Chapter 51: Beast
After finishing the meal, Brother Jun strolled back, planning to eat another meal at A Yue’s place.
When he arrived downstairs, he saw Shufen doing homework at the doorway.
It was already January, daytime temperatures barely reached 20 degrees, now only 12 or 13 degrees, yet Shufen was wearing a thin piece of clothes that looked very worn.
“It’s so cold, and you’re doing homework outside?” Brother Jun asked casually.
Shufen turned her head to look inside the room, then lowered her head to continue doing homework.
Brother Jun thought there might be a guest inside, but a sharp scolding voice came from the room: “Are you even human? You can’t bring back a single cent, you take the money from me getting fucked by others to gamble every day, and now you even want to sell your daughter?”
“You animal!”
“I’m doing this to make big money too… this is for her own good…” A man’s feeble voice sounded, followed by the noise of fighting.
Something seemed to have been knocked over.
“You crazy bitch! I’m doing this so you can live a good life!” The man’s voice kept ringing out.
Brother Jun was wondering whether to go in and take a look, after all, he knew Shufen’s family.
Before he could go in, he saw a man storming out angrily.
The man saw Shufen and seemed about to say something, but before he could open his mouth, Brother Jun stepped forward and slapped him across the face.
Smack!
The man was sent tumbling, dazed as he fell to the ground, clutching his face and looking up, only then recognizing it was Brother Jun.
He still remembered Brother Jun and was somewhat afraid of him.
“This is our family matter, none of your business.”
With that, he got up and ran off.
Brother Jun eyed him unkindly, wondering whether to follow and beat him some more.
“Don’t hit Daddy…” Shufen said softly.
“He’s angry, he’ll hit Mommy and me when he gets home!”
Brother Jun put his hands in his pockets and walked off unsteadily.
He thought if Shufen didn’t have that gambler dad, her life might be a bit better.
Then he thought of his own eldest son.
“Gamblers all deserve to die.”
Although Brother Jun had two gambling dens under him, he hated gamblers the most.
Those gamblers were no longer human.
Fortunately, he had someone break the eldest son’s legs to stop him from going out to gamble again.
Soon, Brother Jun put the matter aside.
The next evening, when Brother Jun came home for dinner, he saw several burly young men smoking at Shufen’s family doorway, with Shufen hugging her schoolbag and shrinking to the side, her eyes lifeless, her face streaked with black and white smudges.
Like an abandoned kitten, she looked pitiful.
There were also a few gossipy women from upstairs discussing something nearby.
“Who are you from?” Brother Jun spread his hand, then clenched it into a fist.
This was He Tu’s gesture.
“Our boss is Elephant, this area is our turf, who are you with?” One of the henchmen walked over and said.
“I live here! What are you doing here?” Brother Jun asked. He thought maybe, just like what he heard yesterday, Shufen’s gambler dad had sold her.
“This family has a gambler who beat his wife to death. We’re here to handle it!” the young man said.
“She died last night, it was only discovered this afternoon when a guest came, that’s when the gambler found out.”
Brother Jun was stunned for a moment, his gaze falling on Shufen in the corner.
“How are you planning to handle it?”
“If her wife’s family steps forward, it’s life for a life, hang him from the rooftop. If no one steps forward, just beat him up.” The young man handed Brother Jun a cigarette.
Brother Jun was silent for a moment.
He understood what they meant.
In the Walled City, this kind of thing never involved notifying the police; the two gangs handled order instead.
If the woman’s family had some influence and made a fuss, the gang would hang the man, life for a life, debt paid in blood.
But what influence could the family of a prostitute have?
So the end result would be just beating Shufen’s gambler dad.
“My surname is Chen, name’s Brother Jun, my big boss is Sha Jiu.” Brother Jun lit the cigarette, took a drag, and exhaled a puff of smoke.
“Sounds familiar.” The young man was puzzled at first, then suddenly remembered the person everyone had been talking about lately, and realization dawned:
“Oh, it’s you.”
“You know this family?”
“Yeah, I know them. Hand the person over to me, I’ll have someone beat him to death. What about the kid, how will you handle her?” Brother Jun casually decided the gambler’s fate.
The Walled City was so small, with high population density, ordinary people had close neighbor relationships—except for borrowing money.
He originally didn’t want to meddle in others’ family affairs, but now, keeping that gambler around might mean he’d sell Shufen someday.
Better to beat the gambler to death, then send Shufen to an orphanage.
“See if any relatives will take her in, or if neighbors are willing to chip in some money each household to raise her, if not, the gang will pay to raise her.”
Brother Jun nodded and took out his telephone to call Ah Fei: “Bring a few guys to Building 42 East Ming on Guangming Street.”
He said a few more words to the young man, then walked to the alley entrance nearby to wait.
After more than ten minutes, Ah Fei arrived with a few men, carrying weapons.
“Brother Jun, what’s up? Who pissed you off?”
“A gambler beat his wife to death, I know his family, take him to the rooftop and hang him.” Brother Jun said, leaning against the wall.
“Oh, it’s this. I thought we were chopping someone!” Ah Fei realized.
This kind of thing happened every month in the Walled City, and it wasn’t the first time Ah Fei and them had handled it.
It was just not on Sha Jiu’s turf this time.
“But Brother Jun, this is Elephant’s turf, not our jurisdiction.”
“I’ve said hello to Elephant’s people. That gambler has no one to stand up for him, they’ll give this bit of face.”
“This guy’s an animal, his wife prostituting to earn money wasn’t enough, he even wanted to sell his daughter.” Brother Jun said.
“That bad? Definitely not human! I’ve seen plenty of scum, but few as scummy as him! Don’t worry Brother Jun, leave this to me!” Ah Fei immediately patted his chest.
“I, Ah Fei, despise this kind of scum the most.”
“You guys handle it, I’m going home for dinner.” Brother Jun gave the instructions, pointed out the location, and strolled home.
Back home, the meal was already set on the table, just waiting for him to eat.
Huang Meizhen said pityingly while eating at the dinner table:
“Shufen’s got a hard life, she wasn’t living well before, at least she had a mom to look after her, now she doesn’t even have a mom!”
“Her gambler dad doesn’t care if she lives or dies.”
“You pity her, just adopt her.” Brother Jun interjected from the side.
“How to raise her? Can’t even feed you three!” Chen Hanliang glared at Brother Jun, then grumbled:
“If she had no dad, each household chipping in tens of bucks a month would raise her. But she has a dad, who else gets a say?”
Brother Jun thought to himself, she won’t have a dad soon.
As this thought crossed his mind, noise came from outside, faint voices drifting in:
“Let me go, it wasn’t on purpose! I still have a daughter, she’s got only me as dad!”
“Sounds like Shufen’s gambler dad’s voice, I’ll go look.” Huang Meizhen immediately set down her chopsticks and cracked the door to peek out.
She saw Shufen’s gambler dad, face full of panic, being dragged upstairs by several men, begging nonstop along the way.
Moments later she closed the door, gossiping in a low voice: “They dragged Shufen’s gambler dad upstairs.”
“Better break his hands!” Chen Hanliang said loudly, clearly for Chen Wuhong in the room to hear.
“Breaking his hands won’t help, Shufen still has to take care of her gambler dad.” Huang Meizhen sat back at the table, sighing pityingly for Shufen again.
Such a young child, stuck with that kind of dad, never enjoyed a day of fortune.
Shufen’s mom had a hard life too.
……
After dinner, Brother Jun went downstairs and saw several gossipy women craning their necks downstairs, gossiping about what would happen to Shufen’s dad.
Shufen was still huddled there, eyes lifeless.
Elephant’s henchmen had all left; since someone took over, they could relax.
Brother Jun thought for a moment, then turned and went to Long Jin Street, entering the convenience store.
Two boxes of lollipops were on the counter.
Brother Jun glanced over; there were only two kinds of lollipops, one a cheap off-brand made in a Walled City workshop, 0.5 yuan each.
The other was Treasure Pearl, one yuan each.
He’d robbed some from others at school before, and they tasted pretty good.
“Give me five Treasure Pearl.”
He pocketed the lollipops and walked back to Shufen.
Shufen was after all just a second-grade kid, now sitting there like a fool, dazed and not noticing anyone in front of her.
Brother Jun patted her head: “From now on you’ll have only yourself to rely on, if you don’t want to be bullied, you gotta be ruthless.”
With that, he stuffed several lollipops into her hands.
Shufen then looked up at him with lifeless eyes, tears streaming down.
Brother Jun stepped aside; soon Ah Fei and his men dragged Shufen’s dad down, and the gossipy women gasped when they saw his state.
“Is this guy dead?”
“Life for a life, that’s the Walled City’s rule!” Ah Fei shouted.
“Besides, he’s an animal who even wanted to sell his own daughter to gamble!”
“He deserved to die!”
Brother Jun watched for a moment from the side, then turned and left, going to A Yue’s to eat, though now his belly was full of anger, he wanted to eat A Yue more.
Regarding vigilante justice, some readers may object.
Every place has its own order, and people to enforce that order.
In the early days of Kowloon Walled City, it was all vigilante justice; police never went in, reporting to police meant inviting government power into the Walled City, a betrayal of its autonomy.
Forget gangs, even residents wouldn’t agree; whoever reported would become the target of all.
Not to mention such no man’s land, two or three decades ago southern clans also had lots of vigilante justice.
Many who’ve lived long in modern peaceful society forget not everywhere is ruled by law.
The Walled City in the book is the same; it’s no man’s land to begin with, no police station, cops don’t come in, full of illegal immigrants and fugitive criminals—who would report?
Whoever reports becomes the target, no need for gangs to say anything, they’d be done in.
And without clear orders or massing large forces, police wouldn’t come in either.
In this environment, gangs maintain order and carry out vigilante justice—it’s inevitable.
And gangs don’t harass ordinary people.
That’s the foundation for this unspoken set of running rules.
As for why gangs are so powerful yet don’t collect taxes… isn’t protection fee just tax?
Walled City shops and factories don’t pay water and electricity fees or business taxes, but protection fee is the tax.
This is a whole set of rules.
