The Great Villain
It was almost noon. In addition to Old Jiang, only Jiang Ming and Master Zhou were left in the bar.
In the townspeople’s hearts, even if Jiang Ming could not be compared to Uncle Ba, he was still an evil person they had to avoid. Who would dare stay here?
Old Jiang’s eyes were filled with resentment.
“Uncle Ba, you drank two glasses of my wine for nothing.” Jiang Ming was still throwing peanuts into his mouth and spoke with dissatisfaction.
Master Zhou was speechless. “You’ve already become a big villain that everyone wants to beat up. Why are you still trying to get these two glasses of wine?”
“Hey, you’re only half right!” Jiang Ming immediately corrected him.
Master Zhou was at a loss for words again. He then heaved a long sigh. “I’ve lived to this age, but I’ve finally gained some insight today. How can you be so sure that Uncle Ba will let you off?” He still did not understand.
Jiang Ming smiled and said unhurriedly, “If I were an honest man who resisted the bully, Uncle Ba would definitely break my legs because no matter how noisy the prey is, they are just food in the eyes of the predators. If they don’t listen, they will just bite them to death and eat them. But if I’m an evil tyrant, then I’ll be standing on the opposite side of the prey. The prey will fear me, and the predators will treat me as their own kind. Even if there are fights between predators, it will never be because of the provocation of prey. To Uncle Ba, I am just a young predator that can form a gang. It would be best if I could be subdued. There is no need to waste my energy fighting to the death. As for Guo Heizi and the other punks, in the eyes of Uncle Ba, they are, at best, some stupid prey who don’t know themselves. When they are useful, they will be used. When they are useless, they will be thrown aside.”
Master Zhou let out a long breath and suddenly thought of himself when he was young. If he had not been forbearing and giving in blindly, perhaps he would be very different now.
“It turns out that I’ve been practicing martial arts for decades, but I’m still prey. The future generations are formidable!” Master Zhou’s interest waned. He bought a bottle of wine and left slowly.
Behind the counter, Old Jiang looked at Jiang Ming with great interest. “Your image in this town is completely ruined. It’ll be difficult to clear your name now. Don’t you care?”
“Everything has a price. What I seek now is peace, and what I want to give up is my image.” Jiang Ming sipped the wine, and at this time, he was in a very good mood.
Old Jiang suddenly understood, “So, you’ve never planned to follow Uncle Ba to join the gang.”
“Uncle Ba?” Jiang Ming stood up with the glass and smiled, “What the hell is this?”
“Let’s go!” He finished the last mouthful of wine and turned to leave.
Old Jiang looked at the back of the man who was gradually disappearing into the corner of the street, and a trace of surprise flashed in his eyes.
“What a terrifying youngster.”
He did not care about his image or reputation. For his goal, he could give up anything.
Old Jiang felt a little cold. He could see that Jiang Ming really did not care about Uncle Ba. The previous drinking was just an act for the sake of peace.
This young man’s true nature was perhaps even scarier than the image of the evil tyrant he portrayed.
* * *
Half a month later, the bamboo chair in the small bamboo-fenced courtyard creaked as it shook. The mottled sunlight shone through the lush leaves and hit Jiang Ming’s body.
With one hand under his head and the other holding a tattered, yellowed book, he was reading with great interest.
The book told the story of a young doctor who had good medical skills and eventually became a being who entered heaven.
In Jiang Ming’s eyes, it was a very poorly written novel. Fortunately, there was a lot of information about the country of Yan, which allowed Jiang Ming to understand a lot of local customs.
“When I’m tired, I’ll cover my face with the book and sleep for a while.”
It was not until evening that he stretched and got up. He picked up the book that had fallen on the ground, brushed off the dust, and put it away. Then, he started the fire and boiled water while kneading the dough for noodles.
He stir-fried the wild vegetables and dried bamboo shoots in lard, covered them with white noodles that had been boiled and cooled, and drizzled them with the chili sauce that he had stolen from Old Jiang. Then, Jiang Ming began to eat in big mouthfuls.
After finishing the bowl of noodles, Jiang Ming closed his eyes in satisfaction.
“This is what life is all about!”
“Master White, eat as much as you want!” He stroked a white rabbit that was nibbling on a carrot by his feet and said with great pride, “As long as I, Jiang Ming, have a bite to eat, I will never let you go hungry!”
The white rabbit was full of spirituality. It rubbed against Jiang Ming’s trousers and ate with gusto.
“Counting my savings, I have about four or five taels of silver!” Jiang Ming calculated as he was cutting the food.
“It’s hard to improve my archery skills in the short term. It’s about time to learn martial arts from Master Zhou.”
Since the last storm, Jiang Ming’s life has been much more comfortable.
Uncle Ba was very clever and took him on the path of making a fortune again.
And now, when he returned to the town after picking the herbs, the minor officials of the government also turned a blind eye to him.
When he set up his stall in the medicine market, Uncle Ba no longer asked him for any money to clean up the place.
Jiang Ming knew that Uncle Ba was also using him to consolidate his power in Peace Town. After all, even the newly promoted great villain was his friend, so who would dare provoke Uncle Ba, who was getting more and more powerful?
However, Jiang Ming did not care. No matter how much he earned now, no one in the town would dare find trouble with him. This was the best thing.
There was a knock on the door. Outside the broken wooden door that was half the height of a person, a young boy with thick eyebrows and big eyes was waving at Jiang Ming.
“Ming, Miss Wang is still willing to release the fish by the Red Cloud River tomorrow morning! Watch my performance!” he shouted.
As he spoke, he waved the rotten fishing net in his other hand.
“Be careful not to return empty-handed,” Jiang Ming laughed and said loudly.
“Hey, I’ve been practicing for almost a month. Just wait and see!” he chuckled and ran away with the fishing net like a broken kite.
Jiang Ming shook his head speechlessly. Ah Fei was the one who hurriedly went to make a harpoon when he heard that Miss Wang was going to release the fish.
After that, he picked up a rotten fishing net from somewhere and practiced catching fish in the river every day.
The interesting thing was that except for Master Zhou and a few other people who knew the truth about the scene at the bar that night, everyone else avoided Jiang Ming as much as possible. Only Ah Fei did not care at all and maintained his relationship with Jiang Ming as usual.
Even if someone said that Ah Fei was trying to suck up to Jiang Ming, he did not argue. He just did what he liked and did not change his mind because of other people’s words.
“Since I have nothing to do, it’s not a bad idea to go catch fish tomorrow.” Jiang Ming touched his chin. He was going to learn martial arts from Master Zhou. If he brought two big fish as a gift, would it not be a great honor?
The next day, the Red Cloud River connected Great Cloud City to Cloudy Dream Mountain Forest. As for where it led to, ordinary people had no idea.
Peace Town was built against a mountain and was not far from the Red Cloud River.
Early in the morning, many people gathered by the river. Jiang Ming was also gnawing on a head of corn and standing by the river, looking around.
“This is how people are when they’re free. They want to join in on any fun.”
“Hey, it’s coming, it’s coming!”
Suddenly, an excited voice sounded from the top of a big tree.