Chapter 56: Siblings

Jiang Chenghai pressed her relentlessly, showing no mercy whatsoever. Zhao Lingchun, though flustered, stubbornly refused to give an inch.

While the two of them appeared as sharp as needles against awls, they were actually barking up entirely different trees.

Just as the standoff peaked, a loud "crack" rang out. Jiang Xiaodao slammed his hand down on the table, causing the plates and cups to clatter noisily.

Regardless of what he intended to do, he certainly nailed the dramatic flair. Jiang Chenghai and Xu Ruqing both blinked in surprise, while Zhao Lingchun, convinced her secret had been exposed, instantly burst into anxious tears.

"It's definitely Hook-nose!" Jiang Xiaodao declared with absolute certainty. "That scumbag has zero real skills and only knows how to act tough in front of kids! Sister, don't be scared; I've already taken that old bastard out!"

Without even glancing at him, Jiang Chenghai kept his gaze locked on Zhao Lingchun and asked, "Do you know who Hook-nose is?"

Zhao Lingchun's mind raced. She remembered the names Old Smoke-cannon and Iron Lump. Excluding Old Lady Feng, the remaining earless man was most likely Hook-nose.

Thanks to her sharp memory and innate cleverness, she guessed who he was, yet kept it to herself. Instead, she dropped to her knees with a heavy thud and wept.

"Don't hit me, don't hit me... Everything I said is true... Wuuu wuuu..."

Seeing this, Xu Ruqing stepped in. "Brother, asking her is useless. You don't have much to do with the dregs' underworld. I've seen plenty of girls like her; they've been beaten into absolute terror. If you want to dig into their backgrounds, you won't get a word out of them for three to five years. Push them hard enough, and they'll dare to string themselves up from the nearest roof beam!"

Sensing that Third Sister was quite fond of the girl, and realizing that any further interrogation would only ruin the mood for the evening, Jiang Chenghai let the matter drop. He turned and shot a glance at Fifth Brother.

Shen Guoliang caught the hint and nodded.

From that moment on, an extra pair of eyes was fixed on Zhao Lingchun. As long as Jiang Chenghai lived, those eyes would not close.

From then on, Zhao Lingchun lived in mounting terror. To avoid slipping up again, she occupied her mind entirely with one task: fabricating a backstory so airtight not a single drop of water could leak through.

"Alright, run along and get back to work." Xu Ruqing dismissed Zhao Lingchun, then turned back with a smile. "Brother, look at you! You were always worried the old man was too suspicious, but I'd say you're well on your way to becoming just like him."

Feeling slightly ashamed, Jiang Chenghai laughed self-deprecatingly, "I suppose people get like that as they age. My mind isn't sharp anymore; I'm always forgetting things and getting absent-minded. Sometimes I lie awake in the middle of the night, letting my imagination run wild. If I weren't like this, would some punk have been able to pickpocket me?"

Looking somewhat surprised, Xu Ruqing reached out, threw an arm around Jiang Xiaodao, and said, "Big nephew, not bad! You haven't even learned the ropes yet, and you're already practicing on your own old man? Tell me, how did you two meet?"

Full of enthusiasm, Jiang Xiaodao immediately adopted the posture of a professional storyteller: "If we're talking details, we have to start from the twenty-eighth year of Guangxu, which was last year, with the case of the burglary at the Wang residence in the southern city of Liaoyang..."

Starting from the very beginning, Jiang Xiaodao untangled the whole affair thread by thread. Whenever he reached a particularly fine detail, the uncles would chime in to add a bit of context.

Xu Ruqing proved to be a fantastic audience. Not only did she listen intently, but she laughed, gasped, and sighed at all the right moments.

In truth, a woman of her stature had seen every storm imaginable. She simply felt the atmosphere had grown too tense and seized the opportunity to liven things up so everyone wouldn't remain so tightly wound.

True to her reputation as the proprietress of Huifang Pavilion, she restored the brothers' laughter within a few brief words. She had half a mind to call some girls over to keep them company, but fearing the brothers would drink too much and miss tomorrow's meeting with the old man, she proposed scheduling another gathering for the future instead.

Three rounds of drinks had passed, and the five main courses were nearly finished.

The company was mildly intoxicated, feeling just right. Jiang Chenghai told them to turn in early, summoned Guanwei to take Xiaodao to deliver food to Seventh Brother and his daughter-in-law, and murmured a few final instructions before dismissing the rest.

The brothers knew the score—Jiang Chenghai wanted a private chat with Third Sister—so they raised no objections and sensibly took their leave.

As the door swung shut, leaving only the brother and sister in the room, the space instantly grew quiet.

Xu Ruqing's shoulders slumped, the corners of her eyes flattened, and her smile faded as she suddenly looked utterly exhausted. Pulling another jar of wine toward her, she slumped beside Jiang Chenghai and asked lazily, "Want a bit more?"

Jiang Chenghai thought for a moment and nodded, "Why not."

Glasses clinked, heads tilted back, and the wine was drained.

Resting her head in her hand and tilting her face, Xu Ruqing watched him for a moment and smiled. "Brother, you're getting old."

Jiang Chenghai frowned at this, feigning displeasure as he retorted, "Is that any way for a proprietress to talk? The new year has barely begun, and you're already calling me old? I may not be what I used to be, but even now, hmph, I could still handle three or four thugs without breaking a sweat!"

With the brothers gone, the 'Sea Owl' sounded a bit like Jiang Xiaodao.

"I mean your heart is getting old." Xu Ruqing poured two more cups. "Taking in someone as a son—that doesn't sound like you at all. Though, when Xiaodao slammed the table and glared just now, I have to admit, he really looked like you used to!"

At the mention of Xiaodao, amusement lit up Jiang Chenghai's eyes.

"You should have seen me when I was a kid; he looks even more like me!"

"Then tell me about it."

"Not telling. Too embarrassing to say out loud."

The brother and sister broke into quiet, fond laughter.

A moment later, Xu Ruqing suddenly grabbed Jiang Chenghai's hand, stared straight into his eyes, and asked, "Brother, are you scared?"

"Are you insulting me?" Jiang Chenghai yanked his hand back. "When has your brother ever been scared?"

"Pfft!" Xu Ruqing rolled her eyes. "Cut the act! You've got Seventh Brother, haven't you? He's so skilled in martial arts that even when Chen Wantang begged for him tooth and nail, he stayed fiercely loyal to you. With a man like that in your grip, why go through all the agonizing trouble of breaking in a brand-new son?"

At the mention of Gong Baonan, Jiang Chenghai rubbed his head in frustration.

"Seventh Brother is great at everything, except he overthinks everything. I always feel like one day he's going to trap himself in his own web."

Mid-sentence, Jiang Chenghai seemed to remember something else and added, "No, wait, he has another flaw: he's too lazy, top-tier lazy! Just thinking about it makes me mad. Damn it! Come on, let's have another drink!"

Smiling, Xu Ruqing kept him company and drank another cup.

"Give this younger batch a few more years to grow, and they probably won't need us around anymore."

Jiang Chenghai hastily waved his hand. "Sister, you're just over thirty. Isn't it a bit early to be talking to me like this? Just look at Huifang Pavilion—it couldn't run without you!"

"Brother, do you think I love doing this pathetic work? I didn't come from a brothel; sitting here day in and day out gives me a headache! It was better back in the day. The two of us would team up, hunt down those reckless fools in the wild, and cut loose. Even if we didn't make a single copper, it was fun, it was free!"

Jiang Chenghai chuckled. "You mean that trip to Jinzhou?"

"Yes, exactly that!" Xu Ruqing laughed so hard she had to cover her face. "That time! We didn't earn a single cent and ended up losing fifty taels of silver into the bargain."

Jiang Chenghai couldn't hold it in either. "We didn't make any money, but we had the time of our lives!"

The more they thought about it, the funnier it seemed, until finally the two of them were rocking back and forth with laughter.

Seizing the moment, Xu Ruqing suggested, "Brother, whenever you have time, let's go out and travel together again. I don't care about the money!"

Jiang Chenghai's smile slowly froze. Brought back to reality, he sighed, "Forget it. If the two of us meet in Fengtian and get too close, the old man won't be happy. Do you think he'd ever let us run off together again? Sister, drink your wine!"