SC Chapter37

The swords in the attendants’ hands were unsheathed, and the killing intent reappeared.

“Big Father? What’s wrong?” Xiao Yuan upstairs heard the commotion below. He quickly shut his younger brother in the warm inner room before came out to check. Just as he appeared, he heard a sound slicing through the air near his ear. A cold blade was already pressed against his neck.

A small willow leaf knife was pinched between his fingers as Xiao Ning flipped his wrist. He looked at the black-clad man holding Xiao Yuan with cold eyes: “Let him go.”

Shen Guan calmly raised his eyes and looked at the young man standing in the stairwell: “Boss Xiao, for your son, you’d better draw it.”

Xiao Ning frowned and let out a cold laugh as he pushed down the sharp pain in his chest and shut his eyes before saying: “If the Xiao Clan breaks the rules, we will be given a death warrant by the martial world. At that time, my son and I will both be at a dead end anyway.” To make a living doing this, one naturally has to keep the clients’ secrets. If any information were to leak from him, he would inevitably be hunted down to death by all the martial arts figures who had come here to change their appearance.

Shen Guan’s gaze remained on the upstairs. The boy was thin, with dark hair and ink-black eyes, and a baby face that made him look childish. The boy was also looking at him, his eyes filled with shock.

“Father…” Xiao Yuan looked at Shen Guan in disbelief with a pale face.

Shen Guan felt a sudden, inexplicable emotion. The young boy should have been calling Xiao Ning, but it sounded as if he were calling him.

Hearing Xiao Yuan’s murmur, Xiao Ning silently tightened his grip on the thin knife in his hand and said to Shen Guan, “I have a way for you to see the person you are looking for.”

“Boss Xiao, please speak.” Shen Guan slightly raised a finger, signaling his attendant, who was restraining Xiao Yuan, to step back. As soon as he was free, Xiao Yuan ran to Xiao Ning in a few steps, tightly gripping his sleeve.

Xiao Ning shielded Xiao Yuan behind him before saying, “On the tenth of next month, he will come to me again to mend his mask. At that time, whatever grudges you have to settle, it will be none of my business.”

“Very good.” Shen Guan smiled slightly. “Thank you, Boss Xiao, for your convenience.” With that, he took his subordinates and left satisfied.

The tension in the room gradually dissipated with Shen Guan’s departure. Xiao Yuan gripped Xiao Ning’s cuff and quietly said, “He looks like Father…”

“He is not your father.” Xiao Ning reached out and pressed his hand over his heart, feeling the beating beneath his fingertips.

Shen Yunjie, do you have a heart after all?

As dawn broke, the door of the cake stall creaked open. Xiao Ning, who wrapped in a robe over his shoulders, had a look of cold weariness in his sleepless eyes.

Someone stood outside the door wearing rough, plain clothing, with his long hair tied up high, while his features clean and clear. With a small bundle on his shoulder, he spoke timidly and softly: “Boss, are you hiring?”

Xiao Ning’s fingers tightened on the chopping board, yet he kept his face cold as he asked, “What can you do?”

“Making cakes and kneading dough, I can do it all.”

Xiao Ning took a silent, deep breath and muttered, “What do you want to do?”

Shen Guan’s smile was light: “Boss Xiao, after much thought, I believe it would be more convenient to wait for him right here. Of course, I won’t trouble you for nothing either.” As he spoke, he slipped a banknote for ten thousand taels of silver from his sleeve into Xiao Ning’s hand.

Xiao Ning was silent for a moment, then expressionlessly crumpled the banknote and casually placed it in an earthenware jar, saying, “My small stall is humble and does not have a place for Lord Shen to stay.”

Shen Guan’s expression was gentle as he said, “No problem. I don’t mind living with Boss Xiao.”