In the end, they agreed to forfeit the interest, in return for not having to pay compensation. Under my watchful gaze, the loan sharks scampered off, the pompadour fellow looking embarrassed because of the dark stain on his pants.
He sent me a resentful glare before he vanished, which had me on alert. Perhaps he would be back for revenge later. If that was the case, then I couldn't leave just yet.
"S…Song Jun Wen, right?"
Mr. Qin approached me, supported by his wife and daughter. I turned and nodded politely.
"Yes, sir."
"We owe you a lot." He smiled and bowed his head. "This debt, we'll definitely repay you. No matter how long it takes, we'll return the 600,000 yuan."
"Don't worry about it. Take your time. As long as you pay me back, you can take however long you need."
"We'll definitely pay you back!" Qin Ying promised fiercely. "I'll work hard to earn the money!"
"No, I mean, your parents can take their time to pay me back, but you…" I shook my head. "You should focus on cultivation first. If you make a breakthrough and attain Yellow Rank at least, those loan sharks and other thugs wouldn't dare bother you in the future. Don't concentrate on money so much that you lose sight of other factors that can ensure your safety."
"That's right. Leave the money issues to us." Mrs. Qin ruffled her daughter's long black hair. "Your dad and I will do something about it. But we want you to focus on your dream. Just worry about school and your cultivation training, all right? That's the best thing you can do for us right now."
"But…"
"You don't have to pay me back immediately. I'm not a loan shark, I won't demand interest and I won't harass you every three days. If you need several years to pay me back, that's fine too."
"I would rather not drag it out if I can." Mr. Qin sighed. "I borrowed the money because our business is in the red. Thanks to repeated attacks from spirit beasts and the recent pandemic, less and less people were coming to our restaurant, so…it was hard to keep our business afloat."
"But the pandemic seems to be…not exactly over, but we have learned to live with it." Mrs. Qin looked determined. "Business is slowly picking back up. I'm confident we'll be able to pay you back relatively quickly. Maybe a year or two, but we don't need several years."
"Do whatever you have to." I waved my hand awkwardly. "If there's anything else I can help with, please let me know."
"No, not at all." Mrs. Qin smiled and gestured inside. "At the very least, we should treat you guys a meal as thanks for all the help you've given us."
"…we didn't do anything, though," Tong Xue muttered behind me, deflated. "Song Jun Wen pretty much did everything."
"So that's my future son-in-law?" Mr. Qin whispered to Qin Ying as the Qin family went back into the restaurant, sending me a glance. His daughter smacked him.
"Dad! Don't talk nonsense!"
"Um, should we really go too?" Hao Ren asked when I gave him and Tong Xue a stare, waiting for them to go ahead of me. Tong Xue snorted and jabbed a finger at me.
"You should go, Song Jun Wen. Hao Ren and I will leave. We won't interfere with you getting to know your future in-laws."
"Can you not jinx me?" I suddenly felt a chill for some reason. I didn't know why, but I could imagine a certain blue-haired girl living underwater losing her temper if she found out about this. Of course, there was no way she could, but it was scary how a woman's intuition worked sometimes. "No one's marrying anybody. Don't get ahead of yourself."
In the end, Tong Xue and Hao Ren reluctantly followed me inside to have a meal with the Qin family. We discussed countermeasures and helped to clean up the house later. Before we left, we had a meeting between us four students.
"What is it?" Hao Ren asked curiously when I called him, Tong Xue and Qin Ying over. I rummaged in my pocket and produced a bunch of spirit stones. Tong Xue's eyes widened.
"Whoa! What's this about? I thought you sold them? Where did you get these from?"
"I had more." For obvious reasons, I didn't tell them about my dungeon. They wouldn't believe me, anyway. "I'll be dividing these among you three."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Qin Ying asked, confused. I sighed.
"I mean what I mean. You guys should make use of the spirit stones and improve your cultivation. I selected the best among the ones I found, and if you absorb the qi from them, you will make better progress. Of course, you'll still have to work hard. After absorbing the qi, whether you make a breakthrough or not will be entirely up to you."
"Why are you giving these spirit stones to us?" Qin Ying asked. "What about yourself?"
"I'm already at peak Yellow Rank. They won't have any effect on me."
"What the?! Peak Yellow Rank!? Dude, you're insane!" Tong Xue threw his hands up. "I mean, I know you were already pretty powerful, but to think you're just one step away from Mystic rank! If you can just close that final gap, you might even be able to catch up with that Long Fan Xue!"
"That's something I'll worry about on my own, but you guys should also work on your cultivation."
"We can't just take these," Hao Ren protested, pushing the spirit stones back to me. "They are yours, and they are worth a lot of money. You should sell them and use the money to buy a single higher grade spirit stone to make your breakthrough."
"You think high grade spirit stones are easy to come by?" I snorted. "I asked uncle Hen You Qian, and he didn't have any in stock. I'll have to wait a month for the next shipment, and the tournament will be over by then."
"Even so…"
"Think of it as an investment," I interrupted and leaned conspiratorially. "Look, I can't win the class tournament on my own. I need your help. This will be a class battle, not a one-man show. And our other classmates aren't reliable, as you know. So I'll be counting on you guys."
"You've done so much for me and my family already." Qin Ying tightened her grip on the spirit stones and tried to return them. "I can't accept so precious a gift."
"Lady, you're his future wife. What's his is yours." Tong Xue snorted. "If anyone deserves this, it's you."
"W…what are you talking about?! Stop that nonsense, or I'll get angry!"
"You can pay me back by helping me win the tournament." I narrowed my eyes. "Don't tell me you forgot what those bastards from the elite class said this afternoon. You want to continue being insulted by those bastards? Don't you want to prove them wrong? I know I do. But I can't do it alone. I don't think of you guys as burdens, but I'm not naïve enough to refuse any advantage I can get. Let's work together, guys."
The three of them hesitated before they finally assented.
"Fine, but we'll definitely pay you back." Hao Ren made a vow.
"That's right. We will definitely honor this debt!" Qin Ying clenched her fists. "We won't let you down!"
"I'll do my best, but I can't promise that I'll meet your expectations." Tong Xue sighed. Then he grinned. "But I can promise to pay you back in terms of money, at least. Eventually, anyway."
"I believe in you guys. Let's show those bastards and make them regret that they had ever made fun of us!"
"Yeah!" The three of them cheered.
Before we dispersed for the night, though, I suddenly stood up and glanced out of the huge glass windows of the Qin family's restaurant. Sighing in exasperation, I strolled toward the entrance, much to the bemusement of the others.
"What? What's going on?" Tong Xue demanded.
"The loan sharks are back. And this time they have brought their leader."
"What? We'll call the cops!" Qin Ying was furious. "We've already paid them off! What more do they want!?"
"Revenge. And to cheat more money out of you." I stalked out while she was on the phone, and to my utter lack of surprise, I saw the pompadour guy. He was babbling something to a huge guy with a Mohawk, though the hairstyle somehow resembled a shark's fin. The new guy wore a leather vest over an otherwise bare torso, and black leather pants. Chains dangled over his boots and hips, and earrings hung from his nose and ears. The gold material gleamed in the moonlight.
"Brother Long! That's him!" The pompadour guy pointed at me. I noticed that he had the decency to change his pants before coming. The Brother Long dude cocked his head to the side as he studied me, his muscles rippling under that torn vest.
"You guys lost to a…kid?"
"Don't underestimate him, Brother Long! He's not just any kid! Look at that uniform, he's also from Divine Path Academy! And he's at least Yellow Rank!"
"Ah, so a cultivator too. So what?" Brother Long strode toward me, cracking his knuckles. Blazing qi sizzled around him as he chuckled. "Anyone who messes with our loan shark business gets no mercy."
"Mess with your loan shark business? But we already paid you back. Or did that pompadour dude not tell you? Don't tell me he pocketed the cash for himself? I have the payment details here if you need evidence."
"Pompadour dude?" The guy repeated incredulously. Brother Long shut him up with a smack, his swipe also cutting his hair and ruining his pompadour. Guess I was going to need a new nickname for him.
"No, I got the cash. But the thing is that…you not only refused to pay the interest, you also beat up my men. I can't let that go, little bro. If word gets out that my gang got their asses kicked by a student, what do you think will happen to our reputation? Nobody will be able to take us seriously in Xia Hai City."
"Your lackey there only has himself to blame for not getting the interest. He jacked it up from 10% to over 40% on a whim. If I paid the interest, what's stopping him from suddenly changing it to 50%? Or 100%? You think I'm that easy to rip off?"
"Ho…?" Brother Long turned to the ex-pompadour dude. "So that's how it was."
"I…I'm sorry, Brother Long! But…but that's how we do it, don't we?"
"Yeah. I'm not blaming you for that. But…" He rammed an elbow into the ex-pompadour dude's gut, the blow so hard that there was a crack. The poor guy doubled over and vomited blood, falling to his knees with glassy eyes. Brother Long paid him no heed and continued. "Your mistake wasn't jacking up the interest arbitrarily…but for not recognizing when you are outmatched. If you want to behave all arrogant and audacious, you can, but make sure you gauge your opponent's strength correctly first. If he's stronger than you, then back off. Know when to eat a loss. There is no shame in admitting defeat and retreating, at least if you compromised, you would have gotten some interest and not gotten yourselves beaten up so badly. Now I have to personally clean up your mess for you."
He turned to me and shrugged.
"Sorry, little bro, I have nothing against you, but you understand, right? What kind of big brother will I be if my little brothers get beaten up and I don't take revenge for them?"
"No, you're right. I don't blame you at all." I sighed and adopted a defensive stance, beckoning him over. Against his dark blue qi, my azure qi flared up and illuminated the dark road between the two rows of dilapidated terrace houses. Rolling my shoulders, I took a deep breath and steeled myself. "Let's get this done and over with."