Long Street: The Tavern Keeper's Sword

At the end of the long street stood an old tavern. No one knew that its owner, Jiang Xiaobai, had not drawn his sword in ten years.

He loved wine and hated trouble. When someone brought him what they called "scrap iron" from the government granary to be melted down, he couldn't be bothered to interfere. When someone came in the dead of night to scout the place and silence the blacksmith across the street, he just tried to laugh it off.

Then a mule cart that rolled into town through the rain brought a batch of weapons that should have remained with the army, along with a death from ten years ago that had been buried. Both were delivered straight to his counter.

A girl in a red dress, a dark-faced constable, and a hand lurking in the shadows took turns forcing him to draw his sword.

But they had all misjudged him.

Once his sword is drawn, he seeks neither to become the greatest under heaven nor to win a name for posterity. He wants only to collect, with interest, the debt owed to those who should never have died.