Chapter 127: Suspicion Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The Xu sister and brother knew very well who was the real master and backer.
Xu Xiaoyi had already heard of the t.i.tle Cripple Tie, so he and his sister tried their best to please the half-protector at Southwall Tavern during the last winter. Since the hope to be n.o.blemen in the Stone Kingdom had gone, they had to find a protector to survive in South City.
Tie Hanfeng had personally verified Xu Yanwei’s ability and felt that she was worth making use of. Therefore, he rented a small building at Pleasure Alley for her to continue to work. He also helped the sister and brother to repay all debts to Golden Roc Fort and the Meng family.
All these had been done in the name of “Yang Huan.” Nominally, most of the money earned by the Xu siblings had to be handed over to Slave Huan, but actually, it was under the custody of Tie Hanfeng.
Therefore, during these days when Gu Shenwei lived in the brothel, not only was Xu Xiaoyi too hospitable to “Brother Huan,” but also Xu Yanwei changed her att.i.tude, behaving as delicately as she was when they met her and not talking in a clear-cut way.
Occasionally, she would reveal her true features and told “Mr. Huan” that the guests liked shy prost.i.tutes. Although she had been doing this for five years, every time when a stranger came, he would take her as a new girl and pay her much more money.
The only change in Xu Yanwei was that she no longer received guests with special hobbies. She was now a “normal” prost.i.tute. Tie Hanfeng introduced some guests at the beginning, but soon more guests kept coming for her reputation. Although she was not the hottest prost.i.tute of Pleasure Alley, she was already very popular.
Xu Xiaoyi quit stealing and served as an attendant to his sister’s guests or did some legwork for Tie Hanfeng. He didn’t care that “Brother Huan” is going to sleep with his sister, in fact, he was even happy about it because it showed that they had been “closer.”
“Sister, don’t receive guests tonight!” Xu Xiaoyi shouted loud.
“The old goat wants it again? He still has to pay me.” Xu Yanwei said unhappiness when walking out of the room.
Xu Yanwei always slept until the afternoon and then got up for prinking herself up. At such time, she was often in a lousy mood and tended to tell the truth. Tie Hanfeng’s comment for her was, “you are only a step away from being a first-cla.s.s wh.o.r.e of Pleasure Alley.”
The “old goat” and his apprentice were glaring at each other angrily and ignored Xu Yanwei upstairs. Xu Xiaoyi found it abnormal and said with a smile, “It’s not Mr. Tie, it’s Mr. Huan.”
Xu Yanwei went blank for a while and then said with a smile, “This is interesting. It’s OK without payment.”
Gu Shenwei’s anger kept escalating. What he could not accept was not losing his virginity, but that Tie Hanfeng still took him as a child and wanted to control everything, including his ideas.
The machete was just at his waist, and the power of the swordcraft in Death Scripture will be significantly reduced when the mood was unstable. So Gu Shenwei constrained his anger and stabilized his mind so as to launch a decisive hit.
Feeling the imminent murderous atmosphere, the siblings dared not speak. Xu Xiaoyi retreated to the wall and stood there. Rich experience of making a living in the streets had taught him a truth: when people with machetes were about to fight, he must never try to open his mouth to mediate, just looking on was the best choice.
There was nothing that a killer should owe his master, with such an idea in mind, Gu Shenwei reached for the handle.
However, he still underestimated Tie Hanfeng’s strength.
When his chin was punched, Gu Shenwei’s right hand was still an inch away from the machete handle. The cripple’s boxing skills were as good as his machete skills. There was hardly any routine, just one punch after another, seemingly slow but just unavoidable.
Gu Shenwei has a wealth of experience in being beaten, so he did not hide and just took on his master’s attack. They both tried their utmost to attack without any defense. After only a while, their faces were both seriously injured, with blood splattered. The Xu siblings looked frightened and dared not say anything even if they wanted to stop them.
They stopped almost at the same time, and each took a step back, gasping but still glaring at each other angrily.
Trying to break the awkward silence, Xu Xiaoyi clapped his hands and crying out, “The fight was just…wonderful.”
Coming back to earth, Xu Yanwei, standing upstairs, said with a sneer, “I’ve seen a lot of men fighting for me, but it’s the first time in my life that two men were fighting to avoid sleeping with me.”
Someone was knocking on the door, Xu Xiaoyi looked at “Mr. Tie” and “Mr. Gu,” not knowing what to do.
“Open the door,” ordered Tie Hanfeng, kind of allowing Xu Yanwei to receive the guest. The apprentice’s virginity was temporarily preserved.
The master and the apprentice then hid in the bedroom downstairs, where they usually stayed. After finding gauze to wipe the blood, the two people, one standing and one sitting, did not talk to each other for quite a while.
“You’re just too…what the h.e.l.l are you thinking about?”
Gu Shenwei’s bemused look made Tie Hanfeng puzzled, wondering whether he had fought so hard that his pupil’s brain had been damaged.
“I’m thinking…how many machetewomen are there in the city?” Gu Shenwei took a long breath, seemingly not joking.
Why machetewomen? Why not prost.i.tutes? Listen, there’s no difference between prost.i.tutes and machetewomen except that the latter may have scars on the bodies.
Gu Shenwei shook his head and said, “No, I was thinking about what the child said, ‘aunt will revenge us."”
Although he was no older than the teenager, he regarded him as a child.
Tie Hanfeng was a bit stunned, he didn’t expect that his disciple could think of this, “Don’t worry about it, children always talk big to scare people. Anyway, if he does have an aunt, I’ll take care of her unless she was too ugly.”
“No, I mean few women are practicing Kung Fu, right?” According to the knowledge of Gu Shenwei, few women practiced Fung Ku, except those in the Golden Roc Fort.
“Not many, even in the whole Western Region, and most of them are in the Golden Roc Fort.”
“There are more female killers in the New Moon Hall and the Barren Sect than in the Stone Castle.”
It was until then that Tie Hanfeng understood what his disciple meant. He laughed and said, “Do you think his aunt is a female killer just for a few words of a child?”
Gu Shenwei nodded.
Tie Hanfeng looked at his disciple in astonishment, becoming more skeptical that his brain had been damaged. “Sometimes you are quite smart, but sometimes you are … too smart. You are too serious about what the Stone Castle had taught you and have become so suspicious. So tell me, is there someone hiding in the bed? Is the guest upstairs an a.s.sa.s.sin from the Stone Kingdom? Has Xu Xiaoyi been bribed to poison us? By the way, I heard people talking about the ‘iron shop’ yesterday, does this mean someone wants to plot against me?”
Gu Shenwei didn’t answer. His being suspicious was not taught by the Golden Roc Fort, but was intended to deal with the Golden Roc Fort, “When I held the saber, the child’s eyes … he knew it was a saber of the Golden Roc Fort, but he still said confidently, ‘aunt will revenge us.’ There have been no people from the New Moon Hall for several days, so I think why not take the initiative to find them, which is better than do nothing as a bait.”
“Just do whatever you want for the investigation.” Tie Hanfeng was very unhappy because he failed to convince his disciple on several matters in a row. After a short period of silence, he said, “You are really a troublemaker. How many troubles have you made and how many people have you offended since you entered the Stone Castle? There are so many apprentices like you, but none of them have so more enemies than you, Do you know why? Your problem is that you are too suspicious and ambitious. You always refuse to settle for being a slave or a killer. You’ve been running too fast and standing in the way of the others, which will make you die sooner or later.”
Gu Shenwei also knew this, but as a teenager who wanted to take revenge on the whole Golden Roc Fort that had destroyed his family, how could there be any possibility if he was not so suspicious and ambitious enough?
“I need your help,” said Gu Shenwei. In the South City, he could not get any clue without the guidance of Cripple Tie, and he was tired of waiting pa.s.sively for the enemy to come. Because he had a painful experience of losing the initiative, he always thought about taking it back.
Tie Hanfeng frowned. He was more willing to take this opportunity to consolidate his private business, “All right, don’t waste too much of my time.”
“I would not. I want to ask Nie Qing’s friends first. He must have some acquaintances here since he had brought his whole family to the Jade City.”
In order to kill Nie Qing, the macheteman, Tie Hanfeng had gotten enough information about him, “Nie Qing came from the Northeastern Soldiers Camp, where there are many poor people and stupid machetemen, who had swarmed into the South City like rats. Piles of people dying before their eyes cannot wake them up. He must have acquaintances who are so familiar with him that they can even betray him. Let’s go to the Toad Tavern, where there are a lot of such people.”
When the master and disciple left the brothel, they were so kind to each other and even made way for each other at the door, which made Xu Xiaoyi speechless with surprise. He just kept shaking and nodding his head after closing the door, even failing to hear the shouts of the guests upstairs.
The Toad Tavern was located at the edge of the city, not far from the village. Tie Hanfeng was very familiar with the shopkeeper although it was not a place under his control.
It was already late at night when they arrived at the tavern, where there were so busy and noise as it was just at the peak hours.
Tie Hanfeng greeted the shopkeeper warmly, and later, he pulled the disciple aside and said. “He can’t reveal any information because it is a rule. You have to find it out by yourself.”
Tie Hanfeng pushed on his disciple’s shoulder, wondering what this suspicious disciple could find out by himself.
Small as it is, the tavern has so many guests. Dozens of rough machetemen were spending the best time of the day here, competing with drinking and machete skills, bragging and talking about women, as if everything in their dreams had been realized.
Gu Shenwei knew none of them, and without the introduction by Tie Hanfeng, no one care such gloomy-looking teenager at all.
“Nie Qing!” Gu Shenwei shouted so loudly that even the noise in the tavern was drowned out. He had been standing here for quite a while, and he had to do something.
After a period of silence, all guests turned to the teenager without a word, and then they suddenly turned back to continue chatting, as if the teenager was transparent and nothing had happened.
Tie Hanfeng stood in the distance, shaking his head but with a smile on his face. He thought that someone should teach the stupid disciple a lesson so that he could understand the rules for living in the South City.
Two guests called the waiter to check out, but Gu Shenwei suddenly went over to sit before them. He took off the saber and put it on the table, “There’s so much wine left, wouldn’t you finish it before leaving?”
Tie Hanfeng scolded in his mind. He didn’t expect that his disciple could really find the two guys, who could hardly retain their composure and revealed themselves when attempting to leave after hearing the name “Nie Qing.”
(Seeking for collection and recommendation)