Tan Yong seemed to be satisfied. "Other than using your palm and fist, what kind of weapon can you use?” he asked.
Xu Ziling patted his chest, "We use sabers,” he replied, "A dozen or so men cannot do anything to us.”
Tan Yong was a bit skeptical, "Is it possible for me to test Xiao Xiongdi's saber skill?” he asked.
Kou Zhong arrogantly replied, "Real gold is not afraid of red fire. But it would be better if Tan Ye [master] tell us your business first. Man's life on earth is nothing more than to seek riches. I am sure Tan Ye also understands this logic … Ha!”
Tan Yong laughed aloud. He said, "As soon as I saw two Xiao Xiongdi, I feel like I've known you for a long time. Wealth is just material thing, Xiongdi wants money, you will get money, Xiongdi wants women, you will get women. Let us go back and meet our Duozhu [helmsman[2]]; after we become real sworn brothers later, anything you don't like, you can just let me know.”
Kou Zhong was very familiar with the way the dark road gang people worked just like his own ten toes. With a giggle he leaned over and whispered in Tan Yong's ear, "Tan Ye noticed that we are from out of town, also we are just two kids who are still wet behind the ears; therefore, you want us to join your Haisha Gang to kill people from other gang. Afterwards, you push the blame away, neat and clean. Hey! This is called ‘black pot can crush people dead'.”
Tan Yong was immediately as dumb as a wooden chicken. Even Jianghu veteran like Tan Yong was caught unprepared and was unable to respond, because more or less what Kou Zhong said was exactly why he wanted to win the two boys over. It was as if Kou Zhong was the worm in his belly. Naturally there was considerable difference in the ins and outs of this matter.
Kou Zhong patted Xu Ziling's shoulder. "Xiongdi!” he said, "Let's go!”
Tan Yong turned around and called out, "Hold on!”
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling thought that from ashamed, he was going to fly into a rage; hence they stood close together, ready to fight.
Xie Feng and Chen Gui's eyes were also gleaming with ominous glint; they were ready to make their move.
But Tan Yong sighed and said with a wry smile, "Fu Xiaodi is really formidable. It would be better if I speak openly …”
Kou Zhong cut him off, "You must not say it. If you do, according to Jianghu rule, we can't forget of getting away.”
Xu Ziling also laughed aloud and said, "We two brothers entering the Jianghu and making our names relying only on our skill; we have never considered relying on any patron.”
Hearing this, Tan Yong, three people were dumbstruck. These two boys possessed absolute sophistication that did not match their age; they were really impressed.
Kou Zhong pulled Xu Ziling away. After cupping their fist in salute, they no longer care about the three people, they simply turned around and left.
Reaching the street, the two boys were a little apprehensive, without thinking their feet took them back to the piers.
This time suddenly they saw a big ship far away coming near, and was met by two government boats. It appeared that these two boats have been waiting for the big ship.
For some reason the big ship attracted the two boys' attention, mainly because both the external shape and the flag exuded exoticism.
As the big boat docked, immediately they saw people appearing on the deck, but since the boat was far away, they could not see clearly. It was not until a government official, escorted by four officers, climbed up the ship on a rope ladder that the two boys regained their vision.
Kou Zhong wrapped his arm around Xu Ziling's shoulder; he sighed and said, "Doing normal business is really not easy. Turns out people who can strike it rich are unscrupulous businessmen who completely lack righteousness and justice. Ha! I have another great idea. Tonight we come back here and steal his bird's boat of salt, and then we slip away quietly. This way we could even save those few coins.”
Xu Ziling's heart was moved, "They have so much salt,” he said, "We stealing a dozen sacks will not make them bankrupt! Let's steal from that shop just now! Thinking about that shopkeeper makes me angry.”
Seeing he agreed, Kou Zhong was delighted. "Now that's my good brother indeed,” he said, "But being a thief we must have thief's equipment; for example, steel wire to pick locks, weapons to protect ourselves, bunch of ropes, and so on. Our future rice and porridge will depend on this endeavor.”
"You are the one who came up with the thief idea, naturally you must be the one who has to take care of all these things,” Xu Ziling said.
Kou Zhong giggled and said, "Joined together we are strong, divided we are weak. In this world we two brothers only have each other, certainly you don't want me to rush about alone, tiring me so much that tonight I can't even move my legs, and then Ling Di [younger brother], you will have to be the thief alone.”
Xu Ziling was already accustomed to his schemes; he was just joking with him. Kou Zhong has always cherished his little brother so much, but from time to time he could not help taking a bit of advantage of him.
While Xu Ziling was about to speak, he suddenly realized that Kou Zhong had his eyes fixed to their left, while his countenance underwent a great change.
Xu Ziling promptly turned his head and saw a group of perhaps forty, fifty people that looked like ruffians and thugs, dressed in porter attire; in their hands they had sharp hooks, pointy sticks, shoulder poles, and the like. These people were heading their direction, and the one leading them was, not surprisingly, that Ol' Liu. The two boys' escape route was completely blocked.
The people on the docks immediately scattered away like flying chicken or running dogs; several government officers included. Apparently the situation was beyond the reach of the law.
Kou Zhong sucked in a mouthful of cold air. "Xiao Ling!" he said, "Did Niang ever teach us how to fight barehanded against naked blades?"
Xu Ziling had never seen such a big mob; he shook his head.
And then, with a loud shout the two of them turned around and ran for their lives along the pier toward the ocean.
The thugs' battle cry shook the heavens as they also ran after them in wild chase. The situation was extremely chaotic.
Evidently the two boys were able to run faster than the bunch of thugs; they swung to the left and swayed to the right among the piles of salt, passing over the people running away in all direction, and in a blink of an eye reached the seaside.
Kou Zhong pulled Xu Ziling toward the big ship that has just arrived and was anchored to the dock. If the ship belonged to some foreign envoys, naturally there would be some important people [orig. have face] on board; chances are these thugs would not dare to pursue them up.
In a flash these two boys covered a distance of close to a hundred zhang before they finally reached the rope ladder. Not having enough time to hesitate, they desperately climbed onto the ship.
The ladder was approximately five zhang high; very soon they reached the top. Suddenly four swords blocked their way, while someone shouted angrily, "Get lost!"
The two boys turned their heads to look down, and saw a lot of the thugs have already caught up with them at the bottom of the ladder. It was indeed a case of 'no way out ahead, pursuing troops behind'. The only way was to jump into the sea.
While they were groaning inwardly, they faintly heard a tender, melodious female voice coming from above, "Let those two come aboard!"
Someone replied, "Yes! Madame!"
The swords moved away.
The two boys felt as if they had just been granted the Emperor's pardon, and quickly climbed the rest of the way up.
They had just reached the deck when the hands behind them started to move. The four men wearing white warrior outfit hacked, chopped and sliced the pursuing thugs as if they were chopping melon or cutting vegetables so that they fell from the rope ladder, and had to jump to the sea.
The rest of the thugs were so scared that they turned around and ran back toward the pier, nobody dared to climb up the ship anymore.
There was no one on the deck other than the four warriors; they did not even see the Madame that has just let them got on board.
The two boys breathed a sigh of relief, inwardly happy that they were able to snatch their little life back. They did not forget to look down at the Ol' Liu and the others who were shouting and making a racket at the dock, and waved their hands at them.
Suddenly they heard the female voice again from their back, the voice seemed to come from a distance. "Two Xiao Gongzi, please come with me!”
The boys jumped in fright. But when they turned around, their eyes lit up. Turned out it was a young and pretty maid, who was sizing them up while hiding a smile on her face.
Since they have saved the two boys' life, it was only proper for them to obey their command.
Assuming the air of a refined gentleman, Kou Zhong bowed and said, "Jiejie, please lead the way!”
"Pfft!” the maid burst in laughter. She turned around gracefully and led them in.
The two boys scrambled over each other to walk behind her, to enjoy watching her beautiful back. They both felt that not only the Heaven did not bar their way, God treated them with exceptional generosity as well.
Stepping over the door, they saw a hallway stretching out in front of them, with three cabin doors on either side, but they did not see anybody, giving them the impression that the overall atmosphere was rather mysterious.
The pretty maid led them toward the last door on the left; beyond that they saw the stairs leading up and down to other levels of the deck.
The two boys were glancing to the left and right in curiosity when the pretty maid pushed the cabin door open and spoke softly, "Two Gongzi, please come in.”
As soon as they stepped in, they were stunned. Because this room was actually very spacious, only there was a hanging bamboo curtain right in the middle, dividing the room into two sections. On the door side, there were lighted oil lamps on all four corners; there was also a bench and a small table for people to sit. Several scrolls of painting were hanging on the wall. Apparently the designer of this room put a lot of thought on the layout.
[2] Helmsman: this is another thing that I have difficulty translating. Some of you followed my ‘Deer and Cauldron', in the end I decided to keep it as is.