Chapter 555: I'm Back

At those words, the grinning thug asking the question dropped his smile. He raised his voice and shouted from outside, "A worn-out shoe full of holes like you, pretending to be some proper woman? If Grandpa here hadn't been shielding you from wind and rain all this time, the beggars on the street would've taken turns with you till you were dead. For that kindness, you ought to work hard and repay it. What are you playing the decent housewife for!"

"What kindness... The hard-earned money I scraped together degrading myself, and you lot still skimmed forty percent off the top. Whenever anyone came to extort money or make trouble, when did you ever step up? I had to pay them off with my own money..." Sister Xue's voice rose higher and higher as well.

This crew of street thugs specialized in extorting unlicensed, unbacked prostitutes, taking the money for their own squandering without ever lifting a finger to help. But what backing could women running their trade on the fringes of Qingjiangpu possibly have? They could only swallow their anger and endure. Today, the pretense was finally torn apart.

Hearing Sister Xue say such things, another thug immediately burst out cursing, "Filthy whore, give you an inch and you want a mile. If you know what's good for you, open the door yourself. If you don't, once we break it down, you'll be sorry!"

"Neighbors all around, lend a hand!"

With things having reached this point, the masks were completely off. Sister Xue, her voice tinged with tears, called out in every direction for help, but the only answer she got was the scattered sound of doors shutting.

The two thugs outside both grinned viciously. One of them added, "Back when you were shacked up with that Wang Dagang, we gave you a little face. Now that bastard's long gone, run off without a trace. Who do you think you still are..."

The other spat into his palm and was already eyeing a spot to climb the wall. Sister Xue's little courtyard was fairly tidy, but it was only a mud-brick wall a bit taller than a man — it wouldn't stop anyone.

Before the two could make a move, they heard someone behind them speak: "This is my home. What do you think you're doing?"

When these two had come over, the street had been basically empty. No one expected anyone to come and watch the excitement. The two thugs turned their heads in shock, and one even cursed, "You want to play the cuckold turtle?"

The words had barely left his mouth when a huge open palm was already right in front of his face — no time to dodge. A heavy slap landed square on his cheek. That beanpole of a thug couldn't withstand it at all and was knocked straight to the ground. The other man's mouth fell open, and he had just managed to shout a single word — "Wang..." — before a kick landed in his gut, leaving him curled up on the ground, unable to get up.

The two thugs didn't even get a chance to cry out in pain. The man who hit them followed up with two more kicks. This time, the pain twisted their features beyond recognition; they couldn't make a sound even if they tried.

"Dagang, if you keep hitting them, you'll beat them to death!"

"Beating these two scumbags to death would be too good for them!"

Hearing those two sentences from outside, Sister Xue, who had been trembling in fear inside, threw open the door the moment she heard the second one. Standing outside was none other than Wang Dagang!

Sister Xue wept with joy. Lifting her skirt, she ran out and threw her arms around the smiling Wang Dagang. But the instant she embraced him, she hastily let go and said in a frantic rush, "The Cart Gang has a bounty out looking for you! How dare you come back? Go, quickly!"

Wang Dagang was somewhat moved for a moment. He cleared his throat and said, "I'm back this time, and I'm not leaving. We don't need to fear any Cart Gang!"

Hearing Wang Dagang speak with such certainty, Sister Xue's tears streamed down uncontrollably. She felt her days of suffering were finally over, that she had waited long enough for a good man at last. Yet through her tear-blurred eyes, she saw two men standing behind Wang Dagang. They were dressed plainly but looked very sharp and capable — though they didn't look like the cart drivers from before.

While this reunion was full of emotion and sentiment, no one paid any attention to the two thugs on the ground. Street punks like these might not have any real skills, but their ability to read the situation was not bad. They could see that against the three men opposite them, there was no way they were getting this scene back. If they pushed things too far, they might even lose their lives here.

Taking advantage of the long-awaited reunion happening over there, the two of them scrambled away on all fours. To their relief, those three men, though they looked sharp, seemed not to notice their movements at all.

They crawled all the way to the street corner. Once the distance was safe enough and there were no other men around, the two hastily scrambled to their feet and shouted curses from afar, "Wang Dagang, you barbarian, you've still got the guts to come back! Just wait till we report this to the Cart Gang, collect the bounty silver, and then take your life! And when we do, we'll take that filthy whore..."

The curses were extremely vile. Only when they saw the three men over there look as if they might give chase did the two turn tail and run in a panic.

Sister Xue was no weak woman; she knew a thing or two about the ways of the jianghu and the marketplace. Seeing this scene, she said with some worry, "Brother Dagang, you're just letting them go like that?"

"Let them go. I'm not afraid of them delivering the message — I'm afraid the Cart Gang won't get word of me!" Wang Dagang said with considerable resolve.

Qingjiangpu was a sizable place with a population of several hundred thousand, but its various circles were worlds unto themselves, and news did not travel slowly. Wang Dagang had actually come back — this news appeared in the afternoon, and soon enough, everyone who needed to know, knew.

Back when the two big cart gangs from Shandong and Henan had clashed with the independent carters, over a hundred lives had been lost, and dozens, nearly a hundred, households had been destroyed. Quite a few people knew about it, and had thus heard the name Wang Dagang. When this matter spread today, it caused quite a stir.

Showing up on the streets so brazenly was a direct slap in the face to the Cart Gang. If they didn't wipe this guy out, what would happen if others followed his example later? As soon as word from an Incense Master was reported up, the Cart Gang immediately dispatched men and also sent word to contacts in every quarter, telling them to pass along any information the moment they spotted him.

However, Wang Dagang only appeared that one time. He took Sister Xue and vanished without a trace. The Cart Gang's top bosses gave the men handling it a furious scolding, and then the matter was dropped. The Southern Metropolitan Region was a vast place; the Cart Gang could only run rampant on the fringes of Qingjiangpu. Elsewhere, their reach was limited. If a man ran, there was nothing they could do.

On the twenty-first day of the first lunar month, on a street one block away from the empty lot where the Shandong Cart Gang parked their carts, a shop opened for business. The opening was done with great fanfare — firecrackers numbering in the tens of thousands, gongs and drums beating nonstop since morning. They'd even hired a top-notch opera troupe to perform. Not only did the idlers and residents nearby come to watch the excitement, but quite a few cart drivers came over too. After all, it was still the first month, and there wasn't that much work yet.

But when the excitement reached the afternoon, the opera troupe stepped down from the stage, and a man everyone had been searching for these past few days stepped up. Wang Dagang, dressed in a crimson robe and looking impressively dignified, declared in a loud voice, "Cloud Mountain Cart Firm opens for business today! From now on, I hope all my brothers and sisters will look after us."

A dead silence fell beneath the stage. Among the Cart Gang's drivers, there were indeed a few who recognized Wang Dagang. Word passed from one to another, and soon even those in the crowd who didn't know him had learned who he was. The higher-ups were just then issuing orders to find him; between the two sides lay a blood feud of several hundred lives — and this Wang Dagang had actually come swaggering out like this?

"I, Wang Dagang, am a carter by origin myself. I know everyone's hardships. We brothers finally scrape up a job outside, and the broker takes twenty percent, the higher-ups take forty percent, and from the forty percent left in our own hands, we still have to curry favor with the gang boss — otherwise, there's not much work coming our way. We've got old folks and children at home to feed, and we've got to feed the draft animals too. What's left after all that? After a whole year of driving carts, you still end up in debt, falling into famine. We work our fingers to the bone, our consciences are clear — why should it be like this!" Wang Dagang's voice was booming, his presence commanding.

With the opera singing and firecrackers, it was very lively. The first to arrive had been the nearby residents; the cart drivers had come later and stood on the outer fringe. But by this point, the residents who'd come for the spectacle had dispersed, while the cart drivers were pressing in closer. Wang Dagang's words struck right at their hearts.

Anyone still waiting for work here in the first month likely wasn't doing too well. Wang Dagang's speech truly resonated with them; a few men's eyes had even reddened. Not a single driver left — on the contrary, they were eagerly waiting to hear what came next. What this cart firm intended to do, they could more or less guess.

"I, Wang Dagang, am opening a cart firm here, so naturally I have to think of my brothers. First, I'll negotiate with the brokers — we have to get their cut down to ten percent, or fifteen at most. As for my firm, we'll only take twenty percent — not a single copper more. And we can go directly to the docks to pick up jobs. When that happens, I'll still only take twenty percent, not a single copper more. If a single word of what I've said is false, may heaven strike me dead with thunder, may my family line be cut off!" Wang Dagang practically roared this last part.

A great uproar erupted below. Anyone could do the math on their fingers: working for this cart firm, you'd earn double what you made in your own cart gang on a single haul — maybe even more.

Yet after that initial uproar, no one really rushed forward eagerly. Picking up work wasn't just about the price. In the past, someone had tried to take jobs privately and lowered his price for it. In the end, his livestock were killed and his cart was burned. The man had no choice but to hang himself. And that had been one of their own gang members. This Wang Dagang had a blood feud deep as the sea with the two cart gangs — heaven only knew what would happen next. This might just be a moment of glory; by tomorrow, everything could fall apart. But still, the terms Wang Dagang was promising were truly tempting...

After Wang Dagang finished speaking on the stage, his throat was somewhat hoarse. Seeing little reaction from the cart drivers below, he couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed. However, someone had spoken with him beforehand, and the scene before him was more or less within expectations.

After the hubbub died down, the opera troupe went back on stage to perform as usual. Everyone could smell the aroma of wine and meat wafting out — it looked like the Cloud Mountain Cart Firm would be hosting an open banquet that evening. Tsk tsk, this Wang Dagang, just like the rest of them, was a poor cart driver. How had he managed to rise so high?

Many people had noticed the commotion at the Cloud Mountain Cart Firm from the start, but no one had thought it would be a cart firm. They'd just noted that the plot of land it occupied was really quite large and wondered what it was going to be used for. They never imagined it was a cart firm.

Before the sun had even set, the cart drivers from the big cart firm were no longer standing around watching. Even though lanterns hung all around the stage and there was no problem seeing, no one stayed around there anymore. Only the nearby residents were still watching, but even they kept their distance, not daring to come close.

Less than half a shichen after Wang Dagang finished speaking, shady characters began to appear around the Cloud Mountain Cart Firm, poking their heads around and snooping. If any resident wanted to watch the opera, these unsavory types would sidle up to them, threaten them with a few words, and get physical. No one dared stay there anymore. Even the opera troupe on stage was so frightened they were singing off-key.

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