Chapter 1: Starting with a Begging Bowl
Chapter 1: Starting with a Begging Bowl
“Hit him, keep hitting him!”
…
Amidst a clamor of shouts, Yang Xin opened his eyes in confusion…
A sharp whistling sound abruptly arrived.
Immediately following was a loud crack, and before he could even process what was happening, blood sprayed before his eyes. Before he could come to his senses, a heavy blow struck his waist, sending his body tumbling to the side. A filthy broken bowl instantly came into his view. On the other side of the bowl was a pair of embroidered cloth shoes with cloud patterns. His gaze traveled upward along a blue silk robe and quickly landed on a young face…
The young man stylishly opened a folding fan.
“Beat this dog of a slave to death! How dare you run? You should know that even if you ran all the way to Java, you would still be a slave of the Fu family!”
He shouted arrogantly.
The next moment, the sharp whistling sound rang out again.
Yang Xin’s left hand shot out instinctively, instantly catching the falling tip of the whip. He immediately yanked it downward. Just as the whip’s owner was pulled forward, Yang Xin stood up abruptly and kicked out with his right foot, aiming for the man’s chest.
The man immediately lost his grip on the whip, let out a shriek, and flew backward.
Yang Xin’s right hand grabbed the whip handle that came with the pull. Without hesitation, he swung his arm and lashed out to the side.
The whip tip cut through the air with an even louder crack, slashing diagonally from the upper right to the lower left across the young man’s quite handsome face. Flesh split open, sending blood flying. The young man screamed with heart-wrenching agony and fell backward. A burly man behind and to his right suddenly changed expression, caught him, pushed him toward a youth behind to the left, drew the saber from his waist, stepped forward, and directly chopped down at Yang Xin’s right arm.
Yang Xin took a step back and avoided it.
“Kill him, kill this dog of a slave!”
The young man, nestled in the youth’s embrace, cried out tearfully.
A man on Yang Xin’s other side, who was empty-handed, turned and snatched a carrying pole from a bystander. He swung it horizontally at Yang Xin’s waist from behind. Simultaneously, the burly man with the saber in front swept his Goose-Quill Saber horizontally. The saber and the carrying pole sheared toward Yang Xin’s body. Still utterly bewildered, Yang Xin suddenly leaned backward, avoiding the Goose-Quill Saber. He pushed off with both feet and, the instant the carrying pole passed behind his back, executed a perfect backflip.
A cheer erupted suddenly.
Upon landing, Yang Xin kicked out and sent the man with the carrying pole flying.
Then, with a flick of his left foot, the still-falling carrying pole landed in his right hand. Holding the ancient, yet clearly well-used and polished wooden carrying pole in one hand, he looked around at his surroundings.
A circle of people in ancient attire.
On both sides were equally ancient shops.
Ahead, a stone-slab street led straight to an ancient city gate…
This was not a film set.
No film crew could make everything this realistic, so real that the air was thick with the stench of animal dung. Nor did any crew’s makeup artist have the skill to paint such genuine weariness on everyone’s faces. The emaciated, clearly long-term malnourished state of those in tattered clothes was definitely not fake…
Of course, that wasn’t important.
What was important was that this body was simply not his!
This body, clad in tattered burlap, emaciated and reeking of decay, was not his at all. This was a beggar’s body, complete with a large, maggot-infested festering wound. That broken bowl beside him was likely his only possession. Strangely, aside from the gash on his face, he didn’t feel any other pain on this body. On the contrary, his perception of his surroundings and his reaction speed had both noticeably improved. However, his physical strength was indeed less than before. Clearly, this severely malnourished body was hampering his original capabilities.
“So, who’s going to explain what the hell is going on?”
He weighed the carrying pole in his hand and said sincerely.
“Kill him, quickly kill this dog of a slave!”
The young man was still screaming.
The whip mark on his face had practically disfigured him. A bloody lash had ruined his nose. The youth beside him panickedly used his own garment to try and staunch the bleeding. However, Yang Xin didn’t think he had gone too far, because he had an almost identical wound on his own face. Luckily, the household servant who had whipped him had less strength, so it only drew blood on his face without damaging his nose.
That made them even.
No one answered his question.
The man with the Goose-Quill Saber opposite him watched him warily while shifting his feet to shield the young man behind him.
“Make way, everyone make way!”
A shout suddenly rose from behind the crowd.
Immediately, the gathered onlookers parted. A man wearing a Fanyang-style bamboo hat and a red, cross-collared surcoat, with a sword at his side—looking like a military officer—entered with two subordinates following him. Clearly, many in the crowd knew him, calling out “Company Commander He” and greeting him.
Yang Xin watched him cautiously.
Company Commander He walked over to the young man. After one look at his clothing, he immediately turned his head and cast an inquiring glance at the man holding the saber.
The latter spoke to him in a low voice.
Yang Xin’s hearing was unusually sharp. He immediately caught the words “escaped slave,” and also something about them being from the Fu family of Dongchang, a Surveillance Vice Commissioner or the like. Company Commander He’s face promptly broke into a smile. He nodded while listening, then nodded very firmly. He glanced at Yang Xin, then waved for his two subordinates…
“Seize him!”
He said succinctly.
Yang Xin stood still, gripping the carrying pole with both hands—left hand forward, right hand back—pointing the pole diagonally upward like a rifle. He calmly watched as the two soldiers approached him.
One of them unhooked an iron chain from his waist.
“This dog slave has quite the nerve!”
He said casually as he walked toward Yang Xin.
The moment he entered striking range, the carrying pole in Yang Xin’s hand shot out like lightning, like a rifle fitted with a bayonet. It struck precisely at the center of the soldier’s chest. The heavy blow caused his heart to stop momentarily. The soldier, his brain deprived of blood, fell backward with a frozen look of shock…
An utter silence fell all around.
“Murder!”
A shrill scream cut through the air.
The surrounding onlookers instantly scattered in a panic.
Company Commander He stared, dumbfounded, at the fallen soldier, then lifted his head to look at Yang Xin. Clearly, this scene exceeded his expectations. Yang Xin continued to look at him calmly, maintaining his rifle-holding stance, and turned the carrying pole toward the remaining soldier. The latter had already drawn his Goose-Quill Saber, but he obviously hesitated to step forward. The difference in weapon length made a one-on-one fight almost a guaranteed loss. At the same time, the two household servants Yang Xin had kicked down earlier closed in again. One had also grabbed a carrying pole, while the other picked up the iron chain the fallen soldier had dropped.
The three of them formed a triangular formation, trapping him.
Company Commander He immediately regained his bravado, drawing his Goose-Quill Saber quite valiantly, though staying half a step behind the man beside him. The latter was clearly a seasoned fighter. He held his saber in his right hand, pointing it diagonally downward, and advanced frowning.
“This dog slave has committed violence and resisted arrest! Slay him on the spot!”
Company Commander He shouted, borrowing authority like a fox borrowing a tiger’s might.
The soldier and the two household servants simultaneously took a cautious step forward.
“Kill!”
Yang Xin suddenly roared.
Immediately, his carrying pole thrust straight forward. The soldier opposite him, startled, hurriedly swung his saber to block. But the force of the thrust was too great. The carrying pole veered slightly and struck accurately on the side of the soldier’s neck.
The soldier collapsed, unconscious.
Whether he would ever wake up again was entirely up to fate.
Almost simultaneously, the carrying pole in the household servant’s hands behind and to his right swung down. Yang Xin dodged sideways. The end of the carrying pole in his hands pushed out horizontally, accurately catching the servant under the chin. Amidst the man’s scream, he was flipped over. Company Commander He didn’t hesitate; he backed away immediately. The remaining household servant holding the iron chain retreated fearfully. The seasoned fighter stepped forward, raising his Goose-Quill Saber in an upward slash. Yang Xin angled his carrying pole downward to block while simultaneously thrusting at the man’s abdomen. The latter sidestepped, avoiding it, and advanced, sliding his saber forward…
Yang Xin lifted his foot and kicked the man’s shin!
The seasoned fighter dropped to one knee. Immediately, Yang Xin’s horizontally swinging carrying pole landed on his neck, and he slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Company Commander He turned and ran.
The household servant holding the iron chain hovered uncertainly, not daring to advance.
Yang Xin picked up the seasoned fighter’s Goose-Quill Saber. He walked straight to the young man’s side, waving the saber to signal the youth to move aside. However, instead of retreating, the youth bravely stepped forward… only to be kicked away. Yang Xin then looked down at the young man…
“Y-you, what are you going to do?”
The latter stammered fearfully.
The cloth that had been covering his wound had fallen away, and blood was flowing again, making him look quite pitiful.
“Do? Screw your mom!”
Yang Xin said bitterly.
With that, he stomped on the young man’s face and, amidst his screams, ground his foot down hard a couple of times. That formerly handsome face was now utterly ruined. It was even questionable whether his nose could ever return to normal. The young man let out muffled screams beneath his foot, arms splayed out, his fingers clawing painfully at the cracks between the stone slabs on either side, like a delicate maiden being trampled. Then, Yang Xin, satisfied, stepped off his face, broke into a sprint toward the city gate ahead, and ran for it…
He did not know that, on the drum tower not far behind him, a group of people had been silently watching the entire spectacle.
“Soldiers of the three guards!”
A tall, imposing official in a blue robe said with a half-smile.
Another blue-robed official beside him glared expressionlessly at a red-robed official behind him. The red-robed official looked embarrassed as he turned around, searching among a cluster of red and blue robes behind him. Soon, his gaze landed on the face of a blue-robed man at the very back…
“Hurry up and go, you bunch of useless fools!”
He bellowed angrily.
The blue-robed man hastily led a squad of soldiers and ran down from the drum tower.
“Beat the drum, close the gates!”
The second blue-robed official said.
“Bring him here after you capture him. Wielding a carrying pole with quite some skill, actually.”
The first blue-robed official said without turning his head.
“But he killed someone!”
The second blue-robed official said.
“No one died. He had restraint. They were all just knocked unconscious. An escaped slave? This really doesn’t seem like an escaped slave. Shandong has suffered drought for three years. There are countless starving people. Could it be a man from a military household, desperate, hiding his identity and selling himself into servitude to survive?”
The first blue-robed official said with keen interest.
“But he injured someone from the Fu family of Dongchang!”
The second blue-robed official said.
“Fu Bojun passed away over a decade ago. Does the Dongchang Fu family currently have anyone holding a rank higher than yours or mine? Liaodong is as precarious as a pile of eggs. The court is in dire need of talent now. I imagine sentencing an escaped slave who injured his master to exile in Liaodong to serve on the frontier shouldn’t be too difficult for the Tianjin Military Defense Circuit to handle, right? I have to go clean up Yang Gao’s mess. Chances are, I might lose my head in Liaodong. Even if they took it up with Lord Wang, he surely wouldn’t refuse my small request, would he?”
The first blue-robed official said.