Hong Kong film: Rise of Prison Break

Apliu Street, late at night.

Unlike the bustling eateries of Temple Street, the noise here carries the cold scent of electronic components and metal.

On both sides of the narrow street, most of the densely packed stalls had already closed, and the roller shutters were tightly shut. Only a few appliance repair shops or general stores that did business at night still had their lights on, and the lights were dim and economical.

The air was filled with the scent of pine, the burnt smell of old circuit boards, and a faint smell of rust.

The signboard of "Wenji Electronics Grocery Store" was already off. The slightly overweight shop owner, Tan Jianwen, who wore thick glasses, was yawning and struggling to pull down the heavy roller shutter, making a "clattering" noise.

Just as the iron gate was about to close, a hand with distinct knuckles, steady and strong, suddenly reached in from below and stopped the falling gate.

"It's closed. Please come early tomorrow..." Tan Jianwen was very sleepy and extremely impatiently brushed him off. He continued to exert force, but found that the gate did not budge.

"You're not going to make money even if you have the chance? Giant Sculpture, when did you hook up with a rich woman? How dare you talk like that?" A familiar, mocking voice came from below.

Tan Jianwen abruptly stopped pulling the switch.

This nickname... hasn't been used in a long time.

He lowered his head in suspicion.

The roller shutter was steadily lifted up a bit by that hand, and a gray baseball cap came into view first, followed by the clearly defined jawline under the brim.

When the other person slightly raised their head, revealing their entire face, Tan Jianwen's eyes behind his glasses widened instantly, all sleepiness vanished, replaced by incredulous astonishment.

"You..." His throat went dry, and he almost shouted out the words "prison break".

Zhang Wenjie assaulted a police officer and was sentenced to a heavy prison term; the news media certainly capitalized on this.

It's hard not to know him, someone who spends all day holed up in the shop with electrical parts and passes the time watching TV news.

When he saw that familiar yet unfamiliar face on TV, he thought it was a hallucination.

"Come in!"

Tan Jianwen reacted quickly, glancing rapidly at the empty street before yanking the roller shutter up high enough to pull Zhang Wenjie inside.

Then, with an agility disproportionate to his size, he pulled the iron gate down and locked it completely with a "whoosh".

The shop was suddenly isolated from the outside world, with only a small lamp on the worktable emitting a dim yellow glow.

"My God! Brother Jie! Please don't come here after your prison break! I have an eighty-year-old mother to support, and children to raise..."

Tan Jianwen lowered his voice, almost crying, his face full of resistance.

Putting aside that meager old friendship, he really didn't want to see Zhang Wenjie.

Aside from the fact that this guy was a little bit more handsome than him (Tan Jianwen firmly believed this), the main reason was that Zhang Wenjie had a "plague god" constitution in his impression; whoever got involved with him was doomed.

"Really? You won't even take money delivered to your door?"

Zhang Wenjie didn't care. He simply took out the stack of HK$10,000 he had "taken" from Boss B from his pocket and slammed it onto the workbench, which was covered in parts and dust.

The brand-new thousand-yuan bills gleamed alluringly under the dim light.

"There's no reason to turn away such blazing cash, is there?"

Tan Jianwen's gaze was uncontrollably drawn to the stack of banknotes, and his Adam's apple bobbed.

My mind was in turmoil, and my resistance wavered in the face of the "it's actually so good" phenomenon.

"...This will not happen again!"

He finally reached out and grabbed the money quickly, skillfully ran his fingers over the edge to feel the texture of the paper, and then looked at the watermark under the light to confirm that it was a genuine bill before swiftly stuffing it into his pocket in one smooth motion.

"What does Brother Jie need? We have everything except illegal stuff!"

He rubbed his hands together, forcing a businessman's smile, but the wariness in his eyes hadn't completely disappeared.

Zhang Wenjie admired this about him; what he said and what he thought were always opposites.

He glanced at the old calendar hanging on the wall, with some proverbs printed next to today's lunar date.

"Good rain knows its season, but it will wet your shoes if you walk." Zhang Wenjie looked at the calendar and recited the corresponding code.

Upon hearing this, Tan Jianwen's expression completely changed.

The initial arrogance and panic quickly subsided, his eyes became focused and cautious, and his entire demeanor instantly transformed from that of a small grocer into that of a calm underground broker.

"I wonder what gadgets Brother Jie needs? We have almost everything except 'hot pineapples' (slang for hand grenades/explosives)."

"Do I look like someone who can afford those high-end toys?" Zhang Wenjie chuckled. Even if he had the money, he wouldn't go through a middleman of this caliber to buy unreliable weapons.

Tan Jianwen gave an awkward laugh.

"I need two miniature recording devices, the smallest, most concealed, and with decent image quality. Also, a 'Black Star' pistol with two basic loads of ammunition."

Zhang Wenjie stopped beating around the bush and stated his needs directly.

Time was of the essence; he had to get the item as soon as possible.

Tan Jianwen did not answer immediately, his fingers tapping lightly on the oil-stained workbench as he pondered.

"As for the price..."

Miniature devices aren't too difficult to find; the market in Apliu Street is rife with problems, so you can always find or modify them. The quality depends on the source and the price.

But "Black Star" is a different story; its risks and value are different.

That's enough. Greed is the stumbling block to a successful middleman.

Zhang Wenjie took out another ten thousand Hong Kong dollars and placed it in the same spot where the ten thousand had been before.

Upon seeing the second stack of banknotes, Tan Jianwen's face immediately broke into a fawning smile; his expression changed faster than turning the pages of a book.

"Brother Jie, please have a seat! Have a cup of tea first!"

He deftly pulled out a fairly clean folding chair, poured a cup of lukewarm strong tea from a thermos, and placed it in front of Zhang Wenjie.

"We're on the same side, so we can talk things out!"

He sat down himself, picked up an old-fashioned rotary telephone from the worktable, and dialed a number.

After the call connected, he didn't get straight to the point. Instead, he used a coded language mixed with electronic jargon and secret codes to chat with the other end for about five minutes.

He would occasionally glance at Zhang Wenjie.

After hanging up the phone, Tan Jianwen breathed a sigh of relief, took out his cigarettes and handed one to him: "Brother Jie, that's enough. My men will be here soon. Have a smoke first; I doubt we'll have another chance to see each other again..."

Some things don't need to be said outright.

Tan Jianwen didn't want to know who Zhang Wenjie was trying to get rid of after escaping from prison. Instead, he took a huge risk to buy these things from him.

The more you know, the faster you die.

The best outcome is when the money and goods are settled in full.

Deep down, he even hoped that Zhang Wenjie would disappear quickly and never come back.

Zhang Wenjie took the cigarette, lit it with the light Tan Jianwen offered, and took a puff. The pungent smell of the cheap tobacco filled his lungs.

Through the wisps of smoke, he glanced at Tan Jianwen, who had managed to conceal his gossipy nature quite well, and a faint, enigmatic smile appeared on his lips.

"Who knows what might happen tomorrow?"

His voice was soft, yet it sent a chill down Tan Jianwen's spine for no apparent reason, as if he could see a huge shadow slowly swimming and approaching beneath the calm surface of the water.