Rebirth 1977 Great Era

Chapter 1021 Finally encountered some Hong Kong thugs, went to Repulse Bay to find Old Tang (Bonus chapter for monthly votes: 3K)

Fang Yan nodded to Zhang Guorong. Actually, he wanted to give him some pointers, but after thinking about it, he realized that he wasn't a movie actor. As long as Zhang Guorong knew what he was acting, that was enough.

Besides, I have a group of people with me here, so saying this here would give the impression of someone peddling their own wares.

He said to Zhang Guorong:
"That's good. I believe you can handle the situation well and portray this role well."

Zhang Guorong smiled and said to Fang Yan:

"Thank you for your trust, boss. I will definitely do my best."

Fang Yan then turned to Director Wang and asked:
"Mr. Wang, when will this TV series be finished filming?"

After hearing this question, Director Wang thought for a moment and then said:
"By the end of this month, I'll be very productive at work."

He patted his chest and assured:
"I absolutely won't waste a single penny of the company's money, hehehe..."

Before they could even respond in dialect, someone behind them spoke in somewhat broken Mandarin:

"Director Wang, shouldn't we pay the money we discussed this morning?"

Upon hearing this, Director Wang's face stiffened.

Everyone turned their heads at the sound and saw three men leaning against the warehouse door. The one in the lead, with a buzz cut, had a toothpick in his mouth, his floral shirt open, revealing a dark blue dragon tattoo on his chest, and his snake-like red tongue was licking the dragon's eye.

The two men behind him were wearing tank tops and had faint knife scars tattooed on their arms. One of them was waving a rubber stick and banging on the door frame, startling everyone else on set who turned to look.

"Director Wang," the crew-cut man spat out a toothpick, grinned, and his gold teeth gleamed under the carbon light. "The protection money we talked about this morning, shouldn't it be settled by now?" He strolled in slowly, kicking aside a prop bag that someone had left on the floor.

"You know the rules of Temple Street: every day the film set is open, the local authorities have to pay taxes!"

Director Wang's smile froze instantly, beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and he forced a smile, cupping his hands in a fawning tone as he said:
"Brother Hui, could you please make an exception? The investors are checking the accounts these past two days, please wait for me..."
"Enough nonsense!" The crew-cut man suddenly raised his hand and slammed it on the prop medicine cabinet, causing the wooden signs for "Angelica sinensis" and "Ligusticum chuanxiong" to fall off. "You said you'd wait last month, do you think I'm running a charity?" (Cantonese) He reached out and grabbed Director Wang's collar, revealing bulging muscles beneath his floral shirt:

"If you don't pay up, believe me, I'll have my brothers tear this lousy warehouse down."

Wang Feng subconsciously took a half step forward, but was stopped by Fang Yan without making a sound.

Fang Yan's gaze swept over the bulging hilt of the knife at the crew-cut man's waist, then glanced at the seven or eight henchmen loitering at the door, and suddenly he spoke:
"Brother, let's talk this out. I'm the owner here. Don't make things difficult for Director Wang." He took out the money Mrs. Huo had given him earlier, pulled out three hundred-dollar bills and waved them. "This is just for tea money, consider it a token of friendship."

The man with the buzz cut glanced at him sideways: "Judging from your accent, are you from Southeast Asia?" He let go of Director Wang and reached out to grab the money, but Fang Yan cleverly dodged him.

"To make friends, you need to know each other's names first," Fang Yan said with a smile, tapping out banknotes in his hand. "My surname is He. May I ask your name, brother?"

"Everyone calls him Brother Hui!" the man with the rubber stick interrupted impatiently.

The man with the buzz cut stared at Fang Yan's suit. It was a genuine Savile Row bespoke suit, and the buttons on the cuffs alone would be enough for a poor family to eat for a month.

He grinned, his tone softening slightly:

"Mr. He looks like someone who does big business, right? Since we're friends, the rules are easy to agree on."

He took the banknotes, crumpled them into a ball, and stuffed them into his pocket.
"But let me make this clear from the start: if there's still no news by next week, I'll be bringing my brothers to the wedding banquet."

"You're made of porcelain, while we're just worthless lives, barely scraping by. Mr. He, you wouldn't refuse to give us a way to survive, would you?"

Fang Yan smiled but did not answer.

"Brother Hui" smiled and then beckoned to the others:
"Let's go! Let's give Mr. He some face."

Watching the three men stagger out of the warehouse, Director Wang slumped onto a wooden stool, wiped his sweat, and cursed:
"Damn it, these bastards have come three times this month already!"

Fang Yan stared thoughtfully at the doorway, then suddenly asked:
"Did you call the police?"

Director Wang chuckled:
"Call the police? The Indian police are coming and will take away two portions of the dode!"

He grabbed the tin teacup on the table and took a swig of cold tea:
"These guys are all over Hong Kong. We've investigated for years, but they're only superficially respectable. These thugs all have powerful backers. Maybe that Brother Hui's godfather is a detective from some district!"

Li Chong frowned:

"Isn't anyone in charge of them?"

Director Wang waved his hand, a look of helplessness and apprehension on his face:
“Boss, you don’t understand the situation in Hong Kong. These guys are capable of anything when they get really ruthless.” He rubbed his hands together and lowered his voice, continuing, “None of those detectives are clean either. I guess we can’t avoid this protection fee. But I can talk to Brother David later and see if we can get the price down a bit… He knows Lin Jiang, the White Paper Fan of Wo Shing Wo. We found our film crew’s martial arts director through them.” At this point, he shook his head with a wry smile, “But if we go through Lin Jiang, not only will the martial arts director’s fee increase by 30%, but we also have to use the props they specify. There’s no room for negotiation.”

Hearing this, Le Miao sneered, her eyes filled with mockery:
"Just now you were patting your chest and saying you wouldn't waste a single penny of the company's money."

Director Wang's face flushed red. He opened his mouth to defend himself, but the words stuck in his throat. In the end, he could only stammer out a sentence:
"I...I really had no other choice!" He scratched his head and added:
"Once this TV series becomes a hit, I might be able to have some say in things."

Fang Yan, however, remained calm and waved his hand, saying:

"Don't worry, there's always a solution. Leave this to me."

Upon hearing this, Director Wang subconsciously glanced at the bodyguards standing ramrod straight behind Fang Yan, and quickly waved his hand to dissuade them:

"Boss, don't be impulsive! Even a powerful dragon can't suppress a local snake. These people have a complicated backing..."

"A local bully?" Wang Feng and Deng Cai exchanged a glance and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

In their eyes, these loud and boisterous thugs were hardly intimidating; on the contrary, they were rather comical.

Director Wang was so anxious he kept stamping his feet:
"Don't take this lightly! They really have powerful backers! In my opinion, paying money to avoid trouble is the easiest way."

Fang Yan patted him on the shoulder, his tone relaxed yet firm:

"Alright, didn't they say they wouldn't be here until next week? It's only Saturday today, there's plenty of time to deal with it. Just focus on filming, don't worry about the rest."

He glanced at Zhang Guorong and said, "You should also act well. Things will be handled properly."

Zhang Guorong was a little flattered, not expecting the big boss to give him a special word of advice.

He quickly nodded.

Then Fang Yan said goodbye to them.

Several people walked towards the Mercedes parked on the side of the street.

Le Miao asked in dialect:

"Are you planning to go to the newspaper, or somewhere else?"

He said in dialect:

"Go to Repulse Bay."

Upon hearing this, Le Miao suddenly realized and immediately asked:
"Are you planning to ask Mr. Huo to handle this?"

Fang Yan shook his head:
"No, go to No. 88 Repulse Bay."

“There’s an old man named Tang over there; his words should carry weight.”

Le Miao was somewhat surprised, having completely forgotten who this "old man surnamed Tang" actually was.

"Are there any big shots in Hong Kong with the surname Tang?" she asked.

He said in dialect:

“When you were working at Tongrentang, you met him. There was an old man named Duan who was treated for rheumatism who came with him.”

Le Miao slapped her forehead:
"Oh! I remember now, that old man Duan who had rheumatism, his comrade-in-arms was drinking at his house once, and then his seven incurable pulses appeared. You used the extraordinary heart-saving soup, and we stayed up all night together to save him." (See Chapter 218)
"Yes, you have a good memory!" Fang Yan nodded.

Le Miao suddenly realized, and asked again:

"Wait a minute, why is Grandpa Tang in Hong Kong?"

Fang Yan thought for a moment and gave her a seemingly plausible but ultimately ambiguous answer:
"Because his name is Tang Shengming."

"Hmm?" Le Miao tilted her head and muttered:

"That sounds...familiar."

The dialect reminded him:
"Tang Shengzhi's younger brother."

Le Miao suddenly realized:

"There's such a thing?"

Then asked:

"Has he settled in Hong Kong now?"

Dialect explanation:

"He came here to engage in various kinds of networking and stayed near Mr. Fok's house. He can talk to all sorts of people in Hong Kong."

At this moment, Wang Feng was already walking ahead, and he helped Fang Yan open the car door so that he could get in.

Then the three of them returned to the back seat.

After closing the car door, the car started and slowly drove away from Temple Street.

In the distance, Hui Ge, with a toothpick in his mouth, squatted in front of the herbal tea stall, watching the direction the Mercedes drove away, and suddenly spat on the ground.

The man with the rubber baton behind him rubbed the knife scar on his arm and grinned, "Brother Hui, this little boss is pretty savvy. He settled things with just three big bills."

Hui glanced at him sideways and tapped the bowl of cold tea with his fingertip:

"Get it right? Didn't you see the buttons on his suit cuffs? They're solid gold with enamel, worth at least half a Toyota Crown." He suddenly grinned, his gold teeth gleaming slyly in the sunlight. "This bastard is clearly playing dumb to fool others; he might actually have some connections."

“Who cares what their background is?” another henchman said, shaking his empty teacup. “We won’t get paid next week anyway, but we’ll still tear it apart. Last month, the White Paper Fan of Wo Shing Wo said that Temple Street needs a makeover.”

Hui-ge raised his hand and patted the back of his head:
"Screw you! That old fox Lin Jiang told us to keep an eye on things, saying there's some fat sheep..." He suddenly lowered his voice, "Didn't you guys notice? The bodyguard with that guy surnamed He isn't afraid of us at all, and he exudes a murderous aura."

The man with the rubber baton swallowed hard.
"Brother Hui, are we still going to collect protection money or not?"

"Stop!" Brother Hui stood up abruptly, the teacup clattering loudly on the wooden table.

"Why not accept it? If we don't, the brothers will be left to starve."

"But we need to find out about this guy surnamed He first. Go to Mong Kok and find the cripple there. He works as a clerk there. Check if this guy surnamed He is registered in Hong Kong."

PS: After finishing this chapter, I still owe everyone 90000 words.

That's all for today, please come early tomorrow.

Lao Feng is working hard to write tomorrow's code.

(End of this chapter)