Ning Que glanced up at him and asked, "Then you go and kill someone, what's the point of standing in my store anyway?"

"I'm waiting for the rain to stop, and I'm waiting for a couple of people to arrive," the man replied.

"The rain doesn't stop, especially when people expect it, and people don't usually arrive while you're waiting for them. Ning Que kindly admitted.

"If people don't arrive, they'll definitely have a good reason," the middle-aged man said with a laugh, "but can I talk to you about something quite serious, instead of testing each other like we did?"

"That's what I call a good attitude. I also don't like to go around in circles," Ning Que replied with a smile, "I also don't like to talk to people who stand while squatting, because height is different."

"You can always get up."

"Why don't you crouch?"

The man smiled again, crouched down without hesitation, and knocked on the threshold of the old brush shop with his wet robe. He looked at Ning Que's young face and said to him, "I'm struggling.

Ning Que continued to eat the noodles, waiting to hear more.

"A lot of the big guys there wanted me to be on the side, but now I can't be on the side. That's why I'm under siege. My brothers and I did a perfect job, and it would be too troublesome for the government to accuse me according to the laws of the Tang Dynasty. That's why they've decided to kill me tonight, and under the guise of a rainy night, all my enemies from the south and north of the city are now galloping towards here.

"And what are you waiting for?"

"One of my brothers passed away a few days ago. Most of the rest are employed by the government. Those there could easily have left them at a military base or yamen under any official pretext. Therefore, there are very few people around me tonight.

The rain continued to pour down during the night and was getting worse. It looked like the person he was waiting for would not show up, but the man didn't seem to care, calmly talking about his situation and not hiding anything. He smiled softly at Ning Que, and then said, "But none of this is a problem, my real problem tonight is that there must be someone around me, but I can't find that person."

Looking at the sword he was carrying at his waist, Ning Que guessed that it might be a small sword. Then he asked, "What kind of people do you need around you?"

"Be quick, strong, brave, kill without blinking, and never let anything fall on me."

"I guess 'anything' doesn't include rain?"

"Of course not."

"That's not too hard."

"Why me?" Ning Que scratched his slightly wet hair and asked.

The man glanced at his right hand and said, "I've heard something, although the Shubi Lake woodcutter is not so famous in Chang'an, but I know very well what a young caravan killer can do.

After a short silence, Ning Que smiled and said, "Why should I go with you?" What do I get out of it?

The man seemed to appreciate the lad's straightforwardness, and while shaking off the rain from his umbrella, he said, "No one in Chang'an City knows my last card." If I win tonight, I can show my hands and then you know I'm a great coat that really deserves to ride.

"It's been very dangerous tonight, why don't you show the last card first?"

"Because the last card is not a card, it's a person. I can't command him, but he can command me. He needs me to win tonight's battle because he wants to make sure the enemy doesn't have any last card to hide.

"yes, well, I'm tired of this way of talking. I would say that you may be a good horseback rider, but that doesn't appeal much to me. If you know about the distant Shubi Lake, then you must also know that I had the opportunity to ride a seemingly delicate but one of the best coats of the Tang Empire, but I refused to take a ride.

Ning Que was obviously referring to Li Yu, the four princesses of the Tang Dynasty. With that, he was quiet again, and he placed the bowl on the wet floor and watched the rain fall shoulder to shoulder with the man. At that moment, he remembered a scene from a story he liked, and he remembered what Zhuo'er had asked him to do in the small restaurant. Then he made up his mind.

The man was silent for a moment, then said, "Maybe... Do you prefer direct pricing?

Ning Que patted the annoying rain and said without hesitation: "Five hundred taels of silver."

The man frowned and suggested. "That's too little, and a little more?"

On a rainy night, in front of a bookstore, the scene of the two men negotiating a deal is particularly eerie, especially when the employer clearly thinks that the fee is too low.

Ning Que looked at him and asked, "How many people do you estimate I will kill tonight?"

The man thought for a moment and said, "At least five."

Ning Que said: "On the grassland, if I kill the five people of the horse gang, I may not even receive five taels of silver." So you can rest assured that for 500 taels of silver, I can fight with my dear life.

"I don't need your life," the man said kindly, "if things get so bad that they hurt your life, you can always leave first."

Ning Que shook his head and said, "I didn't do this. It may be silly to say that loyalty is gold or something like that, but since we're in business, we must at least stick to the most basic work ethic.

The man smiled and held out his hand. "Deal."

Ning Que shook hands and said, "My surname is Ning, like peace." Rather short.

"My surname is Chao, and like the Tang Dynasty, my name is Xiaoshu."

"What an arrogant surname, such a gentle name."

"Chang'an people often call me Old Man Zhao of Chunfeng Pavilion, and you also call me Brother Zhao."

"Chao Xiaoshu sounds better... So, Xiaoshu, do you happen to be the leader of the Ichthyosaurus?

"Then you can call me Lao Zhao... To be fair, I've never recognized the title of gang leader. All I did was gather a group of brothers to do things that the imperial court could not do freely.

Ning Que finally confirmed his identity, patted him on the shoulder with a smile, and said, "How can the biggest gang leader in Chang'an be so modest? Little tree, now you are simply fake.

He took out the ordinary-looking knife from the pyre, took out the boxwood bow and quiver from the box, picked up the big black umbrella wrapped in old clothes from the cheap ceramic jar, and continued to tie them all to his back. Then he searched for a while at the bottom of the box and finally found a black mask, which had probably not been washed in a long time.

He carefully put on soft armor and wore a beautiful old short-sleeved archery robe over it. Then he lowered his hair and re-combed it in the typical style of the people of the Yuelun Kingdom. He continued to cover most of his face with a black mask, carefully examining his appearance in the bronze mirror to make sure there were no problems. Finally, he went to the kitchen, looked inside, and said, "I'm leaving."

Sangsang is cleaning the kitchen stove, washing dishes and writing set. Her little face was expressionless, and her willow-shaped eyes looked a little childish. For some reason, the little maid was particularly clumsy today, making all kinds of smashing sounds, and she rubbed the pot so hard that it almost penetrated the bottom of the pot.

Ning Que was puzzled at first, but quickly understood her, and explained kindly: "It's always good to make some money, I think that guy has a strong background, if I help him, he may help in the future."

"Bang!" Sangsang poured the wipes roughly over the edge of the stove and continued to pour out the dirty water from the heavy iron pot. The girl turned suddenly, as if he could not see, and simply refused to listen to him.

Ning Que rubbed his forehead, and after a moment of silence, he continued to explain: "Poor Xiao Hei died after begging me for this favor, and I didn't even have a chance to refuse, so I fled to the bloody underworld...... So tonight I'm just paying off the debt for him.

After saying that, he ignored Sangsang's bad mood and went straight back to the storefront.

As the leader of the Chang'an Fish and Dragon Gang, Lao Chao has wandered the world for many years and has met all kinds of strange characters. He knew that the young owner of the old brush shop must be one of those extraordinary people, and he was mentally prepared for it. However, seeing Ning Que wearing equipment, he couldn't help but feel a little inexplicable. Looking at the mysterious object that Ning Que was carrying on his back, the shape of a stick wrapped in rags, he said, "You don't look like you're going to kill someone, but more like a homeless man running away from a huge debt. Are you carrying everything on your back now?