I Can See Your Combat Power
Chapter 1079 - Chapter 1079 Chapter Three Hundred and Seventy-Three New

Chapter 1079: Chapter Three Hundred and Seventy-Three: New Industry Chapter 1079: Chapter Three Hundred and Seventy-Three: New Industry Having wriggled free from the binds of Yunlai Inn’s Cloud Hands, Huai Chenghua kept his head low, pulling the various martial arts school students who lay scattered on the ground to their feet before attempting to leave, only to be halted by Brother Tian’s call.

“Wait a moment,” Brother Tian said coldly. “Since ancient times, a debt is to be repaid, a life taken must be compensated. As long as the Huangfu Family remains in Chaochang for one more day, the debt cannot escape. But when it comes to debt collection, there should be a sense of priority and urgency. When the Huangfu Trade Group left the town, it was joined by a large sum of common folks’ money from only three individuals. The biggest shareholder is none other than this humble one. If the money is to be taken, it should be collected by me first. Huai Master, you have no objections to this, do I presume?”

Huai Chenghua’s face stiffened, and he nodded without missing a beat, “Yes, yes, yes, Boss Yun is correct, as the trade group’s major shareholder, naturally, you should get paid first.”

“Glad to know you understand the rules!” Brother Tian snorted. “Now, young Huangfu is busy selling goods. Even if the proceeds are insufficient, the Huangfu family has both property and land, so there’s no shortage of principal and interest for the common folks. However, if some people’s actions lead to the boy being driven into a dead end and resulting in a total loss, I won’t be able to spare them. Understand?”

Chastened, Huai Chenghua led the martial arts school students away in a dejected manner. After Brother Tian closed the door, he helped the collapsed young man off the floor and went back to fetch two jars, placing them on the table. He spoke indifferently to the distraught young man, “One jar for external application, one for internal use. You should recover in three to five days.”

Huangfu Wang, his expression wooden, nodded and tucked the two jars into his arms, then lifted his swollen face to glance at Brother Tian. His mouth moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he only managed a whisper as faint as a mosquito’s buzz, “Thank you.”

With still nearly half of his goods at the docks, Huangfu Wang dared not delay. He got to his feet to leave and paused at the doorway as if finally mustering the courage, yet without daring to look back, he earnestly promised, “Yun… Brother Tian, as soon as I’ve sold the house, I will bring you the principal and interest without any delay!”

“Enough, enough,” Brother Tian, sitting impatiently in the courtyard, waved his hand dismissively. “Once the goods are sold and the property disposed of, remember to first repay the principal and interest owed to Manager Liu of Yunlai Inn and to Ding Family Martial Arts Hall. The money Manager Liu put in is all the working capital of Yunlai Inn. If there are delays and the situation is exposed, and the Liu Clan comes to collect, I can’t protect you. As for the Ding Family Martial Arts Hall, Huai Chenghua is just a student; without Master Ding’s instructions, he couldn’t have mustered such funds. Both debts are urgent; you must arrange them quickly. I’m not in need of the money right away; you can repay me when you’ve gotten back on your feet.”

“Brother Tian…”

“Instead of staying here being moved, you’d better hurry to the docks. If the clerks and accountants get panicked and run off because the Ding Family Martial Arts Hall’s students robbed you, then those carriages of goods will truly be fruitless!”

Having sent the young man off, Brother Tian returned to the firewood room, disheartened, and plonked down onto a small stool with an air of deep concern.

“Given the situation, I’m afraid it might take some time before you can recover the Huangfu family’s thirty percent capital,”

Tang Luo stretched his neck from the bed and asked with a smile, “They say, ‘No compassion in the military, no righteousness in finance,’ are you sure you won’t incur losses doing business like this?”

“Hmph,” Brother Tian rolled his eyes and responded gruffly, “What kind of business can a person do if they’re willing to drive a widow and her child to death over a sum of money? That’s not even qualified to be called human!”

“You have a point there!” Tang Luo smiled again from the bed. “Although I quite agree with your sentiments, right now our family is so poor we can hardly keep the pot boiling, and we don’t even have the money to buy grain. What will you do?”

…

The East Market is neither big nor small,

News that the Second Senior Brother, Huai Chenghua, of Ding Family Martial Arts Hall, along with a group of more than ten students, pressed Huangfu Wang for debt repayment and then slinked out of the alley behind East Market not long after, spread rapidly through the area within just half a day.

Many elders also took this chance to elaborate on the legend of Brother Tian, satisfying their own desires to boast while simultaneously earning admiring gazes from younger folks.

As for Brother Tian, the centerpiece of these tales, he had just returned from handling pigsties at the Wu Family’s estate and was boasting to Tang Luo about the major business he was soon to start, brimming with pride.

“If this plan succeeds, I’ll be pulling in hundreds of gold daily within the first half of the month. Once I expand the scale further, and set up branches on East Second and East Third Streets, raking in a pot of gold daily will be no mere boast!”

“Wow, did you get exclusive rights for Wu Family’s fattened pigs? Sounds like you can make a pretty penny!”

“Hmph, wisdom generates wealth!” Brother Tian said proudly, lifting his head, “If I weren’t in a hurry for money, I wouldn’t have turned this secret recipe into a business!”

“Spill it, what kind of business is so amazing.”

“You’ll know soon enough!”

Brother Tian patted Tang Luo’s belly, grinning, “I guarantee you’ll never forget the taste after you try it once!”

Being patted on the belly again, Tang Luo, inexplicably insulted, gritted his teeth in irritation, “Can’t you just talk without hitting me!”

“Oh? Kid, you’re young but you’ve got quite the temper, daring to speak to your elder brother like that.” Brother Tian raised an eyebrow, patted Tang Luo’s belly again, and taunted, “So what if I hit you? Can you actually stand up and hit me back?”

“Humph…” Tang Luo, who was hit again without reason, silently told himself that a wise man does not fight when the odds are against him. But his pride wouldn’t let him relent, so he muttered resentfully, “Just wait until I’ve recovered!”

As Brother Tian was about to pat again in the face of the tough talk, a voice of an old man calling out came from outside, “Is this Boss Yun’s place?”

Hearing the call, Brother Tian’s face lit up with joy, and without bothering to lecture his junior, he hurried to open the door to receive the goods.

As the door opened, a foul, putrid smell assaulted their noses; the old man’s handcart was laden with buckets of bloody pig offal.

Brother Tian, as if completely unfazed by the stench, checked each bucket and, satisfied, collected the goods and stored them in the courtyard.

In mid-September, Chaochang still retained some of the late summer heat, and mosquitoes were swarming around the courtyard, drawn by the putrid smell, which turned the originally pleasant little yard into a space swirling with foul odors.

But Brother Tian, in the midst of the flies and mosquitoes, seemed totally oblivious to the stench as he carefully sealed the pig offal in the cellar, only leaving out one bucket to begin processing.

Tang Luo in the room closed off mentally once more. If he had known earlier that Brother Tian’s business dealt with the pig offal that nobody would eat, he would have done everything in his power to stop it.

But now it was too late for regrets. The yard was already polluted, and even the air was filled with the stench!

A look of national tragedy on his face, Longxi’s Pride once again extended a cloud-like hand from the Divine Cavity, pinching to death each fly and mosquito that flew into the room.

From today on, this place shall be, a no-fly zone!

…

In a prosperous place like Chaochang, even the poorest of families can find work if they are willing to exert themselves.

In this city where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold, there is little farmland, because compared to the land prices in Chaochang, selling a plot of land and exchanging it for gold and silver, then out to buy grain, the amount of grain that can be bought, that plot of land would not produce in ten generations.