The Predicament at the Start

"Destined to toil like an ox and a horse for a lifetime!"

The faint sigh by his ear came from his parents in this life.

Zhou You had only just transmigrated into this body when he encountered a tremendous crisis.

His predecessor had offended a minor local gang leader, and the other party had threatened to kill him no matter what.

Gang members were all hooligans who stirred up trouble and loved fighting.

Gongliang City had three hundred thousand households. Most were law-abiding families, and a family like Zhou You's had no power to resist them.

Zhou You's father was a clerk at a trading house. After muddling through half his life, he could barely earn enough food for the family. He had neither power nor influence, nor did he know any important figures.

As for his mother, she was merely an ordinary housewife with little worldly knowledge.

"Cough, cough, cough. Now that you're awake, eat breakfast and go apologize at their door."

Old Man Zhou puffed away at his pipe, and smoke curled through the room.

He had gone to great pains to call in favors and pull strings, giving gifts and pleading with people, until the gang's minor leader finally relented.

The other party demanded fifty taels of silver in compensation and required Zhou You to kneel and kowtow at his door in apology.

This was bullying beyond all reason!

Those fifty taels had been scraped together by Old Man Zhou after borrowing from every connection he had.

The heavy silver was wrapped in flowered cloth and carried in a bulging pouch.

Zhou You took a few bites of coarse grain flatbread, then tucked the silver into his robes. "Father, Mother, wait for my good news."

As he pushed open the door and headed out, both neighbors heard the commotion.

"Zhou You, heading out?"

The neighbor to the left was Widow Li. She raised her five-year-old child alone and made a living running a small liquor stall.

Capable and sharp-tongued, she feared that a widow and orphan would be bullied, so she had attached herself to a local constable.

It was said that when Old Man Zhou had gone to her for help this time, she had asked the constable to pass word to the gang hooligans. Only then had they relented.

"Auntie Li, morning."

Widow Li held her little boy and greeted him warmly. "Zhou You, don't make your parents worry."

The gold bracelet on her right wrist looked very familiar. Judging by it, she had only acquired it recently.

Zhou You recognized it. It had been his mother's dowry, worn for most of her life.

For his sake, his parents had already emptied out everything they owned.

Zhou You quickened his pace as he left. Today, he had to settle this matter once and for all.

Once he left the neighborhood and looked out at the bustling streets packed with carts and horses, ambition surged within his chest.

Gongliang City was the largest city within a hundred li in every direction. Its water and land routes were convenient, supporting a population of one million.

It was a prosperous land, and also a prize fought over by every force.

The gang he had offended was called the Wild Fox Gang. It controlled three hundred able-bodied fighters and occupied more than a dozen streets, collecting protection fees.

With the Wild Fox Gang's influence, even one of its minor leaders could destroy Zhou You's family with a flick of his finger.

"Zhou You! Zhou You, wait!"

Turning left at the intersection led toward the Wild Fox Gang minor leader's home.

A shout came from behind Zhou You. When he turned, he saw someone his own age dressed in an indigo martial outfit.

Gao Qiang was Zhou You's childhood companion.

Half a year ago, the two had agreed to apply to a martial arts school. They had gone together, and been rejected together.

For children from poor families, unless they were extraordinarily gifted, their physical foundations fell far short of the threshold for martial training.

After failing to enter the martial arts school, Zhou You had gone home to inherit his father's trade and prepared to join a trading house as a clerk.

As for Gao Qiang, Zhou You had heard that he still wanted to practice martial arts and had joined another gang.

For the poor of the city, there were only two paths to martial training: martial arts schools and gangs.

Martial arts schools were like academies. You paid to learn fists and kicks, while the key was whether the master was willing to give you a bowl of rice.

Gangs were far more dangerous. They taught you martial arts to raise thugs who could draw blades and risk their lives when the moment came.

Gao Qiang's parents had both died, and with no elders to restrain him, he had naturally taken this path.

Zhou You's parents had feared he would go astray and cut off his friendship with Gao Qiang.

More than half a year had passed since Zhou You had last seen Gao Qiang.

"Zhou You, I heard you ran into trouble."

Gao Qiang carried an added air of ferocity. He looked at people from the corner of his eye and swaggered straight ahead, making pedestrians scatter out of his way.

Several knife scars now crisscrossed the backs of his hands and his arms, making him look quite frightening.

"What the hell is the Wild Fox Gang? The Mad Horse Gang stands behind me. We've got over a thousand brothers."

"Your brother's got you covered. It'll be fine."

Gao Qiang thumped his chest until it boomed, putting on an appearance of great loyalty.

Zhou You only found this old friend incomparably unfamiliar. Gao Qiang had completely adopted the style of a gang man.

"Tu Laosan of the Wild Fox Gang has mediocre martial arts. He only dares act so outrageously because his older brother is a Vice Gang Leader—his tail is practically pointing at the sky!"

"Zhou You, just last month, I became the godson of the Second Elder of our gang."

"I'll take you to meet my godfather. There's no need to fear Tu Laosan."

Tu Laosan was the Wild Fox Gang minor leader Zhou You had offended.

Just as Gao Qiang had said, Tu Laosan committed every kind of evil while relying on his Vice Gang Leader brother. Few dared provoke him.

The Mad Horse Gang and the Wild Fox Gang were two gangs in the city that were like fire and water.

But was borrowing the Mad Horse Gang's power to fight Tu Laosan truly a good idea?

Zhou You did not think so. For an ordinary family, if they wanted a peaceful life, they absolutely could not get entangled with gangs.

There was a family in the neighboring district whose daughter had caught the eye of the Wild Wolf Gang leader, who forcibly wanted to take her as a concubine.

The man of that household was a distant relative of the Mad Horse Gang leader and asked him to plead on their behalf. Unexpectedly, he stepped into an abyss.

Gang hooligans had no humanity. Even relatives would be picked clean to the bone, extorted in every possible way, yet they kept delaying the matter.

The Wild Fox Gang harassed them daily, while the Mad Horse Gang demanded money day after day, driving the whole family into a state where there was no road to heaven and no door into the earth.

In the end, that family was squeezed dry of every coin. Their daughter was abducted, and the husband and wife went mad, ending with their home destroyed and their family dead.

Only after talking for a long while did Gao Qiang reveal his true purpose.

"My godfather is highly respected. You can't go to ask him for help empty-handed."

"I heard your father pawned quite a few things. Your family ought to have plenty of silver. Hand it over!"

"If you have forty or fifty taels, it might barely be enough to ask my godfather to say a word and make Tu Laosan stop troubling your family."

So that was it?

Zhou You could not help sneering inwardly. The other party had surely learned that Tu Laosan was demanding fifty taels, then deliberately intercepted him on the road to ask for money.

How could a bottom-rung gang member who had only joined recently possibly have the qualifications to ask the upper ranks to act?

Gao Qiang had come precisely to sweet-talk him out of his money!

Once someone joined a gang, his heart went rotten. Even a friend who had grown up alongside him became a stranger, his mouth filled with nothing but lies!

"Gao Qiang, I think this can work, but the money isn't on me. I'll go back and persuade my parents."

"You go sound out the Second Elder's intentions first."

Gao Qiang blinked and wiggled his fingers, meaning: if you want me to handle this, give me some money for drinks!

But Zhou You did not give him so much as a single copper coin.

In the end, the two childhood friends parted on bad terms.

"Pah!"

Watching Zhou You's retreating back, Gao Qiang spat a thick gob of phlegm onto the ground and cursed, "Serves you right if Tu Laosan kills you."

He had originally planned to use their childhood friendship to swindle fifty taels of silver from Zhou You.

After presenting that money to the hall master, he could trade it for a lucrative position and strut about in style someday.

Unfortunately, Zhou You had cast off his former honest and dull-witted manner and had not fallen for it.

This was nothing like the friend he had known before!

And then...

Gao Qiang shuddered. He suddenly recalled that the road Zhou You had taken did not lead toward Tu Laosan's home, but in the opposite direction.

The other road led toward the martial arts school they had once visited.