Moonlight flowed like water over the dilapidated courtyard gate, as though sprinkling a layer of frost over a wound.
Ye Qingxuan held his sister in his arms and soothed her in a low voice until her sobs gradually subsided and she fell into a deep sleep against his chest. Only then did he carefully carry Ye Caiwei back inside and tuck the thin quilt around her.
The night wind outside poured through the doorway, making the flame of the oil lamp on the table flicker wildly. The plate of braised pork that had been picked at with a few chopsticks had long since gone cold, its congealed grease shining white beneath the lamplight.
Ye Qingxuan returned to the courtyard, reached out, and lifted the door panel that had been kicked away, trying to fit it back onto the frame. The wooden tenons had snapped, and the hinges had warped. It was all futile.
Just then, footsteps came from the mouth of the alley.
The sound was nothing like the disorderly clamor of Hu Jiudao's group earlier. These footsteps were steady and forceful, one after another, neither hurried nor slow, as if each step landed squarely on the hearts of those listening.
Ye Qingxuan stopped what he was doing and turned to look toward the courtyard gate.
Several figures appeared at the mouth of the alley, their backs to the moonlight. Their faces could not be seen clearly, but the oppressive aura they exuded was several times stronger than that of Hu Jiudao's group.
The man at the front walked ahead, with Hu Jiudao following behind him. Hu Jiudao, who had returned after leaving, was utterly devoid of his earlier arrogance. His head was lowered and his back was bent, making him look just like a stray dog following its master.
The newcomers entered the courtyard, and the moonlight illuminated the leader's face.
He appeared to be thirty-five or thirty-six. He wore a well-tailored brocade robe and was not tall, but exceptionally sturdy. A smile was always plastered across his face, yet it never reached his eyes. Whenever his triangular eyes opened or narrowed, sharp light flashed within them, revealing the cunning of a businessman and the ruthlessness of a man of the martial world.
One of the three hall masters of the Fierce Tiger Hall, Duan Tianbao. He was known as the "Little Tiger Lord."
Hu Jiudao hurried forward two steps, pointed at Ye Qingxuan, and said ingratiatingly to Duan Tianbao, "Hall Master, it's this brat."
Duan Tianbao did not look at Ye Qingxuan. His gaze swept around the courtyard before finally landing on the broken door panel on the ground. He raised a brow and turned to Hu Jiudao. "You did this?"
Hu Jiudao's body trembled. He stammered, "Th-this brat was being disobedient. The brothers got a little heavy-handed for a moment..."
Smack!
A crisp sound rang out.
Duan Tianbao's slap sent Hu Jiudao spinning halfway around on the spot, and half his face immediately swelled up.
"You good-for-nothing!" Duan Tianbao scolded. "Did you feed all the rules I taught you to the dogs? We're businessmen. Harmony brings wealth. A debt is a debt, but what do you call smashing someone's door? If word gets out, people will think my Fierce Tiger Hall is a bandit's den."
Only after finishing his reprimand did he turn to Ye Qingxuan. His face once again piled on that trademark smile, and he cupped his hands. "Young brother of the Ye Family, I'm sorry for frightening you. My subordinate didn't know any better, so I'll apologize to you on his behalf."
This performance—striking his own man first, then offering an apology—was a combination of pulling and striking. An ordinary youth would probably have been intimidated by the display, unsure whether he ought to feel grateful or afraid.
Ye Qingxuan merely watched him calmly and returned the salute without groveling or arrogance. "Hall Master Duan, you're too polite."
"Oh?" A strange glint flashed through Duan Tianbao's triangular eyes. The youth before him was far more composed than he had imagined.
He paced beneath the eaves, glanced at the braised pork on the table, and smiled. "You're living rather well. It seems I came at just the right time. Otherwise, I truly might have let this bunch of fools under me ruin things."
He paused, then changed tack. "While Old Brother Ye was alive, we had some acquaintance. He left in such a hurry that I shouldn't have pressed this debt so hard. But more than a hundred brothers in the hall need to eat. Rules are rules."
Duan Tianbao held up one finger. "The principal is ten taels. This is the IOU your father wrote back then."
Then he held up three fingers. "The rule of the road is 'borrow nine, repay thirteen.' Borrow ten taels, repay thirteen. That's the going rate. Out of consideration for Old Brother Ye, I'll count only ten taels of principal and add just one tael in interest—eleven taels. That's already tremendous generosity. But it's been nearly a year. With interest rolling upon interest, I'll count it as fourteen taels. That isn't too much, is it?"
He spoke with such clear logic and seeming reason that he appeared not like a vicious creditor come to force repayment, but like an aggrieved victim who had gone to the very limits of benevolence after being cheated out of his money.
Yet Ye Qingxuan knew perfectly well that the so-called "borrow nine, repay thirteen" meant receiving only nine taels when lending money but having to repay thirteen. It was predatory usury through and through. Duan Tianbao spoke of generosity, but in reality, his fourteen-tael figure was even more vicious than that man-eating rule.
Ye Qingxuan lowered his head. His body trembled faintly, and panic and quivers entered his voice. "Hall Master Duan, fourteen taels... Th-that's too much. My father's medical expenses emptied the family coffers long ago. I... I truly can't come up with it."
Only then did he look like the sort of reaction a youth his age ought to have.
The smile at the corners of Duan Tianbao's mouth deepened. He loved watching prey struggle before him.
"Can't come up with it?" he drawled. "Then things will be difficult. I'm a kindhearted man. I can't stand to see fighting and killing. But... I heard you still have a younger sister?"
It was that sentence again.
The fist hidden inside Ye Qingxuan's sleeve clenched instantly.
He jerked his head up, his face filled with "alarm," and cried urgently, "No! Don't touch my sister! The money... I'll definitely repay it!"
"Oh? What will you repay it with?" Duan Tianbao asked at his leisure.
"I... I'm with the Fengtian Division!" Ye Qingxuan looked as though he had seized the last straw of salvation. "I draw a government salary, and I receive a monthly stipend! Just give me time. I'll definitely repay it!"
"The Fengtian Division?" Duan Tianbao laughed, his laughter brimming with mockery. "A temporary constable not even entered into the registers, earning five hundred copper coins a month? By the time you save up fourteen taels, your sister will be old enough to marry. I'll give you five days. Bring me the money within five days. Otherwise, I'll have no choice but to invite your sister to sit awhile at my hall."
"Five days? That's too short!" All color drained from Ye Qingxuan's face. "Hall Master Duan, please, give me a few more days! Ten days! Just ten days!"
He looked like a man driven into a dead end, speaking without thinking. "In ten days, I'll definitely gather the money! Please!"
Duan Tianbao narrowed his eyes and sized him up, as though weighing the truth of his words. A poor youth driven to desperation might say any grand thing to protect his sister. That was nothing strange.
He toyed with a jade thumb ring and drawled leisurely, "Ten days... It isn't impossible. But that would break my rules. Surely you should give the brothers a little hardship money?"
Ye Qingxuan nodded hurriedly, as though afraid he might go back on his word. "Of course! Of course!"
"Then it's fourteen taels. Not a single coin less." Duan Tianbao brought the matter to a decisive conclusion. "In ten days, I'll come collect it myself. Young Ye, you'd best take care of yourself."
With that, he did not spare Ye Qingxuan another glance and turned to leave.
Hu Jiudao and the other lackeys hurried after him. As he passed Ye Qingxuan, Hu Jiudao even cast him a schadenfreude-filled look.
The group quickly vanished at the mouth of the alley.
The courtyard once again fell into dead silence.
Ye Qingxuan, who moments ago had been filled with alarm and trembling like a sieve, slowly straightened. The panic and pleading on his face had vanished completely the instant the backs of Duan Tianbao and the others disappeared, leaving behind only a calmness so deep its bottom could not be seen.
He walked to the courtyard gate, picked up the broken door panel again, and leaned it against the wall.
Everything just now had been an act.
He had to be "panicked." He had to "plead." He had to present himself as a helpless youth driven to the edge of despair. Because before someone like Duan Tianbao, any calmness or rationality would be interpreted as "having something to rely on" or "harboring another scheme," inviting even deeper probing and harsher exploitation.
Only by showing weakness and disguising himself as an ant that could be kneaded at will could he lower the man's guard and win the most precious thing for himself—time.
The price of extending five days to ten was that the two taels of silver Duan Tianbao had supposedly "waived" at Hu Jiudao's mouth had been added back in.
But Ye Qingxuan did not care.
Sixteen taels and fourteen taels were no different to him. Both were astronomical figures beyond his reach at present. But those extra five days would allow him to do many things.
He slowly exhaled a breath of foul air.
The feeling of placing his fate in another's hands, relying on acting and begging to exchange for a thread of life, filled him with disgust from the depths of his bones.
In this turbid world, without strength, there was no dignity. What people called foresight and caution were merely the survival arts of the weak, never a lasting path.
He turned and walked inside.
His sleeping sister lay on the bed. Tear marks still hung on her thin, small face, and even in sleep, her brows were tightly knitted.
Ye Qingxuan reached out and gently smoothed the creases between his sister's brows.
His gaze fell upon his own hands. They were a youth's hands, still somewhat slender, but with clearly defined joints. Years of gripping a blade while patrolling the streets had worn a thin layer of calluses into his palms.
"Ten days..." he murmured.
In his mind, that illusory scroll once again emerged.
[Name: Ye Qingxuan] [Realm: None] [Martial Art: Indestructible Vajra Body (Progress: Zero Cun, Merit: 0/5)]
This was his true reliance.
"In ten days, I'll repay you all fourteen taels of silver, principal and interest alike!"
The promise he had made to Duan Tianbao still rang in his ears.
This was not empty talk forced out of him by desperation, but an oath he had made to himself.
Within these ten days, he would make this world take on an entirely different color!
Before you continue