Chapter 515: The Middleman

And just as Niu Great Ming and Dong Zi reached an agreement and prepared to sell the carriage when they reached the county town, Wang An had already arrived at the county town and found the middleman who introduced dirty work.

Actually, no matter when, no matter where, and no matter what industry, such "middlemen" exist.

Of course, a middleman is not necessarily a full-time job; many have their own specialized work to do and just occasionally guest-star as a middleman.

The purpose is to earn a little introduction fee between the buyer and the seller, or between the demander and the supplier.

And this "introduction fee" is normally paid by both the buyer and seller or both the demander and supplier; that is, the middleman takes money from both ends.

Some might ask: isn't it better to find someone who specializes in dirty work directly? Why pay money to find a middleman? Isn't this just being full and having nothing to do?

If someone asks this, then they might be that kind of flower in a greenhouse, having never experienced the violent beatings of society.

First, people with needs cannot be idle every day, spending money to hire people to fight, or even spending money to hire people to kill for fun.

Secondly, people who do dirty work cannot solicit work on the street every day, nor can they grab someone and ask:

"Do you have an enemy? You can spend money to hire me to cripple him; if the money is right, killing him is also fine."

If someone who does dirty work dared to do this, they would probably be arrested very quickly.

Furthermore, if someone asked you this, even if you really had an enemy, would you spend money to hire him? Do you dare to hire him? Thirdly, even if you clearly know that the other party is someone who specializes in dirty work, do you dare to give him the money? Are you afraid he will take the money and not do the work? Or that the money is taken, but the work is done poorly.

Finally, dirty work is never paid for after the fact; it's always money first, work later. Of course, half is taken at the start, and half is taken when the work is done.

Therefore, at this time, the existence of a middleman is needed!

Generally speaking, middlemen are those old hoodlums who have retired after success; when they were hoodlums, they had a good reputation, high prestige, were quite trustworthy and valued loyalty, and could make everyone convinced.

Most importantly, they have extensive connections and can be said to be able to get along in both the black and white worlds. However, such people also have a biggest shortcoming: although they earn quite a bit of money, it is never enough to spend.

Of course, people are things that change; one should know that scales go up and down, so for something as complex as the human heart, it is extremely normal to do some shitty things.

The middleman Wang An found is called Qian Huaizhong, nicknamed "Qian the Bad Seed."

Since Wang An's rebirth, he hadn't dealt with him yet, but in Wang An's past life, he had genuinely dealt with him quite a bit.

Whether it was helping people fight, helping people settle matters, or helping people collect debts, about half of the work was introduced by him.

And the reason Wang An came to find him was also because he had always been relatively trustworthy, considered the one with the least change.

Seeing Wang An enter the room, Qian Huaizhong said with a laugh: "Yo, a rare guest. It's been a serious amount of time since I've seen you, kid. What have you been busy with lately?"

Wang An also replied with a laugh upon hearing this: "Just messing around. Isn't it because I missed Uncle Qian, so I came over to take a look."

Qian Huaizhong pretended to look left and right, then joked: "What? You missed me and came empty-handed?"

Wang An pretended to be embarrassed and said:

"Oh my, my fault, my fault. I came in a hurry; I'll make up for it next time, I'll definitely make up for it next time." Qian Huaizhong rolled his eyes at Wang An upon hearing this, and then said unhappily: "Just cut the crap. From the time I've known you until now, you've said this every time you come; you've been bullshitting me for almost four years."

After Qian Huaizhong finished speaking, Wang An didn't have the slightest attitude of shame. He casually picked up the cigarettes and matches on the table in front of Qian Huaizhong, and while lighting a cigarette for Qian Huaizhong, he said with a laugh:

"Come on, Uncle Qian, smoke a cigarette and calm your anger. It's not good for you to be so hot-tempered day after day."

Qian Huaizhong glanced at Wang An sideways, and while taking the cigarette, said: "Of all the kids, I admire your shamelessness the most."

Wang An gave a "hehe" laugh upon hearing this, didn't answer, but lit a cigarette for himself, and then sat on the small stool by the table.

The room Wang An and Qian Huaizhong were in was a gatehouse room, with doors at both the front and back. Beside the gatehouse room was the entrance to the courtyard, and further inside the entrance were the four main rooms of Qian Huaizhong's house.

However, it is worth noting that in the entire courtyard, there were only Qian Huaizhong, a few subordinates, and a middle-aged woman who cooked. As for Qian Huaizhong's family, they were not here.

And in normal times, Qian Huaizhong and his few subordinates would stay in this quite large gatehouse room; if someone came, they would also be received in this gatehouse room.

In this gatehouse room, there was no heated brick bed, but on the north and south sides of the room, there was a stove each—meaning there were two stoves in the room. In the middle of the room were two tables and stools.

The reason they were stools instead of benches or chairs was because the tables were not proper tables, but two quite thick wooden stumps.

As an acquaintance, Wang An also knew Qian Huaizhong's few subordinates, so when he came, he led the horse directly into the courtyard, then left the horse in the courtyard and entered the room from the back door.

After Wang An sat down, he and Qian Huaizhong chatted about this and that while smoking. After one cigarette, the two finally started talking about serious business.

I saw Qian Huaizhong say solemnly: "You've always been a person who doesn't visit the temple without a reason. Tell me, what's the matter?"

Wang An, upon hearing this, scanned left and right, smiled, but didn't answer.

Wang An's meaning was very clear: this matter of mine cannot be known by too many people; these few people in your room need to avoid it.

Qian Huaizhong was also stunned upon seeing this, because every time Wang An came before, it was "person looking for work," but this time, it was "work looking for person."

However, after being stunned, Qian Huaizhong gave a wink to the people in the room, and then the few people in the room very sensibly got up and left the room.

After the room door was closed from the outside, Qian Huaizhong asked very surprisingly: "What's going on, Xiao An? You could be short of people to do work?"

Wang An, as a big hoodlum before, naturally had a group of small hoodlums following him to do things, so in Qian Huaizhong's view, Wang An looking for people to do work was an extremely abnormal thing.

But what Qian Huaizhong didn't know was that Wang An had completely withdrawn, and even Wang An's former group of fox friends and dog pals hadn't seen Wang An for a long time.

Wang An didn't answer Qian Huaizhong's question, but instead said with a grim smile:

"I want two people to disappear; please arrange it, Uncle Qian."

Qian Huaizhong was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, but then stretched out his index finger with a calm face and said:

"If you don't leave a single breath, the price is not low. For two people, it's at least this much."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 516 =====