"Pan Lü'er, if Old Deng finds out you've been keeping in touch with those friends of yours, he'll break all three of your legs!"
As though he had seized some huge leverage, Zheng Qing held out his hand to Huichun Hall's young proprietor and winked. "The usual rules. You know how it goes."
Calling them the usual rules was really just a euphemism for extortion.
Because Old Deng, the proprietor of Huichun Hall, strictly forbade Deng Xiaoxian from going out adventuring, Zheng Qing's Sanyou Bookstore had, for a time, become the place where Deng Xiaoxian hid packages and letters from outside. Still, every time he asked Zheng Qing for help, he always gave the young man something in return.
Sometimes it was an old Copper Coin, sometimes a beautiful scale, and sometimes some strange little bugs—two-headed mosquitoes, fly molts as large as palms, bees sealed in Amber, and so on.
After enough exchanges like that, Zheng Qing had developed the habit of demanding a little compensation from Deng Xiaoxian before keeping his secrets.
Even now, the largest Poplar Wood Box in Zheng Qing's Gray Cloth Bag still contained many odds and ends Deng Xiaoxian had given him.
Hearing Zheng Qing's words, Huichun Hall's young proprietor raised his arm and slapped away Zheng Qing's outstretched hand. "The usual rules, the usual rules—usual my ass... Seriously, if you used such crude tactics on your classmates at school, the Student Union would put you on the blacklist within a month."
"Sounds like you have more refined methods when you extort people?" Zheng Qing narrowed his eyes and looked over the tall, skinny wizard before him.
"Extortion? What kind of thing is that to say?" Deng Xiaoxian blew out a breath, sending the long lock of hair before his forehead flying. "I've got people