Chapter 2

Grand Opening.

They say nothing in this world goes exactly as you wish, and I am now experiencing this firsthand.

Standing at a distance, I watch my inn, which is falling apart.

I was not originally from this wretched world of martial arts where such despicable skills exist.

I was a 24-year-old man living in Seoul, South Korea, in 2022.

The reason my life became such a mess is all because of this wretched Chinese continent.

As soon as I turned twenty, I decided to take over and further develop my father's Chinese restaurant business by studying Chinese cuisine in China, the birthplace of Chinese cooking.

Graduating with excellent grades from a famous cooking school in Beijing and working at a renowned hotel in the same city, I thought that choosing to study abroad wasn't bad.

No, it was very good.

I planned to gain a few years of experience and then help my father.

But the dog-like guanxi culture in China.

More dog-like than blood ties, hometown ties, or school ties, this culture made me leave the hotel before I even completed a year, boarding a ship back to Korea.

As I boarded the ship to Incheon, I shouted at the Chinese continent,

"If I ever set foot on Chinese soil again, I'm a dog, a dog!"

I vowed that I would never return to that dog-like China, which had been so dog-like to be with and from which I had learned everything I needed to learn.

However, the ship I was on sank into the cold waters of the Yellow Sea that night for unknown reasons.

When I woke up, I found myself in this body.

At first, it was quite bleak.

This body was truly bleak.

I woke up on the shore of Dongting Lake, drenched to the bone.

My name is Liu Qingyun, the eldest son of a humble family in a small village in Fujian Province. My mother passed away early, and my father remarried, but he also died not long after.

Ultimately, I was left as an unwanted duckling and was driven out with a small amount of money given by my stepmother.

With that money, I tried to cross Dongting Lake but encountered bandits and, in an attempt to protect my money, threw myself into the lake.

When my body, which was supposed to be dead, drifted to the shore, it was the moment I either recalled my past life or possessed this body.

Risking my life for a few dozen silver taels.

What a fool!

'But was that me?'

Shaking with either despair or the cold from being drenched, I checked this body's plans.

I was truly a hopeless person.

The reason I was crossing Dongting Lake.

At 18, I was carrying all my money to find a martial arts sect to learn martial arts.

This body, born in Fujian, had traveled through Jiangxi and Hunan, where Dongting Lake is located, to find Wudang Sect in Hubei.

Yes, I wanted to learn martial arts from Wudang Sect.

Although it was a bit pathetic, I could somewhat understand the me before I recalled my past life.

Every Korean man has read a martial arts novel at least once, and anyone who has read a martial arts novel dreams of the ultimate male fantasy!

The fantasy of coming to the martial arts world, mastering powerful martial arts, leading the three flowers of the martial world, and defeating villains.

Thinking about it, it wasn't bad.

Men, after all, live by their fantasies.

I don't know if this is a parallel world, a future life, or a past life, but since I was born into the martial world, learning great martial arts wasn't bad.

So, following this body's original plan, I finally arrived at Wudang Sect after much hardship.

But, as expected, the dog-like guanxi culture.

This world also had guanxi, and without connections, one couldn't even enter the sect.

But could I give up here? When a man draws his sword, he must cut something, be it a melon or his gums.

If Hubei has Wudang, what does Shaanxi have?

Mount Hua and Zhongnan.

After a long journey, I arrived in Shaanxi and sought out the two sects.

But Zhongnan turned me away at the door, and Mount Hua said I was too old.

There was one last option, but I couldn't do it.

Because I didn't want to go to Shaolin in Henan, even if they offered.

I wanted to get married in this life.

I wanted to have a beautiful wife in the martial world, even if not the three flowers.

No, I was a virgin in my past life, and being a monk in this life? That was unacceptable.

Since my previous life ended so futilely, I wanted to get married at least once in this life.

So, being a monk was absolutely out of the question.

How could I live a life without alcohol, meat, and women?

With that in mind, I recalled the ancient sage's saying that silkworms must eat mulberry leaves and headed to Sichuan.

There was only one thing I could do to survive, and that was cooking.

What else? 'Cooking,' of course.

I had the memory of cooking skills learned in China, so I thought about opening a restaurant or inn.

I knew many dishes that were not yet available in this era.

If word of mouth spread, I could make a fortune.

What's the point of learning martial arts?

What else would you encounter on the road besides a knife?

Money is the truth in any world.

'What can't be done with money?'

So, I decided to aim for self-made wealth through cooking.

Domination of the Central Plains through cooking! My heart swelled with pride!

'I will name my restaurant Joseon-gwan!'

With my goal set, I moved without hesitation.

First, I needed to find a place for my business.

Although my money was tight, I traveled as frugally as possible, saving my silver.

Unbeknownst to my stepmother, I had a gold tael left by my biological mother hidden in my waistband.

Thus, I began another journey to find my first business location.

I already had a destination in mind.

I knew the best place for business.

A teacher at the Chinese cooking school once joked,

"Beijing is the best now, but if you were to travel back in time, where would you open a restaurant?"

"Beijing? Or Sichuan?"

"No, Qingchuan."

At the northern edge of Sichuan, where the imperial road and the river meet, connecting Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi.

A strategic location where martial arts sects from all directions must pass through to interact.

It was a good location even in my past life without martial arts sects, and with martial arts sects, it was even better.

No matter how I thought about it, it was a good location.

It wasn't far from Zhongnan, my last destination, so as soon as I had a plan, I headed to Qingchuan.

But, as expected, guanxi!

How could a connectionless person survive?

Without connections, no one would even show me a building.

Occasionally, some would show me places, but at unimaginable prices.

In the end, I could only look for the cheapest restaurant or inn I could afford with my money, and I was lucky enough to narrowly acquire a gambling-addict's inn.

However, the location was a bit away from Qingchuan, in a small village called Xin You Xian on the same imperial road.

This was the limit of what I could afford with my money.

It wasn't a tall building with multiple floors but a single-story restaurant with a few annexes, on a slightly larger plot of land.

I bought the gambling-addict's inn cheaply, repaired it myself, and renovated the kitchen.

After a few days of hard work, fixing and cleaning, I felt good when I opened the inn with a "Grand Opening" sign in the morning.

But then I heard the sound of the inn's restaurant being destroyed.

"Damn, I really want a cigarette..."

*Crash! Boom! Crack!*

The guys were fighting as if they were going to uproot the pillars and leave nothing behind.

Chairs were thrown out of the door and shattered on the ground.

A fire broke out inside and then subsided.

*Gasp!*

*Crash!*

How long did they fight?

The rain was the background to their intense battle, and it ended with a pig-like squeal.

Suddenly, it became quiet.

*Pitter-patter*

The drizzle turned into a heavy downpour, like the tears in my heart.

After a long while, when all the sounds had subsided, I cautiously approached the darkened inn with a lantern.

My inn had a separate building for the restaurant and guest rooms.

The restaurant and guest rooms were a bit apart, so the martial artists had only wrecked the building with the kitchen and restaurant.

All the lights in the restaurant were out, so I took a lantern from the small house I was using and walked through the rain to the restaurant building.

*Pitter-patter*

The sound of the rain and my footsteps echoed in the night.

*Click*

I carefully opened the back door and stepped inside, only to be hit by a strong smell of blood.

This place was clearly not a butcher's shop, yet the air was filled with a stronger smell of blood than a butcher's shop.

"Damn! Damn!"

I couldn't help but think, "There must be a body somewhere."

As I cautiously moved around, relighting the extinguished lanterns and the lantern outside, the scene before me was shocking.

"Where's my inn? What's this ruin?"

Four out of ten tables were broken, and the door was half off its hinges.

The chairs were scattered and broken, as if they had been used as weapons in a high school drama fight.

"Ah..."

A sigh escaped me.

'The unwritten rules of martial artists are all well and good, but to make a mess after putting up a "Grand Opening" sign is crossing the line!'

I inwardly screamed as I checked the other damages.

Looking at the wrecked interior of my newly opened inn, which had turned into a beggars' den, the most noticeable and serious damage was the walls.

I couldn't help but grab my neck when I saw the walls.

Had they not liked the interior? The walls were painted red.

Seeing the walls they had personally painted with blood, I couldn't help but curse.

"Damn bastards!"

I clutched my face with both hands and sat down, then quickly got up to clean the walls with a wet cloth. Blood is hard to clean once it dries.

I didn't have time to be sad.

I moved the usable broken chairs to one side.

After roughly cleaning up and clearing the broken tables, I saw something fall to the ground—it was a human arm.

"Ha ha..."

The thugs who wrecked my inn on opening day had even left me a gift.