The chivalrous spirit is fickle

The man immediately trotted over to Shi Gu, nodding and bowing, with a fawning and servile look.

"Sir, do you have any orders?"

Shi Gu looked carefully at the man in front of him. The man was thin, with bruises all over his old face. Although he was not handsome, he was not shifty either. But his voice was hoarse and unpleasant, as if there was a stone stuck in his throat when he spoke.

Well, at least it's pleasing to the eye.

Shi Gu put his hands behind his back, adopted the tone of a wealthy man, and asked the man with narrowed eyes.

"What's your name."

The man bent his body, with a smile on his face, and spoke in a hoarse voice.

"My surname is Huang, my given name is Che, and I am a bit thin, so everyone calls me Little Yellow Car."

Shi Gu listened carefully, lowered his head and thought for a moment, then took out the token of the Yulin League, threw it to Huang Che, and said softly.

"From now on, you will be their leader, so be more careful..."

Having said this, Shi Gu paused, his eyes a little dazed, as if he didn't know what to say, but the next moment, he raised his head again, looked at the people in front of him, and spoke loudly.

"I don't care what you did before, but from now on, if any of you do anything disgraceful, don't blame me for being rude."

Hearing this, everyone was silent, but at the same time, many people were also confused and did not understand what Shi Gu meant. Huang Che, who had just become a small leader, was delighted and also saw the confusion of the other thugs.

"My Lord, what is this disgraceful thing you are talking about?"

Shi Gu was startled when he heard this. This was just a casual remark, vague and broad. He reached out and touched his chin, thought for a moment, and then spoke loudly again.

"It's like chasing dogs and chickens, climbing up roofs and tearing off tiles, things like that that are not popular with people."

Hearing this, everyone was silent for a moment. Everyone looked at each other, and at this time, a man in the crowd asked uneasily.

"Um... does kicking the widow's door count?"

Upon hearing this, Shi Gu immediately perked up and looked up. As his gaze swept over, the crowd quickly made way for him, revealing the person who had just asked the question.

The man didn't look very old, maybe only fifteen or sixteen years old. There were no injuries on his face and he had a delicate appearance. He seemed a little out of place among this group of rough guys.

Shi Gu looked at the young boy carefully and asked in a low voice.

"Do you often kick on widows' doors? Which widow's door did you kick?"

The boy scratched his head sheepishly and smiled awkwardly.

"She's my neighbor who lives in the same alley. I often go to her house."

As he spoke, the boy seemed to realize something and quickly explained.

"My Lord, please don't misunderstand me."

"She asked me to kick her door at night. I didn't force her."

Before they knew it, everyone had surrounded the boy, with curiosity on their faces. Shi Gu was also aroused by his curiosity and loosened his fist that was about to hit the boy in the face.

"Tell me in detail, um... tell me in detail, don't miss any details."

"Yeah, any details."

The boy was inexplicably shy, as if he found it difficult to speak. After hesitating for a moment, he spoke in a low voice.

"There's nothing much to say. It's just that one day, she...she pulled me into the house, and then...that's what happened."

As soon as the words fell, someone in the crowd urged impatiently.

"No, where are the details? Where are the details we want? Did you eat them?!"

"Tell me quickly, what happened after you entered the room?"

Shi Gu was equally curious, but seeing the boy's shy look, he didn't dare to ask any more questions, so he just asked the boy casually.

"How old were you then?"

Hearing this, the young man answered honestly.

"Ten years old."

"..."

The place suddenly fell into dead silence. The people who were originally making a fuss became silent, their expressions became strange, and the way they looked at the young man became somewhat complicated.

Shi Gu's mouth twitched slightly. He looked at the shy boy and hesitated for a long time. However, he couldn't hold back his curiosity and asked softly.

"At that time...how old was the widow?"

"Thirty years old."

Upon hearing this, everyone present held their breath and their faces twitched. They originally thought it was something erotic and beautiful, but they didn't expect that the result was an old cow eating young grass.

In this dead silence, someone in the crowd suddenly asked an inappropriate question.

"She didn't hurt you, did she?"

After these words were spoken, everyone started to make a fuss again, and their previous fear of Shi Gu was also diluted a lot.

Seeing this, Shi Gu did not say anything to stop him, but just waved to the yellow car, asking him to follow him.

"Sir, do you have any instructions?"

Huang Che followed behind Shi Gu, always keeping a distance of one step from him, bending his body without raising his head even a bit.

Shi Gu walked in the corridor, looking straight ahead, and asked Huang Che casually.

"Huang Che, has anyone among you lost a life?"

Hearing this, Huang Che was stunned, scratched his head, and then answered honestly.

"Sir, how can you say this? We brothers are hired thugs for this teahouse. Some of us may have done something dishonest, but we dare not kill people."

Shi Gu paused, stopped, turned and looked at the yellow car, a dangerous light flashed in his black eyes.

"Really not?"

Huang Che answered with certainty without any hesitation.

"No, if the brothers had this ability, they would have been transferred out of Lin'an City long ago."

When Shi Gu heard this, his eyes flashed and he asked again, citing what Huang Che had just said.

"You just said that anyone who dares to kill someone will be transferred out of Lin'an City. Is that what you mean?"

Huang Che was very calm, without any sign of panic. He took a step forward, lowered his voice, and spoke to Shi Gu.

“Although I didn’t see it with my own eyes, people here have always said that only those who dare to be ruthless and kill people can be reused by the higher-ups.”

"Lin'an City is small and shabby. If you want to move up, you have to be ruthless to impress the higher-ups."

"For people like us, it's actually quite humble to call us thugs. When no one is causing trouble, we are just waiters serving tea and water."

"To be honest, among the group of brothers just now, some were frying melon seeds in the kitchen, some were sweeping the floor, and some were guarding the door."

"In order to make up the number of people, the chef in the kitchen and his apprentice also changed their clothes to act as thugs, and they almost brought the spatula with them as well."

"As for the younger one, I am actually a tea maker. I usually boil water and make tea with a few brothers."

Huang Che spoke frankly without hiding anything, but Shi Gu shook his head repeatedly as he listened, thinking to himself, no wonder this tea tastes so bad.

Shi Gu sighed and walked forward again, while Huang Che followed closely behind Shi Gu and asked cautiously.

"Sir, what are we going to do from now on?"

Shi Gu said casually as he walked.

"Starting tomorrow, this teahouse will be transformed into a theatre troupe."

"Clean up this building from top to bottom and sell me everything I don't need."

"Find some more people to make this stage bigger."

"By the way, someone will come with the deed to this teahouse in the next few days. If nothing goes wrong, they will also bring a gift of apology."

"When someone comes, you don't need to notify me. Just take the things and slap the man."

Hearing this, Huang Che was stunned, became nervous, and stammered.

"Give...give him a slap...he won't fight back."

Shi Gu waved his hand lightly and said nonchalantly.

"It's okay. When the time comes, just take out the sign I gave you. He won't dare to fight back. He might even put his face close to you and let you slap him again."

Huang Che swallowed, but didn't dare to refute anything, and responded in a low voice.

"I understand. Is there anything else you want to say?"

Shi Gu narrowed his eyes and walked to the stairs. He stopped and spoke slowly.

"Tell the girls in this teahouse not to worry about the indentures anymore. If they want to leave, let them go and give them some silver as travel expenses. Sun Fu should have quite a bit of money in his study."

"If you want to keep the actors, let them stay and pay them more."

Huang Che nodded again and agreed to this matter in a low voice. However, when he looked up again, Shi Gu's figure disappeared out of thin air, as if he had never existed.

This strange scene frightened Huang Che so much that he looked around quickly, looking for Shi Gu, but found nothing.

Step, step, step.

At this moment, a burst of hurried footsteps sounded, and Huang Che turned his head to look, only to see the woman in the bone-releasing room running towards him in a panic.

"Yellow car, what happened here?"

The woman seemed to be quite familiar with Huang Che and called him by his name. Huang Che was not angry. He did not answer the woman's question, but straightened his back and asked the woman.

"Xiao Cui... no, Huang Cui..."

"Do you still want to sing?"

The woman's pupils shrank when she heard that. She looked at the yellow car standing upright in front of her as if she were in another world. Her legs went weak and she sat down on the ground, seeming to be crying and laughing at the same time. She looked at the yellow car and said in a choked voice.

"Yes I do."

“I dream about it.”

"Don't you want to?"

Hearing this, Huang Che's originally straight back suddenly collapsed. He squatted down, looked at Huang Cui, his eyes softened, reached out and gently stroked her long hair, and said softly.

"Silly girl, why are you crying?"

"You're going to be a star in the future, so don't cry like I did and ruin your voice."

At the same time, at the entrance of the teahouse, Shi Gu stepped over the threshold of the teahouse, strode out, raised the corners of his mouth, revealed a slight smile, and whispered to himself.

"Ha, this kid is really good at pretending. He almost fooled me."

Chapter 13: Killing out of control

The sound of sobbing and choking could be heard faintly in the Dengxiang Pavilion, but Shi Gu no longer paid attention to the sound behind him. After crossing the threshold of the gate, he lowered his head, put on a lazy look, and squeezed into the crowd as he did in the past.

Lin'an is a small city, a little remote, and the things sold there are a little rough, but the population of the city is no less than that of other places.

Maybe it was some festival today, there was a huge crowd of people, Shi Gu was squeezed in the crowd, and in the noise, he could hardly distinguish any voice other than his own.

The stench of other people's sweat, the smell of chicken manure in the chicken coop, several bad smells mixed together to form an even more disgusting smell.

Shi Gu didn't hate this smell. He had smelled worse smells than this. In a trance, Shi Gu looked down at the blood in his hands, as if he smelled the stench engraved in his memory again.

There were several corpses that had been disemboweled and were gradually rotting. Fat white maggots kept wriggling on the blackened flesh and blood, and the stench of decay and internal organs leaked out.

Even to this day, the smell from that time is like the stench of a corpse, lingering in Shi Gu's nose.

In the crowded crowd, no one seemed to notice the blood on Shi Gu's body. Perhaps it was just mistaken for chicken blood, or perhaps no one dared to ask.

Similarly, no one noticed that a faint golden light appeared on Shigu's right wrist.

Looking at the abnormality of his arm, Shi Gu frowned slightly, exerted force secretly, used his shoulder to push away the crowd, and forced himself to step forward. The person next to him felt as if his body had lost balance in an instant and he forgot how to walk.

After a while, Shi Gu squeezed out of the crowd, turned around and walked into the alley. He pinched the corner of his clothes lightly with his fingers and rubbed it gently, as if trying to rub off the coagulated blood on the corner of his clothes.

However, the blood did not completely coagulate. Instead, the bloodstain became larger and larger, spreading to the corner of the clothes.

Many years ago, when Shi Gu crawled out of that dark cave, someone asked him.

"Do you know how many people you're going to kill in your lifetime?"

Shi Gu did not answer the man's question. He just drew his sword and killed everyone present. That day, Shi Gu told himself that it would be the last time he would kill someone in his life.