Chapter 262 - 162: You Broke the Rules of the Street
"To clean up our act, to go from the Ghost Shadow Gang to the legitimate Fujian Business Association of today, we bled for two whole generations and paid with I don’t know how many lives." Lin Daohang’s voice gradually calmed, his face expressionless as he gazed out the window. "We cautiously pandered to politicians, donated to the police department, and even acted like obedient grandsons, catering to the whims of those white congressmen. And what did we get in return?"
He suddenly grew agitated. Feeling a flush of heat, he couldn’t help but shrug off his suit jacket, loosen his tie, and roll up his shirt sleeves.
Chen Haisheng glanced in the rearview mirror.
He saw the shocking knife scar on Lin Daohang’s collarbone and the bullet hole in his forearm, stark against his aged body.
"Hai Sheng, do you remember when you were a kid and the building facades in Chinatown were covered in scaffolding?" Lin Daohang suddenly asked. "And for a while, the trash cans at the street-side restaurants and in the back alleys were suddenly replaced with those enormous ones."
"I remember," Chen Haisheng said without looking back. "I remember that scaffolding was up for years. I never knew what they were fixing."
Lin Daohang let out a dry chuckle. "I never told you guys this before. It was because of Local Law 11, introduced by the mayor at the time—oh, now it’s called the Facade Inspection & Safety Program. On paper, it was to force old buildings to undergo facade inspections, but where were the century-old dilapidated buildings in Chinatown supposed to find millions for repairs? If you couldn’t afford to fix it, you had to put up scaffolding according to the law! Those rows of green scaffolding and sidewalk sheds went up for four or five years, completely blocking our storefronts and foot traffic. So many old, time-honored restaurants were bled dry until they went bankrupt!"
"And the trash cans were a scheme cooked up by the New York Department of Sanitation. Those bloodsuckers. One minute they’re saying it’s for city-wide rat control, the next they’re forcing all businesses to buy and use the specific rigid, lidded trash cans they require. Every inch of Chinatown is precious. Those old shops barely have room to turn around in their own kitchens, so where were they supposed to find space for several enormous commercial trash cans? Can’t fit them? That’s a fine. Dump your trash improperly? That’s another fine. Each one was for hundreds or thousands of USD. How is that any different from legal robbery?!"
"I had just become the president of the Fujian Business Association back then," Lin Daohang said with a self-mocking laugh. "You think I didn’t want to fight them when I found out about that law? If guns and bullets were the answer, I wouldn’t have had to lead my men to beg, door to door. The Christmas of the year they finally took down the scaffolding, I went from the police department to the sanitation department to the mayor’s office, begging all of them. I must have delivered Christmas gifts to 43 different homes! And donated at least a million USD!"
"I bought tickets to fundraising dinners, donated to the police, hired white lawyers... And in the end, for what?! The Democratic Party takes power, puts that Holmes guy in charge, and now they want to drive us to extinction by building a jail right next to Chinatown! Hai Sheng!"
This was the first time Chen Haisheng was hearing any of this. He was speechless for a long moment, only managing to choke out a dry question:
"So you want to rely on him?" He glanced at Lin Daohang in the rearview mirror. "Why would he protect us?"
"He understood what I was implying," Lin Daohang sighed. "He said he wants to come see you box. I think that kid can understand what it’s like to be pushed aside. Better than us, he sees the arrogance of this land—that strength is what commands respect, and politeness gets you nowhere. I want to take this gamble."
Chen Haisheng was silent for a long time, simply continuing to drive.
The Lexus LX600 drove south along Fifth Avenue.
Outside the car window, the prosperity of Midtown Manhattan was like a flowing, never-ending, extravagant dream.
The streets were lined with the brightly lit windows of luxury flagship stores, the cool white spotlights of Cartier and Tiffany’s casting their glare on the smooth asphalt. The towering skyscrapers were like glass swords stabbing into the night sky, silently declaring the core arrogance and power of this capitalist empire to Lin Daohang and Chen Haisheng.
However, as the car continued toward Lower Manhattan, this physical dividing line of wealth began to grow stark and clear.
The color of the neon lights gradually shifted from the cold, high-end, luxurious white to a murky, dim yellow and a garish, piercing red. The smooth streets gave way to potholes filled with water, and the car’s chassis occasionally bottomed out with a dull THUD.
By the time the Lexus entered the bounds of Chinatown, the scent of high-society perfume in the air had vanished completely. In its place was the sour, putrid stench of ancient sewers and the cloying, greasy smoke belched out by the roaring, old exhaust fans of dilapidated Chinese restaurants.
From paradise to a swamp. In this folded city, the journey took only twenty minutes.
The traffic light at the intersection suddenly turned from green to red, its light illuminating Chen Haisheng’s young, stubborn, and somewhat bewildered face.
He spoke, his voice hesitant.
"Uncle Lin... if, and I’m just saying if," he swallowed hard, "what if he only cares about being a big star and has no intention of sheltering this cesspool of a Chinatown? Besides, we broke the rules today by telling him. If he doesn’t own up to it and the Italians and the Irish come after us, or if the person behind all this comes for us, what do we do?"
Lin Daohang stared at the flickering, broken Chinese neon signs outside the window, not speaking for a long time. The car was so quiet that the only sound was the faint hum of the air conditioning.
"If I remember correctly, Hai Sheng, your ancestral home is Meizhou," he said softly. "It might be time for you to go back, acknowledge your ancestors, and see your old home."