If Ghost Fist wanted to prove his worth then I may as well protect my fists. "Go right ahead," I said, stepping back and gesturing for him to take the lead. Maybe the big guy wasn't as opposed to intimidating civilians as he had suggested.

  Ghost Fist moved forward, his massive frame somehow less threatening as he approached the counter. His voice carried that same quiet tone he used in the training hall.

  "How's business, Fai?"

  "What?" The restaurant owner glared at me for moment longer then looked up at Ghost Fist and shrugged. "Fine."

  Ghost Fist's gaze swept the dining room slowly, his eyes lingering on details I had missed in my irritation. Paint peeled from the walls in long strips. Several tables bore chips and scratches that spoke of years without proper maintenance. The floor tiles were cracked in places, and held together with what looked like tar.

  "Paint hasn't been touched in a while," Ghost Fist observed. "Tables have seen better days too."

  He nodded toward the far corner where water stains bloomed across the ceiling like dark flowers.

  "Looks like things aren't going great."

  Fai's shoulders sagged slightly, but he said nothing.

  Ghost Fist turned his attention to the menu board hanging behind the counter. His finger traced the chalk-written items, pausing on several entries.

  "Lot of luxury fish items on that list. Snapper in wine sauce, Golden Carp with jasmine vegetables, Silver Bass stuffed with fine herbs." His eyes met Fai's. "In this part of town, I can't imagine you sell a lot of those."

  Another shrug. "They aren't the best sellers, but my wife likes them."

  "Maybe save those for meals at home," Ghost Fist suggested gently. "Must be a lot of expensive waste from ingredients in unsold dishes."

  Without waiting for permission, he walked over to the menu board and picked up a piece of chalk. His large hands moved with surprising delicacy as he drew lines through item after item.

  When he finished, nearly two-thirds of the menu had white lines through them.

  Ghost Fist stepped back, studied his work critically, then crossed off two more items with decisive strokes.

  "Right," he said with a satisfied nod. "That should do it. I've left the quick and the profitable. Give it a week and that should start to turn this restaurant around. Then you can start paying Qin's Fresh Catch what you owe." His tone remained conversational, matter-of-fact. "In the meantime, if you want deliveries of fish, you'll need to pay cash up front."

  He looked from me to Fai with his eyebrows raised slightly. "That acceptable?"

  I shook my head in wry amusement having calmed down while Ghost Fist had spoken. "Fine by me."

  Fai stared at the transformed menu board, his expression shifting as understanding dawned. The lines Ghost Fist had drawn weren't random. He had eliminated every expensive, slow-moving item while leaving a core of affordable crowd-pleasing dishes that would appeal to dock workers and local families. He had also removed those dishes that took a long time to cook. With this menu ,people would be in and out of here much faster which meant more customers and more profit.

  A smile spread slowly across his face.

  "If this works," he said, voice filled with something approaching hope, "I'd be very happy to do that."

  "And your wife?" Ghost Fist asked.

  Fai's face fell. "I don't know."

  "How about you trust her a little," Ghost Fist said. "Put aside your pride. If she knew how bad things had got she would have suggested this herself. Any decent spouse would. She doesn't you to fail."

  Fai's face was an open book and it went from despairing to thoughtful to determined.

  He turned to me, all his earlier bluster evaporated. His face now took on a sheepish expression as he rubbed the back of his neck.

  "I apologize for being rude earlier. Truth is, I just didn't have the money to pay and couldn't think of how I was going to get it. Didn't want to lose face, you understand?"

  It only took a few more minutes to hammer out the details with Fai. As soon as we stepped onto the street and the restaurant's door closed behind us, I turned to Ghost Fist.

  "How in all the hels did you do that?"

  He glanced back at The Salty Sailor, where through the window we could see Fai studying his revised menu board. Even his posture was more confident. "Nothing complicated about it."

  "That was anything but nothing. You walked in there and solved his problems in five minutes. Problems that were keeping him from paying us what he owed."

  Ghost Fist's massive shoulders lifted in a shrug. "Grew up the son of a general store owner in a farming village. If you didn't learn when to extend credit, when to demand payment up front, and when to refuse service entirely you wouldn't last for long. My father made sure I understood that before I could count."

  We walked past a group of children playing with wooden hoops, their laughter filling the narrow street. Ghost Fist stepped aside to avoid one who came careening toward us, his movements fluid despite his size.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  "Fai was struggling and embarrassed at not being able to pay," he continued. "That was clear from how defensive he got right away. And once I looked at that menu, the problem was obvious. Anyone who took five minutes to think about it would have seen the same. Too many expensive dishes that nobody in this neighborhood would ever order. All that waste from ingredients spoiling, all that time spent preparing elaborate meals that didn't sell."

  He paused at the corner.

  "Issues usually aren't hidden or complicated. People are just too close to their own problems to see the solution."

  Well, wasn't the big man an unexpected find? "Would you want a bigger role? Managing collections and customers more generally?"

  Ghost Fist's weathered face turned thoughtful. He stood silent for several long moments, watching dock workers hauling cargo from a recently arrived vessel.

  "Lian's going to be out getting new customers," I said to fill the silence. "Until now, only Laoxu had been looking after existing ones, which means they haven't been looked after at all."

  "Fighting in the pits isn't something I can do forever," he said finally. "Been thinking about what comes next. This could work." His dark eyes met mine. "What kind of arrangement were you thinking?"

  "Same as what I offered Lian. Steady wages plus a share of what you bring in. Let's work out the specifics as we head to the next place."

  He extended one massive hand. "If the numbers work, it's a deal."

  The rest of that afternoon proved even more successful than I had dared hope. Ghost Fist's approach worked wonders. He listened more than he spoke, identified each establishment's real problems, then offered practical solutions that made paying their debts possible. The Red Lantern's owner even agreed to double his weekly fish order after Ghost Fist suggested a simpler preparation method that would reduce kitchen waste.

  By the time we finished our rounds, every debt had been settled or restructured with clear payment schedules. More importantly I had a talented new member of my crew.

  "You've got a gift for this," I told him as we reached the harbor district's main intersection.

  Ghost Fist nodded once. "Good doing business with you."

  We shook hands and went our separate ways.

  * * *

  The increased weight of my purse felt satisfying as I moved on to made my rounds to the moneylenders. Each reaction followed the same pattern: surprise, then pleasure as I counted out the monthly interest payment as well as a slice out of the outstanding debt itself. The interest had been eating away at Qin's Fresh Catch for years, but I hoped to have it under control within weeks.

  "Never thought I would see the day that Qin's Fresh Catch paid back debt rather than begging for more," said the third lender, a thin man with ink-stained fingers. "Business must be booming."

  "Getting there," I said as I accepted his receipt with a smile..

  The Golden Current waited at the end of my list. The nondescript building's unremarkable exterior concealing the viper's nest within.

  The receptionist's pinched face brightened when I approached his tall desk. No doubt again hoping for a bribe. Shameless did not begin to describe him. Before I could tell him that he was out of luck, he held up one manicured finger.

  "Ah, Master Shen! Perfect timing. Master Yin has asked to see you as soon as you arrived. You can skip the queue."

  I very much wanted to refuse. Walking into Yin Chi's office voluntarily felt like stepping into a spider's web. But information was power, and anything I learned about his operations would prove valuable when the time came to destroy him. Anyway, I had at least a suspicion about what he wanted to say.

  "Lead the way."

  The receptionist's smile grew wider. "Excellent. Right this way, Master Shen."

  The secretary, Rei Lin, opened the heavy wooden door to the office to reveal the same scene as before. Yin Chi sat behind his carved desk, the two Initiate-level enforcers flanking the room like silent statues.

  "Master Shen." Yin Chi's pale face maintained its mask of civility. "Thank you so much for your time. Please, sit. Tea?"

  "Thank you."

  As Rei Lin poured and served, I studied Yin Chi's expression. His dark eyes revealed nothing, but the slight upturn at the corner of his mouth suggested satisfaction about something.

  The tea ritual concluded, and Rei Lin withdrew to her corner as Yin Chi steepled his fingers.

  "Congratulations on acquiring Qin's Fresh Catch," he began, his voice carrying that same refined cadence. "Impressive. A young man like yourself, coming up in the world so rapidly."

  I sipped the tea and waited. Compliments from vipers always preceded the strike.

  "However." The word hung in the air. "There appears to be a small issue with the debt."

  My hand remained steady on the teacup. I didn't think I could hate Yin Chi more than I already did, but it appeared that I could. "Seeing as I am here early with this month's payment I can't imagine what you are talking about."

  Yin Chi's smile never wavered, but something predatory flickered behind those jade eyes as he remained silent.

  "What issue might that be?" I chose to break the silence and kept my voice level.

  Yin Chi gestured toward his secretary with one pale finger. Rei Lin glided forward, placing a leather folder on the desk between us. Her movements remained as efficient and unobtrusive as before, but I caught the briefest flicker of something, pity perhaps, in her eyes before she retreated.

  "As you'll see from the agreement," Yin Chi said, his tone maintaining that same mock civility, "The Golden Current reserves the right to call in any debt in its entirety when there is a change of ownership. A standard clause, really. Quite common in our industry."

  I opened the folder and scanned the documents inside. The language was dense, buried in subsections and addendums, but there it was. My muscles in my jaw visibly tightened as I read the exact wording. He was a snake but the clause was clear: any transfer of business assets would trigger immediate payment of outstanding balances.

  The silence stretched between us. I could feel Yin Chi's satisfaction radiating across the desk.

  "Unfortunately," he continued, arranging his features into an expression of false regret, "given your obvious lack of business experience, I simply cannot in good conscience allow this debt to continue accumulating interest indefinitely. It would be irresponsible of me, really. I understand that this is an unwelcome shock, but I am a reasonable man. Under the terms of our agreement I could demand payment within the week, but I will give you one, whole, month to settle the full amount."

  My hands remained steady on the folder, but every muscle in my body coiled tight. Seven hundred years of controlling my emotions served me well now, even if the feeling in my chest threatened to spill over.

  "And if I can't pay in a month?"

  Yin Chi's mask slipped entirely. The predatory smile that replaced it belonged on a shark circling wounded prey.

  "Did I misunderstand you before, Master Shen? I thought you believed that all debts should be paid in full. Haven't you made it your job to ensure the Shen family gives everyone 'precisely what they are due'?"

  He leaned forward slightly, savoring each word.

  "I am sure that with your meteoric rise, you'll have no problem finding the forty-two gold tears plus change that you owe us. Won't you?"

  Forty-two gold tears. Four thousand two hundred silver fangs. More money than most citizens of Shuilin Haven saw in a lifetime.

  Blood hammered through the veins in my head. The spider had finally revealed the true size of his web.