biography of lvan

1

For Baz, this rare free day was the most relaxing and pleasant holiday he had ever had in his life.

South Port was like a paradise for those who had free time and were in a leisurely mood.

In the early morning, the docks in South Port were an absolute must-see and wonderful sight. At that time, the ships hadn't started docking at the docks yet, and the porters hadn't started working either. There were people walking, standing, or sitting everywhere on the docks. Most of them were those who had a little money but weren't particularly wealthy. Like Baz, they wouldn't let go of the good things in South Port that they could enjoy without spending money.

The docks in South Port were actually very lively in the early morning. Small stalls filled with fresh fish and live shrimp could be seen everywhere. Servants of wealthy families, housewives of ordinary families, and waiters of restaurants all gathered around those stalls, bargaining noisily. The scene was really lively and full of a strong flavor of life.

When the sun rose high in the sky and the dock workers started to go to work one after another, the noisy crowd on the docks gradually dispersed and went about their own business.

At noon, South Port was at its most vibrant time of the day. All kinds of shops opened their doors one after another to start business, and the restaurants had already been prepared, just waiting to welcome the first batch of guests in the morning.

In South Port, the price of breakfast wasn't too high. Baz silently calculated the money in his pocket. After deducting the money needed to take the stagecoach back to Lair, the remaining part was enough for him to have a good time, so he didn't need to be too thrifty.

So, without hesitation, Baz found a restaurant near the docks and planned to treat himself to a good meal. For Baz, who usually had few opportunities to eat seafood, this meal was simply a top-notch delicacy. The delicious taste made him so satisfied that he almost couldn't stop eating.

After satisfying his taste buds by eating and drinking to his heart's content, Baz then thought about satisfying his eyesight.

There were quite a few interesting things in South Port that one could enjoy without spending money. "Window shopping" was one of them. However, the streets in South Port were usually the busiest in the afternoon. It was still a bit early at this moment.

However, there was also a quite nice pastime in the morning. Baz saw from the advertising flyers distributed by the street children that the largest silk shops in South Port were holding song and dance performances.

Baz had heard the old man mention that those silk merchants often held such performances. They would find some pretty girls, dress them in luxurious silk clothes from head to toe, and then let them sing and dance on the stage to attract customers.

In fact, the level of those song and dance performances was just so-so and not particularly wonderful. However, what was really worth appreciating were the novel and unique silk clothes on the girls. They were exquisitely styled and made of high-quality materials, which were a pleasure to look at.

Moreover, these song and dance performances could be watched for free. Sometimes, if one was lucky, one might even get some free gifts. So Baz wouldn't miss such new and interesting things.

In this way, Baz spent the whole morning watching these song and dance performances. Although he didn't get any gifts when it ended, he was already quite satisfied in his heart. After all, he had watched a rather interesting performance for free, which was also quite rewarding.

After having a casual lunch, the real and biggest pastime time in South Port began.

For Baz, yesterday, as he was shouldering the task of finding a new recruit, his attention was all on those young shop assistants, and he hardly had the chance to take a good look around at other things.

But today was different. He didn't need to think about the matter of finding a new recruit anymore and could finally relax and have a good stroll.

Since he had come to South Port, it would be a pity if he didn't take a good look at those strange and rare commodities that were hardly seen in other places.

You know, these strange and rare things could only be seen in South Port, because it was a place where people from all directions gathered. All the goods were shipped from distant shores and overseas countries. These rare things couldn't be seen in other places at all.

Baz wandered from one shop to another like this and carefully looked around several of the most prosperous streets in South Port. This stroll took him most of the day.

When evening came, with the kind guidance of passers-by, Baz came to a place near the docks.

It was a place that existed in every big city. In a narrow alley, shouts and cries could be heard everywhere, one after another, without end. And everywhere you could see prostitutes dressed gaudily and with heavy makeup. They stood on the street or leaned against door frames, soliciting passers-by.

Baz was all too familiar with such places. After all, he had traveled around and seen many similar scenes.

However, Baz didn't come here to look for prostitutes this time. The old man had warned him before that if he played around with prostitutes in South Port, he would easily catch diseases, and once he caught them, it would be an incurable terminal illness. So Baz always kept this in mind and didn't dare to mess around.

Baz came here for the casinos. For someone like him who made a living with his nimble fingers all day long, gambling was something he was really good at.

What Baz liked to play the most was dice rolling. In this game, the result of winning or losing could be seen quickly. It was very straightforward and suited his temperament. Moreover, he was quite confident in his dice-rolling skills. After all, he was the leader among the "golden fingers". His skills with his hands were really remarkable. When playing this kind of game that required both skills and luck, he naturally had more advantages.

Inside the casino, Baz deliberately chose to play with those gamblers who were dressed strangely and were obviously from overseas. He didn't bet too much each time, preferring to play steadily and make small but steady profits. In this way, he could always win a little money every time.

Sure enough, when he came out of a casino, he felt in his pocket and found that there was a lot more money than when he went in. His pocket became even fuller. It was really a good harvest.

Baz couldn't help thinking to himself that the gambling business in South Port was quite profitable. If there was a chance in the future, maybe he could come to make more money. But he just thought about it casually. After all, this wasn't that reliable and there were still risks.

Maybe after the hideout was divided, he would simply move to South Port to live. He wouldn't do his old job anymore but focus on cheating foreigners out of their money. It seemed quite nice, Baz thought to himself.

After coming out of one casino, Baz didn't plan to stop there. He leisurely walked into another casino and continued to try his luck.

Going in and out of the casinos like this, by the time Baz came out of the alley, it was already late at night. The streets were very quiet and there was hardly anyone walking around.

At this time, with his pockets full of money, Baz didn't plan to go back to the shabby inn where he had stayed before. He thought that since he had money now, he should treat himself better. So, he found a rather nice-looking inn near the docks and checked in.

The charges of this inn were much higher than those of the previous one. However, Baz was wealthy now and didn't worry about money at all. He didn't take this small expense seriously and didn't care about it at all.

Baz spent some money and got quite satisfactory enjoyment in return. He took a comfortable wash, lay on the soft bed for a while to feel the pleasant atmosphere, and then went back to his room to rest. He had a rather sound sleep.

The pleasant holiday came to an end like this. When Baz woke up the next day, he knew in his heart that it was time to get down to business and he couldn't continue having fun.

After having breakfast as usual, Baz walked straight towards the shop he had taken a liking to before.

When passing by a shop that specialized in selling toys, Baz stopped in his tracks and walked into the shop. He took out a silver coin from his pocket and bought a small bag of crystal-clear glass beads. Baz had seen children from wealthy families playing with this kind of thing before, but when he was a child, he didn't have such conditions. He could only play by rolling small mud balls made of mud. Now that he bought this bag of glass beads, it could be regarded as fulfilling a small wish he had when he was a child. Baz thought to himself secretly and felt rather sentimental.

After arriving at the door of that shop, Baz pretended to be nonchalant and walked into the shop casually.

There were no customers in the shop at the moment. The young boy was standing by the wall, struggling to hang a blanket on the wall. And the hunchbacked second shopkeeper was standing aside, squinting his eyes and closely watching every move of the young boy, with a bit of pickiness and dissatisfaction in his eyes, as if he was hoping that the young boy would make some mistakes.

Baz was afraid that his intention would be discovered, so he didn't dare to act rashly. He could only pretend to be carefully appreciating those expensive goods and occasionally pretended to praise them a few times to cover up his real purpose.

After a while, three or five customers walked into the shop. It seemed that they had the intention to buy something. Seeing this, the second shopkeeper quickly walked forward with a big smile on his face to greet the customers. The young boy also hurriedly helped out, busy here and there.

Baz seized this opportunity, quietly took out three glass beads from his pocket, quickly and carefully stuffed them under a ceramic plate, and then pretended to be nonchalant and turned around to slowly walk out of the shop door, as if he was just an ordinary customer leaving after shopping around.

For Baz, what he needed to do next was to wait patiently. He also knew in his heart that this method was actually rather clumsy. After all, he couldn't be sure when the expensive ceramic plate would fall and break, nor did he know whether the unlucky one would be the young boy at that time. But there was no other way. This was the best method he could come up with after racking his brains, so he could only try his luck.

Waiting was not a difficult thing for a "golden finger" like Baz. In order to wait for a suitable opportunity to make a move, they often had to wait for a long time in daily life and were already used to it.

Baz sat down on the bench beside the flower bed diagonally opposite and didn't take his eyes off the shop for a moment. He just stared at it quietly, hoping that his plan could proceed smoothly.

Time passed bit by bit, but Baz still stared fixedly at that shop without daring to slack off at all.

In South Port, as long as you had money in your pocket, you wouldn't feel bored even if you just sat there without moving. From time to time, one or two peddlers pushing small carts filled with all kinds of goods would pass by.

In those small carts, there were all kinds of things, both food and toys. Baz took out a few silver coins and got a bunch of small trinkets that could help him kill time from the peddlers, and he also got a lot of copper coins in change.

As for food, Baz's mouth was never idle. He ate this for a while and tasted that for a while. In the end, his stomach couldn't take it anymore. He felt like it was almost full, but he still couldn't resist eating more because those snacks tasted really good.

As time went by slowly, the sun gradually rose to the top of the sky, and the number of people on the street gradually increased. This was the prime time for business in the shop during the day. There were people coming and going, and it was really lively.

Suddenly, Baz heard a "clattering" sound coming from inside the shop. His heart leaped with joy, knowing that the few glass beads had finally worked. It seemed that the first step of his plan had succeeded.

Immediately after that, an angry shout came from inside the shop: "Damn it! You're really damned! You broke such precious porcelain. You have to pay for it, you have to pay for all of it! You couldn't pay it off even if you worked all your life!"

Just as he heard this, the door of the shop was suddenly flung open. The young boy, with tears streaming down his face, fled from the shop crying and rushed towards the back street in a panic. He looked so frightened and helpless.

Behind him, there were continuous angry shouts: "You run! I'll see where you can run! I'll report you and have you locked up in prison. You deserve to be hanged!" With these curses, the hunchbacked second shopkeeper also rushed out of the shop angrily. His face was flushed red with extreme anger. He was waving his fists and shouting loudly. He looked so fierce as if he was going to swallow the person in front of him alive. It was really terrifying.

Seeing that his plan had succeeded, Baz was secretly happy. He quickly rolled up the pile of things for pastime, simply wrapped them into a bundle, then got up from the bench and chased after the direction where the young boy had run.

After chasing to a secluded and uninhabited place, Baz looked around and saw that no one was paying attention. So he threw the miscellaneous things in his hand into the corner. Anyway, he didn't need them now and didn't bother to tidy them up.

In such a big place as South Port, it wasn't an easy thing to find a person. There were too many people and it was very chaotic. It was easy to lose track of someone.

However, Baz guessed in his heart that the young boy probably didn't have anywhere else to go. Most likely, he could only run towards his home. After all, when ordinary people encountered such unexpected situations, the first refuge they thought of was their own home. It was the place they were most familiar with and considered the safest.

Baz chased after him along the road he remembered.

Sure enough, before long, he saw the young boy walking dejectedly while crying. His steps were heavy and he walked and stopped from time to time. Obviously, he had lost his mind and didn't know what to do. He was completely panicked.

Seeing this, Baz quickened his pace and quietly walked up behind the young boy. He reached out and patted him gently. At this, the young boy jumped up as if he were a startled rabbit, and let out a cry of surprise, which in turn startled Baz. He hadn't expected the boy to react so strongly.

The young boy's eyes were wide open, full of panic. His pale face, devoid of any color, was tightly drawn due to extreme fear, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly out of control. He looked so wretched and helpless, just like a frightened deer, completely at a loss.

Baz knew very well that at this moment, the young boy was extremely frightened and had lost his composure.

Baz thought that in order to make the young boy follow him obediently, he had to scare him a little more, making him feel that he was at the end of his rope and had no choice but to follow the arrangements.

So, Baz deliberately put on a serious face and said in a solemn tone, "I just saw with my own eyes that you ran out of a shop in a panic. What on earth did you do? I saw that after you fled, a guy immediately went to call the sheriff, and several sheriffs came at once. Tell me, what did you do? Did you steal something from that shop? If so, you have to come with me to see the sheriff. If I hand you over, I can get a reward equivalent to one-fifth of the lost items. That's no small amount."

"No, no, I didn't steal anything. I really didn't steal anything! Please, let me go," the young boy burst into tears upon hearing these words. Tears streamed down his face like beads with a broken string, and he kept begging Baz while crying. His voice was full of fear and despair, and his body trembled slightly with fear.

Looking at the young boy crying so bitterly in front front of him, Baz found it rather interesting. He thought to himself that this boy was already so old but still cried so easily. He remembered that before he started following the old man, he had already forgotten how to cry. It seemed that he had lost the instinct to cry since he was a child. Unlike this young boy, who cried so hard just at a little scare.

Usually, for someone who cried like this, Baz would at most just laugh at them and then wouldn't bother with them anymore. But things were different now. He still had to find a way to comfort this young boy he had finally taken a liking to. After all, he had to make the young boy willing to follow him.

"If you didn't steal from the shop, then I won't get any reward even if I drag you to the authorities. Well, what a pity, such a pity!" As Baz said these words, he secretly glanced at the young boy, wanting to see his reaction.

Sure enough, upon hearing that he wouldn't be taken to see the sheriff, the young boy let out a slight sigh of relief. The look of terror on his face eased a little, and his body didn't tremble as violently as before, though he still looked rather shaken.

Baz knew clearly that it was time to lead the young boy further into his trap, so he continued, "However, I think it's only a matter of time before you get caught. Just now, I heard that man tell the sheriff that you would definitely run back to your home, and he asked the sheriff to wait at your home for you to come back so that they could catch you."

"Then... then what should I do? What can I do?" The young boy immediately looked distraught again, as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, and started muttering to himself. His eyes were full of panic and helplessness, and he was on the verge of crying again.

Seeing the young boy looking so panicked and on the verge of breaking down in tears again, Baz thought the timing was about right and took the opportunity to say, "Well, how about this? You can find a place outside to hide for a while. When this trouble blows over, you can come back."

"But... but I don't have anywhere to go," the young boy said, and tears couldn't help flowing down his face again. He said helplessly while crying, looking extremely desperate. After all, in South Port, he was all alone, and he really couldn't think of anywhere to hide for the moment.

"Can you write? Do you know how to do accounts? If you know these things, I can take you to my employer," Baz said seemingly casually, while secretly hoping that the young boy would meet these requirements so that he could take him away smoothly.

"Yes, I can. I can write, and I can even write decorative characters. In the shop, I was responsible for copying all the price lists. I also know how to do accounts. I'm quite good at arithmetic. I can even do operations with decimals and fractions. I can recite the value of pi and even make profit analysis statistical tables..." Hearing this, the young boy seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw and quickly blurted out all the things he knew, trying his best to prove that he was useful and could meet the requirements, hoping that Baz would take him along and help him get through this difficult situation.

However, Baz had no idea about these decorative characters or the value of pi that the young boy mentioned. All the knowledge he had was taught by the old man. He could barely understand the official notices and do simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to make sure that the gains handed in by the "golden fingers" under him were calculated correctly. In the hideout, having such knowledge was already quite remarkable.

Baz had never even heard of these things the young boy mentioned, let alone understood them. It was like listening to something from another world.

But it didn't have much impact on Baz. After listening to the young boy, he nodded and pretended to be satisfied and said, "Well, good, good. It seems that you should be quite useful. However, I still have some things to take care of. I won't return to Lair until evening. If you plan to come with me, then go and wait at the stagecoach. I'll meet you there in the evening."

As he spoke, Baz also reached out and patted the young boy on the shoulder, pretending to be reliable and trustworthy and said, "Don't worry. Once you're in Lair, there won't be any trouble. You don't have to worry too much."

"I'm afraid my family will worry about me. But I don't dare to go home. Could you...?" The young boy still looked uneasy, hesitated for a long time, and said cautiously. He was both afraid that his family would worry and that he would be caught by the sheriff once he went back. He was really torn.