Let’s Play Until We’re Dead (5)
Nanjing.
“Damn it, I can’t buy a damned win!”
Go Tae slammed the tiles in his hand onto the table and scratched his head irritably, his face twisted with annoyance.
“Heh, heh. There are days like that.”
“What? Days like that? It’d be faster to find a day that isn’t like that!”
Snorting, he pushed himself up from his seat.
“That’s enough for today.”
“It’s only evening. You’re quitting already?”
“Keep going and I’ll only lose more. Why? You want to strip some sucker blind?”
“A sucker? Didn’t you win last time?”
“What does that amount to?”
He glared fiercely at the man across from him, then kicked the leg of his chair in frustration.
“Anyway, I’m out. You lot keep playing among yourselves.”
“Where do you think you’re going? Did you forget it’s your shift tonight?”
“How many people do you think need to be babysitting this thumb-sized gambling den? I’m going to collect dues, so keep watch yourselves.”
“Tsk tsk, what a temper.”
Whether they badmouthed him behind his back or not, Go Tae simply grabbed the dao he had tossed carelessly beside him and strode out of the gambling den with rough, heavy steps.
After walking a long way through the back alleys, he came upon the merchants who had set up roadside stalls.
“Fresh fruit, sweet and ripe! Come and try some!”
“Pancakes for sale! Pancakes!”
“Cloth from the Western Regions! Come take a look!”
Scanning the stalls, Go Tae frowned and marched straight toward one of them.
“Hey, old man!”
“Yes! Welcome, I—ugh….”
The merchant’s face twisted the moment he recognized Go Tae. But only for an instant; he quickly forced a calm expression and asked stiffly, “Ah, y-you’ve come?”
“How’s business? Doing well?”
“Hahaha… business is always business, isn’t it? Still, thanks to your consideration, I’ve been able to keep bread on the table.”
“Is that so?”
Go Tae snickered.
“You’ve got bread on the table, and I’m on the verge of not even being able to put bark in my mouth.”
“W-what….”
“What, what?”
Crash!
He mercilessly kicked over the goods laid out for sale.
“Agh!”
“If you’ve made money, you pay the stall fee! Do you think you can just stuff all your profits down your gullet and call it a day? You’re already three months behind on your stall fees!”
“Please, sir… I truly have no money.”
“No money? Then shut down the stall! What’s the point of running a business if you can’t even pay the rent? You’d be better off climbing a mountain and cutting wood!”
“J-just one more month, please….”
“And this old bastard thinks anyone believes he’s digging a hole in the ground to make a living?”
Crash!
He kicked the cart carrying the goods so hard that it flew away, and he shouted, “I was generous enough to wait two more months! And now you want me to wait another month? Are you that desperate to die, old man?! Do you think our Gwigal Sect is a joke?”
“No, no! Of course not! How could I?”
“If you can’t pay with money, then pay with goods!”
Go Tae strode forward and seized the cart he had kicked over. The merchant turned white with panic and clutched at the hem of Go Tae’s clothes.
“I-if you take that, my family will starve to death for sure! I-I’ll pay next month, I swear it! Please, just this once…!”
“Have you lost your damned mind?”
Thud!
Go Tae kicked the merchant in the chest, the man who had been hanging on to his legs. With a helpless cry, the merchant was sent sprawling.
Go Tae roughly brushed off the clothes the man had grabbed and raised his voice in disgust.
“This is why you can’t trust a black-haired beast. When this old man first opened his stall, he swore he’d pay the fees no matter what, and now he’s trying to make me the villain? I waited two whole months—that should have been enough! You feed your own brats and I’m the one who’s supposed to let mine starve?”
The other merchants, watching from a distance, whispered among themselves.
“What’s happening now?”
“No idea. Looks like that madman lost money at the gambling den again. Is this anything new?”
“...How long are we supposed to keep watching this?”
Complaints and weary sighs leaked from everyone’s mouths, but no one had the courage to step forward and stop Go Tae.
For ordinary people like them to take on Go Tae, a black-do member of the Gwigal Sect, was no different from suicide. Just looking at the dao hanging at his waist was enough to make their knees weak and their skin crawl.
When the elderly merchant was dragged in again and kicked once more, the onlookers could bear it no longer and shut their eyes tight.
“Damn it, maybe I should just quit this whole thing.”
“Don’t say that. If we stop trading, what are we supposed to live on?”
“Couldn’t we cultivate some fields on a hillside?”
“What hillside? Do you think there aren’t bandits in the mountains? Wherever people live, there are bandits.”
“...Damn it.”
Then Go Tae seized the cart with one hand and looked around threateningly.
“Which rat’s squeaking in my ear?”
At that vicious glare, the merchants hastily shut their mouths and lowered their eyes. For an instant, silence fell.
“From this month on, anyone who can’t pay their stall fees on time will have their entire stall torn down, so remember that! You shameless bastards eat everything you can, and then you try to hand over only what’s left over?”
“No, surely not….”
“And starting next month, the stall fee goes up by ten percent. Keep that in mind.”
“Y-you can’t just say something like that, sir….”
“It wasn’t my decision. It was our leader’s. Cry all you want—it won’t matter, so get your money ready and don’t be late!”
Baring his teeth, Go Tae spun on his heel and dragged the cart away. Or tried to.
“You c-can’t take it!”
The merchant, now bleeding from the mouth, clung to Go Tae’s trouser leg despite having lost the cart.
“You really want to die?”
“I-if you take this, I really will die. Either way, I die! So please… please….”
“Oh? Either way, huh?”
Go Tae let go of the cart and drew the dao at his waist.
At the metallic hiss, the merchants around him gasped and stumbled backward, their faces full of panic and unease.
“S-someone stop him!”
“Sir! Sir! You can’t do this!”
“Old man!”
Voices of alarm rang out around them, but the merchant hanging on to Go Tae looked determined to the end. In fact, he seemed to be boiling over with rage as he screamed back.
“Fine! Just kill me, you thief! How much do you think I even make from this stall that you have to take everything? I don’t want to live like this! Just kill me!”
“Hoho, look at this one?”
Thud!
Go Tae kicked him hard in the chest, then gripped his dao tightly.
“All right. You want to be killed? Then I’ll kill you! Today’s the day you die!”
He roared viciously and was about to swing when—
“Stop.”
“...?”
At the voice that came from somewhere nearby, Go Tae slowly turned his head.
If the merchants around him had shouted, he would have ignored them. But this voice had been saturated with inner force.
Sure enough, a group of people in blue uniforms was approaching.
“Tch.”
Go Tae spat on the ground and shot the approaching group a displeased look.
“Well, well. What brings the distinguished Chuiui Sect all the way out here?”
“Step aside.”
“Step aside?”
A clear sneer appeared at the corner of Go Tae’s mouth.
“The ones who should be stepping aside are you. Have you forgotten this is our territory? I don’t know when the Chuiui Sect started poking its nose into our turf.”
The middle-aged man in the lead, cold-faced and severe, glared at Go Tae.
“Your territory?”
“That’s right. Our territory. Did you forget we agreed not to trespass on each other’s ground? Or what—are you trying to start a war?”
At that, the middle-aged man said nothing. He simply stared at Go Tae with a strange expression. Go Tae grew even more smug and went on loudly, “What, even the famous Nanjing Quick Sword is getting cold feet at the word war?”
“A war….”
A twisted smile curved the lips of Nanjing Quick Sword Cho Sang-gil.
“It’s not impossible.”
“What?”
Go Tae was the one left flustered.
Has this bastard gone insane?
The Chuiui Sect, to which Nanjing Quick Sword belonged, and the Gwigal Sect, to which he belonged, had signed a truce not to encroach on each other’s territory. That was why they’d been regarding each other from opposite sides of Nanjing’s boundaries like cats and dogs, each minding their own side.
And yet this bastard had suddenly shown up today, leading his disciples straight into Gwigal Sect territory.
“What’s going on?”
“Those bastards! How dare they come here!”
The moment the Gwigal Sect members inside the gambling den heard that the Chuiui Sect had appeared, they rushed out in a crowd. And from behind the Chuiui Sect disciples, more people began to gather by the second.
The marketplace quickly filled with tension. Dozens from each side glared at one another with murderous eyes, the disciples of both sects facing off in a grim standoff.
“Looks like Nanjing Quick Sword has finally lost his mind.”
“The ones who’ve lost their minds are you.”
“What did you say?”
Cho Sang-gil’s lips curled in contempt.
“The reason we’ve tolerated your atrocities all this time is because you had the Yangtze River Waterways Eighteen Bandit Factions backing you. Don’t tell me you thought we were holding back out of fear of the likes of you?”
“You bastard….”
“But that ends today.”
“...What do you mean by that?”
“Wudang and Shaolin are attacking the Yangtze River Waterways Eighteen Bandit Factions. Which means the Water Bandit Sect’s fate is finished, too.”
“...”
“So why should we continue to turn a blind eye to insects like you? Filthy rat-like scum. From today on, you won’t have a single foothold in Nanjing! I’ll give you one last chance. Pack your things right now and get out of Nanjing. If you don’t, then you all die today.”
Go Tae’s face twisted in shock and confusion. This was utterly unexpected.
T-these bastards have lost their minds?
Were they really trying to start a war?
That was not something he could answer on his own. At the very least, it needed to go up the chain….
“Three.”
“Wait a second! Hold on, Cho Sang-gil!”
“Two.”
“Th-this is insane!”
“One. Attack! Drive the Gwigal Sect completely out of Nanjing today!”
“Yes!”
Nanjing Quick Sword gave the order without even giving the other side time to answer. The disciples who had been waiting drew their swords and charged at once toward the Gwigal Sect.
“Crush them all!”
“You sons of bitches! Did you think we’d been holding back because we were weak?”
As the Chuiui Sect disciples surged forward, the Gwigal Sect members also drew their weapons in a rush.
“What are you all standing there for? Kill these soft-handed bastards!”
“So they think we’re easy prey, do they?”
“Kill them all!”
Swords and daos flashed through the center of the marketplace, and in an instant the surroundings dissolved into chaos, blood spraying in all directions.
“A-ah! What the hell is going on?”
The marketplace merchants scattered in terror, fleeing in every direction.
The two factions, however, paid them no mind and continued their savage struggle.
My God, a war.
There hasn’t been anything like this in ten years.
So the Chuiui Sect is finally drawing its blade!
Then, from a corner of the market, a beggar who had been crouching there quietly rose to his feet with a grave expression.
...A war.
This wasn’t just a simple clash. They were fighting with their very survival on the line. Whoever won, Nanjing’s balance of power would be changed forever.
I need to report this immediately.
He hurried off at a run toward his shack.
The Nanjing that had outwardly maintained a fragile peace was instantly drenched in the flames of war.
And this was not happening in Nanjing alone.
In every city where the unorthodox and orthodox factions coexisted, the same thing was happening in one form or another.
The Jianghu, quiet as a lake, had begun to stir.
The massive stone thrown into the Yangtze River sent ripples not only through the river, but through all under heaven.
Messenger pigeons rose across the Central Plains and flew without rest toward the Beggars’ Sect headquarters, bearing word of the upheaval that had broken out beneath the heavens.