The Black Tiger Gang.
It was the name of an underworld faction that had consolidated the existing criminal organizations in Yichang within just a few years and now reigned over the area like a tyrant.
It was also the name of the creditors to whom the Jeong household owed money.
"Get out here right now!"
"We know you're in there! Come out now!"
Jeong So-so rushed out to the courtyard, muttering anxiously.
"The repayment date hasn't even come yet this month. Why would they......"
BANG BANG BANG!
The pounding on the gate grew louder. A shadow of worry fell across Jeong So-so's face.
"......"
Jin Cheong-un, who had ambled after her at a leisurely pace, sighed.
'So it's not just a coin or two they owe.'
This really has gone spectacularly sideways.
Is this not a bit much?
"Uncle."
Was she going to ask for help? Jeong So-so called out to him cautiously.
But the words she spoke were nothing like what Jin Cheong-un had expected.
"Please stay inside. You don't have to help."
"Huh?"
"This is our family's matter."
Jeong So-so forced a smile.
She now knew that Jin Cheong-un was not a complete stranger, but that did not change the fact that they had met for the very first time only days ago.
She could not drag him into money problems like this.
This was the Jeong family's affair.
"I know you were a martial artist, Uncle, but...... I've heard the Black Tiger Gang Master was once a truly renowned expert in the martial world. If you get tangled up with them, it'll be impossible for you to stay in Yinghua Village."
Jeong So-so rolled up her sleeve and flexed her arm with a grin.
"And those guys are nothing to worry about. I'm a lot tougher than I look!"
Jin Cheong-un silently pretended not to notice that her hands were trembling.
Then he spoke with a look of grim resolve.
"I shall remember that. No matter what happens, I will not get involved. Absolutely not!"
"......"
Jeong So-so's expression turned flat.
'I mean, you didn't have to say it that dramatically......'
The tension deflated in an instant. Letting out a sigh, Jeong So-so steeled herself and placed her hand on the gate.
"Wait! I'll open up now!"
CLANK! CREEEAK!
The moment the gate opened, four rough-looking men strode inside.
"I figured you'd run off like your daddy, but here you are."
The man with his hands clasped behind his back turned and assumed an exaggeratedly arrogant posture as he grinned.
"......What brings you here?"
"A debt collector comes to collect. What other reason would there be?"
The man glanced to the side.
"And who's that over there?"
He eyed Jin Cheong-un, who stood at a distance, watching with a vacant stare.
Sensing their attention, Jin Cheong-un cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted.
"Don't mind me! Carry on with your business! I'm just a spectator!"
"......?"
The gang members turned to Jeong So-so with baffled expressions.
She averted her eyes.
"......I don't know him."
"He's inside your house, though?"
"Never mind that!"
Jeong So-so steered the conversation.
"More importantly, I already paid last month's installment."
"The situation has changed a bit."
The man pulled a bamboo ledger from his coat and snapped it open, putting on airs.
"Let me see...... as of today, including interest, that comes to six hundred and seventy-three nyang of silver."
"What?! The loan was three hundred nyang! What are you talking about?!"
"Well, you should have kept up with the interest payments. You think Yama's Debt earned its name for nothing?"
She had paid.
She had most certainly made every interest payment on time, yet she could not make sense of their arithmetic.
"Enough talk."
The man folded the ledger and clasped his hands behind his back.
"Including the overdue amount, you'll need to pay everything back in full this time."
Jeong So-so was thrown for a moment.
"The repayment date is still far off—what do you mean, pay it all back?"
"Headquarters has been raising capital for a business expansion, you see. We've been generous so far, but we can't do that anymore."
When had they ever been generous?
Jeong So-so's expression hardened, and she raised her voice.
"I can't pay back that much money this suddenly!"
The man smiled coldly.
"That's not our problem."
Jin Cheong-un quietly nodded in admiration.
'Someone with some training, I see.'
What a textbook underworld collection speech.
Judging by his stance, the man had also studied martial arts. It occurred to him that this Black Tiger Gang Master might be a more seasoned underworld figure than he had thought.
The memories of his time at the Martial Arts Alliance stirred a strange nostalgia—even a kind of fondness—and a smile crept onto his face.
That said, this did not look like it would blow over easily......
"It's not like you don't have the money. Just sell this estate and it's settled."
Jeong So-so bit her lip hard, then fixed the man with a glare.
"......Do you think I don't know what you're doing?"
"What?"
"Charging interest above the rate set by law, sabotaging businesses, threatening people so they can't pay their debts...... All to seize their homes and fill this neighborhood with your drinking houses. Everyone in this village knows!"
"Ha. Would you look at this bitch?"
"You think I'll sell this house because of your threats? I will never sell! I'll pay on the agreed date, so get that through your head!"
The man snorted as if she were beneath contempt.
"Can't tell if she's too young and stupid or just pretending to be."
"Wh-what did you say?"
"Even if what you say is true, what exactly can a girl like you do about it? Fight all you want—all you'll get is a taste of something ugly."
"......!"
"And hypothetically, say you just happened to get attacked by some lunatic on the street. Or say, entirely by coincidence, this house caught fire...... That would be quite the disaster, would it not?"
It was a threat, plain as day.
Jeong So-so's face went white in an instant.
"Wh-what did you just say?"
"Just saying it could happen. Ha ha ha!"
The man leered as he looked Jeong So-so up and down.
"If you really don't have the money, shall I introduce you to a nice line of work?"
Jeong So-so's head dropped, her body trembling.
'What am I supposed to do?'
When her friends had been out on strolls, hand in hand with their parents, she had been scrubbing dishes and foraging for medicinal herbs.
To protect her home. To protect her brother.
Even when her hands cracked and her feet blistered, she had endured. Because she believed that if she kept going, brighter days would come.
'Uncle came, and I finally thought things were looking up.'
Why was it that every time the world let her sprout the smallest shoot, it stamped it into the dirt without fail?
"You've got a pretty enough face. Play your cards right and you could earn a fortune."
"......"
"Why so quiet? Don't tell me you're crying."
"......You."
A small voice leaked from between Jeong So-so's teeth.
And then.
"Hey, you bastards!"
Jeong So-so, at least, was not the kind of person who crumbled when trampled.
"How dare you spout that garbage! Are you people even human?!"
"What?"
"Try me! I'll report you to the government office, the Martial Arts Alliance, anywhere! Just try it!"
"Have I been too patient with this bitch? Do you actually want to die?!"
"Go ahead! Go ahead and try! Touch me and see what happens!"
SHOVE!
Jeong So-so pushed the man hard.
"This bitch?"
The man's face, already contorted, twisted completely.
"We coddle you and coddle you, and you still don't know your place!"
CRASH—!
The man suddenly kicked the inner courtyard wall.
CRACK! CRUMBLE!
A section of the wall collapsed in a heap.
"......!"
Even Jeong So-so, who had been screaming right back at him, froze in an instant.
"Fearless little bitch. I was going to let this go, but......"
The man advanced on Jeong So-so, his face twitching.
That moment.
"You're the ones who should be afraid, you bastards."
The man spun at the voice that had suddenly come from behind him.
"What?"
Jin Cheong-un spoke, looking thoroughly bored.
"What do you mean, what? I'm the owner of this house."
***
"Uncle!"
At Jeong So-so's anguished cry, the man—Song Un-chan—paused for an instant.
'Uncle? So they do know each other?'
The crooked posture.
The scar-covered hands.
And...... those chilling eyes.
'One of ours?'
Up close, the man was clearly no ordinary person. Those were the eyes of someone who had put away more than a few bodies.
"......Who are you? Come to think of it, I haven't seen your face around here."
"Jin Cheong-un."
The casual indifference in his demeanor made Song Un-chan ask cautiously.
"A martial artist?"
"No. I'm the master of a martial arts school about to open just up the road."
Is he simply insane?
Just then, Jin Cheong-un pointed at the ruined wall and took issue.
"I've been sitting here quietly listening, and who gave you the right to decide whether to sell someone else's house? And what are you going to do about this wall?"
"You're saying this is your house?"
"If you don't believe me, ask at the government office."
Song Un-chan glanced back at Jeong So-so.
"Then what about her?"
"She's the landowner. And the daughter of someone I know."
Song Un-chan furrowed his brow and spoke with an irritated expression.
"How in the world can the house owner and the landowner be different people? With a niece, no less? What kind of idiot ends up in a situation like that? What absolute nonsens......"
Song Un-chan could not finish his sentence. He flinched.
Jin Cheong-un's face had twisted into something demonic.
"Life puts people in all kinds of situations. What do you know to be running your mouth like...... How dare you......"
"......"
He really is insane.
Song Un-chan looked Jin Cheong-un up and down.
The worn sword and shabby martial arts uniform gave him a rough sense of the picture.
'I got tense over nothing because of his aura.'
He snorted, and his expression shifted in an instant.
"I don't know what gutter you crawled out of, but you seem like one of our kind...... Why not go back to spectating like before?"
SHIIIING.
At Song Un-chan's signal, one of the gang members drew his blade and swaggered toward Jin Cheong-un.
"You'd make an enemy of the gang over some bitch and a run-down house? Uncle or master or whatever you are—step aside."
By then, the gang member had reached Jin Cheong-un and prodded his chest with the tip of his curved blade.
Jin Cheong-un looked down at it and let out a deep sigh.
"Hoo. My luck has truly gone rotten. I retired planning to drink in the daytime and take life easy, and yet the heavens do this to me......"
Perhaps mistaking his grumbling for submission, the blade-wielding gang member let out a slimy grin.
"Gutless bastard. Putting on airs when you......"
CRAAACK—!
In an instant, every eye went wide.
THUD!
The gang member slammed face-first into the ground, then went limp.
The curved blade that had been in his hand was now in Jin Cheong-un's.
"......"
Silence fell.
Every gaze converged on Jin Cheong-un.
CLATTER!
Jin Cheong-un tossed the curved blade aside and spoke.
"Leave while I'm letting you."
"......?"
"Pay for the wall, apologize to the girl, and I'll let you walk out of here nicely."
At that, Song Un-chan scoffed in disbelief.
"Lunatic."
SHIIIIIING.
The gang members drew their blades in unison and began to close in on Jin Cheong-un.
Jeong So-so cried out desperately to Song Un-chan.
"St-stop it! He has nothing to do with this!"
"Shut it! Once I'm done burying this one, you're next."
CLANG—!
Song Un-chan drew a wickedly gleaming blade of his own.
"He's got one decent trick, I'll give him that. But he's got no eye for reading a room."
Jeong So-so's face went white.
She had heard Jin Cheong-un had retired due to injuries. She did not want him getting hurt because of her.
"U-Uncle! Please stop!!"
"Ugh, why does this kid have to be so loud?"
Jin Cheong-un cringed and dug a finger into his ear.
"Wh-why are you doing this...... It's not even your problem......"
"I told you not to call me uncle."
He straightened his expression and turned his head.
Then, just as quickly, he wore a carefree, lukewarm smile.
"I've been thinking it over, and 'Master' suits me better than 'uncle.'"
"What?"
Jin Cheong-un smiled faintly.
"Since I'll be the head of the Blue Cloud Martial Arts School from now on, you should call me Master."
And there was no master in the world who would sit by and watch his student take a blade.
That was when.
"These two must be in a competition for who can spout more garbage."
Song Un-chan growled.
"The Gang Master gave orders not to kill, so I won't. But you'd best be prepared to spend a few months in bed."
At that, Jin Cheong-un abruptly walked toward the gate.
The action was so sudden that everyone stared at him, dumbfounded.
CREEEEEAK! SLAM!
Jin Cheong-un shut the gate.
CLACK! CLICK!
Then he bolted it firmly shut.
"Right, I won't kill you either."
He turned around slowly.
"I won't kill you."