Big and Small Red Bean

"Boss, that guy's coming over!" Hong Jinbao was earnestly working on a piece of meat when his underling suddenly tapped him. He hurriedly wiped his mouth and turned, and saw Chen Qi striding straight at him. A man of the streets cannot afford to lose face, so he stepped forward a few paces to meet him. "Mr. Hong!" Chen Qi stuck out his hand before he even got close, incredibly warm, as though his sniping in the newspapers had never happened at all. "I've wanted to have a chat with you for ages. Only today did I finally get the chance to run into you." "I've long heard of Mr. Chen too. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no interest in chatting with you." "Don't be so absolute about it. There are some things I'm sure you'd be interested in." "Could it be that talk you gave on stage about advancing into Europe and America? I know exactly how much I weigh. I have no such ambitions. Excuse me." Hong Jinbao wanted no dealings with him. He twisted his bulk around to go, when from behind him came an unhurried line: "Cinema City beat you that badly. Don't you want to wipe them out?" His steps halted, and he turned back. "What do you mean by that?" "I want to wipe out Cinema City too. Let's discuss it together." Chen Qi held out a business card pinched between two fingers, and Hong Jinbao instinctively took a step back. A Life-and-Death Talisman?! "No need to be nervous. I'm inviting you privately—you and Jackie Chan. Let the three of us have a chat." He stuffed the card into the other man's hand and walked off smiling. Hong Jinbao hesitated, then put the card away after all. Loathe him though he might, the local Hong Kong filmmakers did have a clear sense of Chen Qi's ability and his eye. He had talked so much in the newspapers, and to this day no one had ever proven him wrong. He had no mood to stay either. He slipped away and went back to find Jackie Chan. …… Jackie Chan was reading a script called Mini Special Agents, directed by Zhu Yanping, one of the few directors in Taiwan who could make commercial films. His representative work was the Wulongyuan series. Generally, when a Hong Kong star made a Taiwanese film, it was either politics—some military-education films were acted entirely by Hong Kong stars—or it was the underworld. You couldn't refuse, so you had to go and shoot. Hong Jinbao suddenly came over. As eldest senior brother of the Seven Little Fortunes, he had debuted earliest and led his junior brothers to make a living. Jackie Chan had followed him in his early days too. They competed with each other, but the affection between them had always been there. "I just went to the Hong Kong Film Awards. Look at me in this—those reporters' flashes were like bombs. Who knows how they'll spin me in print tomorrow." Hong Jinbao said a few words about the ceremony, then changed tack. "I met Chen Qi. That guy from the mainland!" He set the card on the table. "He wants to have a private chat with us, says he wants to take down Cinema City. What do you think?" Jackie Chan was taken aback. He had wanted a chance to meet the man anyway—wasn't this a coincidence? But he hesitated too. "This guy does things in a strange way. Should we tell Raymond Chow, so he can get ready?" "Sure. Have Raymond Chow find us a safe place, otherwise we won't even know when the reporters take our picture." Chen Qi's way of doing things had gradually spread through Hong Kong. They knew they weren't good people themselves, but this guy was even more annoying. ………… At the Arts Centre. By ten that night, everyone had drifted off one after another. The reporters were in high spirits. Today's material was plentiful, enough to pad out a week of news. Shu Kei and Chen Baisheng were fairly pleased too; the result had far exceeded expectations. The one sour note was having a government official hand out the awards. "Bye!" "I'll take them home first. See you tomorrow!" Chen Qi stuck his head out of the Honda Accord, waved a hand to Liu Dehua and Liang Jiahui, and drove off in high spirits, leaving the two of them to miserably flag down a cab and split the fare. The Honda Accord ran through Hong Kong's night streets, brightly lit, packed with people. Nightclubs were everywhere, a few luxury cars parked outside each door, and now and then a gorgeous dancing girl came out with a man on her arm... Xiao Geng drove, Xiao Mo in the front passenger seat. In the back: Zhong Chuhong, Qiu Shuzhen, and Chen Qi—that was the seating. With outsiders present, Xiao Mo was somewhat tactful. "That was a big show today, everyone in suits. Isn't that a bit extravagant?" "This emperor owns no more than eight sets of regular clothes for all four seasons. Where is the extravagance?" Chen Qi knew he meant wasteful excess, bourgeois decay. He laughed. "This is necessary packaging. It serves a purpose. To make your mark in Hong Kong, you have to use Hong Kong's ways. Do you still not trust my position?" "……" Xiao Mo glanced at the Big and Small Red Bean in the rearview mirror and grunted. Chen Qi was perfectly composed. I'm an upright man—what do I have to fear? He asked, "Ah Zhen, what do you want to eat?" "There's a new stall up ahead selling fish ball noodles. I want to try it." "Then fish ball noodles it is." They were there before long. The Honda Accord pulled over at the curb. It was a husband-and-wife stall, a pushcart with a few tables and chairs set up at the intersection. Chen Qi looked it over; there was only one dish, fish ball noodles, so he said, "Five portions, please!" He sat at one table with the Big and Small Red Bean. For all his grumbling, Xiao Mo was eager enough when it came to eating, and took a table with Xiao Geng. The first bowl came, and Chen Qi pushed it to Qiu Shuzhen. The girl wolfed it down without ceremony, praising it between mouthfuls. Seeing this, Zhong Chuhong laughed. "You really dote on Ah Zhen." "She calls me master, and once you're someone's teacher, you're a father to them for life... Oh, boss, four portions to go!" Chen Qi called out, then explained, "There are a lot of kids in her family. She's the fifth, with two younger ones below her." "Seven kids? There are four in my family. I have two younger sisters and a younger brother." "So you had it rough as the eldest sister?" Qiu Shuzhen asked. "It's all right. I don't know how to cook, so I can't really look after them. My main job is fighting for them—anyone who bullies them, I beat them up!" Zhong Chuhong flexed her biceps. Just then the fish ball noodles arrived. She took a bite and found common ground with Qiu Shuzhen again. "Wow, these noodles are so good!" "Right? Right? I picked the place, didn't I?" The two of them feasted. Zhong Chuhong paid no attention at all to the fact that she was wearing an evening gown, slurping away happily. The dress was a little tight, and her figure was full, so sitting on the long bench it cinched into a shapely curve across her rear. "Ah Zhen has a bit of a talent for eating, she just eats and eats without growing, still this tiny," Chen Qi said. "I'm only fourteen. I can still grow taller." "Not necessarily. By the time I was in my teens my height had already settled. I'm five foot five now (about 165 cm)." Zhong Chuhong offered her own case, and Qiu Shuzhen grew worried. Chen Qi consoled her. "Five foot five is plenty. How tall do you want to be? Do you remember Zhu Yin, who trained with you? She's the really short one." "I remember Yin-yin. And that little delinquent too!" Qiu Shuzhen suddenly thought of her sworn enemy—Yuan Jieying. She hadn't seen her for ages, and the feud was still one to the death. Zhong Chuhong didn't understand, so Chen Qi explained it to her. The three talked and laughed, all harmony. "Xiao Mo, Comrade Chen Qi has gone corrupt!" Xiao Geng stared at a certain someone sitting between the Big and Small Red Bean, thoroughly enjoying himself, and couldn't help griping. "We'll wait and see. His position is still fairly firm. Besides, he's got another one back on the mainland." Doing this job, they had long since investigated him thoroughly. From their contact with him, Xiao Mo was reasonably at ease about his political stance. As for his conduct with women—tsk! He was asking for it himself. If something came of it later, he would only have himself to blame.