“So when can I learn the martial arts? What kind of martial arts are you going to teach me, master?” Zhi Fen fired questions at Old Man Ji excitedly. He couldn’t wait to learn those cool techniques.
“The martial arts that my master taught me are focused on stealth, speed, and precision. The Moon-Shadow Arts are most suited for assassins and thieves. I have a theory that my master was the retired Moonlight Thief but we will never know that.” Old Man Ji seemed to reminisce about his master for a moment and added, “Anyway, I won’t be teaching you the Moon-Shadow arts yet.”
Even Zhi Fen had heard legends of Moonlight Thief. He was active more than half a century ago. He was infamous for having stolen the sword of the Murim Lord at the time from inside the headquarters of the Murim Alliance. It was later found stuck at the Murim Alliance gates with a half-moon drawn next to it.
The excitement of potentially learning the martial arts of such a legend quickly cooled down though. “Why won’t you teach me though? Do I need to pass some test or something?” He resentfully asked.
“Before I teach you proper martial arts, we need to build up the foundation of your body. Martial arts begins and ends with your body so you can only reach higher levels if your body is in the right condition. You need to gain some muscles and strengthen your body for the next few months.”
Zhi Fen’s ambitions had to wait until his body could catch up. So, the task handed to him for the next few months was to eat a lot and exercise even more. He had to turn his malnourished body into one suitable for learning martial arts. Additionally, he had to memorize the anatomy book as well.
The old man continued, “To the outside world, you will be announced as the new employee at the inn. I have made many enemies over the years. If they find out that you are my disciple, you might be harmed. When you are strong enough to protect yourself a bit, we can disclose your status.”
‘Why does it feel like he wants me to remain as an employee of the inn more than becoming his disciple? It feels like I am being scammed into working for the old man.’
Although he had his doubts, he welcomed the decision that would keep him away from harm. He felt that remaining unknown in the martial arts world was actually a good thing. The famous ones are the ones who get into most fights. If you didn’t fight a lot, it would be almost impossible to be famous.
“That is fine with me master. But should I also call you ‘owner’ from now on?”
“It would be better that way. I want to put you in the position of assistant to the manager but to avoid any suspicions, it would be better if you worked your way up from a waiter.”
‘Who will even be suspicious about anything happening inside this rundown inn? It would rather seem natural that you put a young guy in charge to make this place fall faster.’
Zhi Fen swallowed his rising annoyance and asked what he was most curious about, “But owner, why is our inn like this? The business seemed too bad for a place in such a good location.”
Old Man Ji’s expression became awkward at his disciple’s question. “Like I told you, I neglected this place for too long. When I finally tried to take care of it, I realized that I was not very good at running a business. I wouldn’t have had to rely on that rat otherwise.”
Manager Shu’s shifty personality wasn’t hidden from Old Man Ji. But the rat-faced manager was cunning enough to keep the inn afloat even while the business was declining. So, Old Man Ji had been ignoring the little pranks Manager Shu pulled by skimming money from the inn’s accounts. Old Man Ji saw it as a bonus for keeping the business going and left him alone.
“That manager seems to have balls of steel to embezzle money from a martial artist.” Zhi Fen was genuinely very impressed by the guts shown by Manager Shu.
“Oh, the staff doesn’t know of my martial arts. Very few people in this city even remember me. Only a handful of the high-ranking people in the city are aware of my identity as a Master warrior. It is never a good thing to be well-known in murim.”
The philosophy of Old Man Ji was to not gain excessive fame and always remain in the background. That was how he had survived in the brutal martial arts world for decades. There is an idiom that goes, nobody hits a smiling face. Old Man Ji argued, why even show your face in the first place?
Stolen story; please report.
Although he didn’t have the idea of becoming some dark schemer behind the scenes of the murim, Zhi Fen agreed with Old Man Ji’s philosophy. Gaining great power and wealth didn’t mean you had to go around flaunting it. You could just enjoy all of it peacefully, away from the public eye.
“But owner, don’t you have money saved up from your time as a martial artist? Why not use some of it to renovate this place? If we just fix this inn up, the business should pick up.”
Once again, the familiar embarrassed look was seen on Old Man Ji’s face. He coughed lightly and explained, “Kheum. I reached the Master level very late so I had to spend a lot of money on elixirs to cross the wall from first-rate. There is a small amount left but I am saving it for emergencies.”
‘So you are just a broke old man with a failing business on hand, aren't you?’
Zhi Fen didn’t speak his thoughts out loud out of respect for the man who was now his master. But the slight hint of contempt in his eyes couldn’t be hidden. “Isn’t this an emergency? I just came in today and even I can see that this inn will shut down within a year at most.”
While Old Man Ji was checking the ledgers and talking to Manager Shu, Zhi Fen had been quietly observing everything over his shoulder. He had a rough idea about how the business was going.
“Well, it shouldn’t be that bad yet…” the old man tried to deny Zhi Fen’s claims.
“Master, I might not know anything else but I have a lot more experience than you when it comes to this kind of business. I can even be called an expert in the hospitality industry. And my expert opinion is that this place will go bankrupt in less than a year if nothing is done.” Zhi Fen spoke sternly.
The air of wisdom and confidence in his knowledge that shone in Zhi Fen’s eyes made Old Man Ji waver. He didn’t know if it was simply arrogance of the youth or if he really had the expertise but looking at Zhi Fen reminded him of other experts he had met in the past.
He didn’t know but Zhi Fen wasn’t talking nonsense out of arrogance. Even though he didn’t get to graduate, he was a student of hospitality management for over three years. Not only the academic qualifications from the 21st century, he also has practical work experience in this world. Even though it was forced on him, it counts.
Although the claims made by Zhi Fen were strangely persuasive, Old Man Ji was not going to base his decisions on the claims of his young disciple. But he was still going to seriously consider Zhi Fen’s words. From what he had seen of Zhi Fen, the kid wasn’t someone who would speak nonsense.
“Okay. Let’s say for a moment that you are an expert. Then, why do you think that the business will go bankrupt within a year? What makes you so sure?”
“Hmm… from what Manager Shu reported, the occupancy rate at the inn is only 25% on good days, right? And that too after charging half the price of the inns around this area. And Manager Shu wants to cut the prices even more to attract the poorer merchants who can’t afford the better inns.”
“Yeah, I thought it was a good idea. Although our profits decreased significantly, cutting prices has helped increase the number of guests. If we keep it up, we will start to get more regular guests.”
Even if the profit is decreased per person, if the number of guests increases significantly then it wouldn’t be too much of a problem. That was what Old Man Ji thought.
But the old man’s answer made Zhi Fen feel frustrated, “That doesn’t work! Do you want the Eclipse Inn to be known as a cheap place? Once that kind of image is formed, the kind of guests who will come to the inn will also be those who are poor or have little money to spend.
The brand value and profits will all hit rock bottom like that. Didn’t you say that you want to revive the Eclipse Inn? Are you going to revive it by competing with cheap roadside inns for guests?”
Although he was confused about what brand value was, Old Man Ji was able to get the gist of what Zhi Fen was trying to say. He didn’t want the name of Eclipse Inn to be stained like that. In his defense, he was only thinking about his childhood when the inn was always full of guests and just wanted it to be like that once again.
But the factual attack that Zhi Fen had begun did not end there. He continued throwing punches with complicated terms like break-even point, customer retention rate, value-added services, branding, and more. With each wordy explanation, Ji She was able to feel the precariousness of the inn's future.
He was fully convinced that the Eclipse Inn was going to shut down at this rate. It came as a huge surprise to him but the bigger surprise was, “Where did you learn all those things? I might not have experience running a business but I have been around to many inns and met many owners. But many of the things you are talking about are stuff that I haven’t even heard about.”
‘Shit. I overdid it in my excitement to show off.’
“Uhm, well I am smart as you know. So I guess I just picked it up from here and there while working at the restaurant. I also used to read a lot of books at Inspector Zhang’s house.” Zhi Fen awkwardly mixed some truth with his lies. It wasn’t a lie that he read books at Inspector Zhang’s house.
It wasn’t a convincing answer but Old Man Ji let it slide. Zhi Fen having unique knowledge wasn’t anything big to be worried about. He was just a little curious about the origins of that knowledge.
“So, what should we do then? What can we do to save the Eclipse Inn?”
Zhi Fen smiled slyly when the old man asked him the question. “Do you want me to answer such an important question without any consultation fee? Are you from the black faction, master?”