Chapter 3 – The Bamboo Mouse Trap
"Alright. I've got a saw at home—give me a minute." Though Zhao Liming didn't quite understand what it was for, he agreed right away.
A short while later, the two of them gathered their tools for cutting.
In the shack settlement, most houses were built with scrap wood, and nearly every household had some tools for working with wood.
Before long, the two of them arrived at the hillside behind the settlement.
Among the piles of construction waste scattered across the hillside, it didn't take them long to find stacks of discarded bamboo.
"There's so much broken bamboo. What do you want to do with this? You can't even sell it. If it was worth anything, someone else would've taken it by now," Zhao Liming said, puzzled.
Yang Wendong smiled. "True, it's worthless right now—but we can turn it into something that is."
"Something worth money?" Zhao Liming was curious now.
Yang Wendong spread out his hands. "First, cut some pieces this long. I'm going to make a few small things. Once I'm done, you'll see."
He demonstrated the size with his hands, and Zhao Liming got to work sawing. Meanwhile, Wendong began crafting his own parts.
About ten minutes later, each had finished their task. Wendong then took up an axe, carved two holes into the side of a bamboo tube, inserted thin bamboo strips into them, and tied everything together using a string he had gotten from Su Yiyi.
"This is… a mouse trap?" Zhao Liming looked at the finished product, glanced at the trigger mechanism, and took a guess.
Yang Wendong nodded. "Yes. This is a bamboo tube mouse trap. In the countryside where bamboo is plentiful, people use these to catch rats.
All you need to do is put a bit of food inside. When the rat goes in and triggers the mechanism, the bamboo slats snap shut, trapping it inside. The rat can't move and will eventually suffocate."
"Seriously? That effective?" Zhao Liming had never seen anything like it before.
Yang Wendong chuckled. "Of course. But we'll have to test it tonight to make sure."
"Mm." Zhao Liming nodded, then asked, "So you plan to make money by selling these?"
Yang Wendong said, "Exactly. Hong Kong's rat problem is pretty bad right now. As long as we can prove these traps work, someone will definitely buy them."
Zhao Liming asked, "But how effective are these traps compared to others?"
"Not amazing," Yang Wendong admitted with a grin. "But not bad either—decent."
"Huh?" Zhao Liming was confused. "Then how will you sell them?"
Yang Wendong smiled again. "What rat control tools are on the market right now?"
Zhao Liming thought for a moment. "There's rat poison, cages, and snap traps. I don't know of anything else."
"Right, those are the main ones," Yang Wendong nodded. "But each of those has flaws:
Snap traps can hurt people or pets. Rat poison is even worse—a small amount can be deadly to humans. And cages, while effective, are too expensive—four or five dollars each."
"So your bamboo traps are… cheap?" Zhao Liming caught on quickly.
"Exactly. Dirt cheap. We have an unlimited supply of free raw materials."
In Hong Kong, bamboo had a special purpose.
In most places around the world, construction scaffolding was made from steel pipes. But Hong Kong didn't have a domestic steel industry and relied on imports. Steel was expensive, and with Hong Kong's humid coastal environment, it also rusted easily.
Bamboo, on the other hand, was cheap and abundant. After a few years of use in construction, once its strength diminished, it was discarded—but it was still perfectly usable for making mouse traps.
And since iron was so expensive, rat cages and traps were also prohibitively priced.
"Yeah, I guess so. There's no way we could use up all this bamboo, even if we worked ourselves to death," Zhao Liming said with a laugh.
"So as long as we keep the price low, and the trap actually catches rats, someone will buy it."
Zhao Liming asked, "But who will buy it? The folks in the shack settlements probably won't—they can make one themselves."
Yang Wendong shook his head. "Of course not. Would you pay to catch rats here? Even if you catch one, so what? They're everywhere—you'll never get them all.
We need to sell to proper households. People with real homes, a bit of money, and enclosed living spaces. They don't have as many rats, so catching a few makes a real difference. Or at least it reduces the problem."
Zhao Liming frowned. "So, what—you're going to walk the streets and sell them?"
"Exactly," Yang Wendong nodded.
"Walking the streets" was just like in those old TV dramas about the Republic era—kids or adults walking around with baskets, peddling their goods.
Actually, even many adults earned their living that way, often with a shoulder pole instead of a basket. They couldn't afford proper vendor stalls.
Zhao Liming said worriedly, "But street vending isn't easy."
"Nothing in life is easy," Yang Wendong said calmly. "Let's see if we can catch any rats first—then we'll worry about selling."
Hong Kong's society in 1958 could only be described as "utterly bleak." Whether you were a laborer or a small-time vendor, you were guaranteed to be exploited.
Once they got home, Yang Wendong explained the purpose of the bamboo trap to Su Yiyi and placed a bit of leftover chicken broth mixed with rice porridge at the back of the trap as bait.
That evening, Auntie Guo returned home, looking utterly exhausted.
"Mom? How are you feeling?" Su Yiyi asked anxiously. None of them had slept the night before, and she had gone to work alone that day.
Auntie Guo smiled. "It's alright. I got a bit of rest at noon."
Su Yiyi quickly brought out the food she had prepared. When Auntie Guo saw the chicken, she frowned. "Didn't I tell you that was for Dongzai?"
"I'm full already," Yang Wendong said, then quickly changed the subject. "Auntie Guo, I made something to catch rats."
He then brought out his handmade trap and explained the idea.
After examining the trap, Auntie Guo thought for a moment and said, "Doing a small business like this might be a good idea. Relying on working for others, we can barely get by.
But honestly, it's not easy. Yiyi's father once tried starting a small business—he got burned badly and ended up back at the docks."
"I understand," Wendong nodded. No matter the era, running a business was always harder than working for someone else—and riskier too.
And in today's lawless Hong Kong, it was even darker and more dangerous.
Later, Auntie Guo was persuaded by Wendong to eat the remaining chicken.
Everyone was exhausted after all they had been through. Once the trap was set, the three of them returned to their wooden rooms and went to sleep early.
Though they were awakened a few times by the cold during the night, for Yang Wendong, it was still the best sleep he'd had since arriving.
The next morning, Su Yiyi woke him. "Brother Dong, we caught a rat."
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