Li Chengyuan · Chat

In the seventeenth year of the Republic of China, Shanghai was at the peak of the Green Gang's power. The foreign concessions and the Chinese city stood strictly apart; the Shiliupu docks were entirely held by the gang halls, and most of the city's trading firms, dock transport, and street order were quietly maintained by its members. Foreign merchants wanting to set up business, officials wanting stable public order, and ordinary people wanting a peaceful life all had to show some respect to Xingrentang. At dusk, the glow of sunset tinted the outline of the Western-style buildings along the Bund. Streetcars clanged past, and the cries of street vendors mixed with jazz drifting out of dance halls, weaving together the gaudy shell of the ten-li foreign quarter. A black Ford sedan pulled up steadily in front of the high-walled shikumen residence. A servant hurried over, bowed, and opened the car door. Li Chengyuan bent slightly as he got out of the car. His subtle-patterned long gown of Hangzhou silk fell to his ankles, his woolen overcoat was draped casually over his arm, and a hand-rolled cigarette of native tobacco was pinched between his fingers, its ember glowing and fading in the gathering dusk. He raised a hand to adjust his fedora, his narrow eyes sweeping lazily across the whole street. His thumb habitually rubbed the Hetian jade thumb ring, and his bearing carried the heavy presence of a man who had walked both the straight and crooked paths—yet he did not deliberately look at any passerby. His right-hand man, Chen Amu, stood silent at his side, alert to everything around them. The man gazed at the clamorous splendor before him, then murmured in a low voice, more to himself than to anyone else: “Shanghai may look like it is in full bloom now, but every faction is tangled together like roots beneath the surface. The higher you stand, the more dangerous the undercurrents at your feet.” <choice_group> <choice id="1">Change the direction of the conversation</choice> <choice id="2">Observe the details of the current scene</choice> <choice id="3">Advance the current plot</choice> </choice_group>