The Black Tiger Gang
The Black Tiger Gang.
It was the name of a bandit gang that had united the underworld of Yichang County within a few short years of arriving there, and now lorded over the surrounding area like a pack of tyrants.
It was also the name of the loan sharks to whom Jeong So-so's family owed money.
"Come out here right now!"
"We know you're in there! Get out here!"
Jeong So-so sprinted desperately into the courtyard, muttering under her breath.
"This month's payment date isn't even here yet. Why on earth……"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The pounding on the front gate grew louder still, and worry settled over So-so's face like a shadow.
"……"
Trailing after her with his hands tucked in his sleeves, Jin Cheong-un let out a long sigh.
So the debt wasn't exactly pocket change.
They really were in it up to their necks, then. This was way out of hand.
"Uncle."
She was about to ask for his help, he assumed. So-so called to him cautiously.
But what came out of her mouth was nothing like what he expected.
"Please go back inside. You don't have to help me."
"Huh?"
"This is a family matter."
So-so forced a smile.
She knew by now that Jin Cheong-un was no stranger to her, but that didn't change the fact that they'd only just met. She couldn't drag him into a money problem like this.
This was a matter for the Jeong family alone.
"You may have walked the Jianghu once, Uncle…… but I've heard the Black Tiger Gang Leader was once a genuine master who made a real name for himself. If you get tangled up with him carelessly, you won't be able to keep living here in Yinghua Village."
So-so lifted her thin arm and flashed a grin, showing it off.
"And I can handle thugs like these! I'm a lot sturdier than I look!"
Jin Cheong-un pretended not to notice the faint tremble in her hand.
Instead, he spoke with solemn resolve.
"Remember this. No matter what happens, I will not interfere. Absolutely not!"
"……"
So-so's expression turned to bitter disappointment.
There was really no need to say it so dramatically……
Her tension evaporated in an instant. Letting out a sigh, So-so hardened her eyes and placed her hand on the gate.
"Hold on! I'll open it now!"
Clunk! Creeeak—
The moment the door swung open, four rough-faced men strode inside without a shred of ceremony.
"And here I thought you'd run off like your father did. Turns out you were just hiding inside."
The man in the lead turned around, hands clasped behind his back, and put on an ostentatiously arrogant smirk.
"……What brings you here?"
"What other reason would debt collectors have for coming besides collecting debt?"
The man's eyes flicked sidelong.
"By the way, who's that over there?"
He shot a glance at Jin Cheong-un, who stood off at a distance, staring blankly into space. When the man's gaze landed on him, Cheong-un cupped a hand to his mouth and hollered.
"Hey! Pay me no mind, tend to your business! I'm just a spectator here!"
"……?"
The Black Tiger Gang members turned to So-so with looks of deep suspicion. She averted her eyes.
"……He's no one."
"He's inside your house?"
"That's beside the point!"
So-so changed the subject.
"Anyway, we already paid for last month, didn't we?"
"Circumstances have changed."
The man drew a ledger from his coat, snapped it open with a flourish, and preened self-importantly.
"Let's see, as of today…… with interest, that comes to six hundred seventy-three silver nyang."
"WHAT?! We—we only borrowed three hundred! What are you talking about?!"
"Should've paid your interest on time, then. Why do you think they call it the King of Hell's Den?"
She had paid. She had paid the interest faithfully, down to the last coin, and So-so could not fathom whatever math these men were using.
"Save the long story."
The man snapped the ledger shut and clasped his hands behind his back.
"You'll be paying off everything — including the arrears — all at once this time."
For a moment, So-so was floored.
"The due date is weeks away! You want the whole sum now?"
"Our main branch is expanding its operations, and we're raising funds. We've been generous with you until now, but that grace period is over."
Generous? When, exactly, have you ever been generous?
So-so's face went rigid as she shouted.
"There's no way I can come up with that kind of money this suddenly!"
The man smiled, cold and thin.
"That's your problem, not ours."
Jin Cheong-un quietly marveled.
Well-trained, isn't he.
Such textbook black-world collection lines. Judging by his stance, the man had trained in martial arts too — the Black Tiger Gang Leader might have more backbone than his reputation suggested.
Memories of his days in the Alliance drifted up unbidden, and a smile tugged at his lips, nostalgic and oddly fond.
Though the situation itself didn't look like it would blow over easily……
"Why wouldn't you have money? Sell this manor, that's all."
So-so ground her lips together, then glared up at him.
"……You think I don't know what you're doing?"
"What?"
"You charge interest above what the law allows, you sabotage people's livelihoods and threaten them so they can't repay, and then you steal their homes to fill this whole village with your dens! There isn't a soul in town who doesn't know!"
"Ha. Would you look at this little bitch?"
"You think shouting will make me sell my house? I will never sell it! I'll repay every coin on schedule, so get that through your head!"
The man laughed as though she'd said something utterly absurd.
"Can't tell if you're too young to know better, or just pretending to be stupid."
"Wh-what did you say?"
"What can a girl like you do against our main branch, hm? All that stubbornness buys you is a world of hurt."
"……!"
"Say you happen to run into some madman on the road one day and suffer a terrible misfortune. Or, oh, the house catches fire by pure coincidence. That would be a real tragedy, wouldn't it?"
It was a threat so bald that a child could have named it. So-so's face went white in an instant.
"Wh-what did you just say."
"I'm only saying these things could happen. Hehehe!"
The man raked his eyes over her, top to bottom, his smile slimy.
"If you really can't pay, I could introduce you to a nice line of work."
So-so's head drooped, her whole body trembling.
What… what am I supposed to do.
While her friends were being led on outings by their parents' hands, she had washed dishes and dug medicinal herbs. To keep the household afloat. To protect her little brother.
Her hands blistered, her feet raw, she had endured every day without complaint — because she'd believed that if she just kept going, a sunny day would come.
And Uncle arrived, and I thought things were finally starting to ease up.
Why was it that this world always, always came stomping down the moment something managed to sprout?
"You're a pretty little thing, and done right, your looks could make real money."
"……"
"Cat got your tongue? Don't tell me you're crying?"
"……You."
A small voice slipped out between So-so's clenched teeth.
And then—
"Hey, you! You rotten bastards!"
Because whatever else she was, Jeong So-so was not the kind of person who stayed beaten down.
"Where do you get off spouting that garbage?! You call yourselves human after saying that?!"
"What'd you say?"
"Try laying a finger on me! I won't stand for it! I'll report you to the magistrate, the Martial Alliance, whoever it takes!"
"Look at this girl, asking for it? You actually want to die?!"
"Try it! Go on, try it! Come near me and see what happens!"
Shove!
So-so threw her weight against the man and shoved him hard.
"Did this bitch just push me?"
The man, who had been simmering all along, finally snapped, his face twisting with rage.
"We coddle you a little and you think you can climb all over us!"
CRASH!
Without warning, the man drove his foot into the wall enclosing the courtyard.
Crack! Rumble-rumble!
A whole section of the wall came cascading down in a heap of rubble.
"……!"
Even So-so, who'd been squaring up for a fight, froze solid for a heartbeat.
"Lost all sense of fear, this one. I was going to let it slide, but……"
The man worked his jaw and began advancing on her.
That was the moment.
"You're the ones who lost your fear, you bastards."
The voice came from behind them, and the man whipped his head around.
"What was that?"
Jin Cheong-un answered, utterly bored.
"What do you think? I'm the owner of this house."
"Uncle!"
At So-so's anguished cry, the man — Song Un-chan — faltered for an instant.
Uncle? So they do know each other.
The slouched, careless posture. Hands covered in old scars. And…… those unsettling eyes.
Is he one of ours?
Up close, the man was clearly no small fry. Those were the eyes of someone who'd put away — what, a few dozen men at least?
"……And who might you be? Now that I think of it, I don't recall seeing your face around here."
"Jin Cheong-un."
At his languid, unbothered attitude, Song Un-chan probed carefully.
"A martial artist?"
"No. I'll be opening a martial arts academy just up the road. Owner of the place."
So he's simply a madman.
Just then, Cheong-un pointed at the collapsed wall and pressed the issue.
"I've been listening from over there, and I have to ask — who exactly gave you the right to go deciding whether other people sell their homes or not? And this wall. What do you intend to do about it?"
"This is your house?"
"If you don't believe me, go ask the magistrate."
Song Un-chan looked back at So-so.
"Then what about her?"
"She owns the land. Also the granddaughter of a sworn brother of mine."
Song Un-chan narrowed his brow, his face souring with distaste.
"Since when does a house have a different owner than the land beneath it? And from her own uncle, no less? What kind of idiot ends up in a situation like that? It makes no sense whatsoev—"
Song Un-chan choked off mid-sentence.
Jin Cheong-un's face had twisted into something out of a demon's nightmare.
"People run into hard times in life. It happens. What exactly do you know, to spout such—. How dare you……"
"……"
A madman after all.
Song Un-chan scanned Cheong-un from head to toe. An old sword and a shabby training uniform — that gave him something to work with.
Something about his presence threw me off. No need to worry.
Sneering, he switched his expression in a heartbeat.
"Whatever gutter you crawled out of, you seem to be one of our kind of people. Why not do as you did before and just watch from the sidelines, hm?"
Shing.
At Song Un-chan's flick of the eyes, one of the thugs drew his blade and sauntered toward Cheong-un with a swaggering gait.
"For some girl and one lousy house, you'd pick a fight with our main branch? Uncle or academy owner or whatever you are — walk away while you can."
By then the thug had reached him, and he tapped the tip of his curved blade against Cheong-un's chest, once, twice.
Cheong-un looked down at it in silence and let out a deep, deep sigh.
"Whew. Honestly, is my luck cursed? I retired with the plan of drinking afternoon liquor and idling my days away, and this is how heaven repays me……"
Taking the trailing lament for the end of it, the thug snickered and wobbled closer.
"No spine on this one. Hold it steady while I—"
CRACK!
Every eye in the courtyard went wide.
THUD!
The thug slammed into the ground and lay there, utterly limp.
The curved blade had somehow ended up in Jin Cheong-un's hand.
"……"
Dead silence fell over the courtyard.
In an instant, every gaze locked onto Jin Cheong-un.
Clang!
Cheong-un tossed the blade aside and spoke.
"Leave when I let you leave."
"……?"
"Pay for the wall repairs, apologize to the girl, and you can go home nice and friendly."
Song Un-chan scoffed as if he couldn't believe his ears.
"You're insane."
Shing. Shing. Shing.
The Black Tiger Gang thugs drew their blades as one and began circling in, closing around Jin Cheong-un in a slow, creeping ring.
So-so cried out desperately to Song Un-chan.
"S-stop this! He's got nothing to do with it!"
"Shut up! We bag this bastard, then we'll bag you too."
Shing!
Song Un-chan drew a blade of his own, its edge gleaming cold blue.
"You've clearly trained some, but you've got no eye for reading people."
So-so's face went ashen.
She'd heard that Jin Cheong-un had been injured — so badly he'd been forced into retirement. She couldn't bear the thought of him getting hurt because of her.
"U-Uncle! Don't do it!!"
"Ow, good grief, why is a girl your size so loud?"
Cheong-un shuddered and rubbed his ear.
"B-but why…… this isn't even your fight, Uncle……"
"I told you not to call me Uncle."
He turned his head, his face suddenly grave.
Then, in the very next breath, he spoke with an easygoing, half-lidded smile.
"I've been giving it some thought, and it turns out 'Master' suits me better than 'Uncle' after all."
"Huh?"
Jin Cheong-un smiled faintly.
"I'll be the master of the Cheongun Martial Arts Academy from now on, so you'll address me as Master."
And there was no law in this world that said a master could stand by and watch while his disciple got cut down.
Just then—
"These bastards, spouting their drivel in pairs now, is it?"
Song Un-chan growled low in his throat.
"Our Gang Leader's orders are to leave no corpses, so I'll let you live — but you'd best prepare to spend a few months flat on your back."
At that moment, Jin Cheong-un abruptly began walking toward the front gate.
The gesture was so out of nowhere that everyone could only stare at him, dumbfounded.
Creeeak! THUD!
Jin Cheong-un shut the front gate.
Rattle! Click!
Then he slid the bolt firmly home.
"That's right. I won't kill you either."
He turned around, slowly.
"I won't kill you."