Chapter 53: The Little Devil's Big Ambition Luo Ying
It's usually just the first crowing of the rooster that wakes Zhang Jinquan up, but today the roosters have crowed three times and he still hasn't woken up. By the time Zhang Jinquan slowly woke up, the sun outside was already high in the sky. "Ah," Zhang Jinquan got out of his animal hide bed and was about to leave the tent when he remembered Zhao Meng saying that someone wanted to see him early today, but now it's so late, what can be done?
"Hey, wait a minute!" A clear voice came from behind Zhang Jinquan. Turning around, he saw a 12 or 13-year-old boy with big eyes, high nose bridge, and a fair face, somewhat resembling the carp doll in traditional Chinese paintings. "You can't go out now, my grandfather has guests at home, just wait, my grandfather will finish his business and naturally someone will come to call you." The boy spoke in pure Beijing dialect, saw Zhang Jinquan stop in his tracks, smiled slightly but refused to say more, instead lowering his head to fiddle with a pile of iron pieces on the ground.
Zhang Jinquan stood still at the entrance of the tent for a while, quietly opening the door to take a peek outside. He couldn't see anything, and it seemed as if there was no one on the threshing ground. Just as he was about to step out of the tent with a surge of courage, he heard a low shout, "Go back!" As soon as the voice faded away, Zhang Jinquan felt a sharp pain in his hand, which scared him so much that he shuddered and the door curtain fell back into place.
"Haha, how's that? I told you to stay put, but you didn't listen and now you're in trouble. The one outside is my fifth brother, if it were Tiger Brother today, he would have kicked you with his foot for sure." Seeing Zhang Jinquan hopping around on one foot, clutching his hand and retreating back, the little kid laughed, with a hint of schadenfreude, "Your hand isn't seriously hurt, my fifth brother just used small stones, at most it'll just hurt for a bit and then be fine, so just stay put honestly."
"What's all this?" The little kid had attracted Zhang Jinquan's attention with the iron pieces he was fiddling with. Anyway, he couldn't leave the tent, so he just squatted down beside the kid and looked at the pile of things on the ground. However, he could only look, as the kid wouldn't let him touch anything.
"This is a handgun, disassembled handgun, I'm wiping the gun. Maintenance, you know? It's applying oil to the gun parts and wiping them clean." The little kid said, his hands moving without stopping, neatly using a clean cloth to wipe each of the iron pieces on the ground. Zhang Jinquan had only seen rifles before, that was when he delivered wild game to the county town last time, at the security team's gate. The hunters in the village usually used muzzle-loaders, also known as earth cannons. He clearly didn't believe this little kid, looking down on him with a smirk, he didn't think this half-grown child could handle a handgun.
The kid got a bit annoyed, imitating Zhang Jinquan's movements, he twitched his good-looking little mouth and gave Zhang Jinquan a white eye. The child put down the cloth piece and began to lay out the parts of the pistol one by one, "Take a look". The child rolled up his sleeves, without saying another word, he swept the pistol parts on the ground into his hands, and in an instant, with his hands flying back and forth, he assembled the pile of components into a gun.
"This is called the Mauser pistol, some places also call it a mirror box or a fast-slow machine. It's not loaded, you try it." The little boy said as he flipped his hand over and handed the assembled gun to him with the barrel facing downwards. Zhang Jinquan had already been stunned by the little boy's dazzling movements, and he numbly took the pistol. As soon as he held the gun in his hand, Zhang Jinquan felt that all the blood in his body rushed up to his heart, and he couldn't wait to fire a few shots to try out his skills.
"You stinky little brat, showing off again?" A tall and sturdy man entered the tent, scaring Zhang Jinquan into hastily standing up to salute, but he forgot that he still had a gun in his hand. "Zhang brother, don't move" The sturdy man took one swift step forward and stuck close to Zhang Jinquan's body, one hand grasping the gun in his hand, the other hand supporting Zhang Jinquan's elbow, thumb and index finger lightly pinching, "Ah!" Zhang Jinquan let out a cry of surprise, his entire right arm losing sensation, the gun in his hand naturally falling into the sturdy man's hands.
"Brother, I'm really sorry, I didn't know there was no bullet in the gun." The tall man skillfully removed the magazine and checked the barrel again, and after finding that there was no bullet, he glared at the little boy. "Zhang brother, remember, whether or not this gun has bullets, the muzzle must never be pointed at people." It turned out to be just a false alarm, Zhang Jinquan's numb arm had also returned to normal, and he swung it forcefully several times, as if there was nothing wrong with it.
"My name is Yan Wudao, and they all call me Old Five." The tall and sturdy man tossed the pistol to the little boy, clasped his fists together in a salute to Zhang Jinquan, which was an apology for what had happened earlier. Seeing Yan Wudao behave like this towards him, Zhang Jinquan became somewhat flustered, waving his hands repeatedly but not knowing what to say. Only in Zhangzhuang would familiar hunters greet each other with a salute, but outside of Zhangzhuang, hunters were actually looked down upon; it was rare for strangers to show respect to them like this.
Yan Wudao just smiled slightly, and didn't take Zhang Jinqiuan's reaction to heart. When he was first taken in by his master that day, wasn't he also like the current Zhang Jinqiuan, panicked when facing Mo Lun and others? It's just a matter of wind and water turning, today it's Zhang Jinqiuan, this mountain villa kid. Master left behind a little boy to sneak out last night, brothers all know about it, they discussed it privately for a while, also couldn't understand why master was so concerned about this little boy? At dawn, everyone took a few sneaky glances at this silly kid, but couldn't see anything special.
"Big Brother, aren't you supposed to teach me some moves? When is it going to be? It's been over a dozen days already, have you forgotten?" The mischievous little boy saw that Yan Wudao's attention was focused on Zhang Jinqian and couldn't help but show off his childish nature, hugging Yan Wudao's arm and shaking it nonstop. His big eyes had already curved into a smile like a crescent moon. Looking at the little boy who was being playful on him like a puppy, Yan Wudao affectionately coughed lightly and pulled him away from himself by the collar.
"You little scoundrel, you still have the face to speak up? Last time I let you off with a warning, but you ran away with your tail between your legs after just a few minutes. And then you had the nerve to go tattle to Grandpa, saying I bullied you! Come on, today we'll settle old and new accounts once and for all!" Yan Wudao's face turned dark as he raised his massive palm, ready to strike the little boy's buttocks. One made a move to hit, while the other naturally tried to dodge, but the little boy's hands were quick too, managing to evade capture for quite some time before being caught by Yan Wudao.
"Big Brother Wu, please spare me this time, I won't dare again. Tonight, I'll even sneak Grandpa's foreign wine for you to drink, just forgive me." The little boy's hands were tightly grasped by Yan Wudao, and he hastily raised his small face to beg for mercy, completely losing the nimbleness of a moment ago, looking like a younger brother in the family coaxing an older brother.
"Zhang brothers, don't be fooled by this little kid, he's actually quite capable." As they spoke, Yan Wudao gave the little boy a solid punch on the head. Sure enough, after being punched, the little boy didn't seem to care, but instead bared his teeth and made a gesture as if he was going to bite someone. "His name is Luo Ying, he's Grandpa's personal disciple, and he's more fortunate than all of us." Yan Wudao released his grip on Luo Ying and pulled out a bag of candies from his pocket, tossing them over to him.
