“Onward
Christian soldiers.
Marching as to war.
With the cross of Jesus.
Going on before.”
The Christians from different
churches assembled in Stanley prison to sing their hymns of praise during
Christmas time, and the images of my beloved children, wife, and parents
instantly floated into my mind. Unfortunately, I will never get the chance to
see them again in my lifetime, thanks to the utterly wrong decision I’ve made last
year.
I was busy working in my office on
last year’s Christmas day, when a black limousine pulled up outside the
building of our company. Larry Win, a famous criminal who is wanted by the
useless and pathetic HK government, got off the limousine and went into our
company’s building with his assistants.
My secretary really freaked out
when she spotted Larry along with his assistants, all armed with AK-47, enter
our office.
“Mr. Ball, someone outsides
w……wants to s……see you.”
“Let them in, and quit stammering.”
Frankly speaking, I was also quite
scared and shocked to see these unexpected guests step into my office.
Nevertheless, I tried my best to look confident in the outside.
A leather handbag which is stuffed
and overloaded landed on my table with a loud “Bang!”
“Merry Christmas, Mr. Ball. How’re
you doing lately?”
“Be honest and tell me WHAT DO YOU
WANT?!”
“No need to be so defensive. It is
ten kilograms of cocaine inside this bag. I’ll let you have it as a Christmas
present from me.”
“What’s the point of giving me all
this? I’m not going to make use of it anyway, considering all the bad effects
it does to my body.”
“I see, so you’re a law-abiding
citizen, am I right? But hang on a sec, people will get addicted to the
fishballs your company produces if you add in a bit of these, right? Then your
company can make a lot more money, and I benefit from this too, so it’s a
win-win situation. OK now, if you’re interested, just phone my assistant to
make arrangement and I’ll offer a 30% discount exclusively for you. Think about
it, dude.”
The gang then left, leaving me
struggling on what to do next.
“Hey, Mr. Fish Ball, dinner is
ready.” My roommate, Paul reminded.
Paul was really addicted to
cocaine, and consumed loads of it each day. Right now, he is adding some of his
white powder onto his curry fishballs, and painfully reminded me the utterly
wrong decision I made.
Larry was experienced in hiding his
crime from the government. He first shipped the cocaine, from Argentina, to the
middle of nowhere in mainland, packed it into bags which said “Starch” outside,
then transported it to Hong Kong. To play safe, he also bribed some governors.
These methods kept our illegal business deal secret.
One evening, my wife was watching
the finance news report on television.
“Good Fish Company held a press
conference today. Their profit rose 95.1% to HKD 51.5 billion. The price of the
company’s stocks also rose 58.5% to……”
“Wow, I can’t believe that your
company has been doing so well lately. You’re an amazing businessmen!”
“Stop using the fishballs of our
company, it’s bad.”
“What? But why……”
“Are you deaf? Just do as I say!”
As everyone knows, cocaine does
great harm to the human body, and some nosy reporters started to find out the
fact that consumers regularly purchasing our company’s fishballs are getting
unhealthier. To prevent them from discovering the truth, I decided temporarily
stop purchasing the cocaine from Larry.
However, Larry was way more cunning
than I expected. Of course, my decision made him earn less, and also made him
furious, and he fired back. Fiercely. Firstly, the bribe was changed to be paid
from our company’s bank account directly, as he said his gang was undergoing a
“financial redevelopment”, and I was unbelievably foolish and believed in him.
Moreover, he also found someone to report to the Hong Kong Police about the bad
fishballs containing cocaine.
After all these careful
arrangements, he seemed to have no relationship at all with the cocaine
fishballs, and I, as the CEO of the company, had to take up all the
responsibility. Finally, I was sentenced to a lifelong imprisonment.
Well, this is the end of my sad
little story. I hope you would learn a thing or two from it, and, most
importantly, do not follow my footsteps. Lastly, I wish you all a Christmas
merrier then mine.
