The Hatred of a Stolen Boat

LaiTou Zhang had always run roughshod over everyone. Today he would pluck a fish from one family's basket, tomorrow from another's. Not much, but enough to disgust you.

Which fisherman in Yi Xing City had not been shaken down by him? Which widow had not been harassed by him? He had long become a pest everyone loathed.

No one dared say it to his face, but in private, Li LiBo had also made no secret of his contempt.

Liang Qu's expression shifted. "He got beaten? When did that happen?"

"Maybe this morning? Anyway, when I saw him, he had a huge black eye and was limping as he walked. He got beaten badly."

"Who would dare hit him?"

"Don't Know." Li LiBo shook his head, then lowered his voice. "Actually, he isn't all that formidable. He only attended the Martial Arts School for two days before getting thrown out for causing trouble. What good stuff could he have learned? He probably couldn't even put up a fancy stance. No one has just bothered to expose him as the paper tiger he is."

Liang Qu gave him a sidelong glance. "If that's what you think, why don't you expose him?"

"Even if he's a paper tiger, he's still built like that." Li LiBo gave an embarrassed laugh. "But today, he sneaked off in a boat. I think he's worried someone will come after him, so he's planning to recover on the lake. If I hadn't happened to be taking a dump in the Reed Swamps, nobody might have noticed. You're the second person to know."

Liang Qu understood.

"Are you done asking? I told you so much, and this meat of yours..."

"It's all yours."

"Ha, generous, truly generous! My family's been saving money, so I haven't had meat in ages. Hehe."

"Wait." Liang Qu pressed down on the plate.

"What now?"

"Forget it. It's nothing. Eat."

Li LiBo was puzzled, but he did not care. He wolfed down the meat.

Liang Qu shook his head. He had wanted to keep the news under wraps, but on second thought, it was completely unnecessary. He had been taking himself too seriously.

Jianghuai Marshlands.

A small sampan lay quietly moored on the lake. Zhang TieNiu was sprawled inside, the wart scars covering his head especially conspicuous.

LaiTou Zhang, usually fierce-faced and vicious-looking, now resembled a plucked chicken, listless and wan. The bruise around his eye was even laughable.

"Damn it, he was fine yesterday. How Could It Be Possible that he suddenly came back to life? Hiss, that dog Zheng Xiang was way too vicious. My kidneys..."

Zhang TieNiu clutched his waist and abdomen, his face full of misery.

He had done too many wicked things in his usual days, so he did not dare stay home to recover, afraid someone would take the chance to retaliate. He could only row their own small sampan and hide out on the lake.

Zhang TieNiu sighed. "Only this place is safe."

"Not necessarily."

Zhang TieNiu's heart stopped. Just as he tried to rise, a mass of clear water smothered his face. The water seemed alive, desperately forcing its way into his lung cavity. Caught off guard, Zhang TieNiu took a sharp breath and immediately felt his lungs fill with water, leaving him unable to breathe.

Then he saw a figure climb over the side of the boat. Hair hanging loose, the figure flipped into the boat, swiftly rose, and viciously kicked him in the crotch. An indescribable agony swept over him.

Facing LaiTou Zhang, whose face had swelled the color of pig liver, Liang Qu did not dare pause. Veins bulged across the hand gripping the stone as he put all his strength into smashing it down on that wart-covered head.

Bang! Zhang TieNiu's eyes rolled back, and he passed out.

Seeing that he was not moving, Liang Qu tossed aside the stone. It struck the boat's planks and rolled into a corner with a rumble.

It... it was that simple? With just a slight move, LaiTou Zhang, who had tyrannized the village and attended the Martial Arts School, had gone down? Liang Qu panted heavily, staring at his hands and at the ball of water gradually dispersing from LaiTou Zhang's face.

Before coming, he had made thorough plans, but he had never expected it to go so smoothly. Finding the man had taken the most time. He had even prepared himself to be injured, breaking off a piece of lotus root and tucking it into his clothes. He had also poured hot water over Cannot Move to warm it up, then secretly lay in ambush beneath the water.

In the end, none of it was needed!

Water Control was simply a special weapon against Ordinary People!

As long as he caught them off guard and used water to cover their nose and mouth, it did not matter if they had skills reaching the heavens.

Looking at LaiTou Zhang lying there like a corpse, Liang Qu removed a hemp rope from his waist and tied the fellow's hands and feet. After searching him, he discovered that he actually had Two Taels of Silver on him—an unexpected gain indeed.

After tidying up the sampan and putting away all the sharp objects, Liang Qu found another rope and used it to reinforce the bindings a second time. Finally, he rowed the sampan into a deserted Reed Marsh.

After resting in the Reed Marsh for a while and taking a few bites of lotus root, Liang Qu recovered his strength and once again used Water Control to splash water onto LaiTou Zhang's face.

"Ugh..."

Zhang TieNiu slowly woke. Several reed leaves swayed in his vision, and farther away, the setting sun had set the sky ablaze red.

He coughed several times, choking out quite a bit of water. It seemed to pull at his wounds, and a fierce pain shot up from his crotch, completely overwhelming all the pain from his earlier injuries. His mind stayed muddled for quite a while before Zhang TieNiu finally realized what had happened. He turned his head, his eyes bloodshot.

"It's you!"

After being glared at, Liang Qu kicked LaiTou Zhang in the lower abdomen, nearly knocking the breath out of him.

The abdominal agony finally made Zhang TieNiu realize his situation. This was clearly the Reed Marsh, a place rarely visited by anyone. Even if the other man killed him here, no one would ever know. He hurriedly changed his expression. "Water Bro, Water Bro, I was wrong. You were right to beat me."

"I still prefer the way you looked just now—wild and unyielding."

"Water Bro, you must be joking... no?" Zhang TieNiu forced an awkward smile, terror freezing his heart.

He had never imagined that Liang Qu was the one who had attacked him! A useless waste who could not even fill his belly—what had happened to make him change so drastically? Just the day before yesterday, he had looked half-dead! And that living water... could it have been sorcery? Liang Qu sat at the bow, nudging LaiTou Zhang's head with the tip of his shoe. "Tell me. Where is my black-awning boat? Where did it go?"

Zhang TieNiu stammered. Only when Liang Qu raised his foot as if to kick him again did he finally spit it out. "S-sold it."

"Sold it?" Liang Qu hurriedly asked, "Sold it to whom?"

"The Fishing Wharf."

Damn! Liang Qu nearly wanted to drown Zhang TieNiu outright. If he had sold it to any fisherman, that would have been manageable. But it had to be the Fishing Wharf. To put it bluntly, that place was where people like LaiTou Zhang became organized!

The Fishing Wharf was a place specializing in renting out fishing boats and gear, but the rental prices were outrageously high. Many who rented fishing boats ended up working for the Fishing Wharf their entire lives, exploited and squeezed dry. But if they did not rent, they had no livelihood and would starve to death in a few days.

Yi Xing City was still relatively good. In other places, the Fishing Wharf was practically a fisherman tyrant. You had to rent whether you wanted to or not!

Seeing Liang Qu blaze with fury, Zhang TieNiu hurriedly begged for mercy. "Fishing boats are hard to sell, and I needed money urgently for drinking. I could only sell it cheaply to the Fishing Wharf."

"How much did you sell it for?"

"F-four taels."

"Fuck your mother, you sold a black-awning boat for the price of a sampan?!" Liang Qu viciously kicked him twice more.

A sweet, fishy taste rose up his windpipe. Zhang TieNiu dearly wanted to say something, but Liang Qu did not give him a chance to speak. Only after the beating stopped did he gasp out words.

"Th-there are two taels left... in my... my trouser pocket."

Damn, those Two Taels of Silver had been mine all along! Thinking of the silver he had found on LaiTou Zhang earlier, Liang Qu was so enraged he could barely breathe. So the wool had come from the sheep itself.

"And what was the matter with the Zhao Residence?"

"I-I was the one who told them."

Liang Qu's guess had been right. Zhang TieNiu really had leaked the news! After stealing the boat, Zhang TieNiu had noticed that Liang Qu was rather good-looking. Having always heard that Master Zhao favored men, he thought it would be another good deal and went straight to inform Zheng Xiang, the Zhao Residence's steward.

Then Zheng Xiang came to Liang Qu's door. After seeing him in person, Zheng Xiang found that Zhang TieNiu had indeed spoken true, but Liang Qu said he needed time to consider.

The deal did not go through, so Zhang TieNiu received no reward silver. But Zheng Xiang did not want to make the trip for nothing, and his every word hinted that Zhang TieNiu should "help" Liang Qu make his decision sooner.

To get the reward silver, Zhang TieNiu went directly to Liang Qu's home and took away his last few dou of rice. After calculating the date, he reported back once more.

In the end, Zheng Xiang felt he had been deceived and swindled. That very night, he found Zhang TieNiu and gave him a savage beating.

Though Zheng Xiang was only an Ordinary Person and not particularly strong, he was a man of the Zhao Residence. How could Zhang TieNiu dare fight back?

Afterward, he could only row the sampan away to recover where no one could see him, giving Liang Qu the opportunity.