Chapter 2008 — So It Was Them?

Of course, they had also heard that An Liwen had once been a member of the An family, one of the Five Minor Families—but compared with the Fire Wolf Gang, the An family's standing was the small sorcerer beside the great one, not worth a mention.

"So you're Li Biaohan. Not bad, you do look a proper tough one!" An Liwen glanced at Li Biaohan, well pleased by his deference and enthusiasm. Here was a man with an eye for the main chance, worth cultivating a little.

"Thank you for the praise, Brother Wen!" Li Biaohan said, then gestured to the two men beside him. "Let me introduce you, Brother Wen. Of these two, this one is the eldest young master of the Hidden Zhuang family, Zhuang Niaodao, and the future heir to the Hidden Zhuang family! And this one is the second young master of the Hidden You family, who has done considerable research into alchemy—barring mishaps, he will certainly be one of the Hidden You family's elders in the future."

An Liwen was somewhat taken aback to hear their identities. Both were from Hidden Families! Had he not been valued by the Fire Wolf Gang and risen so swiftly in standing, then as a mere peripheral contact of the Fire Wolf Gang and a member of the An family, one of the Five Minor Families, there would have been no chance at all of him associating with young masters of these Hidden Families.

But now An Liwen was no longer the man he had been; he felt nothing like being overwhelmed by the favor. He merely said lightly, "So it's Young Master Zhuang and Young Master You—I have long heard of you! This is my follower, Da Luozi. From now on we are all our own people, so let us grow close—who knows, I may have need of your help some day..."

"Surely, surely. We hear Brother Wen has a fine hand for making money, and both Young Master You and I have been thinking: if Brother Wen ever hits on a good money-making scheme and would take us along, we would be endlessly grateful..." Zhuang Niaodao was the future heir of the Hidden Zhuang family, and his purpose in coming to the school was to learn the knowledge of managing the family, so finding a bit of profitable business for the family was naturally for the best.

You Panhu, by contrast, was in it purely for the fun of it. He could practice alchemy—only low-grade pills, true, but they still sold for a fair sum, so he had never lacked pocket money.

"Hmm... the business I do, heh heh, is all illegal. I wonder whether you two are still interested?" A thought turned over in An Liwen's mind: if he brought these two young masters of Hidden Families in on a few ventures, it might not be a bad idea—borrowing their influence could yield twice the result with half the effort.

"Ha, we're all cultivators—what's there to fear!" Zhuang Niaodao waved a big hand and said with flair, "No problem at all. When Brother Wen has business, just give us a lift along the way!"

"In that case, surely, surely!" An Liwen nodded.

Then Li Biaohan said, "All right, let us sit down and talk. Brother Wen, please take your seat—you shall have the seat of honor!"

"Haha, then I shall not decline!" An Liwen laughed and sat down in the seat of honor.

Once An Liwen was settled, dishes were brought out in a flowing stream, and the men fell to talking. But because Zhuang Niaodao and You Panhu were at Li Biaohan's side, An Liwen did not say much that touched on the Fire Wolf Gang—some matters, after all, could not be let known to them.

After three rounds of wine, Li Biaohan suddenly received a phone call. He glanced at the caller display and made an apologetic gesture to An Liwen, saying, "One of our Fire Wolf Gang boys..."

With that, he answered the call. "Hello, this is Li Biaohan!"

"Brother Biaohan, yesterday Lazi and I were at the antique market and ran into two people who looked like family scions—cultivators, most likely, though we couldn't tell which family they were from. Unfamiliar faces. Lazi and I asked around but came up with nothing, so I thought I'd report it to you?" The caller was one of Li Biaohan's underlings, a man called Aozi—one of the two small-time thugs who had blocked Wei Zhao and Liu Jinghan's way at the antique market.

"Oh? Did you offend them?" Li Biaohan knew at once that Aozi and Lazi had crossed those two suspected family-scion cultivators and, having come up empty in their investigation, were now turning to him for help. "You could hardly call it offending them. It happened like this..." And so Aozi recounted the whole situation to Li Biaohan in detail.

"So that's how it was. In that case, send me the photos of the two of them and let me have a look. Though from what you've said, I'd guess those two won't be coming after you again—no need for you to be afraid!" Li Biaohan said reassuringly.

The antique market was under the protection of Li Biaohan's people and was one of his regular sources of income. Take a man's money, spare him his trouble—since the stall owner had asked it of them, Aozi and Lazi could hardly be said to have done wrong.

It was only that afterward, unable to discover where those two had come from, they had grown fearful and phoned him for help.

"Understood, Brother Biaohan, I'll send them over right away!" Aozi said hurriedly.

After hanging up, Li Biaohan explained to An Liwen, "An antique market under our Fire Wolf Gang's protection—two of my boys seem to have crossed two men yesterday who look like family scions, cultivators most likely. They couldn't work out where the men came from and were afraid of retaliation, so they came to me for help..."

And with that, Li Biaohan recounted the matter to An Liwen.

"Your two boys are careful enough, I'll say that. But the matter's settled already—the stall owner even gave them two medicinal cauldrons, so I'd say there's nothing to worry about." An Liwen said.

"Medicinal cauldrons?" You Panhu was slightly startled. Alchemists were few enough to begin with; these two were cultivators, and they had gone to buy medicinal cauldrons—could they be alchemists too? But what family's alchemist lacked a cauldron of his own and would go to a street stall to buy a shoddy imitation?

Shaking his head, You Panhu said, "Most likely just a pair of family scions wanting to dabble in alchemy for fun. Even the lowest-grade alchemist wouldn't go to a place like that to buy a cauldron."

"Haha, true enough—I'd forgotten, Brother You is the expert in such matters!" Li Biaohan laughed and nodded. Just as he was speaking, his phone chimed twice—plainly a text message had arrived.

Li Biaohan opened the message, and one glance was enough to tell him who one of the people in it was!

"My God, isn't this Wei Zhao?" Li Biaohan said, pointing at the phone screen.

"Wei Zhao?" Zhuang Niaodao was unmoved, but at the name You Panhu immediately leaned in, glanced at the phone screen, and at once recognized both men in it. "These two are our classmates! One is Wei Zhao, and the other is called Han Jingyi—the two of them seem to be on rather good terms..."