Just as Yang Ge had predicted.
As the only inn in Luting County bold enough to defy the wind and open its doors for business.
Yuelai Inn’s business exploded as soon as it started welcoming guests.
Every day a steady stream of martial artists came seeking lodging or a meal, nearly wearing down the inn’s threshold.
Serving dishes was like hosting a never-ending feast, starting from nine in the morning and bustling until curfew at night.
Within a few days...
The guests were so numerous they couldn’t find a seat, prompting Yang Ge to ask Liu, the shopkeeper, to borrow tables, chairs, stools, pots, and pans from neighbors, turning the street into an open-air extension of the inn.
The inn staff was quickly overwhelmed, so Yang Ge took charge and quadrupled the original staff, cleaning up the back courtyard’s clutter to set up clay stoves and large pots.
No sooner had they resolved the staffing and space issues than they found themselves short on food supplies. Yang Ge had no choice but to send Liu Mang to the market to negotiate with the butchers and greengrocers, urging them to procure ingredients by any means. They were instructed to deliver any edible meat or vegetables to the inn without bargaining.
And the dining martial artists were exceedingly generous.
As long as there was a seat, a meal to eat, and a bed to sleep in,
whatever Yuelai Inn charged, they paid, without haggling!
How profitable could a monopoly on business be?
Well, put it this way, ever since Yuelai Inn reopened, a single day’s earnings were equivalent to the previous two or three months!
In just half a month, Yang Ge not only wiped out the last year’s losses from the inn’s closure but also turned a tidy profit.
The old shopkeeper was so delighted that every day when he saw Yang Ge, his first words were, "You must take a bonus, otherwise holding this money doesn’t feel right at all!"
Of course, everyone knew that when so many people from the martial community gathered together, trouble would ensue.
And these martial heroes certainly made trouble with remarkable clarity!
There were those who harbored old grudges and now glared at each other with new hatred upon meeting.
There were those annoyed by others’ noisy drinking games, boisterous shouting, and ostentatious posturing.
There were those who inadvertently heard their own misfortunes mentioned in others’ bragging.
In any case, disputes would erupt at the slightest provocation!
A single wrong look could lead straight to a fight!
And there were countless instances where just declaring one’s name would be enough to start a brawl...
Even more dramatic was the fact that many martial artists who were fighting tooth and nail outside the inn one day,
would the next day, at mealtime, be slinging arms around each other’s shoulders, seated at the same table, brotherly and jovial, raising toasts and cups!
In fact, according to Yang Ge’s calculations, since the inn started receiving guests, an average of 4.5 individual brawls and 1.5 group fights broke out per day, with 5 to 6 sets of tables and stools smashed and hundreds of bowls and plates shattered!
Fortunately, the local residents, upon seeing a whole street of martial arts practitioners, would simply take a detour, so there were no worries about injuries to bystanders during the fights.
Thanks to the generosity of these spendthrift martial artists, Yuelai Inn was able to replace all the old tables and stools that Liu, the shopkeeper, had used for decades and was reluctant to replace, as well as those older borrowed items, with brand new elm wood furniture.
This brought great joy to the idle carpenters in the county, who started to hang around near Yuelai Inn every day, ready to dash home at the first sign of a fight and eagerly deliver the stock of tables and stools right to the doorstep...
Eventually, Yuelai Inn almost became a viral check-in spot for these martial heroes.
Although other envious inn and restaurant owners in the city had opened for business, reducing the initial squeeze for lodging,
The martial artists pouring into Luting County still made a beeline for Yuelai Inn at mealtime, preferring to queue for a table rather than go elsewhere.
When asked why they didn’t lodge at other inns, the answers were remarkably uniform:
’What’s the taste in dining if you can’t see a fight?’ they’d retort.
And those martial artists who arrived later in Lu Ting County would head straight for Yuelai Inn upon entering the city.
Some would even pick out someone who seemed evenly matched and purposely start a fight.
The reasons were equally striking:
’If you’ve been to Lu Ting County but haven’t stopped by Yuelai Inn, wasn’t that a wasted trip?’
’If you’ve been to Lu Ting County but haven’t fought at Yuelai Inn, wasn’t that a wasted trip?’
Of course.
These martial heroes hadn’t traveled thousands of miles to Luting County just to be turd-makers.
Dining and fighting at Yuelai Inn were just minor diversions, small pleasures during their time in Luting County.
They had plenty of important business to attend to.
For instance, presenting evidence they had collected from their hometowns to the imperial envoy, evidence of the three major grain merchants hoarding grain and price gouging.
Some of this evidence seemed impressive but was actually flimsy, like ’petitions signed with the blood of thousands’ or ’desperate letters written by starving people’ and the like.
Other pieces seemed unassuming yet were as solid as a dog-head cleaver, such as ledgers stolen from inside the grain merchants...
These naive folks, whose understanding of the imperial court mostly came from storytelling and novels, often proclaimed loudly in the inn what evidence they brought, like ’something certain to doom the Li Family’ or ’something sure to throw the Wang Family into endless calamity,’ spouting such foolish talk.
Yang Ge couldn’t ignore it even if he wanted to.
But from what he observed, those pieces of evidence that seemed significant but were utterly useless,
like the ’petitions signed with the blood of thousands’ and ’desperate letters written by starving people,’ and so on.
The dead eunuch accepted them all without exception.
Yet, the truly useful evidence,
such as the ledgers of the three major grain merchants and witness testimonies from within, that dead eunuch didn’t take a single piece.
There were also many heroes from Jianghu who, following in Zhang Mazi’s previous footsteps, went to the granaries of the three major grain merchants at night to take grain and distribute porridge.
Some even went straight to their doors, forcing the people of the three major grain merchants to confess their crimes to the imperial envoy.
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Compared to how they dealt with Zhang Mazi before, the three major grain merchants’ attitude towards these heroes was much more submissive.
If heroes came to take grain, they would open their granaries and let them take as they pleased.
The next day, they did not forget to refill the granaries, waiting for the next wave of heroes to come for grain.
If heroes came to their doors to pressure them to confess, they obediently ran to the government office to confess.
Claiming that a hero had instructed them to confess, they begged the county governor for mercy, asking to stay in the jail for a few days...
The way they punched the air, one fancy combination after another, was so pitiful that Yang Ge, a novice in the official circles, couldn’t bear to watch.
He felt that these Jianghu heroes’ ability to seek redress was just like their performance at the Yuelai Inn—equally inadequate.
Equally unsatisfied with whatever they ate.
Equally incompetent at whatever they did.
Of course, they were not completely without effect.
At the very least, as stirrers of shit, each of them was quite competent!
Before their arrival in Lu Ting, the situation in Luting County was clear as a chess game.
Whether it was the dead eunuch or the three major grain merchants, all were in the open.
Whatever either side did, there were countless eyes watching.
Nobody could get away with anything.
Nobody could sneak around.
But since these troublemakers had arrived, the situation in Luting County had become muddied waters.
Everyone had been working together to stir the waters into greater murkiness.
Muddy waters are perfect for fishing!
Muddy waters are perfect for sneaking around!
In such a complex situation, even though Yang Ge had the advantage of being the host, he couldn’t tell who was fishing or sneaking around.
And there wasn’t much he could do.
Just quietly chopping off the claws reaching for a few key pieces of evidence.
Although he also knew that even if he managed to save those few critical pieces of evidence, it was unlikely to change anything...
But he wouldn’t let such foul deeds be buried and whitewashed right before his eyes!
Even if he couldn’t change anything now, he wanted to preserve those pieces of evidence for the future.
Whether it be ten years later, twenty years later.
Or a hundred years later, two hundred years later...
He firmly believed that one day, those pieces of evidence would come to light for all to see.
By then, people would know that there was once a group of scum in human skin who conducted themselves more disgracefully than pigs and dogs!
Good people should not die without their stories known.
And bad people should not die without their misdeeds revealed.
Sometimes, Yang Ge wished he could be a bit more selfish, a bit more detached, not wasting the best of times struggling with these rotten people and their affairs.
But history really weighed too heavily, and the suffering of the common folk was truly too profound.
Now, he was living in the midst of history, in the midst of profound suffering.
How could he possibly transcend it...
Elsewhere.
The heroes of Jianghu, unknowing instruments of chaos,
were oblivious to the fact that their efforts, their advocacy, had been meaningless from the beginning.
They continued to rage impotently at the court’s betrayal of their heartfelt sincerity and righteous indignation.
This impotent rage, unexpressed and nurtured over time through repeated setbacks, had fermented into a fierce blaze capable of burning down a city.
Yang Ge knew that the time for a great upheaval was finally nearing...
He had been enduring these scoundrels for far too long!
On the evening of the nineteenth of March, Ma Yinghu, Vice Gang Leader of the Beggars’ Sect, appeared at the ruined temple on the outskirts of Luting County, widely distributing hero invitations, calling for a grand assembly of heroes to discuss important matters.
That night, Yang Ge donned the long-abandoned Jiutong mask.
"Timely Rain" Zhang Mazi returned to Jianghu!