"That said, I didn't expect you to like this style, no wonder you had no reaction when I introduced Judy to you,"
Red Ghost glanced at Xiu, who was sitting beside him with her head lowered.
"She's my neighbor, the keys to the apartment were given to me by you, remember?"
"The apartment on Su Miao Street." Red Ghost suddenly realized.
Li Yan picked up a kitten that was playing under the table and placed it on Xiu's lap, "When do you get off work? I'll take you home and apply some safflower oil, you'll be fine by the next day."
Xiu bit her lip and nodded.
"Right, Yan." Red Ghost pulled an Ericsson phone from his pocket and slid it across the table.
Li Yan looked at it and exclaimed exaggeratedly.
"Wow, Red Ghost, you're so good to me, giving me both an apartment and a mobile phone. Just to clarify, I'm not gay."
Red Ghost gave Li Yan a look and said,
"You don't have to fight in the ring tomorrow, go buy yourself a nice suit, and wait for my call to meet Judy. If you try to disappear on me, I'll throw you into the sea."
"I'll definitely remember." Li Yan said with a playful smile as he took the phone.
The two continued to eat until late at night, when Li Yan finally escorted Xiu back to her apartment on Su Miao Street.
"It's so late, your mother must be worried about you. Go inside, I'll see you tomorrow,"
Li Yan said kindly to the girl, glancing at the door of apartment 412 next to Xiu.
Xiu looked up at Li Yan for a while, then spoke crisply, "Thank you, ah… Brother Yan."
Li Yan scratched his head, smiled at the girl, and walked into his own apartment.
"Bang."
After the door closed, most of the lights in the corridor went out, casting the girl's face in a mix of shadow and light.
...
"Ss~"
As soon as he closed his apartment door, Li Yan broke into a cold sweat from the pain. He stuffed several pieces of candy into his mouth, but it was to no avail. The pain deep in his bones made Li Yan's face appear somewhat deranged.
Since he stepped out of the ring, Li Yan had been feeling bouts of bone pain, which was one of the reasons he initially refused Red Ghost's offer. The liquor at dinner had somewhat kept the pain at bay, but when he returned to his apartment, the pain became more intense and relentless.
After a while, as the bone pain gradually subsided, Li Yan, soaking wet with sweat, slowly relaxed his body.
He caught his breath and then pulled out some cash from the pocket over his chest to count it.
True to Red Ghost's reputation as a big spender, the amount thrown at Li Yan to buy some clothes was a full thirty thousand, plus the fifty thousand that Red Ghost would pay him for winning the boxing match tomorrow. This would bring his Yan Fu points to a total of thirteen.
Just to be safe, as soon as the money came in tomorrow, he'd exchange it for the ES Cell Enhancer first.
If he were to have an attack while in the ring, that would be a real mess, especially since he still had no lead on that ancient novel, the Sink Hook Chen Record Book.
Lying in bed, Li Yan thought about all this and gradually drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, Li Yan rented a suit from a photo studio in Repulse Bay, took the bus on a long detour, and genuinely admired the Hong Kong of 1986—a sight hard to come by in later years.
If Li Yan were a bit more carefree, he could have watched a movie starring Anita Mui or Leslie Cheung or even asked for their autographs. In his audio-visual store, there was a long-treasured photo of Alan Tam's Space Odyssey concert happening around these days. The band Beyond, which had been together for three years, released their first album "Goodbye Ideal" this year. Hong Kong in 1986 held too many moments that had passed, never to return...
Unfortunately, Li Yan still had to hustle for his life, and these ideas could only remain on paper.
By the time Li Yan returned to Su Miao Street, it was around 2 in the afternoon. Kowloon City was as crammed and dim as ever, with junkies, their faces pale and breathing out clouds of smoke, a stark contrast to the affluent scenery of Repulse Bay.
As he entered the corridor of the apartment building and turned the corner to go upstairs, a hurried figure bumped into Li Yan's arms.
Li Yan instinctively grabbed the other person's wrist, only to find the reaction as swift as his own, and the way that person held his wrist subtly carried the flavor of military capture techniques.
Li Yan looked at the person in surprise.
The man was in his thirties, dressed in a checkered suit, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, exuding a heroic air, except his eyes were full of bloodshot veins, as if he hadn't had a good sleep in a long time.
"Sorry about that."
The man released his hand and gave Li Yan an honest smile.
"No worries."
Li Yan took a step forward, then turned back as if he had remembered something.
"Brother, where are you from?"
The man paused, then after a while, he answered.
"My hometown is in Hebei, a small place, Anwen County."
Li Yan laughed out loud and patted the man's shoulder hard: "My hometown is in Hejian, not far from yours. I've even pissed behind the broken temple in Anwen County!"
Li Yan had, of course, been to Anwen County since it happened to be the birthplace of Dong Haichuan, the grandmaster of Bagua Palm.
"Oh, fellow townsman?" Hearing this, the man's eyes lit up as well.
"My name is Li Yan, what's your name, brother?"
The man shook Li Yan's hand with a hearty laugh.
"He Andong, they all call me Dong."
...
An hour earlier, Fuyi Building.
"The area north of Longjin Road is Taishuai's territory. Although I'm responsible for the security of Kowloon City, it would be better for you, Red Ghost, to send people when it comes to finding someone on Taishuai's turf."
Si Lizheng pushed up his nanmu glasses, his weather-beaten face appearing indifferent.
Red Ghost smiled shyly and said, "Uncle Lizheng, there's no need for such formalities. We ring-coachmen hardly have the spare effort to help the police find people. You can search wherever you like, Uncle Lizheng, as long as you don't turn our place upside down, there won't be a problem."
Red Ghost's straightforwardness made Si Lizheng somewhat uncomfortable.
"How about asking Taishuai first? I'm not in a hurry."
Among the five members of the Longcheng Executive Committee, Chairman Wu Haoxi dealt with drugs and was Hong Kong's biggest drug lord. Two others dealt with human trafficking and the flesh trade, leaving Si Lizheng with gambling and Taishuai with only a fighting ring, the least territory among the five.
Even Wu Haoxi, who had the most swagger, had to show Taishuai respect, because Taishuai was crazy enough to be feared.
After all, it was just a minor issue, and Si Lizheng didn't want to upset Taishuai over it.
"If I bother Taishuai with such a trifle, wouldn't I get my legs broken? Uncle Lizheng, do as you please."
Red Ghost spoke with ease. After all, the business of a ring-coachman was practically conflict-free, unlike Wu Haoxi, who was constantly clashing with major crime syndicates.
"That's settled then."
Si Lizheng nodded, and a person looking like a bodyguard quickly entered through the door.
"Boss, we've found them!"
Upon hearing this, Si Lizheng put down his cigar and smiled at Red Ghost.
"Seems like we really won't be needing Taishuai's help after all." Then, turning his head, he asked, "What's happened?"
"They found a familiar traditional Chinese medicine clinic, and the doctor there quietly alerted the police. The cops have already entered Longcheng!"
"Which clinic is it?"
Si Lizheng asked, while Red Ghost, acting as if it was none of his business, pulled out a cigarette and lit it for himself.
"Inside the apartment at No. 22 Su Miao Street."
The lighter nearly burned off Red Ghost's eyebrows. He leapt up and yelled at the man, "What are you talking about?"
...
"Who would've thought I'd run into a fellow townsman here, it's not easy. What brings you to Hong Kong?"
Li Yan passed over a cigarette, asking with a hint of interest.
Although Li Yan had only come to 1986 Hong Kong a few days ago, the intense feeling of foreignness and distance still made him feel somewhat lonely; only, with his strong will, he wouldn't easily show it.
Now, He Andong's familiar hometown accent made Li Yan feel an incredible closeness.
He Andong's expression darkened upon hearing the question.
"I originally brought a few fellow townspeople to try our luck in Hong Kong for wealth and prosperity, but then..."
"Are there other townspeople with you?"
"Oh, they don't stay here." He Andong's gaze wandered for a moment, then he said, "Enough about me, what brings you to Hong Kong?"
Li Yan shook his head at him, "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you. Let's drop it. It's still early, and I know a great dog meat hotpot place. My treat."
He Andong hastily waved his hand, "Forget it, forget it..."
Their warm atmosphere was interrupted by a series of urgent vibrations.
"I need to take a call." Li Yan said.
He Andong nodded to indicate that it was okay.
"Hello, Red Ghost, it's only two o'clock, what's the rush?"
"Where are you right now?"
Red Ghost's voice was extraordinarily hurried.
"Inside the apartment."
Li Yan furrowed his brow; he could hear the urgency in Red Ghost's tone.
"You bloody fool! Stay in the flat and don't move. That building's hiding a bunch of Mafia, the Flying Tigers are already on their way, watch out or you'll get caught in the crossfire!"
"What did you say?"
Li Yan hadn't caught on.
"The apartment you're in is hiding a gang of Mafia, bloody murderers, led by Dong. Heartless bastards, they kill without blinking!"
"Ah, now I understand~" Li Yan let out a sigh, "But, Red Ghost, can I give you a little bit of advice? Is that alright?"
"You're giving me advice at a time like this? Go ahead."
"When you're on the phone, try to keep your voice down. You're shouting so loud that the person next to me can hear everything clearly, and it's pretty embarrassing for me."
"What did you say?"
"Beep."
Li Yan hung up the call and quietly looked at the Dong in front of him.
"Fellow townsman, tell your friends not to speak irresponsibly, throwing around words like 'heartless' is not nice, it's hard to listen to."
Dong said with a smile.
"Meow~"
A kitten, spry and mischievous, suddenly appeared, pawing clumsily at Li Yan's trouser leg.
"Ami, you're being naughty again."
The girl ran downstairs, picked up her orange kitten, looked up at Li Yan with a rare smile, and said,
"Yan."
"Being heartless isn't just a matter of saying so."
Interestingly, Li Yan had been conversing with Dong in a Hebei dialect close to standard Mandarin, but now he had switched to Cantonese with a slight accent.
"Behave, Xiu, do you have any change on you?"
Li Yan patted the girl's head.
"Yes." Xiu nodded her head.
"Do brother a favor, would you? Go out to the street and buy a bag of candy for me, okay?"
The girl obediently nodded her head and turned to leave, then quickly turned back around.
"You'll wait here for me."
"No problem."
Li Yan smiled, nodding his head as he watched the girl leave with the kitten.
Then he slowly turned his head.
In front of him was the dark mouth of a gun barrel and a thick red light that made it impossible to keep his eyes open...