Hong Kong: Rise of the Kings

Tuen Mun, New Territories, is about 40 kilometers away from Shek Kip Mei, Kowloon. Now that he has opened his joints and is going to Kowloon as a plainclothes, Du Yongxiao has no reason to stay in the New Territories.

Carrying luggage, Du Yongxiao first took a rickshaw for 1.5 yuan, and then took a tram for 2 yuan. After almost three hours, he finally arrived at the famous Shek Kip Mei.

Shek Kip Mei is currently known as one of the three slums in Hong Kong, the other two are Shek Tong Zui and Diao Ning Ling.

Strolling along the streets of Shek Kip Mei with luggage, all you can see are low-rise wooden houses and iron houses with mottled air leaks, which are in stark contrast to the eight H-shaped public housing estates not far away.

In fact, these eight H-shaped public housing estates were built because of a fire.

That was the fire that happened on the night of December 24, 1952. It was the eve of Jesus' birthday, a night of carnival for some people. Shortly after nine o'clock, a fire broke out in the Shek Kip Mei hut area. Although under irrigation, the ruthless fire continued to burn until the next afternoon, after the wooden houses in the six villages in that area were completely burned to ashes, and then it was not extinguished. More than 100,000 victims were caused overnight, and 50,000 of them were made homeless.

The situation was critical. In order to resettle the victims, the British Hong Kong government decided to build 7-storey H-shaped buildings in the Shi Kip Mei disaster area. By the end of 1954, 8 H-shaped buildings were finally completed, becoming the first generation of public housing estates.

Du Yongxiao's home is better, at least he lives in these public housing estates, which is simply "paradise" compared to the dilapidated wooden and iron houses in front of him.

"Give way! Please make way!" A rickshaw carrying a cheongsam girl in stockings with long legs ran past Du Yongxiao.

"Moo!" A cow blew, and an uncle led a big yellow cow by the side.

A naked child was defecating by the side of the road, with a stone in his hand, his little face tensed, and he would scrape his ass with the stone after defecating.

"Twist, hemp flower!"

"Xi Rong, delicious Xi Rong!"

Next to the child are various street vendors, shouting for business.

The appearance of Du Yongxiao temporarily stopped the yelling around him, and everyone turned to look at him with different expressions.

Du Yongxiao knew what they were thinking without having to guess. In this day and age, the speed of word of mouth is faster than the speed of his post.

After Du Yongxiao left his sight, everyone whispered to each other: "I heard that this poor boy has changed his career to work in plain clothes?"

"Yeah, look at his attire, it's already very attractive without being developed!"

"I'm so envious, that crazy woman has such a good son!"

"Don't let Sister Lian hear this, and be careful to kill you with a knife!"

When he came to the public housing estate, Du Yongxiao went up to the seventh floor. Many women wore Tang suits and trousers, and stepped on clogs, squatting at the door of the house to cook, holding big cattail fans, cooking soup and porridge with briquettes, and cooking smoke, mixed with radishes The smell of soup, and the taste of thin rice soup.

The children ran up and down the corridor on bamboo poles, and some naughty ones even climbed onto the railing and slid down. When they saw Du Yongxiao, they stuck out their tongues at him and shouted, "You guys catch the thief!"

Before Du Yongxiao got to the door of the house, he heard a noise: "Sister Lian, your family is going to be prosperous this time! Ah Xiao has become a plainclothes policeman, and you can follow the popular and spicy food in the future!"

"That's right, Sister Lian, from now on we'll need your Xiao Xiao to cover you up! You must accept these eggs!"

A group of men and women blocked the door of Du Yongxiao's house, carrying various gifts in their hands, chickens, ducks, salted fish, and a basket of eggs, and flattered the Du family.

Du Yongxiao's mother, Li Cuilian, is 35 years old this year. She was a famous beauty when she was young. She was known as "a flower in Chaozhou". .

Just now Li Cuilian was wearing a water skirt and was cutting vegetables with a kitchen knife in her hand. Suddenly, so many gift-giving neighbors came, which made her confused. After inquiring, she found out that it was her son Du Yongxiao who made plain clothes.

The plainclothes of this era are amazing, it is said that they are like the Jinyiwei in ancient times, soaring into the sky.

At this moment Li Cuilian was grinning from ear to ear, but she was unwilling to accept those gifts.

Du Yongxiao's father, Du Dapao, poked his head behind his wife, and pulled his wife from time to time: "Take it! Everyone expresses your kindness!"

"Take it and let you exchange it for money before you go to gamble? It's a good idea!" Li Cuilian turned her head and scolded her husband.

Du Dapao immediately retracted his neck and retreated.

"Sorry, I can't accept these gifts!" Li Cuilian waved the kitchen knife carelessly, "I don't know whether our Xiao Xiao has a job or not. I don't dare to accept so many gifts from everyone! Take a step back, Even if Ah Xiao is really employed, I can't accept these gifts! The reason is simple, we are all neighbors, we should help when we encounter problems, as for this gift or something, it's too merciless!"

Li Cuilian's "loyalty" speech made everyone at the scene greatly admired.

"Sister Lian is still righteous!"

"Yeah, much better than her husband, he only knows how to gamble!"

Du Dapao coughed, "You just give gifts when you give them, why mention me?!"

"Sister Lian, you don't need to accept their presents, but you must accept mine!" An old man stood up holding a bundle of sugarcane, and at the same time stood up another man in a floral Tang skirt, stepping on the ground. Clogs, a girl with big black braids.

The girl was sixteen or seventeen years old, with willow brows and big eyes, and her pupils were lively, and she was quite pretty.

"Ah Shuibo, what do you mean by that?"

"What I mean is very clear. Our Ali and your Ah Xiao are childhood sweethearts. Last time Ah Xiao saved our Ali on the road, otherwise Ali would have been ruined by that drunk! So, Ali I have long made up my mind not to marry anyone who is not your Xiao Xiao!" Ah Shuibo, who usually sells sugar cane on the street, spit and expressed his enthusiasm.

Li Cuilian was stunned: "Why haven't I heard of it?"

"Of course you don't know about the children! Anyway, I brought Ali here this time just to ask you to give me an answer. If possible, I will settle their marriage today!"

Li Cuilian was taken aback again, she didn't expect a good thing to happen, a daughter-in-law fell from the sky.

"Ah Li, what do you mean?" Li Cuilian asked A Li more thoughtfully.

A Li played with her big braid hanging on her chest, she didn't even dare to look at Li Cuilian, she lowered her head and said shyly, "I listen to Dad!"

"Look, the kids say they want to listen to me!" A Shuibo opened his mouth, showing his teeth yellowed by smoke, "Hey, if you have no objections, please take this bundle of sugar cane first, and make sure it's juicy and juicy. Sweet! Even if it's a little favor from us, Ali, we can make a marriage agreement——I didn't ask for it because you, Xiao, are plainclothes, the main reason is that I don't want to break up the young couple!"

"Uh, this——" Li Cuilian was a little tempted. After all, this is Shek Kip Mei, and many bachelors can't get wives. Besides, Ali is good-looking, with a big butt, so she is guaranteed to have a boy.

Just when Li Cuilian was about to say yes, there was another commotion in the crowd.

"Get out of the way, fuck me out of the way!"

"We Yiqun do things, we are afraid of death!"

Three big men squeezed in from outside the crowd, all of them were hulking and full of flesh.

When everyone saw it, they immediately hid aside.

Ah Shuibo jumped like a monkey, and he didn't even want the sugarcane he was holding, and threw it directly on the ground.

The three of them are subordinates of "Jin Yagui", the boss of the righteous group, and Jin Yagui is the famous "High Ligui".

As for the money that Du Yongxiao borrowed before, it was his.