They didn't look at each other for long before the boy retracted his gaze. His attention was still focused on his stall. In his eyes, the girl on the other side of the street was no different from the passersby and even the tables, chairs, and walls.
Li Yue naturally didn't know what the boy was thinking. She stood in place and watched for a while to confirm that the owner of the stall was indeed only the boy.
Although it was said that the children of the poor were already in charge of the household, no matter how capable a child at this age was, his family wouldn't let him go to a place where people were mixed together, especially in Shuo Zhou City where human traffickers had just appeared.
The boy selling wild animals alone in Xi City was most likely an elder in his family who was old, weak, sick, or disabled.
Li Yue didn't have to worry about food and clothing now, to a large extent, it was thanks to Tanhua Lang. Now that she met a child who was supporting himself, she had the need and ability to help others.
Pinching the money pouch hidden in her sleeve, Li Yue decided to buy all the wild animals in the boy's stall. However, just as she took a step forward, several hooligan-looking men had already surrounded the boy's stall.
The leader was a middle-aged man with a dog skin plaster on his forehead. He used a stick to poke the wild chickens and rabbits in the stall a few times and grinned at the boy with his big yellow teeth.
"Yo, brothers, look, this skin is really good. It's shiny and smooth, and the chicken is also very fat. Little brother, where did you get these wild animals?"
The boy slightly raised his head and responded with a blank expression.
"I'm the one who caught them."
"What?
You caught them yourself? "
The middle-aged man picked his ear and laughed with bad intentions. "I didn't hear wrong, did I? Such a small child, how can you talk in your sleep in the middle of the day?
These pheasants and hares were obviously caught by experienced hunters. How could you be the one who caught them? "
"I'm not lying. I caught these wild chickens and rabbits after lying on the ground for three hours."
The boy pursed his lips and held the long piece of wood by his waist. His voice became colder and colder. "You guys, are you buying or not?"
The men laughed and prepared to forcibly seize the wild animals in the stall. One of the sturdy men moved in front of the middle-aged man and sternly threatened the boy.
"Buy my ass!
Lying at such a young age and not telling the truth, where did you steal the wild animals from?
Let's go, let's go see the official and see how you are doing … "
"Wait a minute."
Li Yue slipped out of the encirclement and ran to the boy. She pretended to be apologetic and said, "I'm sorry for making you wait. You said you'd leave it to me, but I didn't bring enough money, so I had to go home to get it."
The girl took out the money pouch from her sleeve and stuffed it into the boy's hand without hesitation. Then, as if she had just realized that there were other people around, she opened her mouth in surprise.
"Oh my god! What's going on? Is someone trying to rob us in broad daylight?"
"What nonsense are you talking about? This territory belongs to the Long Dragon. This kid didn't pay the protection fee when he set up the stall. We're arguing with him. Go play by the side!"
The local ruffians were used to being tyrannical in Shuo Zhou City's Xi City. Even though they could tell that Li Yue was wealthy from her appearance and clothes, they didn't plan to stop. Firstly, they had never heard of any official's daughter coming to Xi City. Secondly, if other people in the same industry heard that they couldn't even deal with a child, they wouldn't be able to survive in the underworld.
The middle-aged leader spat on the ground and raised his hand to push the little girl to the side of the road. Before his hand could touch the little girl, she suddenly sat on the ground and covered her face as she cried loudly.
"Uncle Li!
Uncle Tie!
Someone bullied me! "
The little girl's voice was soft and crisp and had a strong penetrating power. With such a cry, the entire Xi City could hear it clearly.
Li Xunhuan and Tie Chuanjia were martial artists, so their hearing was better than ordinary people. In addition, the three of them weren't far away. As soon as Li Yue's voice fell, they had already appeared behind the local ruffians.
Tanhua Lang was worried that the little girl was really wronged, so he directly jumped into the circle and hugged Li Yue. When he found that there wasn't even a drop of tear in her eyes, he simply looked at the silent boy and the messy stall. He had a rough idea of what was going on.
Li Xunhuan shielded the little girl behind him and asked the local ruffians in a clear voice.
"What do you intend to do in broad daylight?"
The local ruffians looked at each other and found that it was someone they didn't know who was wearing a scholar's robe. They immediately became confident. The burly man directly raised his chin and said, "Hey, you little white face. Does the Long Dragon have to ask you for permission to do something?
Take your girl and get out of here. Today, even if the emperor is here, he can't stop us from collecting protection fees! "
The burly man tried to push Tanhua Lang away as he spoke. His hand was stretched out, but the distance between him and Li Xunhuan was getting farther and farther. It turned out that someone had grabbed his collar and directly lifted him up.
The burly man was just about to curse when he met the Bearded Man's eyes. He trembled a few times and smiled at the Bearded Man flatteringly. The next moment, his whole body flew ten meters away.
Tie Chuanjia only had a few creeds in life. One of them was that he couldn't let his young master and young mistress be wronged. Now that someone was blind enough to cause trouble, they couldn't blame him for teaching them a lesson.
The first person to be "taught a lesson" was the burly man. He fell to the ground with a muffled sound and didn't get up for a long time. Then, the second and third person fell to the ground one after another like a sack.
The burly man stood in front of the local ruffians like an iron tower. Although he didn't say a word, the words "Who else?" were clearly written in his eyes.
The local ruffians looked at each other and stood up with each other's help. They said, "Just you wait!" and scrambled out of Xi City.
The alarm was naturally lifted when the ruffians ran away.
Li Xunhuan sighed and turned to look at Li Yue. He received a bright smile from the little girl. He then looked at the shabbily dressed boy standing at the side.
"Little brother, are you okay?"
The boy shook his head and stared at Li Yue seriously.
"Do you really want to buy all the pheasants and wild rabbits?"
Li Yue nodded firmly. The boy untied the money bag in his hand and took out a small silver ingot. He then returned the money bag to Li Yue.
"You've paid too much. My prey is only worth this much."
This amount of money was nothing to Li Yue. She initially wanted to give the whole money bag to the boy, but he was very principled and only took what he deserved. Li Yue didn't want to hurt the boy's self-esteem by forcing him to take it.
After she took back the money bag, the boy lowered his head and tidied up the wild animals. He wrapped them in a bag and handed it to Li Xunhuan. He turned around and was about to leave. Before he left, he stubbornly said,
"I owe you a favor. I will repay it."
Looking at the lonely back of the boy, Li Yue wanted to casually say, "I can't repay you for saving my life, so I'll repay you with my body." However, she glanced at Li Xunhuan beside her and thought of the tragedy caused by Tanhua Lang. She sighed silently in her heart.
Li Xunhuan originally wanted to educate the little girl, but found that she seemed a little unhappy. Tanhua Lang didn't ask directly. A woman's heart was like a needle at the bottom of the sea, and a little girl's heart was even more like a needle at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. For a man, silence was gold.
The few of them walked around Xi City a few times. When Zhu Er bought all the materials he needed to make a movable type template, they all took the carriage back home.
Li Yue was still worried about the boy. She vaguely felt that the little money she had wasn't enough to satisfy his needs. Sooner or later, he would return to Xi City to sell wild animals, and the Long Dragon would definitely continue to cause trouble for the boy.
As the saying goes, help to the end. The boy's problem wasn't completely solved. In addition, Lu San Egg and Zhu Er lived near Xi City, and they might have been harmed by the Long Dragon. Li Yue was determined to eradicate this evil gang.
Li Yue wasn't a local of Shuo Zhou City, so she knew almost nothing about the underground forces in the city. After thinking about it, she found Lu San Egg and Zhu Er, two locals, to help her plan.
In the end, when she mentioned that she wanted to deal with the Long Dragon, Lu San Egg and Zhu Er both laughed. Lu San Egg even rubbed his hands together and said that if it wasn't for his master stopping him, he would have already taken on the entire Long Dragon Gang. Then, he received a look of disdain from Zhu Er.
Then-
"You learn martial arts?
Which sect are you from? "
"My master didn't allow me to say. Wait, you also learn martial arts?
Which sect are you from? "
"I … I'm afraid of embarrassing my master. If we don't talk about this, we're still good friends."
The three of them were all children. It was unrealistic to want to deal with the twenty or so local ruffians of the Long Dragon.
After inquiring about the house where the Long Dragon Gang lived, combined with some local rumors in Shuo Zhou City, Li Yue patted her head and came up with a superstitious idea, which was to pretend to be a ghost.
Li Yue's foundation was average. Her lower body wasn't stable, so her Qing Gong was naturally a mess. Zhu Er was also a technical nerd who was addicted to handicrafts. Therefore, the difficult task of pretending to be a ghost was handed over to Lu San Egg. Li Yue and Zhu Er were in charge of outside support.
The three of them chose to cause trouble in the middle of the night. Li Yue initially only wanted to ask Tie Chuanjia to take her out. Tie Chuanjia was wholeheartedly loyal to his master, so it didn't take long for the matter to reach Li Xunhuan's ears.
When Tanhua Lang found out what the three of them were going to do, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He didn't let Tie Chuanjia reject Li Yue. He chose to take the little girl himself to "cause trouble".
Yes, even though he had experienced so many hardships in his life, Tanhua Lang still had a lively soul.
With a martial arts master opening the way, after the initial shock, Lu San Egg resolutely changed into women's clothing. His hair was disheveled and he even put on a ghost face makeup. In the dark of the night, he really looked like a ghost.
Li Yue had already scouted the terrain. Lu San Egg made a hand gesture to Lu San Egg. Lu San Egg nimbly flipped over the Long Dragon's house like a monkey and entered the Long Dragon gang's master's bedroom in the dark. After a while, he came out with a green face.
"San Egg, what's wrong with you? Are you not scared enough after being discovered?"