Release that Man

Master Eight had left the underworld a long time ago, but it did not mean that he could escape from the industry’s influence. He did not mind when strangers came to pay him homage, trying to befriend him. After all, more friends equaled to more connections. He did not mind it when old friends passed by to jokingly persuade him to return to the lifestyle, claiming that he had not lost his skill to old age. He could still take that as a compliment.

Bur what was with this man who suddenly showed up one day at his door, crying to him and asking for help?

On the surface, Master Eight smiled kindly and gently, but internally, he was deeply alarmed by this man’s presence.

According to the rules of the underworld, people would not normally go and disturb those who publicly claimed their retirement. Histories and debts would be paid before that. The latest everything had to be settled was during the retirement ceremony. But if one insisted on hounding the person after their retirement, then that would have broken the underworld’s rules.

Similarly, once anyone entered retirement, they swore not to get involved no matter what happened in the future and stayed away from the conflict. Not only would they put down the history from the past, no matter what happened in the future, people could not go and pull those who had retired into the muddy water unless, of course, the person willingly come out from their retirement.

So, the issue that troubled Master Eight now was, who was this fella who did not know the simplest of rules? His face was definitely thick to have the audacity to ask him to come out from retirement.

Master Eight held a cute toddler in one hand, feeding him fruit pudding with patience while listening to the man cry about the difficulty Master Five was in with tears and snot running down his face.

“Master Five is afraid of the news getting out, so he only dared send me to you two days after meeting your people,” the person cried. “The bunch of foreigners are cruel and have eyes everywhere. We do not dare report them to the police because we’re scared that they have their people in the force as well. It’s hard to get help from people from the same walk of life too.

“As you know, once too many people get involved, the overall standard will get affected. Some of them can be bought by money and could turn on us at any moment, but if there’s not enough people, we won’t amount to much. Only with your help, Master Eight, can our Master Five have a chance of survival. Initially, Master Five thought against disturbing you since you’ve retired, but now that we know that you have accepted another case, considering your history with Master Five, you have to help us, Master Eight.”

Master Eight nodded lightly and absent-mindedly as he cooed to the child who had gotten tired of the pudding. He patted the child’s back for a very long time before he got the child’s eyelids to close halfway. Just as the child was about to fall asleep, the man reached a high point of his story, and his voice naturally took a rise in pitch. Instantly, he jolted the child awake, and the latter started to cry the house down.

Master Eight was about to lose his cool. With a twitch on his lips, he glared at the man, turned around, and stood up. “You wait here.”

Then, he cradled the child as he carried him to the bedroom. Soon, the sound of rattles and Master Eight singing a lullaby came from the bedroom. The man was stunned by this change of attitude. His original emotion of sadness and indignation turned into a laughable mood. He wanted to stretch his neck to look into the room, but he did not dare to, so he sat there quietly as he tried his best to wipe out the corrupted image that he had formed of Master Eight as the latter’s singing continued to come out from the room…

Half an hour later, the sound from the bedroom finally dwindled. The man waited patiently for a while longer before he saw Master Eight came out of the bedroom looking like a smiling Buddha, as he closed the door behind him.

The man opened his mouth to say something, but Master Eight’s finger quickly went to his lips to shush the man. Then, his finger pointed at the study behind him. The man stood up with a nod. Following Master Eight, he sneaked into the study like a thief.

…

“Master Five…” Master Eight’s fingers tapped on the table rhythmically. He closed his eyes to think. “If I’m not mistaken, he should have retired as well. He took his people and went into hiding at who knows where. Even though the people from our line of work give me face and bequeathed me a title, I actually don’t have much history with Master Five. So, why did it cross your mind to come find me?”

The best-preserved body part Master Eight had was definitely his hands. Even though he was almost sixty, his face was red with health. However, compared to his hands, his other body parts were still lacking. The pair of hands had no veins and no old man spots. They were fair, smooth, and clean with tapered fingers. The fingers were powerful and agile, like the hands of a youngster. They did not look like they should be attached to an old man at all. If not for the two missing fingers on the left hand, they could have been seen as a piece of art.

The man’s eyes scanned the pair of hands almost as if his eyes were drawn to them. After he sneaked his glance, he quickly lowered his eyes and answered, “Because Master Five said that you are the only person that we can rely on, and since you have accepted another case, it can only mean that you plan to leave retiremen…”

Wait, that’s the issue! Master Eight opened his eyes to interrupt. “I have accepted another case?”

How come I don’t know about that?

The man blinked curiously. “Yes, didn’t you send people over to negotiate with Master Five, saying you wish to do a big job together?”

“And you believe them just like that?”

The man was confused. “Of course. They brought your thumb ring with then… Even though I don’t quite get it, Master Five said that the ring did belong to you, and the older generation knows that the ring can represent you.”

Fine, I get it now. Master Eight was silent for a while, and then he smiled brightly like a draft of spring breeze. “Do you mind going out to wait for a moment? I need to make a call.”

After the man left the study and politely closed the door, Master Eight slowly took out his phone from his pocket and then punched in the number from his phone book. He waited for the call to go through, and when the person on the other line of the phone picked up the call, he said warmly and kindly, “Xiao Su, what kind of trouble have you gotten your grandfather into this time?”

…

“Sister Shuang, Sister Shuang, that was so scary!” Su Zheng hung up the call and turned to collapse in Ye Shuang’s arms with tears in her eyes. “My teacher was laughing so hard that I could hear flowers blooming in the background. He’s definitely going to kill me this time!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be there to help collect your body,” Ye Shuang quickly consoled her.

“…” Su Zheng did not feel consoled at all. “This time, I’ll be toast. It’s real! This has never happened before. How come Master Eight found out that we’ve been using his name to trick others this time?”

“Hmm…” Ye Shuang had no idea. She, Han Chu, and Su Zheng would occasionally use Master Eight’s name to get some doors open because Master Eight’s name was very useful. However, they were mostly using Master Eight as some kind of recommendation letter. Actually, they did not really need him to show up personally to do anything, so in the past, their scam had not been exposed. Yet, this time, someone had walked around them and directly gone to Master Eight!

There was no explanation other than pure bad luck.