It's the year 1984. Workers at a building site in Cow Mountain, Guangzhou have discovered many human bones underneath the soil during construction. This captures the attention of the media, who believe it may be the "Pit of Ten Thousand Corpses" where the Japanese army buried many Anti-Jap Chinese citizens. Gau Mui, now a grandmother, arrives at the site with her granddaughter, Yeung Yeung, and Pai Guat to help give information about the war to the Chinese Cultural Preservation Society. At the sight of the pit, tears rise in Gau Mui's eyes and she remembers a scene that happened here in the year 1944... She had asked Lau Sing if he had ever really loved her, being together for so many years. He had said never, that just the smell of opium on her made him sick and the sight of her made him want to vomit. In a fit of rage and heartbreak, she threw her briefcase into the pit. Present day, Gau Mui shows her granddaughter where her "Grandfather Sing" had been kneeling when she shot him. She climbs into the pit herself and is handed the briefcase that the workers found earlier in the day. The love letters she had written Lau Sing are still inside, though she admits that they are fake. The real object of sentimental value to her is an old grenade that she still keeps by her side. It was given to her by Lau Sing for protection. As she is leaving the pit, the reporters ask her if the rumors are true about her being a "King of Opium" or saving a lot of children. Gau Mui doesn't answer, only saying that it doesn't matter what people think of her. Indeed in 1941, she and Lau Sing had put many children onto a train to Hong Kong. When she passes away peacefully in 1994, still clutching the grenade in her hands, many of those children, now grown, come to pay their respects to her and to thank her for saving their lives despite not knowing who she really was or what she really did during the war.
1936, Guangzhou. Pai Guat, a young and inexperienced boy comes down from the mainland to become a police officer. His grandmother had to sell a piece of land and a cow and use personal connections to get him the job. He promises to try his best. At the police station, Lau Sing tells his team a piece of good news. One of his friends who works at the lottery has promised to give them $500 + $200 bonus to let his nephew in to replace an old officer. As his team marvel at the amount of money, Pai Guat is brought in as replacement instead by the orders of Fei Fan. Lau Sing and his team are frustrated that Fei Fan went over their heads and they start to resent Pai Guat for making them lose the $700. They practice at the shooting range and inexperienced Pai Guat, unable to find earplugs, becomes temporarily deaf from the sounds of firing. Lau Sing loses his temper with him because he thinks he's actually deaf and unable to follow simple instructions. The rest of the team just laughs at him.
In another part of town, the Dong Tai company and its owner Cheng Long Guan is celebrating the opening of its first public opium den. Gau Mui, Long Guan's eldest and only daughter, returns from Shanghai to congratulate her father. Gau Mui's youngest brother from a different mother, Siu Git, becomes cocky with her because he was able to get the public business certificate when she couldn't. Long Guan is dissatisfied with his behavior and reminds him that it is the reputation of the Cheng family that actually accomplishes anything. Furthermore, he decides that since business is booming, he wants to buy shares of Wing Yip bank and start doing some legal business. Wing Yip is the biggest and oldest in Guangzhou but their chairman of the board, Mr. Wu, is stubborn and hates the Cheng family because of their gang ties. Gau Mui confidently says that she will handle the chairman and get Long Guan what he wants.
As expected, Mr Wu's son turns down Gau Mui's offer to buy 30% of Wing Yip's shares with $1,500,000. Mr Wu joins the meeting, immediately showing his disrespect towards Gua Mui and Dong Tai buy making a scene of wiping his hand after shaking hers. Gau Mui is unphased and copies his action, making all the shareholders in the room uneasy. As she leaves the meeting room, Mr Wu tells her he remembers her touching speech at the orphanage where she grew up because he was a supervisor there. Younger Gau Mui talked about how she was ashamed that her father illegally trafficked opium for a living. He was so proud of her moralistic conscience that he gave the school a lot of money to pay for her education. But now, he is disgusted that she and her family are into such illegal and amoral things like prostitution, gambling, and drugs. Lau Sing, who is in the teller's desk, sees all of this go down. Gau Mui remains cold and ignores Mr Wu's big speech, telling him that she respects him a lot and she will go back home to discuss a better offer with her father. As she leaves, Mr Wu is still obviously shaken and Lau Sing spits in disgust as well.
Back home, Gau Mui takes $600,000 from Dong Tai's holdings and tells her henchmen to deposit it all into Wing Yip within a matter of ten days. Then after a month, suddenly withdraw it all again. If Wing Yip can't pay up, spread rumors that the bank is financially failing until all the citizens are in an uproar. Long Guan's sister, Long Hei, is appalled at Gau Mui's trick. Long Guan agrees that it's outrageous, but he likes it and is extremely proud of the fact that Gau Mui is just as cunning as he is.
Lau Sing and his team do drills in the courtyard of the police station. He is once again angered by Pai Guat because he is fully clothed while everyone else is shirtless. Lau Sing tells him to go use the woman's bathroom from now on. Before they have a chance to continue practice, an alarm rings and the intercom announces a riot at Wing Yip. Lau Sing and his team immediately leave to deal with it, as well as inform all their families and neighbors at home to go withdraw all their money before Wing Yip announces bankruptcy. Lau Sing is extremely stressed about his money and breaks his wife's safety deposit box in an attempt to find their bank book in time to save their savings. His team does their best to hold off the worried citizens that are causing chaos outside the bank's doors. People scramble, hit each other, and even Pai Guat is pushed off to the side and sprains his ankle.
Gau Mui's plan has obviously worked. Inside Wing Yip, she once again tries to convince Mr Wu to let Dong Tai buy their shares. He insists he will fight their evil ways until the death. But there is only $5000 left in the bank at this time. He plans with his son to return money to about 30 citizens and then he will sell whatever he has to to get the rest their money in 3 days. Gau Mui tempts him with the prospect of all the money Dong Tai can send at once if he just signs the contract. Mr Wu is angered to the point of a fainting. As Gau Mui gets ready to leave, Lau Sing interrupts them both, screaming that the life and wellbeing of all of Guangzhou's citizens rests in Mr Wu's hands. If he, Lau Sing, can't send money to Hong Kong for his sick sister, then she will die. If he loses all his money, his wife will leave him too. This shocks Mr Wu into realization and desperation. As Gau Mui steps out the door, he stops her... Mr Wu signs the contract, giving Dong Tai his shares, and Gau Mui announces to everyone that the money is coming as they speak. Sure enough, her red car pulls up with $600,000 cash ready to give out. As she leaves, she sees an old man having his bleeding head bandages as his granddaughter stands beside him, crying. They are casualties of the riot. A flicker of emotion flashes across Gau Mui's face and she shares a look with Lau Sing before getting into the car and driving off.
Some time later, Lau Sing and his team gathers at the police station to check their lottery ticket numbers. Lau Sing angrily swears he's never touching the lottery again after losing for the 5th time in a row. At this time, Fei Fan comes in with information that a bunch of convicts who stole gold from Nanking and killed 16 people are in Guangzhou. He puts Lau Sing in charge but a telephone call telling him about the $1000 reward for the capture of the convicts leads him to gearing up and following Lau Sing's team himself.
Lau Sing and his team arrive at the convicts' hideout and he splits them into teams, making a plan to surround them. He instructs everyone to only move on his order. Raising one finger means take no action. Raising two fingers means open fire to cover him and. Raising three fingers means everyone rush in. The plan works until Fei Fan arrives and tells Pai Guat to move into the open and distract the convicts. When Pai Guat refuses because of Lau Sing's orders, he kicks him out. The convicts spot him and open fire on the police force. Pai Guat is shot in the arm and becomes a hindrance to Lau Sing as he tries to fight back in the storm of bullets...
I think Pai Guat's really funny in this episode! He's really useless, but in a cute way! =D I love the way Gau Mui threatened the bank boss, although I thought that was quite mean of her! xD
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recap, Mandy! ^^