Chapter 128: Beginning and End

"Fuck your mother, the money is earned by everyone, why should this little brat take it all?"

Xu Jun grabbed Chen Yubo's head and roared: "Old Lin, Chen Xingzhou is about to die, what are you supporting? Can you support it! Take the money and split it, isn't it good to go our separate ways?!"

"Not good."

Old Lin pulled the tablecloth, wiping the blood off his hands, expressionless: "The money that should be yours, you must take, and take it with peace of mind. Things that shouldn't be yours, you can't touch. Touch it, and you will burn yourself, and die without a burial place."

"Die your mother! I'll send this little bastard to see his brother right now!"

Seeing no hope of survival, Xu Jun's face was ferocious, and he decisively pulled the trigger, "You eat shit!"

It's a pity, there was no loud noise, no blood spraying.

Only the click-clack sound of a jam.

One sound, then another.

He frantically pulled the trigger, but under Ji Jue's gaze, it was useless.

In the end, amidst the change of ferocious and terrified expressions, only a blankness remained, staring at Old Lin who walked in front of him, finally realizing.

He dropped the gun, gave a contemptuous smile, and was about to say something, but was grabbed by the throat by a hand.

Then, thick smoke and sparks sprayed out from his nose and mouth!

In an instant, a person struggling in terror was burned to ashes in his hands. A few flames like thin streams merged into Old Lin's nose and mouth. His eyes were pitch black, like a cave leading to the fire of the earth, and scarlet flames flashed and disappeared.

Immediately, he returned to normal.

Finally, he looked at Ji Jue.

"The capable do more work. If you're not satisfied, there's another one lying on the mountain behind, holding a camera and taking pictures this way." Ji Jue pointed in the direction, sighing: "The clarity is quite good."

Old Lin nodded, his figure flashing and disappearing.

Inside the room, there was dead silence.

Everyone looked at each other, finally looking at Ji Jue. Ji Jue was silent, and no one dared to speak. Only Chen Yubo, who had survived a disaster, lay on the chair, breathing frantically.

Wiping the black ash on his body in a panic.

After a few minutes, Old Lin returned, holding a camera with a huge lens he didn't know what it was, and in his other hand, a phone whose shell had been melted by a few points.

In front of everyone, he placed it on the table.

The collision sound was crisp.

"Everyone rest assured, those with ghosts in their hearts will die, but those who can stay are still brothers of the family, sharing life and death and wealth. When the boss returns, he will never treat his own people badly!"

Since the beginning, this was the first time Old Lin showed a smile, so gentle.

But as the saying goes, a distant cake cannot quench a near thirst, even if it is fermented into kvass. After using the big stick to show the cruel consequences of being a traitor, the next step was the carrot and candy stage.

Uncle Lin clapped his hands, and assistants pushed up small carts, piled full of black boxes one after another.

Everyone who chose to stay got one, even Ji Jue got a share, heavy in his hand.

This density made Ji Jue click his tongue.

Are they all gold bars?

This gesture was truly exaggerated.

With the encouragement of real gold and silver and the distant cake, it seemed that life suddenly had hope. What's more, there was Old Lin's promise that when the boss came out of the hospital, even if they didn't do business in Yacheng, they could make a comeback in the Qiandao, and so on.

The originally depressed morale was boosted.

After the meeting came to an end, the first to jump up was that Goldie who didn't know death was coming. Unlike the others who were full of schemes, he was simply stupid, uncultured, and had clear eyes. Until now, his mouth was full of loyalty, simply too pure.

"Hey, awesome, buddy."

He was the first to lean over, smiling enthusiastically, full of curiosity: "How did you see it? Is it a hacker?"

"Just a trick to fool people, it's worthless once you say it." Ji Jue waved his hand and smiled: "If you really want to do it, you have to rely on everyone."

"Hey, easy to say, easy to say, whoever dares to move the boss's brother, the first one has to ask me!"

Goldie grinned, patting his chest and laughing heartlessly.

It was truly enviable.

After Old Lin sent away the subordinates in the business, he sat next to him: "How does Mr. Ji feel?"

Ji Jue just shook his head, "I still can't accept your style."

Always taking people's heads, or leaving no corpse.

Scary.

Old Lin sighed: "The society is like this. Bai Lu and Tian Yuan are different. If you make a mistake, you can't just be fired. If you do something wrong, you have to bear the consequences."

"If you don't do things, you won't be wrong."

Ji Jue didn't care.

When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. Chen Xingzhou's boat is about to sink, can you expect everyone to die for loyalty? At this time, those who say they are not loyal are definitely not loyal, but those who express loyalty may not necessarily be loyal.

Everyone is an old fox who crawled out of the sewer, who would shed tears watching Liao Zhai?

Those who say they believe in the boss, eight or nine out of ten are just dragging their feet, waiting for Chen Xingzhou to breathe his last, and then seamlessly connecting to the next job.

Maybe they've already found the next home.

More importantly...

"So many people left, is it enough?" Ji Jue raised his eyes and looked at the restaurant. Except for him and Xiao An, only Ah Yi and Goldie remained among the Heaven-Chosen.

Ah Yi looks like the kind of person who is scared to death, useless. Goldie is the opposite, innocent to the point of not knowing death.

If Lei Yaoxing really turns his face, rely on them to protect Chen Yubo?

Are you serious?

Old Lin, even if your whole body is made of iron, how many can you fight?

Besides, what about Chen Xingzhou, are you not going to care?

"Rest assured, Yubo's matter has nothing to do with the Wild Market, just survive this wave. Besides, bodyguard work is about quality, not quantity."

"I've already hired foreign aid."

Old Lin lowered his head to check his watch: "Calculate the time, they should be here soon."

As soon as the words fell, dust rolled on the road up the mountain, and an off-road vehicle full of mud spots drove toward the manor in a crooked way.

Ji Jue just took one look and couldn't help but shake his head: If you drink less than half a catty, you won't drive like this ghost.

Finally, it dangerously scraped the iron gate and entered, stopping in front of the villa with a drift.

An empty wine bottle was thrown out of the window.

Then, a burly, swaying figure walked down from the car.

Although tanned dark, you could see the original skin color was quite fair, the eyes were emerald green, with obvious imperial characteristics, but the eyebrows had a bit of the Federal person's appearance. But the black curly hair and the accessories on his body and the curved knife at his waist were full of Central Plains characteristics.

Looking up, he grinned at the people upstairs.

The exposed teeth showed totems of various Qiandao styles.

Ji Jue was dumbfounded, what kind of peerless mix-and-match is this?

Trendy, too trendy, trendy enough to make him a little scared.

"Long time no see."

Old Lin, who was waiting at the door, took a deep breath and called out helplessly: "Mr. Muhammad Wanyan Tombalovsky."

"Hey, we're all familiar, just call me Old Tang."

The swaying middle-aged man was full of stubble, patting Old Lin's shoulder, "Didn't you say to guard the hospital ward? Why did you run here again? This is different from the contract."

Old Lin smiled: "This side needs a master like you to sit in town."

"Forget it, it's all guarding the yard and watching the door, even if you don't pay the wages, it's counted! Meal expenses subsidy... cough cough, that oil subsidy, high-temperature work, and what injury subsidy, must be counted!"

He said, patting his head: "Night shift hourly wage is calculated separately!"

"Rest assured, easy to say, everything is easy to say."

Old Lin smiled and sent him in, introducing him to Chen Yubo.

And the moment Ji Jue looked at him, both of them were stunned at the same time, their expressions stiffening.

The reason for Ji Jue's astonishment was because in his perception, in just a few minutes, the spiritual quality fluctuation in the other party's body was like a stock K-line chart, high and low, without any regularity. When it was high, it was terrifyingly full, almost six stages full, half a foot into the Rebirth Rank, simply a strong person. When it was low, it was not even as good as Ji Jue, a second-level newbie, almost nothing.

And the reason for the other party's stiffness was because he saw Ji Jue... beside Xiao An!

As if he felt something from that young man, in an instant, his hair stood on end!

Damn, evil!

Old Tang rubbed his eyes, dumbfounded: How can you see a cub of the An family when you come in to guard the house? What the hell?!

What kind of good family has a Bai Lu hunter cub squatting in it!

First confusion, then shock, doubt, and even... the regret that Ji Jue was very familiar with.

Almost beating his chest and stomping his feet, heartbroken.

—Oh no, the money is too little!!!

The moment he realized, he instinctively looked back: "Can you add money?"

"Rest assured."

Old Lin still smiled, "When the boss returns, everything is easy to say."

I believe your ghost!

But it has come to this, the contract is signed, the account used to receive the commission is the big one, and Old Tang, who accidentally fell into the pit, has nothing to say.

After all, he has broken too many contracts, his credit score is already precarious. If he messes up this one again, he won't be able to live in the future, let alone next month, he won't be able to open the pot tomorrow.

The helpless wage earner can only accept his fate.

And add money.

It seems that he wants to turn grief into appetite. From the moment he sat down, his mouth didn't stop, as if he were a hungry ghost reincarnated. He emptied two refrigerators in one go. If it weren't for the inventory in the cold storage being enough, everyone would only be able to order takeout in the future.

However, he was quite generous and got to know everyone after a while.

When he was drinking the wine bottle and talking about his past experiences, he was dancing with joy.

Battles in the Central Plains, deep into the Empire, prison breaks in the Federation... all seemed to have a style, although the names sounded fake, at least the experience was rich.

He had done dirty work and tiring work. In his words, this kind of security operation was considered a vacation.

After all, there is no way in these days, money is hard to earn, especially for large groups of mercenaries, money is even harder to earn. If you don't want your life, you can naturally earn funeral expenses, but sometimes wanting to live and get the money is a technical job.

After all, this kind of fat job of watching oil fields, the regular army itself is fighting for it, where is it the turn of the outsiders? You can't even get a cool spot in the corner.

Most of the time, large groups of mercenaries take the most poisonous beatings, eat the hardest losses, and earn the least rice. After all, a twelve-year-old kid in the Central Plains can carry a picked-up submachine gun and come out to take orders. In the usual sense, killing and arson have no professional barriers and thresholds. If you don't do it, there are plenty of Palus who will.

It's no wonder that Slan and the others treasured Young Master Lou so much—this kind of job with lots of money and little work is really too hard to find. Being able to get a reliable long-term customer with a fixed relationship is enough for the entire Knights Templar to eat for decades. Slan couldn't let Young Master Lou lose his head even if his own head fell off, otherwise, if the boss died, wouldn't the other knights tear him apart?

However, unlike Slan's regular Central Plains army coming out to earn extra money, Old Tang is a lone wolf.

Generally, such people call themselves 'Ranger Knights'.

Simply put, they are the street loafers in the group, the wandering criminals in the eyes of the Empire and the Federation, belonging to the bottom of the group's discrimination chain.

Everyone is mixing, whether they have unique skills or not, the main thing is to have dirty hands, thick faces, black hearts, and run fast.

And Old Tang claimed that his family had been followers of the group for generations, and his ancestors were once prosperous, and had their own Knights Templar, but it was his turn, the family fell, and the past was unbearable to look back on.

"When my ancestors were soldiers for the Eternal Dynasty, my great-great-grandfather was the Grand Marshal, which can be considered a high-ranking official, okay?!"

When bragging about his family, Old Tang said it was falling from the sky, making the simple Goldie brother oh-oh, admiring him endlessly. Only Ji Jue didn't have the heart to correct him—the Eternal Empire is a cabinet system, they didn't have the position of Grand Marshal from beginning to end...

Seeing that they were familiar with the communication, Old Lin brought the assistant and the small cart over again.

"This is what you want, do you see if it's enough?"

The first thing placed in front of Old Tang was a few heavy leather boxes. After opening them, there were swords and knives one after another, cold light flashing, sharp edges exposed, spiritual quality flowing.

Although it was not exaggerated to the extent of giving blessings, the materials were solid and the workmanship was exquisite, which was a proper alchemical work, and the completion degree was not low.

Except for Old Tang, everyone else had them.

What was given to Goldie was a necklace, with a ruby as big as a pigeon egg inlaid on it, the spiritual quality fluctuation was manic and enthusiastic, which seemed to be used for ability amplification. What was given to Ah Yi was two crystal prisms, and when the light refracted on them, it splashed out thousands of beautiful broken lights.

What was given to Xiao An was a whole box of alchemically processed daggers, which were clearly custom-made for throwing, and the material was much better than the iron sheets bought casually.

Only when it reached Ji Jue, there was nothing.

Old Lin just took him to the underground garage, pushed open a door that had been locked for a long time, and revealed the space behind the door.

"As far as I know, the Ember system usually needs some auxiliary, do you see if these are enough?"

"Ah this..."

Ji Jue was dumbfounded.

Behind the door, it was already full of various equipment, from furnaces to liquefaction reactors, probes, engraving tables, and the most common various processing tools, all available.

All of them were 99% new, well-maintained, and carefully maintained. After debugging, they were better than new products.

Except for the lack of exaggerated equipment outside the specifications such as workshop core, spiritual quality furnace, etc., it was almost equivalent to a simple workshop.

If Professor Ye or Brother Qiu were here, they might sneer twice, what kind of garbage is taken out to dirty my eyes.

But the one here is Ji Jue.

For a stray dog with nothing, this is simply matched with his current level. Anyway, even if high-end tools were given to him, it would be a waste. These are already completely enough.

Not to mention the material storage all matched according to standards.

"After the end, these won't be used." Old Lin lowered his voice and said in his ear: "If it's convenient, you can help handle it."

"Ah this..."

Ji Jue hadn't reacted yet, and was dumbfounded again.

Then, what was put into his pocket was a business card: "Besides that, during this period, if you have any other needs, just call this number and order, as long as it is common in the market, it should be no problem."

"Ah this... then..."

Ji Jue was half-pushed and half-pulled. He reluctantly stuffed it into his pocket.

"Any other instructions?" Old Lin smiled and said: "I will try my best to help you get it done."

"Is it too generous?"

Ji Jue turned back and looked at him: "I'm not a professional, just a mascot for the boss. If I can't beat it, I will run, please don't count on me too much."

Old Lin shook his head decisively: "They are Boss Chen's employees, you are Yubo's friend, naturally different."

Ji Jue sighed.

He pushed the door and closed it. In the silence behind the door, after pondering for a while, he finally couldn't help but ask: "But such a comprehensive arrangement, shouldn't it be given to Boss Chen first?"

Old Lin answered without hesitation: "The boss has other arrangements there, besides, he is currently alive or dead, it's hard to say in the future. According to his previous orders, priority is given to Yubo's safety."

Ji Jue shook his head: "What for?"

"Yubo is the boss's only family, his own brother, what is there to plot?"

"What about you?"

Since he had already said it, Ji Jue wouldn't be embarrassed. Especially everything he saw today was too strange. It seemed natural, but it always revealed a trace of absurdity that violated common sense.

Whether it was the meeting that seemed to be comforting but was actually breaking up, or this overly rich preparation, it made him start to doubt Old Lin's intentions.

"Chen Xingzhou is lying in the hospital, life and death are hard to control, Chen Yubo is indecisive and has no enterprising spirit, his mind is full of how to raise cats if there is no money in the future, what about you, Old Lin?"

Ji Jue asked straightforwardly: "As a follower of Bai Lu, don't you have any other thoughts at this time?"

"..."

Old Lin finally stopped smiling, or rather, when the gentle disguise dissipated, he showed his true face, indifferent and calm, without any hesitation, his pitch-black eyes looked at him, for a long time, the corners of his mouth seemed to hook.

"Please rest assured, Mr. Ji, Yubo is watched by me growing up, I have never been married, nor have children, he is like my own nephew, absolutely will not harm him."

"As for you, I know you don't want to get involved with the Wild Market, I can also guarantee that as long as this period passes, Yubo is safe, you will definitely not have any trouble."

"Even if this old bone of mine can't hold on, I won't leave irrelevant people in the fire pit."

It sounds like a thing, maybe sincere, maybe hypocritical, but Ji Jue doesn't care. Since he got involved in Chen Yubo's life and death, he was already prepared to face the consequences.

At worst, I'll just walk away and hide in the workshop and not come out. Lei Yaoxing, no matter how awesome you are, come to the North Mountain District and bite me?

This is the confidence brought to me by two golden thighs, understand?

"What about you?"

Finally, he asked again, but it was not the same question.

"Me..."

In the brief silence, Old Lin smiled self-deprecatingly: "I've been working hard for half my life, I'm old, I have no ambitions or ideals to speak of. The bosses I've followed before and after add up to no less than eleven or twelve, eight or nine, and none of them had a good end."

Bai Lu's path is like this, famous overnight, dead on the street overnight.

If you have to talk about it, you just want to have a beginning and an end."

Ji Jue didn't say anything else, watching Old Lin leave.

After a long time, he suddenly patted his head, finally realizing: Oh no, it seems the case is solved!

Did Chen Xingzhou get killed by you?

"I found that people who get involved with you usually don't have a good end."

In the afternoon, outside Yacheng, in another remote wharf. Old Lin, who had been waiting for a long time, leaned on the car and smoked, finally waiting for the car that stopped not far away, and the dry old man who walked out of the car.

As soon as they met, he came to Old Lin with a complaint.

He had white hair, yawning, as if he hadn't slept for a long time, and his eyes were full of bloodshot veins. His unwashed hair was still stained with blood.

"Earning a little bit of your money is really troublesome. I'm so old, and I've been working for so long. Chen Xingzhou still has a breath, but I was almost sent away by him."

The old man's footsteps were a bit staggering, as if dizzy, and he leaned on the wall after walking two steps: "I've done everything I can do, don't blame me if anything else happens, I'm not Yama, I don't manage the book of life and death."

"Doctor, you've worked hard, this is the promised reward, double."

Old Lin signaled the subordinates behind him to send the reward, and pointed to the plain boat behind him: "Everything is arranged, it will arrive in Chaocheng tonight."

"Although a doctor shouldn't say this, I don't have any medical ethics, so please forgive me."

The old man counted the money in the box and said casually: "That panacea was wasted on him."

"That's a good thing that a high-stage Heaven-Chosen can hang his life with one needle. Giving it to an ordinary person is simply a waste of heaven's things."

His recovery ability, even with the technology in the 'hospital', is hard to survive the sequelae. Even if he survives, he will be a vegetable, and no one knows when he will wake up."

"I really don't know what you're plotting."

"Living is good."

Old Lin smiled, full of relaxation: "Living has a future."

The old man was stunned, unable to understand: "No, you have so much confidence in him?"

"It's not me, it's him."

Old Lin lit a cigarette and exhaled a wisp of blue smoke: "He told me before that people's lives must be held in their own hands. No one can take it away."

"Now the opportunity to prove it has come..."

He paused, gazing at the huge city on the blue sea in the distance, "It depends on whether he can do it." ===== CHAPTER 129 =====