Chapter 51: Village Gift
Chapter 51: Village Gift
Black Wind Village, Juyi Tower.
More than twenty wooden tables were set up on the snow.
The minions put on colorful new clothes. Although the New Year has not yet arrived, there is a sense of festive joy.
Two jars of inferior wine, a large plate of stewed meat, four bowls of multi-grain cakes, and a bucket of wild vegetable porridge. The ordinary minions ate happily. Except when they went down the mountain to plunder, it was rare to have such a rich food.
Cao Long was sitting in the hall of Juyi Building with more than a dozen dishes in front of him. Sitting at the table were the village chiefs and birthday envoys. While they were toasting each other, Village Chief Cao would look outside from time to time, as if he was waiting for someone.
The thugs outside the door shouted: "The messenger from Lotus Village has arrived!"
Lianhua Village is two hundred miles to the east, and its power is comparable to that of Black Wind Village. The village leader is a woman who inherited her father's business and is quite capable.
The short and strong man with a full beard bowed and smiled, "Lotus Village wishes Village Master Cao good health and prosperity every year, just like today! I offer two hundred taels of silver and eighteen pieces of colorful satin as a small gift to show my respect to my village master."
"Thank your Lord Wang Lianhua for me. Please take your seat!"
Cao Long waved his hand, and the servant standing beside him took the gift list and led him to a seat.
Someone else shouted, "The old ambassador Zhang Bai from Qiquxi has arrived!"
Qiqu River is located in the south of Yunwu Mountain, where the water flows like a net. Zhang Bai has more than a dozen small boats under his command, which are called "ghost fire boats" by the people in the rivers and lakes. They patrol the water day and night, pick up passengers, and when the boat reaches the middle of the river, he draws out a long knife and asks, "Do you want to eat knife-cut noodles or meat-filled noodles?"
"Boss Zhang wishes that Master Cao will be blessed with good fortune and a long life. He asked me to bring fifty taels of silver, thirty pieces of jewelry, two large bamboo baskets of fresh fish, and ten sacks of salted fish."
The long-legged man was dressed in short clothes that smelled of fish, and he was wearing a women's red jacket that didn't fit him well. I don't know who took it from.
Cao Long smiled and said, "Thank Boss Zhang for me. Please take a seat."
After a round of drinks, everyone who was supposed to celebrate the birthday arrived, and Cao Long's face became slightly gloomy.
At this time, there was a commotion outside the building. Cao Long looked up and saw a group of unfamiliar faces. There were seven or eight men dressed in uniform, holding flags, and most of them were holding guns, sticks, and long weapons.
The laughter arrives before the person enters the door.
"The Fuwei Escort Agency has come uninvited to celebrate the birthday of Village Master Cao."
Cao Long's eyes narrowed slightly. In the martial arts world, black and white are clearly distinguished, but the escort agency business has a gray attribute and has always been between black and white.
The Fuwei Escort Agency originated in Fuzhou Prefecture and its business spread across ten provinces, but it did not have a branch in Jin, and the two sides had never had any dealings with each other.
The Black Wind Village had never sent an invitation to the Fuwei Escort Agency, and the two parties' status in the martial arts world was not on the same level.
Cao Long was slightly surprised, but he still stood up and bowed, saying, "I have heard of the Fuwei Escort Agency for a long time. Forgive my poor eyesight, who is the escort leader in front of you?"
The tall man in the lead came into the hall and bowed and smiled, "I am Wu Sihai, the flag bearer of the Hebei Branch, known as the 'Wolf-Wrecking Hand' in the Jianghu. I present four hundred taels of silver, a pair of jade dragons, and ten top-quality swords to celebrate the birthday of Cao Village Master."
Cao Long said with a smile: "Wu Biaotou belongs to the Hebei Branch, and has no connection with Pingyang Prefecture in Shanxi. I am ashamed to accept such a generous gift."
Wu Sihai smiled and said, "Jin and Ji are one family, and we are all brothers. Black Wind Village is a hero on the Jianghu road in Pingyang Prefecture, so we are naturally friends of Fuwei Escort Agency."
Cao Long said calmly: "Since you are a friend visiting, please take a seat first. We can discuss other matters later."
Wu Sihai nodded, and under the guidance of the mountain stronghold minions, he found a table in the Juyi Hall and sat down. There were eight of them, most of them were rough men, but there was a handsome boy among them.
The young man asked in a low voice: "Uncle Wu, has Cao Long agreed?"
Wu Sihai laughed and said, "This loach is very slippery, it's not that easy to let go."
The young man said dissatisfiedly: "Then he still collects things?"
Wu Sihai chuckled and said, "Young Escort, the business of the escort agency is to make friends with all kinds of people. Don't be impatient. The head escort Lin said that day that it is a blessing to be able to give money away, which is better than others taking it from us." After hearing this, the young man thought for a moment and said, "That makes sense!"
He glanced at the dishes on the table, which were all big pieces of meat and fish with a lot of grease. He was not happy about it and did not pick up his chopsticks. He just used tea to soak half a bowl of rice and ate it.
After three rounds of drinking, the leaders and minions of Black Wind Village were all about five to six percent drunk.
"The second young master of Dongliu Villa has arrived!"
The thug outside the door shouted loudly.
Cao Long was unhappy. Mr. Huang came so late and simply did not take the Black Wind Village seriously. If the birthday gift cannot satisfy me, then don't blame me for not giving face to the Shennong Gang.
"We are here to celebrate the birthday of Village Master Cao from Dongliu Villa!" Huang Fugui bowed deeply as he entered the door.
Cao Long sneered and asked, "Second Master Huang, are you lost in the mist?"
Huang Fugui was sweating profusely.
Let’s talk about the young man at the Fuwei Escort Agency, who had a look of surprise in his eyes.
Seeing this, Wu Sihai asked in a low voice: "What happened to the young escort leader?"
"I have seen the followers standing behind that man."
"See you? Where?"
"The 60th birthday banquet for Tong Baixiong of Fenglei Hall in Pingding City."
Wu Sihai whispered, "Is he from the Sun Moon Sect?"
The young man nodded gently: "It seems to be the incense master, or the flag master, I can't remember clearly."
Wu Sihai looked at Huang Fugui's expression again, which revealed some fear. He originally thought that it was because he came to the banquet late and was afraid of being blamed by Cao Long. Now he understood.
He smiled bitterly in his heart. He came to Black Wind Village because, firstly, the chief escort wanted to set up the eleventh branch in Jin, and he came here to test the waters. Second, he also wanted to take the young escort leader to see the world so that he could take over his grandparents' business in the future.
Although I knew that I had encountered this kind of thing, I didn't know why the Sun and Moon Divine Cult targeted the small Black Wind Village.
"Young Escort Captain, please don't say anything. If anything happens, we will fight to the death to escort you down the mountain."
Wu Sihai quietly pressed the handle of the knife and gave a look to the escorts sitting at the same table. They were experienced in the martial arts world and understood instantly. The people from Fuwei Escort Agency, on the surface, were toasting and drinking, but their hands were already on guard.
Cao Long looked gloomy, staring at Huang Fugui and said, "Why don't you say anything? Do you look down on this village leader?"
Huang Fugui glanced back and said in a trembling voice, "Reporting to Village Chief Cao, upon learning... learning about the Village Chief's birthday, my father painstakingly prepared a gift, but was afraid that it was not valuable enough to express his sincere feelings, so... so it took some time."
"I see!"
Hearing that it was a generous gift, Cao Long's expression turned from gloomy to bright, and he said with a smile: "My nephew is very thoughtful. I wonder what gift my father has prepared for me?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the young man from the Fuwei Escort Agency burst into laughter. It was common for Jianghu men to be uneducated and their words to be rude, which was not surprising. But it happened that Cao Long had read a few pages of books but did not understand them thoroughly, so he made a fool of himself with his "father".
Not everyone present could have heard it, but they all pretended not to know, except the young man who burst out laughing.
Wu Sihai was not in a hurry, and smiled at the young man, "The escort agency is not very profitable, and we happened to be in time for the birthday banquet of Cao Village Master. This is a good thing that you will never encounter in your eight lifetimes, but you can't eat so hastily."
"Master Cao is kindhearted and will not blame me, but if this gets out, my fellow martial artists will laugh at me and say that my Fuwei Escort Agency treats its apprentices harshly."
Cao Long nodded slightly without making any argument and turned to look at Huang Fugui. He became more and more looking forward to the gift that Dongliu Villa had prepared for him.
(End of this chapter)