Global Film Emperor

Chapter 203 "The Boss"

Late August, 1952, during the plum rain season.

At night, on the street, under the awning in front of a candy store, Ba Tou took out cigarettes and handed them to Jia Helong and A Er. They lit them with a match, and a faint blue smoke drifted out.

Occasionally, two or three men doing manual labor would pass by on the street, soaked to the bone, running through the ankle-deep water, yet laughing happily.

"Brother Long."

Jia Helong looked up at the distant clock tower. It was already 10:15. This was a place where poor people lived, and there were no sexy girls in cheongsams or upper-class people in suits. So it was very quiet, with only the sound of rain.

"Let's go."

Jia Helong responded to A'er's words, his old cloth shoes splashing water as he stepped into the water. The three of them were quickly soaked by the rain, which flowed into their mouths through their noses. Jia Helong tossed his hair and shrugged, then turned and hid by the door.

Looking out the window, it was pitch black inside. Jia Helong turned to A'er, who understood and gently knocked on the door a few times.

"Brother Ma, is Brother Ma there? It's me, Ah Er, the one who hangs out with Big Dragon."

"What's up? What are you doing here so late?"

A man's voice came from the room. He seemed to be sleeping, but his tone was harsh, as if he was grumpy and unhappy to be woken up by Ah Er.

“Brother Long got caught gambling with the Chaozhou guys. They were the ones who cheated. Brother Long lost all his money and can’t get out. He wants to borrow some from you and will pay you back in a few days.”

"Damn it, I told you not to gamble, not to gamble, and you still went to gamble! Wait a minute!"

The sounds of dressing and a woman's complaints came from inside the room, followed by the sound of shoes scraping the floor. The door opened, and the man rubbed his eyes. When he looked at Ah Er, he only saw a small knife coming towards him.

Ah Er covered the man's mouth, and Ba Tou went up and kept stabbing the man's neck with a small knife. The handle of the knife was a hollow copper tube. After it pierced the carotid artery, blood gushed out smoothly from the bottom of the handle, shooting more than a meter away and splashing on the wall in front of Ba Tou.

The two cooperated silently. The man only let out two soft groans before kicking his legs, but his eyes were fixed on Jia Helong, who was walking in leisurely. His eyes were filled with disbelief and hatred for being betrayed by Jia Helong.

When Jia Helong first smuggled himself to Hong Kong, it was this man, also from Jiangmen, who took him in when he was starving, gave him food, and helped him earn money. Now, this man, whom he considered a younger brother, had killed him with his men.

Jia Helong met the man's gaze, his eyes showing no fear or guilt, but utterly calm. After the man breathed his last, he gave Ba Tou a hand gesture, then turned and went into the room where the man had been sleeping.

I gently pushed open the door, and the woman on the bed was already asleep again. She wasn't particularly pretty, but she had a curvaceous figure and was snoring softly on her side.

Ah Er handed Jia Helong a chair, and Jia Helong sat by the window. Although it had rained heavily that night, the moon was still quite bright, shining on the woman's fair skin.

Jia Helong reached out and gently stroked the woman's face with the back of his hand. The woman, still half-asleep, grasped the hand, but immediately realized it wasn't her man's hand. She snapped back to reality, turned over, and sat on the edge of the bed in the moonlight. Jia Helong's expression suddenly turned slightly coquettish, and he said something in the softest voice.

"Weren't you bet on gambling? Where's your older brother? Tsk, don't be like this, can't you come over tomorrow morning?"

"Sister-in-law, no, Lixiang, I have a question for you."

"Keep your voice down. Where's your older brother? Don't touch me. If your older brother finds out, we're all finished. What do you want to ask?"

She pulled her large hand out from under her bodice, gently patted Jia Helong's hand, and seemed a little sorry for him. She then took his hand back, kissed it lightly, and even stuck out her tongue to draw circles on the back of his hand, looking alluring.

Footsteps suddenly approached, and Lixiang's expression changed. She dropped her hand, shoved Jia Helong, and became agitated and frightened.

"Get up quickly and get out of here! Your older brother is back. Get out of there quickly, or you'll be discovered!"

Why should I hide?

The bedroom door was pushed open again, and Ah Er carried Li Xiang and Ma Ge's son into the room. Behind him, Ba Tou, covered in blood, followed with their daughter in his arms.

"Come here, let me hold the child."

The two children seemed to be still half asleep, sitting on Jia Helong's lap rubbing their eyes. When they looked up and saw that it was Jia Helong, they smiled happily. They really liked this uncle who often took them out to play.

"Uncle Long"

"Hey, good girl, Lixiang, I want to ask you, which of your younger brothers' houses did the shipment that our eldest brother sent leave with?"

The moonlight shone on Jia Helong's face from the side, while the other half of his face was shrouded in darkness. As usual, he looked at the woman who had committed adultery with him behind her husband's back with loving eyes, and casually patted the heads of the two children.

"ah!."

"Shh~ It's not good to disturb the neighbors, where are you?"

Although Jia Helong's words were gentle, Lixiang watched as his hands gradually moved towards the necks of the two children, slowly eroding her psychological defenses.

"I I don't know"

"Brother Ma loves you so much, he tells you everything, and you even help him sell his products, how could you not know?"

"I really don't know. I really don't know."

Lixiang cried, biting her lip to stop herself from crying out loud. The reason why women cheat is simply that they no longer have feelings for their husbands, and a certain man who appears in her life gives her the feeling that she has lost for a long time.

Just like that saying, that ambiguous moment is just like love.

That's the feeling Jia Helong gave her, but now he's killed her husband and is threatening her with her two children. She originally believed that her relationship with Jia Helong was based on love, but now she realizes she was wrong, but it's too late.

There seemed to be an inexplicable connection between the mother and children. The two children, who were sleeping soundly in Jia Helong's arms, gradually started to cry. However, they were still young and could not control their volume, which aroused the nerves of everyone present.

Ba's lips twitched, and his breathing became heavy. His humanity and animalistic instincts were entangled and fighting in his mind. In the end, the animalistic instincts won out. He picked up the knife, walked to the girl who was crying the loudest, and pressed the girl's mouth shut, about to stab her.

"No! No! I'm telling you, at Tiepi's house, Tiepi who lives in the city walled village, really, I didn't lie and let the two children go, did I? They don't understand anything, they treat you like an uncle, they like you so much and ask me every day when Uncle Long is coming and you can't." Jia Helong got up and sat next to her, put his arms around her, held her chin with his right hand, and kissed the most beautiful part of her face, her lips.

"Thank you, sister-in-law."

He no longer addressed her as Lixiang, because there was no need to fool this naive woman in her thirties who still believed in love. He patted Lixiang's cheek, got up and left the room, went outside to light a cigarette, and a few muffled groans came from inside the room before it fell silent.

Ah Er and Ba Tou came out covered in blood, but Jia Helong didn't care. He quietly finished his cigarette and threw the butt into the puddle.

"You know the tin-clad figure in the walled city, Ah Er?"

"know."

"Let's go to the next one."

Shunyi Sheng, a subordinate gang of He Yisheng, is a brotherhood composed entirely of people from Guangdong. They make a living by doing odd jobs for He Yisheng and picking up leftovers. Jia Helong was brought into the gang by Brother Ma.

The atmosphere at Shunyi Sheng was tense today. Hundreds of underlings were running around outside, gathering information because Fei Ma, the leader of Shunyi Sheng, had died with twenty-two stab wounds. His wife, five-year-old son, and three-year-old daughter also died. The four of them were lined up on the floor of their house, their faces covered with white paper, a gruesome sight.

Jia Helong rushed to the hall, exhausted and covered in sweat. He plopped down on the floor of the main hall and took deep breaths of fresh air.

"Brother Ma. Where is Brother Ma? I want to go see him."

"Ah Long, I know Fei Ma is your older brother, but you need to calm down. He's in the back room, along with Tie Pi and his mother. That bastard not only stole the gang's goods, but he also killed his whole family. I'll skin him alive when I find out!"

The goods were divided among the big shots of Yisheng. They finally managed to get a piece of meat, only to have it stolen. The most heartbreaking thing was the death of Fei Ma, their brave and resourceful leader. It was truly...
Fourth Uncle slammed his fist on the table in anger, his beard bristling and eyes wide, but his gaze occasionally drifted to Jia Helong.

Of course, without thorough preparation, Jia Helong wouldn't have taken action last night. Fourth Uncle only has suspicions now, and can't find any evidence at all.

"I want to go see Brother Ma."

Jia Helong got up from the ground, lifted the curtain and was about to go into the back room when he almost bumped into Seventh Uncle, who had just come out of the back room.

"Ah Long, please accept my condolences. Fei Ma brought you out. I know you are a loyal person, but he is gone. Alas."

"I understand, thank you, Seventh Uncle."

Seventh Uncle patted Jia Helong on the back, made way for him, sat down next to Fourth Uncle, and sighed.

"Seventh Brother, do you think Ah Long has a chance?"

Fourth Uncle whispered a question in Seventh Uncle's ear, and Seventh Uncle thought for a moment and shook his head.

"Fei Ma's family had lividity and were stiff, so they probably died around midnight. But Ah Long was playing cards with his gang in my gambling den at that time, so that's unlikely."

Fourth Uncle believed Seventh Uncle's words. After all, they were old brothers who had gone through thick and thin together. Their bond was stronger than gold and their loyalty was paramount. They valued righteousness above all else!
Suddenly, a painful wail came from the back room: "Ah!!! Who did this! Brother Ma, look at me, wake up, Brother Ma! I will avenge you, I absolutely will!"

There was no one alive in the back room except Jia Helong. The people outside heard Jia Helong's cries but did not want to disturb him, so they did not come in. However, Jia Helong actually lifted the white cloth covering Fei Ma's face, pinched Fei Ma's pale face hard, and couldn't suppress the smile on his lips. His eyes were full of excitement and morbid madness.

The scene shifts to Uncle Seven's card game. Outside, a chaotic scene of people playing cards fills the air. Uncle Seven sits in a grand chair in the back room, gently swaying his body. He's so fat he's practically neckless. He holds a pipe, about to light the opium inside.

Jia Helong nimbly lifted the candlestick and gently lit the pipe for his seventh uncle. Then he sat down at the octagonal table, poured himself a cup of tea, and took a sip.

"If Fei Ma dies, I will push you to become the head of the hall, but afterwards, I will be seventh and you third."

"it is good."

Jia Helong's gaze wandered. He picked up a piece of paper, tore it into strips, lit them in the kerosene lamp, and watched them burn to ashes bit by bit.

Jia Helong had no complaints about this distribution of profits, after all, even 30% of Fei Ma's profits would be much more than what he was currently earning.

"But you still have to do one more thing for me."

This made Jia Helong frown. Was the old man going to keep using his weakness against him? Had he forgotten that he also had weaknesses against him?

"what?"

"Help me kill the fourth brother."

He paused as he tossed paper into the kerosene lamp. He turned to look at his seventh uncle, a fat, chubby man who was even more ruthless and greedy than he had imagined. It was simply a case of birds of a feather flocking together; otherwise, he and his seventh uncle wouldn't have been hanging out together. They were the same kind of people.

Jia Helong and Seventh Uncle exchanged glances and both laughed, their expressions extremely sinister. Jia Helong nodded and threw the last piece of paper into the kerosene lamp.

"Okay, I'll be going now."

"Walk slowly without sending."

As Seventh Uncle watched Jia Helong's departing figure, he extended his thumb and forefinger, pretending they were guns, and pointed them at Jia Helong's back. He then slightly opened his mouth and made an onomatopoeic sound, even softer than a sigh.

"boom"

With his back to Uncle Qi and his son, Jia Helong's lips curled up as he thought to himself how to get rid of Uncle Qi.

There can only be one snake in Shunyi Sheng. This black snake is destined to fight with the fat snake. In the end, only one venomous snake can survive.

"."

I had writer's block, so I'm posting late. I'm so sorry everyone. I'm really going bald from writer's block. I originally wanted to write a long chapter, since yesterday I updated 10,000 words but didn't split it into four chapters. It was my fault. I'll write a long chapter tomorrow to make up for it. I'm sorry.



(End of this chapter)