Chapter 78 Departure
Tsim Sha Tsui Pier at night.

The wind blew across the dock, bringing with it the smell of salty sea water and the flickering sounds of faint lights from distant fishing boats. The dock was dotted with shadows of people, and the dock was brightly lit by hand-held torches.

Gui Touhua walked through more than 200 members of Heshengtang, approached Zhang Tianci and whispered, "Except for the people from the He group, all the other groups in Kowloon have sent people, about 400 people, and they will soon arrive at the dock."

Zhang Tianci nodded, touched the gun on his waist, put his hand down, and took the machete handed to him by Gui Touhua. Hou Rui had warned him not to shoot unless absolutely necessary in a large crowd, otherwise Zheng Wenjie might be involved in subsequent troubles.

The Hou brothers also held machetes, while Lin Liangchun had iron rings on both of his arms and wore leather gloves given by Zheng Wenjie.

Lin Bao had a tense face, holding an iron rod, and stood in front of everyone like a giant. Flames appeared not far away.

Gui Touhua swallowed his saliva, feeling a little scared, and asked Zhang Tianci in a low voice: "Brother Tianci, should we negotiate with them first?"

Zhang Tianci shook his head decisively, his tone firm: "No, we will break their legs this time. Master Zheng is not planning to deal with opium and brothels. Only by occupying the dock can we become stronger. This is also our chance."

"Don't be afraid. No matter how many people they have, they are no match for us."

Hou Jie's face was solemn. He tightened the cloth strap on his wrist to prevent the machete from falling off, and whispered to his brother beside him: "Follow me closely, don't lose me."

"Don't worry, we can't lose." Hou Rui was very calm, his eyes secretly glancing at the shadow cast by the firelight not far away where there was obviously no one.

Tang Xue's blue pupils indifferently swept over Hou Rui and others. She didn't care that she might be discovered by Hou Rui. Her special ability was to make people or objects hide their bodies, but it was easy to reveal flaws. Zheng Wenjie commented that this was a very useless special ability.

……

"Master, Miss, it's been resolved. Lin Bao and his men won." Tang Xue said to Zheng Wenjie and Gong Ruomei.

Zheng Wenjie responded softly, patted Gong Ruomei's hand on his shoulder, put the books in his hand on the table and asked, "How are they?"

"Except for Lin Bao and Zhang Tianci, everyone else was slightly injured but nothing serious. They will be fine after a few days of rest."

Zheng Wenjie nodded and stood up. He had waited until now because he wanted to know the situation as soon as possible. Now that there was no problem, he should go to rest: "Okay, let's go to bed. You should go to bed early too."

Tang Xue watched Zheng Wenjie hugging Gong Ruomei into the backyard and sighed helplessly in her heart. She also wanted to rest early, but Zheng Wenjie had to give her a chance.

Although Tang Xue was helpless, she followed the two into the backyard and returned to the side room. After a while, a familiar voice was heard from next door again. Tang Xue patted the quilt depressedly, covered her ears and closed her eyes.

In the morning, Zhao Lei specially hired a student from the University of Hong Kong, and asked him to compile all the building information he had collected and immediately come to the martial arts hall to report to Zheng Wenjie.

Zheng Wenjie took the booklet, flipped through two pages, and nodded with satisfaction. It sorted out all the information that could be found about many tenement buildings and houses. However, many of the tenement buildings and houses were built by local families, and they were basically rented out, so it was unlikely that they were sold.

The Hong Kong Island today is not like the later generations, where you can only buy whole buildings one by one. Even after buying them, it is difficult to resell them because there are still too few wealthy people in Hong Kong Island now, and it is easy to be stuck with a lot of money. The big guys who can build and buy buildings will not sell them easily.

Zheng Wenjie is not worried about these things. In a few years, a large number of wealthy people will come to Hong Kong. Once these properties are acquired, there will be no trouble selling them. As for not being able to buy them? It is also good to buy land from the government and build it yourself, which can also give Wo Shing Tong the opportunity to make money. It is a win-win situation.

Moreover, Zheng Wenjie did not plan to sell the whole building as he would make too little money. If he wanted to make big money, he had to break the rules. The reason why only single buildings can be sold now is because the British Hong Kong government does not care how many floors you build. As long as it does not exceed the prescribed height, you can build it as you like.

The foreigners only sell the land. If they sell the land to you, you are the owner, and they only ask you to pay money and taxes. What Zheng Wenjie needs to do is to learn from the later generations. Selling a floor or a room is enough to double or triple the capital.

Zheng Wenjie asked Tang Xue to pour Zhao Lei a cup of tea, and said to Zhao Lei with satisfaction: "Not bad, you put your heart into it. You have worked hard this month."

Zhao Lei smiled and said, "I will do my best to complete whatever Master Zheng has asked me to do, no matter how hard or tiring it is."

"Okay, you will also have a share in the company registration in the future. Now you need to do one more thing."

Zhao Lei nodded seriously. He never doubted Zheng Wenjie's generosity. Who could resist the temptation of 70,000 or 80,000 yuan and give it to these gunmen? He, Zhao Lei, couldn't do it.

Zheng Wenjie went to the backyard and took out the gold, the property that Gong Ruomei brought, and the money she had acquired in the past few years. The gold, banknotes, and jewelry were mixed together and placed in front of Zhao Lei. Zhao Lei swallowed his saliva and asked in confusion, "Master Zheng, what do you need me to do?"

After Zheng Wenjie explained the forced signature banknotes to Zhao Lei, he said, "To exchange all of these for forced signature banknotes, you will need to go to Macau, where you can buy a lot of forced signature banknotes at a low price at one time."

As he spoke, Zheng Wenjie turned his gaze to Tang Xue who was waiting beside him. Tang Xue stared at the treasures on the table without blinking, and Zheng Wenjie could clearly see her throat moving as she swallowed her saliva.

"Let Tang Xue go with you. It will protect your safety." Zheng Wenjie said.

Tang Xue kept her eyes still and said with difficulty: "No, I want to be with the young lady."

Should I protect Tang Xue, or should Tang Xue protect me? Is Mr. Zheng trying to bring us together? Zhao Lei thought about it and said with embarrassment: "Mr. Zheng, I can just ask Brother Bao to arrange a few people for me."

Since both of them refused, Zheng Wenjie nodded and agreed with Zhao Lei's idea. Even if Zhao Lei was caught in Macau, he could get the money back and avenge him.

Portugal is a neutral country and Macau was not affected by the war. The Japanese invaders bought many of their supplies in Macau. All kinds of people gathered in Macau, and Macau was also in a mess.

Zheng Wenjie patted Tang Xue's head and said, "Don't look at it anymore. You've already walked too far. It's not yours even if you look at it again."

Tang Xue asked with a painful and tangled face: "Master, what if the forced signature banknotes become waste paper? Wouldn't all that money be wasted forever?"

"If it's gone, it's gone." Zheng Wenjie said calmly, and then looked at Tang Xue seriously: "Don't just focus on yellow and white things. In one word, vulgar! Learn more from me. I am not interested in money at all."

Tang Xue looked at Zheng Wenjie strangely and asked curiously, "Master, didn't you just say that you predicted that the forced signature banknotes would be recognized by the bank, so you wanted to change all the money in the house into forced signature banknotes? Since you are not interested in the money, why did you let Zhao Lei change it?"

Zheng Wenjie sighed: "Although I am not interested in money, it is indeed inconvenient to have no money. Money is something you cannot bring with you when you are born and you cannot take with you when you die. But I cannot die, so naturally the more the better."

Tang Xue silently glanced at the bluestone floor and said speechlessly: "I'll go see if the young lady has finished cleaning up the herbs." After that, she went straight to the clinic.

Zheng Wenjie lamented that Tang Xue had a low level of awareness, and picked up the miscellaneous book that he had not finished reading last night and began to read it with relish.

Five days later, Pei Likang came to the door with a box. As soon as they met, he apologized: "Brother Zheng, I'm really sorry. It took a lot of time to get the money together."

Zheng Wenjie smiled gently and said, "It's okay, Brother Pei is too polite, please sit down, please sit down."

Pei Likang placed the cash box on the table and gestured, "Brother Zheng, please count it. One million Hong Kong dollars is exactly right."

Zheng Wenjie shook his head: "I believe in the credibility of the 72 trades, so there's no need to count them."

"Haha! Okay, Brother Zheng, write the IOU and repay the principal of one million in five years. This money will be yours."

Zheng Wenjie didn't waste time. He took the paper money and just wrote two words when he was interrupted by Pei Likang.
"Brother Zheng, to be honest, the reason why we have been slow in raising funds these days is that there have been some problems with our silk business. Brother Zheng, can you please specify on the loan note that the Gong family clinic and martial arts school will be used as collateral?" Pei Likang said sincerely.

Zheng Wenjie was slightly stunned, then nodded with a smile, picked up the pen and started writing. After he finished writing, he blew on it and handed it to Pei Likang.

After reading it, Pei Likang seemed relieved and said, "With this IOU, I can also borrow money from the 72 banks to relieve the pressure on the Silk Bank. I wonder when Brother Zheng can leave for Guangzhou."

Zheng Wenjie didn't think much about it: "There's no time to lose, anytime is fine."

Pei Likang was overjoyed and said quickly: "Then Brother Zheng, shall we set off now? We can solve this matter by noon tomorrow."

"Okay! Brother Pei, wait a moment."

Zheng Wenjie nodded in agreement, went to the backyard to give the cash box to Tang Xue for safekeeping, had a warm chat with Gong Ruomei and told her about this, then left the martial arts gym and got into Pei Likang's car.

(End of this chapter)