novelraw Chapter 195 If you can't afford to offend them, find someone else.
Chapter 195 If you can't afford to offend them, find someone else.
Chapter 195 If you can't afford to offend them, find someone else.
Don't underestimate beggars; they can form gangs too.
Of course, the gangs here are different from the beggar gangs in martial arts novels. The beggars here are simply trying to gain an advantage by having a large number of people, seizing places where they can get money, or robbing other beggars.
The beggars, whose eyes had been sprayed with chili extract, were still rolling and howling in pain. The surrounding area had become a vacuum. Apart from Gu Tang and the three people kneeling on the ground, all the other beggars had fled.
If possible, the three people kneeling on the ground would also like to stay far away.
The three of them glanced at it fearfully, too frightened to utter a single word.
Gu Tang impatiently urged, "Are all three of you mute? If you can speak, then hurry up and say something!"
The icy tone made the three men tremble a few times, and they kowtowed again, begging for mercy: "Miss, spare our lives! We three brothers didn't want to bother you, but our leader said that if we didn't help surround you, he would kill us and eat us..."
Slaughter and eat the meat?
Gu Tang frowned. Was this just a bluff, or did he really dare to do it?
"Which one of you is in charge?"
"...The one with one eye is it."
Gu Tang looked at them one by one, but everyone covered their eyes, so she couldn't tell who was one-eyed.
Looking around, she vaguely remembered that the beggar closest to her seemed to be one-eyed.
Finding the nearest beggar, Gu Tang kicked him in the elbow, hitting the nerve in the elbow. The beggar's hand trembled involuntarily a few times and slipped to the side, revealing a shriveled eye socket.
"Is it him?"
"Yes Yes……"
well.
Gu Tang took out the pepper spray again, ignoring his screams, and sprayed it three times into his other intact eye.
The next instant, a bloodcurdling scream, like the wailing of ghosts and howls of wolves, echoed throughout the alley, sending chills down one's spine.
Gu Tang said in a calm tone, "Since you have such evil intentions, you might as well just pretend to be blind."
This action made the three people kneeling not far away tremble with fear, their heads buried in the ground, not even daring to raise them.
Gu Tang came up to them and asked about the little beggar again.
This time, the three of them spoke quite fluently, their voices trembling as they recounted the story of the little beggar.
“Those little beggars were not originally from Beian City. Half a month ago, they came into the city with a man. That man was a sickly man and also a homeless beggar.”
"If I remember correctly, beggar children from outside the city are not allowed to enter. How did they get in?"
"Yes, it was that man who gave the money. A beggar gets one tael of silver. The soldiers guarding the city were greedy, so they took the silver and let the man into the city."
Gu Tang frowned: "You just said that man was a beggar? How could a beggar afford so much silver?"
There were about twenty little beggars just now. If each of them was worth one tael, that would amount to twenty taels!
Someone who can afford twenty taels of silver can't possibly be a beggar.
"He was indeed a beggar. After he brought those little beggars into the city, he followed them and begged on the streets for two or three days. He beat up several people who tried to kidnap the little beggars, but then, for some reason, he disappeared. Even though he disappeared, whenever someone kidnapped a little beggar, that person would be in trouble that night. The kidnapped little beggar would reappear on the streets the next day, perfectly fine. I heard it was that man who did it. He said he was a martial arts master, but he was sick and looked like he wouldn't live long."
Hearing this, Gu Tang gave up and stopped asking questions.
Having been a fan of online novels for a few years in my past life, I know that according to the typical online novel tropes, such mysterious and eccentric people must have a remarkable background and be burdened with countless troubles.
Tsk!
What a waste of those ten fried dough sticks!
She didn't want to get involved with this kind of person, so she decided to find someone else.
Gu Tang's gaze fell on the three people whose heads were still buried in the ground. A thought struck her, and she asked, "How old are they? What skills do they have?"
“...We three are brothers from the same family. The youngest is the oldest, and he is twenty-five years old this year. The two on the left and right are my second and third brothers, one is twenty-three years old and the other is twenty-one years old,” the beggar in the middle said in a trembling voice.
After saying this, he paused, his tone turning bitter: "As for skills... Miss, you're joking. People like us, ugly in appearance and crippled in the legs, how could we possibly have any skills?"
In my early years, I learned a few lines of song from a street performer. Around the age of seventeen or eighteen, my voice lost its former clarity, so the performer abandoned us, and I became a beggar.
Gu Tang's eyes lit up: "Have you ever heard a storyteller tell stories?"
"I heard."
"Can you speak?"
"……Won't."
"It's okay if you don't know how. Are you eloquent? Are you quick-witted? If someone teaches you to say a passage, can you remember it and say it out loud?"
The three kneeling men froze, a surge of excitement rising within them. The leader cautiously raised his head: "Yes! We three brothers are ugly and clumsy. The reason our master took notice of us years ago was because we could learn anything quickly and memorize words fast."
Gu Tang laughed: "I have a job that requires me to be eloquent and shameless, just like an actor on a stage, performing for outsiders."
The three men excitedly kowtowed again: "We can do it! We can make ourselves look ugly, shout, curse, and joke! We don't care about face or anything like that. As long as we have enough to eat and wear, that's enough for us."
"If you can do it, you'll not only have enough to eat and wear, but you might even earn some money. How much you earn depends on your skills."
The three men kowtowed repeatedly, agreeing, "We'll do it! We'll do it! Miss, please hire us..."
Gu Tang tossed down a string of copper coins: "Take these coins, find an inn and take good care of it. Wait for me outside the Chang'an Teahouse at the end of the morning tomorrow."
After saying this, Gu Tang ignored their reactions and turned to leave.
The three of them grabbed the copper coins on the ground, looked up at Gu Tang's departing figure, and their eyes instantly reddened.
After glancing at the unconscious One-Eyed, the three hurriedly got up and took the opportunity to run west.
“Turning east in the alley ahead and walking straight will take us away from here. I remember there’s a cheap inn there, let’s stay there.”
"Alright! But we need to go to where we hide our things first, take out the copper coins we've hidden, and at least get some clean clothes to wear. We're going to see the girl tomorrow, so we need to be presentable!"
"Yes, yes, yes! Hurry, hurry, before One-Eyed wakes up, let's grab the copper coins and get out of here!"
……
Back on the street, Gu Tang went to the same fried dough stall and bought two more fried dough cakes. She also inquired about whether there were any courtyards for rent nearby.
That was a very good question. The couple who ran the fried dough stall lived in Lihua Hutong in the south. There were several empty courtyards there, but they couldn't find any tenants. The couple told Gu Tang to just go and ask, because the rent wouldn't be expensive this time of year.
Gu Tang thanked the couple and headed south following the route they had indicated.