Author: 哔哔 (Bi Bi) / Jin Gang Quan
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 64
That young man was Ji Jing, Xiong’er’s childhood friend.
He was very warm toward Xiong’er. He reached out and gave him a quick hug. “I didn’t think you’d actually come.” After he’d sent that letter, Xiong’er hesitated for ages and never wrote back. He’d assumed Xiong’er wasn’t coming at all.
After catching up with Xiong’er, Ji Jing said to Xiongda, “Brother Xiongda, I didn’t think you’d be able to come too. That’s great.”
Xiongda was reserved by nature and only nodded at him.
Only then did Ji Jing look at Huo Fenghua. Two lanterns hung at the restaurant entrance, and in the dim yellow light he couldn’t make out Huo Fenghua clearly, only that he looked slender. So he asked Xiong’er, “And this gentleman is?”
Before Xiong’er could speak, Huo Fenghua smiled and said, “My surname’s Su. My given name’s Qiang. My nickname is Wuhetan Qiang. You can call me Brother Qiang.”
When Ji Jing heard “Wuhetan Qiang,” he instinctively glanced at Huo Fenghua’s head. Then he heard “Brother Qiang,” and he gave a soft laugh without replying. He turned to Xiong’er and said, “You’ve had a hard journey. Come in and sit. I’ll have the kitchen send up a table of food and wine.”
They followed Ji Jing into the restaurant. Xiong’er looked around and saw that the main hall was tall, bright, lavish, and splendid. He couldn’t help saying to Ji Jing, “Looks like you’ve really been doing well for yourself here in Wuhetan.”
Ji Jing smiled without saying anything and led them upstairs into a private room. After he shut the door, he finally said, “Thanks to Master Hu thinking well of me, he let me manage a few restaurants here in Wuhetan. When I wrote to you a couple years ago, it was because I wanted you to come help me.”
Ji Jing was trusted by Hu Dong in Wuhetan, but people here were vicious. On the surface they called you brother, but behind your back they waited for the right moment to stab you. Back then, holding things up alone had felt difficult, so he’d wanted Xiong’er to come help. After all, they’d grown up together. That was the kind of person you could truly trust.
The group sat down around a round table.
People brought dishes and wine in one after another. Once all the irrelevant servants had filed out, Ji Jing personally filled cups for Xiongda, Xiong’er, and Huo Fenghua. “Now that you’re here, you’ll follow me and work hard in Wuhetan,” he said, brimming with confidence. Then he raised his cup. “Once you’ve rested up today, in a couple of days, when there’s time, I’ll introduce you to Master Hu.”
Xiong’er didn’t respond. He only glanced at Huo Fenghua.
All the way in, Ji Jing hadn’t paid Huo Fenghua much attention. Now, seeing Xiong’er ignore him and look to Huo Fenghua instead, Ji Jing felt a flash of displeasure and couldn’t help sizing him up again. Under the bright lamplight, he saw that even though Huo Fenghua’s face was smeared with grime, his features were extremely refined, and his eyes were unmistakably bright.
Huo Fenghua smiled. “We don’t want to work under Master Hu. We want to open a gambling house.”
Ji Jing froze and set down his cup. “A gambling house?”
Huo Fenghua nodded.
Ji Jing laughed, with a hint of mockery. “Little brother, do you know who controls the gambling houses in Wuhetan?”
Huo Fenghua propped his cheek on one hand, looking like he was all ears.
So Ji Jing continued, “Every gambling house in Wuhetan is under Third Master Luo’s people. If you want to open one, first you need Third Master Luo’s approval. You pay him tribute every month, and you also have to let his people lend money in your establishment.” He paused, then went on. “Wuhetan isn’t that big. Sure, there are plenty of drunks and degenerate gamblers, but it still can’t accommodate more gambling houses.”
Hearing that, Xiong’er looked toward Huo Fenghua.
Huo Fenghua said, “So what you’re saying is, if I want to open a gambling house, I have to drive that Third Master Luo out of Wuhetan.”
Ji Jing had expected him to say they’d go rely on Third Master Luo. He hadn’t expected Huo Fenghua to open his mouth and talk about driving Third Master Luo out. Ji Jing couldn’t help letting out a snort of laughter. “You think Third Master Luo could run wild in Wuhetan for this long without having skills? Beside him there’s a subordinate with terrifying martial arts. People call him the Bald Scholar…”
Bang! Huo Fenghua suddenly slammed the table and barked, “Insolence! He dares call himself ‘Bald’!”
Ji Jing wasn’t angry. He only found him exaggerated and ridiculous. “He’s truly bald.”
Huo Fenghua raised a hand and touched his own head. “So you mean I’m a fake bald guy?”
Xiong’er jabbed him with an elbow. “Enough, stop it. You are a fake bald guy. Why do you care about pointless crap like this?”
As soon as he finished speaking, the group heard a loud commotion outside the door, sounding like it was coming from the restaurant’s ground-floor hall.
Since Ji Jing managed the place, he naturally had to go take a look. He opened the door, saw a passing waiter, and asked, “What’s going on downstairs?”
The waiter said, “It seems like Third Master Luo’s people are collecting gambling debts. They made a scene here.”
Huo Fenghua heard that from inside and immediately stood up to watch. The group went to the second-floor railing and looked down into the hall.
Xiong’er asked Ji Jing, “You don’t need to do anything?”
Ji Jing replied, “Let’s watch first. This is common as dirt in Wuhetan. If it doesn’t disturb the other guests eating, we don’t have to interfere. Third Master Luo’s people know the limits when they collect debts.”
Down in the hall, about four fierce-looking men surrounded a middle-aged man. They had an IOU spread open in their hands and shouted, “Pay up!”
The middle-aged man hunched over, begging desperately. “Give me two more days, please. I’m begging Third Master.”
One of the debt collectors grabbed his collar and hauled him up. “Third Master said tomorrow’s the last deadline. If you can’t pay, then you’ll obediently send your son over to settle the debt!”
The middle-aged man’s eyes went wide, his face going ghastly white. He grabbed at the man’s hand. “I, I have a daughter, fourteen this year. I’ll send her to settle it. Please, let Third Master spare my son, okay?”
The collector flung him off in disgust. “Enough talk. Let’s go!” With that, the group left the restaurant.
The middle-aged man collapsed limply to the floor. Soon the restaurant staff dragged him up and threw him out.
Huo Fenghua frowned hard. “He’s shameless. Not only does he gamble like that, he even wants to trade his fourteen-year-old daughter to save his son.”
Ji Jing said, “That’s because you don’t know. If he sends his daughter to Third Master Luo, he might live. If it’s the son, there’s a good chance he goes and never comes back.”
Huo Fenghua looked startled.
Ji Jing felt this wasn’t a good place to talk, so he waved them back inside. After he shut the door, he said, “That Bald Scholar under Third Master Luo has been refining ‘medicine men’ lately.”
“Medicine men?” Xiong’er asked curiously. “What’s that?”
Ji Jing said, “I can’t really explain it clearly either. We’re not that connected with Master Luo’s side. But the talk is that the Bald Scholar is using living people to test drugs, trying to refine a living corpse that has bronze skin and iron bones, formidable martial arts, and is under his control. Third Master Luo has been grabbing people for him to test on. Who knows how many bodies have already been carried out from the back courtyard of the Luo residence.”
“That vicious?” Xiong’er’s heart jolted.
Ji Jing lowered his voice. “There’s no law here. If you walk out at night and someone cuts you down with one knife, you’re dead, and that’s that. So you should find a backer as soon as possible. With a backer, before someone lays a hand on you, they’ll weigh it first and see whether they can afford to.”
Between the lines, he was trying to persuade Xiongda and Xiong’er to follow him and work under Hu Dong.
Huo Fenghua was thinking about something else and didn’t notice what he was saying. He suddenly said, “I want to make a trip to Third Master Luo’s residence.”
Everyone looked at him.
Huo Fenghua rubbed his chin. “Go meet that Bald Scholar.”
Xiongda hurriedly raised both hands and signed at Huo Fenghua. They’d been together long enough that Huo Fenghua could roughly understand. He nodded and said, “I know I might not be his match. I’m not going to clash with him head-on. I’m just going to test the waters. Don’t worry.”
Xiong’er frowned. “You have no idea what it’s like in there. If you charge in recklessly and can’t get out, then what?”
Huo Fenghua smiled. “Then it comes down to each person’s skills.”
Xiongda signed that he wanted to go with him.
Huo Fenghua shook his head. “You stay here. I’ll go alone. Otherwise if I have to run for my life, I’ll still be thinking about you.”
At the hour of Yin*, Huo Fenghua brought Xiongda and Xiong’er to the narrow alley behind the Luo residence, following the direction Ji Jing had pointed out.
*Between 3-5 AM.
Even in Wuhetan, most people were asleep by then. Only now and then did a drunk stagger past on the street. There were also people lying along the roadside, dark shapes you couldn’t see clearly. You couldn’t tell whether they were drunks passed out or already corpses.
Huo Fenghua wore black. He tightened his cuffs and pant legs, had Xiongda and Xiong’er wait outside, then climbed the wall in alone.
Inside Third Master Luo’s residence, everything was dark and quiet. Everyone seemed to be asleep. Only pairs of servants patrolled with lanterns. As they walked they chatted casually, never imagining someone had slipped in during the night.
At first, Huo Fenghua had only wanted to open a gambling house and satisfy his own wish. He hadn’t figured out how to deal with Third Master Luo. But after hearing Ji Jing talk about how brutal and vicious Third Master Luo and the Bald Scholar were, he started thinking he might as well rid the world of them.
Unfortunately, the Luo residence was large, and he didn’t know which room belonged to Third Master Luo. He couldn’t just barge around blindly.
The spot he climbed in was the back courtyard, not far from the rear gate. Just then, he heard heavy footsteps approaching. He immediately hid behind a fake rockery. Through the gap, he saw two people come out of a side door, dragging an enormous cloth sack along the ground. The sack looked extremely heavy, and it made a dull sound as it scraped.
They dragged it to the back gate and opened it, then lifted the sack together and carried it out of the residence.
Huo Fenghua paused, remembering what Ji Jing had said. He thought, Could that sack be a corpse? A chill ran through him. He looked toward the side door they’d come from. The back-courtyard patrol had already moved farther away, so he silently ran over.
Through that side door was another big courtyard. A room in that courtyard still had lamplight glowing inside.
Huo Fenghua perched in a large tree in the courtyard and watched the window, holding his breath and listening carefully. He didn’t detect any movement, only the shallow breathing of several people, none of whom sounded like skilled fighters.
So he moved closer. He wet the window paper and gently poked a hole to peer inside. The room was empty except for several tall iron cages. Four of them held people, and three were empty.
The people in the cages were sprawled on the ground asleep. At a glance they were all young men. Huo Fenghua’s gaze swept over them, then landed on the face of one man near the door, and his whole body jolted.
That ragged, disheveled-haired man leaning against the iron bars with his eyes shut was Wen Heyi.
Why was Martial Uncle Wen here? Huo Fenghua’s mind went completely blank.
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