Chapter 51: Chapter 35: It’s Just Like You
Translator: 549690339
“After today’s incident, Scarface and his Black Wolf Gang underlings should not dare to cause trouble for me again.”
On the street, Lu Yuan, who had just forced Scarface and others into submission, was weaving through the crowd and reflecting in his heart.
Today’s confrontation involved neither physical violence nor the drawing of blood.
But in terms of effectiveness, it would not be any less powerful.
The most direct effect was to make Scarface and his gang realise that he was no longer the old Hunter they could bully at will.
Indeed, how could a martial artist who has cultivated Martial Arts and Internal Strength be seen as a mere hunter anymore?
Even if the opponent was still hunting, as long as they didn’t openly provoke the Black Wolf Gang, turning a blind eye to the issue of protection money would not be a problem for the gang.
After all, as a martial artist who has cultivated Martial Arts and belongs to the Jianghu, he deserves to be given the appropriate status and respect.
Otherwise, wouldn’t they be denying themselves, who also possess martial arts and internal strength?
For a martial artist with Internal Strength to pay protection money to a non-skilled fishmonger is absurd, no matter how you look at it.
If this goes public, can the Black Wolf Gang still operate in the Jianghu?
If so, escaping the reputation of strict Jianghu fellows would be impossible.
In the Jianghu, you won’t make a name for yourself without a good reputation.
Therefore, even if it’s for the sake of their own reputation, the gang can’t take action against him as long as Lu Yuan doesn’t directly provoke the Black Wolf Gang.
“So, frequenting taverns and running around the Jianghu can be helpful.” After carefully recalling his own handling of the situation and confirming there were no problems, Lu Yuan nodded satisfactorily.
Yes, he came up with many of the rules after traversing two prefectures, running through several county towns, and listening to countless conversations of Jianghu martial artists in taverns over the past few months. Although not all of it is necessarily correct, he was certain about at least 90% of it.
It is because he understood some of today’s martial arts rules that Lu Yuan dared to directly confront Scarface today, even forcing this Black Wolf Gang leader to submit to him.
All his confidence came from the four-word rule: Follow the Jianghu’s Rules.
In the Jianghu, if you want to get along well, you have to follow the rules. Be it the rules of the righteous or the underworld.
Now, Lu Yuan is also playing with the rules within this framework.
“Although rules are said to be used by the strong to restrain the weak, it is undeniable that, in some cases, they can also be an umbrella to protect the weak.” He laughed lightly and strode towards the entrance of the medicine shop.
“Doctor Zhou!”
As soon as he entered the shop, Lu Yuan immediately shouted.
In the hall, there seemed to be no patients today, only Zhou Qing was arranging herbs. Hearing someone yelling, he looked up, saw it was him, and immediately said unhappily, ‘What’s the noise? This is a medicine hall, not a tavern, be quiet.”
It has been almost two months since he paid a hundred silver tales to order Seven-step fragrance ingredients.
With such a long time, Zhou Ze should have already gathered all the herbs.
So this time when he came to the county town, Lu Yuan not only came to buy martial arts herbs but also to collect his order.
Zhou Qing slapped his hand away, snorted and said, “My father has gone out to collect herbs. He won’t be back soon. You should come back at noon.” “He went out?” Lu Yuan was slightly startled.
“Yes.” Zhou Qing gave him a glance and snorted, “Is it not because someone spent a lot of money, asking my father to help collect herbs? For this matter, my father has often been out these past two months, even going to Fu City.
Just yesterday, a batch of goods arrived from Chi River County, so my father rushed over to receive them and hasn’t returned yet.”
“Qing’er.”
As they spoke, a gentle voice came from the entrance of the pharmacy.
Both of them quickly turned around and saw Dr. Zhou with a medicine box on his back, apparently he had returned.
Upon entering the pharmacy and taking a look around, Dr. Zhou was slightly taken aback when he saw Lu Yuan, but he immediately smiled and said, “It’s quite fortuitous that Young Master Lu is here. The batch of goods you entrusted me to buy just arrived today, I can hand them over to you now.”
“Really?” With joy in his heart, Lu Yuan swiftly expressed his gratitude, “Thank you, Dr. Zhou.”
“No need for thanks, I’m merely carrying out a normal transaction with you.” Zhou shook his hand dismissively.
Lu Yuan had given him a deposit of a hundred silver taels. Out of this amount, Zhou spent seventy silver taels on purchasing herbs and another fifteen on greasing the wheels. In the end, he had made a profit of the remaining fifteen silver taels.
Earning fifteen silver taels in two months was a pretty lucrative venture.
Not to mention, it only cost him less than ten days during these two months to manage this task.
All this totaled up to him earning about one and a half silver taels a day, which was basically equivalent to an average adult male’s income a month in the city, this was indeed very substantial.
“Here are your herbs.”
After organizing and then retrieving the herbs he had previously bought from the medicine box, Zhou handed them over to Lu Yuan once they were packed.
“Thank you, Dr. Zhou.” Lu Yuan once again expressed his gratitude.
“It’s no trouble,” Dr. Zhou shook his head, undeterred by the effort, but sighed somewhat, “This should be the last batch. I’m afraid I won’t be able to help you if you need more in the future.”
Hearing this, Lu Yuan was startled and couldn’t help but ask, “What’s the matter? Has the supply run out?”
He had just made a fortune, with thousands of silver taels in hand, and was thinking about ordering more goods to enhance his means of self-preservation.
Unexpectedly, he couldn’t buy it anymore.
Zhou sighed, “Not exactly. It’s just that our Yuzhang Prefecture has been infested with bandits who are stealing, robbing, killing, and committing arson all around. The counties to the east and south of the prefecture are all suffering greatly from this.
The ingredients for the Seven-step Fragrance are mostly purchased through the channels in the east and south. Now that the bandits have blocked the roads there, my suppliers don’t dare to transport goods here, and I don’t dare to go there to collect the goods.
On my trip to Chi River County just now, I heard about bandit activity to the east of the county.
Upon hearing this news, I decided to return to Dayu County right away.
Compared to the surrounding counties, our area is relatively remote and poor.
Those bandits probably won’t care about us, so it should be safe overall.”
Saying this, Dr. Zhou looked at Lu Yuan helplessly, “So, until the bandits are quelled, even if you want to buy medicinal ingredients, I won’t be able to help.”
“Bandits?”
Hearing the reason, Lu Yuan’s heart sank. He remembered his past experiences in Southsea, twitching the corners of his mouth, he tested the waters, asking, “Dr. Zhou, these bandits, is their name the Black Wind Gang by any chance?”
At this, Zhou looked surprised, “How did you know the bandits were called the
Black Wind Gang? Has the news already spread over here?”
Lu Yuan’s eyelid twitched, his heart a tangle of emotions, leaving only one thought.
Alright then.
It seems the Mei County Government and the Plum Blossom Gang’s so-called solution to the bandit problem was to push the bandits to Yuzhang Prefecture.
Surely, driving people to another jurisdiction and not having to deal with it in their own territory could be considered solving the problem, right?
Shifting trouble onto others, indeed.
“As expected, you didn’t disappoint me, these officials and gangsters operations are just as I had anticipated.” Lu Yuan was surprisingly calm at the moment.
Unruffled by the waves..