“You’ll pay for him?”
The short man looked up and down at the strange figure who had suddenly barged in—a person covering half their face and forehead with a linen cloth, only their eyes visible, clutching a wooden rake. Then his expression turned grim.
“Who do you think you are? You think just because you cover your face and hold a broken broom you can act tough in front of me?!”
“Don’t worry about who I am. I can make up the remaining half tael. Do you want the silver or not?”
The masked figure cautiously stepped closer, revealing half a tael of silver from their palm.
The short man squinted, looking the masked person up and down again, as if testing them. But just by looking, he couldn’t figure out the person’s background. So… he reached out and snatched the silver from their hand.
Seeing this, the masked figure quickly pulled Qian Ergou toward them and turned to leave.
“Stop!” the short man suddenly called out.
“I’ve paid you in full. What else do you want?” The masked figure frowned and turned back.
At that moment, Chai Mao was approaching with a smile, club in hand.
“Take off the cloth on your face. I want to see what you look like. Since you two have paid protection money, I need to know your faces to protect you properly, right?” the short man said, then gave Chai Mao a wink.
Chai Mao instantly understood. The next moment, he suddenly reached out toward the masked figure’s face.
But the masked figure caught his hand. The strength was almost equal, so much so that Chai Mao, who weighed nearly two hundred catties, couldn’t get the upper hand and had to pull back a step.
Seeing Chai Mao step back, the masked figure’s eyes showed a hint of surprise—as if they hadn’t expected to block such a fat hand. But there was no time to think. They frowned and scanned the tavern.
It seemed that besides the short man and Chai Mao, there were others from the same gang present. If a fight broke out, they’d probably be evenly matched. He and Qian Ergou would be torn into five pieces by the enemy.
“Let them go.”
Just as the short man was getting up to make a move on them, and the atmosphere was at its most tense, a deep voice came from the second-floor stairway.
A burly man wearing a beast-skin coat stood at the top of the stairs, speaking in a commanding tone.
“Brother Liang, they…” The short man was startled and wanted to say something more, unwilling.
“Our Stream Sand Gang does business with integrity. Since they’ve paid enough money, let them go for today.” The man in the coat gave him a cold stare.
The short man frowned but didn’t dare say anything more.
Seeing this, the masked figure immediately pulled Qian Ergou and ran outside without hesitation.
“Brother Liang, why let them go? That kid may have some strength, but he definitely hasn’t opened his orifices. He’s not even a trained martial artist, at most a half-baked amateur. Old Chai and I could have easily handled them.” The short man asked, very puzzled.
But Brother Liang didn’t seem inclined to explain. He simply turned and went upstairs.
He went back upstairs, all the way to a private balcony room on the second floor. As he stepped in, his cold expression immediately turned into a smile, and he raised his hands high.
“This female warrior, I’ve let them go. Now can you move the blade away from my brother’s neck?”
Inside the room, a woman in a black brocade robe with a black veil covering her face and crimson eyes was holding a long sword to the neck of a young man in fine clothes.
The woman turned her head and saw the masked figure and Qian Ergou running wildly in the street. After their figures disappeared from sight, she slowly sheathed her sword.
“Don’t let me see your people touch them again,” she said coldly.
“I can’t guarantee that… I’ve been almost completely sidelined in the gang. The gang is now filled with people sent down from the Blood Seal Hall in town. They don’t really respect me. They behave a bit in front of me, but privately, there’s nothing I can do about what they do. That short man, Li Tie, is from the Blood Seal Hall.” Brother Liang shrugged.
“Then I can’t guarantee I won’t kill your brother next time,” she said calmly.
“Miss, red eyes, skilled with a blade. As far as I know, only the Shangguang family from the Cangyang Dynasty fits that description. I think some people would be happy to hear that there’s a survivor of the Shangguang family.”
Brother Liang spoke in a deep tone, then smiled. “It seems you’ve been hiding for years. Why reveal yourself today? Are you that concerned about those two? About that Ergou… I guess not. So it’s the later masked one?”
The woman’s eyes turned icy cold, and her sword came out again.
“Are you sure you want to go all out against me in my territory? Someone as young as you who has already opened seven orifices is certainly terrifying, but can you guarantee you can kill everyone here? And can you guarantee that the Blood Seal Hall won’t track you down?” Brother Liang said nonchalantly.
“Actually, we can sit down and shake hands. You and I can cooperate. You help me regain control of the Stream Sand Gang, and I’ll keep your identity secret. I can also protect that little lover you care about.” He smiled as he proposed.
“No interest.”
The woman didn’t want to linger here, but not because she couldn’t kill everyone. Wiping out the Stream Sand Gang was a small matter, but if it caused a stir, she’d have to leave Streamstone Village, and then… it would be hard to see him again.
She sheathed her sword again, turned, and vanished.
—
Meanwhile, the masked figure was supporting Qian Ergou and heading toward the Qian family home.
“Don’t go to my house. I can’t let my mother see me like this. I just have some superficial injuries. Find a place for me to rest.”
Qian Ergou called out as they neared home.
The masked figure helped him sit down in a shady spot with a small haystack.
“Thank you. May I ask who you are…” Qian Ergou caught his breath, looking at the masked figure with embarrassment and gratitude.
The masked figure tore off the linen cloth, looked at him, and sighed.
“Old, Old Su?!” Qian Ergou’s eyes went wide.
“How is it you?!”
Su Yu rolled his eyes. “Who else could it be?”
“What exactly is going on, Ergou?” Su Yu didn’t have time for small talk and asked directly.
“It’s just as you saw… The Stream Sand Gang, I don’t know if they’ve gone crazy for money, but they’ve been collecting protection fees door to door along this street near the tavern. I told my mother to stay indoors these days to hide, but one day they caught me on the road, recognized me as the Qian family boy, and gave me seven days to come up with five taels of silver for protection.”
“I couldn’t get it, so they threatened to go after my mother… Later, they saw that Old Su and I were close, and they used you to threaten me too. I had no choice, I had to do it. I didn’t mean to cheat you out of the money…”
Qian Ergou lowered his head, speaking in embarrassment and helplessness.
Su Yu was silent. He was actually helpless in this situation now. Though the morning stance training seemed to have increased his strength a bit, that was it.
[Notice: The half-hour lunch break schedule has ended. The plan “Go to Martial Hall to practice martial arts” is pending execution.]
But before Su Yu could think more, the cold countdown sounded again in his mind. The countdown came one after another.
Hearing the countdown, Su Yu couldn’t help but glance at the [Training Progress Bar] in front of him, a glint of cold light flashing in his eyes.
Actually, it wasn’t entirely hopeless. The Stream Sand Gang wasn’t a big gang. The only true martial artists who had initiated into the Martial Path were the gang leader, vice leader, and a couple of others. The rest were mostly half-baked street thugs.
If he could use the schedule progress bar to quickly initiate into the Martial Path, he probably couldn’t eliminate the entire Stream Sand Gang, but killing that short man and fat man who were bothering Ergou should be easy.
“Just leave this to me. You hide from them for a few days, okay? Just a few days.”
“Old Su, what do you mean?”
Qian Ergou looked at Su Yu with some confusion.
But Su Yu didn’t answer. He simply stood up and walked away without looking back.
Qian Ergou watched him run toward the Martial Hall. Though his reason told him Su Yu definitely couldn’t solve this, seeing his determined back heading to the Martial Hall made a glimmer of hope rise in his heart.
‘So Old Su was really serious…’
He remembered his mockery of Su Yu’s martial arts practice that morning and began to feel guilty.
But he didn’t know that Su Yu wasn’t actually that determined.
[Detected that the executor did not execute the “Bullhead” schedule plan. Electric shock punishment countdown initiated.]
“Hey, didn’t you see I was just saving someone?! Can’t you prioritize?!”
[Three]
“Stop shocking me! Can’t you see I’m on my way back to the Martial Hall?”
[Two]
“Damn it!”
[One]
“Damn it!!!”
“Aaaaaaaaaaaah——!!!”
Under the confused gazes of onlookers, Su Yu convulsed and struggled as he ran toward the Martial Hall.