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Ning Que turned his face towards him asking, “If you want to kill people, then just go kill people. What are you poking around my shop’s doorway for?”
The middle-aged man replied, “I’m waiting for the rain to stop, and also waiting for several people.”
“When waiting for the rain to stop, often it doesn’t. When waiting for the time when people come, often they won’t come.” Ning Que advised with good intentions.
“If people don’t come, there’s certainly a reason.” The middle-aged man smiled saying, “However can us two chat a few relatively serious words, and not like those resembling ascetic monks’ exploration tests?”
“This att.i.tude is correct. I also don’t like to exhaust myself wandering around cloudy mountains.” Ning Que smiled and replied, “But I don’t like to squat on the ground and chat with someone standing up, because there’s a difference in height.”
“You can stand up.”
“Why isn’t it you that is squatting down?”
The middle-aged man smiled, he didn’t in the least bit hesitate to directly squat down. His dripping wet blue s.h.i.+rt moved downwards to cover up Old Brush House’s door sill. Then he looked to see that Ning Que had a young and rough, serious face and said, “Right now I’m very much struggling.”
Ning Que lowered his head to eat noodles, waiting for the rest.
“A lot of big figures want me to declare my position, but right now my situation is that I cannot declare my position, so right now I’m in the process of being besieged. My brothers and I do things very cleanly. If authorities want to use Tang law, I’ll be most inconvenienced. So they decided to directly eliminate me tonight. Taking advantage of tonight’s rainy scene, enemies from South City and West City are already surging over here.”
“Are you waiting for those people?”
“I had a brother that died a few days ago. The majority of the remaining brothers are in official jobs. Those big figures very easily use official business to hold them in their barracks and inside of their government offices, so tonight I have very few people.”
The night rain still continued and seemed to have trended towards becoming more heavy. The people the middle-aged man waited for also seemed like they didn’t arrive, but he apparently didn’t care, just calmly and mildly speaking about his own current circ.u.mstances that he was confronted with, without concealing anything. Afterwards he looked at Ning Que the one beside him. Smiling he said, “But all of these are not problems. Tonight my problem lies in that at my side I need a person, but I can’t find that person.”
Ning Que glanced at the sword that he wore on the side of his waist, guessing that the sword inside should be very small. He asked, “What kind of person do you need at your side?”
“Fast enough, ruthless enough, valiant enough – when killing people they can’t blink an eye, and can’t let anything fall on my body.”
“That doesn’t include rainwater?”
“Naturally no.”
“Then this one request isn’t very high.”
Ning Que scratched his somewhat wet hair, asking, “Why is it me?”
The middle-aged man’s gaze fell on the bowl held by his right hand saying, “I inquired about some things. Although Shu Bi Lake’s Lumberjack is inside Chang An and has no reputation, but I’m very clear what the young, expert horse thief killer can do.”
Ning Que was silent for a moment. Afterwards he smiled, and said, “Why would I want to go with you? What are the benefits?”
The middle-aged man very much appreciated the youngster’s directness. Stretching his finger out and flicking rain water on the oil paper umbrella, he said with a smile, “All of ChangAn City doesn’t have a single person that knows my cards. Tonight if I win, that card can be played. At that time you’ll know, I truly have very thick legs, very worthy for you to hang onto.”
“Since tonight is so dangerous, why don’t you use those cards first?”
“Because the cards aren’t a deck of cards – it is a person. I am unable to command him, and on the contrary he can command me. He needs me to win tonight’s battle, because he wants to see if the opposing side has any hidden cards in their hands.”
“Alright. I actually detest this style of dialogue a bit. I only want to say this leg of yours is perhaps very thick, but to me isn’t very attractive. Since you know about the distant s.h.i.+ Bi Lake, then you definitely must know I once had a chance to hang onto a seemingly very slender leg, but in fact was one of the Great Tang’s thickest legs – but I didn’t go and hang on.”
Of course the one Ning Que spoke of was the Great Tang’s Fourth Princess Li Yu. With those words he once again was silent, placing the noodle bowl in his hands on the wet floor, with the middle-aged man squatting shoulder to shoulder watching the rain. In this moment, he suddenly thought of some scene in some story he really liked. Thinking of the conversation with Little Black in the little restaurant, he finally made a decision. (Note author put it like this, it is unrelated to the story but is at the bottom)
After a moment of silence, the middle aged man said, “Perhaps……you’re used to direct offers?”
Ning Que stretched out his hand in the irritating rain and slapped it, and neatly and orderly said, “520 coins of silver.”
The middle-aged man scrunched his brow and suggested, “Too little. Going to add a little more?”
Beside the calligraphy shop door sill on a rainy night, the scene of two people haggling was indeed a bit strange. The employer unexpectedly thought that the money was too little.
Ning Que turned his head looking at him and asked, “How many people do you estimate I have to kill tonight?”
The middle-aged man thought for a bit before he said, “At least 5.”
Ning Que replied, “In the gra.s.slands, killing five horse thieves might not even get me 52 coins, so relax. For 500 coins, I definitely could stake my life on it.”
“I don’t need you to stake your life.” The middle-aged man smiled, looking at him he said, “If it comes to a time where you need to stake your life, you can leave first.”
Ning Que shook his head and said, “That’s not the way I do things. ‘Comradery is stronger than gold’ is a very idiotic phrase, but since I’m doing a business, of course I need to respect basic trade ethics.”
The middle-aged man smiled and extended his hand. “Deal.”
Ning Que stretched out his hand and gently shook once and let go, saying, “My surname is Ning, the ‘Ning’ from AnNing (peaceful). Ning Que.”
“My surname is Chao, the ‘Chao’ from Great Tang Chao (Dynasty), Chao XiaoShu.”
“Such an arrogant surname, such a gentle name.”
“People of ChangAn all call me Spring Wind Pavilion’s Old Chao. You can call me brother Chao.”
“Chao XiaoShu sounds a little better….I say XiaoShu, are you the leader of the Fish Dragon Gang?”
“You can call me Old Chao……also, I have never admitted that I was Fish Dragon Gang’s leader. I just gathered up a group of brothers, and did a few things that were inconvenient for the Imperial Court, that’s all.”
Ning Que finally confirmed his ident.i.ty. Smiling and patting his shoulder he said, “ChangAn’s number one gang’s leader is still so modest. XiaoShu, with that it seems too fake.” …… ……
Pulling out an ordinary styled blade from a pile of firewood, searching for a yellow poplar hardwood bow and a quiver, picking up a big black umbrella wrapped in layers of worn cloth from a crude blue ceramic pot, then fastening everything on his back, he continued to grope around the bottom of a chest for quite a while. He felt out a black mask that who knows how long since it was last washed.
Carefully putting on a tight-fitting flexible armor, on the outside he wore a tight-pressuring short-sleeved robe. He parted his hair and fastened the full moon style commonly seen among the men of the country. Using the black mask to cover half his face, Ning Que carefully looked it over for a while in front of a bronze mirror. Confirming that there were no gaps, he went out to beyond the small kitchen and stuck his head inside and said, “I’m leaving.”
Sang Sang was tidying the kitchen stove, and was.h.i.+ng pots, bowls, and brushes. Her face had no emotion whatsoever. Her willow thin, slender eyes had a vaguely childish irritation, and without knowing why, today the little maid was very much done with the motion of putting away bowls and cleaning brushes big time. From time to time the m.u.f.fled sound of slamming could be heard, and she rubbed a pot with force like she wanted to rub right through the black pot’s bottom.
Ning Que slightly paused, then he understood a bit. Gently explaining he said, “Being able to earn some silver is always good, and it looks to me like that guy should have quite the backing. Giving the other side a favor is something I can use in the future.”
With a bang, Sang Sang heavily threw the rag on top of the stove. Carrying a heavy metal wok, she went by herself and poured the dirty water with a twist of the little maid’s waist – unexpectedly like she didn’t see him, and hadn’t heard his explanation.
Ning Que rubbed his brow. After a bit of silence he said, “Little Black that idiot carelessly left one word and then let out a fart. Even if I make excuses I have no way of going to the afterlife to look for him, then tonight can be considered paying him back in his place.”
After saying this, he no longer concerned himself with little Sang Sang’s little sulking. After going directly out of the back residence, he went to the front of the shop.
Spring Wind Pavilion’s Old Chao, as the leader of ChangAn’s number one gang, the Fish Dragon Gang, drifted in the JiangHu for years. Who knows how many exceptional strange types he had seen, and he knew that the Old Brush House’s young boss definitely was one among exceptional people. Being mentally prepared for a while, but now seeing Ning Que with this outfit, he still couldn’t help but to feel a bit of surprise. He looked at that mysterious rag-wrapped stick thing on Ning Que’s back, and with a slightly wry smile said, “Looking at your outfit it doesn’t look like you’re going to kill people. Instead it’s like a rascal that owes a gambling debt about to flee the same night. Perhaps you plan to take all of the things in your home and put it on your back?”
“I only have a blade on my back. You happy with it?”
Ning Que walked to his side, taking a glimpse of the wind and rain on Forty Lane. Noting that the ends of the alley didn’t have a trace of anyone, he couldn’t help but frown and say, “I hope that there are no traitors among your brothers. I don’t hope to follow your winds to the scene of killing people and tomorrow turn into a wanted poster of the ChangAn government.”
Spring Wind Pavilion* Old Chao lowered his head and glanced at this black mask that covered more than half of this youngster’s face, and with a smile he said, “In truth you don’t need this kind of precaution. If after tonight you and I are still alive, then in the future as long as you don’t violate Tang law and commit crimes, in the entire Tang Dynasty that this Chang An City sits on, you wouldn’t have anyone that dares to come looking for you for trouble.”
Hearing these words, Ning Que thought, who said that ChangAn’s number one gang didn’t have backing, but he still didn’t have the thought of taking off his mask and killing people clear as day. A clear young voice separated by a black mask sounded out. “I’m used to a low profile.”
Spring Wind Pavilion Old Chao smiled, and didn’t again comfort him of anything.
The peace of a spring night had long been disrupted by the sound of rain. At the moment, there were many sounds of footsteps. Ning Que walked out from the door sill, and Chao XiaoShu opened the oil paper umbrella, that seemingly was unable to break the wind. The two people simultaneously raised their steps towards the night scene and walked into the rain.
Sang Sang charged out. She stood inside of the entrance, with both hands carrying that big heavy metal wok. Seeing that bowl on the table still had a lot of noodles left, and seeing the back of a figure in that windy and rainy little alley she anxiously yelled, “Master, you still haven’t eaten all your noodles!”
Ning Que turned around with a smile gazing at her, and then said, “Just leave it there, when I come back I’ll continue eating.”
Sang Sang carried that big metal wok, leaning her thin little shoulders against the rain-soaked shop doorway, and loudly called, “When it’s cold it isn’t good!”
Ning Que waved his hand forcefully; smiling he loudly replied, “Then make another pot, and wait for me to come back to eat.”
Sang Sang tightly pursed her little mouth. Seeing him turning to go, she finally yelled out, “I’ll put more chopped green onions. Master you have to remember to come back to eat!”
Ning Que didn’t respond, but behind the black mask both his eyes had a smile that became more and more strong. Seeing the darker and darker scenery of the alley, and seeing the harder and harder rain, he suddenly spoke up asking, “XiaoShu, where are we going now?”
“Spring Wind Pavilion.”
Old Chao calmly replied, “My home is over there…..enemies are also there, and I still suggest that you call me Old Chao, because you are the XiaoShu.”
In the alley the wind and rain was as before, not knowing where that Spring Wind Pavilion place was.
*Chun Feng Pavilion = Spring Wind Pavilion
(Note: Wen Rui’an (an author) Sang Sang carrying a big metal wok standing at the slightly moist shop door finally yelled, “Weekly nomination list is exploding! Need recommendation votes!))
