Buried in Debt, I Storm the Tower with a Blade

On the first day Shen Yan transmigrated to Feiyun Province, he traded a jade marrow herb worth five hundred taels for a knife technique used to chop wood. It wasn’t until the next day that he saw the panel for what it really was: this wasn’t a purchase, but a loan. Principal at three, monthly interest at one, settled every thirty days. And the family he’d just joined was in even deeper trouble than he was: Shimen Fort owed the Juyi Bank twelve thousand taels, the wages of three hundred fort guards were two months overdue, and forty-seven lives had been lost on the mountain road to Heifeng Stronghold. The magistrate wanted to dump the blame, the bank wanted the land deeds, the bandits threatened to tear down the walls after autumn, and the fort master was hiding in the half-built Wangyun Tower, adding more timber. At tomorrow’s midday meeting, someone would have to take the fall. The name on the list was his brother-in-law’s. In his previous life, Shen Yan studied international relations and sent out forty-seven resumes. He couldn’t turn stone into gold, and he had no peerless martial arts. He could only see at a glance how money went on a round trip through the county town before ending up back in the bank’s hands. He still had to practice his knife skills, but to survive tonight, he couldn’t rely on a blade. “Anyone can come to collect Shimen Fort’s debts; only Shimen Fort can rebuild its walls.”