The short boss lit a water pipe and sat down next to the wounded man. “This is Huang Kui liquid. Try it. Your body won’t hurt after you’ve inhaled some.” With that said, he let the man inhale a mouthful. The opium seemed to have a medicinal effect, for the injured man’s pain seemed to ease up almost immediately.
There was a grateful look in the wounded man’s eyes. The short boss asked him to inhale a few more times, and then asked, “Why did the beggar go after you? Did you mess with somebody else’s girl again?”
The injured man shook his head. His eyes were distracted as if he were trying to recall what had happened last night. “I really don’t know, but, but he had a no-contribution flag on him. He kept asking me whose it was.”
Behind him, the hitmen’s leader turned pale and wiped the sweat from his trembling hands. When the changshan man laughed, the leader stared at him with red eyes, and felt the flesh on his face tremble.
“Contribution-free flag? Then will you be able to recognize that beggar?” The short boss let the wounded man take another puff of opium before pulling the pipe back. The wounded man nodded, “I can. I can definitely recognize him. Master, prepare a cart for me, and I’ll take my brothers to beat his flower drum and bring it back.”
The short man sighed and waved his hand. “No need to ask. This is a disgrace. Twelve people died last night. How many brothers do you need?” With that said, he put his hand gently on the wounded man’s nose and mouth.
The wounded man couldn’t breathe, and struggled to break free from the boss’ hand, but all he could do was shake a few times, as if his hands, feet, and neck had lost their strength. Unable to move, his eyes looked straight at the hand covering his nose and mouth, but there was nothing he could do.
The short boss didn’t look behind him, but asked angrily, “Didn’t you say that flag had been burned to nothing? Why is it still in the hands of a beggar?”
The leader’s eyes were red, and he finished his meal in a few mouthfuls. “I couldn’t find it, so I burned the whole boat down. How was I supposed to know that little one gave it to someone else?”
“You didn’t find it, but dared to say you did. Are you senile? Or is your skull broken?” The short boss calmly watched as the wounded man’s eyes slowly turned white, his face turned red, urine flowed from his crotch, and he began to twitch violently.
“Boss, why do you say it like that? I beat the flower drums and brought them back, what else do you want me to do? Isn’t it just a rag?” The leader finished speaking and started walking out.
“Where are you going?” The changshan man asked from behind him.
“I’m going to get your rag, and kill the one who has it.” With that said, the leader stepped over several corpses and went out.
The short boss frowned, but watched it all silently as he waited for the wounded guy to finally stop twitching and die. He picked himself up and walked over to the edge of the embankment to wash his hands in the river. When he saw that the hitmen’s leader had already gone ashore, he showed a very tired expression on his face and complained, “Changshan, you’re the advisor. I told you this leader couldn’t be used and would bring us trouble sooner or later. Why didn’t you listen to me? Do you also want me to remove you from your position?”
“Without a hitmen’s leader, these four beams and eight pillars will be uneven. Boss, you tested him before, but he managed to beat the flower drums. And he got a lot, too. It’s all justified. The Japanese are getting closer and closer, and the people are unstable. If you want to remove him again without a justified reason, the pillars will be displaced and the people’s morale will be shattered.” The advisor said.
“Then you should hurry and find a way!” The short boss took a deep breath as if to calm his anger and then pointed to the bodies: “What can you see?”
“Boss, the beggar is a novice. He’s not been trained, but he still managed to kill so many of us. I noticed him a while ago. He set up a stall some time ago that offered to kill someone for a hundred coins. I think someone gave him a hundred coins to kill the hitmen’s leader.”
“A hundred coins, eh? Our Huang Kui’s leader is worth a hundred coins.” The short boss smiled, got up, and walked towards a coal stove, where he picked up a pot of the boiling medicine and handed it to the old woman with cataracts. As the old woman blew on it and started drinking, Changshan saw that she appeared to be holding something in her arms that was nursing. But it was wrapped in clothes, so he couldn’t see it clearly. It became anxious when it smelled the medicine, and started squirming.
“Go look for the beggar and ask if he’s interested in being our hitmen’s leader. The pay’s negotiable. If he’s not, then take care of him. Don’t give the leader a chance. I don’t want to listen to his prattling anymore.” The short boss patted Changshan on the shoulder and suddenly whispered in standard Mandarin, “Aren’t you tired of being a water locust after twenty years? The river is about to change. What should be done now… only you and I can understand the truth.”
“I’ll get it done.” Changshan said quietly as he looked at the old woman’s arms one last time and then left.
The short boss rubbed his back and sighed before going to help the old woman up. He said something in an unintelligible dialect, which the old woman answered in the same dialect. She patted the thing in her arms, seemingly wanting to calm it down. He helped the old woman into a hut on the embankment and looked inside. There seemed to be a crowd of people in the darkness.
The short boss said a few words to the darkness, locked the hut’s door, and then washed the dishes in the river.
As he was washing them, he looked at the water’s surface with eyes full of disgust.
MereBear's Translation 
thank you for the chapter
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