In 1966, as Li grew up, he moved out on his own and settled in Ming Wah Dai Ha. “I was so happy then, the school where I worked was just across the road,” he recalls. He worked as a clerk at Salesian English School. After finishing work at 5 pm, he would return to his house at the estate to attend to his injured neighbours suffering from sprains or bruises. “There is a slope in Ming Wah (Chai Wan Road). You can easily get hurt if you don’t watch your step when walking there.” 

He cared for his neighbours as much as they cared for his family. When his wife went out to pick up their eldest son from school, the neighbours would volunteer to look after their younger daughter, easing the burden on his wife who had to care for two kids. They also shared homemade soups with each other. Li said that Block H was very safe at that time. “Whenever they heard someone shouting for help, neigbours would come out and lend each other a hand.”

Master Li led a busy life juggling work and family responsibilities, but every night at 7 pm, he would walk to the Shau Kei Wan terminus and take the tram to a martial arts school in Wan Chai to teach kung fu, hoping to ease the burden on his godmother. The school later invited him to form a Chinese martial arts team after finding out that he practised martial arts. He recalls, “It was a scorching summer, in 1969, when more than 60 students gathered on the rooftop to practise horse stance. But when school resumed in September, only 16 remained.” Most of those who stayed were close to him, and some were even sons of his neighbours in Ming Wah. On one of his birthdays, students from his martial arts team surprised him with a lion dance at his doorstep. They had secretly borrowed a lion head and a drum from the school. “They really touched my heart,” he said.