That night, JoJo and I were sitting on the roof until dawn. Don’t know when, the two of us have fallen asleep back to back.

 We have talked all night and finished all the cigarettes. Both of us smell of tobacco.

 When I wake up, it’s already bright. I wake up earlier than Jojo, just feeling sore and painful in my waist and spine. In short, not comfortable all over the body.

 When I’m just moving a little, she also wakes up. Watching her stiffness of her body when she’s stretching, I judge that she’s also very uncomfortable. The two of us are looking at each other and laughing.

 “I’m going back.” I look up at the sky, open my mouth and say slowly, “It’s already morning. I didn’t go back overnight. My brothers here will be worried.”

 Jojo nods and says: “I’m going back, too. I’m going to Toronto in the next two days… Well, if I knew I could meet you in Vancouver, I would not have promised Winson to accompany him to Toronto.”

 “By the way, I haven’t asked you why you came to Canada with Winson?”

 Jojo is sighing: “It’s still my dad’s problem. Winson and I have reached a private agreement. We weren’t interested in each other, but we both pretended to be dating under the pressure from the family. This time, his family invested in a business in North America and needed him to come to an event. It seems that their family is ready to gradually hand over some of the Canadian industries to him to take care of it, anyway, I am not sure about the details. This time I followed him to meet his parents. His parents are in Toronto now. If we hadn’t met you last night, we should have taken this morning’s flight to Toronto.”

 She says this in a very indifferent tone, but I feel a little sorry: “I have delayed your trip… If I hadn’t dragged you here all night, you would have been on the plane by now.”

 “It’s irrelevant.” Jojo waves her hand arrogantly: “What’s the point of meeting Winson’s parents? I just go to play a role. It’s boring. It’s much more important to meet you. Anyway, Winson, though a little sissy, but he knows everything very well. He met you last night and both of us ran away. He should have guessed that we could not catch the flight this morning. Don’t worry, he must have adjusted the arrangement. That guy is very rigid in his work. It’s not interesting to have everything arranged beforehand so that everything can be done smoothly. I suspect that he even plans beforehand the times to go to the toilet every day!”

 Listening to Jojo’s disdainful tone, I sigh inside my heart.

 In fact, I don’t feel bad about Winson. I can even feel that he is kind to me. Several contacts with that fellow, especially the gambling, all felt that he seemed to have an intent to get close to me.

 I have a long list of unanswered calls, all from Sophie. I think about it and delete it. I don’t mean to call her back.

 “Little 5, listen, I have to go to Toronto with Winson today. Anyway, I have to deal with it. But I’ll be back earlier. The soonest, I’ll go today and back tomorrow.”

 I shake my hand quickly: “No! Your will be too rush to affect your arrangement!”

 “Cut!” Jojo’s face is showing some disapprobatory expression: “Don’t mention them, if not for them, Winson and I would not have been hard-wired together! What annoys me most is the self-righteous old people. Why do they think that they can decide the happiness of our lives? Who I want to marry, it’s not their shit! I’m not their daughter-in-law. I don’t need to come to their house to amuse them! I’ll show my face for give them face. That’s all right!”

 Jojo then takes out a card and gives me: “This is my phone number, which I’m using during my stay in Canada. You can you dial this number to reach me anytime. Boy, remember to call me! If you dare to play disappear once more, I’ll do it the next time we meet.” She makes a “cut” gesture with one palm fiercely.

 She takes my mobile phone, saves my phone number, and asks my address. I think about it and tell her that I’m living in a garage of Papa 8, but she’d better not go there.

 Then we climb down the fire ladder, and I go down first. But the problem is that Jojo is right above my head. As soon as I look up, I can see her long legs flashing under the skirt.

 To be honest, I really didn’t mean to look up. But it has been noticed by her. Miss Jojo will not be polite to me! There are still more than three meters from the ground. She is so angry that she is yelling: “Little 5, where are you looking?!” After that, she is just kicking to my head.

 Fortunately, my body is strong, and I make a dodge motion on the fire ladder. I turn over one heel and land steadily on the ground. Jojo is sliding down and immediately clenching her fist and chasing after me.

 We are chasing happily and running out of the alley. But when we get out of the entrance, I am stunned.

 At the entrance of the alley, a black car is parking there. Winson, in a dark suit, is standing next to the car. He’s leaning lazily by the car, watching Jojo and I walk out. With a slightly smile, he is raising his wrist and takes a look at his watch and says: “I thought you’d have at least more than half an hour to come down.”

 I look at him in surprise and say: “You… Did you know we were up there? Are you waiting here long ago?”

 Even Jojo is staring her eyes round and asking: “How long have you been waiting? Wouldn’t you wait all night?”

 “Of course not.” Winson taps his finger on the window. The carwindow is slowly rolling down. The driver inside pushes the door open and comes out with a lady’s cloak in his hand. He walks towards Jojo and hands it to her.

 “Put it on, miss. The temperatures in the morning here are still quite low. I don’t want to get on the plane with a woman who sneezes and snivels all the time. If you catch a cold, I would also be infected.” Winson is smiling naturally and shows his white teeth.

 Jojo has forgotten to get angry with him. There’s something strange in her eyes: “Sissy, you tell the truth, you already know we were here? How long have you been waiting here? You were not really waiting for all night, were you?”

 “Of course not.” Winson is laughing. He says, “Jojo, after all, you come with me to Canada alone. I need to be responsible for your safety. Otherwise, how can I face your father? When you two ran out last night, I had my men following you far away. They saw you climb to the top of this building, and then they notified me. I know when your old friends meet again, there must be a lot of things to catch up. I’m a person do know what is good. So, I didn’t bother you and just let go of you. As for me, I’m certainly not stupid to wait here until dawn. I went back to the hotel last night and slept. Then I got up in the morning and took time to swim, then took a bath and had a massage. I also had a good breakfast, then changed a new dress to pick you up.”

 Winson is laughing confidently. But his self-confidence is not arrogant at all. On the contrary, there is a proper restraint and unruffled calm from the heart.

 Then he’s shaking hands with me again. His eyes are genuine, at least looking genuine: “Chen Yang, I talked to Miss Sophie last night, and I didn’t expect you have joined the gang in Canada now. Well, I do not prejudice about gangs, but I always think they are still in their infancy. Personally, I appreciate you very much. I have already expressed this point when we first met. I just think you’re a good person, and you’re. It seems to have some magical power. God, I won’t forget that gambling experience with you! I even thought the goddess of luck was your lover that day!” He’s smiling casually and indifferently, then changes a serious tone to say to me, “I just don’t think people like you should stay in the underworld. Of course, people have their own aspirations. If you want to leave one day, please remember to come to me. I will reserve a good position for you in my family business. I believe you will be very excellent.”

 I give him a deep look: “Why do you think so? I don’t seem to have much talent for you, do I?”

 Winson is pointing to his heart and laughing: “I believe in the theory that personality determines success. I appreciate your personality, so I think you will be excellent. As for the abilities, they can be learned or acquired. But the quality of a person’s nature will directly affect his achievements.”

 Jojo is standing aside and looking at us. Suddenly, she’s cutting in the words: “What’s your idea, sissy?”

 “Jojo, just as I can never guess your mind, I won’t tell you my mind either.” Winson is laughing mystery, “We’re just acting in front of our parents and relatives, acting as the male and female protagonists in the play. But we’re outside of the play now. If you know me too well, I’m afraid you’ll fall in love with me.”

 Jojo does not speak, but stretch out one of her middle fingers directly as the reply.

 “Well, we should go now, so that we can catch up with my parents for afternoon tea.” Winson shakes hands with me and I give Jojo another hug.

 “Chen Yang, remember what I said… The gang may not suit you.”

 Before Jojo get in the car, she whispers to me: “Tomorrow, I’ll fly back.” Then they all get in the car, but Winson rolls down the window, says to me with the smile: “Oh, our royal highness Sophie is very angry now. You have to be careful.”

 As the car is slowly leaving, I’m standing there and feeling a little confused.

 To meet with Jojo again is totally unexpected to me. I thought I would have to endure the loneliness in my heart for quite a long time and struggling alone in this strange western world.

 Maybe it’s because I’m too lonely and my heart is too stuffy, I had sex with Sophie so fiercely that night?

 DIdi, Nanny, and all others at home… How are they now?

 Alas, just leave all these alone.

 I walk aimlessly for a while, then stop a taxi and go back to the garage. I see one MPV is parking at the intersection. There are two men in that car and pretending to be reading the newspapers.

 I’ve known that they are police. During this period, the police have taken us as a key target. But the Canadian police are really uncreative. There is no concealment in their surveillance, even a fool can see it.

 I just return to the garage. Several brothers are changing tires for a car. Seeing me come in, and a few people I know are all whistling at me, mocking the look of my dress in suits and leather shoes.

 I see Silo is carrying a bottle out. Seeing me come in, he looks a little serious, comes to me quickly and says: “Little 5, Papa 8 wants to see you. Come in quickly.”

 “What’s wrong?”

 “Well. It seems that something big has happened. Early this morning, several big names came to have meeting with Papa 8. Tiger has already come to find you once.”

 My heart is beating heavily!

 As soon as I reach the back yard, I see Tiger standing downstairs of Papa 8’s office and waving to me.

 “Little 5, go change your clothes quickly!” Tiger’s tone is also serious, “Ten minutes later. Papa 8 wants to see you.”

 “What clothes should I change?” I’m a little confused. Looking at myself, I’m dressing pretty well.

 “Change into Tang suit.” Tiger says with the smile, “Oh, I almost forgot. You haven’t the Tang suit yet. I’ll give you one of my own first. You size should be the same with mine as well.”

 He smiles at me and then leads me to his room to pick up a dress.

 Tiger has a room in our dormitory building. Although he seldom lives here, but he is almost the number two person here. So, no one will take his room.

 His room is exactly the same as us, just a little less furniture. Open an old-fashioned wardrobe, he takes out a black Tang suit and hands it to me, compares it with my figure and smiles: “Just wear this.”

 This Tang suit is a little old. Tiger’s eyes are filled with emotion: “I used to wear it many years ago. I remember when we were negotiating with the local gangs that time, we all wore Tang suits. Now we seldom wear it.”

 My mind is flashing. Negotiationg with the local gangs? Tang suit?

 Is Papa 8 asking me to wear Tang suit today is going to take me to meet the local gangs?

 After changing the clothes, Tiger takes me to Papa 8’s office. Nobody can enter this office on normal days. I’ve been here for several months, and I’ve only been there two or three times. This office is on the second floor of the garage. Downstairs is the garage site. This is undoubtedly a very humble place, but there are many advantages, such as not afraid of being eavesdropped and peeped!

 Pushing the door in, I see that the light inside is somewhat dim and the headlight is not on. There is a long table in the office. To my surprise, this table is not made of wood, but of metal. I look carefully before I recognize that it is temporary use of a cutting and welding table.

 On both sides of this temporary long table, many chairs have been set aside and many people have been sitting there. There are very old and white-haired men; young and strong men; someone looks kind-looking; someone looks fierce. At the first glance, there isn’t any good people.

 Papa 8 is sitting on the chairman’s seat. His left hand of lacked two fingers is habitually tapping on the arm of the chair lightly.

 My eyes are narrowing immediately. Because I’ve mastered some of Papa 8’s habits. His finger-tapping usually takes place only when he has problems in his mind and needs to think over, or when he is very angry.

 Now, though his face is calm, but there are chills in his eyes.

 “Little 5, come here.” Papa 8 speaks to me faintly, and his voice is very calm. When I stand behind him, Tiger has left the room.

 “This is Little 5. Now he’s my assistant.” Papa 8 says lightly, “In the future, many things will let him to deal with, so the things we are talking about today, I think it is necessary for him to listen.”

 I notice that most of the people here are looking at me with some disdains. Maybe I’m too young, these older guys disapprove and look down on me.

 “Little 5, you give these bosses a salute first.” Papa 8 says lightly, “All of them here are the leaders of Vancouver’s local gangs.”

 I don’t say anything and just salute everyone here as a junior person. These people are the leaders of the local gangs that fought us like hell previously. Sand Snake, who I killed, should have been one of these people.

 “It’s almost such a thing.” Papa 8 is sighing, then picking up a small tea cup in front of him and takes a slight sip, moistens his voice and keeps saying, “We can sit down and neotiate now, I think it’s good. Everyone knows the situation this year. The Angels of the Hell are now out of stock and have to find someone to work with. I know, we all have supply, but the Angels of the Hell will only choose one partner! Now that we can all agree to work together to get the Vietnamese out first! We’ll deal with the Angels of the Hell. How much benefit we get, we’ll give 30% to all of you here! Meanwhile, if you have any good resource of goods, just contribute, the profit everyone earns!”

I just stand behind Papa 8 and listen. With my position, I can only listen. There is no place for me to speak. I’ve understood that Papa 8 is going to make a piece with these local gangs, and today they are invited to negotiate.

 These local gangs fought so many times with us these days, and many of their men died. Now most of them must be tired and afraid.

 Moreover, although they have much more people than us, but they are far less united than we are! During this period of time, none of them is willing to bear more losses. Once anything happens, they only consider their own small group’s interests. That’s why they couldn’t win us all the time.

 Papa 8’s strategy is simple. First, make peace with them, and then work together to get the Vietnamese out of the game.

 The cooperation between the local gangs and Vietnamese did not benefit much. There are many people with resentment, which just give us an oppotunity to win over.

 Although we have always been in conflict with these local gangs, cooperation with the Angels of the Hell is the most important thing. Other disputes will involve our hind legs! Papa 8’s idea is that the Angel of the Hell’s cake is big. To a certain extent, we can concede some benefits in exchange for peace for a period of time.

 For Papa 8, the cooperation with the Angels of the Hell is the biggest opportunity for us to move closer to the mainstream and transform ourselves! On this premise, some small concessions are acceptable.

 The negotiation is going well. My malicious guess is that these guys have been scared by us for a while, and now they are easier to communicate.

 But I also notice that there’s a person opposite who seems to have been fighting against Papa 8 in words. Most of the chills in Papa 8’s eyes come from this.

 “It’s basically like this. Let’s lay down our guns and knives in the future and be a family, share the big cake together. It’s much better to make money together than to fight and kill!” Papa 8’s fingers are knocking on the desktop, “My words have finished. Have you any comment?”

 The others are silent for a moment.

 “Papa 8!” The guy who has been targeting Papa 8 is speaking.

 This is a stout fellow with a thick neck and wide shoulders. The clothes on his body seem to be tied tightly. His head is short and the face is square. But his chin is slightly raising and looks unruly. More importantly, he’s staring at Papa 8 with hatred in his eyes.

 I notice that the bridge of his nose collapsed. If I have not guessed wrong, his nasal bridge bone was removed by operation!

 I also notice his hand. His hands are on the table. They are big and thick. His knuckles are thick too, but his fingers are short. What’s more, his middle index finger and ring finger are much shorter than the average and they all seem to be the same length. From the hard cocoon on his hand, I can see that this guy is very tough on fighting!

 He says coldly: “If you want to fight then you fight, you want to negotiate then you negotiate. So that the blood of our brothers all shed in vain?”

 Papa 8 looks at him coldly and says: “Yes, just take it as shed in vain.”

 The man is standing up at once and slapping on the table. The metal welding table is shaken by him! My heart is shocked, this man’s hand strength is really big!

 “Shed in vain?” He’s grinning with the grimly face, then looking around and says, “The elders are here! As a matter of fact, this is a way to make a fortune, and I shouldn’t stand in the way of everyone’s fortune! But they killed so many of our brothers before. Now they want to negotiate, we have to sit down and negotiate with them. Where do we put our faces?!” He’s clenching his teeth and says in hate, “OK! Even if you can bear it, but I can’t bear it. My brother was killed in his own woman’s house! He had his throat cut off! I only have this one brother! Now you let me accept my brother’s death in vain? There’s not such easy thing for me!”

 When I hear this, my heart is beating hard! Had his throat cut off?

 I squint and stare at the man in secret.

 Papa 8 looks at him coldly and says slowly: “There are casualties on both sides, not only your brother, but also our brothers! We are sitting down for business today. If you want to get revenge, just go to us alone!”

 The fellow is deliberately laughing a few times, staring at Papa 8 fiercely: “Eight fingers, don’t stir things up! I’m not trying to cut off all of our fortune! But you are too bullying! You want to fight then fight, you want to negotiate then negotiate, and you get most of the benefits. Where the hell do you put us?”

Papa 8 gives out two faint laughs: “So what are you thinking? What do you want?”

 “Compensate for my brother’s life!” The fellow is frowning. He’s staring at Papa 8 with a murderous face, “I don’t want anything else! I want the compensation of my brother Sand Snake’s death! Whoever killed my brother, I must take his life! I don’t care about the money! I don’t want my share either. I send it to you all! But the bastard who killed my brother, his life, I want it!”

 Sand Snake?

 The muscles in the corners of my eyes are beating! Sure enough! He’s Sand Snake’s brother!

 Papa 8 is smiling, but his smile is chilly: “Who are you taking me as? You want me to send my brother up for you to kill? You are too naive?”

 “Let me fight him then! Gamble life! If I’m unlucky, I’ll admit it if he kills me! Everyone gambles on their own lives to fight, live or death listen to the fate!” He has a grim smile on his face, “Don’t tell me that all of you are cowards.”

 The muscles in Papa 8’s eye corners are beating, and I know he is really angry now.

 I immediately put my hand on his shoulder and press gently, then step forward slowly, looking at the fellow with a provocative eye: “What’s your name?”

 “Boy, remember, I’m Sand Tiger! Where the fuck did you come out? Haven’t you heard of my name?”

 I nod and just stare at him: “OK! Sand Tiger, I’ll fight with you! live or death listen to the fate!”

 “You? Whereby are you fighting with me?” Sand Tiger is staring at me mockingly.

 “By what?” I’m clenching my fist, raising a thumb, pointing at myself, looking at him with my chin up, and saying coldly, “By I cut Sand Snake’s throat with my knife!”