Chapter 52 (1/2)

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.”