Yeonhwa-ru was thriving.
A year ago, the small, struggling riverside noodle shop had successfully expanded, building an entirely new second floor just to accommodate the sheer volume of daily customers. The rich, savory scent of their famous vegetable fish soup drifted down the bustling street from dawn until dusk. Three new workers had been hired to manage the booming trade, their feet constantly clicking against the polished wooden floorboards as they rushed between tables.
Nari pushed through the thick kitchen curtains, wiping sweat from her brow.
"Two more specialty bowls for table four on the upper floor!" she called out. The two servers scrambled past her, carrying steaming wooden trays up the stairs.
Nari paused by the main counter, tossing her damp towel over her shoulder. She stopped working for just a few seconds and narrowed her eyes, scanning the crowded dining hall. Her gaze swept over the merchants, the passing travelers, and the loud groups of local fishermen.
She was looking for one face in particular.
"It has been exactly three months," Nari muttered under her breath, her jaw tightening. "Three whole months, and he still hasn't showed up."
She clenched her small fists. A remarkably funny, deeply irritated scowl formed on her face.
She was looking for Wol. During the first few years of his mysterious 'personal business,' he had visited Yeonhwa-ru fairly often, usually dropping by every two or three weeks to check on the finances, eat a bowl of noodles, and bicker with her. Cha Sung and Nari hadn't pried into whatever he was doing; the boy had always been secretive, and they trusted him implicitly.
But for the last three months, Wol had vanished entirely.
He didn't even drop off the morning fish himself anymore. Instead, he had hired a local fisher boy to deliver the daily catch. Nari had actually sacrificed her precious sleep, waiting by the back door at dawn four weeks ago just to ambush Wol and demand an explanation. Instead, she had found a terrified, skinny twelve-year-old holding a bucket of carp, who stammered that his "employer" paid him well to deliver them. Because the shop was so incredibly busy, she literally hadn't had the time to leave and march all the way to Wol's isolated cabin to yell at him.
"He always just does whatever he feels like," Nari fumed quietly, slamming her wooden towel down onto the counter. "Doesn't even care about how worried I feel!"
A middle-aged merchant eating at the nearest table jumped, dropping his chopsticks. He looked at the angry, glaring teenage girl in terror.
Realizing she had an audience, Nari's terrifying scowl instantly melted into a radiant, professional customer-service smile.
"Oh! Enjoying your meal, sir?" she beamed innocently, before turning on her heel and marching back to work.
A few minutes later, the atmosphere in the shop shifted. The loud chatter near the entrance suddenly dimmed into nervous whispers.
Nari looked up. A group of eight men strolled through the heavy wooden doors.
They did not look like merchants. They were large, rough, unwashed men carrying cheap, heavy iron clubs and short axes at their waists. They carried an oppressive, violent aura that immediately made the nearby patrons shrink into their seats.
Nari frowned, but she took a deep breath, grabbed a clean cloth, and walked over to their table. In the Murim, you treated everyone with respect until they gave you a reason not to.
"Welcome," Nari said politely, stopping nearby. "Sir, can I take your orders? What would you like to eat?"
The man sitting at the head of the table didn't look at her immediately. He was a massive, muscular brute with a nasty, jagged scar running down his jaw.
Goo Jung, the leader of the infamous Mad Dogs, finally turned his head, avoiding her direct gaze. "Give us your specialty food."
"That would be our vegetable fish soup with fresh hand-pulled noodles," Nari replied cheerily.
"That will do," Goo Jung grunted. "Bring a bowl for each of us."
"Right away," Nari said, spinning around and heading for the kitchen.
As soon as she was out of earshot, the scrawny thug sitting to Goo Jung's right leaned in closely.
"Big bro," Kim Sok whispered, his eyes darting around the room. "So we put the bug in the bowls, and add the tangy fish in it, right?"
From beneath his dirty coat, another thug named Ma Jak pulled out a tightly wrapped package of rotting, sun-baked meat and several dead cockroaches.
Goo Jung stared at the disgusting package, his jaw tight. "Yeah. Just destroy the tables and the kitchen. We ask them for ten gold taels in compensation. Ten gold is an impossible sum for them to pay in one day. When they can't pay it, that will force them to accept Shin Daesok's offer."
This entire operation had been meticulously planned from the top down.
Shin Daesok was one of River Dragon City's most prominent local crime bosses. He owned most of the high-end taverns and protection rackets in this district. But Yeonhwa-ru's explosive, unprecedented growth had severely damaged Daesok's bottom line. His own establishments were bleeding customers to this singular, independent noodle house.
Exactly one week ago, one of Daesok's senior lieutenants had paid Cha Sung a visit.
They had politely offered to bring Yeonhwa-ru under Daesok's "protection." They demanded a massive percentage of their earnings as tax, and in return, promised to supply them with ingredients at a fixed rate. Cha Sung, knowing better than to get into bed with a vicious syndicate, had politely but firmly rejected the offer.
Angered, Shin Daesok had immediately used his influence to hike the market price of fresh river fish in the entire district, trying to choke out Yeonhwa-ru's supply line. Daesok's men had watched and waited for the shop to collapse.
It never did.
To Daesok's sheer fury, the shop continued running perfectly. Cha Sung was getting a steady, massive supply of premium fish from somewhere completely off the grid — the fisher boy Wol had hired — and the syndicate couldn't track it down.
Unable to choke them out financially, Daesok had resorted to brute force.
Several hours earlier, in a dim alleyway behind the merchant district, Goo Jung had met with the cloaked lieutenant.
"You boys make sure to mess things up completely," the cloaked man had ordered. "They will eventually accept my boss's offer to buy the shop out. Until then, make their lives a living hell."
Goo Jung had glared at the man. "We didn't agree to terrorise innocent merchants."
"You didn't agree to anything," the cloaked man had sneered, stepping closer. "You are Daesok's dogs. We hold the debt for your sister's medical treatment. You don't get paid in coin for this job, Goo Jung. You get paid in us not letting her die tonight. Understand?"
Goo Jung's massive fists had clenched, his knuckles turning white, but he slowly bowed his head in defeat. "Fine. We'll make sure there's no place for people to sit."
And now, they were fulfilling that exact contract.
Nari returned fifteen minutes later, carefully setting eight steaming bowls of delicious noodle soup on their table. "Enjoy your meal!" she smiled, before returning to the counter to help her father.
The Mad Dogs didn't eat.
Goo Jung stared into his bowl for a long moment. Then, he gave a slow nod.
Under the table, Ma Jak quickly slipped the rotting fish meat into his bowl, followed by the dead cockroaches. He stirred it twice to coat it in the hot broth.
Then, Ma Jak kicked his table over.
CRASH!
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!" Ma Jak roared at the top of his lungs, grabbing his bowl and hurling it against the wooden wall. The ceramic shattered, sending hot broth, noodles, and the horribly rancid stench of rotting fish exploding into the air. "There is a massive dead bug in my broth! And this fish smells like it's been rotting in the sun for a week! Are you trying to kill us?!"
The remaining customers froze in terror, immediately recognizing the scarred face of Goo Jung and his notorious gang. Then, absolute chaos erupted.
"It's the Mad Dogs!" someone hissed in panic. "Run!"
The patrons scrambled wildly out of their seats, tossing loose copper coins onto the tables and sprinting for the exit, some not even bothering to grab their belongings. The Mad Dogs had a horrific reputation in the district for leaving innocent bystanders crippled in their street brawls. Even though the accusation of rotting fish was blatantly false, this was the Murim. There was no absolute justice here. The strong made the rules, and the weak suffered them.
Within sixty seconds, the bustling dining hall was completely abandoned.
"My apologies, esteemed guests!" Cha Sung hurried out from behind the counter, bowing deeply with a pale face. "But our ingredients are perfectly fresh from the river this morning. There must be some misunderstanding—"
"Misunderstanding?" Goo Jung stood up, his massive frame towering over the small shopkeeper. He slammed his huge fist down, snapping a thick oak chair cleanly in half. "Are you calling my brothers liars?! We could have been poisoned! We need compensation. Ten gold taels. Now."
Ten gold. It was an astronomical, absurd sum.
"Ten gold for something we didn't even do?!" Nari yelled from behind the counter, her face flushed with anger. "You brought that rotting garbage in yourselves! You must be completely out of your mind!"
Goo Jung's eyes darkened, stepping over the broken chair as he stalked toward the counter.
"Nari!" Cha Sung cried out, rushing forward to protect his daughter.
"Get him!" Kim Sok yelled. Two thugs grabbed Cha Sung by the shoulders, throwing him roughly to the floor and holding him down.
Goo Jung stopped right in front of Nari, looking down at her. She was terrified. Her knees were trembling, and every instinct screamed at her to run, but she planted her feet and glared up at him. She knew this man was incredibly dangerous. In her mind, she was screaming for someone, anyone to help.
"What did you say, you little brat?" Goo Jung growled, leaning his scarred face close to hers.
"You guys are trying to rob us," Nari said, forcing her voice to stay steady despite her fear.
Goo Jung laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "Calling us robbers? Do you know who we are? You think you can just run your mouth and get away with it?"
"Please!" Cha Sung begged from the floor, struggling against the men pinning him. "Please don't hurt her! We will give you the money! Just give us a little time to gather it!"
Goo Jung stared coldly at the desperate father. "Price just went up. Twenty gold. Right now. Or you pay with your lives."
"You said ten!" Cha Sung protested, tears welling in his eyes. "Twenty is impossible!"
Nari clenched her fists. She wanted to slap his disgusting, scarred face, but her body was frozen with fear. She couldn't step forward.
Seeing their utter defeat, Goo Jung scoffed. He looked back at his scrawny subordinate. "Ma Jak. Go outside and tear down their signboard. We're taking this place over until the debt is paid."
"Yes, Boss!" Ma Jak sneered, drawing a short axe from his belt and strutting toward the front doors.
"No! Please!" Cha Sung cried out, struggling violently. "Give us time! We'll pay it! Don't take our livelihood, please!"
Goo Jung looked back at Nari, raising a thick, calloused hand toward her throat. "I'll spare your daughter's face, Cha Sung. Or, you can keep the shop, and I kill her right—"
CRASH.
Something heavy flew into the shop from the outside, violently tearing through the door curtains. The object smashed into a wooden table, completely shattering it before skidding across the floor and slamming into the far wall in a heap of broken limbs.
Goo Jung froze, his hand inches from Nari.
The thugs looked down at the object that had just destroyed the table. It wasn't an object. It was Ma Jak. The scrawny thug was completely unconscious, his eyes rolled back into his head, his jaw visibly dislocated.
The torn door curtain fluttered in the afternoon wind.
Someone stepped inside.