The street rabble had zero tact, their eyes glued to the man's crotch as snickers rippled through the dirt-caked alley.
Before the target could process the situation, Su Jin seized his waistband and yanked it skyward.
In the frantic motion, the rough fabric caught a delicate snag. The man arched his back like a drawn bow, howling in agony.
"Fuck!! You crazy son of a bitch, what is wrong with you?!"
Su Jin doubled down on his leverage. With a muffled thwack, the family jewels snapped safely back into the coarse trousers.
"Brother! My bad, my bad! I completely lost my footing on these cobblestones..." Su Jin stammered, layering on a frantic, groveling apology.
The man frantically re-tied his sash, whipping around to glare daggers at Su Jin. "You little bastard, are you fucking blind?!"
"Brother, I am so sorry!" Su Jin raised his hands in placating surrender.
"Look, how about this? We bumped into each other—call it fate. Let me make it right. I'll buy you a meal to apologize."
"Piss off!"
"Bro... Now I have to treat you. Otherwise, you can pull my pants down to get even. I never leave a debt unpaid." Su Jin thrust his hips forward slightly in offering.
The man hissed through his teeth, sizing Su Jin up like a diseased stray. "You really are sick... Get out of here. Don't let me catch you looking at me again."
"Old brother!" Su Jin slapped a hand on the man's shoulder, practically locking him into a grapple as he steered him toward the nearest tavern. "Not another word. Today's tab is mine."
The man shoved and cursed, but his malnourished frame was no match for Su Jin's vice-like grip. He was essentially frog-marched through the doors.
"Server! Get us a private room!"
The target was wrestled into the secluded back room, finally ceasing his struggling once Su Jin firmly planted him into a wooden chair.
The adrenaline fading, the man eyed Su Jin with a mixture of exhaustion and profound confusion. "What the hell do you actually want?"
"Old brother, I depantsed you in broad daylight... it was an ugly scene." Su Jin laid on the sincerity thick. "I'm an educated man. I care about face, and that was just undignified. I have to compensate you."
"Since you were heading out for a bite anyway, order whatever you want. I'm paying."
The man let out a long, weary sigh, then quirked an eyebrow. "Really?"
Su Jin offered an open, inviting gesture toward the empty table.
Dropping all pretense of manners, the man hailed the server and aggressively ordered six or seven consecutive dishes.
Su Jin calmly sipped the bitter local tea. Between bites of appetizers, the man asked, "What's your name, little brother? What's your trade?"
"Wu Zihao. My family runs a small textiles business. What should I call you, big brother?"
"Xie Yong. Foreman at the Li Family Workshop."
[Xie Yong. Foreman at the Li Family Workshop.]
Su Jin opened his mouth to reply, blinked, and swallowed his next lie.
Xie Yong was just sitting there, but a crisp line of text had spontaneously materialized directly in Su Jin's field of vision.
Subtitles. Was this a hidden feature of the mask? Seemed entirely redundant if it only repeated spoken dialogue...
It likely hadn't triggered before because he hadn't focused on it. Back at the Company, most of their eldritch tech was tied to neural impulses.
"Little Brother Wu, you alright? Don't tell me you look down on a simple craftsman?" Xie Yong prompted, misreading the silence.
"No, no, Brother Xie, not at all. I just had a sudden thought. I believe my family actually did business with the Li Family Workshop in the past."
"Is that so?"
"Not me personally, my folks. I don't recall the exact details."
...
Twenty minutes later, the spread of cheap wine and greasy local fare covered the table.
They ate and shot the breeze. Su Jin skillfully manipulated the flow of the conversation, dropping calculated, generic affirmations to keep Xie Yong talking.
He kept up appearances, using his chopsticks to cautiously sample the questionable meat dishes.
He had drafted his interrogation strategy hours ago, but probing for basic world-building facts was a minefield.
Ask the wrong "obvious" question, and his cover was instantly blown.
Who knew the political climate of this hellhole? A single slip of the tongue could get him flagged as a foreign spy and publicly executed.
Right now, his intel was limited: the local regime was called the Suyuan Dynasty, layered with a few hazy societal norms.
To extract actionable data efficiently, he needed to heavily lubricate the target's vocal cords.
Xie Yong ate like a starving dog. His earlier rage had completely evaporated under the warmth of a free meal.
With every mouthful of grease, he enthusiastically addressed Su Jin as his dear "little brother."
Waiting for the man to be thoroughly distracted by a chicken bone, Su Jin discreetly fished a bottle from his trousers.
He had prepared this payload earlier. Using a few traded copper coins, he'd bought a crude clay jar, transferring his modern liquor from its glass bottle and cutting it with high-proof medical alcohol from his kit.
Keeping the jar concealed beneath the table, Su Jin cut off Xie Yong's rambling. He leaned in, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Old brother... do you know what I actually came here to do today?"
"To eat, right? What else?" Xie Yong asked, pausing his chewing.
"To eat, yes." Su Jin flashed a predatory, corporate smile. "But I managed to acquire something special. I guarantee not a single soul in this imperial city has tasted anything like it. I came here to order a feast and enjoy my prize in absolute solitude."
"But sitting here with you, I feel like we're kindred spirits. I won't hoard it. Let's sample this rarity together."
Su Jin reached across the table, grabbed their crude teacups, and unceremoniously dumped the tea onto the floor.
He popped the stopper on his clay jar and poured a heavy measure into both cups.
A sharp, hyper-concentrated scent of ethanol punched through the stale air of the room. Xie Yong's eyelids fluttered wildly, his mouth going slack as he began to stammer.
"Little brother... little brother... is this... liquor?"
"Of course it is. And not just any liquor—this is top-shelf. Forget the common rabble; even the nobles couldn't buy a drop of this with pure gold."
Su Jin brought the cup to his lips and took a calculated, agonizing sip, deliberately grimacing. "It cost me a small fortune. Traded it off a secretive wandering merchant."
Xie Yong swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing violently. He bolted out of his chair and scrambled toward the door.
He slammed the door shut, throwing the latch before rushing back to his seat, panting heavily. "Gods... little brother, you have balls of steel. If I possessed something like this, I'd lock myself in my cellar to drink it. Just the fumes... I know it's a treasure. What did you pay?"
Su Jin slowly raised a single finger.
"One tael of silver?"
"Ten taels."
"Heavens above!" Xie Yong clutched his chest, his eyes practically bulging from their sockets. "That's a king's ransom!"
"Price is just a number. Are we brothers or strangers?" Su Jin cast a sidelong glance, taking another mock-sip of the burning liquid. "Drink up, old brother. What are you waiting for?"
Xie Yong took a trembling breath. He psyched himself up for a long, agonizing moment, then gritted his teeth. "Alright! If you're giving me face with liquor this precious, I'll risk my liver to keep you company! I must taste it!"
Throwing caution to the wind, he grabbed the cup and took a massive, greedy gulp.
"Hrk—Cough! Cough!" Xie Yong choked, his face contorting into a violent grimace as tears streamed down his cheeks. "Gods, what is this? Why is it burning my throat?! Has it just been too long since I had a drink?"
"It's not your tolerance. It's the purity. This is the absolute essence of alcohol, understand? Uncut proof."
"You could cut this with two full jars of water and it would still put your local swill to shame. Drink a jar of this, and nothing else will ever satisfy you." Su Jin smiled thinly. "Pace yourself. You just coughed up half a tael's worth of silver."
"Half a tael..." A look of profound physical pain crossed Xie Yong's face. He hurriedly licked the precious drops from the corner of his mouth and went back in for a much more cautious, reverent sip.
A brew this expensive—and completely free of charge—demanded respect. Even if it tasted like liquid fire, he was going to choke it down. He clearly just hadn't appreciated the nuance on the first try!
Su Jin kept up a steady stream of sales-pitch garbage about the vintage and the exorbitant cost, his cold eyes cataloging the man's every reaction.
It looked like Xie Yong was a total lightweight. Perfect.
Shot after shot of the spiked mixture hit his bloodstream, and a heavy, congested flush spread across Xie Yong's cheeks.
His pupils dilated, the rigid focus in his eyes dissolving into a glassy, drunken haze.
Meanwhile, Su Jin—a corporate shark who had survived countless ruthless banquets and high-stakes client dinners—remained as sober as a judge.
Judging the prey was finally tenderized, Su Jin leaned in. "Old brother, since I was a kid, I've always been fascinated by the local bureaucracy, the military guard, all of it. A worldly guy like you... why don't you educate me? Start from the top."
"H-Hell yeah!" Xie Yong slurred, slamming his empty cup onto the splintered wood. "Little brother, you asked the absolute right man. Officialdom? I got connections. Let me tell you 'bout my cousin..."
Xie Yong's words had deteriorated into an alcoholic mush, but thankfully, the mask's subtitles processed the local dialect and presented crisp text right across Su Jin's retinas.
Just to be absolutely thorough, Su Jin slid his hand beneath the table, keyed open his smartphone, and hit record.
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