Chapter 69: Blind Man of Bone Ash Level

  I have to thank Liu Xuan, if it wasn't for him making such a big commotion, Li Jing Shui and Wei Tiezhu on the rooftop wouldn't have arrived so quickly. Now that I think about it, I'm still scared. That teacup was only as big as my thumb, and even if it had fallen to the ground, it would be no louder than a cough. According to the original plan, I would have been dead for sure.

  The reinforcements that descended from the sky stunned those big men for a moment, but they immediately swarmed over again. It was clear that these people were not the "commoners" Xu DeLong had described. From their expressions and physique, it was evident that they had been training in martial arts since childhood. Even the two people who were kicked flying by Li JingShui and others got up nonchalantly. I began to regret bringing only two people with me.

  As expected, Wei Tiezhu's fist hit a sturdy man at the same time, and his face and abdomen also took several blows. Li Jing Shui was the same, and the two people didn't panic in the slightest. Li Jing Shui even wiped away the bloodstain on the corner of his mouth and said with relish: "Hey, we're all seasoned players."

  Wei Tiezhu remembered his mission, pushed me behind him with one hand, and charged into the crowd with a big fist. Suddenly, there was a loud noise, 14 people crowded together, not caring about any tricks, just punching and kicking each other, with little room to dodge. In less than 10 seconds, almost everyone saw red.

  I saw that if things continued like this, I would end up losing out. I was considering whether to call Zhang Qing and Yang Zhi from the bar to come and rescue me when a figure suddenly appeared in front of me, holding a watermelon knife and smiling ominously: "Surnamed Xiao, do you still think you can run?" It was Liu Xuan.

  As he spoke, his knife came slashing towards me. I raised my leather bag to block it, and saw that this little guy had a look of triumph on his face. He was probably very confident in the sharpness of his knife, wanting to cut through my bag with one slash, and then hold the knife to my throat like an assassin. Just as I heard a dull thud, his knife bounced back, not to mention that he also got a big mouthful of it. With both hands grasping the handle of my leather bag, I swung it around in a circle and hit him right on the hand holding the knife. This little guy's brain was clearly not enough, seeing something that could knock open his knife and still daring to use his hand to block it. With a "slap" sound, the knife was knocked out of his hand, and his hand was also slapped numb. I took another swing with my bag and hit him on the head, and this time, Liu Xuan, who was still in pain, didn't dodge in time and got hit solidly by the bag again. His body flew backward and fell to the ground. I quickly stepped forward, straddling his body, and pulled out a bright red brick from my now tattered bag - it was that eternal brick!

  I started fighting in gangs at 13, was taken away to make up the numbers. At 15, I personally used a knife. At 17, I finally found my trusty weapon - a brick, and became notorious for being ruthless yet not hurting anyone too badly. After that, my skills gradually improved, but I couldn't break through the last bottleneck of winning without bricks. People gave me the nickname "One Brick in Hand, Nothing Else to Ask For". Before 24, whenever I wanted to help one side or the other, it was also a weighty consideration. It wasn't until two years ago when I met Baozi that I completely retired from the underworld.

  I raised the brick and slammed it against Liu Xuan's forehead twice, his head suddenly cracked open, cursing as I hit: "This time you messed with my friend, this time you smashed my pawnshop, this time you pretended to be a B..."

  Liu Xuan's head was covered in blood, and he let out a strange cry. I was happily taking pictures when suddenly I felt a sharp pain on my back. A kung fu practitioner kicked me off Liu Xuan's back with one swift motion. It turned out that Li Jing Shui and the others could only handle four or five people each, so this guy couldn't squeeze in and happened to see me brutally beating up Liu Xuan from the outside, so he came over to help.

  I stumbled and fell all the way, dropping the brick in my hand. The strong man chased me up, and Liu Xuan struggled to get up, his vision completely blurred by blood. He shouted frantically at the strong man: "Kill him for me!"

  I knew I couldn't beat him with my bare hands, and at this moment, I happened to bump into a blind man playing the erhu. He had a pipa by his side, and just as I was about to grab it to hit him, that old guy finished a segment of music, seemingly carelessly picked up the pipa and put it on his other side - I didn't even know if he was really blind or pretending to be blind.

  I had no choice but to throw a punch at his face, he twisted his mouth, spat out a bloody saliva, and looked at me coldly. Then with one punch, he knocked me to the ground. Liu Xuan excitedly shouted: "Kill him!" My hand was scratching on the ground, suddenly grasped the microphone in front of Lao Mang, but before I could grab it firmly, this old thing pinched the microphone rod and moved it away again. I felt around and found the leg of the chair he was sitting on, he clutched his erhu between his legs and used both hands to move the chair away...

  I went all the way, he moved all the way, I grabbed my hair and said: "You have to give me one!" He adjusted his glasses, picked up the erhu, played a tune of "A man should be self-reliant", smiled and sat there without saying a word.

  I had no choice but to sit halfway on the ground, stretching my foot towards his lower abdomen and kicking him. He grabbed my foot and pulled me down, ready to strike hard, just as Li Jing Shui shouted "Kill!" He ignored the rain-like punches and hugged someone's neck with all his might, I knew he was going to make a killing move, if he twisted lightly, that would be a life gone, both he and Wei Tiezhu were iron-blooded warriors who had been through countless battles, in the past whenever they met someone it was a fight to the death, his eye socket was already cracked, his body didn't know how many heavy blows it had taken, this instead triggered his killing intent, making him seem like he was back on the battlefield where wolves were howling...

  At this critical moment, a big man suddenly rushed out and shouted: "Don't fight, don't fight, I know this guy..."

  As soon as he spoke, the Kung Fu men stopped in their tracks. Li Jing Shui let go of the person he was holding and ran towards me with Wei Tie Zhu. Military orders are like mountains, although they themselves had suffered injuries that were not light, but failing to protect me was what truly made them feel ashamed.

  The burly man who had been holding me down had already kicked me several times, and only stopped when he saw someone approaching. He still held one of my feet in the air, refusing to let go. The newcomer was also a sturdy-looking fellow with a shaved head that gleamed like polished copper. He walked over and freed me from the other man's grasp, placing a hand on my shoulder as he examined me closely. One of my eyes had already swollen shut, but I squinted at him with the other. This person looked familiar, yet I couldn't quite place them - not only could I not recall their name, but even where we had met before was a complete blank.

  His men also gathered around, some of them asking: "Tiger brother, do you know this kid?"

  The man known as Tiger Brother looked at me with a puzzled expression and said, "I'm sure I've seen you before, but suddenly I just can't remember." As soon as I heard that he didn't recognize me, my eyes were already fixed on the brick on the ground. Li Jing Shui and Wei Tiezhu still stood guard on either side of me, with Wei Tiezhu coughing non-stop, but his back remained straighter than Tiger Brother's hands.

  Liu Xuan found his small dagger at this time, wiping the blood on his head, stumbling and rushing towards me, cursing: "Damn it, you said you wouldn't bring anyone, but you brought two!"

  Brother Hu grabbed his neck and pulled him back, saying: "You said you wouldn't bring anyone, what did you call us here for? You never told us that, Surname Liu."

  "Mind your own business," Liu Xuan said with a wave of his hand. "Wait till I've chopped him down before you dare to speak."

  Big Brother Tiger let go of his hand and took a step back: "Alright, we won't interfere."

  At the same time, Li Jing-shui and Wei Tie-zhu took a step forward, facing Liu Xuan-cheng. It's not clear whether it was due to excessive blood loss or fear, but this kid stumbled, and Tiger Brother poked him in the lower back with his finger: "Go." It seems that he and Liu Xuan are not friends, so I took the opportunity to pretend to say: "For a broken wine shop, look at how many people you've startled."

  Brother Tiger said: "Bar? What bar?"

  Liu Xuan hurriedly said: " 'Reverse Time', this matter is done and all brothers will go, no matter how much money it is mine."

  Brother Tiger listened to his words and suddenly pointed at me, saying: "I remember now, I met you at the entrance of that bar. That night, four brothers hitched a ride with me, we didn't know each other before fighting. The surname Dong guy's kung fu is too damn bad."

  I suddenly remembered that night, it was this Tiger brother who drove an Audi A6 to send Lin Chong and Dong Ping away. At that time, they blocked his car, and Tiger brother relied on his few moves of martial arts to exchange a few blows with Dong Ping. Dong Ping didn't even return a hand, and in the end, Tiger brother was exhausted. He lost that battle with a willing heart. Later, I heard that Dong Ping and others were in a hurry to see their injured brothers, so they sped all the way to the entrance of the bar without saying a word. They also left a message saying that if there's any trouble in the future, just look for him. However, Dong Ping and others naturally wouldn't take him seriously and didn't put it in their hearts.

  I chatted with Brother Hu, and suddenly felt a bit closer to him. He stomped his foot and said: "Look at this mess, I'm really sorry about it, brother." As he spoke, he ordered someone to quickly clean up the remaining mess, set out tables, chairs, and teapots. I sat down and pointed at Liu Xuan, asking Brother Hu: "Don't you know this person?"

  "I've never met him before, he was introduced by someone today to help out with something, didn't expect this kid to be so unscrupulous."

  I glanced at Wei and Li standing behind me and said with embarrassment: "I'm not a good person either, I promised not to bring anyone..."

  Brother Tiger looked at them with appreciation, beckoning with his hand: "Two brothers come and sit down. I, Old Tiger, have considered myself a hero since childhood, but compared to you two, I've lost all my thoughts." Then he coldly glanced at Liu Xuan, seeing him slipping towards the door, and loudly said: "You! Come here, tell me what's going on with you!"

  At this time, the fake blind man picked up a horse-head stringed instrument and played a long melody - he was quite talented.

  In a long tone, I told the story of what happened. Tiger Brother angrily said: "So it was you who messed with my brother Dong's friend?" I interjected: "Your brother Dong's friend isn't weak either, if he wasn't ambushed, he wouldn't have been injured." Tiger Brother pointed at Liu Xuan and scolded: "You little brat is always coming up with sinister ideas!" It can be seen that this old tiger has a straightforward temperament and likes to make friends with people who are genuinely skilled. His 12 subordinates were also his apprentices, almost all of them had serious injuries, and they were all sighing and treating their wounds on the side. Li Jing Shui and Wei Tiezhu's faces were also very battered, but their bodies were still as straight as spears, and their expressions were relaxed. Having killed people and fought before, he was just different.

  Finally, I made a summary and presented my words in a loud voice. My intention was that Liu Xuan had been beaten by me anyway - he couldn't even sit still, so even if I avenged Zhu Gui's arrow, the feud would be settled, but the condition is that Liu Xuan must give up his position as manager, and to avoid making me angry, he has to go into hiding for a year.

  Brother Hu patted the table carelessly and said to Liu Xuan, "Let's do it this way. This matter was originally your fault from the beginning."

  Liu Xuan: "I..."

  Brother Tiger said: "You don't have to agree, anyway I won't help either way."

  Liu Xuan is stupid enough to see that the so-called "two not helping" of the tiger means: when he needs it, he will definitely not help, and when I need it, he will probably help.

  Even if he had supported those old guys, seeing him mess things up so badly would have made them angry with him too. Now he's isolated and has only one choice: to leave.

  Liu Xuan didn't dare to say a word, took a handkerchief to cover his head and stumbled out of the door. I think he's quite pitiful too. Both of us are actually victims, belonging to the kind who sit at home and wait for disaster to strike from above. Originally, he was doing fine as his manager and I was doing fine as my manager. If it weren't for this earthquake, there wouldn't be so many things - Liu Xuan's head was slapped by me on all sides, I reckon after it heals, it'll become a polyhedron. Anyway, when filming "Transformers", the head won't need makeup anymore.

  Since Liu Xuan left, the fake blind man started playing "Friend" on his erhu again. The tone of the erhu is sad to begin with, and this song sounds even more eerie. I picked up my broken leather bag, took out all the money inside and put it on the table, saying: "For brothers' medical expenses."

  The tiger said: "This is what you look down on me for, we're not doing it for money."

  I thought so, he can afford an A6, why would he care about this little money?

  I cautiously asked: "This surname Liu and you..."

  "Hey, it's all about connections and referrals that brought me to this point. Yesterday, when I was going to invite you out for dinner, a few of those old men were supporting him. Although they're all my peers, they've entrusted someone else with the task, and that person is not someone I can afford to offend."

  "Who is it?"

  The tiger laughed and rushed at the fake blind man who was playing the erhu, saying: "Gu Ye, if you keep pretending like that, I'll be speechless."

  The music stopped abruptly, the old man put down his erhu and took off his sunglasses, stood up, shook his long shirt, walked over to us, glared at the tiger, cursed with a smile: "Little monkey." Then turned to me, smiled and said, "Mr. Xiao, I presume?"

  "Don't be afraid, just call me Xiao Qiang." I didn't expect this old guy to be the mastermind behind the scenes. Looking at his eyes, they seem to be all crow's feet and dark circles at first glance, but upon closer inspection... still. However, occasionally a sharp glint flashes through, like a needle that can pierce your heart. It was this old thing that instigated the tiger to deal with me, I cursed in my heart.

  The old man walked up to a chair, the tiger hurriedly pulled it open and straightened it for him. The old man sat down slowly and said: "This tea house was opened by an incompetent old man like me, does Mr. Xiao think it's decent?"

  I bowed my head and said: "It's pretty good."

  "Ah, Mr. Xiao is indeed a connoisseur of tea," Old Master chuckled. "Even in the midst of chaos, he didn't forget to grab his teacup. Unlike that young whippersnapper surnamed Liu, who pretends to be refined but actually ruined one of my good teas. I've looked down on him since the moment he stepped foot in this house."

  I said good things about you, but you still look down on him and find someone to deal with me. Just now I borrowed something from your family to help out in an emergency, but you didn't even give it to me.

  The old man saw that I was skeptical and said calmly, "Yesterday, several of my junior fellow disciples came to me to tattle, saying someone had slapped them in the face. Do you know what I thought at the time?"

  I forced a smile and said nothing.

  "I was just thinking, who is so capable, I really want to meet this person. Today I finally met him, and indeed he lives up to his reputation - Xiao Qiang, haha."

  I don't know if he was scolding me or praising me, the scene of us fighting earlier flashed before my eyes, and I couldn't help but laugh too. It's strange, even though I clearly knew it was him who had someone beat me up, to say that I really didn't hate him at all, it just felt like being teased a little by an elder who loves to joke around.

  According to Lao Hu, he and Gu Ye, including several old men who helped Liu Xuan, are all "men inside" people, similar to a school of traditional martial arts in ancient times. Their school has no name now, originated from Dahongquan, but has already changed beyond recognition. However, it still belongs to traditional martial arts, with many schools in the city and even the whole province. In recent years, due to the impact of judo and taekwondo schools, the school's disciples have declined, and some who couldn't hold on had to teach together, which is not proper. Lao Hu's school has the strongest influence because it has his strong economic power as a backing, while Gu Ye is the highest-ranking elder in the school now.

  Yesterday, I didn't go to see those old guys because I was drinking a bitter soup. They felt that they had lost face and couldn't move me, so they found Gu Ye, just to let him assign the tiger to deal with me.

  As I thought, the tiger had indeed been to prison and later made a fortune by running steel materials. Because of his good martial arts skills, he was invited into the gang, and with money and righteousness, he became very powerful over the years, becoming the leader of this field. With his way of thinking and background, it's not surprising that he led people out to settle things like a triad, especially since it was a matter of "our own door".

  Now that everything has been clarified, the clouds have dispersed. Gu Ye sipped his tea and listened to our conversation. The old tiger warmly grasped Li Jing Shui's and Wei Tiezhu's hands and said: "These two brothers are really good guys, Xiao Qiang, who are they to you?"

  "It was one of my students," I blurted out. Afraid that the old man might misunderstand, I immediately added, "I run a school."

  The tiger exclaimed in surprise: "Leading students out to fight? These two must be the super troublemakers and fighting kings of your school!"

  "We're nothing," said Wei Tiezhu. "Director Xu is like us, but there are ten or eight of them who can't get close to him. There are many classmates who are better than us!" Li Jing Shui nodded in agreement.

  "Who is Xu Xiao Wei?" Tiger asked me with wide eyes, in his opinion, Li Jing Shui and the others' kung fu was already very impressive.

  "...is their class monitor."

  Wei Tiezhu said with a strong accent: "And those big brothers who live opposite us, their kung fu is even better."

  "Who is he talking about now?" The tiger asked in utter disbelief.

  "......Uh, it's Iron Pillar, a senior student from the neighboring class. You've said enough."

  "Your school is harder to manage than a prison?"

  "Uh, we were at a school for martial arts and literature."

  The tiger felt a bit relieved and immediately asked: "By the way, that Dong brother that day, what's his relationship with you?"

  "He is my friend."

  "When he has time, I especially want to learn a few tricks from him, and formally becoming his apprentice is also okay."

  "He might have been busy lately."

  The tiger immediately showed a disappointed expression.

  To change the subject, I picked up my cup and said to Gu Ye: "The tea is really good."

  The old man smiled and looked at me, seemingly aware that I wasn't telling the whole truth, but he didn't press the issue. He said, "Do you know why I didn't let you use my things to hit him just now? Those are all antiques with a long history, can you afford to compensate if they get broken?"

  The tiger said: "Gu Ye is a top-notch collector!"

  Grandpa chuckled and said, "You young people can keep the two words 'bone ash' to play it cool, I couldn't bear this term, in a few years your grandpa will become bone ash." We all followed with dry laughter.

  At this time, a strange sound suddenly came from somewhere: plop, plop, plop. We all looked around involuntarily, but found nothing. I saw Li Jing Shui sitting there motionless, with one hand stretched under the table, so I asked him: "Was it you who did it?"

  Li Jing Shui put his hand up, and I saw that he was holding two pieces of iron in his hand, tapping them like a fast board, the sound was coming from him. I gave him a wink, and he quickly put it away. But Gu Ye had already seen it, and asked Li Jing Shui: "What are those pieces for?" Li Jing Shui made a climbing motion with his hands: "This is what we used to climb up here earlier..."

  "I picked it up."

  Ke Gu Ye wasn't a tiger, he glared at me and then smiled and said to Li Jing Shui: "Can you show it to me?"

  That iron piece is the tool Li Jingui and others used to climb walls, it must be a Song Dynasty thing, I reckon it's even specifically for the Beiwei Army, let this old bone see it and he can't help but reveal his true colors.

  "Old Master!"

  "Ah?" He was startled by her sudden cry.

  "Do you know what 'Wind Bottle' is?"

  "Really? How did you know?"

  "I have one, thinking of selling it, are you interested?"

  He then forgot about what happened earlier and carefully asked: "Do you really have it? When can I see it?"

  I wiped away sweat and said: "Just these few days..."

  ……

  After leaving the Wind Listening Building, I exchanged phone numbers with the tiger. He is of the same age as me and even a few months older than me, but he insists on calling me "Qiang Ge". I just called him "Hu Ge" accordingly. He was very curious about my school and said that he must find time to take a look.

  Liu Xuan's matter has finally come to an end, but with it, another thing has surfaced: who was the one exploring?

  （）