Datong Square, in front of the ordinary black gate of a courtyard.
Yang Jing stopped in his tracks, his gaze darkening.
He sized up the two shady-looking men before him. One had short hair and a crooked neck; the other's cuffs were frayed. At that moment, both were toying with daggers, their eyes scrutinizing Yang Jing.
"Yang Jing, the six-month deadline is up. Time to pay up." The short-haired man twisted his neck, which let out a loud CRACK.
"You borrowed eight taels from our Great Fortune Gang. According to the contract you signed, the loan doubles after six months. You now owe us sixteen taels of silver," the tall, thin man with the frayed cuffs said with a cold snort.
Hearing this, Yang Jing's brow furrowed. At first, he thought they were trying to scam him, but in the next moment, it all came flooding back.
'Did I really take out a high-interest loan?'
Or more accurately, the body's original owner had taken out a high-interest loan, and now he was simply reaping the consequences.
Fragments of memories surfaced in Yang Jing's mind.
Although he had received all of the original owner's memories, they were far too numerous and complex. Yang Jing hadn't sorted through them all; they were just haphazardly piled up in a corner of his mind.
It was like how many people think they've forgotten everything before the age of three. In reality, the memories aren't truly gone—they're just stored away somewhere in the brain, ready to be recalled by a specific trigger.
For Yang Jing, however, it was much more convenient. He could pull up any memory he needed on command.
Soon enough, Yang Jing had sorted through the relevant memories concerning the original owner's high-interest loan.
After understanding the full story, Yang Jing's expression slowly soured.
In order to mix with the likes of Lv Yang, Zhou Lin, and Zhang Kehan, the body's original owner inevitably had to treat them to meals. On two occasions when dining with Qi Yun, he had specifically gone to pay the bill, hoping to curry favor with her and ride her coattails.
But even so, Qi Yun never gave him the time of day.
In the eyes of Qi Yun and the others, the original owner was nothing more than a country bumpkin with terrible martial arts aptitude.
More importantly, Qi Yun, Lv Yang, and Zhou Lin all came from prominent city clans or wealthy families and had money to burn. But what did Yang Jing have?
The monthly allowance his family gave him wasn't even enough to cover the bill for one of their gatherings.
The original owner was a complete pauper with hardly any silver coins to his name. How could he possibly afford to treat people like Qi Yun and Lv Yang to food and drink? He had only stumbled upon the fact that the Great Fortune Gang was offering loans.
The original owner was truly clueless. He hadn't considered the interest at all and just went ahead and borrowed eight taels of silver.
Yang Jing shook his head. 'The poorest people are always the ones who put on the biggest front. And now the debt collectors have come knocking.'
"I don't have the money right now. I'll pay you when I do," Yang Jing said plainly.
He decided to just play the shameless deadbeat.
For one, he really didn't have many silver coins on him—certainly not enough to scrape together sixteen taels of silver.
And for another, he had no intention of ever paying them back.
Double the principal in six months.
Such a ridiculously high interest rate was outrageous. The government had explicitly banned such practices, which meant they could only operate in the shadows and couldn't see the light of day. Therefore, Yang Jing wasn't afraid of things getting out of hand.
Furthermore, from his predecessor's memories, Yang Jing learned that besides loan sharking, the Great Fortune Gang was also involved in utterly depraved acts like human trafficking and the maiming of victims for profit.
While Yang Jing was no saint, he still had a moral baseline.
He naturally felt a deep-seated revulsion for this kind of gang.
"You're courting death!"
"Kid, are you messing with us?"
At Yang Jing's words, the faces of the short-haired man and the tall, thin man fell, their voices turning ice-cold.
Each took a step forward, subtly forming a pincer to corner Yang Jing. They looked ready to draw blood at the slightest provocation.
Watching the two dagger-wielding thugs close in, Yang Jing's expression remained unchanged. He didn't feel the slightest bit of fear.
These two gang thugs were just ordinary men. Judging by their muscle tone and vitality, they were merely average, even for commoners, and likely didn't get much exercise.
As for the Great Fortune Gang behind them, Yang Jing didn't know much; the information he'd inherited from the body's previous owner was simply too sparse.
It had to be said, the body's original owner was both foolish and stupid.
He had dared to borrow money for partying without knowing anything about the Great Fortune Gang, not even bothering to figure out the interest rate.
Then again, people like that weren't exactly rare.
Even on Earth, in Yang Jing's past life, plenty of high school and university students got entangled in various online loans. For a time, there was even a market for "naked loans." It just went to show that once people get carried away or fail to think things through, they're bound to take a major fall.
'Gangs…' The word surfaced in Yang Jing's mind.
While he knew little about the Great Fortune Gang specifically, he did have a general understanding of the gangs in Yuhe County.
As far as Yang Jing knew, Yuhe County was teeming with gangs, especially within the various districts of the county seat and its surrounding suburbs. There were countless gangs of every stripe imaginable.
These gangs varied in strength.
The leaders of the more powerful gangs were typically at the Anjin level of strength.
Below them were the average gangs, whose leaders generally possessed Mingjin-level strength.
At the very bottom were the street-level gangs. Competition was most intense at this level, and some were composed entirely of ordinary people.
Within Yuhe County, average and street-level gangs were the most numerous.
With his current strength at the Mingjin Realm, Yang Jing wasn't concerned, so long as he didn't provoke a gang backed by an Anjin expert.
If he really did provoke such a powerful gang, he could always just hide out in the Martial Arts Hall.
His master, Sun Yong, was a formidable Huajin expert, placing him among the small handful of the most powerful individuals in Yuhe County.
Yang Jing was no longer just a Registered Disciple; he was Sun Yong's formal disciple. If he really angered an Anjin expert, his "master of convenience," Sun Yong, couldn't possibly just stand by and do nothing.
At the very least, he would offer some protection and look out for him for a short while.
'As for the future... ' Yang Jing was confident. 'Just give me enough time, and all my enemies will be nothing but paper tigers!'
"Gentlemen," Yang Jing called out, watching the two of them creep closer. He raised an eyebrow, as if an idea had just struck him.
"What is it?" the short-haired man said coldly.
"Could I borrow a little more? I swear I'll pay it all back!" Yang Jing said.
'Since I've already decided to burn my bridges with the Great Fortune Gang, I might as well see if I can borrow a bit more,' Yang Jing thought. He had no intention of ever paying it back, anyway.
"Fuck! This kid is just messing with us!"
The two thugs froze for a second before it dawned on them. "You motherfucker!" one of them roared. "You don't have the money to pay us back, but you want to borrow more? You think the Great Fortune Gang's money just grows on trees?"
"I think you're looking for a beating!" the tall, thin man cursed, swinging a punch. His fist carried some brute force, but it was completely without form or technique.