The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 3 Negotiating a Business
"Jinyiwei is doing business. Those who don't want to die can kneel down now."

Li Miao spoke up.

There is no doubt that this is a naked insult. Especially for the people in the underworld who value their reputation more than their lives, this kind of justified contempt is more difficult to accept than drawing a knife and seeing blood.

The veins on the necks of several disciples from famous and upright sects in the room bulged.

Of course no one knelt down, but no one dared to refute.

It was because of Li Miao’s badge that showed him as a captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Execute first and report later, the imperial power has granted special permission. If one or two Jinyiwei came to your door, there would be room for currying favor with them or offering bribes. But if these court lackeys showed up at your door in an organized manner, it meant that you were someone the emperor had agreed to kill.

Even though the underworld and the imperial court have always been close, it does not mean that you can show up and say "I am not your Majesty's subject". Only when you can save face can you have substance.

Not giving face to the Jinyiwei means not giving face to the court, and not giving face to the emperor.

Now, if you want to be the first to stand up and cause trouble for your own sake, the leader will, in order to give face to the court, kill you, the disloyal and fatherless beast, with a single blow.

This is what the disciples of the sect think. The lone gangsters and underworld figures are simply afraid of the violence of the Jinyiwei.

Jinyiwei are orphans without parents. They are selected from the young with good talents. Their skills and materials for strengthening their muscles are no less than those of the inner disciples of famous sects. They have been engaged in bloody business for many years. They have both talent, skills, sweat, and experience in life and death battles.

It can be said that among the dozen or so young men in black clothes blocking the door, each of them has reached a high level of internal and external skills. If you really want to pick people with similar internal and external skills to fight against each other in the martial arts world, few can survive from these people.

I couldn't kneel down, and I was really scared. The atmosphere was tense.

Li Miao saw that no one responded for a long time, but he didn't get annoyed. He just chuckled and said, "Oh, you're so tough."

Yan Xiaosheng, who had been holding the cup for a long time without moving, coughed a few times, showed his signature kind smile, came down from the main seat and walked towards Li Miao, smiling as he walked: "Sir, Sir, I don't know how our store has offended you, I apologize to you"

Before he could finish his words, halfway through his walk, a man suddenly appeared from behind Li Miao and stared at him coldly, forcing him to stop.

Li Miao didn't even look at him and walked a few steps into the house. The line of Jinyiwei guarding the door also followed forward like a wall, forcing several people sitting at the door to dodge in a hurry. In a panic, some tables, chairs, bowls and chopsticks were knocked over, making a loud noise.

Of course, some of them did not move because they were proud of their status or wanted to save face.

Li Miao walked to one of the tables, looked down, and suddenly said, "Isn't this the great hero Gu from Huashan Sect?"

"Qingfeng Sword" Gu Jiao stood up and bowed to him in a neither humble nor arrogant manner: "Sir."

"Master Gu, you are not practicing swordsmanship in the mountain gate. Are you here to visit relatives or friends in the capital?"

"Visiting friends."

"Oh, what friend are you visiting? But he is in this room?" Li Miao asked seriously.

It may seem like a casual question, but the answer is not casual. Every question from the Royal Guards can be fatal.

Gu Jiao was silent for a long while, hesitated again and again, and finally let out a sigh of relief and said, "No."

"That's good. I heard your daughter has been ill in the past few days. Why don't you go back and see her, Mr. Gu?"

These words made Gu Jiao, who had made a name for himself in the martial arts world as the "Qingfeng Sword", look livid.

This sentence can be understood as follows: I know who is in your family and what has happened recently.

Of course, you can also understand it this way: You don’t want your daughter to really get sick, do you?
Li Miao came over, lowered his voice, and whispered in a voice that almost everyone in the room could hear: "I told you to kneel, but you didn't."

"I told you to get out, so you should get out, right?" Gu Jiao looked extremely unhappy. He gritted his teeth and hesitated for a moment. He looked at Li Miao, then at Yan Xiaosheng, and finally he raised his sleeves to cover his face and ran out. The Huashan Sect's disciples also ran out together behind him.

Li Miao didn't care and turned around to name a person: "Hero Hu from the Cao Gang, I have heard of you for a long time."

Hu Shuang stood up with a grim look on his face, clasped his fists towards Yan Xiaosheng, said, "Let's go." Then he walked out the door with several of his Cao Gang's men.

These two people were the most influential people in the house. As soon as they left, the remaining people from the second- and third-rate sects in the house hurriedly stood up and ran out after Hu Shuang.

The Jinyiwei who were blocking the door made way. This time they were coming for Yan Xiaosheng and were too lazy to deal with these people.

After a while, the tavern, which was originally bustling with people, was empty. There were only a few wanted criminals from the Green Forest Road and the underworld who were being closely watched by the Royal Guards, Yan Xiaosheng, Da De, one of Yan Xiaosheng's men, and two thugs who were beaten half to death.

Li Miao walked inside to the main seat, stretched out his legs, hooked over a chair, and sat down.

He raised his hand and called Yan Xiaosheng who had been standing there for a while: "Yan Longtou, come, sit, sit."

Yan Xiaosheng walked over and sat down opposite Li Miao, and heard the sound of fighting behind him.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Da De wanted to rush out of the door to escape, but was hit on the face by the Jinyiwei with a scabbard, and half of his teeth were spit out. Then he was pressed to the ground and stepped on the back of his head. At this time, his mouth and nose were buried in the ground, and he kept making indistinct whimpering sounds.

Yan Xiaosheng didn't dare to look back, and Li Miao didn't care and waved in that direction.

laugh--

There was the sound of blood splattering, and a long narrow blade pierced through the neck. The big man who had been showing off his might and beating people to death not long ago twitched his hands and feet a few times, and then there was no sound.

The two thugs who dumped the body were frightened to death.

Li Miao didn't say anything. He had been in the Jinyiwei for twenty years. The death of a few people in front of him was as common to him as breathing.

He picked up the wine jug, poured a glass for Yan Xiaosheng, and poured another glass for himself.

"Yan Longtou, you know you can't survive, right?"

Yan Xiaosheng's face turned pale and he nodded.

The Royal Guards came to his house, and they were looking for a gang leader like him, so they either confiscated his property or wiped out his entire family. When Li Miao spoke, his last bit of luck disappeared.

Li Miao nodded and continued, "This trip was originally the job of the centurions, so it's not my turn as a thousand-householder who writes essays."

"But we checked Yan Longtou's business and found that he was involved in a wide range of businesses. He was involved in brothels, gangs, frauds, and gambling. He must have made a lot of money over the years, right?"

Yan Xiaosheng came from the underworld. He knew that this situation could not be resolved amicably, so he no longer had a friendly expression. Instead, he showed a reckless temperament and picked up the wine glass and drank it all in one gulp.

He raised his sleeve to wipe his mouth and said sarcastically, "I just earn my hard-earned money, and the big share goes to people like you, the adults."

"Yes, yes, that's what happened. That's why I came here." Li Miao poured another glass for Yan Xiaosheng.

"Logically speaking, your martial arts skills are at the level of a second-rate sect leader. If you were outside, you might be able to become a local tycoon. But if you want to expand your business in Yanjing City, martial arts alone is not enough."

"We have also investigated thoroughly. You have involved too many people. If we raid their houses, it is easy to expose some of them, which would be too troublesome."

"But we want both your life and your money."

"So I, the chief financial officer, came here to discuss business with you."

(End of this chapter)