Moneyman

I took a smack against the ear and an intense pain swelled up in my left ear. It resonated through my skull entirely like a cancer. I was about to give up. Aap was hunching over me. It meant “duck” in Cantonese. My hands were tied to the chair in the lock-up. There was no point in screaming. Or at least that’s what a real man shouldn’t do. “You out of time, piggy.”

Aap was dai lo. He ran with the Big Circle Boys that came over from Portland. Their presence was pretty small around here still. But they carried the name. A few months ago I lost a lot of friends cause I needed money. But things were different with the Big Circle Boys. There was big money to be made, but that was the only thing that mattered. No code, no morals. Everybody watch their own back.

I made a mistake a few weeks ago. I regret it. I could just leave. I always did my job well. Did what I was asked to do. If I quit my job at the harbor, somebody else would take my spot. But the Big Circle Boys were getting stronger. It was like a multinational setting up shop on the far side of the world. They don’t care about the people who live there or the people who make them money. And I wanted that to change. For my friends. But friends don’t exist in this business.

I tipped one of the guys with Water Room. Told them where a truck was going to put a container with meth. I hoped to jeopardize their operation that way. And I did. But Big Circle Boys got eyes and ears everywhere. So one-day Aap would come. And he did. But I knew they weren’t going to kill me. So this beating, the nails they were going to pull from my fingers— it was just a part I had to go through.

Super Wok Explosion is a unique animated web-series about Chinese organized crime. The project is funded entirely by its audience. On this website, animator Tony Cheuk likes to share information about Asian organized crime—and world-building of the universe of the series, Chinese tongs and triads. If you're interested in learning more about the project, you can click here.