Dao of the Deal

The maid handed over the silver. Yize gave her three boxes of perfume in exchange. Part of him was shocked that it had been so easy to convince the young lady to part with another five taels, but fortunately he was not one to show his emotions easily on his face.

The two friends left, allowing Yize to return to his previous occupation of watching pedestrians walk by. It would be time for lunch soon. Part of him wanted to head out of town now. He could prepare his own hot food for half the cost of a restaurant meal, and he would feel safer with his silver behind lock and key. As frustrating as it was to stand around not selling anything, though, he knew he wouldn't get anything done by ignoring the problem.

He was taken out of his musings when he spotted somebody making a beeline for him. Several somebodies, in fact. Three men, walking almost shoulder to shoulder, forcing other pedestrians out of their way as they bulled their way towards him.

Yize stood up and settled into a ready stance. He held his hands in front of him in welcome, ready to shift into a martial position should things turn hostile.

"Gentlemen, welcome," he said. "Scented oils make a fine gift for the woman in your life, and Flower Mountain's product-"

The lead man reached out to shove him in the chest. Yize took a step back, not quite ready to start a fight but not willing to let the man lay a hand on him.

"Shut up! What do you think you're doing here?"

Yize cocked his head.

"I'm selling perfume," he said. "What are you doing here?"

The man in front of him was not a member of the city watch. Nor were either of his friends. His friends were no longer standing side by side in an attempt at intimidation. Instead they were gradually spreading apart, giving themselves space to fight.

The clothes they were wearing were a step up from what a rice farmer would usually wear, but not a large step. A simple tunic over trousers combination. When combined with an honest face it would speak of a hard working tradesman. On these three, it was obviously the uniform of low level thugs.

"You're not welcome here," the lead thug said, stepping forward again. This time, Yize held his ground.

The nearby pedestrians scattered, not wanting to risk getting caught up in the impending violence. A few curious onlookers stopped once they'd reached a safe distance and stayed to watch.

Something like the honest people of the town jumping in to save him wasn't going to happen outside of Chuhua's bedtime stories. Traveling merchants were tolerated rather than liked, especially by their competition. On the other hand, the people confronting him were hardly model citizens. So he probably wouldn't be risking the wrath of an angry mob should he choose to defend himself.

Also, as far as Yize could tell, there wasn't a drop of cultivation between the three of them. They could be hiding their abilities, but he didn't think a hidden master would bother to harass a street stall.

"My customers welcome my presence," Yize said. He raised his hands high enough to be able to ward off any attacks to his face, but that was all. He didn't want to throw the first punch.

"Well, I don't," the thug replied. His friends were now at the edge of Yize's peripheral vision. The cart behind him blocked them from circling around any further.

"Why should I care what you think?" Yize asked.

"Because if you don't, I'll-" the man began, stepping forward again and reaching out to shove Yize.

This time, Yize let him, swaying back from the force of the shove before springing forward and burying his fist in the thug's gut. He held back some strength, but he still hit hard enough that the thug folded forward over his fist, his last insult vanishing in a puff of breath.

Yize grabbed onto him with both hands and shoved him off to the left, hoping to impede the attack coming from that side. He turned back to the right just in time to see a fist looping in at his face. He hunched forward and pivoted his body, taking the punch on the shoulder.

He could feel it, but he'd been hit harder during practice sessions. Xinyi hadn't let him slack off then, and he didn't slack off now, stepping forward through the punch and hooking his leg behind the thug's before shoving him back. He fell back, landing on his ass with a thud.

Yize stepped forward and hopped over his prone body to put an obstacle between himself and the last thug standing. He cleared the distance easily and turned around, arms up.

The third man had been caught by surprise by his movement. He hesitated for a moment, thinking about helping his friend up, before deciding to press forward on his own. He was a big guy. This probably wasn't the first time he'd been hired on to act as useful muscle for somebody.

Six months ago, Yize probably would have had to pull a knife if he wanted to win this fight. He probably would have chosen to run away, or just take a beating. Introducing sharp weapons into a fight made it all too easy for somebody to end up dead, which would be bad enough if he were the one killed and might even implicate Chuhua if he were the killer.

Now, though, Yize reaped the rewards of hard work as he caught the big guy's punch on his forearm, stopping it cold, before launching his own haymaker in retaliation. The thug got his hands up to protect his face, but was still sent staggering backwards from the force of the blow.

The added distance gave Yize room to snap off a front kick that caught the big man flush in the chest. He was pushed even further back, where he tripped over the prone form of his friend and crashed into their leader, who had been doing his best to rejoin the fight.

The two of them fell to the ground together. The leader cursed and shoved the big guy off of him, but found Yize looming over him before he could scramble to his feet.

Yize stood there for a moment, his arms loose at his side. "Let me ask again. Should I care what you think?"

The leader glared at him for a moment before his resolve crumbled and he shook his head.

"Good," Yize said, crouching down to put himself at a more conversational level. "Now, who sent you to find trouble with me?"

He didn't think these three men even knew what perfume was, let alone built up some kind of grudge against his perfume stand. It stood to reason that they were hired muscle, sent by somebody who disliked Yize' presence in Jiuliu City.

He didn't think it was any kind of organized crime. Yize wasn't a native of Jiuliu City, but he had grown up near enough to have some idea of the realities of city life, one of which was that the criminal element didn't dare stretch its arms into the higher class neighborhoods.

"I just didn't like your face," the thug said.

Yize cocked his head and remained silent. He couldn't torture a confession out of the man—he wasn't a member of the town guard—but he had handled the man and his friends pretty easily. There was no harm in attempting a bit of intimidation.

A moment of silence passed, before the man scoffed. "I told you, nobody wants you here. Screwing up business for everybody else."

Yize stood up to his full height and sighed. It wasn't that he hadn't considered that his competition might find him to be an eyesore, but he had been so fixated on his disappointment with his sales volume that he had lost perspective.

Sure, the silver he brought in by selling perfume hardly measured up to what he earned from selling liquor by the cart load. To his competition, though, he was rolling into town and taking dozens of taels of silver that should belong to them.

It would be hard for a saint to watch that much money grow wings and fly away, and the people engaged in business in Jiaoqiu City were hardly saints. After he had appeared on the scene and left town the first time, whoever was watching him from the shadows had apparently resolved that he wouldn't get away unscathed a second time.

He was lucky that they hadn't realized he was a cultivator. For any normal person, being set upon by a team of thugs would end in the form of begging for mercy in one way or another. Thanks to Yize's cultivation base, though, the shoe was on the other foot now.

He rubbed his chin, staring down at the thug in silence. The man's moment of bravado faded away as it started to sink in that he and his buddies had been handily defeated by a single man. Even the most bullheaded thug would start to worry about what was going to happen to him next.

To be honest, Yize wasn't sure himself. If the three men had attacked him out in the wilderness, it would have been simple. He knew a few places where inconvenient bodies would simply disappear, and even if he didn't bother to cover his tracks, nobody was going to seek justice for unlucky bandits.

In the city, though, he couldn't just deal with the thugs himself. Yize sighed. He was going to have to get the law involved.

As if summoned by his thoughts, a team of watchmen shouldered the way through the crowd. When seconds counted, the city watch was only minutes away.

Their leader was an older man, his hair starting to go gray at the temples and a gut starting to become visible beneath his patrol uniform. He surveyed the scene for a moment before turning his attention to Yize. "What happened here?"

"These three men attacked me," Yize said. "Wanted to stop me from doing business here."

"This maniac slugged me out of nowhere!" the lead thug protested, levering himself up into a sitting position. "He took out me and my friends with a sneak attack."

It was obviously a lie. For one thing, the three thugs might as well have had the word "criminal" tattooed across their foreheads. For another, the three of them were scattered around some distance from each other. It would have been impossible to take them all out in one sneak attack. Not to mention the fact that Yize's cart and perfume on display showed that he was a simple peddler, not somebody to resort to violence at the drop of a hat.

The lead patrolman stared at the thug for a moment, then gave a brisk nod. "Right. I'm going to have to bring you all in for questioning."

Yize didn't like where that was going. "Is that really necessary?"

The patrolman drew himself up to his full height. "Fighting in the streets of Jiuqiu City is against the law! I can't just close one eye and let such behavior pass unpunished."

Yize took a look around. None of the people who had been enjoying the show looked to be willing to jump out and speak on his behalf. If anything, the crowd seemed more inclined to trickle away now that the long arm of the law had arrived.

The patrolman was leading a squad of five. Yize wasn't confident that he could take them in a fight, not without drawing a weapon and risking bloodshed. He could make a break for it and probably get away, but there was no way he could grab the contents of the strong box or take his unsold cargo with him.

Not to mention how Muchen would react if he left Huichen behind. And he wanted to be able to do business in Jiuli City in the future.

Mentally resigning himself to the legal process, Yize turned back to the patrol leader. "I apologize for the disturbance. Is there a fine to pay? To be honest, I'd rather handle everything on the spot."

The patrolman drew himself up to his full height. It would have been more impressive if he came up past the bridge of Yize's nose. "Bribery? Of a government official? That's it! You're coming with me."

Yize stifled a sigh and went along with the arrest. He took some solace in the fact that the three thugs were being arrested as well. Any amusement that he was feeling, though, was stifled when he saw that they were impounding Huichen and his cart as well.

It was hard enough for an ordinary person to enter prison and exit with all of his limbs attached. Walking out with all of the silver that he'd had on his person was downright impossible. Yize figured his status as a cultivator was enough to secure his personal health, but he was pretty sure his profit margin had just taken a major hit.