Chapter 83: Sensation【Seeking Subscriptions】

Click.

Jiang Cheng lightly turned the key, unlocked the door, afraid of startling the people around.

As soon as the door opened, he darted inside, closed the door, peered through the gap a few times, then latched it.

Hah...

Immediately after, he exhaled a deep breath.

On the way back, he kept worrying about running into someone; as he neared home, he became extra vigilant, but everything went smoothly and he arrived home safely.

A voice in his mind kept urging him to count the money quickly.

But to count the money he had to light a candle; with the house still lit so late, if anyone noticed, there would be a risk of suspicion.

An old saying goes, 'If you cannot tolerate minor hardships, you will ruin great plans.'

Get through this night; waiting until early tomorrow to count it again is not too late, after all, the money won't grow legs and run away.

He unzipped the bag, took out the briefcase, and hid it in the wardrobe.

Then he began practicing standing post.

On one hand, strength is fundamental; training cannot be interrupted. On the other hand, returning to his normal state also helps calm his mind.

According to his current progress, practicing standing post two hours a day for five or six days will bring his standing post skill to proficiency.

Then he could learn fist techniques from Senior Brother Zhao; although it's just ordinary fist technique, not secret martial arts, it still strengthens the body.

As for the double staff, originally going from proficiency to mastery required only one thousand experience points, but now going from mastery to great completion requires three thousand.

If it were merely a threefold increase, that would be fine; the key is that the speed of gaining experience points will also be greatly reduced.

When proficient, sparring with Senior Brother Zeng for half an hour yields over a hundred experience points.

Now, doing the same half‑hour spar might net only fifty points, which would be not bad.

If it were Lin Quanliang and the others, half an hour might give just ten or twenty points……

"At this rate, reaching double‑staff great completion would take at least half a month," Jiang Cheng thought.

If he were to train secret martial arts, the required time would probably be even longer.

But then again, who knows when he'll get access to secret martial arts?

The martial arts hall master is certainly a path, but you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket.

Jiang Cheng stood in post while thinking.

Perhaps Lin Quanliang and his friends are a way; getting on good terms with them seems easier than with Senior Brother Zhao and his crowd, and once the relationship is solid, maybe he can feel them out indirectly.

After practicing less than two hours, Jiang Cheng felt drowsiness creeping in, and even the thought of counting money faded considerably.

He washed up briefly, then fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

The next day, around four o'clock, with the sky just beginning to lighten, Jiang Cheng woke with a start.

He had a dream in which a thief broke into his house and stole the money hidden in his bag.

He opened his eyes and looked around; everything was still fine.

"Right, it's time to count the money."

Jiang Cheng's face showed a smile; he swiftly got out of bed, opened the wardrobe, took out the bag, sat at the table, and began counting the money.

He started with the larger denominations; last night he hadn't examined closely, but the bag actually contained quite a few thousand‑dollar bills.

There were eleven in total; that is, just these thousand‑dollar notes added up to eleven thousand.

Yet the bag also held a large amount of cash.

After a while, Jiang Cheng finished counting; adding the previous thousand‑dollar bills, the total came to thirty‑six thousand three hundred thirty‑two yuan!

Jiang Cheng sucked in a breath of cold air.

Surely, nothing is faster than getting money by robbery.

Of course, today he was also lucky; he happened to catch the Wild Wolf Gang after they'd finished collecting the management fee, the big bosses surely had handed theirs over, and what remained was probably left for himself.

It just so happened that he'd gone to look for trouble with Jiang Xiong and his crew, and ran into them.

If it weren't for that, even if he'd run into them normally, he'd probably only manage to snatch a thousand or two and that would be no small matter. "Wei Bao's death certainly can't stay hidden; even if the Wild Wolf Gang didn't know last night, they'll surely know today, so it's best not to touch this money—my life stays as it was these past few days, and we'll talk after the heat dies down."

Jiang Cheng then put the money back into the bag.

Anyway, having this sum gave him confidence.

Even if the roasted sweet potato business stays ordinary, he needn't worry about being unable to pay the membership fee.

"Too bad it's still a bit short; if he had several hundred thousand, he could buy a place outright in the Outer City District, and then Grandma Chen Sao and the others wouldn't have to worry every time they stepped out."

Jiang Cheng shook his head.

After looking around, he found an inconspicuous spot and hid the bag there.

After all, if that bag were stolen, he would truly cry himself to death.

Having done that, Jiang Cheng then started washing clothes and cooking; when more people were outside, he also opened the door and greeted them.

After finishing breakfast, he again asked the two households from yesterday to watch his door, and then Jiang Cheng headed toward the martial arts hall.

Walking along, he soon heard voices coming from a nearby house.

"Have you heard? The group that came yesterday to collect the management fee, led by Brother Bao, are dead!"

Jiang Cheng involuntarily stopped in his tracks and pricked up his ears.

"What did you say? Who died?"

"It's Wei Bao, the guy who comes at month‑end to collect the protection fee."

"Really? Is he dead?"

"No way—he's a member of the Wild Wolf Gang, with a bunch of underlings; who could have the ability to kill them?"

Voices of doubt kept rising.

Although deep down they also wished Wei Bao were dead, fantasy is fantasy and reality is reality.

"That's no lie! It was right in Jiang Xiong's courtyard. I heard the news early this morning, mustered up courage to take a look, my god, it was terrifying! Two or three people were lying at the gate, and when I looked further into the courtyard, it was all corpses!"

"Wait, what did you just say, in Jiang Xiong's courtyard?"

"Yeah, those few people of Jiang Xiong also died."

"Is there such a good thing?"

"I saw it with my own eyes; could I be lying to you? Over ten people died!"

"Then I'll go take a look."

"I'll go too."

"Hold on, you're courting death! I heard someone has already gone to tell the Wild Wolf Gang, and you're only going now—what if you run into those people? They might be seething with anger and have nowhere to vent."

"That's true."

A few of them calmed down quickly.

"If they really are dead, that would be a great thing."

"Yeah, the Wild Wolf Gang has been bullying us for so long, especially that Wei Bao. He came to collect money yesterday; who knows how many he injured, I heard he even killed someone. If he really died, that would be Heaven opening its eyes."

"Jiang Xiong's few men aren't anything special either. My Ershu runs a stall; I don't know how many times they've confiscated his tricycles, and he has to borrow money to redeem them. This time they were seized, and he has no money to buy them back."

"Whoever killed them, I don't know which hero it was? The guts are huge, the skill also high."

"Maybe it was someone from the Iron Fist Gang? I heard these two gangs have been fighting constantly."

"Shh, keep it down; if the Wild Wolf Gang hear us, it'll be bad."

With that reminder, the chatter inside the house quieted a lot, becoming hard to hear clearly.

Jiang Cheng's mouth twitched upward slightly as he lifted his foot and walked forward.

No matter how you look at it, he eliminated a menace for the people last night.

The regret is that after killing one Wei Bao, soon another Zhang Bao, Li Bao will appear.

(End of chapter)