Nightfall

At the Spring Breeze Pavilion, Stood Good Old Chao Xiaoshu

Ning Que looked up at him and asked, “Go kill someone then, and what’s the point of standing here at my store anyway?

“I’m waiting for the rain to stop, while also waiting for a few people to arrive,” replied the man.

“The rain won’t stop especially when one expects it to, and people won’t normally arrive when you’re waiting for them.” Ning Que acknowledged in goodwill.

“If people fail to arrive they’ll certainly have a good reason for it,” said the middle-aged man with a smile, “but can I please talk to you about something rather serious, rather than probing each other as if we were sadhus?”

“Now that’s what I call a good attitude. I don’t like going round and round either,” Ning Que smiled back and said, “nor do I like speaking to someone who’s standing up while I’m squatting, since there’s a difference in height.”

“You can always stand up.”

“Why don’t you crouch down?”

The man smiled again and crouched down without any hesitation, damping the threshold of Old Brush Pen Shop with his wet robe. He looked at Ning Que’s young face and told him, “I’m struggling.”

Ning Que continued eating his noodles, waiting to hear more.

“A lot of the bigwigs up there want me to take a side, but right now I can’t take a side. That’s why I’m being besieged. My brothers and I do an immaculate job, and it would be too much hassle for the government to inculpate me according to the law of Tang. That’s why they have decided to kill me off tonight simply, and under the camouflage of the raining night, all my enemies from the south and north of the city are now speeding towards here.”

“What about the ones you’re waiting for?”

“One of my brothers died a few days ago. The rest of them are mostly officially employed by the government. Those people up there can easily use any official excuse to keep them at the military base or at the yamen. As a result, I’ve got very few people with me tonight.”

The rain kept pouring down in the night, and it was getting worse. It looked like the people he was waiting for were not going to show, but the man didn’t seem to care much about it, and talked about his situation calmly, without concealing anything. He smiled at Ning Que gently and went on to say, “But all this isn’t the a problem, my real problem tonight is that, I must have someone next to me, but I can’t find that person.”

Looking at the sword he carried on his waist, Ning Que guessed that it might be a tiny sword. Then he asked, “What kind of person do you need by your side?”

“Be quick, strong and brave enough to kill people without batting an eyelid, while never letting anything fall on me.”

“I suppose that ‘anything’ doesn’t include the rain?”

“Certainly not.”

“That’s not too tough then.”

“Why me?” asked Ning Que as he scratched his slightly wet hair.

The man glanced at his right hand and said, “I heard about certain things, and even though the Shubi Lake wood chopper ain’t so famous in Chang’an, I know very well what a young horse-gang killer is capable of doing.”

After a brief silence, Ning Que smiled and said, “Why should I go with you? What do I get out of this?”

The man seemed to appreciate how straightforward the young lad was, and as he flicked off the rain from the umbrella, he said, “No one in the Chang’an city knows about my last card. If I win tonight, I can show my hand, and then you’ll know that I’m a great coattail that’s truly worth riding on.”