The sun climbed high in the sky, and icicles under the eaves dripped water droplets.
Seven or eight burly men with fierce faces pushed aside the peddlers and porters blocking their way, advancing menacingly toward Fan Changyu’s shop. The leader had a broad face with a short beard, his countenance particularly vicious, though he walked with a noticeable limp.
This was none other than Jin Ye, the head enforcer from the gambling den who had repeatedly caused trouble at Fan Changyu’s home.
“I’d like to see who’s got the guts to do business on this street without paying respects to ol’…”
Upon seeing Fan Changyu standing with her arms crossed at the shop entrance, Jin Ye’s voice trailed off mid-sentence. The few underlings behind him, who had been beaten by Fan Changyu before, also simultaneously changed their expressions.
Even his good leg began to ache faintly.
This couple’s brutality was unmatched. Would his other leg be broken here today as well?
The underlings unconsciously took half a step back, dragging their lame legs.
Seeing their large group, the nearby butchers felt anxious for Fan Changyu, who was just a young woman. Only Butcher Guo from across the street wore a schadenfreude expression.
Jin Ye struggled to force a fawning smile onto his face. “Miss… Miss Fan? Is this shop yours?”
The onlookers were dumbfounded by this scene.
This turn of events… seemed rather unexpected.
Fan Changyu casually picked up the staff behind the door, and the group of street ruffians immediately showed terror on their faces, frightened into retreating together.
The leader, Jin Ye, waved his hands repeatedly. “A misunderstanding! Miss Fan, it’s truly a misunderstanding! Had we known this shop was yours, how could we dare to disrespect you?”
Across the street, Butcher Guo’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, seemingly unable to comprehend how these street thugs could be so afraid of Fan Changyu.
Fan Changyu coldly eyed Jin Ye, pointing her staff at the smashed brick stove in front of her shop. “Did you break this?”
Despite the freezing weather, Jin Ye’s forehead broke out in a cold sweat. He hastily wiped it with his sleeve and said repeatedly, “We were just doing a job for pay, working for someone else. We’ll fix it for you! We’ll fix it right away!”
He quickly signaled to the underlings behind him. Terrified by the staff in Fan Changyu’s hand and not wanting to experience the pain of being beaten until they vomited again, they tremblingly came forward to repair the stove.
Fan Changyu couldn’t help but feel somewhat bewildered. She had originally thought these people were truly here to collect protection money, not expecting there to be this layer of intrigue involved.
She directly asked Jin Ye, “Who ordered you to cause trouble at my shop?”
“Miss Fan, this…” Jin Ye’s face showed difficulty. They had taken money to do a job, so naturally, they had to keep their mouths shut.
Fan Changyu swung her staff around, pointing it directly at Jin Ye’s throat. Jin Ye hadn’t even reacted before he saw the staff aimed at his vital point. Cold sweat immediately beaded on his forehead and dripped down. All thoughts of professional ethics vanished as he stammered, “It… it was the shopkeeper of Wang’s Braised Meats on the main street.”
Fan Changyu frowned slightly. She had no prior acquaintance with Wang’s shopkeeper, and their shops were several streets apart, neither affecting the other’s business. Her braised meat business had only been running for a few days, not enough to provoke such a response from the other party.
She immediately barked, “Nonsense! I have no grudge against Wang’s shopkeeper. Why would he send you to smash my shop?”
Jin Ye hastily replied, “Everything I’ve said is true. Yesterday, Wang’s shop assistant personally came to us with money.”
Fan Changyu’s brow furrowed even deeper. Seeing that the underlings had already used clay to re-lay the bricks on the stove and that more and more onlookers were gathering, she thought that regardless of the situation, business couldn’t be delayed. She withdrew her staff.
Before Jin Ye could catch his breath, he found himself being ordered around by Fan Changyu again. “You, light the fire and warm up the stove first. The rest of you, go to the well at the street corner and bring back a few buckets of water for me.”
She prepared braised meat at the shop entrance, so naturally, she needed water on hand. However, this morning, to deal with the smashed stove issue, she hadn’t had time to fetch water from the well.
Having wasted nearly half a day, if she were to do everything herself now, it would likely be too late. So, she decided to put these readily available laborers, who had wasted her time, to use.
The underlings hadn’t expected to be ordered around like this and stood dumbfounded. With one glance from Fan Changyu, they didn’t dare hesitate and quickly took the water buckets to fetch water.
As the small-time thugs left, the bystanders who had gathered outside Fan’s shop, not understanding the situation, thought the matter was resolved and dispersed to go about their own business.
Only the neighboring shopkeepers, seeing Fan Changyu directly ordering around this group of troublemaking thugs, nearly dropped their jaws in shock, looking at Fan Changyu as if she were some kind of freak.
Fan Changyu didn’t notice at all. Seeing Jin Ye standing at her shop entrance, preventing customers from coming in to buy meat, she quickly shooed him to the side. “Go stand over there, don’t block my business. After I finish selling today’s meat, you’ll come with me to Wang’s shop. I want an explanation. If you’ve been telling me lies…”
Her gaze swept over Jin Ye’s other leg. “I’ll cripple this leg too!”
Jin Ye recalled the man’s sinister expression that day and the vicious blow that had fallen on his leg. The not-yet-fully-healed leg sent a piercing pain through him, draining the color from his face. He quickly shook his head. “I, Jin Laosan, wouldn’t dare lie to Miss Fan even if I lied to everyone else!”
Seeing him so frightened, Fan Changyu maintained her fierce expression, but inwardly she couldn’t help but wonder just how brutally that guy had beaten these men. Just mentioning crippling the other leg had scared this man so badly.
The underlings quickly returned with water. Fearing they might have put something in it, Fan Changyu gave them a ladle and made them each take a sip from their buckets before she felt safe using the water to clean the pork for braising.
As for the water for cooking, she still had some left from yesterday in the water vat inside her shop.
Once the large pot was set up, the aroma of braised meat began to waft down the entire street again.
Those who had queued at Fan Changyu’s shop yesterday but failed to buy braised meat came early today and finally managed to make a purchase.
However, most people, upon seeing Jin Ye and his group crouching with bitter expressions beside Fan Changyu’s shop, still didn’t dare to come forward to buy anything.
Despite their miserable expressions, their rough features still made them look like fierce demons.
Fan Changyu also noticed this point. To prevent these people from affecting her business, and coincidentally as the first batch of freshly braised meat was almost sold out, she bought six pig heads and three buckets of offal from the neighboring butcher shop. She gave each of the men a pig head, instructing them to clean off all the hair, and had the remaining few wash the offal under her watchful eye.
As they busied themselves with heads down, naturally, the customers coming to buy meat no longer noticed their fierce faces.
Fan Changyu alternated between butchering meat for customers and supervising the group. When she caught someone slacking off or not cleaning properly, she’d poke them with her staff. “There’s still hair on this pig’s head! Rub the large intestines with wood ash, wash them clean, then scrub them from end to end with rice straw!”
She was even three times more tyrannical than a real bully.
The group of street thugs trembled, secretly regretting their bad luck in offending this young mistress again.
Fan Changyu, however, seemed to have mind-reading abilities and said sternly, “When you do wrong, you must be punished. Otherwise, what becomes of the law?”
The group shrank like quails, nodding and agreeing repeatedly.
Seeing their good attitude in admitting their mistakes, Fan Changyu asked during a lull, “Aren’t you supposed to be working at the gambling den? How come you’re everywhere?”
Mentioning this, the street thugs all looked somewhat embarrassed.
Jin Laosan said in a muffled voice, “The brothers aren’t working at the gambling den anymore.”
Fan Changyu was somewhat puzzled and asked why.
A small-time thug, hugging a pig’s head, mumbled, “We followed Third Brother to work as bouncers at the gambling den just to make a living. This time, we failed to collect the debt for the gambling den on time. If we had cut off Miss Fan’s hand to complete the job, the gambling den wouldn’t have approved anyway. Besides, in all our years of debt collecting, we’ve never really made anyone lose an arm or a leg. Later, when our legs were injured… we were kicked out of the gambling den…”
Fan Changyu frowned. “Aren’t you still collecting protection money all over the streets?”
Jin Laosan let out a sigh. “This protection money isn’t ours to keep once we collect it. We’re just collecting it for others.”
Seeing that Fan Changyu didn’t seem to understand his meaning, he spoke plainly, “For us to be able to openly demand money from merchants, the authorities must turn a blind eye. There are people in high places covering for us. If trouble arises, someone will take responsibility. Naturally, the bulk of the money collected goes to curry favor with those officials.”
Fan Changyu remained silent with a grim face for a good while.
Jin Laosan quickly added, “But this street never had anyone collecting protection money before. If we had known Miss Fan’s shop was here, we wouldn’t have dared to come…”
A fog of confusion settled over Fan Changyu’s mind. She suddenly asked, “When did they start collecting on this street?”
Jin Laosan thought for a moment and said, “Just last month.”
Fan Changyu’s brow furrowed even deeper. Her parents had also died at the hands of mountain bandits last month. Could there be some connection?
But she dismissed the idea almost as soon as it occurred to her. Her father had traveled the jianghu for many years and was skilled in martial arts. It seemed unlikely that after living in Lin’an Town for over a decade, he would suddenly be targeted and meet with misfortune.
Fan Changyu put aside her thoughts and maintained her fierce expression as she addressed Jin Laosan and his group. “As full-grown men, why can’t you do honest work instead of living as hoodlums and ruffians!”
“We’ll change! We’ll change! We’ll be good people from now on!”
The group trembled like shrinking quails at the sight of her anger.
Only then did Fan Changyu stop berating them. With all the heavy work being done by others today, she found herself unexpectedly at leisure.
The reputation of Fan’s Braised Meat had already spread, and today’s business was even better than yesterday’s. Before noon, all the meat she had brought from home pre-braised and what she had braised on-site today had sold out completely. Even the braised eggs in the shop were gone. She sent one of the small-time thugs to buy another basket of eggs, most of which also sold quickly.
Two braised eggs for just three wen was indeed an enticing price.
Fan Changyu roughly calculated today’s income, which amounted to over four taels!
The butchers in the neighboring meat shops naturally envied her business, but seeing Jin Laosan’s group bowing and scraping to her, they didn’t dare utter a single sour word.
In a good mood from earning silver, Fan Changyu even found Jin Laosan and his group more pleasing to the eye. Since they had helped her with work all morning and shown a good attitude in admitting their mistakes, she gave each of them a braised egg.
The small-time thugs, who had been ordered around all morning, were as wilted as little cabbages in the field. Suddenly being given a hot braised egg, they were dumbfounded.
Fan Changyu continued to face them with a fierce expression. “Hurry up and eat, then come with me to confront Wang’s shop!”
The small-time thugs, who had been smelling the aroma of braised meat all morning, had their stomachs growling fiercely. At this moment, they almost wanted to swallow the eggshells too.
After eating, the group was still unsatisfied and cautiously asked, “Miss… Miss Fan, can we come to work at your shop in the future?”
Fan Changyu thought with a stern face that this wouldn’t do. These burly men would eat her out of house and home if they all came to work in her shop!
She ruthlessly refused, “No.”
The small-time thugs didn’t dare say anything more and dejectedly followed behind her toward Wang’s shop. However, due to their fierce appearances, they didn’t look dejected at all.
Passersby on the street all made way for them. This scene looked to anyone like a female bully leading her underlings to cause trouble.
In a restaurant along the street, a man in brocade robes personally rose to pour tea for the person sitting opposite him. In the rising white mist of steam, the embroidered patterns on his wide sleeves became blurred:
“The situation in Huizhou is not yet stable. While the Marquis lies low here, it’s not convenient for his confidants to come. But Zhao is a businessman, and Wei’s family’s watchdogs can’t trace anything to Zhao. As long as the Marquis trusts Zhao, Zhao is willing to lay down his life for the Marquis.”
The window lattice was half-open. The man sitting opposite him had a profile like jade carving, with clear and handsome features. His long fingers, bearing dark scabs, tapped lightly on the table, showing casual indifference yet carrying an air of authority that made one breathless.
His narrow eyes were half-closed as he gazed out the window, seemingly admiring the snowy scene along the street.
Seeing that he hadn’t responded for a long time, the man in brocade robes followed his gaze outside, only then realizing that he didn’t seem to be looking at the snow scene, but at a young woman leading more than a dozen ruffians down the street.
The man in brocade robes glanced at Xie Zheng again, his eyes flickering slightly as he smiled and said, “That must be the Marquis’s new wife, right?”