In 1998, I built a “gangland talent pool” with a single arcade token
My name is Chen Hao. I'm eighteen, and I dropped out of high school.
Back then, the arcade was our university, the machines were our textbooks, and our fists were our diplomas.
With one token, I won my first fight and recruited my first crew. Monkey stole intel, Blackie could fight, Glasses handled the books, and Big Bro Han feared nothing. I discovered a simple truth: the most important thing in the underworld isn't knowing how to fight, it's knowing how to use people.
I recruited Big Brother Cheng because he could keep the peace. I put Er Gouzi to work because he was devious. I even kept the idiots around, because even a fence-sitter has his uses. I ran the jianghu like a company, with my brothers as employees in different departments: some handled the fighting, some gathered intelligence, and some took care of dirty work.
Over ten years, I went from one street to an entire city, from arcades to real estate.
Then, in 2008, a punk named Scar showed up with a bunch of post-'90s kids. They had no rules and preyed on the weak. My men wanted to act, but I held them back.
“Knife fights and gunfights? I was doing that before they were out of diapers.”
This time, I didn't throw a punch. I used Wang Jie’s intelligence network, Glasses’ financial reports, and Big Brother Cheng’s government connections. I used the rules to bury those who refused to play by them.
The jianghu had changed.
Good thing I’d already started a “career transition training program.”
