“Eh, let’s talk, why are we in a hurry to go? I have some preparations to make before we go, you think people will be willing to help us just because we go there? These journeymen have strange tempers.”
“What do you think we should do then?”
Going to Yuzhou to look for the descendants of Lu Ban could still be delayed for a few days, I could finish the gun trafficking case first before setting off. As long as Lin Fang wasn’t allowed to contact Zhao Zichen, it would be a good idea.
Zhao Zichen said, “I’m not sure at the moment, it’s probably just a matter of throwing in the towel. This is a matter that needs to be asked of the old man of the jungle, my father has long since withdrawn from the jungle and we are not allowed by the main family of the Zhao family. I’m afraid that apart from the Moon Man Bow, no one recognises me and my father as Jianghu people.”
When it comes to the Jianghu Elders, the first person I think of is Lao Mo, who must have known Zhao Zichen as well.
But when I mentioned Old Mo to Zhao Zichen, Zhao Zichen shook his head straight away.
“Old Mo has been out of the jianghu for many years, and he won’t go over the matters in the jianghu until it’s absolutely necessary.”
“Not so much.” My Thoughtless Mountain was still in his hands, and when he took it away, he didn’t say anything to me about retiring from the jianghu.
I had great trust in Old Mo. He had taken the mountain for such a long time, and no power in the jianghu had ever gotten it again, so I could see that Old Mo had kept his promise and had not given the painting to anyone.
Although I did not believe that Old Mo had retired, there was indeed not much news of Old Mo in the jianghu. I had not fought him head-on, so I could see that he had struck out at others, and his martial arts were so profound that he was definitely not below the Moon family or Jiang Yunqing.
Zhao Zichen coughed dryly and said, “There is someone who might know something.”
Strangely enough, Zhao Zichen’s skin wasn’t too thin, but he looked like he wanted to say something, and kept looking at me with his eyes.
“Who? If you have something to say, just say it. It’s not your wife that’s making you so ashamed.” I said, laughing.
“Bullsh*t.” Zhao Zichen rubbed his nose, “Who else could it be, Yue Man Gong. You don’t have to look at the fact that this kid was kicked out of the Moon family, but his status in the jianghu is quite high. He’s the grand disciple of the Thousand Doors, the Yuan leader of the lower nine streams, and has a strong appeal.”
I muttered in my heart, “What kind of lower nine streams is a carpenter?
He glanced at me and said, “I know what you’re thinking, this man is more than just a descendant of Lu Ban, his identity is very complicated, similar to Moon Full Bow, born of a famous family, but entered a lowly profession.”
He twisted three fingers of his right hand up in a holding gesture and said to me, “Got it? Do the word steal.”
“Stealing the door?”
“Politely, they’re called the Thieving Clan, but those who aren’t polite just call these guys old monkeys.”
“Is this the man you were supposed to be looking for?”
“It wasn’t really. I asked the Zhao family about the notebook your mother used, and I’m afraid it’s more than just a machine. In jargon, it’s a deadbolt, and apart from needing a key to open it, it can also be snapped shut so that even the key can’t open it, and it will blow up if you open it. I don’t know if your mother had this deadbolt fastened back then, but if she did, she couldn’t find ordinary people to cope with it, so she had to go to an old monkey with a craft.”
Zhao Zichen was full of dark words, and at this point I felt that he really was a bit of a journeyman.
I really wasn’t interested in the old monkey or the dead buckle, but I couldn’t let Lin Fang use Zhao Zichen against me, and if there was a second person who could open the notebook, the key in Lin Fang’s mouth would be useless, and I wouldn’t have to beg Lin Fang – I could beg anyone, and the last person I wanted to beg was this woman.
Just at that moment, my mobile phone vibrated in my pocket again, and I took it out to see that it was indeed Meng Meng’s.
“I’ll talk to Moon Man Bow about this… what’s the name of the person you’re looking for?”
Zhao Zichen was even more embarra*sed, squeezing the railing handle and thinking for a while, “Forget it, I’ll ask him myself if I come across him, you go ahead and get busy.”
After saying that, he surprisingly left by himself.
Strange, with him and Yue Man Gong’s deadly rivalry, what could be more embarra*sing than asking him to beg Yue Man Gong?
Moon Man-bow wouldn’t miss the chance to make fun of him.
“Captain, we’ve intercepted a text message from He Bi, tell him to go to the south bank of the river bridge right now, I suspect it’s from the person who kidnapped Jiang Yang.”
“Expected, I have long felt that something is not right, to kill He Bi, why would that crime company need to make such a big detour.”
“Could He Bi have taken the opportunity to abscond?”
I said, “No. If He Bi really wanted to escape, I would have let him go many times already. He didn’t leave then, and it makes no sense for him to use Jiang Yang as an excuse to leave again now. Maybe the gun company is trying to make a deal with He Bi, keep an eye on He Bi. By the way, has there been any movement at the place He Bi is going to?”
“There are no cameras there, we can’t monitor it.”
“sh*t, you know how to do counter-surveillance.” I inexplicably thought of the night I went to rescue Arashi and Fox, and the guy the gun dealing company confronted me with also knew a lot about our reconnaissance techniques.
Since when were criminals so motivated and studious, feeling us out so thoroughly, or was there some unseen reason for that?
Monk asked me what to do.
I said, “Keep an eye on He Bi, the surveillance software in his phone hasn’t been discovered yet and can locate him in real time. I’ll arrange the rest.”
After I hung up the phone, I dialed Yue Man Gong’s number. Every time I called Yue Man Gong, I felt strange that a man like him had a phone.
“Meet me at the city hospital, I have something for you.”
“Good.”
Moon Fullbow was as high strung as ever, and hung up the phone after saying one word.
As I sat in the hospital waiting for Moon Man-bow, I also ran into an acquaintance, Li Ge, who had come to see his face.
The hospital was already closed, but the emergency window was still open afterwards, and Li Ge was pouting, lying on his back at the window to get his medicine.
Zhao Xiaoliu was only seven years old, so he fell on his a*s. The boy was so tigerish that he rolled in place and hit a bin on the wall before stopping.
“f*ckin’ no eyes.” Li Ge covered his face and cursed vaguely, holding his waist and ignoring Zhao Xiaoliu as he turned around and walked away.
“You hit someone’s kid, and you don’t help or pay, so you just walk away?”
Another woman picking up medicine next to him stopped Li Ge and scolded.
Even though the hospital was now closed, there were still quite a few people in the hospital lobby. Everyone was no great hero, but they were all furious to see a grown man bullying a child like that.
Li Ge’s face was so swollen that not many people could recognise him as the son of Mayor Li, and a few bold men stopped him from leaving, demanding that he must be responsible for Zhao Xiaoliu.
Zhao Xiaoliu himself was fine, he climbed up from the rubbish and patted the rubbish on his body, he didn’t cry out in pain, but he hit his head with a big bruise.
Li Ge shouted twice, but who cared? He saw a man taller than him, his heart was weak and he took two steps backwards: “Talk nicely, don’t get violent. You see the child as a porcelain hooligan, dirty and with torn clothes.”
When he didn’t say that, even the doctor at the medicine window quit, shouting from behind the gla*s, “Who said he was a barker? He’s a child we all raised together in the hospital, we’re all his parents.”
“Whether he’s a caller or not, can you be an adult and bully a child?”
When people heard that the boy had no father or mother, they were even more distressed. People are already sympathetic to the weak, and seeing how unreasonable Li Ge was, no one helped him even more.
