Seeing that the several men didn’t look like good people, Wen Yu inwardly thought this was bad. She grabbed the silk cloth and New Year goods placed beside her and was about to leave.
But the thug leader pushed aside the waiter who had come to serve tea, hooked a long bench with his foot and stepped on it, directly blocking Wen Yu’s path. With a smirking face, he threatened, “Little lady, don’t be in such a hurry to leave. The last person who was in such a hurry to leave had their leg broken and is still lying in bed.”
The tea drinkers nearby who saw this situation all avoided them from afar.
“Gentlemen, gentlemen, let’s talk nicely…” The shop waiter who had been shoved aside by the thug leader got up and tried to come forward to mediate, but was pushed away by two other thugs. The melon seed shells they spat out nearly hit his face: “Go boil your tea and mind your own business!”
The shop waiter didn’t dare offend these local tyrants either. He could only hold his felt cap that had been knocked off by the shoving and went toward the stove, looking back every few steps.
Seeing that the gazes the several men cast upon her were quite lecherous, Wen Yu felt disgusted. She raised her hand and removed the veil covering her face, and while coughing with a face full of red rashes, said, “I have no grievances or enmity with you brave men. Why are you blocking me? I recently contracted a terrible illness and broke out in rashes. Fearing I would transmit the illness to others, I covered my face with a handkerchief. Could it be that you brave men have mistaken me for someone else?”
“Hiss…”
The several thugs gasped upon seeing this. From afar earlier, they had thought she was a young, pretty little lady. Now seeing Wen Yu’s face full of red rashes and hearing her say it might be contagious, they immediately avoided her like the plague.
The thug leader who had been blocking her by stepping on the long bench quickly withdrew his foot. His previously smirking expression also changed to a fierce and menacing one as he cursed, “You fucking contagious thing, why don’t you hurry up and put that handkerchief back on? You ugly scab-faced hag who could scare the King of Hell to death!”
Wen Yu then raised her hand to put the handkerchief back on, but whether she was frightened or her hands were trembling with fear, she tried several times without success.
The thug leader was so disgusted he didn’t dare look at her face anymore and said roughly and viciously, “I didn’t find the wrong person. I’m looking for you. The entire eastern market is under my protection. Who doing business here doesn’t pay me protection money?”
“You and that old woman went to the cloth stall to sell embroidered handkerchiefs. A whole basket of embroidered handkerchiefs was sold clean in the blink of an eye—someone saw it. Naturally you also need to give me a share of protection money!”
Wen Yu keenly caught a piece of information revealed in his words—that she and Xiao Huiniang selling handkerchiefs could be targeted by these ruffians meant someone had tipped them off.
She just didn’t know if that informer was one of these ruffians’ spies or some vendor jealous of them.
She observed that this group was brazenly arrogant, yet the surrounding tea drinkers and tea house waiter didn’t dare say anything. She guessed these people had been running rampant in the tile market for quite some time.
Although these three were disgusted by the red rashes on her face and had lost any interest in harassing her, it seemed the protection money still couldn’t be avoided. So she said, “We’re new to the tile market doing a small business and truly didn’t know the rules here. I’ll treat the brave men and your brothers to some tea and snacks. Would that count as showing respect?”
As she spoke, she took out from her sleeve pocket the mere ten wen remaining after buying things and placed them on the table.
The thug leader glanced at those few copper coins and slapped his palm heavily on the table. A pair of triangular eyes stared viciously at Wen Yu: “Ten wen? Are you sending away beggars, you ugly hag?”
Wen Yu’s eardrums ached from the sound of the table being slapped. She furrowed her brow and deliberately coughed as if her whole body could barely stand. She leaned forward a step to support herself on the table, and the thug leader who had slapped the table hurriedly stepped back.
Only then did Wen Yu cover her lips and cough lightly, saying, “This is all I have on me. How much money could a few silk handkerchiefs fetch? Please, brave man, don’t make things difficult.”
The thug leader ground his molars and said with a cold laugh, “When I was collecting debts for people at the gambling house and broke someone’s leg, they didn’t dare say I made things difficult for them. It’s just that you, this scab-faced hag, disgust me too much. I’m too lazy to waste more words with you. Leave the silk cloth in your hands and then scram.”
The other party’s vulgar words and exorbitant demands made Wen Yu’s eyes turn cold. The most valuable things in her hands were those silk cloths—she absolutely couldn’t give them up.
Two small thugs came forward to snatch the silk cloth from her hands. Wen Yu hurriedly protected it in front of her, deliberately exposing the rash marks on the back of her hand, saying, “That won’t do. When I selected this cloth, I already touched it and carried it all the way. If others use it again, they might also contract the terrible illness on my body. Moreover, my Second Master also works at the gambling house. Brave men, if not for the monk’s face then for the Buddha’s, please show some accommodation!”
Wen Yu remembered that the scoundrel at the gambling house didn’t seem to be a small fry. If these people knew that scoundrel and learned that Xiao Huiniang was that scoundrel’s mother, they shouldn’t make things difficult for them anymore.
The two small thugs, whether frightened by Wen Yu’s first statement or having heard that someone in her household also worked at the gambling house, didn’t try to snatch the silk cloth from Wen Yu’s hands anymore and looked toward the thug leader.
The thug leader, however, laughed mockingly: “When I go out to collect debts, even if a neighbor working as a kitchen hand dares to ask me to show some face, what kind of nobody is your Second Master? Does he deserve my accommodation?”
He spat on the ground and stared at Wen Yu: “Speak! What’s your Second Master’s surname and name? Report his grand name for me to hear.”
Wen Yu had only heard Chen Laizi call that scoundrel “Xiao Er’ge.” She didn’t know his specific name. However, Xiao Huiniang often called him “Huan’er” with every other sentence. Common folk naming customs emphasized humble names for easier raising—could that scoundrel simply be called Xiao Huan?
She steadied her mind and suppressed that bit of hesitation in her voice: “My Second Master’s surname is Xiao and his given name is Huan.”
The thug leader had only heard the character “Xiao” when his expression was already no longer as rampant as before, but the full name didn’t match. His face showed uncertain emotions as he shouted, “Xiao what? Speak louder for me!”
Wen Yu had pretended to cough a bit too hard earlier, and now her voice was hoarse. Being yelled at by the thug leader, she could only shout loudly, “My Second Master’s name is Xiao Huan!”
After shouting that sentence, she noticed the expression on the thug leader’s face transform from gloomy to mocking. Wen Yu’s heart suddenly became uncertain—could that scoundrel truly just be a small fry at the gambling house?
She held the silk cloth in her hands and lowered her eyes, pondering what other escape methods there might be.
The thug leader laughed derisively: “I thought your Second Master was some remarkable figure, but it turns out he’s only a…”
The two small thugs standing beside Wen Yu stared blankly outside, their expressions suddenly becoming extremely terrified. They desperately gave the thug leader meaningful looks, tears almost frightened out of them, and their legs disobediently started trembling.
The thug leader sensed something amiss and was about to stop talking when he heard a light, airy voice from behind that made his spine turn cold:
“Only a what?”
The cold wind that had been chaotically blowing outside the tea stall seemed to sweep entirely toward his neck in that instant.
The thug leader stiffly turned his neck around. When he saw Xiao Li’s handsome face that seemed to hold a faint smile yet had cold, stern eyes, his legs went soft and he directly knelt down.
“Xiao… Brother Xiao…”
“I… I didn’t know she was talking about… about you…”
His purple-red face now could clearly be seen turning pale. His tongue seemed tied in knots, no longer speaking smoothly, kneeling there trembling like chaff being sifted.
Wen Yu was rather bewildered. She didn’t know how the situation had suddenly developed like this. After she spoke that scoundrel’s name, this thug leader had still looked down on him with disdain. How could he be so frightened like a grandson upon seeing the person?
Moreover, the other party said he didn’t know she was talking about that scoundrel, but hadn’t she already reported that scoundrel’s full name? How could he not know?
Could it be there were many people called Xiao Huan in their gambling house?
Before she could figure out the reason, she saw that scoundrel lean slightly forward, patting the thug leader’s face with a chilling smile as he asked, “What did you want to do by cornering my person here?”
The thug leader was nearly crying: “I… I didn’t know she was your person! If I had known, even if you gave me ten thousand doses of courage, I wouldn’t dare…”
Having just been troubled and nearly unable to escape, Wen Yu couldn’t bother at the moment with the rather ambiguous phrasing in their words about her being whose person. She immediately accused: “Second Master, this person saw the old madam bring embroidered handkerchiefs to the tile market and exchange them for silver. He found an opportunity to corner me, wanting me to give him the silk cloth the old madam bought as protection money!”
The thug leader was extremely alarmed, frightened into repeatedly waving his hands: “No… no…”
He wanted to explain but found there was fundamentally no way to explain. Wen Yu had only extricated herself from the situation. What she said wasn’t false either—those handkerchiefs were sold by her and Xiao Huiniang together, but in essence they were Xiao Huiniang’s. That silk cloth was indeed also bought by Xiao Huiniang.
The thug leader finally only cried bitterly: “Brother Xiao, I wouldn’t dare… really wouldn’t dare… I didn’t know the old woman with her was Aunt Xiao…”
“It was all that sundries peddler at the third stall in the eastern section. He told me that Aunt and the others did big business at the cloth merchant and didn’t give protection money. That’s why I got confused and came looking…”
He was frightened to the extreme and was now saying everything without choosing his words.
Hearing this, Wen Yu lightly furrowed her brow. A peddler?
Could it be that one from this morning who had tried and failed to force Xiao Huiniang to sell him those handkerchiefs?
When Xiao Li heard that Xiao Huiniang was also involved, that bit of casual smile in his eyes froze. The hand patting that thug’s face changed in that instant to grabbing his collar, slamming him heavily against the edge of the table. His gaze was like a sharpened cold blade as he said word by word: “Where. Is. My. Mother?”
The thug leader was frightened by his fierce appearance, trembling so much his speech became incoherent, and wetness spread from below: “I… I didn’t trouble Aunt. I saw this young lady with things at the tea stall here, so I… I came straight over…”
Only then did Xiao Li throw him back. Looking down at him from above, with sunlight cutting out a shadow on his profile, his light, airy tone was full of murderous intent: “If there’s a next time, I won’t spare you.”
“Get lost.”
The thug leader seemed to have already died once. Upon receiving those words, he almost gratefully wanted to crawl away, but his two legs were as soft as noodles and completely disobedient. It was the two small thugs who came over trembling, supporting him as they dragged and crawled away together.
Wen Yu watched the several people’s wretched departing figures and suddenly felt a sense of relief in her heart. Turning her head, however, she saw that scoundrel staring at her with an unhappy expression.
She thought the other party was blaming her for not staying with Xiao Huiniang and idly hiding at this tea stall by herself. She explained, “Big Sister had to go back to buy silk cloth and told me to watch the things here…”
“My surname is Xiao, given name Li.” The other party slowly interrupted her.
Wen Yu was struck dumb.