The people who were watching got totally surprised. One of them knew An Zheng and realized that the child who had just defeated the ruffians was the orphan who had always used to be subservient. Knowing this had made him more surprised. Why had An Zheng changed so much after only one day? Having defeated those ruffians brutally, was it him, An Zheng who used to know nothing, except in holding his head while being beaten, not daring to fight back?
Zhang Lei’s face was full of blood. Blood and flesh mixed together, which seemed to be seriously injured. It seemed that his face would be damaged forever even if the trauma had already been healed. Those who only knew how to bully weak people were extremely rejected by An Zheng. He needed a place to heal himself. Otherwise in his golden age, he just only needed to raise his hand and those people would have become cloud and smoke.
He hated the tyrants like sin. If it had happened before he had gotten injured, those bastards would have vanished.
– “Have you remembered how much you owe me yet?”
An Zheng kicked Zhang Lei and frightened him out of his wits. He asked Zhang Lei a question while Zhang Lei was lying on the ground as quietly as a dead swine. He had wanted to answer, but half of his face was covered with blood, so he could not even open his mouth.
An Zheng saw that he was not able to answer, so he bent down a little, and looked at him:
– “I will assume that you owe me 500 liang's, ok?”
Zhang Lei’s eyes were sparkling as to show his disagreement. However, An Zheng again raised the brick upwards, and he nodded continuously. An Zheng accepted, and he came to Lou LaiZi:
– “Do you remember how much you owe me?”
Lou LaiZi did not dare to deny, and responded nervously:
– “Yes, yes… I owe you 140 liang's.”
An Zheng sighed:
– “140 liang's… well, let me adjust the number because I don’t like odd numbers.”
Lou LaiZi responded happily:
– “Thank you! Thank you!”
After that, An Zheng bent down, and broke one of Lou LaiZi's legs:
– “A leg costs fifty liang's. You have just owed me 140 liang's lately. So, now it is 190 liang's, rounded to 200 liang's. Do you think that it is fair now?”
Lou LaiZi shouted sorrowfully, but how could he have dared to say no? He repressed his feelings and nodded non-stop. He himself did not know what to curse at An Zheng. An Zheng ignored him, and moved to Zhou An slowly:
– “How about you? Do you remember how much it is that you owed me?”
Zhou An was so scared that he crawled back, crawling while crying:
– “Ye ye, I beg of you, I will agree with whatever that it is, the price of my debt, please just don’t beat me… Lou LaiZi owed you 200 liang's, so I will also owe you 200 liang's, is that possible?”
An Zheng nodded satisfactorily:
– “Reasonable! Your attitude is not bad, so I will assume that you owe me 200 liang's. However, I am an honest person, and I don’t like to take over people’s properties. You had said that you had owed me 200 liang's, but I had not beaten you enough for this amount. If news of this spreads out, everyone will say that I am not fair. If so, who will dare to find me for their businesses? I had remembered that you had owed me 160 liang's, so I am going to break…”
Crack! A leg of Zhou An's had been broken.
Said An Zheng:
– “210 liang's but I will only charge you 200 liang's.”
He turned to the third one, the third ruffian was so frightened that he continuously stepped back. He found a brick, and immediately, he picked up the brick and he beat his face with it:
– “An ye, I also owe you 200 liang's. You don’t need to set out because I will do it myself. Is that fine?”
Having finished his question, he once again beat the brick on his face strongly.
An Zheng looked at them. They were really frightened to death by me. From now on they won't dare to cause anymore troubles with me even if someone pays them money to do so. His style in the past was to strike at the root of all evils, so he would have killed those people without sparing anyone although they were not valuable for him to do so. However, he did not know much about the Illusory Perennial Domicile, and he also did not want to kill any humans brutally in this place, so he stopped.
– “That leading head owed me 500 liang's, and each of you owe me 200 liang's. So, you owe me 3,300 liang's in total. Now I’m waiting for you to pay me.”
He had not finished his words only to see Gao Di turning back to run, but he was caught by Du ShouShou. Du ShouShou pulled Gao Di back, and Gao Di was so scared that his face turned pale. He saw An Zheng looking at him, so he tried to smirk:
– An Zheng… An ye, you are a great person who will not resent the bad hat’s mistakes. Please just see this bad hat as the fart, and forgive me.
An Zheng sighed coldly:
– “Even if I ate shit, I could not dare to fart such smelly farts as you.”
He raised his leg and kicked Gao Di’s chin:
– “I had intended to gradually acquire from your debts, but you found a dead way yourself, so you will be satisfied.” Other people had been broken an arm and a leg, but you, I’ll not charge you.
An Zheng looked at Zhang Lei:
– “This guy is for you. He will be up to your treatment. You owed me 3300 liang's. I counted this one to be about 300 liang's, so I will only charge you 3000 liang's and that’s all.”
The face of Zhang Lei was full of blood by being beaten, but the trauma was not very serious. At that time, An Zhen’s eyes looked like the death. Although An Zhen was not so tall, he had set out as strongly as a demon. Even though they had fought with him once, they were not his rivals. From now on, as long as An Zheng was still in the South Mountain Town, he would not have dared to appear in front of An Zheng.
Hearing An Zheng’s saying, Zhang Lei nodded strongly, and said with courage:
– “Don’t worry An ye, just give this shit to this bad hat.”
An Zheng nodded:
– “Go get money! These people will be kept here temporarily. You go home and bring money here to take them back. I am very fair, 200 liang's for each person. However, if I hear that you had robbed from other people or have forced them to give you money, you will surely die by me before midnight.”
An Zheng pointed to the sidewalk:
– “Don’t stay there as such obstacles. All of you move to the sidewalk, line up in order, and wait for your leader to bring money and take you back.”
Zhang Lei did not dare to be late, even for a minute. He took Gao Di with him and escaped the South Mountain street.
Du ShouShou went to stand by An Zheng’s side:
– “You spared Gao Di? If it was not for him, today’s trouble would not have happened. Usually, he had bullied you the most cruelly, and Xiao DeZi’s leg had also been broken by him. He was disabled for the rest of his life. So was Li Han. He had three of his fingers cut off, and now he does not dare to show his hand to people.”
An Zheng had a cold smile:
– “I spared him? Don’t worry, I have asked Zhang Lei to take him. It’s better than if I had killed him myself. If Zhang Lei fails to kill him, I am sure that he cannot live for long in this Illusory Perennial Domicile.”
Du ShouShou nodded:
– “Such a person like that definitely deserves death. From now on, it is not a worry that the other children in the school will be bullied anymore.”
An Zheng slapped on Du ShouShou’s shoulder:
– “Remember what I had asked you? Are you bored of the hard life?”
Du ShouShou said:
– “Who wants to be in poverty?!”
An Zheng smiled while saying:
– “From now on, life will no longer be difficult. And from now on, I will let you eat anything that you like, and you can wear anything that you love, play with anything that you want. You are my only friend in the Illusory Perennial Domicile, and I will try to change our lives. Du ShouShou, keep in your mind clearly! No one can harm An Zheng’s friend.”
In the tavern, Ye Aunty looked at the two youths embracing each other in their arms, standing on the road, having a faraway look in their eyes. That skinny youth is very special. He embraces the fatty child and points to the sky. He is most likely to be in the highest place pointing to the land. He is obviously a ten-year-old child. How could he make me have such a feeling?
She wanted to understand this youth more, but when she remembered the reason why she had been secluded was due to her child, she immediately gave up. Nothing was more important than to have Xiao QiDao grow up in peace. Only if her child could grow up healthily, she could do everything. She turned to look at her child, and she couldn’t help sighing… A four-year-old child was sitting next to the windows, chewing melon seed, swinging his legs as if he was not scared of the bloody scene caused by An Zheng.
Such manners were totally similar with those of his father. In spite of the big problems, he was still unhurried, and always elegant.
– “Gege!” [1]
Xia QiDao suddenly looked at An Zheng, and shouted shortly:
– “Wanna try melon seeds?”
An Zheng looked back and he had realized that the child was so lovely and good-looking. He cleaned his bloody hand on his clothes, moved to Xiao QiDao, and sat down next to him:
– “QiDao, you had watched big bro fight with people. Are you scared?”
Xiao QiDao slided melon seeds into An Zheng’s hand:
– “I am not scared. I will also fight with the baddies like you. I will immediately beat the baddies, and I will beat them up until they stop doing bad things.”
Xiao QiDao raised his hand, swung a little, and fell down from the window. Ye Aunty was so scared that she ran towards them, but An Zheng had caught him in time. An Zheng carried Xiao QiDao in his arms, went to the sidewalk, and pointed to the ruffians:
– “Xiao QiDao, keep in your mind clearly! From now on, don’t be bad like them. Although they look courageous, they usually see devils in their dreams every night, and they will easily lose their lives by the devils hands. Although they may die, they can only go to hell, and suffer from punishment by the devils.”
Xiao QiDao nodded:
– “Gege, can you teach me how to beat other people?”
An Zheng shook his head:
– “No, practicing is not for fighting.”
Xiao QiDao said again:
– “My mother said that I could not practice, so I am afraid that my mother will be bullied.”
An Zheng knitted his brows a bit, and turned to Ye Aunty. When he hugged Xiao QiDao, he could feel that Xiao QiDao’s constitution was extremely excellent. Such constitution would be respected by its ancestry. Only after being taught carefully, Xiao QiDao will surely be able to practice. But why did Ye Aunty cheat on her child?
He gave back the melon seeds into Xiao QiDao’s hand. Xiao QiDao laughed out loud, and his eyes were shinny. The kitten on An Zheng’s shoulder made a soft sound as if it had wanted to eat, too.
Ye Aunty stepped ahead to Xiao QiDao, said thank you shortly, and immediately left.
An Zheng wanted to acquire all his doubts. However, when he saw the sparkling eyes of Ye Aunty, he felt that it would be better if he was not curious about her secrets.
Right then, there were some people bringing a big chest faraway. Seeing those disabled people, all of them were pale by fear. The leader moved to An Zheng with haste and asked politely:
– “An ye, this is the money that our Master pays to you.”
The kitten which was always lazy, immediately stood up, ferociously showing its sharp fangs as if it had wanted to protect An Zheng,
An Zheng chilled the kitten out, smiled and said:
– “The Tyrants obviously does not lack money.”
The man smiled a little:
– “Oh no, the Tyrants are only a small clan, established by the children. We do not have a lot of money. This amount of money is given to you by our Master. Our Master would like to meet you.”
An Zheng knitted his brows:
– “Who is your Master?”
That man gave a sign showing a gesture of invitation:
– “Our Master is named Chen.”
Hearing this word, Du ShouShou turned pale, and he moved forward, kept An Zheng tightly, and said while shaking his head:
– “An Zheng, you cannot go!”
[1] “Gege!”: Big bro