On the night that He Nan left Shanhe Mansion, he did not leave the city immediately, but returned to his residence first.

He lived in the deepest part of an alley some distance from Shanhe Mansion, and this alley was inhabited by small officials who had come to Beijing to serve in other places like him.

As soon as he pushed open the courtyard door, he looked up and saw a man standing in the shadows with a lantern waiting for him in front of the door of his hut.

When He Nan saw this person, he suddenly stood still, raised his right hand and made a gesture similar to stopping, and whispered, "It's okay, my own people." After a few breaths, he said as if talking to himself, "Okay." ”

The man standing in the shadow of the eaves couldn't help but laugh out loud and asked, "What are you muttering to yourself there?

He Nan looked at the young man in the shadows, and said angrily: "If it weren't for the great god I danced just now, your head would have been gone." ”

The young man snorted disdainfully and said, "Is there anyone else in this Bai Yujing who can take my head?"

He Nan's eyes were empty, and he was a little speechless: "I remember when the two of us first met, you were chased by a group of miscellaneous servants from a restaurant for a few streets...... Do you want to be shy and say that no one can take your head?"

When the young man holding the lantern heard He Nan say this, his face turned red under the faint light of the lantern, and he coughed twice in embarrassment: "That was how many years ago Chen Sesame Rotten Grain, don't mention it now......"

He Nan quipped: "You are still known as a thief, but you were actually chased by the common people like a rat crossing the street...... But you used to be a thief, and it's not an exaggeration to say you're a street rat, right? ”

The young man's name was Youtu, and he used to be a thief, known as "a thief among thieves", and some people hated his behavior and called him "You Mouse". This thief among thieves does not steal the poor or the rich, but only does the business of eating black and black - such as strange thieves, habitual thieves, black shops, etc., and every time he makes a move, he is invincible, and he can be called a peer killer. In his own words, "It has nothing to do with me to rob the rich and help the poor, and to steal and help the poor." I'm not a hero, I'm just a thief...... I was born to eat this meal. How can the most powerful thief steal from ordinary people? Only the thief who can pry the goods out of the pocket of his peers and pull out the money in his hands is the most powerful thief, and he is worthy of being called a 'thief'. ”

You Tu pursed his lips and said, "What kind of flat-headed people, obviously they are thugs in black shops...... Okay, I'm not going to fight you, I can't fight you anyway. ”

"It's good to know. He Nan showed a triumphant smile on his face, "By the way, how did you do what I asked you to do?"

You Tu tinkered with it in his arms for a while, and pulled out a stack of crumpled silver tickets and handed it to He Nan. This pile of silver bills has a whole number, with denominations ranging from one tael to fifty taels, but on the whole, there are still more small denominations.

One tael of silver is about equal to 1,000 copper coins, which can probably buy two stones, that is, about 400 catties of rice or nearly 50 catties of pork, and the purchasing power can be said to be considerable. However, the metal was too heavy to carry, so the imperial court established a number of money banks to print and issue silver tickets and undertake exchange business. The commerce of Shengguo was very prosperous, and so far a total of seven different denominations of silver notes have been issued, namely one, three, five, ten, fifty, one hundred taels and one thousand taels, and the number of printed notes is inversely proportional to the face value of the silver bills. The silver tickets of 1,000 taels were very rare, and only the nobles and wealthy merchants had the opportunity to see and use them—of course, not very often.

What about silver tickets...... Ordinary people don't have much opportunity to use it, so let's take He Nan as an example - He Nan is the governor of Shanhe Mansion, with an eighth-rank rank - and the eight-rank official's annual silver is about forty taels, and these forty taels are about eight times the annual income of ordinary farmers, and twice that of ordinary craftsmen. The peasants, artisans, and officials obviously had little room to exchange their money for silver bills, and even more so that their money was only a very small fraction of the silver and most of the copper coins, and the general equivalent of grain.

The groups that had the opportunity to use the silver ticket were none other than nobles and wealthy merchants, as well as some practitioners of the criminal industry - after all, the most lucrative methods in the world have been written into the "National Law" of Sheng Guo.

Of course, these silver tickets in He Nan's hand were not accumulated by himself - he was from an ordinary background, and he had just become a Shangfu Cheng for more than half a year, and he couldn't save such a huge amount of money, but a few days ago, Qi Dan gave him this meeting gift in order to win over He Nan - a full three hundred taels of official silver. Three hundred taels is enough for a small family to live a life of several lifetimes, but it is just a casual reward for Qi Dan for a person who is still attentive.

He Nan had already had the heart to leave, but the three hundred taels of silver fell from the sky, and he didn't take it for nothing. But three hundred taels of silver is not a small amount, go to the money village to exchange it into a silver ticket will definitely leave a registration, not to mention that these three hundred taels of silver are all silver ingots stamped with the royal seal, this white jade in Beijing dare to give him a silver ticket is the government's money bank, who can guarantee that there is no single eyeliner in it? And ordinary pawnshops or businesses, they will never dare to accept this official silver. In desperation, he found his friend who was a thief but was right.

Since he is a thief, there must be a place to sell the stolen goods, and a top thief like Youtu is even more cunning and eighteen. He Nan handed him the three hundred taels of silver to ask him to redeem the silver tickets in the more reliable black market. Of course, there is no trace of what flows out of the black market, otherwise it would have been taken by the government long ago - in a sense, this money is the most "clean".

He Nan carefully counted the amount of the silver ticket, but asked suspiciously: "Why is there only more than two hundred taels? Where did the rest of the money go?"

"When I went to sell the stolen goods, I fell in love with a treasure and bought it with the rest of the money. You Tu touched it in his arms again, and finally took out a black strip-like item and handed it to He Nan, "Oh, give it to you." ”

He Nan pursed his lips and said, "I really have yours...... Spend my money on something to give it to me. But curiosity drove the eyes to the strangely shaped object.

It is a brand-new cigarette stick about a foot long, carved into the shape of a giant python with a pitch-black body winding and entrenching. The tail of the python is a straight cigarette holder of about three inches, and the body is coiled around the main body of the cigarette stick, and at the end is a huge snake head with red eyes and golden eyes, with slightly raised edges and corners on both sides of the snake's head, and it is opening its bloody mouth diagonally towards the sky - the python's huge mouth is the pipe that holds tobacco. The whole cigarette stick seems to be made of jade, which is very luxurious and weighty. The snake's two eyes are red agate inlaid with tiny gold beads, which are like living creatures in the candlelight, lifelike, and the fine black scales look like the hands of famous craftsmen, and they feel like snake skin to the touch.

"You really bought this thing for less than a hundred taels?" He Nan's eyes looked at You Tu with questioning, "No matter what, it looks like a hundred taels can't be beaten...... If you had to say anything, it's more than ten times. ”

You Tu said proudly: "I thought you had the ability to recognize people, but I didn't expect that you also have a little eyesight for things." This gadget is made of the rare ink-colored jade stone 'smoked jade' by the famous jade carver 'Gubetsu Mountain'. What is the market price...... It's okay to say that it is priceless, after all, it is a treasure to be dedicated to dignitaries. ”

As soon as he heard this, He Nan's heart was really shocked, and his eyes almost burst out. "How did this thing end up in your hands?!"

"Master has been walking the rivers and lakes for so many years, what treasure has you never seen?" You Tu's tone was very disdainful, and he seemed to be dissatisfied with He Nan's very surprised look. But he added, "But this treasure is truly one of the most amazing I've ever seen...... You know, in our business, you have to be very sensitive to valuable things, and I feel like I'm telepathic about them...... Presumably this is talent. ”

You Tu is worthy of being a close friend of He Nan, and even the tone of his self-selling and boasting expression is almost exactly the same. He looked at He Nan's expression as if he was a little impatient with his ramblings, and then he got to the point, "Of course, I have to go to the safest place to redeem these silver tickets for you, and of course there are a lot of good things in that kind of place." I happened to hear the owner of the black market pawn shop and a 'pocket' bragging that they had a new priceless treasure in their hands. It was probably a snitch who got it by accident and sold it to the pawn shop after a few turns. I went out with my front foot to redeem the silver ticket, and my back foot entered his storehouse that night, and I caught my eye on it. You must know that I have also done some research on gold and jade jewelry, how good this thing is, can I still see it? Anyway, it fell into the hands of thieves, and it was better to be cheaper than cheap for others, so I took the sheep and brought it out. ”

You Tu eyebrows fluttered and saliva flew to talk about this paragraph, but I didn't expect He Nan's focus to be here, but asked, "Pocket, what is the boss saying to the pocket?"

"Pockets are not real pockets, but the black words of their pawn industry, which refers to laymen who have money but do not know the goods and are easy to be deceived. "You want to answer your questions.

"Then why don't you keep such a valuable treasure for yourself, and you want to give it to me?" He Nan squinted at Youtu, looking a little incredulous.

"I don't smoke dry tobacco, so what's the use of asking for this thing. You love cigarettes so much, or are you worth the money in your hands. To be honest, I am not very interested in gold and silver treasures, but I simply think that stealing, especially stealing these thieves, in other words, I may be a thief for fun. But I'll be ignorant of your little one hundred taels, so let's take it as a farewell gift for me when you leave. ”

He Nan didn't tell You Tu that he was leaving, but he wasn't surprised that You Tu could guess it, after all, no one would exchange silver for silver tickets when they had nothing to do, and only those who were going to go far would act like this. At this time, he was quite moved in his heart - his thief brother had deliberately stolen a pretty good treasure for himself before he left - although he also stole it from the black market and had no guilt, but theft was still not very advocated.

"Speaking of farewell, not only do you give it to me, but I also want to give you another one-" He Nan also took out a gadget from his bosom at this time, which was a wooden sign engraved with the word "big". "After I'm gone, you'll be the new leader of a big gang. ”

No matter how unruly He Nan is and pretends to be old, in the final analysis, he is only an eighteen-year-old and a half-old boy, and he naturally yearns for the righteousness of the thousands of gangs and brothers. He usually likes to make friends, and he knows everything from three religions to nine streams, and he has met many friends since he came to Bai Yujing. Among these people, there are many rooster and dog thieves like teenagers, but all of them are heroic and courageous people, and even Zhu Zhaoer often comes to join in the fun with them.

He Nan was the first to give his opinion, and several of his best friends were enthusiastic and immediately established this "one big" gang. Yes, the name of their gang is "One Big". At first, a big gang was just a teenager who was a little trouble, but as time passed, there were more and more "gangs" of a big gang, all of whom were teenagers who were full of vigor and enthusiasm. The youthful spirit, a glance can be heart-to-heart, a smile can pay for life - a few people led by He Nan have engaged in some gang systems in a decent manner, most of which are related to brotherly righteousness - such as vows such as sharing blessings and hardships. And He Nan, as the initiator of a big gang, was naturally the first "leader", and he also made a wooden token engraved with big characters.

A big gang is no more than a few dozen people so far, and there is nothing to be proud of in this "leader" position. But in the eyes of this group of teenagers, it is the greatest feeling and commemoration, and the significance is extraordinary. At this time, the handover of the position of "leader" of He Nan and Youtu also symbolized the parting of brothers, and both of them couldn't help but redden, and a few lines of tears quietly flowed down the corners of their eyes.

Just as the two brothers were saying goodbye, you and me, there was an unkind voice in the air, and a crisp female voice broke the sad atmosphere between the two: "It's not early, we should leave quickly." ”

Hearing this woman's voice, You Tu suddenly approached He Nan and whispered and gossiped: "The voice of this girl who urged you to leave is good, but my brother and sister can't do it?" You Tu is a few months younger than He Nan, and at this time, he is obviously taking advantage of He Nan in his words.

He Nan wiped the undried tears on his face carelessly, raised his voice and said, "You come in first, we'll leave immediately." As soon as the words fell, I saw a red dress quietly floating in from outside the courtyard gate.

When you saw the appearance of the red rain, you couldn't help but praise it, and said in a joking voice: "I don't dare to see people because of my brother and sister's poor image, it turned out to be a fairy who fell into the earth." ”

He Nan smiled, he naturally took advantage of it, but he took advantage of the two of them at one time: "You, the fairy sister-in-law, I'm afraid it's not uncommon to recognize her as a cheap gentleman." ”

Hongyu had long known that He Nan would show such a non-existent appearance, but at this time, He Nan had in his hand the black arrow that Li Yushi gave him to dispatch the dark arrow, and it was not easy to attack, so he turned his head and didn't hear it, and said coldly: "I don't have the same knowledge as you, but if we don't go out of the city and wait for dawn, it will be difficult to leave." ”

Seeing Hongyu admonishing him like this, He Nan also knew that it was time to leave, so he leaned over and whispered a few words to Youtu, patted him on the shoulder and left with Hongyu on horseback.

This small and old courtyard has been stumped for four or five years, and a group of half-grown sons have also lived here for four or five years. And now there is only a young man standing in front of the courtyard gate, unable to leave for a long time, as if waiting for something to return.