Before me is the proof that I never needed Zaixing's aura of disaster to get myself into trouble. The young man kneeling before me had his mouth agape in shock at me.
And I at him.
His sister could only glance at both of us silently.
It's… the 20-year-old referee at the showdown between Lianfeng and Wugang. Instead of that smart-looking face, bruises and a swollen eye had sort of distorted his features. His sister looked a little disheveled, and her clothing was wrinkled and ripped.
The 13-year-old who pays the debt of the 20-year-old. That's not something a man could swallow down. That's trouble for me.
Well, too bad. He has to suck it up.
I read the terms and conditions of the debt on paper. Twenty gold coins.
Initial amount borrowed was 5 gold coins last lunar year. Typical loansharking with a ridiculously high interest rate. Designed to trap victims. The same twenty gold coins that could ruin his sister for life, feeding the endless trafficking of maidens into De Flower Street.
Still, my previous life had taught me something. When in power, dole a bit of kindness to balance the injustice inflicted on earth - that was what my previous father said to me. It was not the kindness I had. Or an interest in fighting injustice.
Just an impulsive instinct that went with the earthly Nike motto of 'just do it' to piss off men whom I despise. Like these loan sharks.
"Pay it." I gave Xuanyi the coins.
"I can't… it's too much." Ye Jian quickly stopped him with an outstretched arm.
Xuanyi looked at me for further instructions. Somewhat his eyes seemed to say, 'order me to break that arm'.
"I am doing it for your sister's sake," I sighed.
Oops. That sounded wrong. And it did.
"I am NOT selling her." He struggled to keep his voice down, with his hands now clenching into fists.
Ho ho ho. That's a volcano of a protective brother there, waiting to erupt.
"I am not buying her. I don't want to see her ruined. That's all. Consider it an investment into your family's rest stop. This land and shop is owned by your family, right?"
He nodded.
Slightly relaxed, but on guard. His sister could only prostrate to me without uttering a word.
"What's the value of this place?" I asked.
"Not worth 20 gold coins. Just only 10."
He was honest.
"Xuanyi, pay them first," I motioned as Ye Jian lowered his arm.
"Ye Jian, I will talk about the rest stop business with you when you have recovered… catch this," I said and threw him a gold coin, which he easily caught
"What's this for? I can't take anymore of your gold…"
"Use it to get yourself a physician and the spare change, you decide what to do. Consider it a meeting gift," I replied.
***
After the debacle, I found Book Alley. Different books were displayed on tables in the simpler shops. Topics ranging from general knowledge to storybooks. Stacks and stacks squashed into bookshelves. From dust covered ancient scroll like designs to bounded books. Some worm eaten. The usual I would see in antique bookstores on Earth.
Now, the ones which specialized in cultivation and mystical books were a whole different species in the marketing game. They even outshined the old super bookstores on Earth before they digitized everything into Adobe PDFs. Their books levitated with strange translucent pop up signs showing the title.
F**K My Life.
Who needs a glass display?
Or the internet.
All you needed was to call a book title and it will…*get this*… float to you. Or just appear. Out of thin f**king air.
Forget Harry Potter's Hogwarts Library. This is the real McCoy.
An idea popped into my head when I entered the biggest bookshop along the busiest part of the alley. The one which others had recommended - the No Name bookshop.
Not joking, that's its name.
Plenty of customers were busy browsing. There was a time limit. If you exceeded it, the book will just close magically. Can't reopen until you buy it.
"Yuedu," I uttered.
Even the sect reading hall had nothing on Yuedu, except a somewhat similar book akin to the Idiot's Guide to the use of a Star Compass.
A hardback bounded book on Yuedu appeared.
*Surprise Surprise*
I opened to look.
Yes, the characters were indeed the same as the Kanji characters of Tsukuyomi's name.
On Earth, Tsukuyomi-no-mikoto was not a popular Japanese Kami (god as you would call it). He was a lunar deity who slaughtered a goddess of agriculture, whatshername. Somewhat symbolic of ancient harvests going by the lunar calendar. You know, chop off the wheat to harvest is the supposed killing act.
To be honest, in my previous life on Earth, I was drawn to him for some uncanny reason to the point of visiting Iki island, a rural spot, which used to be part of the ancient link between China, Korea and Japan. Iki island was said to house his first shrine and the Japanese tend to rebuild shrines repeatedly. So a newer shrine was standing on the spot of the older one.
I opened the book and my eyes ran through the words.
Astrological positioning and instructions on how to use the star compass on the first part of the book. Boring.
Next section of the book, all the omens associated with the changes in the appearance of Yuedu. Famine, pestilence, famine, famine, war, disease, pestilence, and the list kept repeating those words haphazardly. The dates and descriptions were meticulously recorded. These records made up half the book.
The star of Yuedu sounds like a relative of Zaixing - if deities had families, it would be his younger brother. Zaixing's name was the Star of Calamity.
My fingers ran through the pages. Then a sharp pain on the pad of my finger.
Paper cut. A drop of blood spilt on the paper. Uh oh.
"Excuse me, sir," the shopkeeper's assistant popped up in front of me. "The book has to be paid for now."
This is worse than the security screening devices they place outside shops on earth to stop shoplifting. They can even detect minute damages on unsold products.
"How much?"
"5 silver coins."
I paid him.