Chapter 167: The Security Guard Elder

Chen Liang originally intended just to pass the time by casually playing a game of chess with the elderly gatekeeper. However, after only a few moves, Chen Liang's expression shifted, and he gradually began to take it seriously.

With a solemn look on his face, Chen Liang pondered for a moment before making his move. Seeing the old man casually drop his piece in response, Chen Liang let out a long sigh of relief, tossed his chess piece onto the board, and said, "Old man, not bad at all! I'm not convinced by this loss—I underestimated you. Do you dare play another round?"

The gatekeeper picked up his teacup, took a deep, satisfied sip, and chuckled, "Young man, don't be too arrogant! Unconvinced, are you? Forget about just one round, you wouldn't be a match for me even if we played three more!"

"Ha! Old man, I really don't like hearing that. If a young man isn't arrogant, can he still be called a young man? As for whether I'm your match or not, let the board speak for itself!"

Seeing the old man's smug look, Chen Liang just smiled indifferently. With a few quick movements, he reset the pieces on the board and said, "Old man, don't say I don't respect my elders. You had the first move last game, so it's my turn to go first this time!"

Hearing Chen Liang's unreserved remark, the gatekeeper didn't get angry at all. Instead, he felt as though Chen Liang didn't treat him like an outsider.

He cheerfully pulled a pack of white-packaged, specially supplied Panda cigarettes from his pocket and offered one to Chen Liang. "You really don't yield an inch, do you? So much for respecting your elders!"

Chen Liang glanced sideways at the old man without batting an eye, instantly realizing that this old fellow had some tricks up his sleeve and was no ordinary character!

As for the white-packaged special Panda cigarettes, throughout his life Chen Liang had only ever known Old Man Lu to have an allocation of them. Even his uncle could only manage to purloin a pack or two from his old superior.

Most people wouldn't even dream of smoking such cigarettes—they wouldn't even get the chance to lay eyes on them. If Red Pagoda Mountain could be called an official's cigarette, then these special Pandas were ministerial cigarettes, because they were exclusively supplied to high-ranking state cadres!

Settling his mind, Chen Liang began to play chess in earnest. He and the old man fought a fierce battle across the River Chu and the Han Border. In the end, Chen Liang deliberately eased up just a fraction, narrowly defeating the wolf-in-sheep's-clothing gatekeeper by a razor-thin margin.

"Haha, old man, do you concede defeat now?" Chen Liang asked with a hearty laugh.

"Tsk," the old man took a deep drag of his cigarette, mentally replaying the match, and then shook his head. "Ah! Outplayed by a single move, outplayed by a single move!"

"Again! I refuse to believe it!" The gatekeeper was a stubborn fellow. He played three consecutive games with Chen Liang, only for Chen Liang to win each one by a narrow margin.

"Continue, continue." The gatekeeper reached out to reset the pieces again, but Chen Liang saw that the fish had taken the bait and casually tossed his chess piece back onto the table.

"Winning all the time gets boring. I'm not playing anymore!" No sooner had Chen Liang spoken than the old man grew anxious. "Don't, now! How can you just want to run away after winning? Where's your sportsmanship? You can't just bully an old man like this!"

Chen Liang's eyes rolled as an idea struck him. "If we're going to keep playing, we have to put something on the line. A pack of cigarettes per game, how about it?"

Hearing this, the gatekeeper immediately realized that this young man had set his sights on his cigarettes. However, having just figured out how to counter the tricky tactics Chen Liang had used in the previous game, the old man didn't mind at all.

"Fine! A pack of cigarettes per game. Let's see how your elder here makes you lose your shirt!" The old man was full of confidence, completely unaware that he had already walked right into Chen Liang's trap.

Chen Liang was a master at figuring out how to befriend older men. Old Man Lu was a ready-made example—he now happily worked for Chen Liang to collect antiques of his own accord.

As the old saying goes: an old person is crafty, an old horse is wily, and an old hare is hard for a hawk to catch. For old men who had seen it all, the best way to deal with them was a mix of sincerity and harmless little cleverness.

Let them see through your little tricks without calling you out on it. Over time, wouldn't friendship naturally blossom?

By the time the afternoon was drawing to a close and work was about to end, the gatekeeper had lost all his cigarettes, while a pile of more than a dozen packs of Pandas sat in front of Chen Liang.

"Old man, got any more cigarettes? If not, I'm going to slip away. My wife's meeting will be over soon," Chen Liang said to the gatekeeper with a swaggering air.

The gatekeeper tossed his chess piece onto the table and grumbled, "No more, no more playing. You punk are really no good, playing tricks on an old man like this!"

Having lost all afternoon, the old man could finally see that his chess skills were simply not in the same league as Chen Liang's—this young punter had been playing him all along!

"Haha, don't be like that, old man! How about this: I'll take a small loss and split the winnings with you fifty-fifty. How's that?" Chen Liang laughed heartily.

"I don't want them! A bet's a bet, take everything that's yours!" The old man was still smarting from the loss and sat off to the side, huffing indignantly.

"Oh, come on, old man, you're not that petty, are you? You don't want them? Then let's just say these cigarettes are a sign of my filial respect to you, alright?" Chen Liang happily tucked half the Pandas into his shoulder bag and pushed the remaining half across the table to the gatekeeper.

These cigarettes were the gatekeeper's rations for an entire month, and having lost them all, he naturally felt a pang of reluctance. Thus, under Chen Liang's softening words and friendly persuasion, he half-heartedly accepted them.

"At least you punk still have a conscience!" Chen Liang was bantering with the gatekeeper when suddenly a commotion broke out from the education bureau's office building.

Chen Liang and the gatekeeper turned their heads to see three or four young fellows in their late teens relentlessly beating someone. Chen Liang immediately stepped forward and barked a command to stop them.

"What do you think you're doing? If you want to run wild, at least look at the place first! Do you know where this is? Stop it right now, all of you!" Chen Liang's fierce roar instantly cowed them.

"Comrade, save me!" The man being beaten was in his thirties, scholarly in appearance and quite likable at first glance, though Chen Liang instantly sensed a familiar aura from him.

Hmm! This one looked like a refined scoundrel—definitely not a good guy!

"Chen Liang?" Among the four young thugs doing the beating, Chen Liang actually recognized one of them. Well, well, wasn't this the brother-in-law of the so-called Little Mengchang of Beijing? What was his name again—Zhou the Third?

"Chen Liang? The grim-faced god from the Red Star Rolling Mill?"

"We're in deep trouble. Why did we have to run into him here?!"

A person's reputation precedes them like the shadow of a tree. Just mentioning Chen Liang's name was enough to make the four young thugs tremble in their boots!

"Zhou the Third, is it? You've grown some bold guts, haven't you, coming all the way here to start a fight? Do you believe I can slap the cuffs on you right now and make your old man come down to the rolling mill to pick you up?"

Zhou the Third felt his heart pounding with fear as well, but refusing to lose face, he forced down his panic and argued stubbornly, "Chen Liang, stay out of this! I have a good reason for beating him!"

"Comrade, don't listen to his nonsense! I don't even know these people. They just rushed up and started hitting me the moment they saw me. Please, hurry up and cuff the lot of them and give them a good punishment!"

Seeing that Chen Liang had intimidated them, the beaten man hurriedly added fuel to the fire, wishing fervently that Chen Liang would slap handcuffs on all of them right then and there.