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A Prophet - Chapter 13 (Part 4)

Chapter 4 - The Fifth Gang Leader Retires Unharmed 

Another Spring Festival arrived, and a restless China ushered in the year 1935.

In the chill of early spring, the old gunshot wound of the fifth gang leader, Liang Wenqiu, flared up again. His left arm ached so badly he could not straighten it, and Master Zu saw this in his eyes and felt it in his heart. This veteran gang leader, who had followed him for twelve years, had always been steadfast and loyal. Now approaching the age of "knowing Heaven's mandate," with graying hair and having spent his entire life as an Ah Bao without a wife or children, he had dedicated everything to the "Jiangxiang School."

At night, Master Zu specially arranged for the servants to prepare a table of dishes and invited old man Liang to join him.

"Master Liang, is your arm feeling a bit better?" Master Zu asked with concern.

Master Zu rarely addressed him as "Master Liang." Although Liang was advanced in years, the rules of the faction could not be altered; ordinarily, in front of the other brothers, Master Zu always called him "Old Wu."

"It's of no major consequence. Thank you for troubling yourself over it, Master Zu," Liang Wenqiu said with a knowing smile.

"Master Liang blocked a bullet for me. I shall never forget it for the rest of my life."

"Master Zu speaks too heavily. Master Zu is the master of a chapter, and as a sworn brother, this is only what I ought to do."

"Master Liang, have you given any thought to your future plans?"

Liang Wenqiu was startled and hurriedly said, "Master Zu, I can still work, I can still work!" He thought Master Zu felt his hands and feet were becoming clumsy and intended to kick him out.

Master Zu let out a long sigh and said, "Master Liang, you and I both know the bitterness of being an Ah Bao. On the surface, we wear gold and silver and live in glory, but we cannot show our faces. Once you step onto this path, some people can wash their hands of it, while others can never wash their hands clean. Master Liang has no blood on his hands; you can wash them clean..."

Hearing this, Liang Wenqiu hastily said, "Master Zu, you frighten me to death. In life I am a man of the faction, and in death I shall be a ghost of the faction. I will never betray it."

"Master Liang, tonight there are no outsiders. You and I, as brothers, shall speak from the heart. There is no need for you to stand on ceremony."

"Understood."

"Master Liang, you are one of four siblings; your parents passed away long ago, and you have only one younger sister married in Hangzhou. Over these years, you have been busy away from home, and your parents' graves have likely gone untended for years. People like us, fleeing across the rivers and lakes, killing and fighting day in and day out, could lose our lives at the slightest misstep. You know this, I know this, and all the brothers know it—it's just that everyone refuses to face it. They know full well it is a fleeting dream, yet they dare not wake up."

Liang Wenqiu's tears silently fell.

Master Zu's eyes also reddened, and he said with sorrow, "I cannot wash my hands clean; I have no retreat left, and so this life of mine will end this way. If I am reborn in the next life, I hope Heaven will not make such arrangements again."

"Master Zu, let us share a cup," Liang Wenqiu said, lifting his cup and draining it in one gulp.

Master Zu continued, "You know the faction has its rules: once an Ah Bao, always an Ah Bao, and one cannot leave even upon dying of old age in the faction. But after I took over the chapter, I set a precedent. When senior Zhou Zhenlong departed back then, I did not stop him because I trusted him and knew he would never reveal the faction's secrets. Now I am prepared to set a second precedent. Master Liang may leave the faction, take some silver, find a woman outside, and live the life of an ordinary person. I speak from the heart, and I hope Master Liang can understand."

"Master Zu..." Tears streamed down Liang Wenqiu's aged face.

"Take the silver and head south, as far as possible. Do not go north; the Japanese are likely to dispatch their main army southward."

"The main army southward?"

"Yes. You need not concern yourself with these matters, Master Liang. If you ever encounter hardships outside in the future, you may still return to the faction. Although you are leaving, I must repeat the faction's regulations: 'Those who collude with outsiders shall die; those who leak faction secrets shall die; those who fracture the faction and leak word shall die!'"

"Master Zu!" Liang Wenqiu dropped to his knees, hugging Master Zu's legs as tears gushed forth. "Master Zu, Master Zu..." He then buried his deep in Master Zu's legs to show his gratitude.

The Chapter of Ah Bao states:

I come from the mortal realm to act as a physiognomist,

All things in the mortal world pass like drifting mist.

Neither thunder nor fire can shake my allegiance away,

In the gate of physiognomy I live and die each day.

This was an oath every person joining the "Jiangxiang School" had to take, meaning that once he transformed from an ordinary mortal in the secular world into an Ah Bao, practicing "physiognomy" to deceive people, he would no longer yearn for worldly attachments. Neither thunder nor fire could drive him away from the faction, and he would mingle within it through life and death.

Once a person entered the "Jiangxiang School," they could never dream of leaving for the rest of their days. Some who joined the school out of desperation for a livelihood, after mingling for a period and acquiring silver, wanted to run away—only to be hunted down and crippled.

If one could break away from the faction, it meant rebirth. Liang Wenqiu had gained a rebirth.

A few days later, under Master Zu's arrangement, Liang Wenqiu feigned illness at a chapter gathering and resigned from his post as the fifth gang leader. Master Zu granted his request, allowing him to retire to the second line. Everyone believed he was simply stepping back, and no one knew this was a final farewell. Afterward, under the pretext of returning home to sweep his family's graves, Liang Wenqiu left and never returned, departing the faction forever. Before leaving, he kowtowed three times to Master Zu. Master Zu embraced him, the brothers shed tears, and they parted ways in the underworld forever!

After Liang Wenqiu's departure, the position of "fifth gang leader" fell vacant. Zhang Qiling made his grand entrance onto the stage.

Zhang Qiling, originally from Fujian, joined the faction at the age of eighteen and was a low-ranking foot soldier under the third gang leader, Xue Jiaren. He was a talent discovered by the third gang leader; his grandfather had been an inheritor of the Three Sovereigns geomancy, and after learning a few superficial skills from him, Zhang Qiling had set up a street stall to do business. However, his methods were too ruthless, his prices for adjusting feng shui were far too high, and he was arrogant and haughty. As time passed, fewer and fewer people came to consult him, and his business gradually grew desolate.

In 1932, when the third gang leader was practicing techniques on the street with several foot soldiers, Zhang Qiling happened to pass by. Being an idle person meddling in idle affairs, he overheard loopholes in the third gang leader's theories, pushed through the crowd to debate him, and left the third gang leader humiliated and unable to hold his ground.

Afterward, the third gang leader had a foot soldier tail him while he went back to report the matter to Master Zu.

Upon hearing this, Master Zu asked, "Can he be recruited?"

The third gang leader replied, "I'll go give it a try."

The reason the third gang leader actively volunteered was that he had a similar background; he deeply understood the mindset of a destitute mystic. After finding Zhang Qiling, he laid out his intentions, recounted his own experience of being recruited into the faction by Master Zu, and then extravagantly painted a picture of rolling silver coins pouring in after joining the faction. Upon hearing this, Zhang Qiling instantly felt as though he had found his true home, slapping his head and declaring, "Finally, my skills will be put to use!"

People are prone to losing their wits in the face of money, forgetting basic right and wrong. He only listened to the third gang leader speak of glittering silver dollars, completely unaware that this profession could cost him limbs or even his life. Had he foreseen that nineteen years later Master Zu would have him crippled, he would never have joined the faction.

Zhang Qiling possessed a sort of eccentric talent; he could meticulously outline all the mountain ranges across the country one by one—from the Kunlun Mountains in the north to Hainan in the south, from the Himalayas in the west to Fujian in the east... He had every hill and mound, large and small, committed firmly to memory. After arriving at the faction, Master Zu placed him under the third gang leader. He was himself thrilled, deliberately trying to show off during every single con game he ran, and had already participated in over a dozen feng shui schemes of varying scales since joining the faction.

The third gang leader had once proposed promoting this man to gang leader, but Master Zu used the standing rule that the faction should temporarily maintain only five gang leaders as an excuse to brush it aside. Master Zu had always been relatively cautious when dealing with such money-grubbing individuals.

After Liang Wenqiu left, the third gang leader began strongly pushing for Zhang Qiling. In truth, there was another person who wanted to vie for the position: Huang Farong. At first, Master Zu had indeed considered giving the position to the ice-cold and clever Huang Farong, but her late-night discussion with Jiang Feiyan discussing the faction's succession had been overheard by Master Zu's housekeeper, Old Wu, who reported it to Master Zu. Consequently, Master Zu changed his mind. As for Huang Farong, she was still toiling away for Master Zu within his chess game, completely unaware that this was her final leap.

Thus, amidst waves of congratulations, Zhang Qiling became the newly appointed fifth gang leader.

From that day onward, Zhang Qiling and Xue Jiaren forged a sworn alliance, remaining bound together until they finally climbed the incense altar together to meet their execution.

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