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

As night fell the next day, Ah Lai finally finished all the tedious wrap-up work and prepared to go home to rest.

Ah Lai does not live in the Ni family's house; he has his own house outside.

Although Ni Yongxiao was shrewd and calculating, he never mistreated his loyal followers. As Ni Yongxiao's personal driver and most trusted confidant, Ah Lai's compensation was always very generous. He now lived in a high-rise apartment in Central, a place with an excellent location and extremely luxurious interior decoration, a dream place that countless gangsters might never be able to touch the doorknob of in their entire lives.

Alai wearily pushed open the door, the thick carpet swallowing his footsteps. He casually locked the gunpowder-smelling pistol in the safe in the entryway, then took off his suit jacket, which was covered in the fishy smell of the sea breeze.

Despite his wealth, Ah Lai had a habit—he never hired a Filipino maid, and he disliked strangers entering his private areas. This might be due to his killer instincts, or it might be because of the ancient superstitions deeply ingrained in him, passed down from his grandparents' generation. He always felt that having outsiders in the house would bring in some kind of unclean atmosphere.

He went into the kitchen and took out a serving of glutinous rice with preserved meat that he had bought earlier from a tea restaurant. He was lost in thought as the microwave beeped. He had killed quite a few people in the past two days, and the image of the seawater stained red with blood at Kwun Tong beach always flashed through his mind when he closed his eyes. He shook his head vigorously, trying to shake off this unpleasant image.

"Murderers and arsonists live in luxury, while those who repair bridges and roads are left without a trace," Ah Lai muttered to himself, a motto he believed in.

However, he was unaware that while he was staring blankly at the microwave turntable, this apartment had already become someone else's hunting ground.

The glutinous rice was heated up, its aroma filling the air. Alai sat at the empty dining table, picked up a piece of glistening cured meat, and put it in his mouth. The salty and savory flavor exploded in his mouth instantly, but then, a strange aftertaste with a faint bitterness lingered on the back of his tongue.

A-Lai frowned, thinking it was his imagination, and ate two more bites. Still feeling the taste was off, he threw the food away and decided to drink some beer instead. However, as he sat on the sofa watching TV and drinking Blue Beauty beer, he suddenly felt a violent, churning pain in his abdomen, as if a red-hot iron hand was tearing at his intestines.

"Damn it... Didn't you clean the food?"

Alai instinctively tried to get up to get the emetic, but to his horror, he discovered that his limbs had completely lost sensation in that instant. The ceiling in front of him began to spin wildly, and dazzling double images exploded like a kaleidoscope.

Darkness engulfed him completely, like a tidal wave. In the last second before he completely lost consciousness, he vaguely heard the sounds of cattle and horses.

Once Alai had completely collapsed, the door was quietly pushed open.

Five masked men filed in, their movements swift and their coordination impeccable. The leader was burly, his eyes gleaming with a liveliness that even the mask couldn't conceal.

"Done, the dosage is just right, the dazed state won't hurt your brain."

"Stop talking nonsense and hurry up and carry him. Ka-Kui is waiting over there."

Several masked men worked together to lift Ah Laina's heavy body and carry it downstairs like a heavy bag of cargo. The Kwun Tong Bypass was still bustling in the night, but no one noticed that an ordinary-looking truck was carrying Ni Yongxiao's top confidant, heading towards a carefully disguised "destination".

Back in the car, everyone took off their masks, revealing five faces that were highly recognizable in the underworld of Hong Kong Island—the Five Lucky Stars.

"Oh dear, Ah Lai usually seems quite capable, how come he couldn't even tell that there was a drug in his glutinous rice?" Luo Han Guo wiped the sweat from his face and looked at Ah Lai, who was slumped in the back seat, with some disdain.

"What do you know? That's a super-powered version of Dashengdi's secret 'Smiling Half-Step Stun.' Even if he's very vigilant, that smell is just rotten; no one will notice it. Even a god couldn't guard against it." Partridge held the steering wheel, her tone light but her expression focused. "We received a big gift from Chen Jiaju this time. If we mess things up, those Mazdas will be gone."

The car sped along, eventually crossing a desolate meadow and stopping in front of an old ATV studio on the edge of Saigon.

The film set had just been renovated and was not yet in use when Golden Harvest Security and Chan Ka-kui transformed it overnight into a visually striking location.

This is Chen Jiaju's plan—"Judgment by the King of Hell".

Chen Jiaju knew very well that people like Ah Lai couldn't be pried open by conventional torture. These desperados were prepared to be beaten to death by the police from the day they decided to follow Ni Yongxiao.

But Alai has one fatal weakness—extreme superstition.

Ah Lai's grandfather was a feng shui master in the countryside, and his grandmother was a devout believer. Ah Lai grew up listening to stories of karma and retribution, and the eighteen levels of hell. Later, he became a ruthless killer. Perhaps out of guilt or a guilty conscience, he became even more devout, insisting on going to Sik Sik Yuen every month to draw lots. His home even had a Medicine Buddha statue that was constantly incense burning.

If you tell him "confess and you'll be treated leniently," he'll laugh at your naivety; but if you do it another way, if you make him believe that he's already dead and is being judged by Yama, his psychological defenses will collapse like a sandcastle.

……

Inside the photography studio at this moment.

Due to the temporary use of a large number of dry ice machines, red and green filter lights, and professional props borrowed from various film crews, the entire space was filled with an eerie and chilling mist.

Luo Han Guo was sitting on a rock covered in rust and fake bloodstains, his face completely disfigured. Chen Jiaju, meanwhile, sat in the shadows nearby, monitoring the progress through a walkie-talkie.

"Ka-Kui, my heart is pounding. Will this trick really work?" Luo Han Guo wiped the thick powder off his face. "If this kid wakes up and finds out it's all an act, we'll be in big trouble."

"Don't worry," Chen Jiaju said, using a slingshot to "fly out" from the shadows. He was also made up, looking like a sickly man who hadn't seen the sun for years. "We not only have the environment, but we'll also give him an injection of a special hallucinogen. This drug will put his brain into a semi-conscious state, causing his trust in his external senses to skyrocket, while his logical analysis ability will drop to zero. After that, anything you say or do will be subconsciously accepted and believed by him."

Chan Ka-kui glanced at his watch. "Time's up. Proceed as planned. My darlings, whether we can afford a new car tonight depends entirely on your acting skills."

With everything ready, everyone quickly took their positions. Several technicians in white coats stepped forward and gave the unconscious Alai two injections. One was a potent wake-up agent, and the other was a high dose of hallucinogen.

A few minutes later, Alai slowly woke up.

His brain felt like it was filled with lead, too heavy to think. His eyelids felt like they weighed a ton, and he struggled to open them a crack.

The first thing that caught his eye wasn't the ceiling of his luxurious apartment, but a void shrouded in a dark red mist. Heart-wrenching wails echoed all around, the low-frequency vibrations of countless extras synchronized with sound effects equipment. A pungent smell of sulfur filled the air.

"Where...where am I?"

Alai tried to struggle, but found that his limbs were locked to a cold stone pillar by heavy iron chains.

"Awake? Dong Laifu."

A voice, devoid of any emotion and seemingly emanating from the depths of an icy abyss, exploded in his ears.

Alai suddenly turned his head, his pupils contracted sharply, and he was so frightened that he almost fainted again.

Two tall figures stood beside him. The one on the left had a huge bull's head covered in dried blood (played by Rhino Hide); the one on the right was a ferocious horse face (played by Da Shengdi). The horse face sneered, the steel fork in its hand gleaming eerily in the red light.

"Don't waste your energy, Dong Laifu." Horse-face (Da Shengdi) said in a sinister tone, "Once this soul-snatching rope is fastened, no matter how much wealth or how many tricks you have in the mortal world, you will not be able to break free."

"Ox-Head... Horse-Face?" Ah Lai's voice trembled like a withered leaf in the wind. "I... I was eating at home, wasn't I? How did I get here?"

"Dong Laifu, your lifespan is over," the ox-headed (rhinoceros hide) sneered, the realistic fishy smell (due to the dead fish stuffed in the prop) hitting A Laifu's face directly. "Come with us, King Yama has been waiting for you for a long time."

Ah Lai was thus taken off the stone pillar by two "underworld generals" and dragged like a dead dog across the ground covered with dry ice mist.

Along the way, he witnessed scenes that terrified him.

A group of blood-stained, mutilated "little devils" surrounded a huge cauldron of boiling, dark red liquid, which sizzled and bubbled. A "ghost messenger" covered in green hair was wielding a barbed whip, lashing a prisoner who kept begging for mercy.

The combined visual and auditory oppression, under the influence of hallucinogens, made Alai completely believe that he had stepped into the legendary eighteen levels of hell.

"Your Majesty, the sinful spirit Dong Laifu has been brought here!"

With a sharp shout from Niu Tou, A Lai was slammed heavily onto a tall table.

Due to the angle, Alai could only look up. Behind that enormous table sat a figure as burly as a small mountain. The man wore a flat-topped crown, had a full face of thick black beard, and his already fleshy face appeared both imposing and tyrannical under the special effects makeup.

It was Partridge that played the role of Yama.

To his left, a judge (played by Ginseng Huaqi) dressed in a red official robe and holding a book of life and death stares at Ah Lai with the look of someone scrutinizing the dead.

"Dong Laifu, do you know your crime?" The voice of the King of Hell (Partridge) was amplified by the loudspeaker, making it sound like muffled thunder.

Ah Lai, consumed by extreme fear, had lost all basic logical thinking. He knelt on the ground, trembling uncontrollably: "Your Majesty... I... I'm innocent! I'm just a driver, I haven't done anything terribly wrong!"

"Injustice?" The judge (American Ginseng) let out an extremely grating sneer as he pretended to open the Book of Life and Death, which was filled with secrets.

"Dong Laifu, born in 1952, with ancestral roots in Guangdong. On the surface, you've been the Ni family's driver, but behind the scenes, you've been Ni Yongxiao's killing machine. Let me ask you: Did you personally handle the truck driver in Tsim Sha Tsui who leaked the Ni family's secrets and disappeared six months ago? Did you shoot and kill Gandhi and Wen Zheng? Did you clear the area beforehand for Uncle San to bury those people? And… last night at the Kwun Tong beach, those people who died because of double-crossing, weren't you the one who gave the order to fire?"

With each crime the judge mentioned, Ah Lai's body convulsed violently. These were his most secret details, details that even Ni Yongxiao might not remember, yet the judge knew them all. Could it be that he had been exposed to some kind of karmic mirror, able to see both his past and present lives clearly?

Little did Ah Lai know that these were all "death warrants" that Chen Jiaju had painstakingly pieced together through the intelligence networks of the police intelligence department and the winery.

"Dong Laifu, since your sins are so grave, how dare you cry out for justice here?" Yama slammed his gavel.

"when--!"

That deafening roar shattered Ah Lai's soul.

"Your Majesty, spare me! Your Majesty, spare me!" Alai kowtowed frantically, his forehead slamming against the hard floor with a dull thud. "I had no choice! I was forced by the Ni family! I was just trying to make a living! I... I chant Buddhist prayers at home every day, and I donate incense money to the temple every month! Please, for the sake of my devout faith, spare me this time!"

"Donate money?"

The judge (Ginseng) slammed his hand on the table, his voice filled with a fury that transcended life and death. "Dong Laifu, you are utterly foolish! This underworld is a place of justice and righteousness. Who cares about your blood-stained money? Your donation was to avert disaster, driven by selfish greed. It not only fails to atone for your sins but actually exacerbates them!"

At this moment, Yama (Partridge Vegetable) slowly spoke, and the lines she had memorized for a long time flowed out:

"Everyone knows to pray to gods and Buddhas, but they don't know that 'there are gods three feet above your head.' Look at the altar of good and evil, where cause and effect turn. You amass wealth through violence and pave your way with blood, thinking that hiding in the shadows will keep you hidden? Your so-called piety is nothing but a fig leaf to cover your inner fear. The gates of hell are open to self-righteous villains like you. Before this hall of hell, greed is the heaviest shackle. Since you crave power, you must traverse every level of these eighteen hells."

"Your Majesty, it just so happens that his 'old friend' is also here. Why don't we let them catch up?" Ginseng suggested in a sinister tone.

Partridge waved her hand.

Suddenly, the massive stone wall behind the desk lit up (actually a high-definition rear projection). The image showed a man, his face contorted in agony and covered in blood, chained to a red-hot iron pillar. Large chunks of his skin were peeling off due to extreme pain. Next, Han Chen appeared on a mountain of knives, forced to climb, his body slashed and bleeding profusely. Then, the scene shifted, and he was struggling in a cauldron of boiling oil, unable to live or die…

Ah Lai stared intently at the screen, making gurgling sounds from his throat due to extreme fear.

That's Han Chen.

Unexpectedly, Han Chen suffered such torture in hell after his death.

Actually, these were all made using special effects models from the film set. ATV was going to shoot a ghost movie, and all these props were readily available and were detailed and realistic enough.

Just then, Han Chen, played by Luo Hanguo, with tragic makeup and a specially made mechanism that made him appear to be only his upper body, slowly crawled out of the smoke amidst mournful background music.

His eyes were unfocused, his hands gripped A-Lai's ankles tightly, and his voice was hoarse and desolate:

"Ah Lai... I'm so miserable... That bastard Ni Yongxiao killed me and didn't even leave me a cenotaph... I'm so lonely down there, I'm going to write a big 'misery' on your leg..."

"Ah—! Brother Chen! Don't look for me! I didn't kill you! It was Uncle San who did it!" Ah Lai trembled with fear, snot and tears streaming down his face, desperately trying to kick away those cold hands. "I can't read! I really can't read! Even if you wrote it, I wouldn't understand! Don't look for me!"

Luo Han Guo, who was putting on a great show, suddenly froze, and the American ginseng and other lucky stars next to him were also stunned.

No one expected that Ni Yongxiao's top assassin would be able to utter such a hilarious remark at this critical juncture. Chen Jiaju almost burst out laughing in the shadows.

"Ahem! Ahem!" Ginseng, acting as the judge, quickly coughed twice to break the awkward silence. "You audacious sinner, how dare you spout nonsense here! Take him away!"

The ghost messengers quickly dragged the monk fruit away, which was secretly laughing.

"Dong Laifu, every sinner who comes here will be stubborn, but sophistry is useless. I will convince you. Summon the witness!" Ginseng read again.

Next up was Chan Ka-kui, who had changed into a different outfit.

Compared to Han Chen's miserable state, Chen Jiaju's attire appeared extremely "respectable." He wore a magnificent white robe, resembling that of an ancient scholar or imperial guard, and held a white bone folding fan in his hand. Although his face was still sickly pale, his eyes were as cold and clear as a lonely moon.

Although Chan Ka-kui is still unable to walk, he can be "flyed" over using a wire.

Ah Lai looked at Chen Jiaju, as if he had been struck by lightning.

"Commander Chen...?"

"Dong Laifu, I still vividly remember that rocky hillside that night," Chen Jiaju stared intently at A-Lai, his voice carrying an otherworldly coldness. "How did the soil taste that night? When you were filling it in shovel by shovel, did you ever think that I was waiting for you down there?"

Chen Jiaju's words were like daggers to the heart, causing Alai to completely break down.

"Your Majesty, this man murdered a police officer to prove his Dao, and then murdered him for money. Although I have a job in the underworld, I will not be at peace until I avenge this grudge." Chen Jiaju bowed slightly to Yama.

"Granted!"

Partridge Vegetable slammed the gavel again. "Judge, calculate the sentence!"

Hua Qican swiftly manipulated the abacus, the crisp clanging sound like a funeral bell to Alai: "Your Majesty, Han Chen was also a villain in life, but compared to Dong Laifu, he still possessed a sliver of humanity, so he was lightly sentenced to one hundred years in the hell of knives, one hundred years in the hell of fire, and one hundred years in the hell of boiling oil. Dong Laifu, however, not only committed double the sins, but also murdered the righteous Chen Jiaju, violating the law, thus his crime is aggravated. He should be sentenced to… double the sentence! Each level starts at two hundred years!"

"Help! I don't want to be thrown into the oil pan! I really know I was wrong!" Ah Lai was so scared that he almost wet his pants. The mental stress caused by the hallucinogen had reached a breaking point.

But Ox-Head and Horse-Face won't listen to your pleas; they'll just come up and drag Dong Laifu away.

Just then.

"Uh... Your Majesty, it seems there's a problem."

Hua Qishen's voice suddenly became hesitant. He kept flipping through the Book of Life and Death in his hand, which was almost worn out from being read so many times, with a strange expression.

Partridge's burly body abruptly sat upright, turning to face the judge, his voice low and menacing: "What is it? How could something go wrong in this very hall?"

Ginseng glanced at Yama, then at Alai, and muttered, "Yes...yes, I was just looking through Dong Laifu's Book of Life and Death and discovered that the day he died of natural causes doesn't seem to be tonight. There are actually several years of lifespan recorded after that..."

As he spoke, cold sweat streamed down his forehead. "In other words... he actually hadn't reached the end of his lifespan, and the soul-reaper made a mistake."

Upon hearing this, Partridge's upper body was shrouded in a dark and eerie shadow, and she remained silent for a long time. The temperature in the studio seemed to drop to freezing point in that instant.

"His lifespan hasn't ended? Then why was there a mistake?"

"Your Majesty... this person went into deep shock due to eating expired food, but will recover smoothly within half a day thanks to timely medical intervention. The ghost officer responsible for checking the records may have been old and blind, and misread the words... Your Majesty, what should we do?"

Alai knelt below the altar, his expression experiencing the most extreme ups and downs of his life in that single minute.

Before the terror had completely subsided, an almost ecstatic hope surged uncontrollably deep within his eyes. But he dared not move, much less laugh before the King of Hell. He feared that the underworld would compound his mistake and send him straight to hell.

He was like a prisoner awaiting judgment, staring intently at the King of Hell (a figure associated with death).

"King Yama, should we release this person back to life?" Ginseng asked tentatively.

Partridge turned around again, staring intently at A-Lai, remaining silent for a long time. That silence was even heavier than the gavel from before.

Ah Lai could no longer hold back. He frantically kowtowed to the ground, each impact accompanied by a muffled thud.

"I beg King Yama to allow me to return to the living world! I beg King Yama to have mercy!"

"I, Dong Laifu, swear to the heavens that if I were to come back to life, I would definitely retire from my life of crime, do good deeds, and make amends for my mistakes! I beg Your Majesty to grant me a way out!"

……

"when--!"

The gavel sounded again.

"That's enough. Considering that his lifespan hasn't ended and he has shown a sliver of remorse, he's allowed to return to the world of the living. When he dies peacefully, we'll retrieve his soul. If he dares to commit evil again, he'll be implicated and punished for all eternity!"

"Thank you, King Yama! Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Ah Lai's joy was almost bursting out of his head. He kept kowtowing to the void until his consciousness became hazy again, and the thick anesthetic gas silently covered his mouth and nose.

In his dazed state, he heard that majestic voice echoing deep within his soul:

"If you don't want to die in a worse state than Han Chen, then cherish the opportunity to live."

……

Three o'clock in the morning.

Central Apartments.

The rain outside the window had stopped sometime ago, and only the cool morning breeze was blowing through the white curtains.

Alai suddenly opened his eyes, breathing heavily. He found himself lying on his own sofa, the television screen long since filled with meaningless static, and the glutinous rice with preserved meat on the table completely cold, the grease solidified into a thin, grayish-white film.

The lights were on, and everything was exactly the same as before I fell into a coma.

"Is it a dream? Is it really a dream?"

Alai wiped the cold sweat from his face; his heart was still pounding from the extreme fear he had just experienced. He stood up, his legs feeling weak, and wanted to go to the bathroom to wash his face.

However, the moment he stepped into the bathroom mirror, he froze on the spot.

He could clearly see in the mirror a bright red ring around his neck, with even tiny bruises—the marks left by the "Soul-Hooking Lock."

Just as he stared wide-eyed in fear, two illusory figures, a bull and a horse, flashed by in the reflection of the mirror at the end of the dimly lit corridor.

A chilling voice echoed in his mind:

"I'll be waiting for you in hell."

"ah--!"

Ah Lai let out a scream and rushed back to the bedroom, his hands trembling as he pulled out the spare phone hidden under his pillow.

His sanity had completely collapsed. He would rather go to jail, rather eat curry rice at the police station, than experience that icy despair again after death.

First, they called an ambulance to pump his stomach, and then Ah Lai dialed a number he knew by heart.

The call was answered quickly.

"Inspector Lin... I... I'm Dong Laifu," Laifu's voice was hoarse to the extreme, carrying a deep tremor from the depths of his soul, "I want to be a witness... I'll tell you everything about Ni Yongxiao's ledgers and the coordinates of the warehouse..."

The moment he hung up the phone, Ah Lai collapsed to the ground. Meanwhile, in the surveillance vehicle downstairs, Chen Jiaju watched everything through a hidden camera and smiled with relief.

"The acting skills of these lucky stars... are indeed quite good."