Joking was one thing, but that very night, Sister-in-law He Chu San reflected painfully on his mistakes and decided that lately he really had grown far too addicted to the Boss’s endless tenderness. Lust had gone to his head, and he could not keep doing things this risky. Early the next morning, reluctant as he was, he coaxed the Boss into going back. He had spent more than a month altogether resting and recuperating and could already get out of bed and walk around. A few days later, he simply asked Master Qiao for permission to leave the hospital and moved into an apartment Master Qiao had arranged for him in a building near his own company. That also gave him the chance to deliberately place himself under Master Qiao’s surveillance and put the old man’s mind at ease.
Sure enough, although Master Qiao was happily counting his money, at the adviser’s vigorous urging he still installed several listening devices inside the apartment. On the very night He Chu San moved in, he and Kevin searched all over the place. They found one in the living room, one in the study, and, most helplessly of all, one in the bedroom.
Master Qiao had already seen the two of them tangled together with his own eyes. Two unattached men spending every day and night under the same roof; surely dry kindling had to catch fire once in a while?
So that night, they had no choice but to find a record full of lingering love songs and let it play endlessly on the gramophone. Against that passionately romantic background music, He Chu San and Kevin sat fully dressed side by side on the edge of the bed, quietly discussing work. Every so often, however, they raised their voices and let out a few indecent cries, then stuck their asses up and vigorously rocked the bedframe together.
In the room downstairs, Master Qiao took off his headphones, which were filled with soft, breathy voices, and said to the adviser beside him, “This kid really is cultured. Even when he plays ball, he has to put on music!”
Since they could “play ball” amid the rippling waves of a massage tub at the sanatorium, naturally they could also “play ball” in a bedroom overflowing with romance while love songs played. The adviser listened for a long time and heard nothing suspicious, so he reluctantly took off his headphones too.
Master Qiao quickly lost interest in the rest of the surveillance. He stood with the help of his cane. “Give him the Old Shopkeeper’s matter tomorrow and let him try his hand at it. I’m going to see Sammy tonight. Are you going to see your King?”
The Sammy he meant was a lively, adorable rent boy from the rent-boy joint, with fair skin, a pert ass, a talented tongue, and an endless stream of flattering chatter. He was exceptionally good at making “Daddy Qiao” happy and had opened one door after another to whole new worlds for him. The adviser, meanwhile, was a physically frail but thoroughly straight man. After spending one utterly terrifying night under King’s “service,” he now shook his head frantically whenever he heard the name. “No, no, no, no. Please, you go ahead. You go ahead.”
Master Qiao curled his lip dismissively and walked out alone.
……
Kevin committed fully to the act and slept on bedding laid out on the floor beside He Chu San’s bed. He still had not recovered from the enormous shock of discovering that Brother Chu San was actually the top. Physically and mentally exhausted, he spent the whole night plagued by nightmares and slept miserably. Early the next morning, still wrapped in that blue robe and bleary-eyed with sleep, he went to open the door for the adviser. Seeing him looking as though he had “worked hard” all night, the adviser’s eyelid twitched.
“I told you to keep an eye on him. How did you end up getting into bed with him?” the adviser hissed under his breath.
“He’s interested in me. I couldn’t exactly turn against him.” Kevin looked helpless. “Adviser, please explain things to Master Qiao for me. I’m absolutely loyal to him. I’ve sacrificed far too much for this! He Chu San doesn’t have any other schemes in mind. All he thinks about is latching onto powerful people and making money.”
“I think he fucked you stupid!” The adviser smacked him on the forehead.
The adviser went into the study to pass an important assignment on to Consultant He. In essence, one of Master Qiao’s friends owned a finance company with a great deal of hidden money under its name that needed “special handling,” and Consultant He was being invited to work his magic. At the same time, the adviser circled around the subject, trying to learn Consultant He’s methods for turning stone into gold all these days: how the books could be made so meticulous, how money could be laundered so swiftly without leaving a trace, and how his stock investments could somehow make money without losing. Consultant He explained, “Xunzi said, ‘A thousand undertakings and myriad changes, yet their Way is one.’ Zhuangzi said, ‘Never departing from the root; this is called being a man of Heaven.’ Thus, ‘Though one ranges in every direction, one never leaves square and circle; myriad changes never depart from their source.’ Currency and finance possess mysterious and unpredictable hidden laws, and only those destined may glimpse their secrets. When I first entered the profession, I was fortunate enough to receive guidance from a gentleman from Britain named Mr. Chris De Pacino. He came from an ancient and mysterious European family that had managed the finances of European royal houses for generations, and he once served as the Tyler, or gatekeeper, of the legendary and mysterious Free and Accepted Masons, the Freemasons. This secretive Mr. Pacino once said…”
The adviser listened to Consultant He explain these mysteries for more than half an hour and somehow felt that he had grasped many profound truths. Those fresh and transcendent truths seemed at once to float amid boundless clouds and to exist across the vast, distant human world, carrying an indescribably deep and mysterious flavor.
He refused to admit that Consultant He had fucked him stupid too. Thinking very seriously, he went downstairs and climbed into the sedan. The car started moving. He rolled down the window and lit a cigarette. Through the drifting smoke, he vaguely noticed an enormous movie poster on the building opposite them. It was for that year’s Oscar-winning film Scent of a Woman (known in mainland China as Know a Woman by Her Scent). The names of its two stars, Chris O’Donnell and Al Pacino, were displayed prominently on the poster. As the sedan drove forward, the adviser happened to glance at them and thought the two names sounded extremely familiar. A completely ridiculous suspicion suddenly entered his head. He immediately shook it off, deciding there was absolutely no way Consultant He would have the nerve to invent such nonsense off the top of his head, and somehow make the nonsense sound so perfectly convincing. He lowered his head and continued smoking as he pondered deeply.
……
The Independent Commission Against Corruption, or ICAC, was an independent anti-corruption agency separate from all other government bodies in Hong Kong, reporting directly and solely to the Governor. Its staff were employed on contract and did not belong to the civil service system. During the 1960s and 1970s, corruption in Hong Kong society had reached levels that shocked the world. Citizens had to pay an “open-the-hose fee” to get the fire brigade to put out a fire, “tea money” to call an ambulance, and “protection fees” to operate a small roadside stall. Money opened every door, from the selection and appointment of public officials all the way down to a young child’s school enrollment and the allocation of “public housing,” housing provided by the government. Public fury finally exploded after Chief Superintendent Godber fled while under investigation for corruption in 1973, sending citizens into the streets in protest. The British Hong Kong government established a special investigation team to thoroughly investigate the case, which after several developments eventually evolved into the ICAC.
By 1993, the ICAC had three departments: the Operations Department, the Corruption Prevention Department, and the Community Relations Department. The Operations Department, responsible for anti-corruption investigations, investigated corruption not only in government departments but also in private institutions. It had handled major cases including the Godber corruption case, the corruption cases involving the Four Great Detectives, and the corruption case involving new stock listings on the Stock Exchange. Under the Operations Department were the Technical Division and Investigation Branch, with Assistant Investigators (AI) and Senior Investigators (SI) serving as the Investigation Branch’s basic investigative personnel.
Lu Guang Ming, this young investigator who had only been promoted from AI to SI the previous year, was just twenty-five years old. Standing before Chief Investigator Xu of the Investigation Branch, he looked perfectly relaxed, his expression unchanged beneath his superior’s glare.
“A case this big, an accusation this serious, and you investigated it on your own for three years, and only today you decide to tell me?!” Chief Investigator Xu demanded.
“I only found evidence pointing directly to him today,” Lu Guang Ming replied.
“What kind of evidence is this? What does a finance company registered under someone else’s name prove? What does a triad society laundering money have to do with him personally? If you dare accuse a Deputy Commissioner of Police of colluding with triads for years, then you’d better produce actual evidence!”
“I will,” Lu Guang Ming said. “But I need your authorization and support. Without formally opening a case and getting assistance from the Technical Division, there’s no way to investigate any further. My informant, He Chu San, has already put a great deal of his own money into this case. If nothing unexpected happens, he’ll soon come into direct contact with the suspect. His position is currently in a gray area, and his personal safety isn’t guaranteed either. I need you to formally open the case so ICAC resources can stand behind him.”
“Support my…” Chief Investigator Xu wanted to swear, but as a graduate of the economics department of a prestigious university, he simply could not bring himself to behave like some foul-mouthed barracks thug. “You encouraged an ordinary civilian to act undercover without regard for his property or his life. For that alone, I could confiscate your work ID and send you for internal review!”
“He isn’t undercover. He’s an informant. We’re cooperating with each other; he isn’t subordinate to us. And everything he has done was his own personal decision. Before today, I knew nothing about it.” Lu Guang Ming wore an innocent expression and neatly absolved himself of responsibility in two sentences.
Absolved yourself, my ass! Chief Investigator Xu, still in the prime of his life, suddenly swung the stack of documents Lu Guang Ming had submitted and hurled them straight into his face. Photographs and sheets of paper showered Lu Guang Ming’s head and shoulders. Two portrait photographs that landed on the floor stood out sharply: Xie Ying Jie in police uniform and medals, stern and imposing, and He Chu San in a suit and tie, smiling warmly.
Lu Guang Ming lowered his head and silently looked at the two photographs as Chief Investigator Xu’s furious scolding thundered in his ears. “Lu Guang Ming, stop pretending to be innocent! You only care about achieving your objective and never about the rules. You don’t like partnering with your fellow officers, you refuse to work as part of a team, and you insist on doing everything alone! I was already extremely dissatisfied with that attitude when you were still on probation. If your teacher hadn’t recommended you to me with all his strength from his deathbed, I never would have kept you!”
The corner of Lu Guang Ming’s mouth lifted slightly. He murmured under his breath, “I know. Everyone who ever looked kindly on me is already dead.”
His vision suddenly went dark as a folder struck him across the face with a sharp smack! Chief Investigator Xu cursed in fury, “When someone criticizes you, does that mean they’re rejecting your entire existence?! Can’t criticism be meant to make you ‘move toward the good when you see it, and correct yourself when you err’?! Trusting no one around you, hiding away and playing your petty little schemes alone; is that your way of dealing with people and handling affairs?! If you’d told me about this case three years ago, we could have formally opened an investigation three years ago! Inspector Hua was still alive then. A great deal of evidence and witness testimony could have been preserved. Would your informant have needed to risk himself like this?! You idiot!”
Lu Guang Ming covered the half of his face that had reddened from the blow and said without expression, “Three years ago, I had just started the job. You transferred me to the records room and made me organize files for three months. For the next six months, you didn’t assign me a single case and only let me do support work. Everyone laughed at me for being benched. What exactly was I supposed to tell you?”
“Didn’t you uncover several suspicious old cases from those records?! Didn’t the support work give you investigative experience?! Weren’t all those later cases you investigated approved by me?! Wasn’t I the one who signed your promotion report last year?! Without my trust, do you think you could have come this far?! I put all that effort into tempering you and training you, and I never imagined this was what you thought of it!” Chief Investigator Xu was furious beyond measure. By the time he finished shouting, he had to brace himself on the desk and sit down. He spent a long time calming his breathing before finally sighing. “A’Ming, I’m deeply disappointed in you. You’ve become this kind of person. You’ve let your teacher down.”
Lu Guang Ming abruptly raised his head and opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, but Chief Investigator Xu raised a hand first. “Shut up. I don’t want to see you right now. You don’t need to work this afternoon. Go home and think about yourself.”
Lu Guang Ming lowered his eyes and turned toward the door. Just as he was about to pull it open, he heard Chief Investigator Xu speak from behind him. “There still isn’t enough evidence to formally open this case. But I’ll arrange for colleagues from the Technical Division to assist you until you find credible evidence.”
Lu Guang Ming turned around in surprise. “Thank you, Chief Investigator Xu…”
“Shut up! Get out!” Chief Investigator Xu snapped in exasperation.
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