Radiant Era - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 – Messenger from the Family

On the second day, snowflakes the size of a child’s palm finally fell gently from the sky which was densely covered with dark clouds. Borali City immediately became a vast expanse of whiteness.

At dawn, Lin Qi stuck up his legs while sitting inside Crippled Shop. At a table in the corner of the tavern, Lin Qi rested both of his feet on the surface of the table. He held a tobacco pipe made of corncob in his mouth, smoking while drinking pungent gin.

The wine was really good. It was one of Cripple’s collections, shipped from overseas. It was a batch which materials were meticulously selected and brewed. It had pure and strong fragrance, incomparable with the low quality product which Cripple sells to the group of men from the dock area.

After opening his mouth to spew out several smoke rings, Lin Qi let out a burp reeked of alcohol. Holding a big copper wine cup while pouring a mouthful of wine, he felt comfortably warm from head to foot which made him want to sleep. However there were some matters weighing on his heart, so he forcefully raised his spirit, then narrowed his eyes to look around the tavern, hoping to see Jiang Yong’s group of easterners from last night.

Big fat sheep, big fat sheep from the East. Although this group of fat sheep seemed like fierce tigers wrapped in sheepskin, their riches really made people amazed. Lin Qi wanted to find out some clues from them, first calculate how big their background is, then weigh the proportion between their wallet and their strength, finally deciding whether to act against them.

Although this was the dock area, although this was Crippled Shop’s territory, although that group of strange white faced youths seemed not easy to deal with, as long as Jiang Yong’s wealth was sufficiently revealed, Lin Qi would definitely act against them.

“My jingling purse, my jangling purse!” Lin Qi stretched his hand to stroke the purse on his waist, merely one night and it already dried out just like a lemon extracted of its water until it was dry. He let out a distressed sigh while drawing out his fingers to calculate.

As the Big Brother of Ironfist Brotherhood, there were really too many places to spend money. Occupying Borali University City, with the entire area of University City as its territory, having dozens of core members and hundreds of outer members, the strength of Ironfist Brotherhood was ranked top in the entire Borali City. However Lin Qi wasn’t a local after all. He had only operated in Borali City for merely three years, his foundation was unstable. He definitely didn’t have stable financial resources, so Lin Qi’s wallet was always in a dried up condition.

“Eighteen jingling noises, my golden coins jingle, sharing the bed with me for barely one night then disappearing already!”

Sighing a little dejectedly, Lin Qi grabbed the wine cup to drink another mouthful. Heavily spewing out another mouthful of thick smoke, Lin Qi stiffened his fingers and cursed inwardly. Eighteen gold coins, it was enough for common people to lead a comfortable life for 2-3 years, but they left him after merely one night.

What to do? Several core members of Ironfist Brotherhood who similarly were students of the Fifth University often fight with students from other schools under the influence of alcohol. If caught by the patrolling Dragon Cavalry, merely the cost to vouch for them was already 8 gold coins!

As for the remaining 10 gold coins, they were already given to those outer members. A while ago Ironfist Brotherhood clashed with a hostile power. Quite a few hired thugs had their ribs broken. Medical expenses, food expenses, housing expenses; all these things needed money! Ten gold coins were like lively little birds flying away from Lin Qi’s purse. Now there were only 30-plus copper coins remaining in his purse!

“After I die, I dream of having my tomb and coffin made out of gold!” Sighing, Lin Qi forced a smile towards Enzo who was sitting perfectly still on one side: “But looking at it now, my lifelong target is getting further and further away from me! Gold, gold, glittering gold! Frankly speaking, no matter if it is various gods of the heavens or what they called demons of hell, whoever can give me gold, I would believe in them!”

Enzo rubbed his nose and sneezed heavily. He slanted his eyes while gazing at this big brother of his, then heavily spat out a mouthful of scarlet saliva. The smell of the mixture of betel palm and tobacco stung the nose. Lin Qi grimaced, wrinkled his nose, and sneezed.

The two people toasted their wine cups. Enzo drank a mouthful of wine, then vaguely said: “Boss, your family is so rich!”

Lin Qi’s face became gloomy. He grabbed the corncob pipe and knocked it ferociously on the surface of the table, taking out the tobacco ashes inside. He said with a gloomy face: “You’re right; my old man should be very rich. But that is his money, not mine yet. My old man’s physique is healthy and strong, no different from a magical beast, before 50-60 years of time, he won’t be leaving that money to me!”

Lin Qi let out a long sigh and shook his head while saying: “Moreover, assuming my old man encounters a misfortune and dies, I still have rivals.”

Enzo grinned, then stuffed a lump of a mixture of tobacco and betel palm into his mouth and chewed in big mouthfuls. His eyes swept several female maids’ bodies back and forth. With a hint of seemingly natural smile hanging on the corners of his mouth, he complacently threw flirtatious glances towards them.

During the day, there weren’t many customers inside Crippled Shop. Several female maids stood next to the wine shelves with nothing to do. Finding Enzo’s handsome and strong figure facing towards them, they laughed wantonly one after another. The female maids in the dock area may not be virgins or women of honor, but being able to attract the interest of anyone from the opposite sex was already a form of glory for them.

Lin Qi wrinkled his brows, sinking into a deep pondering.

Although he was merely 18 years old, he had already begun to ponder about his own life, about the successes and failures of his past 18 years. With the help of alcohol, Lin Qi formulated an even more ambitious plan for his own life, ‘Maybe merely having a tomb and a coffin made of gold seems too petty, maybe during my lifetime I should live in a palace made of gold?’

Glancing with disdain at Enzo who was exchanging flirting glances with the female maids, Lin Qi said mockingly: “Women, oh, women! Enzo, if you had money, which woman would refuse you? Glittering gold, oh, I would rather have a beauty made of gold lying on my bed, I won’t even let these annoying creatures near me!”

Enzo didn’t pay any attention to Lin Qi. Having been acquainted for three years, he knew Lin Qi’s near-paranoia pursuit of gold. ‘This kind of young and inexperienced imp, who knows what benefit might these lovely women have?’ Enzo inhaled deeply, feeling the heat inside his body suddenly rush up.

However, while stroking the empty purse on his waist, Enzo silently applied a method to control Qi taught by an instructor at the Faculty of Military to strongly suppress this heat.

Turning his head towards Lin Qi, Enzo spoke in exceptional seriousness: “You’re right, Boss, I suddenly found that gold coins are indeed lovely.”

Enzo hadn’t even finished speaking when the door of the tavern was roughly kicked open by someone. Snow rolled up in gale pounced in. An incomparably hoarse voice sounded loudly: “Cripple, this messenger is looking for our family’s young master; the Lord assigned me to deliver him a letter. Hey, young ladies, give this uncle a cup of wine!”

Hearing the loud voice, Lin Qi jumped up and shouted in a pleasantly surprised manner: “Aha, Uncle Tie Chui, why have you come?”