Chapter 49 Resonating Across the Entire Lion Mountain!

Huang'an, North Gate Ridge Shantytown.

"Clang!"

Song Xiaole pushed open the car door, pointed at dozens of stubbornly lingering holdouts, and cursed, "Two hundred per square meter, that's the absolute best price I can offer. Take it or leave it!"

"Three hundred!"

After a quick, huddled discussion among a group of property owners, the two leading middle-aged men shouted out their counter-offer.

Holding out until now, they had managed to push the price up by another fifty bucks from the standard government-set rate of one hundred and fifty. Greed was written all over everyone's face present.

"Two hundred, period," Song Xiaole knit his brows, rapidly losing his patience. "Are you making way or not?"

The middle-aged man stiffened his neck. "Not making way! What can you do about it?"

"Not making way, is that it?" Song Xiaole's good temper was completely exhausted. He turned back and yelled at Lei Zhenyang and the others trailing behind him, "Go ahead! Clear these bastards out first. Line up the bulldozers, dammit! Knock every single house down for me!"

With that,

Song Xiaole climbed back into his Mazda and drove straight away.

Before long,

a tremendous roar echoed through the North Gate Ridge shantytown.

A large fleet of rumbling bulldozers rolled onto the site, and the dozens of brothers led by Lei Zhenyang efficiently and ruthlessly drove away the greedy holdouts who knew no limits.

Early in the morning,

Liu Haizhu prepared breakfast for the two sisters as usual.

After finishing,

the three of them cleaned the table and washed the dishes together. Then, Yingsi went back to her room to change clothes.

During this time,

little Nini also sneaked a peek into her older sister's room, only to run back out shortly after with a darkened face and retreat to her own room.

The little girl even slammed her bedroom door shut with a loud "Bang!"

Seeing this,

Liu Haizhu, who was smoking in the living room, twitched his fingers, inexplicably gripped by a bad premonition.

A moment later,

Yingsi walked out of her room with her pretty face held high, looking radiant and full of vitality, while carrying a large hiking backpack.

With a pang of heartache, Liu Haizhu stepped forward and snatched it from her. "Why are you dressed like this?"

Yingsi blinked. "Accompanying me?"

Cradling his groin, Liu Haizhu plastered on a most flattering smile. "You bet your life I am!"

Stepping out the door,

and getting into the car,

Liu Haizhu turned his head and asked, "Yingsi, where are we even going?"

With pride radiating from her face, Yingsi replied, "Rock climbing!"

Liu Haizhu looked blankly at the driver, who only smiled and kept silent.

Lion Rock,

which spans across Hong Kong's Kowloon and the New Territories. Viewed from the urban area south of Kowloon, its silhouette strongly resembles a crouching male lion guarding the summit.

At the foot of the mountain,

Liu Haizhu stood with weak knees as he watched Yingsi pull item after item out of her backpack.

Finally, she fished out a box of white powder and rubbed it between her palms.

Shortly after,

the driver stood at the top of the cliff and shouted something too distant to make out clearly, followed by a long rope thrown down from far above.

Yingsi muttered discontentedly, "Always pulling these useless stunts!"

"What?!"

Liu Haizhu's eyes widened. Wasn't this motherfucker his own accent???

"You use it," Yingsi said, pointing to the long rope dangling from the mountaintop.

"H-How... how do I use this... huh?"

Liu Haizhu felt his teeth chattering uncontrollably. He had suffered from a fear of heights since childhood, and this towering stone mountain looked terrifyingly intimidating.

"Do it like this,"

Yingsi smiled, clapped her hands, tied the safety rope around him, clipped the quickdraws into place, slipped a helmet onto his head, and even thoughtfully rubbed chalk powder onto both of his hands.

With a cheerful toss of her head, she said, "Follow me!"

Her smile danced in the sunlight, heart-stoppingly beautiful. This fool fell head over heels into it all over again.

In a daze, Luo Yingsi had already begun free-climbing the sheer cliff face...

Liu Haizhu gritted his teeth, jammed his fingers into the rock crevices, and closely followed behind.

...Huh???

This fool suddenly realized... this rock climbing thing didn't seem quite that difficult after all...?

Halfway up the mountain,

the fierce wind whipped against Liu Haizhu's face. He stole a downward glance and his mind went blank, his legs trembling violently.

He pressed his lips tightly together, looked up with a pale face, and saw

Yingsi scaling the steep cliff like a nimble green snake, agile and swift.

"Crack!"

Overwhelmed with tension, the fool accidentally crushed a protruding rock fragment with his grip.

"Ah!"

Liu Haizhu let out a miserable scream, followed by his body plunging downwards abruptly, scaring him out of his wits as he wailed at the top of his lungs!

His ethereal voice echoed throughout the entire Lion Rock!!!

Not far away,

several other climbers engaged in free-climbing were also startled into a shudder,

almost... falling right off.

Liu Haizhu hugged the rope for dear life, not daring to move a muscle.

"Heh heh..."

Yingsi looked down, made a playful grimace at him, and continued climbing upward. Her light and graceful figure seemed to merge completely with the mountain itself.

That evening,

the two of them even walked hand in hand to the Hong Kong Coliseum to attend a concert.

The place was a sea of people,

and many folks had pretty little decorative lights on their heads, with stickers pasted on their faces.

Curious, Liu Haizhu leaned in closer to take a look and saw the characters "Ekin" written on them.

"Who's that?" Liu Haizhu turned to ask.

"Someone who lives forever in the shadow of Brother Nam," Yingsi replied in a calm tone.

"Which Brother Nam?" Liu Haizhu asked, playing dumb. "Is it the one who saved me in Portland Street?"

"Hmph!"

Yingsi shot him a disdainful look, shook off his hand, and walked into the aisle alone.

"Hey, wait up for me."

Shamelessly, Liu Haizhu chased after her.

Two days later,

under a blazing sun,

Dongshing formally bestowed upon the mainland boy Liu Haizhu the rank of Double-Flower Red Pole, staging a ceremony of considerable scale.

Dragon dance troupes clamored noisily as two hundred-meter-long dragons roared and blazed a trail at the front!

On this auspicious day, representatives from all major triads came to offer their congratulations.

After the Battle of Tuen Mun,

Liu Haizhu's reputation within the lower echelons of Hong Kong society—at least among the circles of straw sandals, blue lanterns, and four-nine triad members—had completely blown up!

Rising from the grassroots,

he was viewed as a legend by many.

Coupled with some exaggerated firsthand accounts passed around by word of mouth, many junior members listened with boiling blood, wishing they could transform into him.

Big bosses who rarely showed their faces in the underworld also seemed to have caught wind of this name.

Yet, after all, operating at too low a level,

the name Liu Haizhu was merely like a small pebble tossed into a vast lake, producing nothing more than a few ripples.

Inside the Central Police Station,

an unopened box of pastries sat on the coffee table.

The foreigner Peter held a glass of dark red wine, half-reclining on the sofa, and smiled warmly. "My dear凱弟 (Katie/Kaitdi), thanks for coming to see me today. I heard your Hung Lok is stirring up trouble again. Are you here because of this?"

Wong Hoi bared a mouthful of yellow teeth and smiled. "Peter, your intelligence network is truly baffling... You need to understand that this time, we in Hung Lok are actually the ones on the losing end."

"Oh!"

Peter blinked, sitting up straight with a look of keen interest. "My best friend, then can you tell me what on earth happened?"

"Haha,"

Wong Hoi chuckled, slowly recounting the recent events to him, leaving the foreigner utterly dumbfounded.

"Oh my god!"

After listening, Peter wore an expression of great fascination. "It's as if I'm watching Bruce Lee resurrected.

That guy named Liu Haizhu... compared to you, whose Chinese Kung Fu is stronger?"