The Initiate? Just a Little Trick

At one end of the carriage sat a young woman and two young men. At the other were the bald man who'd just been arguing and a young man with an eye tattooed on his forehead.

"Mm, five people, plus the ones who just picked pockets and crowded the doors. Quite a few of them."

"What's that thing with the eye tattooed on its forehead? The Baggage Dropper?"

"Probably."

Zhou Shang and Li Qing whispered with their heads lowered. Li Qing kept his voice down. "Leaving that Baggage Dropper fool aside, there are probably about eight of them in this crew. Heh, looks like they're from the Thousand Gates."

Thousand Gates operations were usually built around eight people.

The eight also corresponded to the Eight Generals.

The Upper Eight Generals were Zheng, Ti, Fan, Tuo, Feng, Huo, Chu, and Yao.

The Lower Eight Generals were Zhuang, Liu, Tian, Feng, Zhong, Ma, Yan, and Kun.

The Upper Eight Generals set up schemes, swindled people, conned and robbed them, and caused all kinds of trouble. They did almost anything, but unless they had no other choice, they wouldn't get their hands bloody.

The Lower Eight Generals relied on gambling, cheating, acting as shills, fraud, and seduction to fleece people of their money and valuables. They were even more depraved: after cheating people out of their money and seducing them, they'd kill them and take their lives.

As for the "Baggage Dropper," that was a relatively recent invention.

Before each job, the Baggage Dropper would find an outsider and make him do all the dirty work. Afterward, they'd give him a share of the money and tell him to get as far away as he could.

The person had to meet a few requirements. First, he had to be a desperado. Second, his