Chapter 149: Sense of Proportion

Chapter 149: Measure

Zhou You did not kill He Zangjia.

"I'm afraid." The youth's voice carried an indescribable weariness.

Li Jun asked expressionlessly, "Why?"

He Zangjia hugged his head, shuffling next to Zhou You like a duck, and whispered, "Brother, Big Bro looks a bit unhappy. How about you stab me a couple of times to vent? Anywhere works, I'm not the type to die easily."

Zhou You ignored him, merely lowering his head to stare at his own deformed palms, joints twisted, five fingers nearly flush.

"If I kill him, the people of the Chuan-Yu Gambling Guild won't let me off."

"I'm here; they can't touch you." Li Jun's tone was calm, as if stating a fact.

He Zangjia nodded like a chick pecking rice, "Who'd dare? Absolutely wouldn't dare."

"Head down, shut up."

Li Jun shot a cold glance over. He Zangjia immediately pressed his lips tight and obediently buried his head between his legs.

"The Chuan-Yu Gambling Guild has more cards than just him."

Zhou You shook his head and said, "And if I'm not mistaken, you came to save me this time because I returned your things, stirring a moment of compassion, right?"

Li Jun did not deny it, answering frankly, "Correct."

"Compassion, that thing... once is happenstance, twice is impossible."

The light in the youth's eyes gave Li Jun a sense of maturity and world-weariness far beyond the ordinary, as if he had seen through all worldly affairs.

"You are a dragon crossing the river; you'll leave Chongqing Prefecture sooner or later. But the Chuan-Yu Gambling Guild is a local snake; their retaliation is something I cannot bear."

Zhou You smiled self-deprecatingly, "Though I am lowly, my bones are hard. I won't wag my tail and beg for pity, nor will I overstep and ask you to shelter me."

"Because I know better than anyone how hard it is to care for a weak person, and how painful it is to be a burden to others."

Li Jun fell silent for a moment, then suddenly raised a hand pointing at the corpse in the arena, "But that man who just died under your blade was also from the Chuan-Yu Gambling Guild. Do you only dare kill small fry without 'face'?"

Zhou You shook his head with a bitter smile, "That's why my intestines are green with regret now. If only I had held back just then."

"But regretting is useless now," the youth's smile was carefree, "Life and death are fated, wealth and honor are in heaven. To vent this spleen comfortably before death counts as not losing out."

Zhou You forced his limp body up, staggering to his feet, and bowed deeply to Li Jun.

"Your life-saving grace, Zhou You has no way to repay; how would I dare trouble you further."

Words true, intent sincere.

The youth's clarity and restraint in the ways of the world made Li Jun sigh involuntarily in his heart.

He asked himself: if it were him, he probably wouldn't have so decisively given up such a golden opportunity to cling to a powerful thigh right within reach.

Such a sense of measure... it probably couldn't be honed by mere cold shoulders and angry rebukes.

The bitterness and hardship within, outsiders could never truly empathize with.

Truly ordinary people at the bottom, where do they get the rage to make their hair stand on end, to spill blood three steps?

Only by being cautious in speech and conduct, swallowing humiliation, can they barely survive in this world.

A mayfly shaking a great tree—admirable for not knowing its own limits.

But without life, everything else is just empty talk.

Li Jun wanted to speak but stopped, not knowing what to say for a moment.

As Zhou You said, he was just a dragon crossing the river briefly; it was still unknown if he could even count as a dragon in Chongqing Prefecture, where the strong were everywhere.

Once he left Chongqing Prefecture, the Chuan-Yu Gambling Guild would only need to lift a finger to crush a youth who hadn't even entered the Sequence.

And Li Jun knew even more clearly that his own situation was still walking on the edge of an abyss.

The Buddhist and Daoist sects—either one was a force vastly larger than the Chuan-Yu Gambling Guild; he could barely protect himself, so what qualification did he have to shelter others?

Zhou You bowed low, unable to straighten; Li Jun remained silent.

The wineshop fell instantly into silence.

He Zangjia, crouching on the ground, quietly raised his eyes, his eyeballs rolling back and forth between the two.

From the dialogue just now, he had already guessed the relationship between the two seven or eight parts out of ten, and couldn't help but lament his own rotten luck.

In Chongqing Prefecture, there were some destitute commoners driven mad by poverty who would deliberately disguise themselves, offering hiding places to fugitives to earn a hefty reward.

But this business was more dangerous than licking blood off a knife's edge; the slightest carelessness would get them implicated.

And even if luck was good enough to avoid the fugitive's enemies, afterwards they'd most likely be killed to silence them.

High risk, unstable returns; over time, people in Chongqing Prefecture doing this 'rabbit hole' business had nearly gone extinct.

He Zangjia never expected this poor kid faking boxing matches to actually be a 'rabbit hole', and even less expected a real dragon crossing the river to be hiding inside.

To flee to Chongqing Prefecture and achieve mastery in martial arts.

"Though the face doesn't match, if he really is that Killing God, if I don't speak up and fight for it now, I'll probably only end up silenced."

He Zangjia vaguely guessed the identity of this dragon crossing the river before him, calculated for a moment, then carefully said, "Big Bro, if you think this kid is a disaster, how about I take him into the Chuan-Yu Gambling Guild?"

Li Jun glanced at him askance, seeing through He Zangjia's thoughts in one look, "You know who I am?"

"Guessed a bit. After all, people of your Sequence are too rare; once you make a move, it's almost impossible to hide."

He Zangjia didn't dare hide it either, chuckling and raising a thumbs up from the hand covering his head.

"What you did in Chengdu Prefecture was truly domineering. I've long found the Three Teachings an eyesore, just never had the chance to mess with them."

Li Jun sneered, "Since you guessed who I am, wasting your last chance for final words on flattery... isn't that a waste?"

He Zangjia blinked, "Killing me just vents anger, but keeping me alive has more use."

Li Jun frowned, asking suspiciously, "What do you mean?"

"The Chuan-Yu Gambling Guild has 'Gamble' in its name, but gambling money is just a side path; gambling lives is the main business. The biggest assassin platform in Chongqing Prefecture is the Chuan-Yu Gambling Guild. Without accident, most who dare take the bounty on your head come from the Guild."

"Know the enemy, join the enemy, to defeat the enemy! If you join the Chuan-Yu Gambling Guild too, you'll naturally grasp the Guild's intelligence first-hand. Who harbors ill intent toward you would be clear at a glance!"

He Zangjia's words were dense, not daring to pause for a moment.

'Newcomers wanting to join the Guild need 'face' figures from each system to vouch for them. Little Brother happens to have this qualification. With me vouching for you, entry is no problem. Isn't that worth far more than killing me?'

Li Jun looked at this Domino Tiger Head desperately selling himself, and couldn't help but laugh, "Aren't you afraid the truth will come out? Then it'll really be a dead end."

"Better a cowardly life than a heroic death. Dying later is definitely better than dying early."

He Zangjia grinned cheekily, "Besides, if I'm really discovered, I'll say I knew nothing, was kept in the dark. You can't blame me then, right?"