I attained immortality through meditation in the Great Qian Dynasty.

"Zian..."

Li Suqin murmured, momentarily forgetting that she was still holding him tightly.

Zhao Zian patted her on the back.

"Sister-in-law, let's go inside."

Li Suqin took two steps back and straightened her disheveled clothes.

Zhao Zian closed the courtyard gate, bolted it, and turned to go back into the house.

Li Suqin sat at the table, twisting the hem of her clothes with both hands.

Zhao Zian knew that today's events had a huge impact on her.

Li Suqin had a tragic life.

Her brother is a gambler, a scoundrel.

Back then, in order to pay off her son's gambling debts, Zhang accepted fifty taels of silver as a bride price from the Zhao family.

They practically sold or gave away Li Suqin, who was only sixteen years old at the time, to the eldest brother of the Zhao family.

Zhang would come to our door every few days to ask for money.

This time, for the sake of thirty taels of silver, she was going to push her widowed daughter into the fire pit of Butcher Wang.

How cruel!

Zhao Zian took something out of his pocket and placed it on the table.

"Sister-in-law, look what this is."

Li Suqin raised her head.

That was a silver ingot, a full ten taels.

"This is……"

"Zi'an, where did you get so much money?"

Her first reaction was nervousness.

Zhao Zian reached into his robe, rummaged around for a moment, and then opened his palm.

"And this too."

Gold ingot?

Li Suqin's breathing stopped.

She had lived for twenty years and had never seen real gold.

"Zi'an, did you go and rob someone?"

This was the only possibility she could think of.

How could someone suddenly produce so much money?

Zhao Zian smiled.

"Sister-in-law, what are you thinking about? This is what I earned today while treating patients in town."

"see a doctor?"

Li Suqin was even more bewildered.

"You...you know how to treat illnesses?"

"Yes, it's some remedies passed down from my ancestors. I used to be in poor health and lacked energy, but now I feel much better, so I'm going to give it a try."

Zhao Zian explained.

Li Suqin knew that Zhao Zian was not a liar.

"With this money...we..."

"We can pay back the money now."

Zhao Zian picked up where she left off.

"Pay back Zhang Laizi's money first."

"Yes! Pay back the money! We'll go pay it back right away!"

Li Suqin stood up.

She didn't want to bear this debt for another second.

"Okay, let's go now."

Zhao Zian also stood up.

My sister-in-law will never be at peace until this matter is resolved.

The two men took the silver and gold ingots, locked the door, and headed towards Zhang Laizi's house.

Zhang Laizi's house is located at the westernmost part of the town.

It's a detached house with two large red lanterns hanging at the entrance.

Zhao Zian stepped forward and knocked on the door.

A servant poked his head out and asked impatiently.

"Who is it? Who are you looking for?"

"We're looking for Zhang Laizi to pay us back."

"Wait."

The door slammed shut again.

After a long while, the door opened again.

"Come in, Master Lai is waiting inside."

Zhao Zian and Li Suqin followed the servant through the front yard to the main hall.

A bald, fat man was sitting in a grand chair.

This is Zhang Laizi.

Behind him stood a man, none other than Scarface Liu, who had come to collect debts that day.

Scarface Liu's eyes reddened when he saw Zhao Zi'an.

He leaned close to Zhang Laizi's ear and whispered a few words.

Zhang Laizi raised his eyelids and looked at Zhao Zian.

"Hey, you beat up my brother the other day?"

Zhao Zian remained expressionless.

"He tried to lay a hand on my sister-in-law, I just told him to calm down."

"Calm down?"

Zhang Laizi chuckled.

"Kid, do you know whose side he's on? Hitting my dog ​​is like slapping me in the face!"

Zhang Laizi stood up.

He walked up to Zhao Zian, half a head shorter than Zhao Zian, but looked up at him.

"What are you here for today?"

"Give me back the money," Zhao Zian said.

Zhang Laizi stretched out his palm.

"The interest needs to be recalculated."

"It was agreed before, fifty-eight taels, not a penny less."

"but!"

Zhang Laizi emphasized his words.

"You hit my man, making me lose face. You have to compensate me!"

"I'm easy to talk to, so I won't ask for too much. Just add another thirty taels, to make it a round eighty-eight taels! Good luck!"

Li Suqin's face turned pale.

Eighty-eight taels?

This is outright robbery!

"How could you... how could you do this! We agreed on fifty-eight taels!"

Zhang Laizi glanced at her sideways, his gaze sweeping greedily over her curvaceous figure.

"Young lady, do you even have the right to speak here?"

"Of course, if you don't have money, that's fine too. Have your brother-in-law kneel down, kowtow three times to my brother, and then crawl through my legs. I'll waive the thirty taels. How about that, is that generous enough?"

Scarface Liu grinned maliciously from the side.

Zhao Zian's eyes turned cold.

He took out the ten-tael silver ingot and two gold ingots from his pocket and placed them on the table.

"Here's a ten-tael silver ingot and two gold ingots, each worth twenty-five taels, for a total of sixty taels. Consider the extra two taels as payment for the tea you use to buy your medicine."

"Check the numbers. If there are no problems, we're even."

Zhang Laizi's gaze was drawn to the gold ingots on the table.

It's of excellent quality and quite heavy.

This kid struck it rich?

"I saw the money."

Zhang Laizi spoke slowly.

"But I've already stated the rules."

"Today, you either pay me eighty-eight taels of silver, or you do as I say. Otherwise, you might not be able to leave this place."

As soon as he finished speaking, four more thugs wielding sticks emerged from behind the screen.

Li Suqin gripped Zhao Zian's sleeve tightly.

Zhao Zian looked at Zhang Laizi and smiled.

"Zhang Laizi, do you know what you did wrong?"

Zhang Laizi was taken aback. "What?"

"Your mistake was that you were too greedy."

Zhao Zian shook his head and sighed.

"Originally, I wanted to resolve this issue with you amicably. But now it seems that taking action is the only option."

"Make a move?"

Zhang Laizi and his men burst into laughter.

"You? A sickly weakling who could be blown away by the wind? Hahahaha!"

"Kid, have you taken the wrong medicine? Are you out of your mind?!"

Scarface Liu became even more arrogant, pointing at Zhao Zi'an's nose and cursing.

Zhao Zian moved.

Scarface Liu felt a blur before his eyes, and then a sharp pain shot through him from the finger pointing at Zhao Zian's nose.

"what!"

Zhao Zian kicked him in the knee.

Scarface Liu screamed and fell to his knees. Zhao Zian's elbow slid down and hit him on the back of the neck.

Scarface Liu fainted without uttering a sound.

The laughter of Zhang Laizi and his four thugs abruptly stopped.

"Attack him together! Kill him!"

Zhang Laizi was the first to react.

Four thugs rushed up.

Zhao Zian slightly shifted his body to the side and cut his palm on the wrist of the other person holding the stick.

The thug felt a numbness in his wrist, and the wooden stick flew out of his hand.

Zhao Zian casually grabbed the wooden stick and swung it backhand.

The man spat out a mouthful of teeth mixed with blood and foam, then fell backward.

All five strong men fell down.

Only Zhang Laizi and Zhao Zian remained standing in the main hall.