Chapter 59: The Gentry Must Die!

Zhang Jinrong, wearing black leather trousers and a fur-collared leather jacket, sat at his desk with an air of seasoned pretension. Lifting a hip flask, he said, "Boss, the lawyer from 'Luen Ying' is here, applying for a legal visit."

For the Luen Ying Society to hook up with the Tang clan meant it possessed considerable clout in the underworld. When a faction leader got into trouble, legal representation was a given.

According to their strength, secret societies were divided into tiers. The first tier comprised the four major umbrella factions: Wo Hop To, Wo On Lok, Sun Yee On, and the 14K.

The second tier consisted of rising stars: Wo Shing Wo, the Big Circle Gang, Fuk Yee Hing, the Luen Ying Society, Tung Sing Wo, and Luen Kung Lok, totaling over a dozen groups.

The third tier included Tung Yee Fuk, Wo Shing Yee, Yee Tung Ho, and others.

Among them, the first-tier factions were territory-wide organizations with turf across all three major regions, clustering densely in lucrative areas like Yau Ma Tei, Tsim Sha Tsui, Causeway Bay, Wan Chai, and Central.

Each of the four major umbrella factions had enjoyed a golden age where they dominated the entire territory, reigning as the "undisputed number one in the underworld." At their peak, their memberships all exceeded one hundred thousand.

Even today, the smallest of the four major factions still boasted thirty to forty thousand members.

The second-tier factions were regional gangs primarily concentrated in specific lucrative zones, usually with memberships numbering ten to twenty thousand. During their peak, older regional gangs could go toe-to-toe with the four major umbrella factions, vying for dominance.

The third tier consisted of suburban societies. At their most formidable, they could only squeeze into the second tier, and by now they had all retreated from the lucrative districts to operate in suburban towns.

In addition, there were over a hundred large and small twilight factions hiding in the countryside, scraping together meager livings while clinging to dreams of underworld glory.

Categorized by lineage, there were the Yee lineage, the Tung lineage, the Fuk lineage, the Tung lineage, and others. With their various backgrounds, they formed an interlinked network of societies where you had your people in mine, and I had mine in yours.

Precisely because of these close ties, Hong Kong's societies were notoriously insular.

To avoid being swallowed up by the four major factions like Wo Hop To and Sun Yee On, four second-tier factions—the Luen Ying Society, Luen Kung Lok, Tung Sing Wo, and the Macao Boys—formed the "Four Companies Alliance," agreeing to advance and retreat together.

Whenever they walked the underworld, they proclaimed themselves the "Four Companies," acting with extreme arrogance and fearing neither Sun Yee On nor Wo On Lok.

Lin Tiansheng picked up his teacup, rinsed his mouth, and said with a mild expression, "What do we need a lawyer for? Such a waste of money. Make the lawyer wait, and you go negotiate with Foul-Mouth Cheung."

"Turn him into a crown witness and have him step forward to accuse the Tang clan. I guarantee he will be living comfortably and out within half a year."

Zhang Jinrong screwed the cap back onto his hip flask, limbered up his arms, and said, "Leave it to me."

When interrogating thugs, standing on ceremony was the last thing needed. Before making a deal, haggling over terms was entirely normal.

Lin Tiansheng pondered silently: "Bite someone from the Tang clan—anyone will do. Following the vine to unearth the melon, we can send Tang Yuchang straight to Stanley Prison."

Although the chairman of the New Territories Heung Yee Kuk wielded immense power, the gweilos were equally eager to curtail the Kuk's "autonomous" authority. As long as the case was thoroughly investigated, the gweilos would never hesitate to issue arrest warrants.

There was no need to worry about any losses for the New Territories villagers, because once Tang Yuchang was discarded, a new chairman would simply be elected, making the overall impact zero.

Counterintuitively, weakening the gentry cartel was actually an act of liberation for the productivity and assets of the villagers.

It was precisely because the gentry cartel kept a stranglehold on land development rights that the colonial government had never been able to develop the New Territories. No matter how vicious the gweilos were, "capitalism" was still more progressive than "gentry autonomy."

It was not that the gweilos were kind-hearted, nor that the gentry were purely evil; rather, one's position dictated everything, and the system alienated human hearts.

Now, the gentry still wanted to poke their hands into the police force and absorb the remnants.

Then they had to die, and dying in a way that was useful was their good fortune.

Ma Delong casually picked up the emergency police telephone and said, "Hello?"

"Central report center calling. There's a missing persons case. The informant is 'Lai Zhongying,' requesting assistance from Inspector Lin of the West Kowloon Regional Crime Unit."

Ma Delong truly never expected to receive a case from the Central report center all the way in West Kowloon, but as long as the caller could state the officer's badge number and name, the report center had no qualms about transferring it to the corresponding officer.

"Speak."

After listening to the details, Ma Delong felt a sense of foreboding. He scribbled a note and handed it to the squad leader: "Sir, is Lai Zhongying a friend of yours?"

Lin Tiansheng had just sat down in his chair to relax when his heart skipped a beat. He snatched the note: "What is it?"

As he spoke, his gaze had already fallen upon the dispatch slip, and his expression instantly turned grave. Lai Zhongying's wife and daughter had gone missing together; it was absolutely impossible for this to be a coincidence.

"Bang." Ma Delong had barely spoken two sentences when Lin Tiansheng brought his palm down hard on the desk, drawing the gazes of many officers. Deng Gengyun, Gao Zicong, and He Li stepped forward, looking anxious: "Inspector Lin, what's happened?"

"There's a kidnapping case, related to the Luen Ying Society." Lin Tiansheng headed straight for the interrogation room without briefing Gao Zicong and the others. They were his own people, true enough, but Shengshi Properties belonged to his private money pouch—he naturally couldn't broadcast that in the office.

Lin Tiansheng had cut off Tang Yuchang's financial lifeline, and Tang Yuchang cutting off his in return was only fair. But kidnapping someone's entire family had undoubtedly crossed the bottom line.

Lin Tiansheng pushed open the door to the interrogation room, snatched the bottled water from Zhang Jinrong's hand, hurled it into the corner, and looked coldly at Foul-Mouth Cheung: "Hang him up."

Zhang Jinrong was startled at first, but catching his boss's eye, he understood instantly and immediately directed He Li and the others to get to work, while old Ma stood guard at the door.

Foul-Mouth Cheung had the tissue wiped from his face and was gasping heavily. Just as he recovered from the sensation of drowning, he found all four of his limbs bound with hemp rope, and he cried out in absolute terror, "Boss, don't mess around, Boss!"

"I'm just a flunky, it has nothing to do with me."

"It has nothing to do with me..."

"Swish." Two minutes later, Foul-Mouth Cheung was hoisted from the floor into mid-air, suspended by his limbs with his joints bearing an overloaded weight. His face contorted in agony, he begged, "Don't play like this, don't play..."

Lin Tiansheng took a hammer, looked levelly at the man before him, and said coldly, "I have a brother who just called the police. His whole family is missing."

"Did the kids go out to play, or were they kidnapped?"

Foul-Mouth Cheung wore a bulletproof vest beneath his clothes, and tears welled in the corners of his eyes from sheer fright: "No, let me out! I'll help you find them, I'll help you find them!"

Lin Tiansheng raised the hammer and smashed it viciously against his chest. Even through the bulletproof vest, Foul-Mouth Cheung let out a gasp and was nearly choked of breath.

With a newspaper used as padding inside the vest, one could ensure no external injuries while still inflicting punishment. A master could stop a victim's heart from beating without breaking a single rib.

The number of "sudden death" victims dragged out of the Wan Chai Criminal Investigation Division in the past was not small; no underworld gang dared to test that.

Lin Tiansheng pointed the hammer at Foul-Mouth Cheung: "If you don't find them, every ten minutes I'll send someone in to entertain you."

"Boss, give me a phone, give me a phone." Meeting Lin Tiansheng's gaze, Foul-Mouth Cheung lacked the courage to gamble on corrupt cops' professional ethics—corrupt cops had none to begin with!

He truly did not believe Lin Tiansheng was here just to scare him; playing by this method, he wouldn't even survive the night.

Lin Tiansheng dropped the hammer, walked out of the room, and said coldly, "Give him a phone."

Deng Gengyun brought over a brick-sized mobile phone and stood before Foul-Mouth Cheung: "You talk, I'll dial. Last chance, cherish it."