Li Chi looked at the man before him — his face twisted beyond recognition. He was an academy instructor, the strictest and most upright teacher in the eyes of the academy’s students. Master Yuan had always been known as the most rigorous teacher at the academy.

Yet here, in this moment, he looked like a ghost. Like a fool.

When Yuan Jiabei looked up and saw that Li Chi was standing nearby, she immediately panicked. She turned to look at him, her eyes brimming with tears.

Li Chi kept his gaze on Master Yuan. Whatever friction had arisen between them over Yuan Jiabei’s affairs last time, Li Chi still held the man in some measure of respect.

At the very least, on matters of teaching, Master Yuan had never been lax. His attitude was more earnest and serious than any other instructor at the academy.

“Master Yuan.”

Li Chi called out.

Master Yuan glanced at him. An obvious change came over his expression — not because it was Li Chi who was here, but because someone had called him Master Yuan.

Only students from the academy addressed him that way. Very few others did. And if his current disgraceful state were seen by an academy student, his life would collapse in an instant.

He looked at Li Chi in a panic, then immediately turned away: “Who are you? You’ve mistaken me for someone else.”

“Master Yuan.”

Li Chi called out again.

Master Yuan’s grip involuntarily loosened. The silver ingot he’d been clutching dropped to the ground with a soft thud — like a slap across someone’s face.

Li Chi bent down, picked up the silver, and handed it back to the casino staff before asking: “How much has he borrowed here in total?”

The casino manager sized Li Chi up from head to toe. Reading people was their greatest skill, and Li Chi’s bearing and conduct made him set aside any contempt.

The manager answered: “Gongzi, this gentleman has borrowed a total of twenty-five taels from us.”

Li Chi asked: “So how much do I owe you?”

The manager said: “He took fifteen taels yesterday, agreed on double interest — today he owes thirty for yesterday’s debt. Today’s ten taels is also double interest, making it twenty — altogether fifty taels.”

Yu Jiuling said from the side: “That interest rate is outrageously high.”

The manager smiled: “Gongzi, he chose this himself. He said he could repay in one day, and we at the Grand Chrysanthemum never refuse a client’s request. Whatever terms the client chooses, those are the terms.”

Li Chi took out a fifty-tael banknote and handed it to the manager: “I’m paying on his behalf. Let him go.”

The manager could see that this gentleman didn’t even blink at fifty taels. He was clearly someone of considerable background — the kind of person you didn’t want to offend if you could avoid it. That was the secret to good business.

He accepted the silver with a smile: “Very well, then, sir — you may go.”

Li Chi extended his hand: “What about the ten taels from just now?”

The manager was taken aback: “Gongzi, are you looking to borrow too?”

Li Chi said: “That ten taels was his. He took it out himself. I already paid you what you were owed.”

The manager thought about it and saw the logic, so he handed the ten taels to Master Yuan. Master Yuan took it in trembling hands. Looking down at the silver, his face contorted again.

“Now I have money.”

Master Yuan turned to his daughter: “You go on home. I’ll win back what I lost and then come back. Don’t wait for me here. What’s a young girl doing in a place like this!”

Li Chi frowned slightly. He looked at Master Yuan and asked: “You still want to gamble?”

Yuan Jiabei grabbed Li Chi’s sleeve and pleaded: “Li Chi, please help my father. We only just returned to our hometown a few days ago. He was brought here by some friend of his and now he can’t stop himself.”

Li Chi gave Yuan Jiabei a small nod. He remembered now — she had mentioned at some point that her family’s hometown was here in Xinzhou, and that every year during the New Year holiday, her father brought the family back to spend the holiday here.

Someone like Master Yuan, serving as an instructor at the Four-Leaf Academy in Jizhou, earned a decent monthly stipend. Household expenses were minimal — the academy provided food and board, so there was little to spend money on. Every year when he returned to Xinzhou, he cut quite a prosperous figure.

Teaching at the Four-Leaf Academy carried social status even back in his hometown. The neighbors and townsfolk all treated him with great respect.

This trip back, a childhood friend whom he hadn’t seen in many years had sought him out. Somehow this friend had brought him to the Grand Chrysanthemum Casino for one round of gambling. And on his very first try, Master Yuan had won seventy or eighty taels — excited beyond measure, thrilled by the rush.

The second time he returned, he not only lost back everything he’d won, but also the thirty taels he’d brought with him. In desperation, with his friend acting as guarantor, he borrowed another fifteen taels from the casino.

Li Chi understood exactly what would happen. If Master Yuan borrowed more money today, his house in Xinzhou would be forfeit. And if he still didn’t stop, he’d lose his daughter too.

What would being a Four-Leaf Academy instructor matter then? The academy would not involve itself in something like this. A gambling-addicted instructor was no longer fit to be an instructor.

He asked Master Yuan: you still want to gamble?

Master Yuan nodded repeatedly: “My luck is turning. Don’t interfere. Let me play two more rounds — everything I lost will come back. Just two more rounds.”

Li Chi said nothing.

Seeing he wasn’t speaking, Master Yuan tried to walk around him and head back to the tables. Li Chi stepped sideways and blocked him.

Before Li Chi could say anything, the casino manager had already run out of patience.

“Gongzi,” the manager said to Li Chi, “I must ask you to stop interfering with our guests’ recreation. This is a gambling establishment. If you don’t wish to play, that’s your right — but if you obstruct our guests, I’ll have no choice but to ask you to leave right now.”

Master Yuan said: “Exactly. If you’re not playing, don’t block me.”

He was unrecognizable now from the stern academy instructor. Barely human. Barely anything.

He had only touched gambling a handful of times, and it had already reduced him to this.

Li Chi turned to look at the manager and said evenly: “Say another word, and I’ll tear your mouth off.”

The manager was so incensed he actually laughed.

“Gongzi, it seems you’re not from Xinzhou. Perhaps you don’t know what kind of place the Grand Chrysanthemum Casino is?”

The manager looked at Li Chi: “Those who wish to enjoy themselves are always welcome here. Those who want to cause trouble — well, maybe tomorrow your family will be looking for you in the paupers’ graves outside the city.”

Crack!

Li Chi didn’t move. Yu Jiuling stepped forward and slapped the manager across the face.

The blow was sudden and ferociously heavy. The manager spun in place, and in moments that entire half of his face swelled red.

“How dare you!” Yu Jiuling roared. “Do you know who you’re talking to?!”

Li Chi thought: this man gets into character fast.

The slap left the manager seeing stars — he had been so stunned by Yu Jiuling’s imposing manner that he stood momentarily frozen. As his head cleared, rage reignited.

“Beat them!”

He bellowed.

The casino’s enforcers had already been gathered around the edges. At the manager’s command, they all surged forward.

Li Chi glanced at Yu Jiuling. Yu Jiuling said sheepishly: “Got a bit carried away.”

But even as he said it, he kicked the nearest enforcer off his feet and then stamped down hard on the fallen man’s face several times.

“Everyone stand down!”

At that moment, several constables burst in from outside. They had been discreetly tailing Li Chi and hadn’t dared stray too far. Now that violence had broken out, there was no way they could just stand by and watch.

The constables rushed in. Before the manager could say a word, they bowed toward Li Chi: “Gongzi, this place is full of dangerous elements. We’re afraid someone might accidentally harm you. Please come outside first.”

Li Chi shook his head: “I’m not leaving. Xinzhou is truly an eye-opening experience for me.”

The constables exchanged glances, at a loss for what to do. The casino manager, seeing the constables treat Li Chi with such deference, felt a surge of unease.

One of the constables quietly slipped back, pulled the manager aside, and whispered urgently: “This gongzi is a man from Prince Yu’s estate in Jizhou. You’ve got some nerve!”

The manager’s scalp went cold. He hurried over and bowed again and again in apology.

This whole display left Yuan Jiabei and her father staring in bewilderment. Yuan Jiabei kept watching Li Chi, wondering: what exactly was going on here?

Li Chi pulled over a chair and sat down. No matter how the constables urged him, he refused to leave.

About three quarters of an hour later, Xinzhou Prefect Cui Hansheng and Deputy Prefect Han Tong came rushing in. One look at Li Chi’s darkened expression and Cui Hansheng felt his head might split open.

He hurried over and said with a placating smile: “Li Gongzi, this is…”

He’d started to feign ignorance about what had happened, but thought better of it halfway through.

“You’ve suffered a great indignity here.”

He stood and turned to the constables: “Arrest all these criminals and throw them in jail to await judgment. How dare they provoke Li Gongzi — have they no regard for their own lives?”

Li Chi had been looking for an opportunity to cause a scene at this casino, and now that the scene had presented itself, he naturally had no intention of letting it go quietly.

“Prefect Cui, Xinzhou has truly left me speechless. Coming into the city, a chest of my silver was robbed, and I barely escaped with my life. Coming here for some recreation, I’m surrounded by casino thugs… Prefect Cui, has Dachu’s rule of law simply ceased to exist in Xinzhou?”

“Nothing of the sort, nothing of the sort.”

Cui Hansheng raised a hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead. Everyone in Jizhou who held any official position knew what Prince Yu was scheming. As long as they stayed within Jizhou, who would dare cross the Prince’s estate?

If Prince Yu were someday to turn his household into a kingdom, all the officials serving under Jizhou would have no choice in the matter. Cross the Prince’s estate, and calling it career suicide was putting it mildly.

Just then, Liu Wenju finally came rushing in. He had been asleep at home, annoyed to be woken up, but when he heard that Chief Constable Qi Dian had come, he got up to receive him. While mid-conversation with Qi Dian, he heard there had been an incident at the casino involving someone from a prince’s estate — and the fright nearly knocked his soul loose from his body.

He sprinted over breathless. As a businessman, he understood perfectly that the one person you could never afford to offend was anyone with official backing. And right now in Jizhou, who was bigger than Prince Yu?

Word had it that since rebel forces had already pushed into Jingzhou, the court needed to recall Prince Wu to deal with the rebellion. Once Prince Wu left, there would be no one in Jizhou capable of restraining Prince Yu — and the day Prince Yu declared himself emperor would not be far off.

“Your humble subject Liu Wenju pays his respects to the noble lord.”

Liu Wenju dropped to his knees and prostrated himself on the floor. He wasn’t sure exactly who was the lord here, but paying respects first was always the right move.

Li Chi looked at him and said: “Who are you?”

Liu Wenju replied nervously: “My lord, this casino belongs to your humble subject. That you suffered a fright here is a crime worthy of death.”

Li Chi said evenly: “Your people here tried to steal my silver, and now you’ve come to steal it too?”

Liu Wenju immediately said: “I wouldn’t dare. Your humble subject has come to return the silver to you.”

A flash of inspiration: “I am late only because your humble subject was assisting the Chief Constable in searching for those criminals outside the city. We’ve already found them — the criminals themselves haven’t been caught, but the silver you lost has been recovered.”

He gave a look: “What are you waiting for? Bring in the two chests of silver for the lord!”

His men scurried out, and before long returned carrying two large chests. Liu Wenju threw them open — inside was a gleaming pile of solid silver, packed full.

Li Chi frowned: “I lost one chest. How did you find two?”

Liu Wenju: “Well, this…”

Before he could answer, Li Chi continued: “Wait — that’s not right either. The chest I lost was much bigger than these. Your chests are too small. Mine was…”

He spread his arms wide to indicate the size.

“We have it!”

Liu Wenju immediately declared. “A big chest! We have that too!”

He turned and shouted: “Keep looking! Get moving!”

—