Early summer night, Jinghai City, pedestrian street.

Cao Ke walked boredly with his hands behind his back.

Walking through the bustling flow of people and passing by large and small stores, Cao Ke always had an absent-minded and lazy expression.

A washed and whitish sky blue vest on the upper body, a pair of huge shorts that don't fit well, and a pair of flip-flops on his feet, this is Cao Ke's current outfit. With his messy bird's nest-like hair, dark skin, and slightly thin figure, Cao Ke looked like a raunchy poor boy.

From the pocket of his huge shorts, he took out a box of cheap cigarettes that only cost five yuan, threw out a crooked one and held it at the corner of his mouth, and then, Cao Ke began to grope up and down: "He's meowing, where is the lighter? I remember the ...... I brought with me?"

Just when Cao Ke was in a hurry, a lit lighter stretched out in front of Cao Ke, and a chuckle sounded on Cao Ke's right side: "Brother Cao, fire." ”

Cao Ke turned his head and looked in the direction of the voice, the person who spoke Cao Ke knew him, he was a waiter at a shop on the side of this pedestrian street, what was his specific name Cao Ke couldn't remember, but he vaguely remembered that others seemed to call him Xiaogang.

Cao Ke put the cigarette in his mouth on the lighter that Xiao Gang stretched out, took a few puffs, spit out a smoke ring with great enjoyment, and said very casually: "Thank you, brother!"

Xiao Gang had a smile on his face: "Why should Brother Cao be polite to my little brother, it's my honor to light a cigarette for Brother Cao!" Saying that, Xiao Gang stuffed the lighter in his hand into Cao Ke's hand: "Brother Cao forgot to bring a lighter, take me and use it, you're welcome!"

Cao Ke took the lighter, tossed it in his hand a few times, looked at Xiao Gang with great satisfaction, raised his hand and patted his shoulder, and then waved his hand in a chic manner: "You are busy, I will go first." ”

"Hey!" Xiao Gang replied. Cao Ke walked forward in a graceful swing.

Seeing Cao Ke walking away, another clerk ran out of the store, came to Xiao Gang's side, and asked in a low voice: "Xiao Gang, you are not afraid of suffering losses when dealing with gangsters like Cao Ke?"

"Suffer?" Xiao Gang smiled and shook his head: "You may really suffer a loss when dealing with other gangsters, but Cao Ke is different!

A principled gangster, this is a phrase that Cao Ke often puts on his lips. That's right, Cao Ke is a gangster, a veteran gangster who is not very old, but has seven or eight years of "gangster" experience. This entire kilometer-long pedestrian street is where he has to walk back and forth every day, for no other reason, because this is his "workplace".

Cao Ke's job is actually very simple to say, collecting protection money.

You may think it's funny, in today's peaceful society, there are still people who collect protection money? Don't believe it, this Cao Ke is really doing this business, and he is still doing this business, and the entire pedestrian street, whether it is a big store or a small shop, has to give him some face, and give him ten yuan and twenty dollars a month to give him some money, so don't look at Cao Ke all day long, the fees he collects from the nearly 300 shops on the pedestrian street every month are enough for him to eat and drink, and live a very leisurely life.

Whenever this time, Cao Ke would always stretch out three fingers and say seriously: "The secret of my success is three points, one is to have perseverance, the second is to withstand beatings, and the third is to have integrity." ”

Many people are unclear about these three points.

When Cao Ke is in a good mood, he will also explain one or two about this: "To have perseverance, that is, no matter which store you go to, you must wipe your face, kneel, roll, let go, cheat, harass, abuse everything, how others can't drive you away, how can you beat you can't run away, you, just hold the tenacity of perseverance and keep responding to him until the diaphragm responds to him." ”

"It can withstand the beating, it is very easy to understand, that is, you have to resist the beating, people beat lightly, you have to fight against others, people beat hard, you wait for him to get tired and then fight with others, people can beat you to the hospital countless times, but when you are injured, you must come back and fight him!"

"If you have integrity, that is, if you collect protection money from people's stores, you have to really do practical things for others, catch a thief, drive a hooligan, solve a mental illness or something, you must be on call. ”

Hearing this, many red-eyed people retreated, Cao Ke said easily, but if you really want to do it, how can it be so simple? No matter which of the three is not so easy to complete without a persistent heart.

There are also some people who feel that they have a good relationship with Cao Ke, and they remind Cao Ke out of kindness that they can find other jobs to do seriously, but after Cao Ke heard this, he said very righteously: "Since I have embarked on this road, I will not retreat, I am a principled gangster!"

Anyway, Cao Ke is also an orphan, and no girl will take a fancy to him, which makes Cao Ke's whole life extremely casual, plus no worries. Therefore, Cao Ke has been active in this pedestrian street for a long time, meticulously completing his work.

Very casually smoking a cigarette, shaking three steps and walking aimlessly, Cao Ke even hummed a little song comfortably.

Suddenly, a sharp shout instantly covered the noise on the pedestrian street: "Come on! Someone is robbing!"

"Robbery?" Cao Ke was startled, and then said angrily: "He's meowing! Which bastard who doesn't open his eyes has robbed me?"

Took down the cheap cigarette that had been holding the corner of his mouth and slammed it to the ground, Cao Ke ran in the direction of the sound without hesitation.

Before he could run to the position, a middle-aged man who looked to be in his thirties and forties ran over in a panic. Not far behind this man, an old man with gray temples chased after him breathlessly, shouting as he chased back: "Stop him! Stop him! He snatched my things!"

Cao Ke's eyes froze, and it was obvious that this middle-aged man who was running in his direction was undoubtedly the robber. Cao Ke rushed forward with an arrow step, and he couldn't help but say that the middle-aged man hugged his head and covered his face with a punch.

The middle-aged man was suddenly attacked, and in a panicked state, he instinctively flashed to the side, and actually dodged Cao Ke's fierce punch like a ghost, and passed by Cao Ke, and continued to run without slowing down at all.

"He's meowing!" Cao Ke scolded angrily: "This guy really has some shit luck!" With that, Cao Ke spread his feet and chased in the direction of the middle-aged man's escape.

didn't run far, Cao Ke stopped, no way, who let him come out tonight wearing a pair of flip-flops, although the flip-flops are cool to wear, but they are really not suitable for running, Cao Ke wearing flip-flops can't catch up with the middle-aged man at all.

However, this did not stump Cao Ke, I saw Cao Ke bend down and take off the flip-flops, clasped them tightly in his hands, and then Cao Ke put on a standard bidding gun posture, and threw the flip-flops in his hand one after another towards the middle-aged man who was still running quickly not far away.

Impartially, the two flip-flops hit the back of the middle-aged man's head and the crook of the leg respectively, especially the flip-flop that hit the crook of the leg, and the middle-aged man who was directly smashed stumbled and fell to the ground like a dog's.

Cao Ke, who was barefoot, dodged and pounced on the middle-aged man and scuffled with the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man desperately protected the black package in his hand, and attacked Cao Ke with his hands and feet. Cao Ke was willing to flinch at all, fighting was originally commonplace for Cao Ke, and it didn't take much effort for Cao Ke to press the middle-aged man under him.

Seeing that he was really not Cao Ke's opponent, the middle-aged man had to raise his hands and surrender: "Are you a policeman? Even if you are a policeman, you are not as desperate as you! Okay, okay! I obeyed, you let me go, and I will give you something." ”

Cao Ke slapped the middle-aged man's head fiercely: "If you are so obedient earlier, why should you be beaten like this?"

Taking the package handed over by the middle-aged man, Cao Ke stood up and let go of the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man glanced at Cao Ke viciously, and after getting up from the ground, he separated from the lively crowd and disappeared into the sea of people.

"Don't let me see you on my turf in the future!" Cao Ke shouted in the direction where the middle-aged man had disappeared. Then, Cao Ke looked around at the crowd of onlookers, waved his hand and said, "There's nothing to see, it's all scattered, scattered." ”

As the crowd dispersed, Cao Ke walked back with the package, trying to find the old man and return the package to him.

However, Cao Ke looked left and right, and turned around several times in the vicinity, but he didn't see the old man. An hour later, Cao Ke sat helplessly on a bench in the pedestrian street: "It's really alive, it didn't take much time to work before and after, why is that old man gone?

Looking at the black package in his hand, Cao Ke became curious: "What is in this package?

"Just take a look!" Cao Ke said to himself, "I don't want to take the things here for myself, I just want to take a look." ”

As he spoke, Cao Ke held the black package in front of his eyes, gently opened the package seal, and looked inside.

At this moment, an unexpected thing happened, as the seal was opened, a bright white light burst out of the package in an instant, wrapping Cao Ke inside, and illuminating the entire surrounding of the bench.

When the white light dissipated, Cao Ke and the package in his hand disappeared in place as if they had evaporated out of thin air, causing the surrounding passers-by to be surprised and inexplicable.

No one noticed that at this time, at the door of a shop less than twenty meters away from where Cao Ke disappeared, an old man with white hair looked at the direction before Cao Ke disappeared and showed a strange smile.