The Mystic Nine (3) Black Back the Sixth

They thought he was crazy, but only he himself knew what he was doing— Black Back the Sixth.

“Is that madman still out there?” An older woman wearing crimson clothes leaned against the beauty on the second floor of the teahouse, and asked the young servant who had come up to add water to the teapot. There were a few small chips on the teapot’s spout, and the porcelain figure of a flower on it wasn’t very clear. It was a kind of inferior blue color, and one could tell at a glance that it was a cheap tea set.

“No, Aunt Bai. He’s still squatting at the door!” The young servant said. Although his tone was respectful, the woman could still see the contempt on his face.

She was accustomed to this duplicity now, since she was a woman from a low-grade brothel. She wasn’t beautiful. She knew she would never become a famous beauty in a big city like Changsha, but she was unwilling to go back to the town to serve those local men. Although she wasn’t beautiful, she also dreamed of catching the eye of a white-faced scholar, who would one day win top marks in the imperial exams. He would come to redeem her on a palanquin carried by eight men, and the pheasant would finally be transformed into a phoenix.

Unfortunately, the white-faced scholars were worse off than the pheasants these days. There was no way out. All the promising men had gone off to be soldiers in the war, and the situation was precarious. It was a waste of money to catch the eye of a soldier, since he could easily die on the frontlines. At that time, instead of being carried away on a palanquin, she’d have to help send his coffin to be buried.

“Tell me, where does this madman’s money come from? Just look at him. He’s crazy, but he always has money to pay.” A fat woman beside Aunt Bai wondered. She was Aunt Bai’s sister. She had been ill a few years ago, and became fat as a gourd after she ate some Chinese medicine. Now she could only sell her ugliness in the building and earn some money by making the others laugh. The both of them had a hard time, so they were always stuck together.

“Hmm, this kind of madman is either stealing or robbing from others. You can see that he smokes and certainly doesn’t do anything else. He can’t even last long in bed.” Aunt Bai said. “But this man is really a fool. He’ll give me as much money as I want. In the beginning, I held my nose for the sake of those coins and gave it to the dog, but I didn’t expect him to pester me. He said he would save money to redeem me. I went with the flow and told him to help me pay back the money I owe those ingrates first, but I’d borrow a little more every time he paid it back. He’ll never finish paying it back, and will always have to make money for me.”

“He hasn’t noticed?” The fat woman asked. “So stupid.”

“A man like this is endlessly stupid. He deserves to fall into my hands.” Aunt Bai took a sip of tea.

“Then he paid back the money for you, and you accompanied him at night?” The fat woman asked a little coyly.

“Bah, don’t make it sound so romantic! I’ll have you know, this guy is smelly and dirty, and can’t be served by anyone.” Aunt Bai said. “Even if I can’t find a man, I still wouldn’t want to be with this madman at all. But I’ve already thought about it. This kind of person can’t live long. And if he’s stealing or robbing people, he’ll be killed sooner or later. As long as he can keep living, I’ll have my fun first. He’d better hope God blesses him with a long life. And he needs to be careful in case someone breaks his legs.”

“True.” The fat woman showed an envious expression. “By the way, speaking of that ingrate, why hasn’t he come to trouble you recently? He beat you so terribly last time!”

“I don’t know. That beast also has a lot of enemies, so maybe he’s hiding from them.” Aunt Bai said. “That bastard! I also accompanied him several times before, but now he pretends like he doesn’t know me. I only owed him some money, yet he went and beat me for real. There are no good men in the world.”

With that said, Aunt Bai laughed, as if she thought her idea was very funny. The fat woman smiled enviously. The servant had been listening nearby and secretly spit in disgust before going back downstairs.

He ran downstairs and saw the unkempt madman still sitting at the teahouse’s door. He was basking in the sun and holding onto a broken knife. When the shopkeeper gave the boy a look, the boy quickly gathered a pot of wine, some opium, and a dish of peanuts. He walked over to the unkempt person and put the things down one by one.

The madman took out a pipe, and the young boy lit the opium for him. He took a deep breath and nodded to the young boy.

“Black Back the Sixth,” the young man said very respectfully, “if you need anything, just let me know.”

Black Back the Sixth took a sip of wine and pulled a coin out of his clothes. The young man immediately shook his head, “I dare not.”

Black Back the Sixth grabbed the young man’s man, stuffed the coin into it, and whispered in a hoarse voice, “Here. I only owe lives, not money.”

The young man had no choice but to take the coin. Black Back the Sixth turned around and took another puff of smoke. He saw several ingrates on the street corner in the distance, pointing at the teahouse’s upstairs area.

When Black Back the Sixth looked around, all those people immediately retreated behind the wall.

Black Back the Sixth touched his knife and closed his eyes. Despite his shabby clothes, he no longer felt cold as the midday sun shined down upon him. He took another puff of his pipe and felt extremely satisfied as the dizzying feeling spread throughout his body.

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