Nightfall

At the Spring Breeze Pavilion, Stood Good Old Chao Xiaoshu

“Tonight is already getting extremely dangerous, so why don’t you show your last card first?”

“Because the last card ain’t a card, but a person. I can’t command him, but he can command me. He needs me to win the battle tonight, because he wants to make sure that the enemy hasn’t got any hidden last cards.”

“Right, well I’m getting bored of this style of conversation. All I want to say is that you might be a nice coattail to ride, but this doesn’t appeal to me much. If you know about the faraway Shubi Lake, then you must also know that I had my chance to ride on a seemingly delicate but one of the best coattails in Tang Empire, but I refused to take a ride.”

Ning Que was obviously referring to Lee Yu, the fourth Princess of Tang Dynasty. After saying this he was quiet again, and he placed his noodle bowl on the wet floor, and stayed shoulder to shoulder with the man to watch the rain falling. At that moment, he recalled a scene of a story that he liked, and he remembered what Zhuo Er asked him to do back in the little restaurant. He then made up his mind.

The man stayed quiet for a brief moment and said, “Maybe… you prefer to set a price directly?”

Ning Que slapped the annoying rain and said without hesitation, “500 taels of silver.”

The man frowned a little and suggested. “That’s too little, maybe a little more?”

In a rainy night, at the doorstep of the bookshop, the scenario of these two negotiating a deal looked particularly bizarre, especially when the employer obviously thought the fee was too low.

Ning Que looked at him and asked, “How many people do you reckon I’d kill tonight?”

After giving it a little thought, the man said, “At least five.”

Ning Que said, “At the grassland, I might not even gather five taels of silver after killing five men from the horse gang. Therefore you may rest assured that, for 500 taels of silver I can fight with my dear life.”

“I don’t need your life,” said the man kindly, “and if it ever got so bad as to harm your life, you could always leave first.”

Ning Que shook his head and said, “That’s not how I do things. It might be stupid to say something like loyalty is gold, but since we’re doing business, we must at least stick to the most fundamental professional ethics.”

The man smiled and extended his hand. “Deal.”

Ning Que shook his hand briefly and said, “My surname is Ning, as in peacefulness. Ning Que.”

“My surname is Chao, as in Tang Chao (Dynasty), and my name is Xiaoshu (Small tree).”

“Such an arrogant surname, and such a gentle name.”

“People in Chang’an often call me Good Old Chao from the Spring Breeze Pavilion, but you may call me brother Chao.”

“Chao Xiaoshu sounds nicer… so, Xiaoshu, do you happen to be the leader of the Fish-dragon Gang?”

“You may call me Good Old Chao then… and be fair, I have never acknowledged the title of the gang leader. All that I did was to gather a group of brothers to do the stuff that the Imperial Court isn’t at liberty to do.”

As Ning Que finally ascertained his identity, he smiled and patted his shoulder, saying, “How can the leader of the largest gang in Chang’an be so humble? Xiaoshu, now you’re just being fake.”

…

…

He drew out the ordinary looking knife from the pile of firewood, took out the boxwood bow and quiver from the case, and picked up the big black umbrella that was wrapped in old clothes from the cheap ceramic vat, and he went on to tie them all onto his back. Then he searched through the bottom of the case for a while, finally finding a black mask that probably hadn’t been washed for a long time.