Chapter 45: A Small Profit

“What am I, anyway?”
The tiger woman yanked off the hood covering her head, fury burning in her eyes.
With a thud, Cheng Wencai collapsed to the ground, pulling Hua Hongyue down from her stool as well.
“M-Madam?”
Both Kuang Tianwei and Lou Jingsong had seen the tiger woman before. Upon seeing her face beneath the hood, their legs turned to water, and even holding onto the table couldn’t stop them from trembling violently.
“Cheng Wencai…”
The tiger woman roared, each word deliberate, flames blazing from her blood-red eyes.
“M-Madam… I was tricked into coming here.”
Cheng Wencai’s teeth trembled uncontrollably. His earlier composure was long gone; lying on the ground, he didn’t even dare get up.
“Tricked? Do you think I’m blind or deaf? I haven’t divorced you out of years of affection—how clever of you! Really very clever.”
Gritting her teeth, the tiger woman snatched a bench behind her, stepped forward in a few strides, and smashed it hard against Cheng Wencai’s back.
“I’ll divorce you! I’ll divorce you…”
The sound of blows echoed nonstop.
“Madam, please spare my life! I won’t dare do this again! Please spare me…”
Cheng Wencai cried out in pain. No matter how much he writhed and begged, the flames in the tiger woman’s eyes showed no sign of fading, and the bench kept coming down like rain.
At that moment, the tiger woman resembled a goddess descended from heaven, while Cheng Wencai was like a flower crushed by a storm. Even someone as ruthless as Lin Dong couldn’t help but marvel at the scene.
“You wretched bitch! Daring to call my wife a tiger woman? Let me tear your mouth apart…”
The maid had just as fiery a temper as the tiger woman. Seeing that her mistress had already started fighting, it was pointless to intervene. Glancing around the hall and not seeing Liu Xiu, she imitated the tiger woman, grabbed a bench, and charged at Hua Hongyue.
Kuang Tianwei and the others were stunned. How had the elaborate drama they had prepared for Lin’s Inn turned into this?
How could the tiger woman possibly come to a small inn to eat?
Coincidence, or intent?
Helpless, they leaned on the table, their eyes filled with deep fear as they stared at Lin Dong.
The scene was in complete chaos.
Lin Dong gave Wang Liuzhi a signal, and Wang Liuzhi rushed over quickly.

“Get all the guys over to break it up, and drag Kuang Tianwei and the other two in too. The messier, the better. Tell Triangular Eye—it’s his chance to show off today.” Lin Dong said meaningfully, “Go ahead, make sure to trample them so badly that it’s impossible to tell whether it’s paper or silver bills.”
Wang Liuzhi was so excited he almost knelt down in worship at these words.
The boss is truly mighty!
Before long, aside from Liu Xiu, who was still massaging Old Ding’s legs in the back yard and unaware of what was happening, more than a dozen workers, following Wang Liuzhi’s orders, rushed in and pushed Kuang Tianwei and the other two into the crowd.
“Boss Kuang, Boss Lou, hurry and save the county magistrate!”
“Who is this guy? He even dares to hit the county magistrate! Let me teach him a lesson!”
“Didn’t you hear the county magistrate call for his wife? You idiot—except for the county magistrate’s wife, who else would dare hit our county magistrate?”
“Madam, please don’t hit his head! Hitting his head could kill him.”
With the workers joining in, the chaos grew even worse. From time to time, Kuang Tianwei and Lou Jingsong’s voices could be heard shouting for them to stop pushing.
Triangular Eye moved through the crowd, sometimes behind Kuang Tianwei, sometimes beside Lou Jingsong. Taking advantage of the workers’ distraction, he would occasionally crouch down and steal a pinch from Cheng Wencai…
The chaotic scene lasted for over twenty minutes, with shredded paper everywhere in the hall. While continuing the fight might yield more screams from the county magistrate, it would hinder the inn from reopening and earning experience points. So Lin Dong immediately ordered Wang Liuzhi to separate them.
“My silver bills… my silver bills…”
Kuang Tianwei clutched half a stack of silver bills in one hand and frantically grabbed the shredded paper on the ground with the other.
Lou Jingsong shuddered. When he looked down, half of the silver bills in his clothes were exposed. Seeing their thickness, he cried out in despair.
“God! Who knocked my silver bills out?”
“Silver bills? Without you two provoking them, this bastard wouldn’t have dared to be affectionate with that little witch in public. I’ll kill you…”
Attracting attention with their screams, the tiger woman’s anger immediately shifted. She raised half a bench in her hand, ready to charge at the three of them, but Lin Dong grabbed her arm.
“Madam, you can’t hit them! If you keep going, it’ll cause a huge uproar in the city. Look outside—there are already many onlookers.”
The tiger woman glanced outside and indeed saw quite a few passersby watching.
“I’ll have the workers send you back first. Don’t worry, I guarantee they saw nothing today.” Lin Dong deliberately glanced at Kuang Tianwei and the others and whispered, “What do you think?”
The tiger woman subconsciously glanced at them as well. Though anger still burned in her eyes, she calmed down and nodded. “Thank you, Manager Lin!”

Lin Dong immediately called on the stronger Liu Hao and Zhang Ye to carry Cheng Wencai on their backs. As for Kuang Dazhi and the disheveled Hua Hongyue, with a single glance from him, Wang Liuzhi led his men to push them out as well. Seeing that everyone had left, Lin Dong returned to the back yard smiling. No sooner had he arrived than Wang Liuzhi and the Man-Eye followed closely behind. Sitting down at the stone table, he swept the Silver Rabbit off it, raising his eyebrows slightly. The Man-Eye, with a growing smile, took out a stack of silver bills and placed it in front of Lin Dong, saying with a chuckle, “Each of us got about half. As for the rest, I made it look like they were scattered—no one should suspect anything.” Lin Dong glanced at the bills; they all seemed to be worth 100 taels each, and by their thickness, there were roughly 4,000 taels in total. “Boss, we’ve made a fortune this time! We’ve earned at least 3,000 taels just from this deal—way easier than running an inn,” Wang Liuzhi said, overjoyed. They had already been pushed to the brink, and that tiger woman clearly didn’t want things to escalate. He had even prepared to draw his weapon and fight. Yet, with just a few words from the boss, the crisis was resolved. If it were someone else, Wang Liuzhi believed that even if they knew the tiger woman’s identity, they would probably just wait to be forced into a corner or resist by force. “It’s not that much. There might not even be 2,000 taels,” Lin Dong said with a smile. “Find someone to buy a Golden Ox in Qiufeng City. Have Liu Xiu take it to the county office to hand it over to the tiger woman—that’s when it will truly be resolved. Otherwise, do you think the tiger woman isn’t greedy for silver? Besides, when she comes later, she’ll still have to collect money according to the rules.” Wang Liuzhi immediately grew resentful, his face filled with displeasure. Without a Golden Ox, the tiger woman’s daily payment of 20 taels would drop to 6 or 7 taels—not much profit at all. “If I had known, I would have had the Man-Eye secretly kill that greedy official earlier. Others would surely think it was the tiger woman who did it. That way, we could save the Golden Ox.” Lin Dong shook his head. It wasn’t that simple. He would have already sent the Man-Eye to do it. Killing an official was the greatest taboo in the Great Han Kingdom. The reason was that aside from the imperial court, there were also sects and warriors not under the court’s control. If they ignored killing a county magistrate today, who knew what a warrior might dare to do tomorrow—kill a prefect, or even a prince or imperial relative. To prevent such problems, the Great Han Kingdom placed even greater emphasis on preventing the killing of officials than anything else. If Cheng Wencai were really killed today, the consequences would be even worse than killing Fu Zizhou a few months ago.

If he killed Fu Zizhou and it was discovered, at worst he could turn to Gu Huanzong or another major sect; even Grand Tutor Fu would be powerless to do anything. If he killed Cheng Wencai, the Great Han Nation had an organization called Tianwei Pavilion, dedicated to accommodating warriors willing to serve the Great Han Nation. Within it was a group called the Investigation Department, whose usual task was to investigate the causes of officials’ deaths. Killing Cheng Wencai and framing the Tiger Mother might work to deceive the local officials, but once the Investigation Department got involved, they could easily uncover the real cause of Cheng Wencai’s death. By then, even if he fled to Gu Huanzong, although the Great Han Nation and sects generally did not interfere with each other, Gu Huanzong was just a small sect and was at fault in the first place. If they refused to hand him over, they would surely be wiped out by Tianwei Pavilion. With Tianwei Pavilion pooling the strength of all the warriors under the Great Han Nation, not to mention a small sect like Gu Huanzong, even major sects would have to be cautious. Only those peak-level individuals who operated alone would dare to disregard such taboos against killing officials. “Tell the guys not to spread word about today’s incident. Give each of them twenty taels of silver; the one with the crooked eyes contributed the most, so he’ll get three hundred taels.” Making money was secondary; the experience points from the inn system were what mattered. He was about to reach level 3, and he didn’t want to fail to level up even though the new inn was opening soon. After thinking for a moment, Lin Dong continued, “Go back to work! Clean up the main hall as soon as possible. If there are no customers, send people out to attract them. Business must return to normal within an hour. Also, the new inn will be open in another half month or so. Prepare more firecrackers so we can set off explosions all day and night when it opens!” The two nodded eagerly. After they left, Lin Dong glanced at the Silver Rabbit beside him and smiled before returning to his room to practice. With the inn system upgrading, the new inn opening, and his strength nearing the threshold for breaking through to the second level of the Lingdong phase, three major events were on the horizon, and he had made a small profit today as well. In high spirits, Lin Dong decided to let this little guy go for now.