Bab 18: Chapter 18: The Exploitation by the Chen Family
Three days passed in succession.
Shen Qing sat up from the warm bed at dawn, habitually peeking outside through the small window.
The snow that had fallen for so long finally stopped, without even a whisper of the wind.
The sun shone brightly in the sky; it was a rare fine weather.
"Today, there's an eight or nine chance the boss's traders from the county will come over. By then, I can give them some money to hitch a ride, head to the county, and sell the stock I've saved for these few days."
Thanks to the recent harvest, Shen Qing could hunt only near the mountain behind the house these days, securing some wild rabbits and pheasants to fill his stomach.
The rest of the time, he devoted all his energy to training martial arts and recognizing characters to read, constantly improving the progress of both.
The results were quite satisfying.
Now, he could recognize nearly a hundred characters, and his Nine Brocade Technique was close to reaching the level of mastery.
Everything was advancing in an orderly manner.
Shen Qing habitually washed his face with snow water in the morning, then continued practicing stance in the house, waiting for Shen Fang to make breakfast.
Living in the house with him, Shen Fang, seeing her brother practicing from morning to night in such an odd posture every day, couldn't help but feel worried and called out, "Qingzi, are you all right these past two days?"
"I heard Auntie can draw some symbols, why not let her take a look?"
Hearing this, Shen Qing couldn't help but chuckle silently.
Apparently, these days, he was either practicing the Nine Skills or studying to recognize characters, keeping himself continuously busy.
Even hunting had become less frequent, making him a different person from before, leading Shen Fang to believe he had attracted some unclean thing in the mountains.
Although his sister had fine features and was somewhat pretty, she wasn't very smart and lacked initiative.
Letting her know too much wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Shen Qing didn't explain much, casually making up an excuse, and said, "This is something I got inspired by while reading lately, learned from books, and it's for strengthening the body. Didn't you see I grew taller the other day? I thought it might have something to do with it, so I kept practicing."
"Oh." Shen Fang, convinced by Shen Qing's logical explanation, didn't think he was attracting evil spirits and stopped thinking further.
As usual, she prepared porridge and handed it to Shen Qing.
This porridge was exchanged from other households and was much better than the previous bran.
Shen Qing held the hot porridge with both hands, squatting on the doorstep.
While basking in the sun, he savored the rice porridge along the edge of the bowl, enjoying the sweet scent of rice.
"Let's see the situation, if today is suitable, I can take out the two fur coats Chen An left behind and bring them to the county to sell. If not, I'll wait and see, and catch the next opportunity."
As Shen Qing pondered silently on how to handle the goods from the mountains, he looked up to see Shen Xiaohu running over from behind his house.
He called out loudly, "Brother Qingzi, something terrible happened!"
"What terrible happened? Did someone in the village get killed by Chen family members again?" Shen Qing raised his eyelids and asked.
"No!"
Shen Xiaohu squatted beside Shen Qing, pulling a long face, and said, "The boss's traders from the city aren't coming to our place anymore."
"The traders aren't coming?"
Shen Qing's expression turned a bit more serious.
From Hongshan Village to the county was fifty to sixty miles. Usually, hunters in their village, after capturing prey, would sell to the boss's traders to save a trip to the county.
Following the established rules, selling to the traders was a bit cheaper than in the county.
If they captured high-value prey and didn't want to sell to the traders, they could pay a bit to hitch a ride on the traders' cart to sell in the county themselves.
The big families in the county, Martial Arts Hall, government office, and inns needed their prey, wild goods.
For those trying to sell, it wasn't difficult.
How much you took depended on your ability.
If you met hooligans or ruffians and were robbed, you just had to consider it bad luck.
"They're indeed not coming. I heard it clearly, my grandpa and others were talking about it. I don't think I'll be able to go to the county anymore," Shen Xiaohu expressed in disappointment and distress.
Shen Qing knew he always wanted to go to the county, and now, with this situation, his chance to visit the county grew even smaller.
He pondered for a while, then pressed, "The Chen Family Brothers are the most proactive regarding traders. What do they say? From now on, will all the prey be stuck with us?"
"Damn, don't even mention them. It's them who cooked this up." Shen Xiaohu cursed, "I heard my grandpa and others say that all the prey in the future must be sold to their family. They will purchase them uniformly and sell them to the city. If you don't want to, you'll have to walk to the city to sell it yourself."
After hearing this, two words almost immediately surfaced in Shen Qing's mind—monopoly!
This Chen Youguang, they took the entire Hongshan Village as their own 'estate.'
Hunters living in the village all had to work for them, make money for them.
Even the usually good-tempered Shen Qing couldn't help but curse inwardly.
Thinking it over intensely, it was clear their family hadn't done many good deeds in the village.
"Brother Qingzi, my grandpa and others, the Zhang Family members, although they are quite vocal about it, they tend to agree. As for the other families, unsatisfied yet helpless. The Chen family has numbers and power. I heard Chen Yuan mastered some martial arts; we can't beat them."
Shen Xiaohu was emotionally quite low.
Many hunters didn't have much left after deducting household expenses from what they caught in a few days.
For that small amount, going to the county, risking needing to stay overnight, it indeed seemed not worth it.
Come spring, when prey wouldn't keep, the situation would worsen.
This way, households like Uncle's would surely have harder times.
Shen Qing couldn't help feeling somewhat disturbed.
After Shen Xiaohu left, he put down the bowl and decided not to consider taking the Chen Family Brothers' stuff from the mountains for the time being.
Confidence still required personal strength.
Since he couldn't hitch a ride on a cart to the county for now, he decided to continue practicing the Nine Skills martial arts.
Just a bit more was needed.
First, gain some more strength.
Two Shi Chen later.
Shen Qing practiced alternately the Hunyuan Stance, Mao Dun Stance, Tuo Ying Zhuang, and Floating Cloud Stance, with both legs sore and beads of sweat dripping from his forehead.
Just when he couldn't hold on any longer, a powerful tremor ran through his mind, and a stroke of ink gradually manifested into words before his eyes.
[Skill: Nine Skills (Small Success)]
[Progress: 203/200 points]
[Status: Can be Improved]
[Note: Continued practice can enhance progress; once Qi and blood are at great perfection, strength becomes as great as a bull, and breath as silk.]
Good!
Shen Qing was overjoyed.
After days of diligent practice, he was finally about to advance this martial arts to the next level.
A breakthrough was near, even if Qi and blood weren't at great perfection; it would be about there, enough to walk proudly in the village.
According to his secret inquiries these past few days, Chen Yuan of the Chen family hadn't reached this realm yet.
Hadiah
-- Hadiah diterima Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone