Chapter 46 (2/2)
He stayed on forty-seventh street for days. He inquired if some interesting things happened recently in Chang An and he discovered that Zhang Yi Qi’s death, as expected, did not have much of an impact. The only thing it accomplished was triggering the Chang An residents’ countless comments and laughs. There appeared to be many different versions of the thing that happened in the side door of the brothel but most of them connected the censor’s death with the bad luck of his scary wife.
As Ning Que predicted, the madam in the censor’s mansion was still trying to make this thing a big deal in the police office of Chang An, but the Red Sleeves reopened after closing for a day. It seems like, although the government did not completely conclude this incident, they basically thought the censor’s death was not special.
Until the third day, Ning Que knew that he should go to the Red Sleeves again. Otherwise if they appeared to be so much different than before, the girls and the maid Little Gra.s.s would definitely feel strange.
This time, he decided to take Sang Sang with him. Sang Sang piled up her hair high and hide it inside a hat. She also wore the simple clothes that Ning Que was wearing before. She no longer needed any extra decorations, with her dark face and extremely common look, no matter who was looking from which perspective, she was just a common little servant.
“It’s not raining today. Why would you bring that with you to grab others’ attention.” He pointed to the big black umbrella behind Sang Sang’s back and said.
Sang Sang shook her head and insisted her opinion. Ning Que then stopped caring about her. He knew that she was worried about the impact of censor Zhang Yi Qi’s death. After all, it was safer for them to bring the black umbrella.
They did not expect that right after they closed the door of their store, they were surrounded by a crowd.
The crowd was made up of strong men. In the sunny spring, they revealed their chest, showed their muscular pectoralis and two or three black chest hairs to declare their power and courage. Also, under the tree far away from here, there were two police officers looking indifferently at the crowd which indicated that their power and courage were permitted by the police.
Sang Sang looked cautiously. Her right hand subconsciously extended to her back and tightly grabbed the middle portion of the big black umbrella. Yet Ning Que was not nervous at all. He looked at the two policemen under the tree and noticed that they did not even have a handicap in their hands. He guessed the origin of this crowd of strong men.
The leader of the crowd was about thirty, unlike how Ning Que imagined, he didn’t immediately come over, scold and shout at him and then order his subordinates to rush into the store and rob everything, instead he politely made a salute and using a deep voice, he said, “Are you the little boss? Several days ago I came here before and unfortunately you weren’t here, so I couldn’t talk about something to you.”
Ning Que took an eye at Sang Sang. He was about to ask, but suddenly he remembered that she did mention it to him before, so he turned around and looked at the man and answered softly, “Hi, is there anything I can help you with?”
“I believe that little boss, by now you should know why there’s only one store opening on forty-seventh street.” That man said his terms directly, “I will use 200 silver coins to purchase your rent contract. You will go seek another place. If there’s any loss, you can tell me. If it’s proper, we are willing to pay, but we have one request of you, that is…..move out right now.”
These terms sounded really good, Ning Que looked at this crowd, thinking that Chang An was no doubt the most gentle place, even a dismantlement was generous.
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