399 Greet Your Grandfather (1/2)

Master Eight and Master Five's reputation had been at its height about thirty years ago. At the time, Master Five had not taken his disciples into hiding yet, and Master Eight had not purposely allowed himself to get caught every few days to go to jail to teach his own disciple.

Theoretically speaking, the two of them back then had been from the same line of work, running in the same circles, and they had been able to get anything they wanted. Thus, there should have been plenty of chance for them to interact with each other, but the reality was that there had not even been one chance for them to meet up officially.

Other than the great factor of the inconvenience of the traffic situation in China back then, the other key reason was due to them not being of the same discipline.

Master Eight was called Master Eight because, when he was young, his skills with thievery had been famed across the industry, and he had lost two fingers during his only failed attempt. Master Five was called Master Five because he was an expert at five different skills—scamming, fooling, kidnapping, lying, and fortune telling.

The difference in the nature of their work was clear. Master Eight was a big thief; his work was cracking locks or stealing purses, and his focus was the technical jobs. Master Five was kind of like the leader of a cult; he took a bunch of disciples around conducting scams, and his focus was intellectual jobs.

There was no interaction in their careers, and they were based in different cities. They had no real relationship and common language. The two's understanding of each other came from only what they had heard, and they had never really met each other in person.

Later, it was the new generation surfacing to eliminate the older generation. Even a prostitute decide to go clean after being in the business for a long time. Those who had been in the business for a long time—when they reached a certain age, saw the rise of newer generation, and compared that to their own failing health and ability—would naturally think of retiring.

Therefore, after Master Five failed in one of the attempts and had his business stolen by a younger fellow, he had been angry and troubled. After giving it some thought, considering the fact that his own son was already married, he realized, why should he waste time fighting for territory with the youngsters anymore? In the end, he had decided to retire and fade into obsoleteness.

For Master Eight, after Su Zheng learned everything from him and could take care of herself, he had also started to fade into the background. He would do the occasional job until he claimed a stepson, and then he too announced his retirement.

If not for the betrayal of his unfilial disciple, people would probably have forgotten about Master Eight's name already.

When Master Eight arrived in San Lin City, it was Ye Shuang who fetched him. This was to keep their movement a secret, and at the same time, it was about the time for Ye Shuang to meet up with Han Chu. When Ye Shuang and Su Zheng showed up, the slightly rotund old man first smiled kindly and warmly. He ignored his disciple for now and turned to flash a bright smile at Ye Shuang, ”I see, this must be Xiao Shuang, whom Xiao Su has been telling me about! I'm impressed. I hear you're quite a fast learner and very clever…”

The compliment for a quick learner was meant literally, but there was a second meaning to the second phrase, where he said that Ye Shuang was very clever. He was hinting at the fact that it was Ye Shuang who taught Su Zheng to misuse his name. After all, before Su Zheng met Ye Shuang, she had been an obedient child, but after their meeting, Su Zheng had misused his name every few days.

”Master Eight, you flatter me.” Ye Shuang smiled endearingly. ”The industry is hard to get into, so we have no choice but to use your name to open some doors.”

Master Eight smiled good naturedly and nodded. ”Actually, I don't mind it that much. It's just that I now have a grandson, so I do not wish for outsiders to come every so often. It might scare the poor child.”

”I'm sorry,” Ye Shuang apologized sincerely. To have people from such a background come visit every so often when there was a child at home was not a good thing. It looked like they could not do that anymore in the future. After all, they could figure out some other methods. To disturb a child's growth just to save some trouble was not something moral and worthwhile.

Master Eight was stunned, but he quickly smiled. ”It's not that serious. Actually, everyone knows where the line is. If they hadn't run out of ideas, they wouldn't have come directly to me… Never mind, let's go take a look.”