In the sixteenth year of the calendar, one of the things that the people of Linqing Mansion talked about the most was that in the spring, a mysterious rich businessman took down a whole street on the east side of Linqing Mansion, which alarmed the entire Linqing Mansion at that time, and even the lord of Linqing Mansion was also alarmed, but it is rumored that this mysterious rich businessman has never shown up from beginning to end, and all affairs are represented by his housekeeper, including the lord of Linqing Mansion who set up a banquet at home and asked him to go to the banquet by name, but he just let people send a reply. That's it.

At that time, everyone thought that this wealthy businessman was going to be harassed by the lord of the Linqing Mansion, and he was even ready to watch a good show. As a result, everyone waited for a few days, but there was no movement at all, so the people of Linqing Mansion began to guess the true identity of the rich businessman, some said that the other party's background was those nobles in Kyoto Prefecture, and some said that the person had secretly compensated the prefect and sent a lot of money, in short, these are all speculations that have nothing to do with people, and the real situation seems to be known only to the parties concerned.

After the street on the east side of Linqing Mansion was taken down by wealthy merchants, a gambling house was opened there, named Silver Hook Gambling House. The gambling house is opened, and naturally the people of the three religions and the nine streams will go there to try their luck, and if they are lucky, they will win a lot of money, and if they are unlucky, they will not be able to wear the clothes they lose.

Someone once went there to find trouble, but it didn't work, because the gang had just entered the gambling house on the front foot, and the catcher of the yamen on the back foot followed them, and without saying a word, they all took them to the yamen.

This incident has raised the mystery of this gambling house to a higher level.

The sixteenth year of the Great Calendar is an unusual year for the people of Linqing Mansion, and it is also an unusual year for Dong Tiankuo.

Because that year he met someone who changed his life.

Some people can decide the fate of others, this statement is true.

In the sixteenth year of the calendar, Dong Tiankuo was still a gangster in Linqing Mansion, at the age of eighteen, he wandered the streets all day long, and he was quite famous, and his subordinates also had some subordinates who were willing to work hard for themselves, but the life of the gangster was not so stable after all, he always wanted to make a "big deal" one day, and then use the money from the "big deal" to open a "gambling house" of his own, every time he talked about this with others, others thought he was dreaming, and even later he himself felt that he was dreaming, In this small place of Linqing Mansion, where is there a "big deal" for yourself to do.

Until one day, after he heard that a street on the east side of Linqing Mansion had been taken down by a mysterious merchant, he felt that he could start doing this "big deal".

He is well versed in the way of "strong dragons do not suppress the head snake", and for the businessman, his own head snake is the object they want to win.

The Earth Head Snake is the Earth Head Snake after all, and no matter how powerful the dragon is, he can never imagine the power of the strong dragon.

Early that morning, Dong Tiankuo, who had breakfast, took a few brothers into the shop on the east side of Linqing Mansion.

The shop hasn't opened yet, or the people who bought it haven't figured out what they're going to do here.

After Dong Tiankuo and his people entered the shop, they didn't look at the people in the shop, so they directly found a chair and sat down, because he wanted to have a "local snake" style, so Dong Tiankuo thought about the appearance of those gangsters.

"That's how it should be." Dong Tiankuo thought to himself, and then put one of his feet on the table in front of him, and the other foot kept dangling there.

Although the shop is not open, there will still be people there.

"Guest officer, the shop hasn't opened yet, do you think you can come back in a few days?" A person who looked like a shopkeeper came over and said this to Dong Tiankuo very politely.

"Is your host here?"

The shopkeeper was stunned for a moment, and then asked cautiously: "I don't know what the guest officer has to do with our host." ”

"It's not much, I'll take care of you here in the future."

As soon as Dong Tiankuo stepped up, he stood up from the chair, then looked at the person in front of him, and said with a smile: "Correspondingly, you need to give me a little benefit." ”

"Thank you for your kindness, I don't think we need this care."

When Dong Tiankuo heard the shopkeeper say this, he suddenly put his face close to him, and then glared at the other party viciously, at this time, several of his subordinates brought by Dong Tiankuo also stood up suddenly, pulled out weapons of different styles from behind, and looked at the shopkeeper menacingly.

"This doesn't seem to be up to you."

In Dong Tiankuo's consciousness, when his words came to this, the other party would naturally give in, and then obediently send the money to his own hands, but to his surprise, the person in front of him didn't seem to buy his account.

Dong Tiankuo naturally didn't expect such a situation, so he made his expression a little more exaggerated, and then yelled at the other party: "I want you to give me the money!" ”

The shopkeeper was indifferent, his body took a step back, then clapped his hands, and then more than a dozen big men rushed out from both sides of the shop, each holding a steel knife, with tiger eyes, and they seemed to be more vicious than Dong Tiankuo.

Dong Tiankuo was taken to the backyard of the shop by the shopkeeper.

The yard is not large, and there is a well in the middle, on the east side of the well is a crooked neck tree, and on the west side is a smoking kitchen.

"Owner, look at what you are going to do with this kid." The shopkeeper's voice sounded not far away.

Only then did Dong Tiankuo notice that there was a middle-aged man behind the crooked neck tree, half-lying on a rocking chair, holding a copper teapot in one hand and a fan in the other.

The middle-aged man raised his eyelids when he heard this, and then glanced at Dong Tiankuo, who was kneeling there, with interest.

"Boy, what's your name?"

Although Dong Tiankuo was arrested, he was holding his breath in his heart after all, and when he heard the middle-aged man ask him, he didn't pay attention to him, but raised his head high.

When the shopkeeper saw Dong Tiankuo's appearance, he shouted to him: "You kid, don't know what's wrong, our boss asks you." ”

"Zhihao, don't scare the child." At this point, the middle-aged man on the recliner burst out laughing, as if he had thought of something particularly funny.

"You're the owner here?" Dong Tiankuo's voice came.

The middle-aged man's laughter stopped, and then he got up and looked at the young man in front of him, who was still a little immature.

"I'm the owner here, what do you want me to do?"

"I'm looking for you for money."

The shopkeeper didn't expect Dong Tiankuo to mention this matter.

The middle-aged man laughed even louder, and then asked, "Why did I give you money?" ”

"Because I'm familiar with everything here, I can handle it for you from the official yamen to the market gangsters."

The middle-aged man became more and more interested in the kid in front of him.

"How much do you want?"

Dong Tiankuo calculated in his heart, took charge of the rent of a shop, and said to the middle-aged man: "Eighty taels, no, one hundred and twenty taels." ”

Originally, the rent of the shop was 60 taels, but I asked for an extra 20 taels, thinking that I would buy a box of Lee Kum Kee's rouge for the Lingxiang girl in the West Lane Building, and later I added an extra 40 taels to keep the money for Lingxiang to redeem herself in the future.

The middle-aged man listened to Dong Tiankuo's offer, and was stunned at first, and then laughed even more violently.

"I'll give you five hundred taels, plus a shop."