Nightfall

Ning Que looked up at him and asked, “Go kill someone then, and what’s the point of standing here at my store anyway?

“I’m waiting for the rain to stop, while also waiting for a few people to arrive,” replied the man.

“The rain won’t stop especially when one expects it to, and people won’t normally arrive when you’re waiting for them.” Ning Que acknowledged in goodwill.

“If people fail to arrive they’ll certainly have a good reason for it,” said the middle-aged man with a smile, “but can I please talk to you about something rather serious, rather than probing each other as if we were sadhus?”

“Now that’s what I call a good attitude. I don’t like going round and round either,” Ning Que smiled back and said, “nor do I like speaking to someone who’s standing up while I’m squatting, since there’s a difference in height.”

“You can always stand up.”

“Why don’t you crouch down?”

The man smiled again and crouched down without any hesitation, damping the threshold of Old Brush Pen Shop with his wet robe. He looked at Ning Que’s young face and told him, “I’m struggling.”

Ning Que continued eating his noodles, waiting to hear more.

“A lot of the bigwigs up there want me to take a side, but right now I can’t take a side. That’s why I’m being besieged. My brothers and I do an immaculate job, and it would be too much hassle for the government to inculpate me according to the law of Tang. That’s why they have decided to kill me off tonight simply, and under the camouflage of the raining night, all my enemies from the south and north of the city are now speeding towards here.”

“What about the ones you’re waiting for?”

“One of my brothers died a few days ago. The rest of them are mostly officially employed by the government. Those people up there can easily use any official excuse to keep them at the military base or at the yamen. As a result, I’ve got very few people with me tonight.”

The rain kept pouring down in the night, and it was getting worse. It looked like the people he was waiting for were not going to show, but the man didn’t seem to care much about it, and talked about his situation calmly, without concealing anything. He smiled at Ning Que gently and went on to say, “But all this isn’t the a problem, my real problem tonight is that, I must have someone next to me, but I can’t find that person.”

Looking at the sword he carried on his waist, Ning Que guessed that it might be a tiny sword. Then he asked, “What kind of person do you need by your side?”

“Be quick, strong and brave enough to kill people without batting an eyelid, while never letting anything fall on me.”

“I suppose that ‘anything’ doesn’t include the rain?”

“Certainly not.”

“That’s not too tough then.”

“Why me?” asked Ning Que as he scratched his slightly wet hair.

The man glanced at his right hand and said, “I heard about certain things, and even though the Shubi Lake wood chopper ain’t so famous in Chang’an, I know very well what a young horse-gang killer is capable of doing.”

After a brief silence, Ning Que smiled and said, “Why should I go with you? What do I get out of this?”

The man seemed to appreciate how straightforward the young lad was, and as he flicked off the rain from the umbrella, he said, “No one in the Chang’an city knows about my last card. If I win tonight, I can show my hand, and then you’ll know that I’m a great coattail that’s truly worth riding on.”

“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.

He carefully put on the soft armor and wore a pretty old short-sleeved archery robe on the outside. Then he let his hair down to comb it back together in a style that was typical of someone from the Yuelun Kingdom. He proceeded to cover much of face with the black mask and checked his look carefully in the bronze mirror, making sure that nothing was wrong. Finally, he walked to the kitchen and looked inside, saying, “I’m leaving.”

Sangsang is cleaning the kitchen stove, washing dishes as well as the writing set. Her little face was expressionless, and her willow-leaf shaped eyes looked slightly upset in a childish way. For some reason, the little handmaiden was particularly clumsy today, making all kinds of smashing noises, and she rubbed the pot with so much force that her wipe almost went through the bottom of the pot.

Ning Que was perplexed at first, but he soon understood her and explained nicely, “It’s always good to earn some money, and I think that guy has quite a strong background, and if I help him, he maybe help back in the future.”

“Bang!” Sangsang dumped the wipe brusquely on the edge of the stove, and went on to pour the dirty water from the heavy iron pot. The young girl turned around abruptly as if he was invisible, simply refusing to listen to him.

Ning Que rubbed his forehead, after a brief silence, he went on to explain, “The poor little Blackie died after asking me this favor, and I didn’t even get a chance to refuse before he ran away to the bloody Underworld… so tonight I’m just paying his debt for him.”

Upon saying that, he neglected Sangsang’s bad mood, and went straight back to the shopfront.

As the leader of the Fish-dragon Gang in Chang’an, Old Chao wandered the Jianghu world for many years, meeting all kinds of extraordinary and strange characters. He knew the young owner of Old Brush Pen Shop must be one of those extraordinary people, and he was mentally prepared for it. Nevertheless, he couldn’t help but feel slightly baffled seeing Ning Que in his gear. Looking at the mysterious item Ning Que carried on his back, in the shape of a stick wrapped in ragged cloth, he said, “You don’t look like you’re about to go kill someone, but more like a vagabond running away from huge debt. Are you carrying all of your belongings on your back now?”

“Stop whining, I’m only carrying a knife!”

Ning Que walked to his side and glanced at the raining street, noticing that there was no one at both ends of the street. He frowned and said, “I really hope there isn’t any inside man among your brothers, and I really hope your brothers can watch over this street carefully. I certainly wouldn’t like our killing spree to become the big news tomorrow at the Chang’an Local Government.”

The Good Old Chao looked down at the black mask covering much of the face of the young lad, and he couldn’t help but smile. “You really don’t need to be that careful. If we can stay alive after tonight, as long as you don’t break the law and commit crimes, no one in the Chang’an city and even in the entire Tang Empire will dare bother you in any sense.”

Hearing this, Ning Que thought to himself, who said the greatest gang in Chang’an didn’t have a strong background? Nevertheless, he refused to go on with the killer mission unmasked. His clear and tender voice seeped from the mask. “I’m used to staying low.”

Old Chao smiled and said no more.

The sound of raindrops already disrupted the quietness of the spring night, and now the footsteps added to it. Ning Que walked out the door, and Chao Xiaoshu opened the seemingly fragile oilpaper umbrella as they both walked into the rainy night.

Sangsang rushed out holding the heavy and massive iron pot as she saw the unfinished noodles on the table, and she called out anxiously from the doorstep, “Young master! You haven’t finished your noodles yet!”

Looking back at her, Ning Que smiled and said, “You may leave it there for when I get back.”

Holding the massive iron pot, Sangsang stood by the entrance under the rain and yelled, “But it won’t taste nice when it gets cold!”

Waving his hand, Ning Que laughed and replied, “Then you can make a new pot and I’ll have it when I get back.”

Pressing her lips tightly, Sangsang stared at him as he left, and finally called out again, “I’ll season it with more shredded spring onion, don’t you forget to come back to eat it, young master!”

Ning Que didn’t answer, but the smile in his eyes intensified. Glaring at the darkening street and the pouring rain, he suddenly asked, “So where are we heading now, Xiaoshu?”

“Spring Breeze Pavilion.”

Good Old Chao calmly replied, “My home is there, so is my enemy. By the way, I suggest that you call me Good Old Chao, because you are the small tree here.”

As it kept raining in this lane, one would wonder how things were going at the Spring Breeze Pavilion.