Chapter 53 (1/2)

The vast majority of people in ChangAn all know that because of a reason that no one knew, Spring Wind Pavilion’s Old Chao always wasn’t too willing to bring up the name of his own gang: Fish Dragon Gang. He was more willing to call this number one gang the Spring Wind Pavilion. Very many people guessed that this had a connection with him living across Spring Wind Pavilion at 2nd Street since childhood. His enemies secretly sneered at this, believing that it was because he had killed too many people, taken too much evil money, and done too many bad things but was unwilling to have other people call him uncivilized, so they firmly wanted their own gang and the Spring Wind Pavilion connected together with a kind of pleasant name.

Spring Wind Pavilion was located in East City’s slum district, with dilapidated buildings that we were hard to look at. From daytime to nighttime, it was strung throughout with small peddlers and small vendors mixed with idlers, and wasn’t very quiet. Naturally nothing could be called elegant. But the Spring Wind Pavilion area today was particularly calm and quiet – quiet till the sound of rainfall sounded like thunder; quiet till the sound of the spring night breeze blowing past a worn down flat cake shop’s sign was like an unleashed wave. From across 4th Street to down to 1st Street, in each street and alley, not a pedestrian could be seen braving to walk through the rain. There wasn’t even the sound of a baby crying. It seemed that besides the wind and rain and the cold enshrouding the streets and alleys, everything else completely didn’t exist, quiet as death.

From 47th Street facing Spring Wind Pavilion, the distance wasn’t too far. The two of them were like tourists on a walk, leisurely going, and without walking for long they walked to these quiet streets and dark alleys.

The Spring Wind Pavilion in front was hidden in the night scene, hidden amidst the sound of wind and rain, and only vaguely could a worn-down little pavilion be seen. But they didn’t know how many enemies were hiding just the same in the night scene of wind and rain inside and outside of the Spring Wind Pavilion.

Wearing a black face mask, Ning Que with a whole stack of things on his back, supported an oil paper umbrella and openly stood behind Chao XiaoShu. He played the role of an a.s.sistant fabulously – without knowing when, he took over the umbrella from Chao XiaoShu’s hand.

Chao XiaoShu just as before, without his eyes minding his sides, held his hand as he walked. Even though rain water dripping from the oil paper umbrella soaked more than half of the blue s.h.i.+rt on his body, his face still hung a light smile, lighting up the windy, rainy night scene beyond the umbrella several measures.

In the four directions around the little worn down pavilion was deathly silence.

The ambushers in the vicinity completely hadn’t thought that it wasn’t the three thousand blue s.h.i.+rt brothers as they thought – only Spring Wind Pavilion’s Old Chao alone, and bringing a single silent youth with the winds and rain as company rus.h.i.+ng in.

A long period of silence – confirming it was only two people, Spring Wind Pavilion’s Old Chao and Ning Que, the enemies hiding in the rain and wind of the night scene no longer hid their locations. Accompanied by the sounds of footsteps continuing without stopping, the tapping and clapping sounds of the clacking of the soles of boots as they hit shallow lakes, and the sound of sharp blades sc.r.a.pping as they were slowly drawn from their scabbards, several hundred men from the JiangHu with respectful expressions walked out from behind the pavilion, from the middle of the alley, from the side of the residence.

Spring Wind Pavilion’s Old Chao and Ning Que stood in a place not far from the dilapidated pavilion, calmly watching the dark ma.s.s of a crowds of people flooding out in four fronts from eight directions. Chao XiaoShu smiled, and without asking the youth behind whether or not he feared this kind of uninteresting problem, lifted his arm to wipe rain water from his face, pointing at a tiny fat middle-aged man in the very center of the crowd he said.

“This person is called Lord Meng, master of South City. Beside him the bald big man is called Song TieTou. Lord Meng is Song TieTou’s big brother. Song TieTou is exactly that some so-and-so’s big brother who went to your shop to cause trouble.”

Following the middle-aged man in the blue s.h.i.+rt raising his arm, the crowd besieging them in the night rain suddenly broke into an uproar. The furthest in front with hands carrying sharp blades set up a row in front of their own boss displaying brave men with slightly stiff expressions, subconsciously simultaneously retreating back a step. Ning Que stood behind him calmly watching this scene, roughly understanding the status of the Fish Dragon Gang in ChangAn’s Night World, and understanding the hearts of these warriors from the JiangHu. Spring Wind Pavilion’s Old Chao’s five words had such threatening force.

Chao XiaoShu smiled. Without saying anything to mock the opposing side, he pointed at a thin and tall one of the crowd on the east side, and he said, “This man is called Jun Jie, the master of West City. Under his command are a good amount of men. Ordinarily I am quite close to not a few of those brothers.”

Closely following, he gazed at a small crowd of people standing behind the pavilion, and slightly frowning he said, “Those people are all Uncle Cat’s people. Uncle Cat is a.s.sociated with ChangAn’s government. They do things with the utmost lack of morals, and are detestable. Naturally I won’t fear him, but since his aunt was a concubine of the clerk of the army, I give him a bit of face and that’s all.”

“The several of those men are more troublesome. They are all retired from the City Gate Army, and have real gongfu at their disposal. Even more troublesome is that, because I managed those several cargo lines and always didn’t need to give them tribute, so the City Gate Army very much have complaints with me. If they are killed, I don’t know if the City Gate Army’s side would stupidly continue to cause trouble.”

Amidst the windy rainy spring night, several hundred people from ChangAn City gathered all around Spring Wind Pavilion in order to surround and kill ChangAn’s number one gang’s leader, but facing this situation and these circ.u.mstances, he instead extremely mildly introduced those people that came tonight without leaving out anyone, and appeared especially patient, or perhaps confident.

Ning Que said in a low voice, “Playing with introductions is okay, but don’t introduce me. These are all big shots in ChangAn City. If they know my ident.i.ty, how would I still be able to pa.s.s off in ChangAn’s walls?”

“After tonight, if these people aren’t all killed, they would very probably kill you horrifically spilling your guts.” Spring Wind Pavilion’s Old Chao held his hands towards the crowd in the night rain, and calmly said, “Since it is so, then why should you fear them?”

Ning Que propped the umbrella. Looking at Chao’s back, he very earnestly explained, “I’m not afraid of killing people, but I’m afraid of trouble.”

Just as the two people were quietly discussing this under the umbrella, the horde in the night rain finally was unable to bear the humiliation of these heroes of ChangAn being treated as nothing. Several behind the discussing two forcefully pushed out the representative of South City’s Lord Meng to speak.

At present, even though Spring Wind Pavilion’s Old Chao was looking at the place he would inevitably die, however in truth, unless they personally saw this person close his eyes, still no one would dare to be impudent in front of the opposing side. South City’s Lord Meng was also this way, but at the moment on this field, he had the most people and the most power, and ordinarily would be the most viciously oppressed by the Fish Dragon Gang. If they didn’t appear it couldn’t be justified.