Le roi des pilleurs de tombes

Chapitre 21

After thirty days of exposure, the proprietress and the other female hairdressers had long since become immune to the underworld. As soon as they saw Brother Tai walk into the shop, they looked at the female protagonist, Xiao Fen, with a half-smile.

"How's it going? Your skills have improved quite a bit, haven't they?" Brother Tai smiled, pointing to his hair and saying, "It's been a month, and the style has gotten a bit off. I'll have to trouble you again today."

He stood directly next to an older woman who was getting a haircut. He stood there, motionless, staring intently at her.

The aunt looked at Tai Ge in the mirror, completely bewildered, feeling extremely uneasy and having no idea what to do.

Sister Juan, who was cutting the older woman's hair, probably guessed what was going on and looked a little embarrassed.

"This is my usual spot, could you please help me?"

Thai jokingly rubbed his neck with his palm, startling the aunt who quickly moved to another seat.

Xiao Fen walked over, holding shampoo in one hand and a soft, large blanket in the other.

"I knew it was you all along," Xiaofen said with a grin, covering Tai Ge with the blanket.

"Thanks to your care, my little brothers have been very united lately."

"I put a lot of effort into cutting your hair, I racked my brains for every single cut." Xiao Fen happily washed Tai Ge's hair and said, "Anyway, I want to thank you for finding so many little brothers for me to practice with, which has greatly improved my skills. So, I won't charge you for washing your hair today, it's on me."

"So, you still have to pay for a haircut?" Tai joked.

"Of course, cutting hair is my profession! Of course I charge for it."

Amidst the pile of bubbles, the two resumed their long-awaited conversation.

Tai Ge closed his eyes, cherishing this simple moment.

Although the days of constant fighting and killing are long gone, one must live in constant fear while in the martial world. To be able to chat comfortably with one's eyes closed like this, without worrying about the size of one's territory or being wary of enemies' schemes, is truly a rare and precious peace.

"Do you think the same way I do?" Sister Wang asked in a whisper.

"Same, I guess," the proprietress replied in a muffled voice.

"Is that how it is?" Aunt Zhang also came over and joined the discussion in a whisper.

"Of course it is." The proprietress said confidently, though in a breathy voice.

The proprietress, who had been observing coldly from the sidelines, secretly suspected that the gangster's preferential treatment of Xiaofen must have ulterior motives. But Xiaofen was of average appearance; any random girl on the street could easily outshine her. Why would this worldly-wise gangster be interested in her? And even if he was, why go to such lengths to win her heart?

The landlady doesn't understand.

I don't understand, even Brother Tai himself doesn't understand.

Of course, Tai likes women, but ever since his first wife and first concubine died, women have become objects of his venting. The brothels Tai frequents are full of such women, and Tai has never stopped consuming them.

But Xiaofen, this young girl who could almost be Tai's daughter...

"Are you spacing out?" Xiaofen massaged Taige's temples.

"...No, I was just too relaxed." Tai smiled.

Women's thoughts on love are complex, while men's are much simpler.

Women are always the ones who get confused about friendship, love, and one-night stands, while men know perfectly well from the start what the woman in front of them means to them. Despite being more than twenty years younger than him, Tai Ge understood that he wasn't treating Xiao Fen like a daughter, but rather with that kind of... slightly erotic attraction between a man and a woman.

What Tai couldn't understand was why... why he didn't act like the imposing, authoritative gangster he usually was in front of this girl with scissors. He had to order his underlings to come to this barbershop and have them do this to each head, one by one. Not only were his underlings embarrassed, but he also secretly found it very funny.

"So your son has been ignoring you lately?" Xiaofen used a brush to brush away the shavings from Taige's nose.

"They completely ignore me. Even when I ask for pocket money, they just leave a note on the table. Sigh."

"Right."

"Anyway, he's going to move to the student dormitory at the Normal University soon, so out of sight, out of mind."

"Right."

"After all, he's his own son. And no matter how bad I am, I'm still his father."

"That's true."

Mission accomplished.

Xiao Fen picked up a mirror and showed Tai Ge his new hairstyle by comparing the front and back.

A kind and honest... old man's head used by roadside tofu vendors.

"Alright, look! Isn't it even more handsome than the design I made for you a month ago?" Xiao Fen said proudly.

As usual, Brother Tai nodded in satisfaction: "So authoritative. When we go to negotiate today, he'll definitely put some pressure on those bastards. Very good, very good."

Xiaofen was taken aback: "You're going to negotiate?"

"Yeah, there's a casino with unpredictable territory. Three factions all want a piece of the pie, and if they can't negotiate, they'll start fighting on the spot." Tai Ge's tone was a bit arrogant. That's just how men are; if things get out of hand, it becomes fodder for gossip: "Three factions fighting, it'll be more exciting than a market."

Is it dangerous?

"We heard that one of the sides has some trolls, so we'll bring a few with us, just in case."

"I remember you saying that trolls are guns, right?"

"Yes, several boxes of Black Star guns have been shipped over from the mainland in the past two years, making it impossible for people not to have guns."

"oh."

After that, Xiao Fen applied a layer of white ointment to Tai Ge's left eyebrow. Before he could even realize what was happening, she flashed her razor and shaved off the entire innocent eyebrow.

"!" Tai was startled and froze in his chair.

Ignoring Tai Ge's reaction, Xiao Fen carefully shaved off the remaining hairs on her eyebrows, making sure they were completely clean.

"This...this..." Tai Ge stammered, completely at a loss for words: "You..."

Without his thick, bushy eyebrows, he looked like a complete clown!

"This new look, with one eyebrow missing, guarantees you won't have the face to negotiate with anyone, so I promise you'll be safe and healthy, and obediently go home to be laughed at by your son." Xiao Fen said casually, "So? Are you satisfied with today's look?"

My chest was struck at high speed by some indescribable "weight".

The heart stops completely, sound disappears, and every oxygen-carrying cell comes to an emergency halt.

Tai could only take a deep breath.

"This is exactly the feeling I've been looking for..."

7

Another year and seven months have passed.

Every gangster in the area had been killed by Xiao Fen's scissors.

Countless "Thank you, Sister Xiaofen! I'm very satisfied!" echoed throughout the hair salon.

It cannot be denied that, thanks to the sacrifices and dedication of the gangsters, Xiao Fen's knife skills have really improved. Sometimes, the boss would also send some ordinary middle-aged men to Xiao Fen to try, and Xiao Fen's performance was acceptable.

Xiao Fen is getting closer and closer to truly "graduating" from her apprenticeship.

My left eyebrow eventually grew back.

Every two weeks, Tai Ge would come to get his hair cut himself.

A quick trim, a wash, and the occasional hair dye.

The important thing is to chat.

After chatting, Brother Tai didn't linger and didn't invite Xiao Fen to have a late-night snack.

Tai himself didn't understand why.

It should be said that over the past year or so, Brother Tai has become increasingly less aware of himself.

Outside the smoky casino, three cigarettes were half-smoked.

“Boss, this is what you call pure love,” said a burly man with a perfectly normal middle school hairstyle.

"Who asked you?" Tai glared at him. "You have no manners."

However, it lacks any sense of authority because Tai's hairstyle on top is too lacking in menacing aura.

"Boss, do you want me to help you ask Sister Xiaofen out for a dance?" A henchman with a middle-part hairstyle reminiscent of Aaron Kwok kindly suggested, "Or how about we grab a bite? I know a really good restaurant that opened in the East District, you'll definitely win a girl over there!"

"Who asked you that?" Tai glared at him back. "Do I need you to tell me how to do things?"

It's fine as it is now.

Perhaps it was because he was more than twenty years older than the woman he truly liked that Tai Ge finally felt inferior? For Tai Ge, who had always been invincible, this was a novel experience.

Tai Ge didn't understand; there were too many things he didn't understand.

But as long as everything is good for now, let it stay good forever.

If things remain unchanged, they will eventually lead to abnormality.

"Brother Tai, Sister Xiao Fen seems to be in a bad mood lately?"

"Oh, really?"

In the darkroom of a brothel, two naked women are holding onto steel pipes and massaging the backs of two men.

“My head,” the younger brother who came with the women pointed to his head.

Bald.

A bald head with no skill and no compromise.

"Oh, Xiao Fen's new hairstyle." Tai Ge said calmly, but secretly found it amusing.

“Being bald is fine, but I feel… Sister Xiaofen didn’t say anything, but when she was shaving his head… um, how should I put it, it was pretty rough.” The bald younger brother reported to Brother Tai in detail, his face red.

Upon closer inspection, it was clear that this was not just a simple bald head; the bald head was covered with fresh scars of varying depths, numbering more than a dozen without being counted. It was evident that Xiao Fen had been quite bold in shaving his head.

"She's never shaved her head before, so her technique is a bit lacking." Although he felt sorry for his younger brother, Brother Tai didn't care: "Don't take it to heart with Sister Xiao Fen."

"Yes, boss." The underling dared not argue any further.

On the fifth day, when Tai was playing pachinko at the pachinko parlor, he ran into a bald guy sitting next to him.

"Hey! Boss!" The burly, tattooed man with a bald head quickly greeted him, "What a coincidence!"

Tai found it funny and nodded: "Xiao Fen has been practicing shaving her head lately?"

"Probably." The tattooed, burly man frowned, scratching his head with a hint of reproach. "But I don't know what Sister Xiaofen is upset about; she didn't say a single word the whole time, and..."

What else happened?

Tai Ge saw it clearly: the tattooed strongman's bald head was covered with ridiculous bandages, and presumably, if you tore the bandages off, it would be a version full of wounds and cuts.