Chapter 98: Labors of Dog and Horse (2)
One hundred and eight prisoners became dogs and horses, pulling the wagons.
Because of the people gathered to watch this rare sight, the streets were always bustling.
Meanwhile, Gyeon Sul and Namgung Yul sat on top of the wagon pulled by the prisoners and looked down at that sight.
“Wow, the rumors must have spread in the meantime. Look at all the people gathered.”
“It is because of the rumor that Young Hero Chui reformed the water bandits of the Yangtze River Water Bandit Union and saved the helpless and hungry. To the point that his new alias is ‘Timely Rain (及時雨).’”
Chui’s course of action was packaged slightly differently from the truth as it passed through rumor after rumor.
The main gist of the rumor was that Chui, a righteous hero who could not bear to see the starving poor, had leaped into the Yangtze River Water Bandit Union alone, beaten to death the Tiger Butcher who practiced tyranny, and released all the grains accumulated there.
Therefore, the people who heard that rumor changed Chui’s alias from Three Calls of the Yellow Springs to Timely Rain, meaning ‘rain that falls just in time for a drought.’
……However.
‘Whether it is Timely Rain or Timely Bullshit, it is truly dog-like, indeed.’
From the standpoint of the dogs and horses, including Xu Se-chi, who were pulling the chains to death in front of the wagon, it was a sound that made a thousand fires break out in their insides.
The prisoners pulled the wagon to death while being struck by Chui’s whip.
The skin of their hands pulling the chains was completely torn, bleeding, and the skin of their bare feet treading the wasteland was entirely burst and blistered.
However.
“You are getting gradually slower. Pull faster.”
Chui’s whipping did not show even a bit of mercy.
Every time the thick whip struck their backs, the prisoners screamed and pulled the wagon.
……But the hardship was not just that.
“You bastards who are worse than dogs! Are you still alive even after raping my daughter!?”
“If you were going to steal the rice, you should have just stolen it and gone, so why did you even set fire to the house! Our mother had bad legs, so she couldn’t even flee and passed away!”
“You drove a horse, ran over my kid to death, and giggled saying it was fun, didn’t you? You fiendish bastards! Drop dead—!”
The commoners who had suffered damage from the water bandits of the Yangtze River Water Bandit Union until now gathered, spat, and threw stones.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
The prisoners regretted as they recalled the evil deeds they had committed all this time, but the way to apologize had already vanished long ago.
Whoosh— Thud! Crack! Smash!
Gravel flew in and turned the prisoners’ foreheads bloody.
Whenever they were hit by a stone and fell to the ground, Chui’s whip would fly in without fail.
“Do not play tricks and pull.”
The whip Chui brandished was as thick as an adult male’s wrist.
Rather than being hit by that once, being hit by ten pieces of gravel was far less painful.
The prisoners hurriedly pulled the wagon to avoid the eyes of the people they had tormented until now.
If it had been the commoners fleeing to avoid the eyes of the bandits until now, it was now the bandits’ turn to flee to avoid the eyes of the commoners.
“…….”
Watching that sight, Namgung Yul fell into thought.
Gyeon Sul beside her gently poked at her feelings again.
“No, why is the fair and upright chivalrous hero of the Orthodox path staying still? Are you just going to leave that kind of state alone and watch?”
“Whipping the water bandits? Is there something wrong with that?”
“It is wrong. It is private punishment. They should be judged according to the law, so shouldn’t it not be done in that way? And forcing them to write a contract too. Hmm?”
“Hmm……”
At Gyeon Sul’s words, Namgung Yul placed her hand on her chin.
And then, she shook her head from side to side.
“If the purpose were truly solely to punish the criminals, I might have stopped him.”
“What? Then it is not?”
“To my mind, it is so. Chui’s course of action might perhaps bear an extremely political purpose……”
“Political? Chui? Why do you think so?”
“I mean. Since he drove all the accumulated karma and representations of sin onto these prisoners, he is making the remaining Yangtze River Water Bandit Union be thought of as a group containing only righteous men…… in a way, it is a move for Jeok-hyang, who became the Union Master.”
“…….”
At Namgung Yul’s words, Gyeon Sul nodded his head.
Certainly, after posting the notice, Chui was deliberately dragging these one hundred and eight prisoners, who were the protagonists of that notice, only to places with many people.
If what Namgung Yul conjectured was correct, it meant Chui was handing Jeok-hyang another huge gift before leaving.
Precisely the grand justification of morality.
‘If so, it means that Young Hero Chui is not simply strong but also has extremely deep scheming…… just from where on earth did such a hidden dragon appear?’
Namgung Yul recalled what her grandfather Namgung Cheon had said once.
‘His fighting style is that of a ruffian. His spear technique is third-rate. His martial arts are at the Peak. His lightness art is Transcendence. His scheming is at the Transformed Realm. He is an utterly incomprehensible fellow.’
At the same time, she thought.
Perhaps, Chui over there might be an even greater person than she had thought him to be all this time.
* * *
Before long, snow began to fall.
The downstream where thin ice collided and rippled.
From here, the tributaries of the Yangtze River flowing eastward stretched out windingly.
From here, wastelands or mountain paths with almost no human presence continued.
Before a steep uphill path, Chui ordered the prisoners to rest.
“Aargh— I am going to die.”
“I cannot move any further. Even if you beat me to death, I cannot move.”
“Bullshit. You are a bastard who would spring up and run on four legs if you got hit by a single whip strike.”
If a person was too exhausted, even sleep did not come.
The prisoners were looking gloomy, caressing the torn skin of their hands and the burst skin of their feet.
Wailings about getting frostbite or having joints ache filled the empty wasteland completely.
However.
As time passed, the sound coming from the bodies of the prisoners was converging into one thing.
Rumble……
Severe hunger and thirst.
The prisoners realized.
There was no such thing as rest.
When moving their bodies, they had to fight the weight of the wagon, and when they were not moving their bodies, they had to fight hunger and thirst.
The prisoners, who had pulled the wagon for two whole days without sleeping a wink, were truly dying.
Even if they quenched their thirst somehow by catching the falling snow, there was no way to escape the hunger.
Eventually, several of the prisoners moved toward Chui’s carriage.
Xu Se-chi was also among them.
“Excuse me…… Thousand-Head Lord.”
Xu Se-chi opened his mouth with a trembling voice.
Soon, Chui’s voice was heard from inside the carriage curtain.
“What is it.”
As soon as Chui’s voice was heard, the prisoners prostrated flat on the floor and bowed their heads.
Xu Se-chi spoke as their representative.
“Excuse me…… if it is not rude, may I ask a question?”
“It is rude, so do not.”
“…….”
He had made a bad start.
Xu Se-chi was painfully learning how to talk to Chui.
He closed his eyes tightly and shouted.
“I-It is not that…… I was asking because I was worried about when the Thousand-Head would eat, or if you might be starving for too long! If it is alright, we were wondering if we should prepare a meal for you!”
Although he spoke as if worried about Chui’s meal, in reality, it was a statement asking for the food they would eat.
However, from within the curtain came an out-of-the-blue reply.
“No need.”
No need? It had been two days since they left the Yangtze River Water Bandit Union, so why was food not needed?
Xu Se-chi bowed his head even further and spoke.
“Still, you must eat. I am afraid that the Thousand-Head’s health might be harmed. I hope you do not skip your meals……”
However, his words could not continue to the end.
Because suddenly the carriage curtain was pulled back completely.
Inside the carriage, Chui, Gyeon Sul, and Namgung Yul were sitting.
And between them, dried fruits, beef jerky, rice cakes, and a gourd bottle filled with water were visible.
“!?”
The eyes of the prisoners, including Xu Se-chi, grew so wide they seemed about to tear.
Before them, Chui spoke in a calm tone.
“I have already eaten a lot.”
Xu Se-chi’s lips began to tremble violently.
Curses kicked his uvula and tried to tear apart his lips.
Xu Se-chi desperately suppressed and swallowed it.
“T-T-That is indeed great. By the way, excuse me, but…… may I dare to ask if there is any portion for us?”
At Xu Se-chi’s brave question, the other prisoners also swallowed their dry saliva.
However, Chui’s answer was quite unexpected this time too.
“There is.”
“……!”
“…….”
“……?”
However, no other words in particular followed after that.
After a brief silence, Chui continued speaking.
“There is, so what?”
At that, Xu Se-chi cried out internally.
‘Agh, dammit!’
If there is, he should give it, so why is he not giving it?
However, if he spat out his thoughts as they were, he would be killed immediately.
Xu Se-chi exerted superhuman patience and pressed his voice softly.
“Th-Thousand-Head Chui. Then, approximately when would we be able to receive that food ration? That food which you said was our portion.”
“What? Are you hungry?”
“…….”
His entire facial muscles fluctuated crazily.
His lips kept trying to flutter like the wings of a migratory bird, so at this rate, it felt as if his body would float up into the air.
……But Xu Se-chi endured and pressed it down this time too.
The slush funds and pocketed wealth that he had not spat out despite the harsh torture and abuse of the guards.
Thinking of those in his mind, he endured and endured again.
‘I cannot die here. Indeed. I cannot end without even trying to spend that money.’
Xu Se-chi raised his head with a resolute expression.
“Of course, Thousand-Head. We are also humans, so if we pulled the wagon this much, wouldn’t it be human nature to naturally be hungry.”
“Right. You guys were indeed humans. Since you pulled the wagon so well, I truly thought you were dogs and pigs…… no, dogs and horses.”
The prisoners, including Xu Se-chi, began to tremble their bodies.
However, before the whip held in Chui’s hand, their anger control could only naturally work well.
Eventually, Chui pushed something forward.
It was none other than a crab.
It was a mitten crab roasted red on a small brazier.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
Before the roasted mitten crab from which steam was rising, the prisoners salivated like dogs.
Wasn’t this roasted mitten crab precisely one of the specialties of Sichuan?
The holes perforated here and there in the ridges of the rice fields where the harvest was finished.
Waving a fishing rod made of reed in front of those, what definitely came hooked out one by one was precisely this winter mitten crab.
The memory of capturing them boiling in a brass kettle, throwing them one by one into a campfire lit with rice straw, and peeling and eating the turning-red crab while blowing on it.
In their minds, the voices that mitten crab sellers used to call out every dawn naturally arose.
-Buy my salted crab, good people.
-Hey, merchant, what is that thing you are calling out to sell? Let us buy.
-Bone on the outside, meat on the inside, two eyes pointing to the heavens, crawling forward and backward, eight small legs, two large legs, crunching with clear soy sauce, buy my salted crab.
-Merchant, do not call out so awkwardly, and just call it crab paste.
At the savory smell wafting gently, the eyes of the prisoners gradually unfocused.
…Gulp!
The mitten crab skewered on a stick was incredibly large and red.
One could tell at a single glance that meat was packed tightly inside those sturdy pincers.
Without realizing it, Xu Se-chi expressed his intention through hand and foot gestures.
“Q-Quickly! The mitten crab quickly……!”
In his heart, he wanted to leap forward immediately and cram that crab, shell and all, into his mouth.
However, the one holding the crab was none other than Chui.
Since if they attacked recklessly, what would be broken might not be the crab shell but their own skull, nobody dared to move.
They merely swallowed the drool dripping down gulp after gulp from time to time.
At that moment, Chui turned to Xu Se-chi and spoke.
“There is an old saying like this. A maxim is food for the mind. Would you like to hear one of those maxims?”
“I would like to partake of the food for the body slightly before the food for the mind, though…… not with my ears, but if I could hold it with this hand of mine, it would be extremely good.”
“The spirit is more important than the body. Listen while you have the opportunity. My maxim is not something you can hear easily.”
“It is not a crab you can easily hear, but a crab you cannot easily hold, indeed. Understood! I will tear, no, hear it! Whether it is a crab or a maxim, whatever! Please just quickly!”
Before long, all the prisoners stared at Chui with the same expression and the same gaze as Xu Se-chi.
Even Gyeon Sul and Namgung Yul behind them were looking over here with expressions full of curiosity.
Under this situation where all eyes were focused, Chui spoke the maxim.
“飮馬投錢 (Watering the Horse and Throwing Money).”
“……?”
Among the prisoners, Xu Se-chi was about the only one who understood those words.
Urged by the prisoners, Xu Se-chi falteringly offered the interpretation.
“Watering the horse and throwing money…… drink, horse, throw, money…… In the meaning that ancient scholars paid their debt by throwing money into the river even after letting their horses drink the river water…… to translate it literally……”
Eventually, Xu Se-chi’s pupils trembled anxiously.
“……There is no free lunch?”
Unrivaled Spear Ghost