"Let’s just clean up."

The day after I arrived back in Yichang, I told the Tang Clan warriors escorting me to rest up at Baek Family Manor and headed back to Daseogak.

"When the hell am I gonna clean all this?"

I muttered, staring at the empty bookstore that looked like it could echo back at me.

I could ask the Tang Clan warriors for help, but pushing them too hard might get me into trouble. Better to do some basic cleaning myself and think about how to get them to help later.

I gave the bookshelf a good smack with the duster, and it exploded with dust like a bomb had gone off.

This is worse than I thought. Vice Pavilion Head’s probably rested enough—should I just call him?

"The door’s open?"

Maybe I should stop dusting like this and actually take down each book and clean them one by one.

Just as I was seriously debating this, a noisy commotion came from the entrance of Daseogak.

"Is it true? Manager Kang’s really here?"

"The store sign’s not even up! Hey! We’re not supposed to go in yet!"

"Can’t we just peek in for a second?"

Daseohoe? I grabbed the dust-stirring duster that only made more work for me and headed for the door.

"It’s been a while, everyone."

Standing at the entrance were some Daseohoe members I hadn’t seen yesterday.

"It really is Manager Kang!"

"My god!"

"It’s a joy to see so many familiar faces again."

I greeted them with the kind of expression you’d give when reporting in to your online guildmates during military leave—relieved, cheerful, still alive.

"We feel the same!"

"You’ve been safe, right?"

They all beamed with wide grins.

"Thanks to your concern, I’ve made it back without any trouble. I’m just getting Daseogak ready to reopen after being away for so long."

It’d be a real pain if they barged in and made this mess even worse. Better to step outside.

I glanced back at the chaos waiting inside with a look that said, "Yeah, this is gonna suck," then turned back to them.

"You’ve got your work cut out for you."

"I saw a sign out front. Are you hiring?"

One of the Daseohoe members, probably guessing I didn’t want them inside, stepped aside and pointed at the big sign next to the door.

[Help Wanted.]

Whoever wrote that had some seriously nice handwriting.

No online job boards here, so yeah, gotta go old-school with a help wanted sign.

"Yes. Since I’ve been away for so long, I can’t rely on the people who used to help out, so I’ll need to hire someone new."

Yesterday, I tried looking up the people who had worked at Daseogak before, just in case.

Total failure.

Most of them were older folks who’d helped out since the days of Hwa-rin’s grandfather’s bookstore, just doing it to pass the time. While I was gone for a few months, they all went ahead and retired.

They’d already been thinking of quitting because Daseogak was getting busier, and I had convinced them to stay. But now, with Hwa-rin settled in the Tang Clan, I couldn’t exactly pull strings through her anymore, so I decided to let it go.

"Looks like you’ve got a mountain of work even after coming back."

One Daseohoe member frowned, looking at the dust inside.

"Just making it back in one piece is enough, don’t you think? By the way, is there anyone in Daseohoe you could recommend for the job?"

That beautiful calligraphy on the sign might work, but let’s be real—networking’s the best way to find people.

"You want us to recommend someone?"

"Yes. Someone diligent, reliable, good-looking, and knowledgeable about books would be perfect."

Daseogak’s a bookstore, but it’s also a café.

The staff can’t be illiterate, obviously. They need to be strong enough to handle heavy books, and they should have the looks to suit a customer-facing job.

No internet here, so they need to know enough about books to answer basic questions.

Yeah... I admit, the requirements are pretty tough.

"Recommend someone... huh."

"Ahem."

"You’re not too keen?"

As soon as I asked, they all suddenly avoided eye contact.

"Ahem, well, I tend to keep my circle small and shallow..."

"You too? Same here."

Ah. So that’s what it is?

"Small and shallow? We’re all friends here in Daseohoe, how’s that small?"

"You and I are friends?"

"Wait, we’re not?"

"..."

"Ah... hold on, I’m suddenly having a panic attack. I need to take some medicine."

"Hahaha! You all are too much. I know many of you in Daseohoe are busy with your own affairs."

I tried to lighten the mood with a laugh.

"Of course! We’ve got esteemed writers, famous escort bureau owners, all kinds of big names in Daseohoe."

"Yes, that’s right."

So why not ask them for help?

"But the ones standing here now, we’re not those people."

"..."

"If we had stuff to do, would we be showing up at Daseogak every day?"

"Aha... ha ha."

All I could do was force a smile at their brutally honest self-awareness.

It was still morning. Yeah, people busy with morning routines wouldn’t be here now. I’ll have to ask around when the others come by later.

"You’re hiring because the purple-haired young lady didn’t come back, right?"

"Yes. Hwa-rin’s decided to live in the Tang Clan."

I dropped the bittersweet smile and let them know that Hwa-rin wasn’t coming back.

"We’ve lost a core talent at Daseogak."

"Seriously. She was indispensable to Daseohoe, too."

"The Trouble-Sweeping Broom. The Nuisance Eraser. It’s a shame Miss Tang Hwa-rin’s gone."

"What? Trouble-Sweeping Broom?"

"Whenever troublemakers or rabble-rousers made a fuss in Daseogak, didn’t she always show up out of nowhere and kick them out? So among us, we called her the Nuisance Eraser, the Trouble-Sweeping Broom."

"Calling a woman that’s a bit much..."

Eraser, broom? Sure, that’s an honorific title for someone managing trolls for free at dawn in an online community, but for a woman? Come on.

"It wasn’t a nickname. Just some slang between us. We’d never call her that to her face."

"It’s not easy."

"Yeah, it’s not easy."

The Daseohoe folks nodded in agreement.

"We did have another nickname for her, though. Poison Butterfly."

"Poison Butterfly?"

That’s her original nickname.

"You know the rumor about Daseogak, right? When a customer gets too rowdy, they suddenly shit themselves. And weirdly, Miss Hwa-rin always happened to float by like a butterfly around that time. So we called her Poison Butterfly among ourselves."

"Hahaha."

They must’ve figured out she was using the Tang Clan’s Poisoned One Seven-Step Bowel-Breaker on the worst of the worst.

"Without her, it’s gonna be tough handling the problem customers. Would be nice if the shop had at least one person who knew martial arts to deal with them."

"If you keep piling on requirements like that, you’ll need someone from a famous orthodox sect. Where are you gonna find that?"

"True. I’ll pass word along to Daseohoe to keep an eye out for someone. Speaking of martial arts, though, how about getting a recommendation from Hao Clan?"

One of the Daseohoe members brought up something completely unexpected.

"Hao Clan? Aren’t they the ones who buy and sell information?"

Why the hell is Hao Clan coming up now?

"Isn’t information about people still information? From shopkeepers to courtesans to stable hands—people from all kinds of trades join Hao Clan. So, when someone needs staff, they sometimes go to Hao Clan."

From the noodle sellers at the local inn to the courtesans in the brothels. Yeah, it’s true. Hao Clan is full of people from society’s lower ranks, no doubt about that.

Except for the upper ranks, most Hao Clan folks just hustle to survive, buying and selling info or doing whatever benefits them.

Wait, they do staffing too in this world?

"I don’t care if they can introduce someone decent, but how do I even find them?"

"What do you mean, ‘how’?"

The Daseohoe member gave me a puzzled look.

"I mean, isn’t it hard to find a secretive sect like Hao Clan?"

In most wuxia stories, Hao Clan’s supposed to be some secretive info broker group, right?

To find one of their hidden branches, you’ve gotta go full wuxia cliché. First, you rough up some tough-looking shopkeeper or pickpocket and go, "You’re with Hao Clan, aren’t you?" Then, when you get lucky beating the truth out of them, they’re like, "How did you know I was with Hao Clan?"

How did I know? Easy. Beat everyone until someone cracks. Then, after squeezing out the secret passphrase you somehow figured out, they lead you to their hidden base.

How the hell am I, a bookstore owner, supposed to pull that off?

"What? What’re you talking about? You know Hao Noodle Shop down by the port?"

"The place with the great dumplings?"

That’s where Hwa-rin and I used to go for dumplings.

"Yeah, the shop owner’s the Yichang Branch Leader of Hao Clan."

"..."

Why is this not a secret organization again?

"Hey! Why didn’t you tell him that you either need to be Hao Clan or cough up a ton of cash to get someone through them?"

"I need to pay that much?"

"If you just want some inn worker you can find in a day, it won’t cost much. But with the conditions you’re throwing around, unless they’re Hao Clan themselves, you’re gonna have to pay a big introduction fee."

This is what’s wrong with being a black-haired barbarian. Living as an outsider means I don’t have a ton of connections I can rely on.

Would’ve been great to get someone through Daseohoe, but I guess it’s smart to keep my options open.

Still, that whole 'big fee' part is bothering me.

I’d rather not waste money, but if they can find someone good, maybe it’s worth it.

'There’s gotta be a way to get them to lower the fee... Oh, wait.'

I turned to the Daseohoe member who’d mentioned the fee.

"You said Hao Clan members sometimes give each other discounts, right?"

"Sure, that’s possible. But Manager Kang, are you with Hao Clan?"

"No. But I do have a way to get a discount."

"...What?"

Yeah. I had a pretty cheap method up my sleeve.

---------

Just like the Daseohoe guy said, I went to the annex of Hao Noodle Shop and asked for Hao Clan, and they brought me right in.

"A black-haired barbarian? What the hell are you doing here?"

Guy must’ve known martial arts. He was built like a tank, totally out of place for a dumpling joint. He looked at me, unimpressed.

"I’m here on business with Hao Clan."

"Looking for a job? This isn’t the kind of place a barbarian like you gets work at."

He grumbled, like he couldn’t believe someone sent a clown to mess with him.

"I’m not here for that."

First-time rudeness? Typical for Central Plains people—it’s basically their passive skill. I just shook my head, unfazed.

"Then what? Don’t tell me you’re here to join Hao Clan? You think a barbarian can just waltz in and join up? Bring a Hao Clan member to vouch for you. No, wait a second... Your face looks familiar..."

Does he know me? The guy squinted, stepping closer.

"I don’t have someone to vouch for me, but I do have something that can."

I don’t care about my face. I wasn’t here to trade on my name.

I pulled out my ace from my coat—something to slash that intro fee—and handed it to him.

"What’s with the coin? Huh...? Wait. Is this... a Black Coin?!"

"Yeah. It’s a Black Coin."

Oh. Good reaction. I wasn’t sure he’d recognize it, but damn, he caught on fast.

What I handed him was a black coin engraved with the character for 'Corruption'. A Black Coin.

I got it from Mr. Wang, the cloth merchant in Chilgok County.

"Why... why the hell do you have this?"

"Because it’s mine. Anything else you need?"

Mr. Wang told me to use it whenever I needed a ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) favor from Hao Clan. But I’d never needed anything until now, so it just sat collecting dust.

"I’m sorry! My deepest apologies!"

"Is that enough for you?"

"Yes! Of course! P-please wait just a moment!"

The guy, clearly panicked now, rushed off.

---------

BAM!

"Br-Branch Leader! We’ve got a problem!"

Inside Hao Clan’s Yichang Branch Leader’s office, one of the men from the annex burst in, gasping for breath.

"What the hell’s wrong with you, barging in like that? What is it?!"

The branch leader almost snapped a bonsai tree branch in half, scowling.

"Th-th-the..."

"What the hell’s with the ‘th-the’? Spit it out!"

"The Black Coin of the Shadowless Phantom Thief just appeared!!"