The muscles of the arms lacked strength, and the big iron hands soon fell and drooped on the knees.

Tie Da's eyes drooped, looking at his hands that had once made a name for himself in the harbor with a light lift of a hundred catties and as steady as iron stones, but at this time, he couldn't even move his fingers, sighed silently, and asked himself: Tie Da, what are you living for? Is this how you are pushed and squeezed by others? The Gao family gave you a chance to live and a chance to suffer, should you hate? Now that you have been rescued from death by another person, if you want to repay it, but you have to do something harmful to the Gao family, do you have the right to choose?

After a long silence, a low, hoarse voice suddenly came from his throat, but he couldn't make out what was expressed.

Only his heart was flooding with huge waves, crying out in a cracked struggle:

"Maybe death is the easiest, but I've already died once, so I suddenly feel very afraid of death, of the pain, of the feeling of suffocation...... So, I'm going to live."

……

To live.

Live well.

These are the basic demands of man. However, in order to achieve this goal, many times, it is necessary to use other people's shoulders as a stepping stone.

But not all of them are willing to take the initiative to show their shoulders and let you step on them.

In the south of the city when night fell, in the old housing area where the poor lived, a group of guests suddenly came to the small broken courtyard of Old Man Luo. They didn't come together, but they were very happy, so when Old Man Luo was carrying three taels of silver, and was forced out of the courtyard by the guards with the group of people with sharp eyes, although he was a little scared and apprehensive in his heart, but more of the joy of making a sum of money out of thin air.

This dilapidated yard is usually rented for the warblers for fun, forbidden parking, and some market gangsters gather to gamble, even if it is rented out for more than ten days in a row. I didn't make much money tonight.

Old man Luo has no queen, and the only industry is this courtyard, and since he found out that this broken courtyard can be used to make such money, all he usually has to do is to tell the neighbors that he is a lonely old man, and this house is also extremely poor.

Because it is too broken, normal people will not come to knock on the door to rent a house; Because there is nothing of value in the yard, even rats are reluctant to steal food over the wall; There lived a lonely old man in the courtyard. The root is simple, what to ask, as long as the old man pretends to be demented and closes his mouth, although his teeth are no longer neat, the mouth seal is very tight.

When the fifth guest, who had only one young man with him, arrived, a man in the form of a guard in the courtyard closed the courtyard door and stood behind the side of the wall.

The fifth guest entered the only room in the courtyard and saw the four guests who had arrived first. The five of them just met with their eyes, and they said hello and didn't say anything.

The five main guests gathered and sat upright. There was no polished table in front of them, no refreshments prepared by the servants—though they could feel a suppressed dryness in their throats before they could speak.

The crowd was silent for a moment. The middle-aged man sitting on the main seat coughed dryly, and finally started to talk, and directly picked out what he wanted to discuss tonight.

……

After a moment, the low voice of dialogue brought the topic to the middle of the conversation.

At this time, a young man sitting on the left hand side of the main seat couldn't help but say something that went off the rails: "Gong Yi, isn't it a little inappropriate for us to do this?" Wan Daren is still in prison, if he does something to the surname Lin at this time, wouldn't it make Wan Daren's suspicion even heavier?"

The middle-aged man sitting on the main seat said slowly with no expression on his face: "Lin Shan's will not be removed. Practices like him. If you continue, you will only have endless troubles. We must take advantage of the fact that his power has not fully recovered, and cut the gold quickly to ensure our peace. ”

He was after a long deep breath. He also said: "Just sacrifice Wan Daren, hurt one of him, help the five of us, you can't tell which is more important?" Don't be so indecisive as a woman, a few of us are hundreds of people with a family, how can we have so much mental power and righteousness?"

The young man who had spoken before did not speak again, he lowered his gaze with a look of struggle in his eyes, but quickly calmed down. At the same time, the young man who accompanied the last guest to enter the courtyard also lowered his gaze, and there was a similar look in his eyes that was hidden and suppressed.

One or two of the five people at the banquet couldn't help but sigh softly, and then returned to calm, only one of them was extremely thin and had sunken cheeks, but his eyes were as bright as a mouse, and he said: "If you can do this, Wan Daren will not be sacrificed in vain." If the surname Lin is gone, I can at least be free for a few more years. In the matter of supporting the family members of the Wan family, as long as Mrs. Wan is willing, I Qian Mou is willing to pay half of the alimony alone. ”

"Brother Qian, aren't you underestimating us when you say that?"

"The foolish brother thinks that even if Master Wan is gone, Mrs. Wan will not accept the help of others, and Mrs. Wan's maiden family is a big family."

When several people were about to discuss the aftermath of the event, the middle-aged man sitting on the throne suddenly stopped: "Everyone, don't discuss these things yet. The main thing we want to discuss today is to cooperate in a few days, and if we cooperate well, maybe things will not be as bad as you just said. ”

The middle-aged man woke everyone up with a word, and a guest immediately asked, "Could it be that Brother Liang has a plan in mind?"

"Foolish brother Zhimin is limited, and this plan has to be discussed by everyone to be considered in order to be considered." The middle-aged man surnamed Liang first said modestly, and then his eyes pointed to the last middle-aged man to arrive, and Wen Yan asked: "Brother Fu, you have come slowly, and then you have been sitting like a mountain, could it be that you already have a good plan?"

The middle-aged man surnamed Fu raised his eyes slightly when he heard this, and after staring for a moment, he first laughed "hehe", and then said in an unhurried tone: "There is no good strategy, but the clumsy plan is a little rudimentary." There is a saying in the Criminal Department that 'the law does not blame the public', so in order to ensure your safety and dilute the suspicion that Wan Da may add to it, it is necessary to make the circle of participants larger. Only the more people participate, this wave is stirred up enough, and it will not be easy for His Majesty to pinch a person alone when he calculates the accounts in the future. Although His Majesty's decree is strict, he is also a well-known gentleman who condemns by evidence. ”

As his words fell, a sarcastic smile appeared on the faces of some of the people in the audience. The middle-aged man sitting on the throne had always had a stiff face like a stone carving, but after a moment of silence, he suddenly patted his knee lightly and praised: "That's a good idea."

……

Tonight's guests only rented the courtyard for an hour or so before coming out, and when they left, they did the same as when they came. Looking at the old man Luo, who was slowly leaving with a total of more than a dozen people with his master and servants, and squatting outside the courtyard wall for an hour and blowing the night breeze for an hour, he was a little reluctant, and he also felt a little relieved.

Old Man Luo originally hoped that they would come back in the future, but looking at the neat and untouched simple stools and chairs in the room, as well as the smell of a thin layer of precious spices floating in the air, Old Man Luo felt a little scared inexplicably, and felt that he seemed to have done something wrong.

On the narrow street between the old houses, the middle-aged man surnamed Fu walked halfway to the road, suddenly sighed heavily, and his pace slowed down.

The young man he brought to the meeting was actually his eldest son, and when he saw his father sighing, the son naturally cared: "Why is my father sighing?"

The middle-aged man said softly: "I regret it a little, I feel like I was framed for this trip today."

When the son heard this, he chimed in: "I also think that my father should not be involved in this kind of thing."

"But now I don't have to participate." The middle-aged man sighed briefly, and then muttered: "Actually, my attitude towards the person surnamed Lin is five points good and five points bad. If it weren't for the person surnamed Yi who deceived me, I would prefer to have nothing to do with the person surnamed Lin. ”

The son asked puzzledly: "But looking at the meaning of those uncles just now, it seems that even if we don't provoke Lin Shan, he will provoke us in turn, and the possible results don't seem to be very good."

The middle-aged man said calmly: "Their words were originally half-truths and exaggerations, but they just wanted to mark the opposite side and make everyone tie together more tightly." Lin Shan, the person, is a little bookish, but more of a light. He probably preferred to do nothing rather than clean up the rotten creatures in the court, otherwise he would have either died ten years ago, or all the people gathered today would have grown grass. I've always wondered, what was it that tied him up? Maybe to find out this problem, we don't need to use the knife to see the blood, he himself has already gone far. ”

The son suddenly asked curiously, "Father, I've always wanted to know, what kind of Cheng Dù is that person named Lin Shan?"

The middle-aged man looked at his son's young face without a trace of wrinkles, smiled gently, and said: "Let's describe it this way, compared to me, he has a net in his head, which is much denser than the net in his father's head, but the direction of that net is a little special." I only know that part of the outer city of Kyoto has been planned and renovated by him, although I have not seen it inside, but only from the outside, it is already very terrifying, and its changing characteristics are like a huge and complex but orderly mechanical beast. ”

When his son heard him talk about this, he couldn't help but lose his voice and said, "Is it really so powerful?"

"These are only observed during the drill formation, and they have not yet been tested in actual combat." The middle-aged man said slowly: "In short, it is not too strange that those people are afraid of him. A person with such a mind, if one day he really casts that net into the officialdom and uses that kind of mind to gain power, coupled with his friendship with the emperor's Jinlan righteousness and life, I am afraid that whoever is targeted by him will have to take off a layer of skin. ”

His words were a little abrupt, and then he said word for word: "Son, whether you are a person or an official in the future, you should not be too eye-catching in the crowd." If it is like the surname Lin, it is easy to become the target of the public, and it is easy for people to kill. Because such a person seems to be the only way to die forever. ”。 (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )

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