Samaritan Thief
In spite of how busy it was in the city, nobody noticed Hua Feihua zooming along as he blended in with the wind virtually perfectly. He pushed open a door and entered as though he was never going to be rejected and called, “Uncle Zhao.”
The unmoving short elder sitting in the room was seemingly accustomed to only having sparse light pass through the window. He looked indifferent to everything until he heard Hua Feihua. “Y-you have arrived, Sir?”
“Yes.” Wearing a small smile, Hua Feihua sat down beside the elder.
Hua Feihua’s visual clarity was perfect in the darkness. As for the elder, the world’s appearance made no difference to him whether his eyes were open or closed.
“I made you a promise.” Hua Feihua placed a small pouch onto the bed, took hold of the elder’s hand and softly expressed, “I have retrieved it.”
Though he remained unmoving, quiet and expressionless, Zhao Laoshi had conveyed his thoughts with his silver pearls dripping onto the table.
The mason’s son, Zhao Shi, was a single, rather robust man in his thirties who never complained about his workload – although it was not a lot. One day, he was accused of indecently harassing the daughter of Hangzhou’s wealthy Lin Clan. In contrast to him, she was notorious throughout the city for her ruthless tongue and haughtiness. Nobody who knew her believed that the honest-to-a-fault Zhao Shi did wrong by her, but nobody dared to step in, either. Without sparing a moment to listen to his stuttered explanation, Lin Clan had apprehended him.
Yan Buer would not pardon personal interrogations, and Lin Clan did not dare to challenge his authority. Somehow, Zhao Shi was exiled from the city overnight and then went silent. His father subsequently returned from his search for his son empty handed and less a pair of eyes.
Zhao Laoshi was illiterate, so a friend from his hometown took pity on him and helped him write his complaint and planned to escort him into the city so that he could report the case to the magistrate. Out of nowhere, Lin Clan’s muscles showed up, assaulted Zhao Laoshi, breaking his leg in the process and destroyed the written complaint, all of which nearly ended his life before winter. Despite not being able to enter the city, he pleaded with someone to teach him how to write just one word – injustice.
Day and night, Zhao Laoshi wrote “Injustice” by his door, hoping that he could alert the world to his unfair predicament. Lin Clan sent their henchmen to inspect him at certain intervals and, naturally, physically punished him for what he did. The elder paid them no heed, reasoning he could no longer see the scums, anyway. As long as he could still move, he would repeat his efforts the next day. Alas, while Lin Clan was not omnipotent in Hangzhou, they were still more than something a blind old man could beat.
Since they did not dare to silence him, Lin Clan sent their muscles to block people from entering his house or him interacting with others. Every once in a while, they would dig a hole for him to trip in or lead him into the forest so that he would struggle to find his way home, hoping he would get lost in there and eventually die one day.
One day, a self-proclaimed thief showed up, and Zhao Laoshi never heard from Lin Clan again. His impression of the thief was a young man who liked to smile and had the ability to back up his bold words.
“Since his daughter was able to fool your son and imprison you two, I can also imprison her.”
“Everyone is equal before the law, is that not true?”
“I do not covet his money or assets. I only want to take his hope from him.”
“Uncle Zhao, I am not a kid anymore. I shall just call you, Uncle Zhao.”
“Wait for me. I will be back soon.”
Those were some of the most memorable things he said.
Hua Feihua managed to obtain Lin Clan’s “pay respects” list, which listed numerous affluent and influential players in the city. Most of them had a common denominator – squashing a foolish, arrogant merchant was easy. Needless to say, making such a list could not have been for kind intentions. With the list publicised, Lin Clan’s future was doomed, and the wealth they were sitting on was about to become some else’s wealth.
After explaining what he had done, Hua Feihua said, “Next is helping you find your son. To be frank, I am not an expert in this line of work. If you want my expertise, you should ask me to steal things.”
“Thank you… Thank you…”
Zhao Laoshi was never very expressive or competent at being expressive. Having led an honest and simple life all his life, he never took lessons in either domain. Nevertheless, Hua Feihua liked simplicity.
Patting the elder’s shoulder, Hua Feihua expressed, “Leave your son to me. I accepted your commission to steal your son back, so I will honour my word.”
As Hua Feihua headed out, Zhao Laoshi voiced, “Please heed caution. I hear… it has been rife with trouble lately.”
Hua Feihua smiled. “Samaritan Thief, Broke Thief, I like the ring the title has. I will make sure I do it justice.”
He had been bestowed with many prestigious and notorious titles, held innumerable identities and changed his life drastically, but at the end of the day, he was still himself. He still enjoyed hearing the wind whistle even though he had left triumphantly in similar fashion for over a decade.
The daughter of Patriarch Lin was a habitual framer, tormenting men for her own satisfaction before Yan Buer even moved to Hangzhou. Needless to say, his arrival deterred her until she could no longer resist the temptation to frame the mason who visited the property to fulfil a repair commission. Yan Buer failed to locate the victim despite his best efforts, resulting in the tragic case remaining cold.
Considering the number of years Lin Clan had been bullies and the number of murders they had committed, Lin Clan did not deserve an ounce of pity, but it was Zhao Laoshi who moved Hua Feihua because he reminded Hua Feihua of his shifu. To this day, he still remembered his shifu’s last reminder to live a life without guilt. It was the usual reminder; however, he listened in closer that day. By the time he wanted to forget it, it was too late. His late shifu was the one on the bed with one foot in the ground, yet when questioned on what his unfulfilled wishes were, he started to lecture his disciple. His shifu was a selfless man till the end.
Smiling, Hua Feihua dropped into a property he owned. Knowing that he would be in Hangzhou for a while, he prepared the large estate ahead of time. The first thing that occupied his thoughts upon arrival was the fight from not long ago. To others, it might not have been a fight, but it was one of the few encounters he could classify as a fight in recent years.
Fifteen years ago, he managed to knock on the doors to Divine Realm after obtaining the internal energy cultivation of three elite warriors. The only missing ingredient he needed to ascend back then was the personality to support it. After he experienced all sorts of hells, he finally reached a level where he could join the top ranks in the martial world. Hence, it had been a long time before he truly had a “fight”. The four patriarchs nearly forced him to retaliate.
The four patriarchs were entrusted with their seats for good reasons. Even though they knew they were up against a Divine Realm warrior, they held back to bait him in. Otherwise, unless he was ready to kill them, the odds were not heavily stacked against them. That was not to mention there was one among them hiding his true skills. Hua Feihua grinned. It was not hard to see why the four had gathered in Hangzhou considering the imperial court’s recent activities in relation to the Seven Champion White Princes.
Lady Bai was… tough. Had he been left with no alternative, Hua Feihua would not have barged into someone’s wife’s room.
“… Wang Sanping is dead. I’m at a lost. Is there someone besides me also eyeing Hangzhou?” Think as he may, Hua Feihua could not see anything new. “This is next.”
Hua Feihua shut the door behind him and then heaved a heavy breath. He pulled out a chair in the packed room to take a seat. “What… shall I do about you fellas?”
On every inch of the ground, the window ledges, on the bed, under the bed – and even on the beams – there was an immeasurable amount of gold and jewellery.
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