My name is Qiao Jiajin.
I lied.
I don’t actually live in Guangdong—I was just there looking for someone.
But for me, it’s the same wherever I am.
After all, after I served four years in prison for Master Rong, Portland Street had already become unrecognizable to me.
The day I was released from prison, only one gang brother came to pick me up.
Not a single one of the brothers from the gang showed up, and Master Rong didn’t show up either.
During those four years, only Jiu Ge came to visit a few times, but I haven’t seen him in a long time either.
“Brother Jin! Over here!” The gang brother saw me come out and enthusiastically waved at me from across the road.
“You are…” I had somewhat forgotten where I’d seen him before.
“It’s Liang Wa, Brother Jin.”
Liang Wa—such a common name, I’d heard it who knows how many times and couldn’t match it to anyone.
Four years ago, I already had over a hundred younger brothers, and those younger brothers had younger brothers of their own. How could I remember so many?
I could only pretend to recognize him. “Why did you come?”
“Brother Jin, I came to pick you up.” He pulled me over to an old pickup truck nearby. “Quick, get in the car. Prison is tough! I’ll take you out to have some fun.”
At that moment, I didn’t know what I was feeling inside.
I had taken the fall for Master Rong, yet in four years he hadn’t once come to see me.
But if you ask me if I regret it?
I don’t regret it.
When I was eleven years old, Jiu Ge and I took a small knife and stabbed a local gang leader to death.
If Master Rong hadn’t brought Jiu Ge and me out from Kowloon Walled City, let me learn boxing, and given us work to do, we would have long been dead in the streets.
Four years of time was not enough to repay his kindness.
Master Rong and Jiu Ge must be very busy—I could only go to the gang to see them.
The car drove all the way to Mong Kok, but didn’t enter Portland Street. Instead, it circled around Shantung Street for quite a while before finally stopping in front of a noodle shop.
This was a very small noodle shop. I wasn’t quite clear on the purpose of coming here.
Liang Wa pulled the handbrake and turned back to say with a smile, “Brother Jin! Are you hungry? Want to eat something first?”
“I’m not hungry. Take me to see Master Rong.”
“Heh…” Liang Wa opened the car door and got out, saying to me, “You need to eat well before seeing Master Rong. Can’t have Master Rong feed you, can we?”
I couldn’t argue with him and could only get out of the car and enter the noodle shop. The place was empty except for the owner, an old man.
“What do you want?” The old man asked ungraciously.
“Whatever!” Liang Wa said with a laugh. “Give us the specialty!”
I sat down, unable to help but sigh at how rapidly times were changing. Mong Kok looked vastly different from four years ago. I wondered who was running this Shantung Street now?
Was it still Rotten-Tooth Boy?
The owner brought over two bowls of offal noodles and quite rudely threw them on the table, causing soup to splash everywhere.
I picked up my chopsticks and took a bite.
Delicious.
Far better than the stuff in prison.
I barely chewed at all, swallowing down those scalding hot noodles in one go. Only in this moment did I feel like I was truly alive.
Setting down the soup bowl, I noticed there were other customers in the shop—a few thugs with toothpicks in their mouths, constantly looking in our direction.
Seeing that I’d finished eating, four men from that table stood up and came over to us.
Liang Wa sensed something was wrong and immediately stood up. “Ah… elder brothers… what can we do for you?”
“Finished eating?” The lead thug said with a smile. “Eating noodles here requires paying a ‘noodle-eating fee’—one hundred dollars per person.”
I looked up at the old shop owner, who was cursing under his breath. “Coming here every damn day, collect, collect, collect—take it to your mother’s grave!”
Although he cursed fiercely, the owner still minded his own business washing dishes, clearly long accustomed to this kind of situation.
“You old bastard, watch your mouth!” A lackey pointed at the old man and said.
“What about it?!” The old man slammed down a bowl and grabbed a cleaver. “You want to mess with me?!”
“Alright, alright…” The lead thug waved his hand. “We’ve already collected protection money. According to the rules, we can’t cause him trouble. Today we’ll just collect the ‘noodle-eating fee.'”
I truly didn’t understand.
Times had changed—changed in ways I couldn’t comprehend.
I could still understand collecting protection money from the shop owner, but what about the “protection”?
Now not only did they not protect, they even prepared to demand money from the customers.
“Who do you work for?” I asked.
“What’s it to you? Want to find my boss?” The thug slapped the table. “Who the hell are you? Where are you from?”
“Where am I from?”
Hearing this question, I really couldn’t sit still anymore. Mong Kok was Master Rong’s territory—how could there be people here who didn’t recognize me?
Seeing me about to stand up, Liang Wa quickly held me back. “Don’t, don’t, don’t… Brother Jin, leave it to me, I can handle it!”
He pulled out a handful of change from his pocket, counted out two hundred dollars, and handed it to them.
“Please forgive us, elder brothers. We’ll leave right after eating!”
The thug took the money and patted Liang Wa’s face with a smile. “Smart!”
Knowing I’d only been out for less than three hours, I figured it was best not to cause trouble. Besides, even a powerful dragon doesn’t suppress the local snake, so I didn’t stop Liang Wa and just let him handle it.
But who knew that after taking the money, the thug didn’t leave. He spoke again, “What about the soup-drinking fee? You not only ate noodles but also drank soup. The soup-drinking fee is five hundred per person.”
“Ah…?” Liang Wa smiled apologetically. “Big brother, we don’t have that much money. Can you give us some face… collect it next time?”
I put down my chopsticks and slowly stood up. The current situation was already beyond what Liang Wa could handle.
“Brother Jin, Brother Jin!” Liang Wa came over to hold me back. “I can handle it…”
“What? Want to fight?” The thug pushed Liang Wa aside and said to me, “From your eyes, it looks like you’re not convinced.”
“Shop owner, how much for a table and chairs?” I asked.
“Depends on how you use them,” the old man said. “If you break them yourself, it’s ten thousand. If those four bastards break them, it’s free.”
“Then you might be taking a loss.”
I truly hadn’t expected it would only take ten seconds to deal with these few people.
No, to be precise, it was eight and a half seconds.
They looked like they’d never experienced actual combat with dozens of people in a brawl. Could it be that in this era, you could make money just by intimidating people?
“Big brother… stop hitting me…” The thug wailed and begged for mercy. “I was wrong… which gang are you from exactly…”
“I don’t care whose men you are. Tell your boss that A’Jin from Portland Street has returned. If he has any problems, tell him to come talk to me personally. I’ll take full responsibility.”
I saw Liang Wa immediately show a panicked expression after hearing this. My brain isn’t clever, so I didn’t know what he was thinking.
“A’Jin…” The thug was stunned for a long while after hearing this. “Are you that Four-Two-Six Red Pole under Gambling Rong?”
A meaningful expression appeared on his face, then without saying another word, he and the other men stood up and ran away.
“Brother Jin… this is bad…” Liang Wa anxiously looked in the direction those men ran, then turned back to say to me, “Your return can’t be kept secret now. Quickly go hide on the mainland!”
“Hide?” I didn’t understand at all. “What do I have to hide from? Take me to see Master Rong.”
Could it be that by serving prison time for Master Rong, I’d somehow committed some offense?
I’m too stupid—I simply couldn’t figure out the reason.
“You can’t see Master Rong anymore!” Liang Wa said anxiously. “Brother Jin, Master Rong took the gang’s money and ran away with Jiu Ge!”
“What?” This sentence struck my mind like a bolt from the blue. “Master Rong stole the gang’s money?”
“Master Rong took two million, and now the entire gang is hunting him down!”
Hearing this, I slowly sat down.
Bullshit.
Jiu Ge was with Master Rong—how could they do something so foolish?
Ever since I was little, Master Rong had kept one saying on his lips—
“A’Jin, A’Jiu, one of you is the fist, the other is the brain. To me, I can’t do without either one.”