Chapter 440

Morning light streaming in and an early morning workout on the rooftop had done little to clear his mind or offer a solution. He could ask the Ghee Hin or the 66 or the UN or even the government - hah! - to help out. Any one of those would put him in further debt. Getting the triads or gangs involved would tie them into this complex even more. The government was theoretically the least problematic, but also likely the least effective.

Individual patrol members could be bribed away, the orders would only last so long as Arthur kept being useful for the government and maybe not even then. The problem with pushing down orders from above, if there was not constant pressure exerted, the ones below were just as likely to take a bribe as do their damn jobs.

Before, the place had been too poor for anyone to care. But life was getting tougher, squeezing even a few more Ringgit was worth something. Nevermind the other horror stories of organ 'donations' and enslavement.

No, the simple fact was that bringing in outside help was a non-starter. Whatever solution he found, it had to come from the buildings and community itself. It had to also be long-term enough so that it could sustain itself.

In the short-term, though, he could forestall some of the issues by making sure that the Mamak Gang were paid off and that everyone’s loans were dealt with. If they had no one to pressure individually, he could decrease the amount of pressure they could apply, at least if they were playing nice.

To do that, though, he needed money.

By the time he managed to make it back out of the door, thoughts were streaming through his mind, the various deals that were open to him weighing on him. Right now, everyone was betting on the potential; but all of it was vaporware. Easily disappeared, if he could not give the Clan something more than just support in the Tower.

Case in point…

“So, boss, where’s our headquarters?” Jan asked, leaning against the main entrance to the compound.

“You’re out!” he said surprised. Head turned, tracked to Yao Jing who came over, slapping his shoulder over and over again. “And you two hooked up.”

“Boss!” Yao Jing said, scandalized.

“As in met together.” Then something in the way Jan looked, or chose not to look at him, had him narrowing his eyes. “Or maybe… something else?”

“None of your business.” She said stiffly.

“Huh.”

Yao Jing leaned in, whispered. “We’re moving in together. She doesn’t want to stay at home anymore and I got my own place.”

“Really?” Arthur said, surprised. More at the fact that the big man had enough money to have his own place rather than the fact that the two of them were together.

Yao Jing just grinned, then pointed not far away at a well maintained, if old, Proton. “So where we headed to boss?”

“I got no headquarters yet,” Arthur said, quietly. “Though…” He frowned. “We probably do need to get the team together. Have everyone meet up.”

“Where to?”

“Well, there’s one other thing I need to do too.” He frowned, adding. “Though I thought I told you all would want a bit more of a break.”

“We heard about the problems you caused yesterday.” She rolled her eyes. “You should just have asked one of us to do it, you know. I already traded some of my cores.”

“Not all of them, right?”

“What do you think, I’m like Ah Jing?”

“Hey!”

“Right, right.” Arthur shook his head. “I need to visit my Tsifu. We might as well meet at his place. There’s a few good mamak stall nearby, we can talk business there.”

“Gotcha, boss.” Yao Jing sprang ahead to the car, enthusiastic as always. More so perhaps, at the chance to meet Arthur’s own sifu.

Jan walked slower, falling in line beside Arthur as he wandered over to the car under the beating heat, glancing sideways at the man. She eyed the residences, then Arthur, questions in her eyes. Bubbling so much that he had to stop, even in the heat to ask.

“What?”

“Just surprised lah.”

“About what?’

“You talk so good, but you come from a place like this,” Jan said. “I always thought, well…”

“That I had money?”

“Yeah lah.” She shrugged. “You talked like you went to university and all that.”

“No, but I did pay attention in class.” He chuckled, sidestepping the swat. “There’s a grandmother, Auntie Kean who used to live a few doors away. She used to teach English, back when the teachers were good before she retired. She watched over us, kept teaching us English, math, all of it. Gave me a good foundation, and my tsifu, he polished it.”

“He’s the one who made you all speak proper, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Didn’t catch with the others as much.”

Arthur shrugged, not sure what he could say to that. His tsifu tried, wanting them all to speak well. He had a leg-up on the rest, but many would ape the instructions but not take them to heart. A few did, and for the occasional student, it helped them find a better job.

For most though, with the way the economy worked, with the lack of jobs and how you could just throw everything into software that fixed what you wrote, well, most didn’t bother to do the hard work and learn it properly.

That was the thing – you could train, you could push, you could lead by example – but the children who came, those you taught. It was up to them what they learnt.

Didn’t meant that the man stopped trying though. Back then, or even now.