Collecting Debts

"Sister, why trade with him? Isn't he a great villain himself?" Meng Shao asked, puzzled.

"It takes a villain to deal with a villain; in the end, he is helping us," Meng Wanyi said softly.

"But he took the accounts. If he gets greedy, I fear he won't hand over a single cent of the money collected to you, Sister," Meng Shao worried.

"..." Meng Wanyi suddenly felt her little sister made sense.

How could she have believed Zhao An's nonsense? It was clear that this guy was a master of deception.

"Sister is kind-hearted and thinks the best of others..." Seeing Meng Wanyi looking somewhat dejected, Meng Shao couldn't help but comfort her.

"If he doesn't hand over the money, I—I'll poison him!" Meng Wanyi gritted her teeth and made a fierce threat.

On the other side, Zhao An had already begun collecting debts with Li Gou'er and Zhao Chunzi.

In a small alley at the corner of the street, several idlers were gathered together playing cards and gambling.

"Tell me, why is that Zhao An from the Tiger Head Gang so fierce? Two days ago at the Three Passes, he beheaded three experts from the Python Gang right in front of Xu Donglai!"

"I heard that too. Damn, it seems this Zhao An just turned twenty. To be so young and already so capable, he'll likely be even more formidable in the future. Even that Zhou Tiger might not be able to keep him in check!"

"That's when it'll get interesting. Two tigers fighting—that'll be a show worth watching!"

The men clutched their cards, chatting idly while checking their points.

Just then, the sound of footsteps echoed through the alley.

Li Gou'er, carrying a short club, kicked over the card table and shouted arrogantly, "Which one of you is Zhang Changlin?"

The idlers were about to get angry, but upon seeing the wooden tiger-head plaque hanging from Li Gou'er's waist, they immediately realized he was a member of the Tiger Head Gang and suppressed their temper, not daring to let it out.

One of the idlers looked particularly panicked, which Li Gou'er noticed, grabbing him and dragging him to the ground.

"Zhang Changlin?"

"Master, Master, I haven't offended you, have I?" Zhang Changlin cowered.

"You have money to gamble but no money to pay your debts?" Li Gou'er squatted down, took an IOU from his pocket, and said to the idler.

"Hand over the two taels of silver you owe the Bright Moon Clinic from last month."

"Yes, yes, I'll give it to you right now." The idler looked at Li Gou'er, then at Zhao Chunzi, who was also carrying a short club with a simple, stoic expression.

He dared to owe money to the young lady at the clinic, but he dared not offend anyone from the Tiger Head Gang.

With a pained expression, he fished out a tael of silver shards and several handfuls of copper coins; once pooled together, it really did amount to two taels of silver, which was almost all of his gambling capital.

At the mouth of the alley, Zhao An stood with his arms crossed, waiting for the two to catch up before walking away.

Dealing with these idlers didn't require him to step in at all.

In this way, after only half a day, he had recovered dozens of taels of silver without any effort, relying solely on his status as a member of the Tiger Head Gang.

As for the truly impoverished families he encountered, there were actually very few.

In this world, human life is as cheap as an ant; the poor simply cannot afford to get sick, nor do they dare to seek treatment at a clinic.

When they fall ill, they just endure it; if they can't endure it, they die. If there is an elder in the family with knowledge, they might go up the mountain to pick herbs, but as for breaking the pots and selling the iron to pay for a consultation, that is impossible.

After all, if the family runs out of food and money, the consequence is that the whole family will be dragged down and starve to death; if that happens, what is the point of being cured?

Afternoon.

On Fox Ear Street, inside a dilapidated, blackened fence, a few withered yellow vegetable seedlings grew in the soil. The earth was parched, looking as if no one had turned it over for a long time.

Inside the small hut, a man with disheveled hair was rummaging through cabinets and chests in a crude manner, kicking over several pottery jars and shattering them across the floor.

By the bedside, a sallow-faced woman sat blankly, her eye sockets dark and her eyes fixed, devoid of any spirit.

Suddenly, after smashing another pottery jar, the man found a few taels of silver shards and a small pile of copper coins that had fallen out, and he laughed out loud.

"You said you didn't have any money, so what is this!" The man grabbed the silver and coins and shouted at the old woman.

The woman stared at the man in despair and muttered, "That is our daughter's ransom money. If you take it, our daughter will never be able to come back."

The smile on the man's face stalled, but he immediately said, "How could this little bit of money be enough to ransom the girl? Let me go win some more and make it up to seven taels!"

As he spoke, the man moved to push the door open and run out. The woman, as if triggered, suddenly pulled a pair of scissors from under her pillow and stabbed at the man without a word.

"Bitch!" The man was quick-witted; he snatched the scissors and slapped the woman to the ground.

"Killing your husband? Aren't you afraid I'll send you to the magistrate's office!" the man said viciously.

Still unsatisfied, he kicked the woman twice more before hurrying away.

However, the moment the door was pulled open, the man was kicked back inside by someone standing outside.

Zhao An looked around, first glancing at the man, then letting his gaze fall upon the woman.

[Liu Tiesuo (Red Name)]

[Zhang Xiuying (White Name)]

"Who, who are you?!" Liu Tiesuo clutched his chest, curling into a ball on the floor.

Zhao An's kick just now had been quite heavy.

"Brother Zhao, this is that Liu Tiesuo. He sold his own daughter to a brothel to get money for the gambling den; the neighbors have been talking about it for a long time," Li Gou'er said with disgust.

Even though they didn't consider themselves good people, they held nothing but contempt for a degenerate gambler who would sell his own daughter to a brothel.

Zhao Chunzi picked up the scattered silver pieces from the floor, counted them briefly, and smiled, "Brother Zhao, it's exactly three taels of silver."

Zhao An looked at the woman and asked, "Do you remember that you owe Bright Moon Clinic three taels of silver?"

Zhang Xiuying nodded; that was the debt she had incurred previously while seeking medical treatment for her daughter.

She had never intended to welch on the debt, but shortly after her daughter recovered from a serious illness, Liu Tiesuo had sold the girl to a brothel.

During this time, her only thought had been to redeem her daughter, and she had been unable to concern herself with anything else.

"May I ask a favor of you?" Zhang Xiuying knelt before Zhao An, her face deathly pale.

"Don't even think about asking for money. You owe that to them; we aren't just snatching it away," Li Gou'er said with a cold face, assuming the woman was trying to play the victim to get some cash.

"It's not about money. I only beg you to kill him before you leave." Zhang Xiuying lifted her face, her once-gentle features hardening with a fierce edge as she pointed at Liu Tiesuo on the ground.

"Zhang Xiuying, have you lost your mind!" Liu Tiesuo shuddered, then roared in a fit of rage.

"As long as he is alive, I will never be able to redeem my poor daughter in this lifetime. I beg you." Zhang Xiuying pleaded with Zhao An repeatedly, promising that she would never speak of this afterward, nor would she report it to the authorities.

"This..." Li Gou'er, standing to the side, wanted to advise Zhao An that it was better to avoid unnecessary trouble, as they were only there to collect a debt.

However, after a moment of silence, Zhao An nodded in agreement.

"Very well."

As the words fell, Zhao An didn't hesitate; he raised his hand, drew his blade, and in an instant, the edge of the steel swept across Liu Tiesuo's throat.

[Evil deeds abound, sinful soul harvested!]

He had never intended to let this red-named target go; even if the woman hadn't begged him, he would have struck regardless.