Prologue I: Guo DaLu and Wang Dong
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Guo DaLu’s character matched his name, he truly was a very DaLu person. “DaLu” meant very straightforward, carefree, even a little dense. No matter what the situation, he would not put it to heart.
And yet Wang Dong never moves. [*Dong means motion.]
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Straightforward people were usually poor. Guo DaLu was especially poor, ridiculously poor.
He actually shouldn’t have been so poor.
Originally, it could be said that he was a man who had a lot of money. When a wealthy person suddenly becomes poor, there can only be two reasons: One, he was stupid. Or two, he was lazy.
Guo DaLu was not stupid, he could do a lot more than most people, and do them better. For example, when it came to riding horses, he could ride the fastest horse and the wildest horse.
When it came to swords, with one stab he could penetrate iron body armor as well as a willow catkin floating with the spring breeze.
If you were his friend, and met him when his mood was especially good, he might jump into the river and catch some carps with his bare hands as well as some wild geese, and make a dish of steamed fish and roasted duck for you to munch on. After eating his dishes, it’s guaranteed you won’t be disappointed.
His cooking skill was not below that of any of the famous chefs from the capital.
His can perform song renditions on the pipa that would make you think he had been performing since birth.
Some people believe that other than giving birth, he could do anything.
He was also not lazy, not only that but he would constantly be searching for something to do. And the things he has done have not been few. So how could a person like him become poor?
The first thing he tried his hand at was escorting goods.
When he first made his debut, his parents had just died and he either sold or gave away the family’s dwelling and properties. He wanted to rely on his own talent, and enter the martial world.
Of course he wasn’t a very good businessman, nor was he ever interested in being a good businessman, so he only made 170 liang from selling land that should have been worth 300 liang. And after adding up all the things he gave away to poor relatives and friends, what he had left wasn’t much.
But there was still enough for him to purchase a good horse, forge a fast sword, rest at the best inns, and eat at the best restaurants.
Back then it was Spring. Spring was a season when business for escort agencies were at their best. [*No, not escorts as in prostitutes. <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0"> Escorts as in the people who guard transported goods.]
When business is peaking for the escort agencies, that is also the time when business peaks for the robbers.
ZhongYuan Escort Agency’s boss was Luo ZhenYi. Although he wasn’t old, his worldly experience was, so naturally he understood how it works. Therefore when he was on the road, he was especially careful. It was Spring and the goods he was protecting was not light.
However it is not enough to be careful when you’re an escort. Your martial arts also had to be strong, and your luck had to be good.
Luo ZhenYi’s martial arts was not weak, but this time his luck was not good to have unexpectedly encountered the most troublesome criminal in the Two Rivers, the OuYang Brothers.
The OuYang Brothers were not two people, nor were they three, or four......OuYang Brothers was just one person.
Although he was only one person, he was more harder to defeat than forty people. His left hand wielded a short sabre, his right hand wielded a long sabre, and at the same time he could still fire off seven or eight different types of hidden weapons. Very few people can tell where his hidden weapons came from.
Luo ZhenYi also couldn’t tell. First he evaded three “Embroidered Headpiece Flower Bolts”, and one “Moon Chasing Meteor Arrow”, but who knew that with a flip of his sabre, OuYang Brothers shot out another pair of Mother and Child Frost Needles.
Deadly needles, even their victims couldn’t figure out where they had come from.
Luo ZhenYi’s right shoulder got hit with these needles, and although he didn’t die immediately, all he could manage to do now was wait for OuYang Brothers to come take his life.
Even if OuYang Brothers didn’t want his life, with his merchandise lost, he could only hang himself and take his own life.
At this moment, a speeding horse suddenly approached. The horse was fast, but the person was faster. Before the horse even reached them, it’s rider was already there. OuYang Brothers could only see someone fall from the air, and before he had time to release one of his seven or eight hidden weapons, his left and right arteries were already severed by this person’s sword.
This rescuer dropping from the air was naturally Guo DaLu.
Luo ZhenYi was not only grateful towards his rescuer, but also admired him. After dropping off the merchandise, he insisted on inviting him back to the agency.
Guo DaLu naturally went, as he didn’t have anything more important to do anyway.
Even if he did have pressing matters, he’d still go.
This was his first time fighting. He suddenly discovered that not only was his martial arts decent, his luck at meeting people was also good.
Luo ZhenYi was a bit perplexed and asked: “With great skills such as Brother Guo’s, why not become an escort?”.
Guo DaLu did not ask: “Why must a good martial artist become an escort?”.
He only thought that being an escort would be very prestigious, very interesting.
For a person who just entered the martial world to become the assistant boss of an escort bureau, it was sufficiently prestigious, sufficiently remarkable!
The only thing Guo DaLu was a little disappointed about was that ZhongYuan Escort Agency wasn’t the biggest escort agency in ZhongYuan. In fact, it wasn’t even counted among the top tier of agencies there.
He waited many days before he finally got his first assignment, and it wasn’t even a big assignment. Just helping someone from KaiFeng deliver a few thousand dollars to LuoYang.
The journey wasn’t far, the merchandise wasn’t big, and with such an assistant boss, the boss was naturally able to feel relieved and remained at home to comfortably recover from his injuries.