Chapter 7: Living in a Grand Mansion

  All the way, in order to guard against accidents, Ah Fei's left hand always tightly grasped that old bow, and a quail feather arrow was hidden in the bundle, with just a little bit of the feather tail exposed. With his right hand slightly bent, he could draw it out. His self-taught archery skills were certainly nothing to brag about, but when it came to speed (although using a weak bow and completely not guaranteeing accuracy), he had already barely entered the realm of second-rate masters.

  So, he had the opportunity to pull out an arrow, half-draw his bow and shoot it straight at the face of the leading dog. However, just as his right hand touched the arrow feathers, he suddenly hesitated - "This is a Shi family dog, not a wild dog, if I hurt them, it's very possible that this big family will beat me to death for the sake of their dogs..."

  With just a moment of hesitation, the fierce dog had already pounced on his chest, knocking him flat on his back. Immediately, he felt a slight stinging sensation on his neck, which was extremely warm and wet. Soon, the same feeling spread from his shoulders, arms, thighs, and buttocks...

  "This is going to dismember me!" The endless terror in his heart, but his whole body was stiffened, not daring to move at all.

  At that moment, a loud and rough voice suddenly rang out in his ear like thunder: "Where did this little thief come from? How dare you come to our village and trample on our land?"

  "I'm not a thief!" Ah Fei hastily shouted, "I've come to find Master Shi's son, the package has something he gave me as proof!"

  "What's going on?" The voice shouted a few times, and the warmth all over his body instantly disappeared, leaving only dampness and stinging pain. Ah Fei struggled to get up, and with a glance, he saw a ring-headed knife with a cold light flashing horizontally in front of him, less than two centimeters away from his neck...

  He had no choice but to lie on the ground and grope around, finally managing to pull out the bamboo slip given by Shi Gongzi and Shi Xun from his bundle. He held it in both hands and handed it over to the newcomer. Only then did he have a chance to take a closer look, and saw that this person was sturdy and tall, with a black face like coal, round eyes like bronze bells, and a beard that stood upright like needles - "I'll use this guy to play Zhang San's image, unbeatable!"

  That man held the knife in his right hand, motionless, and took the bamboo slip with his left hand. Under the dim yellow sunset, he examined it carefully for a long time. "Uh..." Ah Fei reminded him boldly, "Brother, you're holding it upside down..."

  "What's wrong with holding it upside down?!" The man glared at him with his big, copper-bell-like eyes, "Anyway, I don't recognize characters!"

  You can't even recognize characters and you still have the nerve? You stared at it for half a day without recognizing the characters...

  It was only later that I found out that this person also had a rather unusual surname, Xing Lun, with a single given name "Jia" that drove people crazy... He was a loyal servant of the Shi family for generations.

  And then Lian Jia threw down a hemp rope, letting A Fei tie his own hands behind his back, wrapping it several times, and then with a knife in hand, pulling the rope, under the gaze of two rows of vicious dogs, he led A Fei into the Shi family's courtyard.

  A Fei was forced to spend the night in the woodshed, because it was said that the master and young master of the Ren family were having dinner, after finishing dinner they had to settle accounts, after settling accounts they had to take a bath, and after taking a bath they had to sleep, so today there was no time to bother with him.

  Until nearly noon the next day, Ah Fei, who was starving and had wet his legs due to being unable to urinate with his hands tied behind him, finally saw Shi Xun. He then summoned all of his acting talent from his past two lifetimes, knelt before Shi Xun, kowtowed repeatedly, and tearfully recounted how he had lost everything, no longer asking for the 150 dollars, but instead begging to be sold into slavery in the Shi household just to survive.

  "Take him down first and give him a good wash. Change his clothes and then bring him to see me."

  Then Ah Fei was rushed by the Lun family and several other big men with the surname Lun, stripped naked, and immediately doused with several buckets of cold water amidst lewd laughter. He was scrubbed up and down with a donkey's brush until he was clean. Only when the washing and scrubbing were finished did several loose hemp clothes land on his face, and Ah Fei, trembling with fear, finally let go of his hands covering his buttocks...

  Mr. Xun "summoned" A Fei in the empty drying field, and as soon as they met, his first sentence was: "What books did you read in your dream?"

  I had long expected to be asked similar questions, so I had prepared my lines several times. As soon as I knelt down on the ground, I replied: "There's 'Analects', 'Sun Wu', 'Mencius', and 'Book of Songs'. A humble person like me can't remember many passages." The old man sighed and said: "You're not talented enough, you're useless. Let you go, maybe in the future when you meet a noble person, you'll assist them well." I woke up then, but I had forgotten more than half of what I originally remembered...

  It was not until much later, after Ah Fei had thoroughly gained the trust of Shi Xun, that he realized how clever and precious his response at the time had been. It turned out that while he was being beaten by several big men and splashed with cold water, Shi Xun reported the matter to his father, Shi Yi. Shi Yi pondered for a long time before responding: "This child has an extraordinary encounter and will surely become a great talent in the future. Unfortunately, he is a barbarian, and it is said that those who are born outside of China but bring disaster to China have been divinely ordained. It would be better to kill him."

  Xī Xūn blocked his father, saying: "The book obtained in the dream is ultimately false. Wait for me to carefully interrogate him about the truth and falsehood, and then it's not too late for you to kill him."

  Fortunately, after a long and arduous journey, Ah Fei had thought things through carefully. At first, he made up such a big lie out of necessity, but now that he had the time, he decided to elaborate on the whole story to avoid any loose ends. So he started by saying that he hadn't actually learned anything, then fabricated stories about "encountering a noble person" and "receiving great assistance", all in an attempt to pin the label of "noble person" on Shi Yun's head. During his brief stay in the county town, Ah Fei had already seen through Shi Yun's haughty self-importance and ambitious nature, and was convinced that he would be delighted with this grand title.

  As expected, Shi Xun heard his words and immediately dispelled the idea of taking his life. However, Shi Xun still had doubts in his heart, so he asked him: "Recite something else for me to hear - hmm, start with the Analects."

  "Is it not a pleasure, having learned something, to try it out? Having friends come from afar, is that not a joy? To remain calm and unruffled when others do not understand you - is that not the mark of a gentleman?"

  "Is it this sentence at the beginning?"

  "Ah, and... shrinking back in self-reflection, though a thousand people may come forth..."

  "What about Sun Wu?"

  "Sun Tzu said: War is a deceitful way... It should not be so, it is the country's great affair, the land of death and life, the way of survival and destruction, cannot be ignored..."

  "You young fellow just remember the beginning! So 'Mencius'."

  Mencius met with King Hui of Liang. The king said, "Sir, you have come from a distant place, over a thousand miles, presumably you also have something that will benefit my state?"

  "The Book of Songs."

  "The cry of ospreys, on the isle in the river, a modest and virtuous girl, a gentleman delights in her..."

  "How many characters can you recognize?"

  "It's been several years since I last reviewed it, and more than half of it has been forgotten. However, I still remember about twenty or thirty of them."

  Mr. Xun threw him a twig: "Write it and let me see."

  A Fei made a great effort to look like he was deep in thought, then picked up a tree branch with the gesture of holding a pencil and wrote a "one" character on the ground. After thinking for a moment, he added a horizontal stroke above the "one", then another below, finally adding a "person" character after the "three" - "If we meet face to face, I can recognize you, but if we don't meet, I really can't remember..."

  Mr. Xun couldn't help but burst out laughing and patted his shoulder: "Alright, from now on you'll follow a certain someone."

  So, after signing the contract and stamping his seal, Ah Fei became a member of the Shi family. From then on, no matter whether Young Master Shi wanted him to go east or west, live or die, or even offer his buttocks as a sacrifice to the chrysanthemum, theoretically speaking, he had no right to refuse - fortunately, at this stage, Young Master Shi's sexual orientation was still normal.

  A Fei remained a slave in the Shi family. It should be acknowledged that although he had no personal freedom, theoretically 24 hours a day, at any time, he had to perk up his ears and wait for orders from the master, and then use all his strength to complete them. Fortunately, the master had not given any instructions that exceeded his ability or moral bottom line so far. Compared with the days spent in poor valleys, not only was it more fulfilling, but also the house was simple, at least four walls were intact, and the food was coarse, but basically half full.

  Especially, Shi Xun often took him and Lun Jia to ride out of the village, hunting in the nearby mountains, where they had the opportunity to pick up two or three bones that the young master hadn't gnawed clean to satisfy their hunger, or scoop up a bowl of meat soup that the young master hadn't finished drinking to warm themselves. To assist the young master in hunting, Ah Fei finally got a decent hunting bow - made of orange wood, with cow horn on the inside and cow tendon on the outside, coated with lacquer, and strung with deer tendon; he also often received arrows fletched with wild duck feathers.

  Because he was still young and weak, Ah Fei's bow only had a strength of less than half a dan. The bows used by Ren's family were much stronger, according to his own boasts, they were close to three dan - Ah Fei couldn't even draw it, let alone test it out, so he could only let Ren brag.

  However, after following Shi Xun on multiple hunting trips and being allowed to practice archery in the courtyard during his free time, Ah Fei's marksmanship had made significant progress. Within thirty steps, he could hit a stationary target the size of a water bucket nine out of ten times, slow-moving targets five out of ten times, and occasionally even hit fast-moving targets once out of ten times. As for instantaneous moving targets... it was impossible to hit them.

  Apart from this, A Fei also followed the Lun family and other Lun clan men to practice martial arts when he had nothing to do. It must be admitted that although his body was grown up in hunger, the toughness of his muscles and bones was still not bad, and after filling enough carbohydrates, his strength increased quickly, plus his understanding and comprehension from another world, in just half a year's time, he has already practiced eighteen martial arts, all - exceptionally well.

  Wu Yi Xiang's martial arts skills are ordinary, because the Leng family's guys rely solely on their brute strength and powerful moves. If they were to really examine their martial arts skills, they might not even be as good as those of the average swordsmen found on the streets of Changzhou in later generations, and that's being generous. However, Ah Fei has been following them around, and at the very least, he can wield various infantry weapons, long or short, bladed or pointed, with some proficiency, and taking down one or two injured soldiers is no big deal. According to the Leng family, if he continues to practice diligently for a few more years until he comes of age, he might even be able to become a squad leader in the army.

  So in the Shi family's compound, Ah Fei finally lived to be sixteen years old - or fifteen by actual age - without any major incident.

  I am a serious divider line

  Up to this chapter, it can be said that the opening has ended and the setup is complete. The plot from now on should unfold like a mighty river bursting forth! So... please collect and recommend!