Rebirth: The flatterer prince I raised couldn't be so clingy

"Hey! Why are you trying to poach my girlfriend right in front of me?"

Before Zang Hongxiao could express his opinion, Old Man Qin objected.

Gu Qingzhi glanced at him: "When I brought her here, you said it was up to her to decide what to do with her. Have you forgotten?"

"How can that be the same?" Old Qin glared, his voice strong despite his lack of conviction. "You've poached all my employees, how am I supposed to keep this gambling den open? No way, I won't agree!"

Zang Hongxiao, holding his heavy sword, watched the two arguing and chuckled, teasing, "Boss Qin, you're getting on in years, but you're becoming more and more childish."

"Stop it! You two stop your double act." Old Man Qin was furious when he heard her still favoring Gu Qingzhi.

"When you first came, you were only sixteen years old. All you knew was washing clothes and making silk. You would swing a wooden pestle and want to fight, scaring Ah Hu half to death. It took me a lot of effort to raise you to be the way you are now. You deserve credit for your hard work, right?"

After he said that, Gu Qingzhi was reminded of the time when she first met Zang Hongxiao in her previous life.

At that time, she received an assassination order. The target was a local gentry, nothing special, just a scoundrel who used his money to bully people in the fields. Such a person deserved to die.

The man forcibly occupied a village where people made a living by weaving cloth. He insisted on taking a young girl from a family as a concubine, and controlled the livelihood of the entire village. If they refused, he would let everyone's cloth rot in the warehouse.

The entire village forced the girl to submit, and the girl's parents, having nowhere else to turn, had no choice but to go to Changyi Gambling House and beg Old Man Qin for a way out.

Because the local gentry had many connections with the bandits, Old Man Qin simply did a favor and gave the assassination order to Lan Zhou.

But just as Gu Qingzhi had finished investigating everything and was about to take action, the local gentry suddenly died.

This was the first time someone had stolen her life right under her nose, and she was really curious which colleague in the inner circle was so tactless.

But what awaited her beside the gentry's corpse, covered in blood, was not an assassin, but a strong girl, half a head taller than her, holding a wooden pestle.

At that time, Zang Hongxiao was a washerwoman, and the close friend of the girl who had caught the eye of the local gentry.

At night, the local gentry, under the pretense of visiting the new bride, attempted to take advantage of her. He was caught red-handed by Zang Hongxiao, who was comforting a girl in her boudoir. Enraged, Zang Hongxiao swung her silk-pounding pestle and beat the gentry to death.

That was the first time Gu Qingzhi had ever seen such clear eyes. It was her first time killing someone, and she showed no fear or cowardice, only endless anger and an extremely clear obsession.

She had intended to leave after satisfying her curiosity, but she was drawn in by that peculiar gaze and inexplicably stayed a little longer.

The bandits are coming.

To avenge the local gentry, they planned to massacre the entire village.

All the villagers blamed Zang Hongxiao for bringing disaster upon them. No matter how the girl and her parents explained, it was to no avail. They were even dragged into the blame and scolded. All they could do was keep apologizing.

Those once clear eyes became cloudy and confused.

When did the one who eliminates the perpetrator become the one who commits the crime because they face a greater threat?

As long as the fire doesn't reach their own yard, these people are even willing to aid and abet the evildoer, since the life or death of these two families is none of their business.

Gu Qingzhi felt this was unreasonable, so she left her knife in the courtyard, attached a note, and went up the mountain alone.

Assassinating the bandit leader was not difficult. Once the chieftain was dead, the remaining bandits scattered. When they returned, the bandit stronghold had been burned to the ground in flames.

The villagers revered the assassin Lan Zhou as a god, yet they still wanted to drive away the two "scourges."

Gu Qingzhi avoided the people who came to welcome Lan Zhou and secretly sneaked into the girl's house, where she bumped into Zang Hongxiao, who was clutching a note in his hand.

She might have wanted to ask why she helped her, but she didn't ask in the end. Instead, she silently returned the dagger engraved with "Lanzhou" to her.

With nowhere to go, how can we make a living?

Gu Qingzhi pondered and brought her back to Changyi Gambling House, where she became the henchman who now oversees the inner quarters.

The sunlight and shadows from the trees in the backyard swayed and fell on that wheat-colored face. Zang Hongxiao suppressed his smile and solemnly clasped his hands in a fist and palm salute to Old Man Qin.

“I will never forget Mr. Qin’s kindness in nurturing me.” Her voice was deep and clear. “But my life was given to me by Lan Zhou. Since she has spoken, I will have no objections.”

The backyard fell silent for a moment after he said that.

Looking into the clear yet stubborn light in Cang Hongxiao's eyes, Old Man Qin saw just as she had when she was following Lan Zhou with the wooden pestle in her hand back then, and knew that anything he said would be in vain.

He let out a long sigh, and his shoulders slumped.

“…Never mind.” He waved his hand weakly, as if he had aged several years in an instant. “A daughter is too young to stay at home…Let’s go, let’s go.”

Zang Hongxiao grinned, her smile both cheerful and resolute, perfectly matching the aura of the heavy sword on her shoulder.

"Being a secret guard for the Prince Duan's mansion sounds more interesting than just guarding the place here. Count me in!"

Gu Qingzhi smiled and patted her on the shoulder.

"I want to take the Nandina domestica with me too."

"And there's millet."

She had no intention of letting Old Man Qin off the hook.

"you you……"

The old man had intended to sit down at the stone table and benches to rest for a while, but upon hearing this, he nearly stumbled. Fortunately, Zang Hongxiao reacted quickly and caught him with his heavy sword, preventing him from falling.

I want to swear, but I don't dare to.

Remembering that old devil Yuanjie was still guarding the betting odds for him, Old Man Qin swallowed back the curses that were about to come out of his mouth, and could only point at Gu Qingzhi without saying a word.

"The Prince Duan's mansion is short of people, and I don't have any other channels," Gu Qingzhi readily admitted, which nearly made Old Man Qin vomit blood.

The old man was completely dejected, as if he could see two huge money trees being uprooted and moving away from him, and his back seemed to hunch over considerably.

"Fine, fine, you little brat, not only did you run away, but you also wanted to take them both with you. Are you trying to kill me?"

Gu Qingzhi pouted: "You can say that when you really have no one else to rely on. Losing a few coins won't hurt you."

The old man sat down shakily, feeling his blood rushing to his head.

"Are we going to do business with the Prince Duan's residence? We'll definitely be coming here to purchase supplies in the future."

"Yes! Of course I'll do it! Finally, you'll say something I want to hear."

When business was mentioned, Old Man Qin's headache instantly disappeared, his anger subsided, and his face broke into his usual shrewd smile.

Zang Hongxiao shook his head and smiled helplessly, knowing that the old man had agreed. He then instructed the waiter next to him to inform Nan Tianzhu.

"I'll make a list and send it over later."

"You'd better not try to fool this old man." Old Qin said with a grimace, which was tantamount to accepting the verbal suggestion.

“Don’t worry, there are plenty of them.” Gu Qingzhi nodded. “But I can’t contact Huang Liang. You have to issue an assassination order for me—target Lan Zhou, specify her as the receiver.”

"Does your sect... usually play like this?"

Zang Hongxiao was shocked. Who would pay to kill themselves?

Old Man Qin, however, had a look of "I knew it would happen this way": "If even one person in their sect were a normal person, they wouldn't be so abnormal!"

Fine……

Zang Hongxiao tried to understand, but then gave up.

Lan Zhou's line of thinking is indeed a bit abnormal.

"Boss, Deputy Master An and Mr. Nan have arrived."

The waiter led the two men down the corridor into the backyard.

Gu Qingzhi and Nan Tianzhu nodded to each other and turned their gaze to this "Deputy Master An," a rather unfamiliar face that they had never seen in the inner workshop before.

Zang Hongxiao greeted the man and whispered to her, "You haven't met this man before. He's only been here for two months. He's a business genius and also knows veterinary medicine. He's highly valued by Boss Qin. The puppet show downstairs is his idea to attract customers."

Upon seeing Deputy Master An arrive, Old Man Qin hurriedly got up to greet him: "Mr. An, please take a look at Baiyue. He just ate something unclean. I wonder if he's alright?"

Having achieved her goal, Gu Qingzhi saw no need to stay any longer. After saying goodbye to Old Man Qin, she left the gambling den with Nan Tianzhu and Cang Hongxiao.