novelraw Chapter 204 Where are you, my creditor?
Chapter 204 Where are you, my creditor?
Chapter 204 Where are you, my creditor?
Gu Tang glanced at him: "Don't judge a book by its cover."
"What? What kind of skills could these three possibly possess?"
"Of course I'm capable!"
"What skills do you have?" Gu Lianshan snorted.
"Their skill lies in their willingness to go all out! They can do anything, and they're willing to do anything, as long as they're paid!"
Gu Lianshan stared wide-eyed. What kind of skill is this?
Gu Tang ignored him and continued, "Don't be fooled by their presentable appearance. When I met them yesterday, the three of them were begging for food at the foot of the city wall."
I gave them money so they could tidy themselves up and look like human beings. You know, if a person is always suffering, they get used to it, but if one day they start living a life of plenty, they won't want to go back to a life of hardship.
To hold onto this good life, some people are capable of murder and arson. These three brothers, if I asked them to commit murder and arson today, they would absolutely not hesitate!
They knew perfectly well that they'd stumbled upon a 'fool' like me, and in order to turn their lives around and live like decent people, they had to seize this opportunity.
These words sent a chill down Gu Lianshan's spine, making the hairs on his body stand on end!
"What have you been doing behind my back again?! Why are you out here committing murder and arson again?!"
Gu Tang rolled her eyes: "I was just using a metaphor!"
"Is that even a fair analogy?" Gu Lianshan muttered, clearly dissatisfied, as he drove the oxcart over to find the three men who were unsteady on their feet and had ugly faces.
As the oxcart approached, the three brothers, who were used to hiding in the corner, finally saw Gu Tang. They stood up with surprise and joy and came towards Gu Tang, bowing and scraping.
"Get up. This isn't the place to talk. I've rented a small courtyard for you. Let's go talk over there."
Hearing this, Gu Lianshan felt a pang of sadness. Why was he still renting out a courtyard?
The three brothers were terrified and knelt down again, saying, "Young lady, you are too kind. You have wasted so much money on us!"
Gu Tang waved his hand, signaling them to get up. "Let me make this clear from the start: that courtyard isn't for you to stay in for free. If you can't do what I've arranged, then the three of you brothers will have to leave immediately!"
"We can do it! We can do it! We can do anything!"
"If you can do it well, I'll give you some extra money so you can go back and buy land and build houses. At least you'll have some family property."
The three brothers wept with joy and wanted to kowtow again.
Right now, besides kowtowing, they have nothing else to offer, and they hope the girl won't find it offensive.
The three men's actions had already attracted the attention of passersby. Gu Tang whispered an address to her father, then forcefully told the three brothers to get up and follow the oxcart to the small courtyard to take a look.
The three brothers responded in unison and followed the oxcart forward, overjoyed and constantly thanking Gu Tang and the little beggars in their hearts.
Thanks to their hesitation, the opportunity ultimately fell to the three brothers.
Speaking of those little beggars, only half of them came out to beg today, while the other half stayed in the shack to take care of their eldest child who was still unconscious.
The little beggars grew increasingly anxious as they waited, and the eldest child's coma worsened.
At first, he was unconscious for one hour, then two hours, three hours, and then six hours... and now, their leader has been unconscious for more than ten hours.
If things continue like this, will their leader never wake up again someday?
The little beggars became more and more frightened as they thought about it.
If the boss is really gone, all of them will be plundered within three days!
Fear spread through the crowd, and several of the younger children began to cry.
The crying seemed contagious; soon, everyone was wiping away tears.
The children's cries were extremely piercing, and after a short while, the man lying on the tattered straw mat finally reacted.
He slowly opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was a group of crying beggar children kneeling in front of him.
They knelt in perfect order, three people per row, forming three rows in total, their cries filled with sorrow and despair.
Anyone who didn't know better would think he was dead.
Although he has woken up this time, in reality, he won't last long and is not far from death. Death may come during his next coma.
He touched his chest, where a purple talisman, invisible to mortals, was inscribed.
If he hasn't found his "creditor" before the purple talisman dissipates, his body will die, and his soul will never be able to return to the underworld. Instead, it will be absorbed by this world and become the energy that sustains it.
Now that the purple talisman has mostly dissipated, it seems unlikely that he will find his creditor.
The man stared calmly at the spiderwebs on the broken beam. After a long while, he spoke in a slightly hoarse voice, "Stop crying, he's not dead yet."
The crying stopped instantly.
The next moment, the little beggars stopped crying and started laughing, and they all surrounded him.
"Boss! You're finally awake!"
"You were unconscious for more than ten hours! We were all terrified!"
"Boss! If all else fails, go and kidnap a highly skilled doctor to treat you! You're terrifying every day!"
……
The man listened expressionlessly, regretting for the 108th time that he should have found a secluded place to faint after stripping away that otherworldly soul.
There were several deserted intersections on that road, and yet he collapsed right in front of a group of beggar children.
I don't know what these little beggars were thinking. When they saw a strange man collapse in front of them, their normal reaction should have been to stay away.
But these little beggars did the opposite. They made a raft and worked together to drag him along, never abandoning him the whole way.
I heard that even the youngest beggars here were picked up by them on the road.
So what's wrong with all of this!
A group of beggars picking up other beggars on the street?
The man closed his eyes and calmed himself down before sitting up.
"Boss! Yesterday a really pretty girl gave us about ten fried dough sticks! We saved one for you, eat it quickly before the rats steal it!"
An older beggar took out some fried dough from his basket and handed it to him very solicitously.
The man hadn't eaten for a day and a night and was indeed starving. He didn't care whether the little beggar's dark paws were clean or not, and immediately took a bite after taking the paws.
After chewing for only a couple of times, a burning sensation suddenly came from my left chest!
The man paused, then instinctively pressed his left chest, where the purple talisman was located.
Before he transmigrated, Houtu had told him that when the purple talisman sensed the aura of the "creditor," it would emit a scalding heat.
So... did Zi Fu sense the aura of the creditor?
From where did you perceive it?
There was nothing extra in this doghouse-like shack... wait! There was one extra thing!
The man's eyes lit up as his gaze fell on the fried dough with a bite taken out of it. Could it be that the fried dough was tainted with the creditor's scent?
"You just said that a girl bought this fried dough?" "Yes, a girl bought it."
The man's breathing faltered for a moment, then he asked again, "How old is she?"
"She looks like she hasn't reached the age of marriage yet, but she is extremely beautiful."
She was extremely beautiful, yet not yet of marriageable age...
The man instantly perked up; these two pieces of information were remarkably similar to the creditor information provided by Houtu, practically identical.
When the young beggar saw that his boss was curious about the girl, he told him about how the girl had asked them to do something for her the day before.
“You weren’t there at the time, and we were afraid that the girl was deliberately trying to deceive us, so we didn’t dare to agree. The girl was persistent and told us to come back and discuss it. She even came to the city wall to find us at the beginning of the morning today.”
Upon hearing this news, the man quickly finished the remaining cakes, and the purple talisman on his chest continued to burn hot.
After a long while, the purple talisman finally quieted down.
The man got up and tried walking around the room to see if the purple talisman could still sense the creditor's presence.
The man walked around the small shack three times, but found nothing.
It seems that the smell of the creditor was indeed on that piece of fried dough.
"What time is it now?"
At the beginning of the 9-11 AM, is it still too late?
There's no way there's a water clock in a beggar's den. The young beggars who stayed behind to look after the men were only ten years old at most, and they hadn't yet learned to tell time by observing the sky. Faced with this question, they could only shake their heads in unison.
Unable to get an answer, the man didn't get angry. With a very good temper, he asked the little beggars to lead him to the place where they had begged the day before, as he intended to go and see for himself.
The little beggars thought that their leader wanted to go out begging with them, so they jumped around happily, picked up their small broken bowls, and led the man to the city wall where they had been the day before.
When they arrived at their destination, the little beggars found that the area around the city wall, which was usually full of beggars, was suddenly deserted.
On most of the street, only these little beggars were left; all the other beggars had disappeared.
The little beggars who came here first were very happy to see the leader and told him what they had found out.
"I heard from some old beggars that after we left yesterday, the girl who wanted to ask us for a job was targeted by One-Eyed and his gang, who wanted to steal her money."
Guess what? The girl held something in her hand and shot it into One-Eye and his gang's eyes, making them scream in pain!
They also said that the one-eyed man's remaining eye was now blind, and that after one night, the eyes of the beggars who were with him had all returned to normal.
Only his own eye was still burning with pain; he couldn't even open it, and his eyelid was raw from scratching! He was writhing in agony!
The man's expression remained unchanged as he asked, "Didn't that girl say she was coming at the beginning of the morning? Has she arrived yet?"
“She didn’t come… The old beggars said that the girl found three Ma brothers who can sing, and since she probably has enough people, she’s not hiring anymore.”
The man's mood instantly soured, his gaze turning menacing: "Where is One-Eyed now?"
"He's lying in his doghouse! Half of his underlings ran away, and the other half started their own business, leaving One-Eye in his doghouse."
The man knew where One-Eye's doghouse was, so he let the little beggars stay there, saying he wanted to talk to One-Eye again.
One-Eye's dwelling was very close by, and soon the man found him half-dead in a secluded shack.
One-Eyed seemed to be incontinent; his tattered pants were soaking wet, and a strong smell of excrement and urine filled the air.
The man held his breath instantly, his expression unchanged as he squatted down beside One-Eye, looking at the unconscious One-Eye, his gaze fixed on his eyes.
The eye that was originally intact was now frighteningly red and swollen! The eyelid was completely torn apart, and blood covered the entire eye.
The man reached out and covered his one swollen eye, sensing that the residue on it was not from this world, but from another world.
These were the only two abilities he retained after transmigrating, and they were rather useless. Fortunately, apart from these useless abilities, he was quite satisfied with the martial prowess he retained.
At this point, the man was basically certain that the young girl from yesterday was his "creditor".
Knowing where the person is makes things much easier.
The hand covering the one-eyed man slid down quickly to his neck, then wrapped its fingers around the back of his neck and with a sudden force, a "crack" was heard, and the one-eyed man's neck was severed cleanly!
The one-eyed creature struggled a few times, but soon stopped moving.
The man stood up nonchalantly and returned to the little beggars.
He asked the young beggars to bring together all the beggars who had seen the little girl's appearance the day before.
There were also beggars who knew the three Ma brothers, so they were called over as well.
The man was very famous among the beggars, especially in the western part of the area; everyone knew him.
Therefore, as soon as they heard that a man was looking for them, all the beggars obediently came over.
Yesterday I didn't see many beggars who looked like little girls; including the little beggars, there were only about thirty of them.
The man told them to wander around the city and see if they could run into the girl again.
The same applied to the beggars who knew the three Ma brothers; the man also released them, letting them search the whole city for the three Ma brothers.
Whether it's a little girl or the three Ma brothers, if they see them, they are not allowed to show themselves without permission, but must come back and tell them.
The beggars didn't understand why they had to do this. They felt it was a waste of their time begging, and many of them were unwilling to do it.
Unfortunately, the man was too strong; even if they all attacked together, they wouldn't be a match for him.
Under the pressure of force, the beggars had no choice but to obey.
……
Gu Tang, far away in the south of the city, was unaware that someone was mobilizing beggars to search for her. At this moment, she was leading people to the rented courtyard, letting the three brothers look around and see if they were satisfied with the place.
The three brothers had never lived in such a bright and decent house since they were born. The best house they ever lived in was the house of their singing teacher—a thatched hut made of half bricks and half unfinished.
If they were to describe this courtyard, they would say it's perfect in every way, beautiful in every aspect, and there's not a single thing that doesn't suit their taste!
After being praised like that, Gu Tang, who had paid to rent the house, became happy.
Gu Lianshan pursed his lips; his daughter just loved being praised!
After entertaining the three brothers for a while, Gu Tang then got down to business.
"Do the three of you have names and surnames? I've written a script, and today I'm going to teach you how to act it out. I need to know your names and surnames so I can address you properly and help you rehearse."
The eldest of the three brothers stepped forward. "The three of us brothers are surnamed Ma. My name is 'Ma Da', the one on the left is my second brother 'Ma Er', and the one on the right is my third brother 'Ma San'."
"This name is terrible..." Gu Tang's lips twitched. The Ma brothers' parents were too careless in naming their sons, just going by birth order.