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Red Dead Redemption

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Love is the Opiate, Zhou

Love is the Opiate

Zhou

Given by
Zhou
Starts at
Begin at the Butchery in El Matadero (South of Diez Coronas)
Locations
El Matadero
Rewards
Reyes' Rebels Outfit scrap, +50 Fame, +100 Honor

Player notes

At the Butchery in El Matadero, John Marston meets Zhou, a Chinese immigrant bound to foreman Juan de la Vara as an indentured servant. Zhou longs to return to Shanghai, where the woman he loves is waiting, but Vara insists that his contract prevents him from leaving. Vara says Zhou would owe him $10,000 for breaking it, then offers another arrangement: he will release Zhou in exchange for a White Stallion.

John rides into Diez Coronas and finds a white Hungarian Half-Bred among the wild herds. He captures and tames the stallion, then brings it back to El Matadero. Vara accepts the horse and rides away on it, while Zhou is freed from his service at the butchery.

A few days later, John finds Zhou at the railway station in Chuparosa. Zhou is barely coherent and speaks of the beloved he has left behind in Shanghai. John listens as Zhou drifts through his thoughts, then leaves him at the station.

Trivia

  • โ—†In the second encounter with Zhou, John claims he left El Matadero "weeks ago", even though the second encounter can be activated just days after the first.
  • โ—†Occasionally, if you whistle for your horse after the butcher rides off with the white stallion, another white horse will appear instead of a random two star horse.
  • โ—†John mentions the bad treatment the Chinese workers are receiving to Abraham Reyes during "The Gates of El Presidio" to which Reyes responds by claiming that they are an "inferior race".
  • โ—†There is an entertaining bug which occasionally occurs when you free Zhou. The foreman of the butchery will be invisible during a cutscene, but the broom in which he is sweeping with still moves. So all the player sees is a broom sweeping on its own.
  • โ—†Occasionally, when you are talking to Zhou in Chuparosa, a train will arrive when you are talking to him in the cutscene. Strangely enough, he does not get on.
  • โ—†The stallion required to complete the mission is another reference to opiates, "white horse" being slang for heroin.
  • โ—†In the cutscenes of the side-mission, Zhou pronounces 'beloved' in two different ways. Sometimes the British way and other times the American way.
  • โ—†Even if the player has $10,000 or more when starting the side-mission, they are not given the option to pay to have Zhou released from his contract.

This mission shares a wiki page with others in its chain, so page-level facts are not attributed to it.

View on Red Dead Wiki โ†’

Stranger quest data from Red Dead Wiki, CC BY-SA. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games.

Last verified September 14, 2026