Chapter 121: Boiling a Frog in Warm Water

Ruttonjee Hospital.

"Beep, beep, beep..."

As the curve on the heart monitor turned into a straight line, the doctor walked out of the ICU wearing a mask: "I'm sorry, we did our best. Mr. Chen Haonan passed away from his injuries at 3:34 AM. I am very sorry."

In an instant, tears welled up in the eyes of Shanjie, Datian Er, and Jiaopi, and they hugged each other and wept bitterly.

They knew that living this life meant having one foot in the Police Station and one foot in the underworld.

It wasn't that they hadn't thought about their own ends, yet when the reality truly arrived, they still couldn't believe it.

The Jianghu is just like this.

Many small-time characters who longed to make a name for themselves with nothing but their own hot-blooded passion fell forever on this day.

This is the cruelty of the Jianghu!

Every day serves as a reminder to those who follow: do not enter the Jianghu!

"Mr. Chen."

"Mrs. Chen."

A servant opened the iron gate for Chen Jiajun.

Chen Jiajun stepped down from a Porsche 911 SCRS sports car, took Guan Jiahui's hand, and walked from the front yard into the mansion.

They arrived at the mansion's entertainment room.

The Hung Hing Zha FIT Ren and several Red Poles were all present; seeing Chen Jiajun and Guan Jiahui, they greeted them one after another:

"Ada!"

"Sister-in-law!"

Chen Jiajun walked forward, looked at everyone with a smile, and said: "Kept you waiting?"

Rather than calling it a mansion, it was more of a Zhuangyuan; Chen Jiajun had spent 20 million to purchase the land and nearly 10 million more to build it.

Located in the Repulse Bay area, it had three floors in total, covered four mu of land, and featured a front yard and a backyard garden.

There was also a coastal view and a private beach.

For the entire mansion, Chen Jiajun chose a modern style of minimalist luxury, with black edges throughout and an off-white color scheme, which was very design-oriented.

This Zhuangyuan appeared very eye-catching in the Repulse Bay area.

Recently, it had become famous throughout Hong Kong, appearing in newspapers and earning the reputation of a "Zhuangyuan-style mansion."

As for why Chen Jiajun's mansion was called a Zhuangyuan, one reason was that its footprint was large enough! A full four mu, over 10,000 square meters, 175,000 square feet!

It could be said that Chen Jiajun's Zhuangyuan mansion was currently the largest mansion in all of Hong Kong, and it would likely remain so in the future.

Of course, with an area of over 10,000 square meters, there was no need to build houses over all of it.

Thus, when designing his mansion, Chen Jiajun only used over 1,200 square meters, and he didn't build it high, keeping it to only three floors.

There was no need to build it too high; he wasn't a real estate developer.

So it could only be built low, and it had to be both large and flat to demonstrate the wealth of the master of the house.

He only built three floors out of consideration for three-dimensional aesthetics.

There were two more floors underground for a secret room, a wine cellar, and other facilities.

The remaining 10,000-plus square meters were divided into a front yard and a backyard; the front yard was used for parking and walking, while the backyard connected to a private beach.

The private beach covered five mu right by the sea; the private beach and the public beach were separated by a grid, and the private beach was equipped with a small Pier with several small speedboats docked on it.

This four-mu plot was acquired at government land prices, while the beach was obtained through special approval after Lawyer Huang Dawen spent money to grease the palms of the Gweilo.

All in all, it cost over 30 million, basically used for buying the land and bribing high-ranking Gweilo.

As the Dragon Head of Hung Hing, he looked glorious to outsiders, but in reality, no one knew he was dirt poor.

Right now, he only had 150 million Hong Kong dollars on hand, and it was all borrowed from HSBC.

Besides that, there was still 100 million US dollars that hadn't been laundered.

Xing Shu advised the Dragon Head to be more low-key, but Chen Jiajun didn't take it to heart.

Because his money wasn't dirty money, there was no need to be low-key.

As the sun set, everyone sat in the spacious living room on the first floor, looking at the beautiful scenery of Repulse Bay, the room brightly lit.

Chen Jiajun sat at the head of the long table, and servants served up portions of delicacies, using a plated service system.

"Come, let's eat."

Chen Jiajun raised his wine glass.

The Hung Hing Big Dippers all raised their glasses and drank in one gulp.

Xing Shu set down his glass and said: "Ada, today the Hung Lok Headman, Baye, called me and said we should give them a way to survive."

Fifteen days had passed since the last battle.

During this time, the Hong Kong triads attacked in swarms; there were no large-scale showdowns, but there were many small-scale raids, and Hung Lok's territory was constantly being encroached upon, with the Hung Hing boys naturally fighting the fiercest against Hung Lok.

"Wait until Piao Ge is dead, then we'll call it even."

Chen Jiajun cut off a small piece of abalone and chewed it as he spoke.

Xing Shu replied: "The verdict is out; he was sentenced to twenty years. He should be transferred to Stanley today. I've already arranged for the brothers to handle things."

"No need, I've already arranged it. Remember to get the newspapers when the time comes and distribute a copy to all the brothers so everyone knows about this.

By the way, do you know why I called everyone over?"

Chen Jiajun looked meaningfully at the old prison; such matters were best left to the old prison, so the brothers who were still "studying" in Stanley wouldn't have to serve extra years.

Next, he had to quietly make money, otherwise he, Chen Jiajun, would be nearly broke.

Ji Ge looked up and smiled: "It's for your housewarming, Ada!"

"Wrong!" Chen Jiajun shook his head and said.

"What I want to tell everyone is that from now on, we will no longer collect protection fees. You all know the five streets we, Hongxing, hold on Paterson Street; they bring in one or two million easily every month."

"And there's no need to worry about other gangs coming over to show off their numbers or start a fight."

"The money we earn will all be clean."

"Right now, Hong Hing Property Company has already reached an agreement with Lan Kwai Fong Group, as well as the bars and venues in that area, and we have also rented several floors to use as parking spots, with an estimated monthly income in the eight figures."

"I want to promote this model to the entire Hongxing; from now on, Hongxing will operate in a standardized and corporate manner."

"With plenty of clean money in hand, we won't have to fear the Police Officer investigating us; isn't that comfortable?"

Chen Jiajun looked around at his surroundings, spread his hands, and spoke.

Han Bin could not help but feel a bit confused: "Ada, how are we going to collect property management fees?"

Chen Jiajun asked: "Do your subordinates know how to collect protection fees?"

Han Bin replied: "Of course they do."

Chen Jiajun asked: "Do they know how to drive?"

Han Bin replied: "They do, too."

Chen Jiajun nodded and said: "Knowing how to collect protection fees and how to drive is enough. Tomorrow, pick a group of the sharpest-looking ones and have them come to Guojun Building; the good fighters will provide everyone with training."

"From now on, the main job of this group will be to maintain order in our Hongxing territory."

"Our territory cannot have illegal parking; if they want to park, they can only park in our parking lots, just like parking valets."

"We must also treat our territory like our own home. What do we do if the house is dirty? We need to clean up the trash and hire a few more old men and old women to come and sweep the streets."

"Collecting property management fees and collecting protection fees actually have no fundamental difference, except that our property company is an officially recognized brand, and we pay taxes every year; this is what we call paying protection fees to the Jiang government."

"After paying protection fees to the Jiang government, we will naturally be protected by the Jiang government."

"From now on, everyone's status will be different; do you understand?"

Chen Jiajun's witty and humorous analogy immediately won laughter from everyone present.

"Understood, we're running a company!"

"Ada is absolutely right!"

"From now on, we'll pay protection fees to the Jiang government!"

Regarding the model for Hong Hing Property Group, Chen Jiajun thought about it and decided to stick to the hall-based model.

Although he had established supreme prestige among the Hongxing members after the great battles with Hong Le and Xin Ji, directly seizing the financial power of the halls would surely provoke resentment from everyone.

Change must come step by step, like a frog in warm water.

(End of chapter)