooling with greed. As long as they could hook up with the Thailand Six-Faced Buddha, He Lian Sheng could quickly replenish the lost manpower. When the time came, he could settle scores with these “loving brothers” himself. Now grievously weakened, He Lian Sheng couldn’t afford to entangle with the desperados of Kowloon City any longer. But this Taishuai…

Chang Shen saw through the car window a withered old tree with branches weighed down by the wind, a look of indescribable emotion flashed in his eyes. He tightened his clothes and suddenly remembered the days when he was young and worked as a Coachman, when his favorite pastime was copying poems from the newssheet stands. Two lines of which he still remembered.

Bearing grudges, I clench my teeth recalling old hatreds; when prospering, I wield my pen to write new themes.

Without ambition to stir the winds and clouds in life, it would be to waste the heavens’ gift of a towering figure.

“`