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

On a winter night in 1983, the cold wind from the Kwun Tong Bypass rushed into the van through the open windows, carrying away the nauseating smell of rust.

Although Luo Ji's expression remained unchanged, seemingly still that of a cold-blooded killer who never smiled, his hands were already tightly clenched on his knees due to excessive force.

Although he tried his best to keep his breathing steady, the moment A Lai pointed the silenced pistol at A Liang's head and pulled the trigger, Luo Ji felt as if his soul had been shattered with that muffled thud. For a fleeting moment, he truly believed he was going to die there. In his seven years as an undercover agent, he had rehearsed the consequences of his identity being exposed in countless nightmares, but even now, at this moment, he couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine.

But at this moment, besides lingering fear, he was filled with a huge sense of lingering doubt—he knew very well that the coordinates he sent to Lu Qichang were Sai Kung 14th Village, the pickup location that Ni Yongxiao had personally told him. But just now, Ah Lai clearly stated that the police were conducting a large-scale ambush at a different, fake coordinate: Lan Kok Tsui.

"Rotten Corner Tsui..." Luo Ji chewed on the name of the place in his mind. It was the most desolate corner of Tuen Mun. He couldn't understand why Lu Qichang would bring people there, but it was this unexpected twist of fate that made him pull back from the brink of death.

The van quickly drove back to the Ni family ancestral home in Tsim Sha Tsui. The number of police cars that were originally monitoring the area at the end of the street was indeed reduced as they rushed to provide support. The suffocating encirclement that had been hanging over the manor seemed to have loosened slightly because the police had "missed" the target that night.

After passing through the gloomy corridor, Luo Ji followed A Lai into the study.

Ni Yongxiao was sitting behind the large mahogany desk, swirling a glass of bourbon whiskey on the rocks in his hand. The sound of the ice hitting the glass was particularly crisp in the dead of night. He looked up at the two people who entered, his gaze lingering on Luo Ji's still icy face for three seconds before revealing an extremely rare, even somewhat intimate, smile.

"Ah Ji, you've worked hard tonight." Ni Yongxiao stood up, walked around the desk, and slowly walked to Luo Ji.

He reached out and patted Luo Ji's shoulder gently but firmly. The warmth of that hand made Luo Ji's muscles tense instinctively.

"I know you're upset about what happened to Ah Liang. But since he chose that path, he should have expected this outcome... You understand me; the Ni family is in a predicament right now, and we can't afford even the slightest mistake," Ni Yongxiao's voice was gentle, like an elder advising a younger generation, his eyes filled with expectation. "You did a great job; you didn't let me down. From now on, you'll need to put in a lot of effort in managing the remaining Ni family businesses. Remember to do your best."

"Yes, boss." Luo Ji lowered his head slightly, his voice hoarse yet steady, perfectly concealing the turmoil in his heart.

At this moment, Ni Yongxiao felt all the gloom gradually dissipating. Things seemed to have finally returned to the track he had anticipated: not only had he intercepted Lin Kun's batch of top-quality goods without spending a penny, relieving his immediate crisis, but he had also, through this life-or-death struggle, uncovered the "ghost" lurking within and incidentally tested the loyalty of the others.

What made him even more relieved was that he had received word that the police's "digital operation" seemed to be facing considerable controversy internally and wouldn't last much longer.

Ni Yongxiao believed that he was almost through the most difficult period. As long as he waited a little longer and distributed the goods through clandestine channels, the Ni family would be able to regain its footing in this devastating crackdown on organized crime.

……

However, on the other side of Hong Kong Island, in the dark, damp "Kwan Kee Electrical Appliances Store" in Central, filled with the smell of burning electronic parts, the atmosphere was as oppressive as a powder keg about to explode.

"Snap—!"

A piercingly loud shattering sound rang out.

Lin Kun, in a frenzy, grabbed a heavy wrench and slammed it down on the screen of the newly repaired Sony color television. Glass shards mixed with remnants of vacuum tubes flew everywhere, gleaming coldly in the dim light. Lin Kun's face, already sallow from diabetes, turned crimson with extreme rage, and he even experienced a sudden, severe dizziness due to the spike in blood pressure.

"Ni Yongxiao...I'll curse your mother!"

Lin Kun gasped for breath, his chest heaving violently. He never imagined that after scheming in the shadows for so long, and just when he thought he had it all figured out and was ready to welcome the new era and receive the goods, Ni Yongxiao would turn the tables on him.

That shipment represented his entire fortune accumulated over years of smuggling, drug trafficking, and even the connections he had painstakingly built and General Jinsha's trust. It was six full packages of top-tier No. 4 drugs, pure enough to control half of the Hong Kong market. Now, the goods were gone, all twenty-odd core elites he had brought to receive them were dead, and even Ah Hu, his loyal henchman of ten years, had been riddled with bullets and turned into a mangled mess.

If it weren't for Lin Kun's usual caution in not personally taking action tonight, he would probably be in hell by now. For a bookmaker like Lin Kun, who prides himself on being a high-IQ hunter, this is not only a huge financial loss, but also a devastating trampling on his dignity.

"Since you want to play the double agent, and since you've already guessed that I'm the one pulling the strings... then let's not hide anything, let's play it all out!"

Lin Kun rubbed his aching lower back and turned to look at the figures sitting in the shadows.

Those men in camouflage combat uniforms, their eyes gleaming with a primal desire to kill, were Shan State Army assassins sent by General Kinshah; they were the true war machines.

"I know you are General Jinsha's men, but now that the goods have gone wrong in Hong Kong, everyone has to take responsibility," Lin Kun said, looking at the Shan State Army squad leader with eyes as cold as a venomous snake. "Ni Yongxiao intercepted the goods, which means he has also intercepted the General's source of income. If you go back like this, you will also be punished later, so we have to make amends... Don't worry, I won't let you storm the Ni family villa, that would be suicide."

Lin Kun walked to the wall, lifted a red cloth covering a world map, and pressed his finger hard on a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean—Hawaii.

"Ni Yongxiao cares most about his family. According to the information I've gathered, he has already sent his eldest brother, second sister, and all those children to a private estate in Hawaii in batches. Captain Kabang, you take a team there and bring the entire Ni family under control."

Lin Kun turned around and said, enunciating each word clearly, "I'll trade the lives of everyone in the Ni family for my goods. If Ni Yongxiao doesn't give them to me, I'll wipe out the Ni family line!"

The Shan State Army squad leader, Kabang, slowly stood up and nodded silently.

As General Jinsha's sharpest henchmen, they were well aware of how much the general valued this shipment. If they couldn't successfully deal with the Ni family and seize control of the Hong Kong market, their fate upon returning home would be a hundred times worse than dying on the battlefield.

The seeds of murder, sown that night, traveled across half the globe via transoceanic phone calls and the cold muzzle of a gun.

……

The next morning, due to days of torrential rain, the air on Hong Kong Island was filled with a suffocating dampness.

Under the pretext of going to the Tsim Sha Tsui pier to inquire about the "police crackdown on triads," Luo Ji drove his black Mercedes alone, passing through the bustling morning tea crowd, and arrived at a secluded public phone booth at the Wan Chai pier.

He cautiously surveyed his surroundings, and only after confirming that there were no "eyes" of the Ni family did he take out a coin from his pocket and dial the number that was deeply engraved in his mind.

The moment the call connected, Luo Ji even felt his fingers trembling slightly.

"Inspector Lu, it's me." Luo Ji's voice was extremely low. "Last night... what exactly happened? I gave you the coordinates for Sai Kung, why were your men in Lan Kok Tsui?"

On the other end of the phone, Lu Qichang sounded unusually tired, and even carried a hint of lingering fear as he recalled the incident.

"Luo Ji, you should be glad I led the team to Lan Kok Tsui." Lu Qichang's voice trembled slightly as he lit a cigarette on the other end of the phone. "Before eight o'clock last night, I received a tip—you don't need to know the specific source. The other party told me that Lin Kun's real pickup location wasn't Sai Kung at all, but Kwun Tong. The other party reminded me that Ni Yongxiao was deliberately testing you; he had set up smokescreens in Sai Kung and Tuen Mun, specifically to catch the 'ghost' in your house."

Lu Qichang paused, his tone becoming extremely serious: "The intelligence came in very urgently at the time. Judging from the timeline, the police wouldn't have had enough time to get to Kwun Tong before the transaction ended—and neither Lin Kun nor Ni Yongxiao were on site. We didn't want to just catch a few scoundrels. So we chose to play along and went to Lan Kok Tsui in a big show, deliberately for the people Ni Yongxiao sent to monitor. I wanted him to think that the undercover agent's intelligence was for Lan Kok Tsui, not Sai Kung..."

Luo Ji leaned against the cold glass of the phone booth, listening to Lu Qichang's detailed recap of the police's tactical deployment and the contents of that mysterious intelligence from the previous night. His originally stiff body gradually relaxed.

Regardless, he survived and further gained Ni Yongxiao's trust.

The dial tone of the disconnected phone echoed in his ears. Luo Ji pushed open the door of the phone booth and stepped into the hazy morning mist. He knew that although the winter nights on Hong Kong Island were long, the true dawn was probably not far off.