Volume 2: A sudden change in the prison, a red-clothed man goes out to find a thief Chapter 192: If your clothes are torn, you can mend them and they can be worn again
When Li Si opened his eyes again, Qianjialou was very quiet, but the hall was in a mess.
Zhang Susu was still sitting in the corner, in a daze, with red eyes, as if she had just cried. Perhaps it was because she originally thought that her store was going to be ruined. She was indeed a very strong woman, and even if she cried, she didn't cry out loud.
Lao Luo stood at the counter, looked at Li Si quietly for a long time, then put the book in his hand aside and sighed deeply.
Xiao He was still sitting at the table with a pale face, as if she had not recovered yet.
Hao Dayou stood in front of the door to the backyard, looked at Li Si and hesitated for a while, then put away a kitchen knife behind him.
"Ha, ha, ha." Xiao Cao glanced at everyone, gave a stiff laugh and said, "I'll go get a broom and clean it up."
As she said that, she ran to the backyard, got a bamboo broom, and started sweeping the wood chips on the ground.
In the silence of the crowd, the strange old man exchanged a look with Banjiexian, stood up silently, and walked out of the hall with the puppet in his hand. Before leaving, he glanced at Li Si, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't say anything.
Li Si lowered his head. He knew that the people he felt most sorry for this time were probably the people in Qianjialou. Not only did he deceive them, but he also involved them in such a matter. He originally didn't want to implicate them, but the development of the matter was beyond his expectations.
He knew very well that Qianjialou might be just an ordinary restaurant to him, but it had a deeper meaning to Zhang Susu and others.
When he saw Zhang Susu sitting alone in front of the door in a daze because of poor business; when he saw Lao Luo getting up late at night to make up the bills; when he saw Hao Dayou so busy that he couldn't straighten his back standing at the kitchen table; when he saw Xiao Cao and Xiao He getting up early in the morning to sweep the floor, he had already understood this.
Banjiexian said that they were all displaced people. Zhang Susu had killed her family members, and at that time the neighbors were talking about her behind her back. She had thought about dying directly, and then Qianjialou took her in. Lao Luo's family fell into poverty, and he had been away for half his life. Now he finally has a place to stay, and only when he stays here will he occasionally smile. Xiao Cao is an illegitimate daughter, and Hao Dayou and Ning Caihe are both orphans. Banjiexian is an old man who has been ups and downs in the world for hundreds of years.
Qianjialou may have already become a kind of home for them. And Li Si, perhaps, should not have appeared here from the beginning.
Zhang Susu and the others were not fools. With so many things happening, they should have guessed it. Li Si was the Li Si in the Jianghu, the thief saint Li Si.
And all these things were caused by him.
"I'm sorry." Li Si said softly to everyone, then turned around and walked to the backyard silently. He was going to pack up and leave. After all, he had caused too much trouble here.
…
In the backyard room.
Li Si didn't have much stuff with him. He just changed into the clothes that still had a hole in it, packed a bag, and was done.
Just as he put the bag on his shoulder, a voice suddenly came from behind him.
It turned out to be Zhang Susu standing by the door with her hands folded. She sniffed her still red nose and said.
"You smashed my store, and you're just going to leave like this?"
Li Si paused for a moment, then gave a bitter smile, stood up, and spoke slowly.
"Boss, you know I'm broke, why don't you give me credit first and pay me back when I have money?"
"Then how do you make money?" Zhang Susu pinched her nose again, leaned against the door, lowered her slightly red eyes and asked, "Stealing?"
Li Si was silent for a moment, then raised his eyebrows and smiled: "Who knows?"
Compared to the previously noisy hall, the backyard now seemed a little quiet. There was no other sound but the rustling of the wind.
In the dim room, Zhang Susu spoke again: "Old He has already told me that you are tired from traveling around the world and want to stop and rest. So if you don't mind, you can continue to stay here."
Hearing this, Li Si was stunned for a moment, then turned around with some confusion and looked at Zhang Susu in surprise.
"You don't blame me for lying to you?"
"Everyone has some things that are difficult to tell others." Zhang Susu lowered her head and said while hugging her arms.
"There are some things I haven't told you. You're a nice person, and everyone likes you. And you do a lot of work for a small salary, and it's hard to find a guy like you. Besides, I don't feel comfortable keeping the money you stole, so it's better to pay off the debt ."
After saying that, Zhang Susu raised her head, glanced at Li Si, pursed her lips and smiled, then lowered her head again, took a breath and said.
"So, if you want to stay, then stay."
In the backyard, Li Si looked at Zhang Susu. After a long while, he smiled, scratched his hair, hesitated, and said.
"Then, shall I stay for a while longer?"
"Yeah." Zhang Susu nodded and responded, then looked at Li Si, tugged at his clothes with a hole in it, frowned and spoke in a low voice.
"Why are you still wearing torn clothes? Take them off and give them to me later. I will help you mend them."
"Thank you, shopkeeper."
"It's okay. I mend Dayou and Xiaocao's clothes. I'm used to it. I promise I can mend them so well that you can't tell."
…
Two days later, most of the people in the underworld had left Mingzhou City, and this not-so-small disturbance was finally over.
Because Xiao Muchu's injuries were relatively minor, he woke up earlier than Dugu Bufu. Under the supervision of Banjiexian, he paid a sum of money to repair the restaurant, and then left with the still unconscious Dugu Bufu.
When he left, he wrote down the name Qianjialou, because when he came here he really didn't expect that Banjiexian would be here.
Li Si changed out of his skirt and put on men's clothes again. In order to avoid being recognized by the original guests, he asked Banjiexian to draw a scar on his face, which made him look much more ferocious.
Nowadays, the identity of Li Si's sister has already caused quite a stir in the martial arts world, so it is better not to let "her" appear in Mingzhou City again, so as to avoid any unnecessary trouble.
Although the two girls were missing, Qianjialou's business increased instead of decreasing because of the legendary experience. People came and went almost every day, and from time to time, guests would discuss which set of tables and chairs had been sat on by which Jianghu person. In particular, the big hole created by Dugu Bufu was often visited by guests.
Life seemed to have become normal , but Li Si liked this kind of dullness very much. He was busy during the day, and in the evening he would chat with Xiao Cao and Xiao He about gossip, chat with Da You Ban Xian, or play a game of Go with Lao Luo. This made him feel quite comfortable and at ease. He didn't feel like he was always in the martial arts world, with a feeling of being unsettled.
In the deep winter night, the wind blowing into the hall was a little colder. Hao Dayou prepared a table of food, and Zhang Susu invited everyone to have dinner.
Li Si stood by the door, touched the mended hole on his clothes on his chest, smiled silently, then turned around, responded, and walked over.
