That night, Qingshui City lit up like a festival nobody had nned.


    Every tavern, every pleasure house, and every merchant''s private courtyard rang withughter and clinking cups. The same men and women who had watched a mercenary get sliced in half that morning now toasted Lord Bai as if he were the greatest fool alive.


    Gold from the City Lord''s own treasury weighed down their tables, and they spent it like water.


    In the Golden Lotus Restaurant, a fat silk merchant mmed his cup down and roared withughter. "Triple! The man paid us triple! City Lord Bai Xaichun—still the same drunken idiot he was before Wudang. Remember how he used to stagger in here, gambling away everything and chasing skirts? Nothing''s changed!"


    His friends howled. A woman in faded rouge leaned across the table, eyes sparkling with wine and greed. "He slept with half the city for free back then. Now he''s handing out gold like it grows on trees. We should have asked for ten times!"


    Word spread faster than spilled wine. By midnight, every corner of the city knew the story: Lord Bai was soft. Lord Bai was stupid. Lord Bai could be milked dry.


    In a dimly lit teahouse down the street, a group of younger merchants huddled together, already plotting. "We''ll write new contracts tomorrow," one whispered. "Old promises, new amounts. He''ll pay. The man has no spine."


    Another grinned. "Or we''ll throw another party in his name and send him the bill. He''ll cover it. Watch."


    They raised their cups again, drunk on victory and the sweet taste of easy money. The night passed in a haze of celebration and scheming.


    Dawn broke cold and unforgiving.


    By mid-morning, the inspection teams moved like locusts. Zhuge Liang had assembled them quietly-sharp-eyed officials, city guards, and a handful of clerks who carried ledgers thick enough to crush a man. They hit every business that had taken gold the day before.


    They started with the Golden Lotus Restaurant.


    The head inspector stepped into the kitchen, nose wrinkling. "Ceiling grease older than my grandmother. Rat droppings in the corner. This toilet?" He pointed at the back room with open disgust. "Hazardous. One spark and the whole block burns. Shut it down."


    The fat merchant''s face went white. "But—but we just—”


    "Misconduct," the inspector said tly. "Building condemned until full repairs and fines are paid. All treasury seized pending review."


    Across the city it was the same story. Warehouses with leaking roofs. Shops with blocked fire exits. Kitchens that could make a health inspector faint.


    Every vition was real-merchants had cut corners for years—but the timing made


    it feel like divine punishment wearing official robes.


    Zhuge Liang made sure it hurt more than the rules required. He had opened theint boxes. Old servants who had been cheated, rival traders who had been undercut, even a few bitter ex-lovers stepped forward with signed statements.


    The strategist listened to every one, then turned them into official cases.


    One merchant who dealt in rare herbs stood frozen outside his stockhouse as inspectors mmed heavy padlocks and a bright red official seal across the doors. "Your neighbor filed a formalint," the head inspector read from the scroll, voice t and merciless. "He ims you poisoned his wellst spring to ruin his business. The evidence checks out. All assets are now frozen. This shop is closed until further notice."


    The merchant''s face drained of color. His knees buckled and he dropped hard into the dusty street, robes dragging through the dirt.


    "Please!" he begged, hands sped together like a man drowning. "Don''t close my business! Don''t take everything! I''ll pay whatever you want—just let me off the hook this once!"


    From inside his shaded pnquin, Zhuge Liang looked down at the kneeling man with cold disdain. A faint, mocking sneer touched the corner of his mouth.


    "Double," he said calmly. "Pay double the gold you received from Lord Bai yesterday. Do that, and I may consider letting you off the hook."


    The merchant stared up at him, eyes wide with pure disbelief. Regret hit him like a hammer to the chest. He should never have been so greedy. He should never have tried to squeeze extra coins out of the new City Lord-the man who now held the entire city by the throat. The darker tool they rentembered was gone. In his ce stood someone far more dangerous.


    Trembling, he mmed his forehead against the ground.


    "I''ll pay!" he cried hoarsely. "I''ll pay double-whatever Lord Bai wants! Just please... don''t destroy me!"


    Zhuge Liang, watching from a shaded pnquin, allowed himself the smallest smile. Even the pleasure houses were not spared.


    A long line of women in bright, colorful silks stood shivering outside the Fragrant Moon Pavilion, their painted faces pale with disbelief.


    The head inspector unrolled a thick scroll with deliberate slowness and read in a t, bureaucratic tone. "You have operated the Fragrant Moon Pavilion in Qingshui City for eight years without paying a single copper in business tax, ie tax, or... the service tax on themercial use of your bodies."


    One of the younger courtesans blinked, her rouged lips falling open. "Service... tax? On our bodies?"


    "Exactly," the inspector replied, his face as hard and emotionless as stone. "Cityw applies to every profession. Pleasure is no exception. You owe years of back taxes plus heavy penalties you cannot pay in full immediately, you are forbidden from working starting today. All of you will be seized as official city ves until the debt is cleared."


    The madam—a heavily made-up woman in her forties—let out a strangled gasp and


    fainted dead away, copsing in a heap of bright silk and cheap perfume.


    The rest of the women stared in pure horror. They had sold pleasure for years, sometimes to the most powerful men in the city, and never once had they imagined the city would dare tax the pleasure itself.


    The inspector''s lip curled into a sneer. "If you don''t like those terms," he said coldly, "pay double the amount of gold Lord Bai gave you yesterday. Do that, and the house stays open Fail to pay, and itcloses permanently. Everyst one of you will be auctioned off as ves to settle the debt."


    Byte afternoon, the mood in Qingshui City had flipped like a coin.


    The same people who had toasted Lord Bai''s stupidity the night before now spoke


    in hushed, frightened voices. Merchants who hadughed loudest now stood in the street with empty hands and locked doors.


    Prostitutes whispered among themselves, eyes wide. Even the boldest schemers from the teahouse kept their heads down, suddenly very interested in staying invisible.


    Word of the bamboo rod spread again-how one casual swing had turned a man


    into two pieces. Combined with this, the message burned itself into every mind in


    the city:


    Never mess with Lord Bai.


    He was ruthless. He had no heart. And he remembered everything.


    That evening, when a servant nervously asked Alex if he wanted to review the day''s reports, the City Lord leaned back in his high-backed chair and smiled the same slow, sharp smile he had worn the day before.


    "No need," he said. "I already know how it went. Tomorrow they''ll line up to thank me for the lesson."


    Outside the Bai Mansion, the streets were quieter than they had been in years. No parties. No boasts. Only the soft sound of coins being counted in the dark-coins that would soon flow right back into the city treasury, doubled.


    And somewhere in the great hall, Alex allowed himself a low, satisfied chuckle. This really was going to be fun.