Ma Jing continued, “We are in charge of opening the fields. Xiaohua, did you know that opening the fields is a very tiring job, and we were so exhausted that our skins had shed. Oh right, have you opened a field before? Mm, you are still so young so I doubt that you have. You won’t understand the pains of opening a field, that cold winter wind, the fluttering snowflakes, our hands were so cold that they cracked. Look here, my fingers are still not recovered yet and they will hurt every time it rains.”
Zhang Xiaohua looked at Ma Jing who was obviously stalling his story and thought of kicking his mouth until it rotted so that he would continue, and at the same time, he was afraid that the other party would bring his fingers closer to his face to give him a closer look. He thought secretly, “This Ma Jing is ridiculously unbelievable, whose finger bones will break from the cold?”
Seeing that Ma Jing was still trying to show him his hands, Zhang Xiaohua said quickly, “Elder brother Ma, I have opened a field before as well, and it is indeed tiring. Why don’t you continue talking about the medicinal field?”
“Cough, cough, you have opened a field before? In that case, you should know the difficulties of reclaiming a field.” Ma Jing smiled as he continued, “After opening the field, they chased us out and did not let us near the field anymore. Hallmaster Bai and elder Hu from the pharmacy hall took over the fields and grew some type of herb on it, and we all thought that we could take care of these herbs. Xiaohua, that herb must be something precious, and if it is well taken care of, the supervisor would definitely reward us with a larger bonus, and he would increase our monthly pay. If our monthly pay was increased, I would definitely be able to bring little Red Peach back home as my bride.” Ma Jing ‘s eyes which were gazing far away into the night sky appeared to come back to the room.
Zhang Xiaohua asked urgently, “Who is little Red Peach?”
“Little Red Peach is drunken fragrance house’s… cough cough” Ma Jing stopped his explanation and said, “Wo, I have said too much. Even if there is no monthly pay increment, it will be good enough if they allow to look at the precious herb so our lives would at least be not as mundane. However, …”
Ma Jing then said in a revengeful tone, “They…..they actually fenced off these new fields from the rest of the fields and even prohibited us from going over. Then, they picked four dogs from Piaomiao sect’s pharmacy hall to take care of the herbs, and these dogs actually get treated….treated better than us, not only do they get three silvers a month, the food they eat is better than ours, the carriage they use is first class, and even the hotel they stay in has four stars more than us.”
“Don’t you agree that this is unfair to the extreme? Not just me but all of us brothers are unhappy about the arrangements, and we wanted to vent off our anger on them but… but… …” Ma Jing who was clenching his teeth in anger turned his sentences into a stutter.
Zhang Xiaohua asked curiously, “But what?”
“Sigh…..” Ma Jing heaved another sigh and he lowered his head in dejection, stopped his hand gestures and said, “But we don’t know martial arts, so how can we beat them?”
“Ah! You all do not know martial arts?” Zhang Xiaohua exclaimed in surprise.
“Why? Is it strange to not know martial arts? Who says that a servant has to know martial arts?” Ma Jing was unhappy when he saw Zhang Xiaohua’s surprise.
“But… …” Zhang Xiaohua could not say anything else as he thought inside, “If you do not know martial arts, then who is going to teach them to me.”
“But what? Could it be that you know martial arts? Oh right, you were recruited from the Lotus escort so you definitely know martial arts. Little brother, let’s find a day to teach your big brother martial arts okay?” Ma Jing seemed to have awakened from his stupor and he tried to get off his bed to go towards Zhang Xiaohua.
Zhang Xiaohua quickly waved his hands and answered, “Elder brother Ma, do I look like I know any martial arts?”
Ma Jing studied Zhang Xiaohua for a few glances and said suspiciously, “I can’t really tell, but I have heard that Piaomiao disciples all started learning martial arts when they were four to five years old. Since you are so old, your martial arts must be awesome.”
Zhang Xiaohua smiled bitterly and said, “If I have learnt martial arts since I was four or five, would I still need to grow herbs in the mountain villa?”
Ma Jing cocked his head and pondered, and then said, “True, you would have been in Piaomiao mountain villa, not Huanxi mountain villa.” He then crossed his legs and adopted a comfortable position again.
However, Ma Jing still seemed curious as he asked, “How did you get to Lotus escort, and how did you come here from there? Isn’t Lotus escort much better than over here?”
Zhang Xiaohua smiled bitterly and explained, “It is not that I do not want to stay in Lotus escort, but when I tried to apply for the position of a delivery hand there, I was rejected and while I speaking to fourth uncle Wen, elder sister Qiu Tong from the mountain villa was looking for another helper and she picked me by coincidence. Since I had nowhere else to go, I decided to just come here.”
Ma Jing squinted his eyes and said, “En, a delivery hand has to risk his life, who would dare to hire you given your size. What? Qiu Tong, why did she pick you? You know her?”
Ma Jing’s beady eyes widened as large as they could and light seemed to shoot from them. Zhang Xiaohua quickly explained, “How would I know elder sister Qiu Tong, it is just because she pitied me for having nowhere to go so she offered to keep me here.”
Ma Jing nodded his head and said, “True, Qiu Tong is a kind-hearted lady. Not only does she have a good personality, her figure is pretty good as well, that butt, that chest… …”
A lecherous gleam appeared in Ma Jing’s small eyes and it seemed to pass through space to reach Qiu Tong who was busy attending to Ou Yan.
After talking for almost the whole time, Ma Jing suddenly turned towards Zhang Xiaohua and smiled. He said, “Even though Qiu Tong brought you here, you cannot have any designs on her. She is all of our brother’s dream woman, and I do not know how many of us secretly have a crush on her, you know? The room beside us…….”
Zhang Xiaohua was speechless, this Ma Jing was not a normal busybody, the ten plus people’s daily affairs were all learnt by him. At the same time, Zhang Xiaohua made a mental note that he had to avoid this busybody at all cost in the future.
Having eaten his fill and satisfied his thirst, Zhang Xiaohua listened to Ma Jing’s endless chatter while wondering when the latter would ever fall asleep. The room had an unpleasant odor, but while Zhang Xiaohua listened to the stories, his eyes began to close and he fell asleep without realizing it.
When Ma Jing felt thirsty and was about to get up to drink some water, he realized that Zhang Xiaohua had fallen asleep and he had been playing the flute to a bull.Thus, he quietly drank some water, slipped on his shoes and went to find someone else.
It was nighttime but the room was not quiet at all. Fortunately, Zhang Xiaohua has fallen asleep long ago because when Ma Jing finally slept, his earth-shattering snores were even able to pass through cotton in the ear. It was like water rushing from a fall, and he would occasionally speak in his dream. When he was not doing either, he would grind his teeth and cause an irritating “jiji” sound. Our poor Xiaohua, luckily he is a heavy sleeper who would not wake up no matter what in the night, otherwise he would have been frightened out of his wits.
Mm, even if he had woken up, he would faint immediately from the horrible smell in the room and would not have a chance to listen to any of the noises, no wonder Ma Jing did not wash his feet.
However, our Zhang Xiaohua could not smell Ma Jing’s athlete foot at that moment. His breaths were long and light as though it was non-existent, and if someone were to put his finger onto his nose, they would realize that they could not feel his breathing. Maybe it was not air that he was breathing in? Or perhaps, the him at that moment is not using his nose but the pores on his entire body to breathe? Nobody knows.
In the morning of the next day, Zhang Xiaohua woke up punctually and before he recalled where he was, the nose-piercing stench hit his nose. Zhang Xiaohua was like a rabbit which had left its burrow, he shot like an arrow towards the door and after exiting, took several deep breaths of the fresh morning air. Only then did he remember that he was in Huanxi mountain villa, and of the current situation he was in.
When he turned his head and looked at his house which was no different from the others, he deliberated if he should go back. Seeing that the courtyard was empty, he guessed that everyone else was still sleeping so he walked confidently to the circular outer door.
When he arrived the day before, the sky was already dark so he did not get a good view, and although he had a general understanding of the layout of Huanxi mountain villa, he was still shocked by the view when he exited from the door.
The scene in front of him was the foot of the mountain, and he could see numerous fields on one glance. There was even a forest, and beside it were uncountable houses that stretched endlessly to as far as he could see, so this was Huanxi mountain villa? How come it feels much larger than Guo village?
The mountain seemed to be part of Huanxi mountain villa, and there were many trees and flat farm fields that looked like steps on it. Zhang Xiaohua was confused, how could there be fields on the mountain?
Zhang Xiaohua was too lazy to think further after his initial surprise, there would eventually be an opportunity to go over for a look since he had already decided to live here. His mind has been broadened by the many new things he saw during these few days, and he thought then that this trip would not be a waste even if he did not manage to learn any martial arts.
When he thought about learning martial arts, Zhang Xiaohua’s heart moved and he faced the sun and performed a swallowing motion before feeling the mouthful of warmth which went down into his tummy, creating a comfortable sensation throughout his body. This action has already become a daily homework in the morning.
After that, his memory went back to the demonstration of the sixth fist which he saw in Lotus escort, and he began to try out each move one after the other. However, after performing the first few moves, he forgotten the rest that followed, and even though he squeezed his brain juice to remember as hard as he could, the subsequent moves would not return into his memory, could it be that he was really not suitable for martial arts?
However, his second brother has managed to learn so fast, and since they shared the same blood, surely there cannot be such a large difference between them?
Just as Zhang Xiaohua was thinking in pain, he turned his head and saw a pair of eyes looking at him, it was actually the middle-aged man in well-fitted attire from yesterday.
Zhang Xiaohua hurriedly went over to send his greetings, and the other party also smiled and returned his greetings before walking over to a side, adopting a posture and began to practice his fist. Zhang Xiaohua did not know what the man was practicing but he could feel that it was like a dragon’s movement and tiger’s step, and each fist would carry gusts of violent wind with it. Zhang Xiaohua was starstruck and felt incomparably jealous.
Not long after, the other three well-fitted attired people came out and stood at different places to practice their martial arts while Zhang Xiaohua watched them from afar. He continued to watch them until they finished their practice, and followed behind them as they returned back to the courtyard. As he look at the back of their figures, he could not help but think, “If I can master that set of hand movements, I should be able to protect my family, only I do not know if they will be willing to teach it to me?”
Ma Jing continued, “We are in charge of opening the fields. Xiaohua, did you know that opening the fields is a very tiring job, and we were so exhausted that our skins had shed. Oh right, have you opened a field before? Mm, you are still so young so I doubt that you have. You won’t understand the pains of opening a field, that cold winter wind, the fluttering snowflakes, our hands were so cold that they cracked. Look here, my fingers are still not recovered yet and they will hurt every time it rains.”
Zhang Xiaohua looked at Ma Jing who was obviously stalling his story and thought of kicking his mouth until it rotted so that he would continue, and at the same time, he was afraid that the other party would bring his fingers closer to his face to give him a closer look. He thought secretly, “This Ma Jing is ridiculously unbelievable, whose finger bones will break from the cold?”
Seeing that Ma Jing was still trying to show him his hands, Zhang Xiaohua said quickly, “Elder brother Ma, I have opened a field before as well, and it is indeed tiring. Why don’t you continue talking about the medicinal field?”
“Cough, cough, you have opened a field before? In that case, you should know the difficulties of reclaiming a field.” Ma Jing smiled as he continued, “After opening the field, they chased us out and did not let us near the field anymore. Hallmaster Bai and elder Hu from the pharmacy hall took over the fields and grew some type of herb on it, and we all thought that we could take care of these herbs. Xiaohua, that herb must be something precious, and if it is well taken care of, the supervisor would definitely reward us with a larger bonus, and he would increase our monthly pay. If our monthly pay was increased, I would definitely be able to bring little Red Peach back home as my bride.” Ma Jing ‘s eyes which were gazing far away into the night sky appeared to come back to the room.
Zhang Xiaohua asked urgently, “Who is little Red Peach?”
“Little Red Peach is drunken fragrance house’s… cough cough” Ma Jing stopped his explanation and said, “Wo, I have said too much. Even if there is no monthly pay increment, it will be good enough if they allow to look at the precious herb so our lives would at least be not as mundane. However, …”
Ma Jing then said in a revengeful tone, “They…..they actually fenced off these new fields from the rest of the fields and even prohibited us from going over. Then, they picked four dogs from Piaomiao sect’s pharmacy hall to take care of the herbs, and these dogs actually get treated….treated better than us, not only do they get three silvers a month, the food they eat is better than ours, the carriage they use is first class, and even the hotel they stay in has four stars more than us.”
“Don’t you agree that this is unfair to the extreme? Not just me but all of us brothers are unhappy about the arrangements, and we wanted to vent off our anger on them but… but… …” Ma Jing who was clenching his teeth in anger turned his sentences into a stutter.
Zhang Xiaohua asked curiously, “But what?”
“Sigh…..” Ma Jing heaved another sigh and he lowered his head in dejection, stopped his hand gestures and said, “But we don’t know martial arts, so how can we beat them?”
“Ah! You all do not know martial arts?” Zhang Xiaohua exclaimed in surprise.
“Why? Is it strange to not know martial arts? Who says that a servant has to know martial arts?” Ma Jing was unhappy when he saw Zhang Xiaohua’s surprise.
“But… …” Zhang Xiaohua could not say anything else as he thought inside, “If you do not know martial arts, then who is going to teach them to me.”
“But what? Could it be that you know martial arts? Oh right, you were recruited from the Lotus escort so you definitely know martial arts. Little brother, let’s find a day to teach your big brother martial arts okay?” Ma Jing seemed to have awakened from his stupor and he tried to get off his bed to go towards Zhang Xiaohua.
Zhang Xiaohua quickly waved his hands and answered, “Elder brother Ma, do I look like I know any martial arts?”
Ma Jing studied Zhang Xiaohua for a few glances and said suspiciously, “I can’t really tell, but I have heard that Piaomiao disciples all started learning martial arts when they were four to five years old. Since you are so old, your martial arts must be awesome.”
Zhang Xiaohua smiled bitterly and said, “If I have learnt martial arts since I was four or five, would I still need to grow herbs in the mountain villa?”
Ma Jing cocked his head and pondered, and then said, “True, you would have been in Piaomiao mountain villa, not Huanxi mountain villa.” He then crossed his legs and adopted a comfortable position again.
However, Ma Jing still seemed curious as he asked, “How did you get to Lotus escort, and how did you come here from there? Isn’t Lotus escort much better than over here?”
Zhang Xiaohua smiled bitterly and explained, “It is not that I do not want to stay in Lotus escort, but when I tried to apply for the position of a delivery hand there, I was rejected and while I speaking to fourth uncle Wen, elder sister Qiu Tong from the mountain villa was looking for another helper and she picked me by coincidence. Since I had nowhere else to go, I decided to just come here.”
Ma Jing squinted his eyes and said, “En, a delivery hand has to risk his life, who would dare to hire you given your size. What? Qiu Tong, why did she pick you? You know her?”
Ma Jing’s beady eyes widened as large as they could and light seemed to shoot from them. Zhang Xiaohua quickly explained, “How would I know elder sister Qiu Tong, it is just because she pitied me for having nowhere to go so she offered to keep me here.”
Ma Jing nodded his head and said, “True, Qiu Tong is a kind-hearted lady. Not only does she have a good personality, her figure is pretty good as well, that butt, that chest… …”
A lecherous gleam appeared in Ma Jing’s small eyes and it seemed to pass through space to reach Qiu Tong who was busy attending to Ou Yan.
After talking for almost the whole time, Ma Jing suddenly turned towards Zhang Xiaohua and smiled. He said, “Even though Qiu Tong brought you here, you cannot have any designs on her. She is all of our brother’s dream woman, and I do not know how many of us secretly have a crush on her, you know? The room beside us…….”
Zhang Xiaohua was speechless, this Ma Jing was not a normal busybody, the ten plus people’s daily affairs were all learnt by him. At the same time, Zhang Xiaohua made a mental note that he had to avoid this busybody at all cost in the future.
Having eaten his fill and satisfied his thirst, Zhang Xiaohua listened to Ma Jing’s endless chatter while wondering when the latter would ever fall asleep. The room had an unpleasant odor, but while Zhang Xiaohua listened to the stories, his eyes began to close and he fell asleep without realizing it.
When Ma Jing felt thirsty and was about to get up to drink some water, he realized that Zhang Xiaohua had fallen asleep and he had been playing the flute to a bull.Thus, he quietly drank some water, slipped on his shoes and went to find someone else.
It was nighttime but the room was not quiet at all. Fortunately, Zhang Xiaohua has fallen asleep long ago because when Ma Jing finally slept, his earth-shattering snores were even able to pass through cotton in the ear. It was like water rushing from a fall, and he would occasionally speak in his dream. When he was not doing either, he would grind his teeth and cause an irritating “jiji” sound. Our poor Xiaohua, luckily he is a heavy sleeper who would not wake up no matter what in the night, otherwise he would have been frightened out of his wits.
Mm, even if he had woken up, he would faint immediately from the horrible smell in the room and would not have a chance to listen to any of the noises, no wonder Ma Jing did not wash his feet.
However, our Zhang Xiaohua could not smell Ma Jing’s athlete foot at that moment. His breaths were long and light as though it was non-existent, and if someone were to put his finger onto his nose, they would realize that they could not feel his breathing. Maybe it was not air that he was breathing in? Or perhaps, the him at that moment is not using his nose but the pores on his entire body to breathe? Nobody knows.
In the morning of the next day, Zhang Xiaohua woke up punctually and before he recalled where he was, the nose-piercing stench hit his nose. Zhang Xiaohua was like a rabbit which had left its burrow, he shot like an arrow towards the door and after exiting, took several deep breaths of the fresh morning air. Only then did he remember that he was in Huanxi mountain villa, and of the current situation he was in.
When he turned his head and looked at his house which was no different from the others, he deliberated if he should go back. Seeing that the courtyard was empty, he guessed that everyone else was still sleeping so he walked confidently to the circular outer door.
When he arrived the day before, the sky was already dark so he did not get a good view, and although he had a general understanding of the layout of Huanxi mountain villa, he was still shocked by the view when he exited from the door.
The scene in front of him was the foot of the mountain, and he could see numerous fields on one glance. There was even a forest, and beside it were uncountable houses that stretched endlessly to as far as he could see, so this was Huanxi mountain villa? How come it feels much larger than Guo village?
The mountain seemed to be part of Huanxi mountain villa, and there were many trees and flat farm fields that looked like steps on it. Zhang Xiaohua was confused, how could there be fields on the mountain?
Zhang Xiaohua was too lazy to think further after his initial surprise, there would eventually be an opportunity to go over for a look since he had already decided to live here. His mind has been broadened by the many new things he saw during these few days, and he thought then that this trip would not be a waste even if he did not manage to learn any martial arts.
When he thought about learning martial arts, Zhang Xiaohua’s heart moved and he faced the sun and performed a swallowing motion before feeling the mouthful of warmth which went down into his tummy, creating a comfortable sensation throughout his body. This action has already become a daily homework in the morning.
After that, his memory went back to the demonstration of the sixth fist which he saw in Lotus escort, and he began to try out each move one after the other. However, after performing the first few moves, he forgotten the rest that followed, and even though he squeezed his brain juice to remember as hard as he could, the subsequent moves would not return into his memory, could it be that he was really not suitable for martial arts?
However, his second brother has managed to learn so fast, and since they shared the same blood, surely there cannot be such a large difference between them?
Just as Zhang Xiaohua was thinking in pain, he turned his head and saw a pair of eyes looking at him, it was actually the middle-aged man in well-fitted attire from yesterday.
Zhang Xiaohua hurriedly went over to send his greetings, and the other party also smiled and returned his greetings before walking over to a side, adopting a posture and began to practice his fist. Zhang Xiaohua did not know what the man was practicing but he could feel that it was like a dragon’s movement and tiger’s step, and each fist would carry gusts of violent wind with it. Zhang Xiaohua was starstruck and felt incomparably jealous.
Not long after, the other three well-fitted attired people came out and stood at different places to practice their martial arts while Zhang Xiaohua watched them from afar. He continued to watch them until they finished their practice, and followed behind them as they returned back to the courtyard. As he look at the back of their figures, he could not help but think, “If I can master that set of hand movements, I should be able to protect my family, only I do not know if they will be willing to teach it to me?”
