The next day, after getting up, Hao Shuai went to Baozhilin for breakfast.
"Master, senior brothers, good morning!" When he entered the dining room, Wong Fei Hung and the others were already up and eating at the table. Hao Shuai served himself a bowl of thin rice porridge and joined them.
"Master, we found out that the Shahe Gang is going to collect protection money at the Datong Restaurant this morning." A militia member strode in and cupped his fists toward Wong Fei Hung.
"Collect protection money" was local gang slang for demanding payment.
"Good. I'll head out in a moment." Wong Fei Hung nodded, picked up his bowl, finished the porridge in one gulp, then went back to his room to get ready.
Seeing Wong Fei Hung go to prepare, Hao Shuai continued eating breakfast. He knew what was coming and had no intention of going along just to be humiliated. Only if Wong Fei Hung was dealt a bigger shock would his way of thinking gradually change.
After Hao Shuai finished breakfast and was about to go practice martial arts, he saw Wong Fei Hung enter the front hall dressed in a long gown, wearing a pair of tinted sunglasses and a Western flat-crowned hat, with an umbrella in hand.
Looking at Wong Fei Hung's outfit, Hao Shuai knew he was beginning to accept Western things.
Watching Wong Fei Hung leave in high spirits, Hao Shuai knew he would return disappointed.
Sure enough, around dusk, Wong Fei Hung returned to Baozhilin, looking dejected.
When they saw him come back, Thirteenth Aunt, Hao Shuai, and the others hurried over to ask how things had gone.
"I caught the Shahe Gang's leader, the suspect, at the restaurant, but not a single person there or in the neighborhood was willing to testify at the yamen. I had no choice but to take him there myself, but the yamen said I was a suspect too and had no right to be a witness. Instead, they let that fellow surnamed He from the Shahe Gang go." Wong Fei Hung sat down dispiritedly and took a puff from his water pipe.
"How long will the militia be locked up?" Chiu Pork Wing asked.
"Until someone testifies," Wong Fei Hung sighed.
"Master, then find Leung Kwan!" Chiu Pork Wing managed to be clever for once.
"Leung Kwan? You know him? You must be involved in this somehow. What are you hiding from me?" Wong Fei Hung immediately realized something was wrong.
"I... I... Master, you don't trust me at all, so I..." Chiu Pork Wing stammered, frightened, as he fell to his knees.
While the people at Baozhilin were discussing what to do about the militia, eight or nine men in black night clothes appeared furtively at the end of the alley outside. They carried bows soaked in lamp oil, along with easily combustible firewood and other things, and even had their faces covered with black cloth.
There was no need to ask. They certainly hadn't come to do anything good!
"Boss! Boss!"
"What do we do next?"
"Baozhilin's right here. What should we do?"
After listening to his underlings chatter, Boss Hong waved a hand and said viciously, "Get ready, set it on fire!"
After dousing Baozhilin's front gate with lamp oil, Boss Hong tossed a torch straight at it.
Boom!
The flames roared to life and quickly spread across the entire gate.
"Ready the bows!"
Taking his bow from his back, Boss Hong and the other members of the Shahe Gang each took a fire arrow. Judging by how practiced they were, they must have done this sort of arson and murder many times before.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!-----
Countless fire arrows and fire pots flew in over the gate and courtyard walls. Houses were still built of wood in those days, and Baozhilin was soon engulfed in flames.
The people inside Baozhilin noticed the fire. "Master, go catch the arsonists. We'll put out the fire." Hearing Hao Shuai's words, Wong Fei Hung grabbed an umbrella and leaped up to the roof in a few bounds, ready to head out over the rooftops and catch them.
But the Shahe Gang spotted Wong Fei Hung on the roof and kept shooting fire arrows at him, greatly hindering his advance.
"It's Wong Fei Hung!"
"Let's go!"
"Run!"
By the time Wong Fei Hung finally got close to them, they were already scared out of their wits. They mounted their horses and fled at once.
While Wong Fei Hung went after the arsonists, Hao Shuai organized Chiu Pork Wing and the others to fight the fire. But as the flames grew, there was no way Hao Shuai and a few others could put them out. They could only try to salvage a few valuables.
As everyone hurried to carry things out, Thirteenth Aunt suddenly cried, "My camera's still in my room!" Before Hao Shuai and the others could reply, she ran into the burning side room.
"I'll go get Thirteenth Aunt. Keep saving what you can." After saying this, Hao Shuai covered himself with a layer of telekinetic energy and ran into the side room.
When Hao Shuai rushed inside, he saw Thirteenth Aunt clutching her camera and anxiously pacing in circles.
Hao Shuai went straight to her and was about to envelop her in his telekinetic energy. Then he thought of how little progress he and Thirteenth Aunt had made in their relationship, and an idea came to him: he'd stage a heroic rescue.
The hero-saving-the-beauty routine was as old as paying someone off with money, but even if the trick was old, that didn't mean it didn't work!
And the younger the girl, the more she fell for this sort of thing. Add a handsome, dashing hero who was young and rich, and his success rate would be practically 100 percent.
Hadn't the heroine in every novel and TV drama said, after being rescued by the male lead, "I have no way to repay you, so I can only give myself to you"?
So Hao Shuai made up his mind and shielded Thirteenth Aunt as they rushed outside. When they were almost at the door, he used his telekinetic power to pull a burning pillar down from the roof and send it crashing toward them.
"Shao Jun, watch out!" Hao Shuai grabbed Thirteenth Aunt and shielded her beneath him, turning his own back toward the falling roof beam.
As the beam struck his back, Hao Shuai rapidly circulated his qi and blood, forcing himself to spit out a mouthful of blood. It splattered all over Thirteenth Aunt's face. Shao Jun, I've shed so much blood for you this time. Surely you'll be touched.
"Ah Shuai, are you all right?" Thirteenth Aunt clutched Hao Shuai and cried.
"I'm fine. Let's get outside." Enduring the fiery pain in his back, Hao Shuai helped Thirteenth Aunt run outside.
"Ah Su, come quickly! Ah Shuai's hurt!" As soon as the two of them reached the outside, Thirteenth Aunt called for Chiu Pork Wing and the others.
Hearing her call, Chiu Pork Wing and the others rushed over. When they saw Hao Shuai's back covered in blood, they all crowded around, anxiously asking about his injuries.
While everyone was concerned about Hao Shuai, Wong Fei Hung returned as well. Unfortunately, the arsonists had been on horseback, and he hadn't managed to catch them.
Admiral Zheng arrived at the scene just then.
Wong Fei Hung asked Thirteenth Aunt and Ling Wan Kai to take Hao Shuai home to recuperate, while he stayed behind to deal with Admiral Zheng.
As Wong Fei Hung and Admiral Zheng argued, a priest came in. He had come to testify for Wong Fei Hung, and with a priest as a witness, Admiral Zheng had no choice but to agree to arrest the members of the Shahe Gang.
After Admiral Zheng left, they had nowhere to stay for the time being, since Baozhilin had burned down, so everyone went to Hao Shuai's house next door.
In Hao Shuai's room, he lay on the bed with his back bare. Wong Fei Hung checked his pulse and examined the wound on his back before saying, "Fortunately, the injury isn't serious. Just apply medicine to the wound on his back regularly, and he'll recover in a few days."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at Wong Fei Hung's words. Thirteenth Aunt stepped forward and said to Hao Shuai, "Ah Shuai, thank you for saving me. It's all my fault. If I hadn't stubbornly run back for my camera, you wouldn't have been hurt."
"Shao Jun, don't blame yourself. This little injury is nothing. I'll be fine in a few days. Everyone's been busy all night. You should all get some rest." After comforting Thirteenth Aunt, Hao Shuai addressed the others.
Wong Fei Hung and the others were tired after a whole night's work. Seeing Hao Shuai was all right, they each found a room to rest in.
Meanwhile, Admiral Zheng ordered the yamen runners to arrest the members of the Shahe Gang that very night. Seeing how serious things had become, the gang members finally fled with their followers to seek refuge with the American merchant Jackson. They also offered to help Jackson traffic women to the United States to work as prostitutes.
As the days passed, Hao Shuai paid to have Baozhilin renovated while he recuperated. Wong Fei Hung had initially refused, but eventually Hao Shuai persuaded him. Thirteenth Aunt came over every day to change Hao Shuai's medicine herself, and their relationship warmed quickly. After all, they were an unmarried man and woman alone in the same room, and one of them had saved the other's life.
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