Hong Kong Island After Dark: The Boss’s Caged Bird

In the 1990s, Kowloon Walled City was a den of horrors that swallowed people whole.

The father of Ye Manyin, a down-on-her-luck college student, was a compulsive gambler. He owed a fortune in loan-shark debt and was being hung at a Victoria Harbour pier, about to be thrown into the sea.

With nowhere else to turn, Manyin wore a faded qipao and risked her life breaking into a top-floor suite at the Peninsula Hotel. She knelt before Lord Xie, the man who controlled the entire underworld and legitimate order of Hong Kong Island.

Smoke swirled through the room. Lord Xie rolled a string of exquisite red agate prayer beads in his hand, his deep gaze roaming over her graceful curves like a beast's. “You want me to save your old man? Fine.” He tapped the ash from his cigar. His voice was low and husky, filled with menace. “Take off your qipao and crawl over here.”

With tears in her eyes, Manyin obeyed in humiliation. From then on, she became his canary, confined to his Mid-Levels villa with no chance of escape.

She thought the old man was cold-hearted and faithless, interested only in the novelty.

Every day, she secretly plotted her escape. At last, she managed to board a flight overseas...

But he brought over a hundred armed men and forcibly sealed off the entire Kai Tak Airport.

Amid a hail of bullets, Lord Xie, who had always been untouchable and merciless, shielded her with his bloodied body. His voice was fierce, yet reduced to utter humility. “Manyan, why run? I've put my life in your hands. Isn't that enough?!”