Chapter 16: The Little Western Barbarian Who Doesn’t Need to Be Praised
Du Mu smiled.
He did have the idea of cooperating with Luo Jiao to lower the price of MSG and expand its sales.
If it were the Du Mu of the past, he might plan to set up a chamber of commerce or organization himself and try to swallow up all the upstream and downstream profits of MSG.
But for Du Mu now, this is a waste of time.
After all, this is not a peaceful modern society, but a cannibalistic feudal dynasty, and a martial arts world where individual strength is enough to rival that of thousands of troops.
And I have also improved my personal strength.
It would be a real loss if we still waste time on doing business. It would be better to cooperate with organizations that already have a complete structure.
The time saved can be used to teach apprentices, and the power that is fed back can ensure that your partners will always be harmonious and will not have any foolish ideas that would harm their own interests.
Du Mu and Huang Xiaoyi chatted for a while, and then agreed that this was not a good place to talk, and then agreed to go to Du Mu's martial arts hall.
However, before leaving, Du Mu came to the destroyed teahouse opposite, took out five taels of silver from his pocket, and gave it to the owner of the teahouse to compensate for the other party's losses.
Fortunately, no one was hurt in this process. The teahouse owner was originally frowning and did not dare to go to the restaurant to ask for compensation. But when he saw the silver, his face suddenly broke into a smile. He even left the mess behind and ran home with the silver to hide it.
In a poor place like Kowloon Bay, the teahouse could only make pocket money, so suddenly getting five taels of silver was like pie in the sky.
Du Mu then picked up Li Youde and Wang Fugui, who were like a puddle of mud, from the ruins and dragged them towards the martial arts hall.
He certainly didn't have a kind heart and planned to keep the two alive, just to pry more information about the Beggars' Sect's movements from their mouths.
The two disciples of Luo Jiao were quite observant and immediately stepped forward to express their willingness to help carry the two men along.
Du Mu had no objection, and he also learned the names of the two from Huang Xiaoyi's introduction. The man was Jiang Tao and the woman was Jiang Wanli. Although they both had the surname Jiang, they were cousins rather than biological siblings.
When Jiang Tao took over Li Youde, Huang Xiaoyi glanced at the injury on Li Youde's back and was secretly shocked.
I saw an extremely clear palm print on Li Youde's back, and even the palm lines were clearly visible.
The most crucial thing is that the palm print sank two or three fingers lower than the surrounding area. This involves the spine and scapula. It goes without saying that this person is already disabled.
With just one palm strike from mid-air, Huang Xiaoyi crippled a warrior who was stronger than himself. He felt more and more cold sweat on his forehead.
Seeing Du Mu's kind smile, Huang Xiaoyi immediately adopted the same attitude he had when facing the head of Luo Church, warming up the atmosphere and not letting the scene become dull at all, making both the host and the guests happy for the time being.
Only Huang Xiaoyi himself felt bitter, and he didn't know whether this trip to Kowloon Bay was a blessing or a curse.
The other two Luo Sect disciples were as quiet as quails, not daring to make any noise to disturb the two.
However, Harry looked at Li Youde's injuries and hid next to Du Mu in fear.
Huang Xiaoyi noticed the kid who had been staying beside Du Mu, and asked for conversation: "Master Du, I'd like to ask who this little brother is...?"
He didn't know the relationship between the two, and he had never paid any attention to a child. He didn't know what to call him, so he could only refer to him as "little brother".
As for whether calling this junior "little brother" was a lowering of one's status and making Master Du look inferior to him, it was no longer within Huang Xiaoyi's scope of thought.
In other words, he actually quite agrees with this status relationship in his heart.
Du Mu looked at Harry and smiled, "He... can be considered my student. But he hasn't officially started yet. I'm teaching him Chinese. I plan to ask him if he's willing to become my disciple after he understands the truth."
Bruce was an adult, so he became his disciple. Du Mu wanted him to be his disciple because he wanted the feedback from the gift. But Harry was a minor, and Du Mu knew that he could make him kowtow and become his disciple with a little guidance, but he still hoped that he would understand the importance of this matter before making his own decision.
After all, judging from the current situation, there is a high possibility that orphans from other worlds whose parents have died will appear in the martial arts school. Wouldn't it be exhausting to accept all of them as disciples? Let's just go with the flow.
Therefore, he only said that Harry was a student studying Chinese, and did not say that he was his disciple.
After hearing this, Huang Xiaoyi took a closer look at Harry and discovered that he was actually a Western child.
There are also Western barbarians in Lianyungang, but they are all red-haired and red-bearded people. They do not belong to the same country as the black-haired Western barbarians, and there are conflicts between them.
The reason why they are called Western Yi instead of Hei Yi is naturally because the local Han people and some indigenous people also have black hair and black eyes...so as a distinction, they are only called Western Yi.
The Luojiao and the Hongyi cooperated a lot, and the two sides jointly drove the Western Barbarians out of Lianyungang. Those Western Barbarians who wanted to trade with the Shun Kingdom could only come to remote places like Jiulong Bay.
Seeing Harry's typical Western appearance at this moment, Huang Xiaoyi's original intention of getting close to him immediately faded, and he no longer took the other party seriously.
After all, he is just a Western barbarian, and cannot be Master Du’s nephew or grandson, so there is no need to pretend to be a kind elder.
Harry was looked down upon by the Dursleys and was very sensitive to other people's attitudes.
Harry felt puzzled and even a little aggrieved when he felt that the man who was chatting with Uncle Du suddenly became cold towards him.
However, due to the language barrier, he couldn't say anything. He just clutched the corner of Du Mu's clothes tightly, feeling that the other party was a little annoying.
----
When Du Mu returned to the martial arts hall, he found that Lao Liu had already hired someone to repair the wall of the hall.
"Old Liu, thank you and the other workers for your hard work. Ask them how much they will pay you later. If you can fix it today, your wages will be increased fivefold."
Du Mu called out to Lao Liu, who was still helping the craftsmen. When he saw Du Mu, he stood up and said with a smile, "Master! It's okay. We are all brothers. No money is required."
"Yes, Master Du." The bricklayer who was working also turned around and smiled, "Everyone has heard of the master's great reputation for benevolence. Who wouldn't give a thumbs up to his righteous act of taking in dozens of children in distress? Although we don't have the ability to take care of those children, it's not worth mentioning to help Master Du with some small repairs."
Hearing this, Du Mu couldn't help but frown and said, "How can that be possible? Let's put it in perspective. Bricks and mortar, who doesn't need money? We all work hard to earn money. If you don't pay me, wouldn't that be unfair to me?"
After saying that, he took out two silver pieces from his pocket and handed them to the bricklayer. The bricklayer refused again and again until Lao Liu nodded, and then he accepted it.
But he immediately said, "Too much, too much. We don't have much change. I'll give you the change tonight!"
Du Mu sighed, thinking that those who did manual labor were indeed simple-minded, so he just let them do what they wanted.
Afterwards, Du Mu turned back and asked Luo Jiao and the other man to lock up Wang Fugui and Li Youde in the woodshed.
Anyway, the two of them were almost disabled, and with Du Mu's sharpness at this moment, he could detect any unusual movement from them.
But it is not a good idea to deal with the two of them for the time being. After all, the scene may be bloody. Let's wait until we have finished entertaining the guests.
Although the bricklayers saw it, they pretended to be blind and focused on repairing the wall.
Only Lao Liu was familiar with Du Mu and knew that the owner was kind and would not usually be ruthless. But today, he dragged back two seriously injured people for the first time, as if he did not care about their lives at all. So he asked curiously, "Who are those two people?"
Du Mu was about to speak, but hesitated.
Looking at Lao Liu, he finally just shook his head: "I will tell you after I have interrogated them."
Old Liu looked puzzled and asked what the interrogation had to do with him.
(End of this chapter)