Hong Kong Comprehensive: Who said that those who practice martial arts have no money?

Chapter 179 Planning, Pier, Gambling

Zhang Jiaxin saw that Li An was very interested and said from the side:

"Brother An, the sales volume of Yuanfang Daily has been good before.

Since the publication of the word flower information, sales have been 20% better than before, and sales in Kowloon are even better.

Because after buying the flower at the Ji Zihua stall in Wang Lao, Kowloon, you can get a free newspaper at the newspaper stall with your receipt.

Occasionally, there are some coolies living in Kowloon on the pier to collect newspapers with receipts. We exchange newspapers at distant daily newspapers through the receipt number. "

"Most citizens have the habit of reading newspapers. It is indeed a good idea to use newspapers to advertise calligraphy stalls."

Li An chuckled and opened the newspaper.

Newspapers have a page with a face and a headline with a pair of eyes.

A good layout will directly stimulate citizens' interest in reading and browse rich information reports.

Yuanfang Daily belongs to the Times. If it wants to sell well, it cannot occupy a conspicuous position when publishing gambling information such as "Zihua". It can only be placed in advertising spaces.

Li An glanced at the genuine current affairs news, and finally saw the title of Wang Lao Ji Hua Dong in the lower right corner of the back.

Zihua is a kind of "flower stall". It is a game that originated in the south in the middle of the Qing Dynasty and was popular along the coast of Guangdong.

Usually thirty-six ancient people, thirty-six kinds of animals, and thirty-six kinds of items are used for flower openings.

The stall owner writes down an answer to a riddle and provides some specious hints to increase the public's interest in betting, and finally seals it in a wooden box, birdcage, or casserole.

After the betting is over and it opens at a specific time, the person who guesses correctly can get thirty times the amount of the bet.

Of course, any gambling game is only for making money, and it is not a charity, so the operability is much greater.

It can only be understood, not expressed in words.

Newspaper advertising space, below the title of the flower stall.

In addition to publishing the answer to the day's riddle, it also includes the address of Wang Laoji's Chinese flower stall in Kowloon, as well as some stalls that accept bets.

"No. 13 Po Ling Street, Yau Ma Tei."

Li An scanned the words of the flower stall address and closed the newspaper.

"You go and sort out the accounts. I'll take a look at them when I come from the dock."

After informing him, Li An handed the newspaper to Zhang Jiaxin and walked to Pier 6.

Thoughts were swirling in his mind, thinking about how to get the shares in Ma Shaolin's hands.

Seriously speaking, the Ma brothers suffered a big loss from the Sanjiang sailors when they came to the dock.

Li Zhengtao kept him in the mission house and took care of him for several days without saying anything. Wang Laoji also paid and owed favors.

It was not easy to fish out the two brothers and Chen Ah Shi.

When I casually asked him to agree to a condition, Ma Shaolin may have just regarded it as a step down the donkey's path.

And Ma Shaolin was optimistic about the newspaper industry. He asked him to give up his shares in Zhongyuanfang Daily. The other party would definitely not agree easily.

However, we can talk about anything.

After taking care of the things on the dock, you can make an appointment with him.

It is now 8:30 in the morning, and the dock has already started construction at this time.

When Li An arrived at Pier 6, what he saw was still a busy scene.

The goods contained in sacks were piled neatly on the concrete floor of the dock like a mountain.

The shirtless coolies came to the stacked goods one by one. After receiving the small stick-shaped calculation chips from the hands of the dealer, they carried the goods towards the freighter docked at the dock.

On the other side, the coolies unloading the goods walked across the five-meter-long springboard. After getting off the freighter, they neatly placed the goods on their shoulders on the pallet truck for transporting the goods.

While busy, everything seemed orderly.

"Don't worry, I'll help you transport it to the ship later. Just put the goods here."

Xiwei said carelessly.

"Then please, this is the payment for the goods."

The speaker was a middle-aged man wearing a gray suit and black-rimmed glasses.

He took out a small wad of Hong Kong dollars from his briefcase and handed it over.

"You click."

Xiwei took the hand and clicked it, fifteen blue crabs:

"One hundred and fifty yuan, no problem."

"Thank you very much."

The other party cupped his hands and turned to leave.

Xiwei put away the money and was just about to go to work when he glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw Li An walking over, and he hurried forward to greet him.

"Brother An, you are here."

There was a hint of excitement on Xiwei's face.

Went to the Walled City from Li An. Although the brothers had moved out of the Walled City, they were worried about Li An and the others' safety and were always paying attention to the affairs of the Walled City.

He is naturally aware of some of the things Li An did and the destruction of the hometown association.

Xiwei's eyes unconsciously glanced at the man following Li An:

"Brother An, who is this?"

"Long Chenghu! You have lived in the Walled City for a while, so you should have heard of it."

Xiwei's eyes lit up and he shouted exaggeratedly:

"I've only heard of him before. He's like a thunderbolt. He's the number one master in the city."

He originally wanted to say that he was the number one thug in the city, but when he realized that thugs didn't sound good, he quickly changed the subject.

Compared with Ke Wanchang, the title of Long Chenghu's number one thug and black market boxing champion is more famous, and the residents living in the walled city have naturally heard of him.

Xiwei stretched out his hand:

"Hello, just call me Xiwei."

"The dragon becomes the tiger."

Long Chenghu simply shook hands with a cold tone.

"He is a more serious person."

"No, all masters are like this."

Xiwei didn't care and said with a smile.

Li An looked at the dock and asked casually:

"During my absence, things went smoothly at the dock, right?"

"Of course it went smoothly. The last time we merged with Changle Club, we made a name for ourselves. How could anyone without a good eye dare to come to our territory to cause trouble. Besides, there is Brother Shui.

It is right next to Pier 6, and foremen from other terminals came to see us several times. "

"What do I need from you?"

"It's time for tea and dinner. Stop by to check on us. We're worried that we might go over and grab the territory."

Xiwei curled his lips.

The conversation immediately changed:

"Brother An, the belief in the pier is that the weak will eat the strong. Now that we have a large number of people, we might as well take this opportunity to capture other piers."

"This is not urgent."

Li An shook his head and did not agree immediately.

As a freight terminal, Triangle Pier has nearly 40,000 coolies, and the interests involved are complicated.

If you want to seize the territory in a big way, you must at least meet Li Zhengtao first and open up the relationship with the embassy before taking action.

"Where's Wu Shihao?"

"My brother is in the pergola."

Xiwei pointed to the newly built pergola at berth No. 61 not far away.

"The sun is so strong on the pier that I can't bear the heat every day, so I followed Brother Shui's example and built a simple pergola to rest at noon."

"Okay, let's go sit down."

Li An smiled and walked towards the pergola.

As Xiwei said, the pergola is crude.

Several wooden sticks were fixed to form a shelf, and then the four corners were fixed with hemp rope to build a waterproof canopy.

Inside were a red Eight Immortals table with mottled paint and several long wooden benches.

In addition to Wu Shihao, there was also a young man wearing black-rimmed glasses and a little girl sitting at the table.

The little girl is fair and delicate, wearing a plaid shirt. She looks about 12 or 13 years old. She has a pen in her hand and is doing her homework with her head down.

He seemed to be a little afraid of strangers, and when he saw Li An walking over, his face was timid.

"Brother An, sit down."

Unconsciously, Wu Shihao also changed his title.

He pulled out a bench, asked Li An to sit down, took the teapot on the table, made tea, and said:

"Why don't you call someone?"

"Brother An."

Aping, who was wearing glasses, stood up and shouted.

The little girl just looked at Li An, opened her mouth, and was a little scared.

Li An responded with a smile and said in a gentle tone:

"Little sister, what's your name?"

The little girl glanced at Wu Shihao before summoning the courage to speak:

"My, my name is Ahua."

"Do your homework well and try to become a doctor or lawyer in the future."

Li An understood.

The timid little girl in front of her should be the rose raised by Wu Shihao and placed next to Lei Luo.

However, with his intervention, Wu Shihao is no longer a lame hao, and the little girl who would have become a rose should have a different life.

"Ah."

Ahua nodded her little head.

"Ahua and I fell in love, and I regarded her as my younger sister.

Her father was in debt and hadn't seen anyone for a long time. Ahua was too young to have enough to eat alone. When we left the city, I took her with me.

Today is a day off. There is no school. She is always bored at home, so I asked her to come to the pier with me. "

After speaking, Wu Shihao handed the brewed tea to Li An, then stood up and walked towards Long Chenghu.

"pretty good."

Li An smiled, took the tea handed over by Wu Shihao, and took a sip.

"Thank you."

Long Chenghu thanked him.

"What do you call it?"

"The dragon becomes the tiger."

Wu Shihao glanced at Long Chenghu in surprise.

Without saying much, he turned around and sat next to Li An.

"During the half month you were away, the dock earned 86,000 yuan. Our four brothers and Hou Shijie split 20% of it, 40% was sent to Brother Shui, and the remaining 40% is with me.

A total of thirty-four thousand four hundred yuan. I will take it out for you later. ” ˆ ˆ “Give it to me tomorrow. After finishing the registration, I have to go to Kowloon. "

Li An waved his hand.

After thinking for a while, he said:

"You leave another 10,000 yuan and help me get some goods. By the way, find another 20 people who are good at marksmanship and send them to the walled city to Uncle Jun."

Wu Shihao asked in surprise:

"Isn't the matter in the walled city settled?"

"Let them go to the walled city to maintain law and order."

Li An was vague.

Drink all the tea in the cup and stand up.

"Okay, you guys go about your business first, I'll come back tomorrow."

He glanced at Ahua again and said in a soft tone: "You come to the dock next week, and my brother will take you to play."

"Thank you, Brother An."

Ahua nodded.

Seeing Li An getting up to leave, Wu Shihao asked:

"How about I help you find another house on Zhongfang Street?"

"No, I live in the walled city."

Li An waved his hand, walked out of the pergola, and left Pier 6.

It's approaching noon.

Zhang Jiaxin hurried to the newspaper stall carrying two food boxes.

"Brother An, it's time to eat."

"it is good."

Li An responded, rubbed the corners of his eyes, and closed the ledger.

Although Zhang Jiaxin remembered the accounts clearly enough, it took more than three hours to simply calculate the accounts.

After dinner, Li An didn't stay long. He said hello to Zhang Jiaxin and then went to the ferry pier.

And just when Ang Lee took the ferry to leave Sheung Wan and go to Kowloon to find the Ma brothers.

On the other side, in Yau Ma Tei, in a sawmill near the sea.

The two brothers, Ma Shaolin, had their hands and feet tied, and sat on the ground with their backs leaning against stacked wooden skips.

Opposite them, Chen Ah Shi was holding a bright blade in his hand and staring at the two brothers Ma Shaolin with an angry look on his face, the veins on his face almost bursting.

There were five or six forty-nine people beside him, looking at the two of them with equally unkind eyes.

Seeing this scene, Ma Shihao's throat tightened and an ugly smile appeared on his face.

"Brother Ten, what's going on? Are you going to start such a big battle and capture our two brothers?"

"You two bastards, Uncle Ji and I usually treat you like treasures.

I didn't expect that you two bastards colluded with outsiders to cause the Zihua stall to suffer losses, and you cheated on others so that you could take over Uncle Ji's Zihua stall business.

They are two white-eyed wolves who are not familiar with your mother! "

Chen Ah Shi spat on the ground, the anger in his eyes ready to burst out.

The two brothers' heartbeats slowed down a beat and they looked at each other.

Ma Shaolin's cheeks twitched:

"Brother Ten, how can this happen? You have also seen that Zihua Restaurant was losing money before. We took over Zihua Restaurant and brought it back to life in the past few months. The brothers also made a lot of money. You can't accuse people unfairly. .”

"Okay! You said I wronged people, right? Then I will let you two know it clearly!"

Chen Ah Shi glared at the two of them fiercely and raised his hand:

"Bring people here!"

"hurry up."

A middle-aged man wearing glasses who looked to be in his forties had his hands tied and was brought up by two forty-nine men.

When they saw the caught man, Ma Shaolin and Ma Shihao's eyelids twitched, and bean-sized beads of cold sweat fell from their foreheads.

Chen Ah Shi glanced at the two brothers and walked up quickly.

"Tell me quickly, are these two brothers colluding with you to eat Zihuadang?"

The middle-aged man glanced at Ma Shihao and then at the ferocious Chen Ah Shi, knowing in his heart that if he admitted, he would be dead.

He swallowed hard and stammered:

"No, Brother Ten."

Chen Ashi put a knife on the middle-aged man's neck:

"Say!"

".No."

"Say it. I'll let you live if I tell you. Hurry up and say it."

Chen Ah Shi roared angrily and couldn't help but exert force on his hands. The middle-aged man's neck was scratched with blood by the blade.

He shook his head desperately:

"Really not."

"Okay, no, right?"

Chen Ah Shi handed the knife in his hand to Si Jiu beside him, picked up a sawed wooden board from the ground, weighed it, and turned around suddenly.

The wooden board hit the middle-aged man's face hard. Blood spurted out and flowed down his face in an instant, and the man was knocked to the ground.

"Don't tell me, tell me."

He hit the middle-aged man's body hard one after another.

The middle-aged man's face was covered with blood, and his breath became weak:

"Ten, Brother Ten, I really don't have one."

Ma Shihao was so frightened that he couldn't help but say:

"Brother Ten, by fighting like this, it's clear that you want to surrender and accuse us of injustice."

"You say I wronged you? I've been investigating this matter for months, and you think I'm going to find you without evidence."

Chen Ah Shi gritted his teeth.

"Crack!"

After hitting it hard, the board could no longer bear it and broke into two pieces.

Seeing the middle-aged man who was dying and silent, Chen Ashi finally lost his patience, and a fierce look flashed in his eyes.

“I won’t shed tears until I see the coffin!”

He lifted the middle-aged man up while still on the table saw.

Pull the switch.

Boom!

The sharp saw teeth rotate at high speed.

"Fuck you, go to hell!"

Cold water sprayed down the saw table, and seeing the saw teeth getting closer and closer, the middle-aged man finally spoke:

"Brother Ten, me."

But it's too late

As the saw teeth rotated at high speed, the middle-aged man screamed and blood spurted out.

Chen Ah Shi was sprayed with blood all over his face. He wiped the blood on his face, pulled the switch, and turned to look at the Ma brothers.

"It's your turn."

He pointed at Ma Shihao:

"Bring him here!"

Two forty-nine men rushed over like wolves and tigers, grabbed Ma Shihao, whose hands were tied, and walked towards the table saw.

Ma Shaolin struggled to stand up and begged:

"Brother Ten, don't be like this. You have watched Ah Hao grow up since you were a child."

As Ma Shihao was pressed onto the table saw, Chen Ah Shi pulled the switch.

"You two little bastards, are you going to tell me?"

The cold water to reduce the fever was sprayed on his face, and Ma Shihao cursed:

"Chen Ah Shi, you fucking framed us!"

"Brother Ten, just let Ah Hao go. You have to think carefully. Godfather will not forgive you if he finds out."

Seeing Ma Shihao's head getting closer and closer to the sawtooth, Ma Shaolin screamed in panic.

Chen Ah Shi was unmoved and shouted with red eyes:

"Speak the fuck now!!"

Ma Shihao was shaking like chaff, but he was cursing:

"Tell your mother what you want me to say about the things I haven't done!"

"Go to hell you!"

"Brother Ten, please let Ah Hao go, Brother Ten."

Ma Shaolin begged.

"Just die, go to hell with Chen Ah Shi!"

Ma Shihao shouted hysterically.

He knew that if he admitted it, he would die faster.

His two brothers were captured by Chen Ah Shi. Someone must have informed Wang Laoji. Now he can only pray that his godfather will be found soon.

Even if he dies, the eldest brother still has a chance to survive.

"Brother Ten, stop, stop, me."

"Brother, if you don't ask him, he won't let us go."

Ma Shihao roared, interrupting Ma Shaolin.

He tilted his head and looked at the sawtooth that was spinning rapidly and getting closer and closer. He could no longer suppress the panic in his heart: "Ah~"

Chen Ah Shi looked fierce.

"You are so stubborn, right? If you don't tell me, you will all die. After cleaning up the house, I will go to Uncle Ji to plead guilty!"

"stop!"

A powerful voice came.

Wang Laoji, accompanied by a forty-nine, came to the sawmill.

"I told you to stop!"

Chen Ah Shi's eyes widened and he could only reluctantly pull the switch.

Looking at the saw teeth that were close at hand and slowly stopping, Ma Shihao took a breath and slumped down.

He knew he won the bet.

"The guy hasn't put it away yet."

Wang Laoji snorted angrily and walked over quickly.

(End of this chapter)