Chapter 248: Wanting to See a Magic Trick

“Not bad for you to understand!”
Seeing Lin Dong put down his brush, press his thumb on the inkstone, and then place his fingerprint next to the signature on the IOU, Jiang Dafu couldn’t help but praise him.
Lin Dong smiled calmly, “I hope you dare to accept it.”
Jiang Dafu grunted, picked up the IOU, and frowned at the messy handwriting.
“I, Lin Dong, today, at…”
Jiang Dafu carefully read each word slowly, and only halfway through did he start to understand it more smoothly.
Blowing on the slightly damp fingerprint, Jiang Dafu folded the IOU, tapped the counter, glared at Liu An, and then looked at Lin Dong, “Tell him where you hid the deed for Lin’s Inn and have him bring it here as soon as possible.”
Lin’s Inn?
The employees were stunned. Soon, they all stared at Lin Dong as if they had seen some terrifying monster, swallowing hard.
“The deed… seems to be on me!” Lin Dong flipped his palm, moved the deed from behind the counter, and placed it on the counter.
“Didn’t expect you to have already prepared to run away,” Jiang Dafu laughed. Young people these days were really quick-witted. They even brought their valuables when coming to cheat. And they knew how to adapt—unlike himself. Even if caught cheating, he would struggle hard before agreeing to give up his silk shop as collateral to pay back the money.
Look at him—that’s what I call knowing when to back down.
Jiang Dafu couldn’t help but pat Lin Dong’s shoulder and say cheerfully, “Not bad, not bad. With your decisive nature, although you suffered a loss today, if you’re more careful in the future, you’ll surely succeed.”
The employees stepped back in shock. How dare Jiang Dafu pat Manager Lin’s shoulder? And even teach him to be more careful after suffering a loss?
Lin Dong smiled without saying a word. Meanwhile, Liu An shook his head slowly, feeling ashamed inwardly. He had once been utterly loyal to Jiang Dafu, but with such poor judgment, just as his elder brother had said, he was worth not even ten taels of silver in Jiang Dafu’s eyes.
Add to that his greed and cruelty toward his employees, his judgment was probably even worse.
“What? Are you feeling sorry for him?” Seeing Liu An shake his head, Jiang Dafu laughed, “If your own manager isn’t sorry, why should you be?”
Liu An opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but remembering Lin Dong’s instructions, he chose to remain silent.

“Enough. Since it’s still early, you don’t have to spend the night tied up in the woodshed today. Follow me to the government office to finish the transfer documents, and you can leave right away.” Jiang Dafu glared at his workers, who were staring wide-eyed and mouths agape, and snapped, “Yang Sen, Li Pei, each of you grab one of them and come with me to the government office. The rest of you, listen carefully—I might come back at any time. If I find you slacking off, don’t blame me for being harsh.” With a wave of his hand, Jiang Dafu headed toward the main door but turned back halfway, took out the keys from his pocket, rushed to the counter, counted out a hundred copper coins from a drawer, and locked it shut. “This is a hundred coins as change for the customers. Keep track of everything clearly. I’ll come back later to check the fabrics. If even one coin is missing, I’ll deduct it from each of your wages.” Wang Dafu slammed his hand on the ledger, glanced around, and seeing Lin Dong watching him, said smugly, “You don’t understand business. To deal with useless people, you have to deduct their wages—otherwise, who will listen to you? Remember, they work for you because you pay them. Wages are what matter most.” Lin Dong shook his head slowly. He didn’t much understand business, but he knew that while it was common to fire people or even beat or scold them for mistakes, it was rare to deduct wages, and if done, it wouldn’t be excessive. As Wang Dafu said, workers came for the wages. Deducing wages would make them resent him even more than being beaten or scolded. It might save some money in the short term, but new workers weren’t easy to find, and keeping those who resented him only brought trouble, eventually costing more than it was worth. “Enough, let’s go!” Wang Dafu waved at Yang Sen and Li Pei, then reached the small door leading outside the counter but suddenly froze. Finally, he realized something was off. Looking up suspiciously, the way the workers were staring at him filled Wang Dafu with anger. Mockery, derision, pity… Were these bastards trying to rebel? Wang Dafu suddenly raised his arm and slammed it hard on the counter. The loud thud sent a sharp pain through his palm. “You useless bunch! Don’t you want your wages and deposits for this month? Do you think I won’t throw you all out?” Normally, such words would be incredibly effective. But today, Wang Dafu sensed there was indeed something wrong—the reaction of these useless people was too strange. So abnormal… Wang Dafu’s gaze shifted to Lin Dong, his expression puzzled.

Lin Dong said leisurely, “Stop looking. It’s fine without anyone holding me back. I guarantee I won’t run away halfway.”
“Are you that self-disciplined?” Wang Dafu asked, full of doubt.
“Don’t worry. This is the first time I’ve encountered someone who dares to claim the Lin’s Inn.” Lin Dong replied calmly, “I have to see what it’s like.”
“It’s just an inn. What’s there to be afraid of…”
Jiang Dafu’s body suddenly stiffened. Lin’s Inn?
Trembling, he took out the land deed and frantically opened it. The moment his eyes fell on the location marked on the deed, he was as if struck by lightning. His hands shook, and the deed drifted down, slowly landing on the ground.
Suddenly, Jiang Dafu shuddered. His gaze toward Lin Dong turned filled with awe: “Young Master Lin, are you the owner of Lin’s Inn?”
“Any problems?” Lin Dong asked calmly.
Instantly, Jiang Dafu’s teeth began to tremble violently, the cracking sound audible even to the workers standing five or six meters away.
Lin Dong nodded at the deed on the ground and said nonchalantly, “Don’t mess it up. Going to the government office to exchange it is time-consuming and laborious, and it will cost dozens of coins.”
Jiang Dafu’s legs started trembling violently, as if shaken by a sieve. His body collapsed to the ground uncontrollably.
Lin Dong stepped forward with a smile, pulled the trembling and panicked Jiang Dafu aside, picked up the deed that had been under him, dusted it off, and placed it back on the movable counter.
Bending down, Lin Dong gently patted Jiang Dafu, who wanted to plead but couldn’t speak due to his severe tooth tremors, and said slowly, “Speak up! Do you want to settle this privately or through official channels?”
Jiang Dafu’s trembling became even faster, sounding chaotic and rapid.
“If we settle this privately, I’m in a good mood today. I clearly saw you put the money bag in the drawer and kept calling me. As long as you tell me how you made the gold disappear, I’ll treat it like a magic trick, and we’ll be even.” Lin Dong said calmly, “If we go through official channels, I’m too lazy to go to the government office. Later, when the workers come, I’ll have each of you broken both legs! I guess you’ve used this method to swindle many guests out of their silver, so you must have saved quite a bit. You won’t suffer too much in your next life.”
Jiang Dafu stared at Lin Dong in shock, his eyes filled with disbelief.
This owner, Lin, had a very special relationship with the deputy magistrate Li Jiancheng.

Li Jiancheng is the number one figure in Autumn Wind City. Ninety-nine percent of the people there can have their lives, fortunes, and safety controlled by him. Having a close relationship with such a person, plus being someone who won’t even frown at losing a thousand taels a day, killing a silk shop owner isn’t much harder than squishing a bug—it’s not that difficult at all.
To have such a person wrongly accused of being a swindler and forced to write an IOU would surely make anyone furious.
The worst punishment would be breaking both legs.
With a shopkeeper as easy to deal with, it’s no wonder Lin’s Inn has such a good reputation.
Suddenly, a thud was heard, and all the employees immediately knelt on the ground, trembling violently.
“Please spare us, Master Lin! We were all ordered by Jiang Dafu. We didn’t trick you out of your money together with him…”
No one expected that those who had previously enjoyed watching Jiang Dafu get into trouble would suddenly find themselves implicated.
Compared to Jiang Dafu, the employees felt they were far more wronged. From start to finish, they had merely gathered around; they even left one side open, had no weapons, and never said Master Lin was a swindler. To be framed by Jiang Dafu and risk having their legs broken was simply too unfair.
“I just want to watch magic tricks. If not, I can watch legs get broken instead.” Lin Dong took a stool from the movable counter and sat down leisurely.
Behind him, Liu An finally understood Lin Dong’s intentions and began to admire this future master deeply.
After waiting for a long time, Jiang Dafu finally regained his strength, got up tremblingly, and kept smiling apologetically at Lin Dong. “Master Lin, I really don’t know what’s going on. I…”
Lin Dong interrupted impatiently, “Who doesn’t know? Stop explaining to me. Either perform magic tricks or have your legs broken—choose for yourself.”
“But, but I…” Jiang Dafu tried to explain further before suddenly slapping his own head.
What kind of person is Master Lin? Although he’s been suppressed by Maple Forest Restaurant lately, no matter how short of money he is, he would never steal two or three hundred taels. If it’s not Master Lin or himself, then it must be the employees.
“Great! So it was you who stole the money!” Jiang Dafu rushed to the counter, grabbed a chair, and headed outside, raising it to strike one of the employees on the head.
“Enough, stop acting,” Lin Dong ordered. “I just want to see how you make the money bags disappear. I’m not interested in watching you hit people.”

Jiang Dafu quickly put down the chair in his hands and explained repeatedly, “Boss Lin, do you still remember I told you about how one of our shop’s employees stole silver and was fired not long ago? I suspect they’re all in on it. Think about it—how could I possibly steal customers’ silver? That would be destroying my own business!” Taking a quick breath, Jiang Dafu continued, “It wasn’t me. There were only those employees in the counter at the time, and since someone else has done this before, who else could it be? Don’t worry. Even if I have to kill them, I’ll definitely find the silver for you.” Behind Lin Dong, Liu An really didn’t want to say anything anymore. If it weren’t for his own desire to know how those employees had framed him back then, he would have immediately suggested that Lin Dong go back.