Yu Qianqian had held a brilliant banquet a few days before; Yixiang Tower had made a name for itself in the county and had taken business from many large inns—sure to breed envy. But for someone to use such low and vile methods against Yu Qianqian was truly hateful.

That so many people had gathered before Yixiang Tower’s gate, and that the family had brought a coffin to make trouble, was part of the reason. Yet everyone was verbally excoriating Yu Qianqian—no one stood up to defend her. Some even claimed Yixiang Tower put an addictive substance in their dishes. Fan Changyu instinctively thought of those two narrow-eyed men.

Those two, singing the same tune, were deliberately telling the ignorant crowd such things to stir up trouble, weren’t they?

If the group carrying the coffin couldn’t be persuaded to leave, first get rid of the people guiding public opinion.

Fan Changyu thought for a moment and said to the waiter, “Bring a few more people, change out of your house uniforms, and come out with me.”

Since this mess had happened to Yixiang Tower, the house staff were all flurried and said, “Sorry, Boss Fan—the house really can’t spare hands today…”

Fan Changyu said, “Among that crowd outside, someone is deliberately smearing Yixiang Tower. Take people and come with me to haul those people out.”

The waiter hurried off to call others.

Half an hour later, Fan Changyu led seven or eight plainclothes house servants, slipped out the back door, and squeezed back into the watching crowd.

She observed for a while—most passersby watched for a bit, and seeing the matter unresolved and having other business, drifted away.

Only a group similar to those two felt-hat men remained, loitering at Yixiang Tower’s gate, their curses louder than anyone’s. Whenever an uninformed passerby asked what was going on, they immediately started spouting that old line about Yixiang Tower putting an addictive drug in their food.

Fan Changyu could basically identify the shit-stirrers right there; she gave a look to the house servants.

These servants treated Yixiang Tower as their own and could not bear such slander. Following Fan Changyu’s lead, they pretended to push into the crowd’s center, shoved the trouble-makers toward the edge, and the men behind grabbed their shoulders to haul them out.

These men, guilty as thieves, immediately began to shout and make a fuss the moment they were seized. Fan Changyu’s hand was quick—she landed several dull punches to their abdomens, successfully forcing the cries back down their throats.

A few townsfolk glanced over; Fan Changyu glared viciously, “What are you looking at—never seen a casino debt-collector before?”

As she spoke she kicked one of the felt-hat men in the side, “You turtle-grandson! Run! You might escape on the first day of the month, but you won’t escape on the fifteenth!”

The house servants, seeing their kind and genial Boss Fan suddenly turn into a street bully kicking men, were taken aback for a moment; then they quickly stepped forward to help grab the two by their collars and drag them into a corner. 

Taking the chance to settle private scores, they beat and kicked them, cursing, “Debts owed ought to be repaid by heaven’s law! Run again and we’ll break your legs!”

The townsfolk, seeing how those rough-looking men were being dragged away, believed it when they heard Fan Changyu snarl that this was “a debt collection.” The ruffians all looked sly and vicious—clearly not decent folk—and everyone hurried to step aside, not daring to meddle.

The men tried to shout, but filthy rags were quickly shoved into their mouths, silencing them to muffled groans as they were dragged into Yixiang Tower’s back courtyard. There, they were tied up like livestock, eyes wide with terror as they stared at Fan Changyu—arms crossed—and the Yixiang Tower servants disguised as thugs surrounding her.

Fan Changyu sat down like a mountain bandit chieftain on a chair one of the servants had brought, a boning knife twirling idly in her hand. The instant she lifted her eyes, the blade flashed and flew—piercing clean through one man’s felt hat and pinning it to the tree trunk behind him.

That man was the very one who had shouted the vilest curses about Yu Qianqian earlier.

Fan Changyu raised her eyes, about to deliver a harsh threat—then froze for a beat.

Under the felt hat was a bald head!

No wonder he wore the hat!

With nothing covering him, the wind cut at his scalp like blades, and remembering how that knife had grazed his head a moment ago, his face went deathly white.

Fan Changyu recovered from her brief surprise and put her fierceness back on. “Who sent you to make trouble at Yixiang Tower’s door?”

Beside the bald man, a sharp-faced fellow sneered. “No one sent us! Yixiang Tower killed a man with its food, and we can’t demand justice? You drag us here—what, planning to kill us too, to shut everyone up? Yixiang Tower isn’t an inn, it’s a den of killers and thieves!”

The more that sneering bastard talked, the more he grated on her nerves—just like that disgusting Butcher Guo!

Snatching up a heavy wooden mallet leaning by the wall, Fan Changyu swung it hard three times onto his forehead.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The crisp sound was almost pleasing to the ear.

The man was dazed on the spot.

Fan Changyu snarled, “Did I say you could talk?”

The other bound thugs swallowed hard and tried to shuffle away from him without a sound, shrinking their shoulders, desperate to make themselves small and invisible.

The man still looked as if he wanted to say something, but one look at the mallet—and feeling his skull still throbbing from the blows—made him clamp his mouth shut.

Fan Changyu gave a cold snort. “That filthy tongue of yours is useless anyway. Someone, take him away! Cut out his tongue and feed it to the dogs!”

The Yixiang Tower servants looked at one another for a second, then two of them immediately stepped forward, grabbed the bound man, and dragged him toward the back of the courtyard.

A moment later came the sound of knives being sharpened—shhh, shhh—then a heavy thud of a blade meeting wood, followed by a shriek of agony that tore through the air. Then the screaming stopped, leaving only muffled whimpers.

The remaining tied-up ruffians turned ashen.

Fan Changyu nearly jumped from her chair herself. She had only meant to act the part, just to scare them like in the storybooks! Had the Yixiang Tower men taken her words literally and actually cut out the man’s tongue?

Before long, a servant came back carrying a basin. On it lay a small, bloody piece of tongue. He said respectfully, “That bastard struggled too much—we couldn’t pull it out whole, only managed to cut off this section.”

The ruffians, having already been scared nearly out of their wits by the bloody mess, didn’t dare look closely. Fan Changyu, accustomed to butchering pigs, immediately recognized it as a small piece of pork tongue, not very fresh, smeared with what looked like chicken or duck blood. Placed on a plate, it was quite intimidating.

She breathed a sigh of relief, thinking this Yixiang Tower employee was quite clever. Maintaining her fierce expression, she said, “Bring a dog! Feed it to the dog!”

An employee immediately brought forward a wolfhound. As soon as the pork tongue was thrown, the dog devoured it greedily.

Watching this, the several ruffians retched uncontrollably; some were so terrified they lost control of their bladders.

Fan Changyu felt they were scared enough to probably tell the truth now. She glared sternly and continued questioning the bald man: “Speak! Who sent you to cause trouble at Yixiang Tower? If you utter a single lie, your tongue will be cut out and fed to the dogs!”

The bald man was retching so hard tears streamed down his face. He cried out repeatedly, “I’ll talk! I’ll talk! It was the attendant by Adviser He’s side who found us.”

Hearing this answer, Fan Changyu couldn’t help but be taken aback.

How was this related to that troublemaker Adviser He again?

She shouted, “You’re lying!”

The bald man, still bound, kowtowed to her repeatedly: “Madam, I’m truly not lying! It really was the attendant by the Advisor’s side who hired us!”

Fan Changyu said, “Adviser He has no grudge against Yixiang Tower. Why would he instruct you to do this?”

The bald man wept bitterly: “We don’t know that either!”

The other ruffians also cried pitifully, all pointing the finger at Adviser He.

“Let them go.” A woman’s voice came from the moon gate.

Fan Changyu looked up and saw it was Yu Qianqian. She stood up from her chair: “Manager, you’re back?”

Yu Qianqian nodded. Looking at Fan Changyu, her eyes carried a smile and a trace of gratitude: “I just returned. I happened to hear you interrogating these people for me. Thank you, Changyu.”

Fan Changyu said, “I haven’t been much help to you, Manager Yu.”

Yu Qianqian said, “This is enough. Let them go.”

She signaled to the employees nearby to untie the ruffians.

The ruffian who had been taken away earlier by Fan Changyu’s order was also brought out. He had not been tongue-cut; his mouth had just been gagged. Clearly, the earlier screams were just produced by some method Yu Qianqian had used.

Fan Changyu was very puzzled and asked Yu Qianqian, “Aren’t you taking them to the court for confrontation?”

Yu Qianqian just shook her head, her expression weary. After the ruffians were led away by the restaurant employees, she said, “You just found out yourself, it was Adviser He who sent these people.”

Fan Changyu frowned. “One of the inns competing with Yixiang Tower for business must have found a way through Adviser He and is using him to strike against you?”

Yu Qianqian gave a bitter smile. “It’s worse than that.”

Fan Changyu had thought that was already the worst-case scenario. Hearing Yu Qianqian say it was even worse, she truly could not imagine what she meant. “What exactly happened?”

The sleek hair at Yu Qianqian’s forehead had been rubbed into disarray; she closed her eyes and said, “Yixiang Tower can’t be saved. It’s my fault for being too aggressive. If only I hadn’t rushed to open the restaurant in the county last year…”

In Fan Changyu’s impression, Yu Qianqian had always been calm and in control, rarely showing such helplessness. She said, “My acquaintance with Manager Yu may not be that deep, but your help to me is something I’ve kept in mind. I don’t know what trouble Yixiang Tower has run into, but if you need it, my family still has some connection with Constable Wang at the county yamen. I can go ask him for a favor, see if he can help Yixiang Tower.”

Yu Qianqian shook her head. “It’s useless.”

She grasped Fan Changyu’s hand, forcing a faint smile. “Your kindness I understand. I’ve already gone out half the day and visited every contact I could. If there were a way, I wouldn’t be sitting here waiting for death. You mustn’t go plead with Constable Wang either—you’ll only drag him into trouble.”

Fan Changyu could sense her exhaustion. Even she herself hadn’t expected that Yixiang Tower could fall into disaster overnight. She said, “I still can’t figure out what kind of trouble Yixiang Tower has stirred up. The old man who died after dining here yesterday—the waiter told me he only had a seizure and foamed at the mouth. How could that be blamed on the food? Even in court, a doctor could testify!”

Yu Qianqian said quietly, “Do you know for whom Adviser He works?”

Fan Changyu uttered two words: “The county magistrate?”

Yu Qianqian nodded, weary. “The highest official in Qingping County wants to seize my property. In the courtroom, he decides what’s black or white. What ordinary townsfolk would dare defy an official?”

Fan Changyu said, “Then appeal to Jizhou Prefecture! The county magistrate may be the highest in Qingping, but once outside the county, he’s nothing!”

Yu Qianqian still shook her head, a pained look crossing her face. “I already caught wind of it from the noble households’ servants and knew it was the magistrate’s doing, so I sent a guard with a carriage to Jizhou Prefecture. But just as I stepped back in the door, someone sent me something…”

Her voice trembled. “It was a severed finger—my guard’s. The officials are colluding with bandits. Every road to Jizhou Prefecture has been sealed off by mountain brigands.”

Fan Changyu finally understood what it meant for one man’s hand to cover the sky. What Yu Qianqian faced now was even more desperate than when her own family property had been seized by Fan Da.

The yamen had already spread the rumor that Yixiang Tower’s food was drugged. Now an old man had died there, so the officials could easily claim the dishes were poisoned, confiscate all Yu Qianqian’s assets, and even throw her in prison.

In a flash, Fan Changyu recalled what Xie Zheng had said before about the Jizhou military grain levy. 

She said, “Alone you’re outmatched—but if the whole county’s people rise against the magistrate, then no matter whether the government seals the roads or sends yamen runners to suppress us, it won’t matter!”

Yu Qianqian asked, “What do you mean?”

Fan Changyu said, “Jizhou Prefecture is collecting military grain. In our county, it’s one shi per person, and if you can’t hand over grain, you pay the equivalent in silver. There are over a hundred thousand people in Qingping County—just one county alone could be forced to deliver more than a hundred thousand shi of grain! Jizhou wouldn’t possibly push the people to such ruin. Clearly, the magistrate is using this as an excuse to line his own pockets!”

Hearing this, Yu Qianqian’s expression changed drastically.

She murmured, “This isn’t about lining his pockets. At the very moment he’s about to be transferred, the magistrate suddenly scrapes so much silver out of the people, and now he’s set his sights on my Yixiang Tower as well. Even if he can hide it for a while, it will eventually be exposed—once he’s reassigned, he won’t escape punishment. Unless… unless Yixiang Tower is merely the chicken killed to warn the monkeys! The real targets are all the wealthy merchants of Qingping County!”

Her face went ashen. She looked at Fan Changyu and said in a low, trembling voice, “Chongzhou borders Jizhou—this county magistrate intends to defect to the rebel king!”