Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 468: Fortunately Met a Pedestrian
May, Cangzhou.

This season is the turn of spring and summer; the weather is getting warmer, but not too hot, and it just rained two days ago, so walking on the road today makes people feel very comfortable.

It was on such a pleasant day that Dugu Sheng and Dugu Yong, father and son, finally arrived in Cangzhou City.

Speaking of which, when these two entered the city, they encountered a little incident...

Normally, the soldiers guarding the city were already accustomed to seeing wanderers from all walks of life, so they would not ask too many questions to travelers like them who were carrying weapons. But Dugu and his son happened to bring a "large piece of luggage wrapped tightly in black cloth" - this thing had to be checked.

You have swords, sticks, and clubs in your hands, that's fine, but what if your black cloth contains explosives? Or people who have been trafficked? Anyway, it must be something that cannot be seen in public, otherwise why would you wrap it like this?

So the officers and soldiers stopped Dugu and his son and asked them to open their luggage for inspection.

The Dugu father and son would definitely not agree to do so, because their "big luggage" wrapped in black cloth was none other than the broken zither, belt and lantern entrusted to them by the three ghosts of the Peng family. They wrapped them up specifically to help the wronged souls attached to the objects avoid the three lights. If they opened them here, who knew what would happen?

If Dugu Yong were to meet this group of soldiers alone, a fight would inevitably break out between the two sides.

Fortunately, Dugu Sheng was present. This old man was quite tactful. He took out the money he usually used to "treat all the police brothers for drinks" on the spot, went up to them, smiled, and mediated a few words. The other party agreed to let them take the things to a shady place before opening them.

If they really checked, there was nothing wrong with them. In the eyes of the officers and soldiers, they were just some junks that could not even fetch much money in a pawn shop, so they let Dugu and his son go.

The two men entered the city, found an inn to stay in, put their luggage away, and then, according to Dugu Yong's instructions, immediately took the "things" to Xingyi Gate to confront Shao Shanhu's grandson.

But Dugu Sheng was not as impulsive as him. He immediately winked at his son, indicating that he should not say anything more and come out with him.

Then, the two of them left the guest room, or rather... left the luggage that they had carried with them throughout the journey.

When they arrived outside the inn, in broad daylight, Dugu Sheng spoke to his son, "Son, do you really intend to take those three things and confront Shao Shanhu?"

"What else?" Dugu Yong asked doubtfully, "Am I still afraid of that kid?"

"It's not a question of whether I'm afraid or not." Dugu Sheng said, "It's this matter... It's not easy to handle."

He paused, and then continued, "After I woke up from the dream that night by the old man and the young man from the Peng family, Dad told you that in this matter... even if everything the three ghosts said was true - that Shao Shanhu was plotting evil, beating and injuring people, and deliberately disrupting the Peng family's business, and eventually forced the family to sell their property and leave their hometown...

“But in the final analysis, these things are just bullying, not direct murder, and Shao Shanhu has no intention of killing them.

"So how are you going to settle this account with him? Even if you report him to the authorities, it will be difficult to convict him."

"Dad, I don't agree with that." Dugu Yong said, "What if there is a person who bullies another person for fun every day, and the bullied person eventually jumps into the river and dies, or the latter runs away from home to avoid being bullied and ends up meeting with an accident somewhere else, then can we say that the person who bullied him never thought that he would die, so he has no responsibility?
"As for whether the government can convict us...ha, as chivalrous people, aren't we supposed to take care of things that the government can't handle?"

Dugu Sheng heard this and shook his head, then continued in a deep voice: "Son, I understand what you said, and I can understand that from the perspective of the Peng family, no matter if the other party did it intentionally or not, their family's tragedy was ultimately caused by Shao Shanhu. It's okay for them to seek revenge on Shao Shanhu... I just want to say that it's not appropriate for the two of us to handle this matter."

He paused for a few seconds and patiently analyzed the situation for his son: "Think about it, we can't just take the three relics of the Peng family and run to Xingyi Gate in broad daylight, and then tell Shao Shanhu... There are three ghosts here, who died in the mountains after being forced away by you. Now they want to settle accounts with you. Do you plan to pay for their lives? Or negotiate with the ghosts to see how they can forgive you?
"If we really do this, people will either think we are making up stories to find fault, or they will think we are crazy... If we tell others about it later, our fellow martial artists will not think we are right."

"Oh..." Dugu Yong finally came to his senses and calmed down a lot, "Then according to your opinion..."

"We'll go at night." Dugu Sheng, the old man, started to be very excited at this point. "Hey, around midnight, when the yin energy is the heaviest, we can sneak into Xingyi Gate and put those things under Shao Shanhu's bed. After that, it's a matter between the four of them and has nothing to do with us."

"This..." Dugu Yong was stunned. He had never been with his father in the martial arts world before. This time, he went out together. He didn't expect that the old man would be so cunning at the critical moment. "Let's do this... It won't cause dissatisfaction among the three ghosts, right?"

"That's why I told you not to be so confident with them." Dugu Sheng replied, "As the saying goes, it's a matter of yin and yang. We have protected them all the way here with black cloth, and finally sent them to their enemy. We have done our best. If there is anything else, let them solve it themselves... Why are you still discussing with them? Just do it directly."

Dugu Yong was persuaded by his father.

In terms of talent with sword, Dugu Yong might be better than his father, but when it comes to the ability to deal with people, or to use his mind and tactics, he is far behind his father.

You can see from Dugu Yong's performance in Wujian Villa that his personality is almost exactly the same as Lei Buji, but with a slightly higher intelligence and a more arrogant attitude towards his enemies. The "stupid" part of the two is exactly the same.

Of course, since he is much more handsome than Lei Buji, even though they have similar personalities, the impressions they give in the world are still different... If I had to describe them, one is Zhang Fei and the other is Ma Chao.

Let’s get back to business…

After the father and son agreed on the plan, they went to eat something and then returned to the inn to take a nap. After all, they were quite tired from traveling all the way and needed to rest.

Fortunately, this hastened journey did allow them to arrive a few days earlier than expected, so the "martial arts competition to win a bride" discussed by Dugu Sheng and his friend Lao Gao would not be held for a few days, and would not affect their efforts to deal with the matter of the three ghosts of the Peng family tonight.

In the blink of an eye, it was late at night.

At the hour of Hai, Dugu and his son took a large box containing a broken zither, a belt, and a lantern, wrapped in black cloth, and took it out of the door.

Seeing this, some people may subconsciously think that this box is very large or difficult to carry, but in fact it’s okay. Just imagine it as a box for a cello, but with a different shape.

This is not a size that one person cannot lift. Moreover, the combined weight of these three things is not that heavy. Ordinary people can lift it, let alone martial arts masters like them.

Let’s talk about the Dugu father and son. Although they came out at night to do the “infiltration” business, they did not wear night clothes.

This is because these two are very confident in their own abilities.

Secondly...it's because they all know in their hearts that without Lin Yuancheng's Xingyi Sect, it would be really difficult.

The two of them just swaggered along the street, heading towards Xingyi Gate. Anyway, at this point, there was no one on the street. Even if they were really unlucky and ran into night watchmen, they were not wearing night clothes. Couldn't they just go out for a walk with a few rags in their pockets?
But unexpectedly, as Dugu and his son were walking, they did not meet any officers, but instead ran into two guys who were about to go back to sleep after having a midnight snack.

"Fuck, the boss of this shop is really dishonest. Not only is there not enough donkey meat in the fire-baked bread, but I only saw two fish balls in the fish ball and dumpling soup. Even after I exposed him, he still refused to admit it and said that I was a fish ball liar."

"Forget it, Brother Sun. We are the only family doing business in the middle of the night. It's not easy for everyone. Just eat until you are full."

Judging from the footsteps, the two guys were still more than ten meters away from the corner ahead, but their unique conversation and voices had already made Dugu Yong know their identities.

After a few seconds, the two sides appeared in each other's sight.

"Eh? Isn't this Brother Yong? What a coincidence." After the incident at Wujian Villa, Sun and Huang started to address Dugu Yong like this.

Dugu Yong took a look and found himself meeting Shuang Xie again at this time and place. He didn't know whether to be happy or embarrassed: "Uh... Donglai, Yi Xie, long time no see."

He was stunned for a moment before realizing that he had to introduce them to his father. He quickly turned to Dugu Sheng and said, "Oh, Dad, these two are the 'Eastern Harmony and Western Poison' - Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai..."

After that, he looked at Sun and Huang and introduced them, "You two, this is my father."

Dugu Yong's introduction of his father ended here, because according to old etiquette, he could not say his father's full name when his father was present, as that was impolite.

At this time, Dugu Sheng had to speak up himself: "I am Dugu Sheng. I have heard of your reputation as chivalrous men. After meeting you today, I find that you are both talented men."

As you can see, even experienced people know this set of words.

Under normal circumstances, Shuangxie would definitely respond with a set of flattering remarks. They were just exchanging pleasantries, and a few nice words didn't cost anything.

But today, just as Sun Yixie was about to speak, he felt something was wrong - after he came up to Dugu father and son and said the first sentence of hello, the old wound on his face suddenly began to ache.

Huang Donglai was even more straightforward. After Dugu Sheng finished speaking, he immediately stepped forward, stared solemnly at Dugu Sheng and his son, and then blurted out, "You two... where are you going in the middle of the night with three accomplices behind you?"

(End of this chapter)