Martial Arts Awakening, Bloodfire Fist Master

"Liu Laoshi, sign for twenty-two, I'll round it down to zero for you, here you go!"

"Hehe, thank you, Master Ma. Consider those two copper coins as an invitation to tea for you."

"Drink your mother's ass! I'm just helping you round down the bill. You should be thanking me and treating me. Who do you think you are? Get lost!"

"Yes, yes, yes..." Liu Laoshi grinned sheepishly as he walked to the side, holding the twenty copper coins in his hands.

Master Ma laughed and continued handing out money.

"Wang Quan, you dog, I didn't expect you could endure twenty more whippings after being whipped. Well, I see you have your reasons, so I'll take three sticks from you as payment for the whipping."

"Liu Beizhou, seventeen slips of paper, you old dog, you're no good. Consider these fifteen copper coins a reward from Master Ma."

"Zhang Qingshan, wow, you're pretty good, kid. You carried it twenty times. It's good to be young, you little rascal."

Master Ma sized up Zhang Qingshan, and seeing the foolishness hidden in the clarity of his eyes, he was even more satisfied. He picked up the teapot, took a sip of tea, and narrowed his eyes: "Don't say that Master Ma doesn't take care of his own people. Here's what we'll do: when you have time, we can sign a contract, and you can become a contractor for my Qingshui Gang. I guarantee you'll have work to do and money to earn every day."

Zhang Qingshan's heart sank. This bastard had actually set his sights on him. He had been here for some time now, and Zhang Qingshan wasn't completely ignorant.

The contractors weren't disciples of the Clear Water Gang; they weren't even considered handymen. Once they signed the contract, they became slaves at their mercy. In winter, they might make you go down into the river to search for treasure; in summer, they'd make you pull ropes under the scorching sun; if the latrine was clogged, they'd make you go down into it to clean it...

He couldn't show his anger, so he pretended to be innocent and said, "Uncle Ma, I just took a break to work. Once I've saved up some money, I'm going back to the village to farm and get married."

"Hehe, a peasant is just a peasant, he doesn't recognize my good intentions."

At that moment, Old Liu, who had just received his money, approached with a fawning smile.

"Master Ma, Qingshan is a respectable man, and he has acquaintances in the surrounding villages. He's still young, and if he signs this contract, it will be difficult to explain to his family. Master Ma, why don't you go to the refugee village near the North Gate? There are some people there who want to dedicate themselves to the Qingshui Gang."

Master Ma glared at Old Liu, then gave Zhang Qingshan a deep look before counting out fifteen copper coins with a ruler, and coldly snorted, "Take it!"

After scraping away five copper coins, Zhang Qingshan didn't immediately take them. Looking at the other person's sneer, he couldn't help but want to say something.

At this moment, Old Liu stood in front of him, covered his face with his back, and then carefully picked up the copper coins from the table, bowing and scraping to Master Ma.

"We're just kids, so we should definitely be respectful to you, Master Ma, since we've just arrived. Hehe, if it weren't for your care, Master Ma, we wouldn't have the chance to make a living."

"Good to know, now get lost!"

"Yes, yes, Mr. Ma, please go ahead with your work."

After saying that, he turned around, grabbed Zhang Qingshan, and left.

Only when they reached a place where Ma Junfeng couldn't see them did Lao Liu look at Zhang Qingshan.

"Kid, were you just about to reason with him? Remember this: when people are at our mercy, reasoning won't work. If we can't afford to mess with them, then we shouldn't. Otherwise, at best we'll get a whipping, at worst we'll be thrown into a river or a pit."

Even if he takes a sliver of our flesh, as long as we work hard, we'll still have something to eat, right? It's better than your Zhangjia Village on that hillside, isn't it?

Zhang Qingshan paused for a moment, then bowed deeply to Old Liu. "Thank you, Uncle Liu!"

The other party was powerful, and he didn't want to win any argument with them, but he was afraid that they would continue to take advantage of him in the future, so he almost couldn't help but say a few words just now.

"Haha, why call me Uncle? I already told you to just call me Lao Liu or Brother Liu. I'm not married yet, and I don't want to be an uncle right now. I still need to save money to marry an older woman."

Zhang Qingshan smiled and said, "Thank you very much, Brother Liu. I wish you all your dreams come true soon. I will definitely prepare a gift to congratulate you on your big day."

Amidst laughter and conversation, the two slowly left the dock. Although tired, the copper coins in their pockets gave them a sense of lightness.

After walking for a while, Lao Liu looked at Zhang Qingshan with a puzzled expression.

"Qingshan, your words about getting what you wanted and some of the things you say don't sound like the kind of country bumpkin you'd never left the village. Sometimes, I, Lao Liu, feel like you don't even look like a manual laborer. To be honest, have you ever been to school?"

Zhang Qingshan was startled, but smiled shyly on the surface. "Brother, I did go to the neighboring village to eavesdrop on the teachers for a while when I was a child. Besides, you sometimes seem to have some culture in your speech."

Old Liu and Zhang Qingshan were from Xiaoqing Township, about 30 miles outside the city. They had a sense of kinship, which is why Old Liu took care of Zhang Qingshan in every way. Of course, he knew about Lijia Village.

Zhang Qingshan wasn't making things up. He had an aunt who married into Lijia Village, and he often stayed there to play when he was a child. He did indeed wander around the small private school.

This was a pretext he had prepared long ago. He was a time traveler, and no matter how much he tried to hide it, he would sometimes reveal details that were slightly different from the rural youths of this era.

Old Liu suddenly realized, and sighed again:

"That Li Family Village, that's a big village, you could call it Li Family Stronghold. It has a large population and is good at hunting and shooting, so they can afford to hire tutors. As for me, well, when I was in my twenties, I also went out to explore. I stayed in Shenghai City, which is 800 miles away, for a few years."

Saint Sea City?

Zhang Qingshan's eyes lit up. This Shenghai City was quite famous. Even the old farmers in Zhangjia Village knew about it and would often sit under the locust tree at the village entrance and daydream. Zhang Qingshan had heard about it countless times.

"Brother Liu, tell me about Shenghai City. Everyone says it's a paradise on earth, incredibly prosperous and rich, with endless meat and fragrant steamed buns. Is that true?"

Old Liu gave a bitter laugh: "No, they don't call it fragrant steamed buns there, they call it bread. Besides, it's not paradise on earth, it's full of man-eating jackals and demons, otherwise why would I come back?"

Old Liu clearly didn't want to talk about Holy Sea City, and couldn't help but whisper.

"Qingshan, you must remember, no matter what that man surnamed Ma says, you must not sign that indentured servitude contract. It may seem like a job that you can live off for a lifetime, but in reality, it will only last for a dozen years at most. Those who signed indentured servitude contracts have never lived past forty. That man surnamed Ma is just looking at you because you are young and thinks he can exploit you for a couple more years."

Perhaps fearing that Zhang Qingshan would be frightened by the other party's methods, Old Liu comforted him again:

"Don't be fooled by the fact that the man surnamed Ma seems lawless. In reality, he can't control everything. Even in Qingshui City, let alone the docks, there are rules. Even if he wants to take action, he has to find a reason. For example, Old Wang was whipped for slacking off. And Meng Daping, who was beaten to death by him today, was punished for stealing skewer tokens. Nobody had anything to say about that."

"That guy surnamed Ma can't just kill people whenever he wants. You usually see that row of houses on the other side of the dock. The first one is where the tax collector works, the second one has police officers stationed there, and the third one is where the merchants live. Although they look down on us peasants and just watch coldly, that guy surnamed Ma also has his concerns. He's afraid of being caught red-handed."

Old Liu looked left and right for a moment before coldly snorting, "After all, that bastard is just a leader of the Clear Water Gang, not some big shot like a sect leader or hall master."

Zhang Qingshan nodded; these were all survival experiences that Lao Liu had accumulated.

"Brother, thanks for the suggestion. Let me treat you to a drink. The offal at Yi Family Shop is pretty good."

"Haha, it's good that you're so kind. You don't need to treat me to a drink. Although I, Old Liu, want to get married, at least I'm single and have no family to worry about right now. You have a lot of people in your family, so you should be more frugal. By the way, Qingshan, don't waste your money on that. Don't waste money and ruin your health. That's not something we should be thinking about."

Zhang Qingshan smiled憨厚ly. "Brother, I'd like to give it another try."

Looking at his innocent smile, Old Liu noticed something called hope in his young eyes.

He paused for a moment, then chuckled self-deprecatingly, "Yeah, you're still young, unlike this old codger who's resigned to his fate. Back then, who wasn't like that?"

They walked in silence until they returned to the shed courtyard. Zhang Qingshan greeted his neighbors, including Sister Song and Sister Wang, who were hanging clothes and sewing shoe soles in the yard. He was teased by the old women for a few moments before returning to his own little house.

He closed the door, took a deep breath, and thought of "System".

A simple light screen appeared before my eyes:

[Host: Zhang Qingshan]

[Realm: None]

[Talent: Chaos Enchantment]

[Enchantment Slot: To be equipped]

This is the source of Zhang Qingshan's confidence to look up at the sky even when he is in the mud.