The Beautiful Boss's Personal Bodyguard-Chapter 343

"You can’t say that. People from Henan always find a way to do better than others wherever they go, and that’s a skill."

"Hehe," Zhao Sanque was noncommittal, "When I was a child, five siblings of mine—three died. I was the fourth one, nearly starved to death. Do you know how I survived?"

"It wasn’t by eating sparrows, was it?"

"You’re half right. That year, I was six years old, skin and bones from hunger. When I couldn’t stand it anymore, I started to think about catching sparrows. Do you know about sticky nets?"

Ye Tian nodded. Those kinds of nets were useless against large birds of prey, but for little things like sparrows and swallows, they were spot on. Most people would think the net was coated with glue, but it wasn’t; it was just a closely woven net, loose on the outside and tight on the inside, whose main function was to entangle, not to stick like glue.

"Hehe, I was the one who figured that out," Zhao Sanque said with a proud look, "Sticky nets from all over the country came from Henan—more specifically, they came from my hands."

Ye Tian laughed. Everyone says sticky nets came from Hebei Baoding, used for fishing. I didn’t expect they came from you, for catching birds."

"Let’s not talk about that. It’s all in the past. Anyway, the whole village started calling me Zhao Sanque, and then it spread to the whole county, and eventually, everyone in the city knew."

"They must all be grateful to you."

"Grateful my ass. They called me an environmental destroyer, a killer of birds."

"That’s serious."

******

Ye Tian thought for a moment, "Full from eating with nothing better to do, a bunch of fuckin’ idiots." ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

"Oh."

Zhao Sanque chuckled, "Brother, you’re pretty ruthless."

Ye Tian began to think that the reputation of Henan people wasn’t so bad after all; it was all exaggerated hearsay.

"Brother, you came to see me about the store, didn’t you?"

Heh, truly Henanese!

"This store, I don’t want to run it anymore. It’s not that I can’t make money from it; it’s that the money is not earned in peace. They come and cause trouble every other day; even giving me ten skewers of grilled sparrow doesn’t help."

Ye Tian passed over a cigarette, and the two of them lit up, beginning to smoke.

"Ye Tian, brother, let me tell you, the annual rent for this place is fifty thousand. If you want it, I’ll give you a 20% discount."

Ye Tian almost inhaled his cigarette!

"Big brother, you are so sincere! That’s so nice of you! You’re a true man!"

"Of course!" Zhao Sanque had a generous expression on his face.

...

At night, lights shone in the main and east rooms, while Ye Tian emerged from the northwest corner thatch room, glancing at the south room which was pitch-dark, without a single ghostly shadow.

"Where does that kid go every night?"

He didn’t know that Chuanzi had already wrapped himself in a cotton coat and gone out.

Turning a corner, Zheng Ergou was already waiting there at the entrance to the alley.

"Chuan! Chuan!" Zheng Ergou shook his flashlight at the corner.

Chuanzi, carrying a black leather bag, walked over.

"Brother Gou."

"Mhm. Got everything ready?"

Chuanzi patted the leather bag in his hand, "It’s all in here."

"Let’s go!"

"Let’s go!"

After a gloomy day, it finally began to snow.

The two of them walked side by side, sticking close to the wall; their shadows buried in the darkness of the wall, indiscernible as people walking. This was something Duan Liu’er had drilled into Chuanzi’s head: once you start an operation, don’t worry about what you haven’t gotten yet; you have to ensure your own safety. You can always make up for lost things, but once you lose your life, that’s the end.

The rustling snow concealed their hurried footsteps and also concealed the truth behind all matters.

Erwanzi Street got its name not because the street required two turns, but because it had many bends. It just so happened that in Huaxia culture, the number ’two’ often represents ’multiple’ in expressions like "have a couple of drinks," "smoke a couple of puffs" or "play a couple of rounds of mahjong"; it definitely wasn’t just one ’two’ that could cover it. So, this street, with its numerous turns, was simply dubbed Erwanzi Street.

The only relatively straight street in the area housed the largest residence of Zheng Sanpao—not that one needed to search for it deliberately as the landlord’s compound was very spacious.

Zheng Dazhi had a vision for the future, knowing that especially well-preserved courtyard houses would only become more valuable, so he did not allow any alterations to be made to the courtyard, even retaining the traditional kang bed-stoves as they were, which in summer, became a breeding ground for all kinds of insects.

Zheng Ergou and his companion made their way to the back of the compound, down a narrow alley with few people, fewer still at night, and more importantly, no streetlights.

"Do we make a move now?"

"No rush, we’ll start after midnight." Chuanzi calmly checked his watch, then leaned against the wall, motionless, like a rock.

"That late!"

"Your brother is a cop, he’s trickier to deal with than most. You said he stays in the back and you have no idea what time he comes back or goes to sleep. Going in blind, without the basic information, it’s better for us to be more cautious. If it were summer, we’d have to wait until three or four in the morning to start. My master always said, if you’re going to do it, then do it swiftly and decisively. The one thing we dread the most is being hesitant and looking back in fear. Without full certainty, we can only rely on luck," Chuanzi turned to look at Zheng Ergou, raised an eyebrow, "Do you think thieves can afford to count on luck? Just wait."

Zheng Ergou shrunk down a bit and straightened his collar, "I’ll listen to you."

"Brother Gou, no need to rush. You won’t be wrong to listen to me."

The two leaned against the wall, wrapped themselves tighter in their cotton coats, and didn’t move.

The snow began to fall heavier, the small salt-like flakes turning into full-fledged snowflakes. The whole city wondered why there was so much snow this year. The TV station started issuing orange snow warnings, and even more people were inwardly looking forward to the arrival of the Spring Festival.

Snow meant New Year’s was coming, but many would not think that in an alley, two people were waiting for what they called the ’perfect moment.’

As soon as it was midnight, Zheng Ergou stirred, wanting to get up, but Chuanzi stopped him.

"What’s wrong, isn’t it midnight now?"

"Don’t move, wait a little longer, someone is coming."

Zheng Ergou still wanted to look, but Chuanzi glared at him and stopped him. In an instant, his eyes softened, "Brother Gou, just listen to me this once. We barely had any plan this time, just discussed it at noon and came here in the evening. With such a short window, if we don’t sharpen up now and something goes wrong, it’ll be too late. Just wait, wait a little longer."