Hong Kong variety show: The mastermind behind the scenes is emerging.

In the early winter of 1983, the night sky over Hong Kong Island was shrouded in a thick layer of leaden gray clouds, and the sea breeze from Victoria Harbour carried a bone-chilling cold as it blew across the well-arranged arcades of Tsim Sha Tsui.

Tsim Sha Tsui, the Ni family ancestral home.

This grand, Western-style mansion felt unusually solemn and oppressive that night. Many men in black suits, their expressions stern, stood around the compound, their hands always inside their pockets, vigilantly scrutinizing every intersection – for today was the monthly Ni family meeting.

Inside the living room, around a huge mahogany round table, all the core members of the Ni family were gathered.

At the head of the table, Ni Yongxiao adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, his refined face appearing somewhat gloomy in the dim light. To his left sat Ni Yongzhong, the eldest brother of the Ni family, a man of dull character, who was currently fiddling with his teacup with his head down; his second sister, Ni Yong'ai, looked worried, glancing out the window from time to time; and his fourth brother, Ni Yongyi, with a fiery temper, was gritting his teeth, making a series of harsh grinding sounds.

At the end of the round table sat Ni's third uncle and Luo Ji, the Ni family's leader, a man of few words.

The atmosphere at that moment was so heavy it was suffocating.

"That good-for-nothing William Madden has been kicked out of Wheelock by Lu Chen," Ni Yongyi broke the silence first, slamming his hand on the table, veins bulging on his forehead. "Not only him, but all our informants and logistics personnel within Wheelock have been wiped out by Jiahe's people. Now, not only are our shipping lines cut off, but our secret warehouses at the docks have also been seized."

Ni Yongai sighed, her voice tinged with helplessness: "Lu Chen is too ruthless. His acquisition of Wheelock was incredibly fast, giving us absolutely no chance to maneuver. Now that the cargo ship's mezzanine is gone, we can't transport those 'white goods' we got from South America into Hong Kong in large quantities."

It's important to understand that the Ni family's monthly procurement volume is in the hundreds of millions, which would be impossible without a stable transportation channel.

Six months ago, Ni Kun died suddenly. It was Ni Yongxiao who returned from the United States and single-handedly stabilized the crumbling Ni family. Not only did he subdue the four big bosses overnight, but the new shipping routes he opened up gave the Ni family hope of dominating the Hong Kong drug market. However, Lu Chen's takeover of Wheelock has directly cut off the Ni family's lifeline at its root.

"The problem now isn't just that we can't get the goods in," Uncle San exhaled a smoke ring, his eyes cloudy but shrewd. "Those small-time dealers are getting impatient. If we can't deliver the goods soon, they'll switch to other dealers. The share we've worked so hard to gain will be lost."

Ni Yongyi snorted and suggested, "Third Brother, if all else fails, we can go back to our old ways. First, we'll ship the South American goods to a few uninhabited islands on the high seas. I've already set up rendezvous points there. Then we'll deploy our 'Big Flyers' (smuggling speedboats) and, under cover of darkness, haul the goods back in smaller batches. Just like we did before, it's less efficient, but it's more flexible."

Ni Yongxiao slowly shook his head, his fingers tapping lightly on the table in a dull and regular rhythm.

"No, Ah Yi, you're underestimating the situation. After that idiot Customs Commissioner Thomas fell from power, the new commissioner is going all out to salvage the image of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and Customs in the public eye. The current enforcement efforts of Customs are the strongest they've been in the last decade. Those old smuggling routes are simply walking into a trap in front of the police's radar and the Coast Guard's speedboats."

"So we're just going to watch the Ni family's great situation go back to square one?" Ni Yongyi was somewhat unwilling.

"Let's all go home now. Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," Ni Yongxiao rubbed his tired nose and waved his hand. "Everyone's tired, go back and get some sleep. There are some things I need to think about some more. Third Uncle, please stay a moment."

The eldest brother, second sister, fourth brother and others exchanged glances. Although they were still filled with anxiety, they got up and left because of their trust in Ni Yongxiao.

A moment later, only Ni Yongxiao and his third uncle remained in the once noisy living room.

"Yongxiao, do you have some plan to keep me here so we can avoid people?" Uncle San asked in a low voice, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. After all, Ni Yongxiao had always been quick-witted, and in the past six months, he had managed the Ni family business to be thriving. He believed that the other party must have a way.

Ni Yongxiao didn't say anything. He got up and walked to the slightly bulky Hitachi color TV in the corner. He took out a videotape without any labels from his pocket and inserted it into the VCR.

"Third Uncle, read this first before you speak."

Ni Yongxiao pressed the play button, then retreated into the shadows, as if he had merged with the darkness.

The videotape has slightly rough image quality and a somewhat downward angle, indicating that it was filmed secretly.

The scene opens with a quiet café. A well-dressed woman with a somewhat obsessive look in her eyes sits by the window; she is Han Chen's wife, Mary. Opposite her sits a middle-aged man with a serious expression and deep-set eyes; he is Huang Zhicheng, a senior inspector in the police's anti-triad unit.

The two seemed to be arguing about something, and then the person recording the video kindly turned up the recording quality, making their conversation clearer.

The tape emitted a faint static sound, and Mary's slightly shrill voice echoed in the empty living room:

"...As long as Ni Kun lives, Han Chen will always be just a dog at his feet. I want him dead. Only when Ni Kun is dead can Han Chen take the top position. Then, I will help you control the security of the entire Tsim Sha Tsui."

Huang Zhicheng's slightly gloomy face flickered on the screen. He remained silent for a long time before slowly speaking: "Fine, Ni Kun's roots in Tsim Sha Tsui are too deep. As long as he's alive, the anti-drug unit will never be able to touch the core members of the Ni family. I've always wanted to get rid of him. I can use the police intelligence network to help you find the weak points in Ni Kun's defenses every time he goes out, and I can even divert patrol officers from the crime scene. But Mary, you must remember, what I want is peace in Tsim Sha Tsui, not another Ni Kun."

"I understand," Mary chuckled. "Once Ah Chen takes office, he'll listen to you and become a law-abiding 'legitimate businessman.'"

"……make a deal."

When the videotape reached this point, the image shook for a moment, then turned into meaningless static.

Ni Yongxiao pressed the stop button.

Dead silence.

A deathly silence fell over the living room.

Uncle San's face turned from red to white, then from white to green, and his hands gripping the sofa armrests trembled violently with extreme anger.

"This...how is this possible?" Uncle San's voice was almost squeezed out through clenched teeth. "Brother Kun treated Han Chen like his own son, and even thought about letting him take charge of part of the Southeast Asian operations in the future. How could this matter be related to him?! That bitch Mary...and that cop surnamed Huang! The murder case that caused such a stir in the city was actually a setup by them?"

He had assumed the murder of his father was committed by the Lian Sheng gang or people from Southeast Asia, never imagining that the traitor was right beside him. Han Chen, the always smiling man whom Ni Kun treated like a nephew, was actually the first dagger to stab the Ni family in the back.

"Yongxiao, where did you get this videotape?" Uncle San turned his head abruptly and asked anxiously.

Ni Yongxiao gave a bitter smile, a complex emotion he had never shown before flashing behind his glasses.

"That's what I find most puzzling," Ni Yongxiao said, pointing to the closed door in the living room. "This morning, this videotape just appeared out of nowhere on the coffee table in the living room. I checked all the security cameras in the house, and there's no record of anyone entering or leaving from last night until this morning."

Uncle San frowned deeply after hearing this. He was well aware of the security level of the Ni family villa; Luo Ji personally supervised it, and it was a place where even a mosquito had to register before it could get in.

If someone could break through the Ni family's layers of protection and place this tape in the Ni family's living room without alerting anyone...

This means that on Hong Kong Island, there is a mysterious and incomprehensibly powerful organization that can easily break through the Ni family's proud security system, moving around like a ghost right under their noses... and even wiping out their entire family.

"So, did they make any demands? Since they were able to get their hands on this kind of video, they must have something to ask for; after all, there's no such thing as a free lunch."

"No, Third Uncle, you're wrong," Ni Yongxiao walked to the window, looking at the dark sea, his tone turning extremely cold. "I guess the other side doesn't want to negotiate at all. They've just handed us the knife, wanting to watch us kill. Either they want to see the Ni family turn against each other, or they have a mortal feud with Han Chen and those three."

"So what do we do now?" Uncle San asked Ni Yongxiao for his opinion.

"First, we need to verify the authenticity of this videotape," Ni Yongxiao turned around, a ruthless glint in his eyes. "Find the best voiceprint experts, the most professional editors and videotape specialists, to verify the tape's authenticity. If it's fake, then this is a conspiracy. But if it's real..."

Ni Yongxiao paused, each word seemingly squeezed out from a crack in the ice, "Then I will kill every single one of my father's killers without exception. In the Ni family, family always comes first. Anyone who harms my father will have their entire family executed."

Uncle San nodded heavily, sensing the suppressed murderous aura emanating from Ni Yongxiao.

"Understood, I'll take care of it right away. But, Ah-Hsiao, there's still something I don't understand. Huang Zhicheng is a policeman, why would he trust Mary and Han Chen and cooperate with them? Are they undercover agents in the police force?"

Ni Yongxiao sneered, took a thick file folder from the drawer under the table, and threw it in front of his third uncle.

"Third Uncle, this is the information that came with the videotape. You'll understand once you've seen it."

Uncle San opened the file folder, inside were several old photos that had yellowed and a detailed biographical sketch.

The photo shows Huang Zhicheng, Han Chen, and Mary as teenagers. They are laughing happily by a dilapidated sports field.

"So...they were childhood friends," Uncle San understood. "Childhood sweethearts?"

"Huang Zhicheng is too naive." Ni Yongxiao sat in his swivel chair, his tone revealing a thorough mockery. "He thinks he can control Mary and Han Chen. He wants to use Han Chen's rise to power to implement his 'Public Security Administration Law' and make drugs disappear from Hong Kong Island. And Mary is even more naive. She thinks that if she kills my father, her man can rise to the top in one step."

"So these two self-righteous geniuses conspired to commit a murder they couldn't control at all."

……

Three days later, late at night.

A light drizzle was still falling from the sky as Uncle San braved the chill to return to the Ni family ancestral home.

His expression was more serious than it had been three days ago, and his eyes were bloodshot from staying up too late.

"Yongxiao, news has come back." As soon as Uncle San entered the room, he locked the door.

Ni Yongxiao was sitting behind his desk, writing neat, semi-cursive script. Without even looking up, he simply asked, "What did the experts say?"

"I consulted three experts with no connection whatsoever. One was a retired police officer who performed technical assessments for the police force, another was a top editor at a film company, and the third was a professor at a university specializing in compositing. Their cross-referencing conclusions were consistent—the videotape was the original, without any trace of editing or compositing. The audio frequencies within it perfectly matched those of Huang Zhicheng and Mary herself."

After finishing his sentence, Uncle San sat down on the sofa, feeling somewhat exhausted.

"Clang!"

The brush in Ni Yongxiao's hand snapped suddenly. Black ink splattered onto the white Xuan paper, like a blooming, deep ink plum blossom.

He slowly raised his head, his usually refined and gentle face now contorted with extreme rage. Behind his gold-rimmed glasses, his eyes blazed with a chilling, deathly light.

"So...it really was them."

Ni Yongxiao stood up, walked to the window, and turned his back to his third uncle. His voice was as cold as a butcher's knife just pulled from an ice cellar.

"Third Uncle, you know what to do. Remember, before killing Mary, you need to find out information about the gunman. You have to kill the person with the knife, but you can't let the knife go either."

"What about Huang Zhicheng?" Uncle San asked. "He is an inspector after all. If we touch him, the police will go crazy."

"Police?" Ni Yongxiao scoffed. "A cop who conspires with drug dealers to commit murder, is he even a cop? Find an opportunity to hand the videotape to the police, keep him busy with his own problems. Then, after the police have stripped him of his uniform, take care of him!"

"Understood," Uncle San nodded, then hesitated for a moment before asking, "What about Han Chen? Although he's Mary's man, he might not know about this. Besides, he's been very loyal for the past six months since Brother Kun died, working hard for us. If we touch him, the brothers below might lose heart."

Ni Yongxiao closed his eyes.

His mind conjured up Han Chen's usual honest, even somewhat comical, smiling face, and the image of Han Chen weeping bitterly before Ni Kunling.

One minute.

It was as long as a century.

When Ni Yongxiao reopened his eyes, there was no longer a trace of human emotion in them.

"Better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free."

Ni Yongxiao straightened his cuffs, his tone as calm as if he were dealing with a bad debt, "Whether Han Chen knew or not, in this world, only a dead Han Chen can give his father the best explanation."

"To cut the weeds, you must pull them out by the roots."

The wind blew through the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui once again.

Under the iron will of this "Boss Ni," a grand drama involving collusion between police and criminals, betrayal, and a bloody purge has been fully unveiled.