“It is too big of a risk, owner! What good would the renovations we don’t get any customers? Closing down the inn for a few months will cause a lot of losses. If we add the loss of money on renovations, you might have to close the inn.” Manager Shu pleaded to Old Man Ji.

It was probably the first time that Manager Shu’s eyes were sincere when he was suggesting the owner regarding anything. He was vehemently against this new plan for renovations that came out of nowhere. Manager Shu seemed to be ready to put his life on the line to make Old Man Ji change his mind.

This situation surprised Old Man Ji as well. He had never seen the rat-faced manager make any suggestion as strongly as he was doing now. In the past, there were times when Manager Shu's words were always grand, but his way of working seemed half-assed. But this time, it seemed genuine.

Old Man Ji observed the eyes of the manager who seemed scared for some reason. “We are already in a bad position. The business has continued to go down so this is the perfect time to take a gamble. If the gamble doesn’t pay off, then I will just have to sell this old place. That is my decision.”

The way Old Man Ji spoke did not sound like answering Manager Shu’s doubts or justifying his actions. It was the tone of a superior announcing what the future would be like to his subordinate. It was a clear signal to Manager Shu that nothing he could say would change his decision.

Why… Manager Shu continued to mutter while his head was bowed and his eyes stared at his shoes. He couldn’t raise his head and look into those scary eyes that were radiating the kind of pressure that was pressing down on his soul. He didn’t want to anger that old man who could take his head off in a blink.

Although the other employees were not aware of their owner’s identity as a martial artist, Manager Shu knew. He knew of the man called Ji She who was known in the Murim world as Silent Serpent. Although he wasn’t a well-known figure like the elders of the prestigious sect, he was in a similar class as them.

He kept turning his brain to find a plausible reason to change the owner’s mind but he couldn’t come up with anything. What could he even say to change the mind of a man who was ready to put everything on the line and take a gamble?

To stop a person who was knowingly preparing to take a leap of faith you couldn’t use words, you would need force. Use force on Old Man Ji? Manager Shu’s balls hadn’t yet inflated enough to even think of such a thing. He could only helplessly mutter things in confusion.

“Manager Shu doesn’t have to worry. We will continue to pay the salaries to all employees even during the renovations.” Old Man Ji gently spoke comforting words to the distraught manager.

The salary wasn’t even on his mind from the beginning. While walking out of the owner’s office, he kept asking himself, how did things suddenly change like this? Why was the owner suddenly so proactive?

If it was like before, Old Man Ji would have listened to his suggestions and agreed to most of them immediately. “You can handle it like that, Manager Shu.” He would have said and ended it. But something had changed about the owner after he came back. What was it? What changed?

While Manager Shu was walking down the stairs lost in his thoughts, he heard the sound of something heavy hitting the wooden flooring with a thud. He looked up at the noise and saw the new employee wiping off the sweat on his forehead with a large sack next to his legs.

Yes, that was it! The owner started behaving strangely since a few days ago when he came back with that kid. He brought back some kid saying he had a lot of experience and put him in the position of the head waiter. And he even took the kid around to the other inns.

No matter how he looked at it, the kid seemed to have a special relationship with the owner. If he had to guess, from the way the owner and the kid have been disappearing to the bamboo forest in the back and the kid always coming back sweaty, the two seemed to be a prost- no, a disciple.

Although he wasn’t always the smartest, Manager Shu was observant enough to realize that the owner had been training the kid for a few days now.

Anyway, the Ji She he knows wasn’t the kind of a man who would decide to take a gamble on the business on his own. The Ji She he knew was an extremely cautious man when it came to business.

And he didn’t know why but the owner seemed to have very complicated thoughts regarding the business. Ji She seemed to put off making any important decisions related to the inn if possible and if it wasn’t possible, he let Manager Shu make those decisions.

He couldn’t be sure, but Manager Shu thought that the owner was scared of the responsibility for ruining the inn with his decisions. It seemed like that to him anyway. Then the only reason for making such a decision would be the boy in front of him.

Manager Shu approached the kid named Zhi Fen who was busy wiping the sweat on his body. “It seems like the training was hard.” He spoke with a friendly smile, trying to lower the kid’s guard.

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There must’ve been something that he saw in the kid that the owner took him in as a disciple. But that didn’t matter to Manager Shu. He was still just a young kid. A young kid immersed in martial arts. Manager Shu thought that he could roast and boil the kid to wring out all the information he wanted.

“So-so.” Zhi Fen turned to look at Manager Shu, gave a very short reply, and went back to wiping.

The short, rude answer angered Manager Shu. He hadn’t talked to the kid until now other than the simple greetings they exchanged the few times their paths crossed. Zhi Fen was too busy training to come to work and interact with the other employees.

Swallowing his anger, Manager Shu kept up the friendly smile and continued talking, “I heard you had some experience working at a restaurant before you came here. Are you adapting well to the inn?”

Manager Shu couldn’t tell the owner’s disciple that he shouldn’t miss work for his training so he took a subtle dig at Zhi Fen for not beginning work at the inn. How will he adapt when he hasn’t even begun working at the inn yet?

The kid turned toward Manager Shu and smiled. It was a smile that made you want to punch the other party’s face. The mockery wasn’t hidden in that smile. “I decided that it was better to start working when the renovations are done. I can’t work properly with termites and rats eating away at the inn.”

The inflection of the word rat made Manager Shu flinch and his smiling face crumpled. He glared at Zhi Fen and spoke in a cold tone. “You should watch your tongue. I don’t know where you came from but you don’t seem to have learned proper manners and etiquette.”

With no real way to address the subtle insult thrown at him by the kid, Manager Shu decided to use the time-honored ‘how can you talk like that to your elders’ card as a retort to Zhi Fen. He also added an insult regarding Zhi Fen’s unknown origins.

Despite Manager Shu’s annoyance, Zhi Fen didn’t seem to be fazed by his words. With an evil smirk on his face, Zhi Fen walked away while carrying the heavy sack that made clanking metallic sounds as he walked.

“We will see how long you can keep that smirk on your face. The one with the last laugh is always the victor.” Manager Shu muttered to himself while staring at Zhi Fen’s back.

‘Even if they somehow rebuild this rotting inn, there was no guarantee that they would be able to get any guests. The hateful master and disciple will just end up running the inn to the ground. That is even better for me. Waste more of your money on the damn renovations, assholes.’

Unable to win the war of words, Manager Shu decided to take the mental victory this time. Feeling that it wasn’t enough to vent his anger, he immediately went back to his room, closed the door, and started to furiously write something on a small piece of paper.

When he was done writing, he checked it twice before rolling it up. He then went to the open window and hung a green piece of cloth outside. The window was facing the street. Immediately after a few minutes, someone appeared from the streets and stood silently right below the window.

When the man below the window made some hand signals, Manager Shu dropped the rolled piece of paper nonchalantly and continued looking at the street traffic.

This was the method through which he shared information with Joyous Inn owner Zhao Li’s men. Such elaborate methods were only used when Ji She was in or around the inn. One could never be too careful around a person like Ji She.

‘Tch. The owner should quietly let this Eclipse Inn fail and sell it to Zhao Li and his gang. Then I can get a big payday while also getting to manage the new inn jointly owned by the four largest inns in Hankou.’

Manager Shu stared at the setting sun with a dark smile. He could see his future being as golden as the rays of the sunset.

…….

“Why do you want to add more expenses when we are already struggling? With all the things you have asked to be included in the renovations, even three times my emergency funds would not suffice. But do you want to hire employees in advance to train them?” Old Man Ji shouted in anger.

His new disciple had been talking about crazy new ideas that sounded so realistic and profitable that he immediately agreed to them. But when he took the compiled plans to the few companies that specialized in construction, the prices they quoted made him feel dizzy.

At those prices, couldn’t he just buy one of the four largest inns in Hankou? He was beginning to question the feasibility of the plan but Zhi Fen’s words were like a sinister snake that was coiling around his heart, whispering about the rosy future that awaited the Eclipse Inn.

“When you are already facing a rain of thousands of arrows, what difference does it make if a few hundred more are added to it? You can be bold and take out more loans, master.” Zhi Fen gave a warrior-like example and encouraged his master with a fist pump.

Old Man Ji looked at his disciple with strange eyes that said, ‘what is this bastard talking about?’ “Even if I give in to your bullshit for a moment, who will hand over that big of a sum as a loan to us? The association bastards won’t make it easy for us.”

Zhi Fen had been briefed about the feud with the association, their constant interference with the Eclipse Inn, and their desire to eat up the Eclipse Inn.

When asked why he didn’t just threaten or beat up those bastards, Old Man Ji had hit him on his head and warned him not to carelessly touch people who had connections to the government.

“Why not ask the hyenas for the loan master? If we put up Eclipse Inn’s land as collateral, they would probably compete to come throw sacks of gold at our doorstep. Just make them compete to give us a large loan at a reasonable interest rate.” Zhi Fen suddenly suggested.

“Will they agree though? They want to swallow us not help us grow. Why would they give us the loans when we are trying to better compete with them?” Old Man Ji didn’t understand Zhi Fen’s idea.

“Just show them the planned design and the expected cost for refurbishing this place. They will think that we are idiots and happily hand over the money. What sane person would believe that spending such a large amount of money like that will turn a profit?” Zhi Fen grinned.

“Are you calling me insane? This basta…” Old Man Ji exploded once again.

“No. no, master.” Zhi Fen shook his hands in a hurry. “I meant, that is how they will think. Without knowing the clear purpose behind our plans, what they will see is only the dying struggles of an old man who knows nothing about running an inn.”

The crisp sounds of a master beating his disciple could be heard outside the closed doors of the owner’s office at Eclipse Inn. If one listened closely, they could also faintly hear the words ‘more training’ mixed with the gentle sobs of a teenage boy.