C11

Du Qi confidently said, "I borrowed it from an old customer. When I have the money, I will come to redeem it."

The old man sighed, took out a piece of silver, and said, "I'd like for you to redeem it as soon as possible."

Du Qi looked at the piece of silver and said without moving, "You think that you're the only one in Xiangyang City that wants to get rid of beggars? Don't think that you're the only one who knows what's good for Xiangyang City. It'll cost at least ten taels of silver."

Bu Shiren thought for a moment and changed the silver ingot into one or two pieces. "That's all," he said confidently. "Why don't you take it somewhere else and see if anyone can give you that much?"

Du Qi helplessly said: "You are very good. How about you give us dinner?"

With a wry smile, Bu Shiren grabbed a small piece of silver, about half a dollar in length, and handed it to Dodge along with the small piece of silver ingot. Du Qizhi couldn't wait any longer and took the silver. He placed the silver into a small cloth bag filled with copper coins and carefully hid it close to his body. With a cheer, he and Yao Fugui ran out of the door and into a small alley.

Yao Fugui chased behind Du Qi with a strange glow in his eyes, sighing, "I didn't think that it would be so valuable! If I knew earlier, I wouldn't have gone to his place to change it. "

Dodge sighed. "Alas! You must know how we managed to get our hands on it. Aside from Bu Shiren, how else can we exchange for it in Xiangyang? "

Yao Fugui also sighed and said, "That's right, it's too embarrassing to go somewhere else to change it."

Du Qi silently advanced, and Yao Fugui had no choice but to follow. The two of them turned into a small street and saw the scene in front of them. They were shocked and felt that it was strange.

On a closer look, they saw that these people were all soldiers, Jinyi Guards, factory guards, police officers, and government officials. Hundreds of people had formed a long line in the narrow street and were rushing through it, stirring up a cloud of dust, causing the streets to be filled with complaints and causing the few pedestrians who were scared to the point of running to the corner to hurriedly hide under the eaves, while the families had to quickly close the doors and windows.

Du Qi and Yao Fugui also hurriedly retreated back to the entrance of the alleyway. Seeing the stream of people flowing past them like a long dragon, and hearing the chaotic and hurried footsteps, they were all shaken by the powerful aura.

They waited until the huge group had passed by. However, before they could relax, they heard someone call out: "Young Master Du, so you are here. I was just looking for you."

Du Qi and Yao Fugui's hearts tightened when they heard this. They looked towards the source of the voice and saw a person leaving the group and walking quickly towards them. Seeing that it was another constable of the magistrate court, Wu Dingfang, Du Qi heaved a sigh of relief and asked, "Hello, Sir Wu. What can I do for you?"

Wu Dingfang came to the two of them and pulled Du Qi to the depth of the alley. He stopped when he saw no one around and said: "Actually it's not that big of a deal, I just wanted to tell you something about Constable Huang."

Du Qi's spirits were lifted when he heard this. He quickly said, "Great, please speak, Sir Wu."

Wu Dingfang said: "I sent people to ask around, but I heard that someone saw him near the Nine Palace Mountain a few years ago, but I don't know his actual situation, much less his current situation."

Four years ago, Huang Da was ordered by eleven constables to hunt down Guo Qinggong and Luo Changhe. At that time, everyone thought that this was something that Huang Da caught easily, and it didn't take much effort at all. Who knew that Huang Da was gone for four years, and not only did he not catch Guo Qinggong and Luo Changhe, but he also sent no news of him.

Wu Dingfang said, "That's also not true."

Du Qi said indifferently, "Your magistrate court's police officers should also go with them to arrest criminals?"

Wu Dingfang said again, "That's also not true."

Since Du Qi did not receive any specific information regarding Huang Da, he was not happy about it. Hearing Wu Dingfang's words, he became even more annoyed and asked: "Sir Wu, can you only say that?"

Wu Dingfang smiled, "You've always been the one to cut yourself off. When did you ever let me explain in detail?"

Du Qi could not help but burst into laughter as he hurriedly said, "Please speak, Sir Wu!"

Wu Dingfang said, "Capturing the Chinaman is none of our business. We have other matters to attend to. We just bumped into them a moment ago."

Du Qi said in relief, "So there's a reason why you guys ate the dust behind those people. I wonder what kind of important case you guys are in now?"

Wu Dingfang said, "A few days ago, a group of local gentry jointly reported that a group of strong and powerful bandits had come to Xiangyang City and committed many shocking crimes over the past two to three years. The Prefect ordered the officials to investigate in detail so that those bandits could be apprehended!"

Du Qi's heart stirred upon hearing these words. He spoke as if he didn't care in the slightest, "Oh, why have I never heard of anything major happening to our Xiangyang clan in the past two years?"

Wu Dingfang said, "That's normal. If everyone knew about this, then it would have been solved long ago. But because no one knows about it, we are here to investigate."

"Can Constable Wu tell us what happened?"

Wu Dingfang laughed: "Although this matter is confidential, there is no need to hide it from Young Master Du. It's just that there is too much to say. Just like three years ago, all the jewelry and money belonging to the Wang family in the east of the city were stolen, and two years ago, the young master of the Yang family mysteriously fell ill, and after the famous family from last year, Yang Lin was shaved off at midnight. Especially recently, our famous Xiangyang martial arts expert, Bai Yang, was beaten to death in his own home, and suffered a lot of pain! "

Du Qi asked curiously, "All of this was done by those bandits?"

Wu Dingfang replied, "That's hard to say. From the time and place of the incident, perhaps it was done by a single person. Moreover, this person must be very familiar with Xiangyang's situation, so he shouldn't be an outsider."

He had not expected Wu Dingfang to be so good at inference. He could only guess the truth based on the appearance of the matter, and he couldn't help but wonder what would happen if Chief Officer Wu knew that each of their clients received a letter counting their mistakes, the reason for punishing them, the method of punishing them, and so on. Because these were all his masterpieces, he knew them better than Wu Dingfang.

For the past four years, Du Qi had been in constant contact with the government, garrison, Jinyi Guards, Dongchang, and various other large and small gangs, and their relationship was quite harmonious. Especially the Jinyi Guards and Dongchang soldiers stationed in Xiangyang, who were very courteous to Du Qi and often invited Du Qi to play inside their yamen. But instead of doing what he wanted, Dodge was cautious and simple, never using his wrists for his own food or clothing, and even stealing from others must have been a matter of principle. He singled out the rich in the wicked villages and the bullies, and the pipe he had just pawned came from a man who was impudent.

Because of his exceptional skills, he had never failed during these past few years. Even if someone found out afterwards, they would not dare to reveal themselves, much less cause trouble for him, or else they would definitely attract a lot of criticism. They would even call for an investigation office and all sorts of pawnshops would take good care of him.

The reason why Dodge occasionally made a move on other people's pockets and made a fool of himself in the streets was to give the impression that he was just an unprofessional and petty hoodlum who was trying to hide his prowess so that he could secretly avenge more people. At first, Du Qi only wanted to train his body, but later on, he started to punish those evil people. As his power grew, he would also move more and more frequently, and this attracted the attention of many people, but no one ever suspected him.

Now that the government has sent Wu Dingfang to investigate this matter, Du Qi could not help but be terrified, but he said calmly: "Those people are all bullies, tyrants, and vile men. They should be punished and punished, but Sir Wu, are you willing to work so hard for them?"

Wu Dingfang sighed, "Sigh! It was hard to disobey fate! Young Master Du has a wide network of friends, do you have any leads? "

Du Qi laughed. "I've just heard about this. Where did it come from?"

Wu Dingfang smiled, "This official doesn't dare to stay for long. I won't be chatting with Young Master Du any longer. Goodbye!"

Du Qi said casually, "Sir Wu, please feel free to do so!"

Watching Wu Dingfang's figure disappear into the alleyway, Yao Fugui came over, "Little Qi, is there any trouble?"

"What do you think?"

Yao Fugui said, "There shouldn't be any problems, right?"

"Of course not! So what if there was? At most, I will just leave. Now that it's not four years ago, who can stop me? "

Yao Fugui suddenly sighed and said, "That's right, I'm no longer your burden. But Little Qi, you will be 16 years old in two months, what plans do you have for the future?"

"I've been thinking about this question a lot lately, but I feel confused, and I don't know what I can do in the future. I know it's impossible to be good like this and I feel uneasy, but I feel like I'm used to this kind of life, so what should I do?"

Yao Fugui said, "Are we going to continue like this?"

Du Qi pondered and said, "Why don't I go and become an escort? With my skill, I should be able to do it. Would doing something serious change the current situation?"

Yao Fugui said, "That's not right. Being an escort is too dangerous and it's rare to see someone at home for even a day. This way, I will often be on tenterhooks."

Du Qi then said, "I will be taking the Elementary Scholar examination this fall. As long as I can pass the test, I might be able to change my way of doing things, not to mention I can get a silver tael every month. Although it's not much, but isn't it better to be a poor Elementary Scholar than a beggar?" "Wouldn't it be better if he accidentally picked up a scholar or something like that and got himself a rank of one and a half?"

Yao Fugui said in high spirits, "This idea is not bad. What is written is not bad, but if it doesn't work then we can still go to the Imperial Secret Service and join the army."

Du Qi's brows creased. "But I don't want to become an official, much less a Embroidered Uniform Guard. Besides, I still have to live on the edge of a sword as a martial arts student, don't I?"

Yao Fugui said, "That's right. It would be great if we could join the Luo Ma Gang. Even if we can't do it, we won't have to worry about our livelihood. That would be much better than being an escort."

Dodge knew that this "Luo Ma Gang" was the largest gang in the world. It served the masses as a service gang for passersby and merchants, or for people who liked to go out on the streets, such as princes, literati and so on. There were divisions on all the major roads and towns in the country, as well as industrial bases in many places.

Since he was thirty years old and had become the successor of the Luo Ma Gang, he had never met an opponent. Furthermore, his subordinates were as skilled as the clouds, filled with talents, and it was said that the Grand Tutor of the Qing Dynasty, the Grand Tutor, the Young Tutor of the Imperial Guard, and the Young Protector of the Junior, and the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Lu Bing, had to be courteous to him. Therefore, no one in the martial arts world wanted to provoke the people of the Lo Ma Gang. The disciples of the Lo Ma gang didn't have to worry about any problems in terms of safety when they traveled in the martial arts world.

Xiangyang is located on the shore of the Han River, with three sides of water, one side as a backer, and a unique geographical traffic advantage. Xiangyang is a transportation stronghold that travels from south to north and west to east, is a confluence of ships and carts, is a large city where merchants gather. It is known as the "South, North and Horse" and "Seven Provinces and Communicate Prefectures", and is one of the most important transportation stations in the world, thus the business of the Luo Ma Gang is very flourishing, and the income of the gang is also quite considerable.

Under the heavens, there was no one in the martial world who didn't take pride in being able to join the Luo Ma Gang. Moreover, many young people set joining the Luo Ma Gang as their life's goal, which showed how enticing the Luo Ma Gang was to them. However, Du Qi was unwilling to join the sect, and remained indifferent to Yao Fugui's suggestion. He indifferently said, "Who can introduce me to join the Luo Ma Gang? Let's talk about it later. "

Yao Fugui seemed to know Du Qi's thoughts, and he also knew that the Luo Ma Gang wouldn't be able to join just because they said so. After muttering to himself for a bit, he said in a cold tone, "You decide for yourself. The sky is about to turn dark, let's go back."

Du Qi and Yao Fugui were lying awake in the darkness of the stone house. Yao Fugui couldn't hold it in any longer. He turned around and asked Du Qi, "Little Qi, are you asleep?"

Du Qi was silent for a moment before replying, "Not yet. Is there something I can help you with, sir?"

Yao Fugui said, "Are you really not worried that people will find out about that?"

"What are you afraid of being known?"

Yao Fugui said angrily, "What do you think it is? Isn't it all because of the good things you've done! "

Du Qi said, "Who cares? Let's sleep first."

Yao Fugui said angrily, "Kid, you are speaking quite easily. You have done all that you could to make things difficult for us. I advise you to leave behind half a coin, but you refuse to do so. Can you sleep? "

Du Qi knew Yao Fugui's thoughts. The reason was because four years ago, Du Qi had challenged the gang leader of the 'Scorching Sun Gang', and wanted to ask Luo Changhe for advice on martial arts. The reason was because four years ago, Du Qi had challenged the gang leader of the 'Scorching Sun Gang' to challenge Teng Qingshan, and wanted to ask Luo Changhe could challenge the gang leader of the 'Scorching Sun Gang' to ask for advice on martial arts. The reason was because four years ago, Du Qi had challenged the gang leader of the 'Scorching Sun Gang' to challenge Teng Qingshan, and wanted to ask Luo Changhe for advice on martial arts. Therefore, even though he was deliberately hiding his martial arts, it wasn't hard for the people with ulterior motives to guess that Du Qi was doing all of this, sooner or later.