Datong Ward, before an ordinary black courtyard gate.
Yang Jing’s steps halted, and his eyes darkened.
He sized up the two ruffianly men before him—one with short hair and a crooked neck, the other with frayed cuffs. Both were toying with daggers, their gazes full of scrutiny as they looked at Yang Jing.
“Yang Jing, the half-year term is up. Time to pay back the money.” The short-haired man twisted his neck, making it crack.
“Back then, you borrowed eight taels from our Dayun Gang. According to the contract you signed, after half a year, one borrowed is repaid as two. You now owe us sixteen taels of silver,” the tall, thin man with frayed cuffs snorted.
Hearing this, Yang Jing first frowned, thinking they were trying to extort him. But the next moment, he abruptly remembered.
It seemed he really had borrowed from a loan shark?
Or more precisely, the original owner of this body had borrowed from a loan shark. Now Yang Jing had merely inherited his karma.
Fragments of memory surfaced in Yang Jing’s mind.
Although he had received all of the original owner’s memories, there were simply too many and they were too jumbled. Yang Jing had not sorted through all of them; they had merely been piled up there in a heap.
It was like how many people thought they had forgotten their memories from before the age of three. In truth, they had not really forgotten them, but stored them somewhere in the brain. Perhaps under some particular trigger, they might recall them again.
Yang Jing had it much more convenient. Whenever he needed those memories, he could call them up and examine them at any time.
Very soon, Yang Jing sorted out the relevant memories regarding the original owner borrowing from a loan shark.
After understanding the whole story, Yang Jing’s expression slowly darkened.
In order to worm his way into the circle of Lü Yang, Zhou Lin, and Zhang Kehan, the original owner inevitably had to treat them to meals. On two occasions when he ate with Qi Yun, in order to build a connection with her and cling to her thigh, he had deliberately rushed to pay the bill.
Even so, Qi Yun had still never once taken him seriously.
In the eyes of Qi Yun and the others, the original owner was nothing more than a country bumpkin with extremely poor innate aptitude.
Most importantly, Qi Yun, Lü Yang, Zhou Lin, and the others came from wealthy families or great clans in the city. They had the capital to be lavish. But what did Yang Jing have?
The living expenses his family gave him every month were not even enough to cover the cost of one drinking gathering with them.
The original owner was a pauper through and through. He had barely any silver in hand, so how could he afford to invite Qi Yun, Lü Yang, and the others to meals and drinks? It was only by chance that he learned the Dayun Gang was lending money.
The original owner truly had no brains. He had not considered the interest at all and had directly borrowed eight taels of silver.
Yang Jing shook his head inwardly. The poorest were always the ones who loved pretending the most. Now the debt collectors had come right to his door.
“I don’t have money right now. I’ll pay you when I do,” Yang Jing said flatly.
He simply decided to act like an obstinate deadbeat.
First, he truly did not have much silver on hand right now, far from enough to scrape together sixteen taels.
Second, he had never intended to pay this money at all.
A half-year term, borrowing one and repaying two.
Such a high interest rate was simply absurd. The authorities had explicitly forbidden it. It only circulated in private and could not be exposed to the light of day at all, so Yang Jing was not afraid of making a big fuss.
Moreover, according to the memories he had obtained from the original owner, Yang Jing knew that besides loan sharking, the Dayun Gang also engaged in utterly conscienceless deeds such as human trafficking and mutilating abducted people.
Yang Jing might not be a good man or a kind man, but he still had a bottom line as a person.
Naturally, he detested gangs like this from the bottom of his heart.
“You’re courting death!”
“Brat, you dare play us?”
When the short-haired man and the tall, thin man heard Yang Jing’s words, their faces immediately darkened, their voices icy.
Each took a step forward, faintly forming a pincer formation around Yang Jing, as if they were ready to draw blood from him at the slightest disagreement.
Watching the two dagger-wielding gang thugs about to press in on him, Yang Jing’s expression did not change in the slightest, nor did he feel the least bit afraid.
These two gang thugs were merely ordinary people. Judging from their muscles and qi and blood, they could only be considered average even among ordinary people. They probably lacked training in daily life as well.
As for the Dayun Gang behind them, Yang Jing did not know much. Mainly, the information he had obtained from the original owner was too little.
It had to be said that the original owner really was both foolish and stupid.
Without sufficient understanding of the Dayun Gang, he had actually dared to borrow money to eat, drink, and make merry, without even figuring out the loan interest rate.
But thinking about it carefully, such people were actually not uncommon.
Even on Earth in Yang Jing’s previous life, many high school and university students had gotten involved in all kinds of online loans. For a time, even nude loans had a market. It showed that once people got carried away or failed to think things through, they were bound to take a great fall.
‘Gangs…’ This word rose in Yang Jing’s mind.
Although he knew little about the Dayun Gang, he did have some understanding of the overall situation of gangs throughout Yuhe County.
As far as Yang Jing knew, gangs were everywhere in Yuhe County. In particular, within the various wards of the county town and in the suburbs near the county town, there were countless gangs operating under all sorts of names.
These gangs varied in strength.
For the stronger gangs, their leaders were generally at the An Jin level.
Next were ordinary gangs, whose leaders were generally at the Ming Jin level.
The weakest were the bottom-tier gangs. Competition among such bottom-tier gangs was the fiercest, and some entire gangs were even made up solely of ordinary people.
In Yuhe County, ordinary gangs and bottom-tier gangs were the most numerous.
With Yang Jing’s current strength at the Ming Jin realm, as long as he did not provoke a gang with an An Jin expert holding the fort, he was not particularly concerned.
If he really did provoke that kind of powerful gang, he could always hide inside the martial arts school.
His master, Sun Yong, was a dignified Hua Jin expert, already among the small group of the strongest people in Yuhe County.
Now Yang Jing was no longer some nominal disciple, but Sun Yong’s formal disciple. If he truly provoked an An Jin expert, this conveniently acquired master of his could hardly stand by and do nothing.
At the very least, for a short time, he would still protect him and look after him a little.
As for the future, Yang Jing still had this confidence: as long as he was given time, all enemies were paper tigers!
“You two,” Yang Jing said, looking at the two men gradually closing in. His brow lifted slightly, as though he had thought of something.
“What?” the short-haired man said coldly.
“Can I borrow another sum? I guarantee I’ll pay it back!” Yang Jing said.
Since Yang Jing had already decided to tear off all pretense with the Dayun Gang, he wanted to try and see if he could borrow another sum from them. In any case, he had no intention of paying it back.
“Fuck! You brat, you really are playing the two of us!”
The two gang thugs were both stunned when they heard Yang Jing’s words. Then they reacted and cursed, “You don’t even have the money to pay us back now, and you still want to take more money from us? You think the Dayun Gang’s money is blown here by the wind?”
“I think you want to die!” the tall, thin man cursed, taking the lead and swinging a punch. His fist carried brute force, but it had no technique whatsoever.