Hong Kong Storm: The King of Jobs

Chapter 433, Part 14: A Moment of Passion

A fleeting dream leaves no trace!
Actually, when Jasmine secretly took the clothes and ran away, Chi Mengli was already fully awake, but he chose to stay in bed since it was a rare opportunity for him to indulge himself.

Jasmine wasn't Chi Mengli's type; she wasn't his type at all. But under the influence of alcohol, he couldn't control himself. However, due to years of exercise, his leg muscles were strong and powerful.

Her voice is also quite good, a high-pitched soprano that it's disturbing the peace.

However, the Santiago Hotel where Chi Mengli stayed is the most luxurious hotel in Macau, with only 22 rooms and a room costing HK$300 per night.

The Santiago Hotel is where the gambling dens are located. The top floor is a private club that specializes in operating private gambling games. The bosses behind the gambling dens do not go to the Lisboa Hotel, but instead arrange the larger gambling games at the Santiago Hotel.

Lan Lai is the general manager of the Santiago Hotel. The board members are all Portuguese, and they have long been taken care of by the water company. After all, the annual water pumping from the top floor can reach three or four hundred million.

The older generation of Hongmen members in Hong Kong would avoid going to the Lisboa Hotel, for fear of getting bad luck.

After all, people in Hong Kong and Macau know that the unique birdcage design of the Lisboa Hotel is a feng shui arrangement that foretells that guests will be able to enter but not leave, and will lose all their money.

(The same goes for the golden tree at Wynn Palace; don't lean against it, or you'll lose all your money—the leaves will all fall off!)

Lan Lai gave Chi Mengli a lot of face and directly gave her a long private room, so no matter how loudly Jasmine shouted, the people outside couldn't hear her.

However, he couldn't continue sleeping, because tonight was a pre-arranged peace dinner.

Wen Laogui's son was framed and had his head blown off by the big boss. Ji Mi came to cause trouble for a week, and they fought more than ten rounds. Eight Fingers changed allegiances because of this incident.

Parting ways amicably is perfectly acceptable; as long as we don't ruin things, we can still be good brothers.

The fact that Dao Yousheng stepped in as a peacemaker means that the big boss had already reached a pretty good agreement with Xinji, and now it's just a matter of seeing how Wo Shing reacts.

Neither the first elder, Ding Guolong, nor the first white-paper fan, Guohua, nor the smiling tiger, Deng Bo, would give the big boss a way out.

The election for the head of the organization is held every two years. If you are not elected, you will make a fuss about transferring to another organization. If the older generation gives in, the younger generation will definitely follow suit.

But it's unclear whether Guolong will agree to a dual-headquarters arrangement, or anything like that.

Old Fu and Wo Hop To have both run two-man gangs. If Wo Luen Shing were to do the same, no other triads or gangs in the underworld would dare to complain.

Originally, this peace-making dinner should have been settled before the new year, but both Boss Yuan and Chi Mengli themselves had a lot of messy things to deal with and were not in the mood to do it.

Now that the New Year is over, and there's still more than a month until Lunar New Year's Eve, it's the perfect time to get this sorted out.

Chi Mengli picked up her cigarette pack from the bedside table and found a note on it.

Be a good person; heaven is watching!

That's insane!

Upon seeing the words on the note, Chi Mengli cursed inwardly, "Women are emotional creatures; once their emotions run high, they don't care about anything else."

If Teacher Li and his gang of seasoned veterans saw this note, they would immediately identify Jasmine and then eliminate her completely.

He picked up the Dupont lighter, lit the note, and then lit a cigarette.

After a night of absurdity, Chi Mengli released all the bullets that had been piling up for months, reducing the pressure on her body by more than half.

"Drip drip"

The pager in his shirt pocket went off. He got out of bed, a cigarette dangling from his lips, and started searching for the pager in his shirt pocket.

The black Motorola pager was ringing; it seemed that Guo Guohao's personal pager indicated an emergency.

The San Diego hotel is under Lan Lai's control, and everyone there is his man. There's no chance he might tamper with the landline. It's better to be safe than sorry. I'll call the paging service after I leave.

He stubbed out his cigarette, found an empty cup, poured in about half a cup of water, placed it on the handle of the long room, and then went into the bathroom to wash up.

After washing up thoroughly, Chi Mengli changed her clothes and carefully checked the three pagers on her body. Finding no signs of them being turned on, she was relieved.

He casually tossed the Dupont lighter into the trash can before taking out his keys and swaggering away.

Chi Mengli did not check out immediately, but went to the restaurant to have breakfast first. He ate fried eggs, sandwiches, and sausages. His stomach was already growling with hunger, and he finished the whole plate of breakfast in one go.

"Pay the bill!"

After wiping her mouth clean with a napkin, Chi Mengli raised her hand, asking the waiter to come and pay the bill.

The waiter quickly came over, bowed to Chi Mengli, and then said softly, "Mr. Chi, Mr. Lan instructed that you are a VIP, and all expenses will be charged to Mr. Lan's account."

"Thank you!" The meal is on the house, but the waiter's tip is not.

Chi Mengli took out her wallet, ordered the last blue crab, placed it on the plate in the waiter's hand, and got up to leave.

When he got to the front desk, he found Lan Lai waiting in the sofa area near the front desk, waving at him.

Seeing this, Chi Mengli walked over and thanked Lan Lai: "Brother Lai, thank you for your hospitality. When you arrive in Hong Kong, please let me know and give me a chance to prove myself." After saying this, she sat down on the sofa next to Lan Lai.

With a cigar in his mouth, Lan Lai opened the cigar box in front of him and said with a smile, "You're too kind. We're all disciples of the Water Room. Since you've come to my territory, I'll definitely treat you with the utmost hospitality."

"It's been a long time since a double-flower red stick has appeared in the series. I thought it would be Gao Laofa, but I didn't expect it to be Sheng Ge.

"Heroes have always emerged from among the young; we old horses should step down and give way to the more capable!"

"Try this. It's a premium Havana cigar that was just delivered this year. Nicotine is a good thing. When I was young, I used cigarettes to help when I couldn't handle it, but now that I'm older, the tar gets in my mouth, so I've switched to cigars."

Lan Lai took out a stick, looked at Chi Mengli, and waited for his answer.

"Cigars aren't my thing, I'll stick with Double Happiness cigarettes!"

"Brother Lai must have something to tell me, so he's waiting here for me. I'm all ears."

The lighter was already gone. Chi Mengli reached into the cigar box, picked up the blowtorch, lit the Double Happiness cigarette in her mouth, and told Lan Lai to just say what he had to say.

"I like people who speak quickly."

“I know you’re running a boxer’s bar, Sheng. That’s a good idea. But just doing it in Hong Kong would be too quiet. Macau has good feng shui too, with lots of gamblers who can place bets freely. I can handle the Portuguese.”

"We can just go straight into legal online gambling!"

“I just acquired a piece of land. Brother Sheng, you can build whatever extravagant buildings you want in Macau. If you need more funds, I can provide you with the revenue from the Mud Mall.”

"Old Ding spoils you so much, I guarantee he won't have any objections."

“Now there are more and more gamblers, and more and more big clients. I’m very happy that the big clients sit here 24 hours a day, but we can’t do it like this at the beginning.”

"Hey guys, take the big clients around the city, show them some sights, and ideally, catch a really exciting boxing match so they can place some bets and experience the allure of Las Vegas!"

Chi Mengli, smoking a cigarette, glanced at the wall clock and, realizing it was almost time, coughed and said softly, "If Brother Lai is interested, of course I welcome it."

"But this is something the two of us can't handle. But don't worry, the sports center in Haojiang will definitely be yours, Brother Lai. The big boat, VIP boxes, individual cards, and waiters will all be yours."

"But the admission fee, I talked to the boxing champion Sheng before, is 20 million per family, no bargaining, but if you want to watch the show, you have to add 5 million per year."

"I'm thinking now, should we build seven sports centers in Hong Kong, or just one? Seven centers would be too much of a commotion and would easily disperse the crowds. Should we build one in Hong Kong and one in Macau?"

“Once this multi-functional center is built, it will be extremely profitable. We can use it for concerts, sports competitions, and more.”

"Tickets, drinks, dancers, yachts, and so on are all ways we make money."

"Brother Lai, in the future, this might be more profitable than the three casinos you own."

Chi Mengli took the cigarette, which was almost finished smoking, from her mouth and put it in the ashtray. She then described her grand business empire to Lan Lai.

To be honest, even though Lan Lai knew that the handsome young man in front of him was all talk, he was still tempted. The three casinos were very profitable, but they were not legal businesses. As long as the police had evidence, they would freeze the cash flow of the three casinos.

He would need to contact his old connections, a lawyer, and give the Portuguese a large sum of money to get the money unfrozen. He might even need to apply for a loan from the Atlantic Bank with an interest rate as high as 20%, even though the casino never lacked cash!
Ho Yin, the "King of Macau," was the head of the Atlantic Bank. Eighty percent of the welfare institutions in Macau were established by Ho Yin using the profits he made from gambling halls.

Lan Lai had been to Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and even Monaco. He found that the development of Macau was too simplistic and deviated significantly from the development of the gambling city designed by the Americans and French.

In the eyes of the French and Americans, gambling cities are just a gimmick; they have already turned Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and Monaco into one big nightclub.

They even touted the slogan "Two-day Las Vegas without sleep," meaning tourists only need to stay in Las Vegas for two days, and within those 48 hours, everyone can play non-stop.

More than a dozen concerts, various song and dance shows, striptease shows, fireworks displays, as well as well-known boxing matches, sporting events, car races, shopping malls, and 24-hour restaurants.

These three major gambling cities have designed a perfect weekend getaway for you, during which the casino becomes the least important part.

The future development of Haojiang should follow the example of Las Vegas, building an airport and a subway, attracting tourists from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and creating a leisure and vacation center for three to seven days.

Of course, this wasn't suggested by Lan Lai, that roughneck; it was suggested by the young lady, who was his own niece.

Lan Lai also came from a prominent family. Ever since he became his sister's right-hand man, he started calling his sister "Second Madam" and his niece "Miss." He never changed his ways, whether in public or in private.

(End of this chapter)