953: 942: Number Thirteen 953: 942: Number Thirteen “When is the payment?”
“When you start the work, that’s when you make the payment, upfront and in full.”
Gao Yang didn’t respond; he simply reached out his hand to Murphy.
After a smile, Murphy shook hands with Gao Yang, and the deal was considered made.
After retracting his hand, Murphy said with a smile, “You know, this is my first time dealing with a mercenary.
You agreed to the payment so readily—I really appreciate that.”
Gao Yang smiled, “I’m not just quick to agree; I’m just as quick with the payment.”
Murphy shrugged, “Good, then our discussion ends here today.
Do what you need to do, and I’ll prepare the cleanup crew in advance.
Buddy, remember not to make the scene too big.
A big scene is hard to manage, and we’d have to charge extra.”
Gao Yang nodded, “Don’t forget about our guy.
When can he come?”
Murphy glanced at his watch, “If you’re sure you need him and you’ve got a big sum of money ready, I’ll pick someone out as soon as possible.
Keep your phone on.
If someone is willing to take the job, they’ll call you.
It’s hard to say when; if it’s fast, maybe even tonight, but if it’s slow, then it could be anytime.”
Gao Yang exhaled, “Try to make it quick.
We have to establish the plan soon; I don’t want this to drag on too long.”
Murphy shrugged and smiled, “I don’t like it dragging either.”
After saying that, Murphy turned to the waitress and said, “Miss, please get me a pen.”
The waitress stood beside Murphy and handed him a ballpoint pen used for recording customer orders.
Murphy took it and, after waving his hand, tore a piece of paper from the notepad and quickly wrote down a phone number.
Gao Yang thought the number was for him, but then he saw Murphy fold the paper and hand it to the waitress, then with a cheeky and shameless tone, he said, “Beautiful, call me.
Give me a chance to take you out to dinner.
I’ll be waiting for your call.”
Gao Yang almost gagged with discomfort, yet the waitress, who looked to be in her late twenties and honestly quite plain-looking, just gave Murphy a perfunctory smile and said nothing.
Then Murphy pointed at Gao Yang and said, “Give him a cappuccino.
It’s on me.”
Without asking Murphy what he wanted, the waitress noted it down, nodded, and was about to leave when Murphy lightly slapped her on the bottom as she turned away, eliciting an annoyed glare.
Murphy just laughed, shrugging his shoulders.
This guy is nuts.
Gao Yang concluded internally, then saw Murphy turn back, smiling, “Remember my number, notify me before you act.
Contact me if there’s something, don’t call if there’s nothing.
Oh, and it’s best to call at night, I’m usually busy in the day, and I’m not always allowed to have my phone.
Alright, I’m treating you to a coffee for the one million.
Goodbye.”
Murphy stood up, stuck out his belly, rubbed his bald head, blew a kiss to the still-standing waitress near the door, then staggered out.
With a helpless shake of his head, Gao Yang watched Murphy disappear outside the door then got up, ready to leave too.
At that moment, the waitress came to Gao Yang with a coffee, saying, “Sir, your coffee.”
Gao Yang sighed, “No thanks, I need to leave.”
Perhaps taking out her frustration from her encounter with Murphy, the waitress responded with a slightly impatient but restrained tone, “Sir, a coffee here is forty US dollars.
Maybe that’s nothing to people like you, but wasting isn’t a good habit!”
Gao Yang was both surprised and taken aback as waitresses shouldn’t talk to customers that way, but he sat down anyway, smiling, “Alright, wasting indeed isn’t a good habit.”
Gao Yang sat and tasted the coffee, finding it genuinely good, which was no surprise as the cafe where he met Murphy was quite upscale.
However, giving Murphy one million US dollars and only getting a coffee in return seemed stingy to him, especially since he hadn’t eaten yet.
Hungry, Gao Yang noticed that the cafe offered more than just coffee, so he raised his hand to the waitress, saying, “Excuse me, I’d like something to eat.”
The waitress came over to Gao Yang, but just then, his phone rang.
Gao Yang gestured an apology and checked the call; it was from a completely unknown number, so he answered, “Hello.”
“Hello, Mr.
Ram, I’ve been informed that you need a cleaner; is that correct?”
Gao Yang was highly surprised that the call came so quickly before he even finished his coffee.
Smiling apologetically at the waitress, he said, “Sorry, I’ll order in a bit.”
After the waitress left, visibly huffed, Gao Yang spoke firmly, “Yes, I do need some help.”
“Okay, let’s talk about the price now, face to face.
Tell me your address.”
No need to change locations, Gao Yang directly said, “I’m at the Antivenson Cafe, just at…”
“Fine, I know.
Wait for me, I’ll be there soon.”
The call was disconnected, and Gao Yang held the phone, now only hearing the busy tone, his face full of helplessness.
The janitor might be skilled, but his speed in hanging up the phone was definitely top-notch.
Gao Yang didn’t know how soon ‘soon’ was, nor did he know whether the person who had called him would be able to find him, considering he hadn’t mentioned which table he was sitting at.
Gao Yang decided to order some food and wait while eating, so he called the waitress over again, and just as he had picked up the menu and was looking at it, the door of the coffee shop was pushed open, and a person walked in and sat directly in front of Gao Yang.
Seeing Gao Yang holding the menu, the person sitting opposite him directly told the waitress, “The usual, thanks.”
The person sitting in front of Gao Yang wasn’t very old, definitely not yet thirty, not very tall, quite slim, not effeminate, but his face was a bit too sweet, though his complexion and eyes made him look very cold.
For some reason, Gao Yang felt strange looking at the young man in front of him, especially when he looked at the waitress, the occasional look in his eyes could only be described as murderous.
The notion of murderous intent sounds mystical, but when a person has blood on their hands and looks at someone the way they look at prey, one could detect something like murderous intent, or malice, or killing intent—anyway, this man wanted to kill the waitress he was looking at.
Gao Yang couldn’t help but feel the danger, as the man sitting in front of him was clearly a seasoned killer, different from mercenaries like them who fought openly on the battlefield; this man had a sinister vibe.
After sitting down, under Gao Yang’s scrutinizing gaze, the man looked him in the eye and said coldly, “You can call me Number Thirteen.”
Gao Yang nodded and smiled, “Hi, nice to meet you.”
Gao Yang extended his hand, but the man who called himself Number Thirteen had no intention of shaking hands, so Gao Yang had to awkwardly withdraw his hand.
Although it was summer, Number Thirteen was wearing a suit, and he probably hadn’t come by car, as the sweat had soaked his armpits, which was very strange.
Number Thirteen looked at Gao Yang and suddenly said, “I’m called Number Thirteen.”
Gao Yang responded with some helplessness, “You’ve already introduced yourself.”
Number Thirteen nodded, and after staring silently into Gao Yang’s eyes for a full two minutes, finally raised his eyebrow and said, “Okay, you’ve passed the test.
I can work for you.”
Gao Yang didn’t even know how he had passed the test or what the test was.
Number Thirteen took a folded piece of paper from the inside pocket of his suit, carefully unfolded it, and pushed it towards Gao Yang, saying coldly, “My information.
Take a look, and if you’re satisfied, we can discuss the price.”
The paper was a double-sided printed sheet, size A3.
Gao Yang took Number Thirteen’s information, and just then, the waitress brought over a plate of spaghetti, a bottle of ketchup, and a basket of small bread rolls placed in front of Number Thirteen.
An odd combination of food.
After setting everything down, the waitress smiled gently and said, “Hi, handsome, need anything else?
Hmm, it’s on me!”
“No need.”
After coldly refusing, Number Thirteen continued in his cold voice, “The usual, put it on Murphy’s tab.”
Number Thirteen began to eat, and his speed of eating surprised Gao Yang so much that he focused not on the information provided by Number Thirteen, but just watched him eat.
If Gao Yang could put aside his work just to watch someone eat, it definitely meant that the eater’s manners were shockingly impressive.
The plate of spaghetti wasn’t much, but Number Thirteen finished it in five bites, and still managed to look graceful doing it.
It was indeed remarkable to use words like ‘devour’ and ‘graceful’ in the same sentence.
After finishing the spaghetti, Number Thirteen’s even stranger action was to pour half a bottle of ketchup over the empty spaghetti plate, then start to dip the French bread rolls into the ketchup.
Gao Yang thought Number Thirteen was fucking weird.
With one bread roll after another, he finished off nine small rolls with a plate of ketchup, then, the last bread roll Number Thirteen ate more slowly.
He meticulously dipped the roll into the mix of remaining pasta sauce and ketchup on the plate, eating the bread after meticulously cleaning the plate, leaving it cleaner than if a dog had licked it.
After spending two minutes finishing everything, Number Thirteen pushed the plate forward, looked at Gao Yang’s astonished expression and said softly, “This is a high-end cafe; their cheapest plate of spaghetti costs fifty US dollars.
To Murphy and you rich folks that might not be much, but wasting food is a bad habit.” (To be continued.
If you like this work, you’re welcome to vote and support on qidian.com.
Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)