by Ian Hamilton
“He’s certainly part of the structure, but there are decisions that he isn’t consulted about or even informed about until long after the fact — if at all,” Liu said.
“And who is making these decisions?”
“Ah. That is something I can’t disclose. Not yet, anyway.”
“Wheels within wheels?”
“Exactly. Is your organization any different?”
Uncle hesitated and then said carefully, “Truthfully it isn’t, but when I give you my word, no one in my organization will ever overturn it or contradict it.”
“Let me assure you that my word is equally as binding.”
“Then in that case, I’ll tell you that I like your business plan.”
Liu leaned towards him. “One more thing I need to mention is that it will be my wife — and, from time to time, my aunt — who you will have to deal with on this project. Is that a problem?”
“Not at all, and I trust it won’t be a problem for them to deal with whoever I designate to represent our side on a day-to-day basis.”
“No. In fact, I wouldn’t have expected anything else,” Liu said, and smiled. “Does this mean we have an understanding?”
“It does.”
“Does that mean we have you as a partner?”
“I want to go over the numbers again, but if they make sense, I think you can assume you have a partner,” Uncle said.
( 14 )
September 1983
Shenzhen, Special Economic Zone, People’s Republic
of China
Every time Uncle walked out of the train station into Shenzhen he noticed something new. It didn’t matter if he hadn’t visited for several months or just a week; there was always something old being torn down or something new being built. Change was the constant in Shenzhen, a sleepy country town no longer, with a population pushing 200,000 and no end to its growth in sight. Liu Leji had told Uncle that the city would reach a million inhabitants before the end of the decade.
As usual, Fong was waiting for Uncle when he emerged from the station. Crossing the border wasn’t as arduous a trip as it had been before, since Uncle now had, in addition to his permit, a special pass issued by the Department of Customs and Immigration that gave him no-questions-asked rapid entry. Another customs department permit allowed Fong to park his car directly outside the station, in an area otherwise reserved for buses and taxis.
It was just after eleven a.m. and Uncle had already been up for more than five hours, after less than four hours’ sleep. The night before he’d gone to Happy Valley for the horse meeting and returned home just before midnight. The gang’s income from gambling had continued to decrease, but the revenue from Ming’s factories and their new warehouse operations made that no longer a serious concern. Thank god for Shenzhen, he thought as he waved at Fong, who was standing beside his car.
One of the downsides to the gang’s involvement in the SEZ was that Fong spent most of his time in Shenzhen, performing an on-site management role. Before their expansion into China, Fong and Uncle had seen each other virtually every day. Now, although they talked daily on the phone, they often didn’t get together for weeks at a time. Uncle missed the camaraderie. It was a loss he felt even more acutely with Xu, because his closest friend was now spending much of his time in Xiamen.
The Xiamen project had been harder to get off the ground than Shenzhen, but Xu’s efforts were starting to pay off. As positive as that was, it brought with it several problems that Uncle had put off resolving. Xu was still officially Fanling’s White Paper Fan, but because of his absences, nearly all of the job was being done by an assistant. The time was quickly approaching when Uncle would have to make a decision. Should he leave Xu in Xiamen and appoint a new White Paper Fan in Fanling, or should he bring back Xu and replace him in Xiamen? Xu had never voiced his preference, which made Uncle’s decision that much harder. He knew they would eventually have to talk, and it wasn’t an idea he relished. He didn’t want to lose Xu, but neither did he want to hold him back.
And then there was an even larger issue to consider. Xu had quietly established the first triad foothold in more than twenty years in a part of mainland China not attached to any foreign territory. For the sake of the broader triad society, Uncle believed the foothold had to be preserved and slowly expanded, and Xu was intelligent, thoughtful, and careful enough to do that. Xu’s dream of returning to Shanghai was still out of reach, however. There was a large difference between operating within the framework of the special economic zones and establishing a base in a city that didn’t offer any cover, but Xiamen was a start.
“Is everything okay, boss?” Fong asked as Uncle reached the car. “You look worried.”
“Our racing receipts were down again last night. Not by a lot, but the trend continues.”
“That goddamn Hong Kong Jockey Club.”
“You can’t blame them for running their business so efficiently. If we were in their position, we’d be operating the same way,” Uncle said as he got into the car.
“Do you think it might be time to open some betting shops in Shenzhen? The Jockey Club can’t compete with us here, can it.”
“No, it can’t, and that is something to consider, but we’d have to talk to our partners here before making a move like that.”
“Which partners, Peng or the Liu family?”
“Who do you think is best positioned to keep the police and the army off our backs?”
“The Lius.”
“I agree.”
“Do you want to raise the subject today?” Fong asked.
“No, it’s too soon. We need to think this through more carefully before bringing it up with the Lius,” Uncle said. “And, if we do decide to discuss it, I’ll go to Liu Leji first for a one-on-one chat.”
“Speaking of Liu Leji, did he tell you if he’d be joining us for lunch?”
“We spoke last night and he plans to be there.”
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen him.”
“He prefers to keep a low profile. And besides, he trusts his aunt and wife to conduct their side of the business.”
“They are capable, Ms. Gao — the aunt — especially. She’s all about facts and figures,” Fong said. “She keeps me on my toes.”
“That’s a good thing, yes?”
Fong nodded and glanced at his watch. “We should get going. I don’t want to be late. Being on time is another thing she’s fanatical about.”
A moment later Fong eased away from the curb and began to drive across the city to its northern outskirts. While the Liu family insisted on regular meetings, they were careful about where they met. The Pearl Boat restaurant was their most recent preference. Located on the ground floor of a new shopping mall far distant from Liu’s office, it afforded them privacy and served excellent dim sum.
“When did Ms. Gao arrive from Beijing?” Uncle asked.
“Yesterday morning. She and Meilin visited all the warehouses in the afternoon and early evening. I don’t know why she bothers doing that. I mean, we’re not going to tear one down while she’s not looking,” Fong said. Chen Meilin was Liu Leji’s wife.
“I imagine she just wants to make sure they’re being fully utilized.”
“Her nephew makes sure of that. We’re so busy at times that we have to turn customers away.”
“We’ll be building more warehouses soon.”
“How many?” Fong asked.
“That’s what we’ll decide at lunch. It all depends on how much money we want to take out of the business and how much we want to reinvest,” Uncle said. “Liu hinted last night that his aunt has her eye on a house in Hong Kong. It’s on Victoria Peak, so it won’t be cheap. If she wants to buy it with cash — which I would expect — and we take an equivalent amount, we might have enough left to put up two new warehouses.”
�
��Some of our customers have been asking about cold storage. Is there any chance we can build a warehouse with refrigeration?”
“It would be at least double what a standard warehouse costs.”
Fong left the city streets and turned onto a new highway that led north. They drove for about a kilometre before coming to a stop in heavy traffic. “So many goddamn trucks, and more and more cars every day,” Fong complained. “What’s crazy is that a lot of the people driving here don’t have a licence. They don’t think they need one or they just don’t care. Either way, they’re all over the road like drunken maniacs.”
They crawled forward for about ten minutes until they reached a police cruiser parked behind two badly damaged cars on the side of the highway. One of the cars seemed to have turned into the other. “See what I mean?” Fong said. “They don’t have a clue how to drive.”
“Relax. We don’t have to be at the restaurant until noon,” Uncle said.
A few minutes later the pace of traffic improved and Fong’s mood lightened. “Hey, boss, I was thinking of taking the weekend off. Do you think that would be okay? I could leave Ban in charge. He’s very responsible.”
“It should be fine. What will you do?”
“I’ll go to Macau. I haven’t been in a while.”
“Do me a favour. Don’t leave all your money with Stanley Ho,” Uncle said. Ho was the only person legally permitted to operate casinos in Macau.
“He has enough of it already. I thought I’d spread it around a bit this time. There are some new restaurants I want to try, and there’s a mama-san who enjoys my company and has been asking me to come stay with her.”
“Have you thought of paying a visit to Zhuhai? It’s right next to Macau.”
“Why would I go there?”
“I’m curious to hear first-hand what you think of Tse’s watch factory.”
“Those goddamn watches are making Tse’s gang a fortune. He can’t even come close to meeting demand.”
“I know that, but what I don’t know is why he hasn’t expanded production. Is it that the manufacturing process is too complicated, or is he having trouble getting permission from officials in the SEZ? Or does he simply not want to saturate the market?”
Fong pressed on the horn as he passed a truck that was weaving in and out of its lane. “I swear, even the truck drivers don’t have licences,” he muttered, and then turned to Uncle. “I’ll try to take a trip there. Maybe the mama-san will come with me. If she does, I’ll buy her a watch.”
“She’d want a fake Rolex?”
“Why not? Who’s to know its fake?”
“She will.”
“She’ll appreciate the thought,” Fong said.
“Enjoy your weekend in Macau.” Uncle laughed. “And don’t bother bringing me back any gifts.”
Fifteen minutes later, at ten to twelve, they reached the Pearl Boat. Fong parked directly in front. Uncle got out of the car and stood on the sidewalk, examining the neighbourhood. The restaurant was to the far right of a set of revolving doors that led into a two-storey mall. To its right was a line of shops, some of which weren’t occupied and had for lease or purchase signs in their windows. Across the street were four apartment buildings, identical in design and each about thirty storeys high. The buildings were mainly concrete and brick and looked dull and institutional. Uncle saw that cranes were still in place around them and trucks were parked beside them. “Those buildings don’t look occupied,” he said to Fong.
“That’s the way they do things here. They build them first and then worry about filling them. Eventually — in fact, probably sooner rather than later — they’ll all be filled and this mall and the stores will be doing a booming business.”
“How can they be sure about that?”
“I don’t know, but so far no one in Shenzhen has lost money by putting up an apartment block or building a mall on spec. Businesses and people just keep coming here. There seems to be an unlimited supply of both.”
“How did Ms. Gao find this place?” Uncle asked, pointing to the restaurant.
“I don’t know for certain, but I suspect she’s invested in it or the mall. So make sure you like the food.”
Fong opened a plate-glass door and stood to one side. Uncle walked past him into a restaurant that looked big enough to accommodate several hundred customers. But only a handful of its fifty or so tables were occupied, and those by what looked like construction workers on lunch break.
Fong approached a hostess. “We’re joining Ms. Gao. I believe she has reserved a private room,” he said.
The hostess, dressed in a tight-fitting blue cheongsam, nodded and said, “Yes. Ms. Gao has already arrived.”
Fong looked at his watch. “We’re early, but we still couldn’t get here before her.”
“I’ll take you to the room,” the hostess said.
Uncle had met Ms. Gao and Chen Meilin several times with Fong, always in Shenzhen, and the meetings had always focused on business. He had met Meilin more often, as she often accompanied her husband when he came to Hong Kong — trips that typically ended with Uncle buying them dinner in an expensive restaurant in Central. Despite his extra interactions with Meilin, Uncle couldn’t say that he knew either of the women very well.
Ms. Gao lived in Beijing with her husband, and she made no bones about how important he was — and, by extension, how special she was. Uncle wasn’t good at gauging a woman’s age, and Ms. Gao’s was particularly hard to pinpoint. Given that her husband was in his seventies, he thought she could be in her sixties, but she looked nowhere that old. She dressed as fashionably as any Hong Kong matron, was always impeccably groomed and made-up, and her skin seemed taut and unmarked by anything more than a few crow’s feet around her eyes and some lines at the sides of her mouth.
Fong was intimidated by Ms. Gao, partly because of her Beijing connections, but in truth, mainly by the way she treated him. Legally they were partners, but Ms. Gao spoke to Fong as if he were an employee, and a lowly employee at that. After the first time he experienced this attitude, Uncle pulled Fong aside and told him he didn’t have to put up with it. Fong just shrugged. “She’s married to Liu Huning and she’s old enough to be my mother. But even if I didn’t care about her connections or being respectful to my elders, she’s smart, she’s tough, and she knows more about doing business than I’ll ever know. She can be as rude to me as she wants, as long we keep making money.”
Uncle didn’t find Chen Meilin any more convivial. She was a tiny woman and quite reserved, but Uncle quickly learned that her physical size and apparent timidity weren’t any indication of her character. When she spoke, it was with an authority and conviction that only the most self-assured can muster. Her husband rarely argued with her when she made her pronouncements, and Uncle himself learned that disputing them would result in frosty silence.
But, their characters aside, the two women had good business minds and Uncle respected them. He didn’t know where their expertise came from and he had never bothered to ask. It was enough for him that they were competent and reliable partners — and, of course, married to two of the most powerful men in China and Shenzhen. In effect, the two women had created a protective shield over Uncle’s businesses that he could never have generated on his own. For that he was grateful. For that he was willing to smile and bow in their direction as he entered the private dining room in the rear of the Pearl Boat.
“Uncle, how are you? It’s always such a pleasure when you join us,” Ms. Gao said when she saw him.
He didn’t know why, but she seemed to like him. It wasn’t something he took for granted. “I promise you, the pleasure is as much mine,” he said.
The two women sat together facing the door. Uncle and Fong took chairs directly across from them. A pitcher of water and two teapots were in the middle of the round table, and five places had been set for lunch.
“Leji didn’t come with you?” Uncle asked.
“He had some last-minute business to take care of at the department,” Meilin said. “He should be here soon.”
“If you’re hungry we can start lunch now. I’m sure he won’t mind,” Ms. Gao said.
“No, I would prefer to wait for him, although we could discuss some business in the interim.”
Ms. Gao patted the file folder that lay in front of her. “Have you seen the final numbers from our last quarter?”
“I saw only some preliminary ones, and I have to say they were impressive. Has there been any dramatic change over the past two weeks?”
“Look for yourself,” Ms. Gao said as she passed stapled sets to Uncle, Fong, and Meilin.
Uncle read the first page, his index finger moving down the columns of numbers. Smiling, he turned to the next sheet. When he had finished all six pages, the smile had turned into a grin. “Record revenues and profits — this is even better than I expected.”
“And those numbers were achieved without opening a new warehouse,” she said.
“Did we raise our rates?” Uncle asked.
“No, although that is something we’re considering for the next quarter,” Ms. Gao said. “I think we have to attribute these outstanding numbers to good management.”
“Was there increased demand?”
“Yes, but the demand had to be accommodated. I thought we were operating at maximum capacity, but evidently we weren’t,” Ms. Gao said, and then lifted a teacup. “I believe thanks are in order for a job well done, to both Meilin and Fong.”
Uncle reached for the pitcher and poured water into his and Fong’s glasses. “Here’s to Meilin and Fong,” he said, raising his glass.
Meilin began to lift her teacup but then froze as her attention moved to someone entering the room. Uncle turned and saw Liu Leji standing in the doorway.
“What’s happened? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Meilin said to her husband.
Liu shook his head and pressed a hand against the door jamb as if he needed support. “Lau is dead and Peng has been arrested,” he said.