Chapter 360

Just as He Yuzhu was generously buying a house to win a beauty's smile, the corpses of A Long and his group were discovered by nearby residents, who then called the police.

The tragic death of the five men alarmed Chief Inspector Liu Fu.

He called his fellow Chaozhou townsman, Lv Le, into his office.

"A Le, you go to the scene to investigate. Look carefully. If I'm not mistaken, the ones who died should be from the 14K."

Lv Le immediately asked for instructions: "Chief Inspector, please give me a lead."

"The 14K is developing too fast, and our Chaozhou townsman, the 'Lottery King', is getting anxious. He has come to me time and again, wanting the police station to step in and discipline the 14K. But those people are former soldiers; they aren't easy to handle. However..." Liu Fu leaned close to Lv Le's ear and whispered a few words.

The handsome-featured Lv Le smiled sinisterly: "Chief Inspector, I will definitely handle this matter well."

In the back alley of Rongshu Street in Yau Ma Tei, several century-old banyan trees cast a gloomy shadow over the entire street.

Lv Le walked up to the five corpses in the alley and instructed a 'Molo' constable—that is, an Indian—"You take the photos first. Once you're done, we will enter the scene to investigate."

A tall 'Molo' constable climbed onto the wall to take a wide-angle shot.

Just as he was about to come down, he suddenly said in surprise: "Inspector, there is writing next to that corpse!"

Lv Le hurriedly climbed onto the wall, examined it closely, and discovered that the character "Yi" (Righteousness) was written beside A Long, as if written with the last of his strength before death.

Lv Le felt a jolt in his heart and immediately began to calculate: his fellow townsman's gang was called Fuyixing, which contained the character "Yi"; the emerging Yi'an Gang also had the character "Yi"—who exactly did it refer to? Could it be that the 'Lottery King's' men really killed the 14K members? The Chief Inspector had said that the 14K must be eliminated, and the Yi'an Gang must also be eliminated. Then let the 14K and the Yi'an Gang fight to the death, and let his fellow townsman's Fuyixing reap the rewards.

In fact, He Yuzhu had originally intended to frame Fuyixing for this matter.

He knew that Lv Le and Liu Fu were the protectors of Fuyixing; to eliminate Lv Le, he had to first weaken the power of Fuyixing.

He hadn't written the three characters "Fuyixing" because he felt that A Long couldn't possibly have written so many strokes while dying, so he took the easy way out and wrote just "Yi".

He also hadn't expected that it would actually be exploited by someone else.

Lv Le felt a surge of joy in his heart, but on the surface, he remained calm.

He called several police officers over and said: "Everyone, speak up. What do you think the deceased meant by writing this 'Yi' character?"

A police officer who had been bought off by the 14K said casually: "Inspector, if you ask me, 'Yi' refers to the Yi'an Gang."

"That's right! A Liang is right!" several officers said in unison.

Lv Le shook his head, then nodded: "That makes sense, but we must rely on evidence when handling cases. Continue to look for evidence!"

Early in the morning, He Yuzhu was woken up by Zhang Shuying.

"Get up quickly. Now that we have a house to live in, earning a little money is enough for food. I know you have money, but I want to rely on myself to support myself."

He Yuzhu nodded: "Good, I agree."

He was willing to go with Zhang Shuying, not for anything else, but to see if yesterday's incident had fermented.

Arriving at Temple Street, Zhang Shuying began to sing.

There were quite a few more audience members today than usual, and some idle people from the neighborhood who relied on playing mahjong to pass the time had also come.

The small venue was packed three layers deep.

When Zhang Shuying finished singing "Reminiscing the Past", the scene erupted in enthusiastic applause.

Zhang Shuying began to collect money, and surprisingly, more than a dozen elderly people gave her ten Hong Kong Dollars each when shaking her hand. She was incredibly happy.

The onlookers were unwilling to disperse and shouted one after another:

"Pretty girl, one more song!"

"Pretty girl, we haven't heard enough, one more song!"

"Pretty girl, sing that one again, it sounds so good!"

Zhang Shuying bowed repeatedly, but the audience continued to clamor loudly.

He Yuzhu whispered: "Don't hold back, sing the one I taught you last night too."

Zhang Shuying muttered softly: "I wanted to save it to sing next month to earn money!"

"I've heard hundreds of songs at Qianmen, no need to be so stingy," He Yuzhu said with a smile.

Zhang Shuying was finally persuaded. She said loudly: "Since everyone is so enthusiastic, I will bring you a new song called 'The Smoke of Cooking Fires Rises Again', I hope you like it."

"The smoke of cooking fires rises again, twilight shines on the earth, I want to ask the drifting smoke, where are you going..."

The sweet singing voice began.

Looking at Zhang Shuying in her white dress and listening to her sweet voice, He Yuzhu felt as if he were standing at the bridgehead of the small village where his grandparents lived in his past life—the sun had just set, the cooking smoke in the village was curling upwards, slowly enveloping the small woods, birds were circling in the sky, and a thick sense of homesickness suddenly surged in his heart.

Just as He Yuzhu and everyone else were moved and immersed in feelings of homesickness, on a street not far from there, six Yi'an Gang thugs had just finished collecting protection fees from a fish stall and were chatting about which girl to find in Kowloon Walled City, when they were suddenly surrounded by more than twenty 14K members.

Each of them had an axe tucked into their waist.

The few Yi'an Gang members were stunned.

A Guang stood out and asked: "Our Yi'an Gang hasn't offended you recently, right? Why are you blocking us?"

"You killed five of our brothers. Today we won't kill many, just kill you five, and cripple one to go back and report the news. Don't provoke us again in the future, or we will wipe you out," said A Qiang of the 14K.

A Guang wanted to say something more, but the group of 14K members had already charged over recklessly.

It didn't take long before the five Yi'an Gang thugs were hacked to death. A Guang had both arms broken and went back to report the news.

Just as He Yuzhu and Zhang Shuying were eating, they heard two old fishmongers talking about this matter.

He Yuzhu leaned over, ordered half a roast duck for them, and asked: "Two grandpas, I heard you say that several people were beaten to death by the sea, what exactly happened?"

A lean grandpa said while eating the duck: "I heard from the police that the 14K and the Yi'an Gang had a gang fight. Five people died on the Yi'an Gang side, and the scene was too horrible to look at."

He Yuzhu thought to himself: He had originally wanted to stir up conflict between the 14K and Fuyixing, so how did the flames of war burn to the Yi'an Gang side? Forget it, they are all gangsters anyway, not a single one is a good person. Let it be. It seems he needs to add more fuel to the fire tonight and let them fight to the death.

After eating, Zhang Shuying wanted to go back to sing, but was stopped by He Yuzhu: "Such a big thing happened near Temple Street, someone will be investigating this afternoon. We won't be able to earn money, let's come back tomorrow."

"You're right," Zhang Shuying said.

In the mahjong parlor, the boss of Fuyixing, who called himself the "Lottery King", Wang Laoji, looked at Lv Le, who had trotted in, and said: "A Le, you have made a great contribution this time. I didn't expect that Ge Laoda of the 14K would be so stupid; he believed it because of one photo, and he even claims to be a graduate of the Whampoa Military Academy! It seems there are fools in every school."

Lv Le shook his head: "Big Brother, Ge Laoda of the 14K is not stupid. This time, it just gave him a pretext—their conflicts in the Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok areas have never stopped."

Wang Laoji said: "Regardless, letting two tigers fight is a good thing for us. You must be cautious in your actions, don't let either side know we are behind it."

Lv Le sneered: "I have 14K members under me. I didn't say a word, and that kid sent the message out. There is no way they could suspect us. If you ask me, this matter might really have been done by the Yi'an Gang."

"That's good. Will you play a few rounds of mahjong with me?" Wang Laoji said.

"I don't have any money. These past few days the British are getting anxious and want us to crack down on gangs. You should tell the brothers to do less fighting and brawling lately," Lv Le said.

"No problem!" Wang Laoji took out a large stack of money and stuffed it into Lv Le's hand.

Returning to the hotel, He Yuzhu looked at the news in the tabloid and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

A tabloid published a photo of A Long's corpse and the character "Righteousness" written beside him.

The reporter used the tone of a fortune teller to cryptically point out that these people were killed by the Yi'an Gang.

Seeing He Yuzhu laughing happily, Zhang Shuying snatched the newspaper to take a look. After reading it, the corners of her mouth curled up—she had originally been worried that this matter would be traced back to He Yuzhu, but now it seemed someone was exploiting this incident, and she felt completely relieved.