Chapter 268

Old Liu cursed inwardly: "The land was sold to me by you..."

Liu He pressed him down hard, "Sold to you? It was rented! You said putting it under your name would lower the taxes, and I wouldn't have to serve corvée labor if I worked at your house—that's why I put it under your name."

The other eight quickly chimed in, "That's right, that's right—we've long wanted to take back the land and farm it ourselves. You rent it to villagers and take six-tenths, but give us only two-tenths..."

"Two-tenths isn't enough? If you farmed it yourselves, how much tax and corvée would you owe the magistrate's office? And who'd till the land if you went to serve labor?" Old Liu fumed.

"If you can't even farm the land, you won't get two-tenths—you won't even cover your tax dues!"

Old Liu growled, "You put the land under my name, got two-tenths rent for free, earned wages, and avoided corvée—what's wrong with that?"

The others heard him and hesitated, sensing his logic.

But Liu He remained firm, gripping Old Liu: "Bullshit—that was when we were stupid, didn't know to unite. Now I know: we poor folk can band together. I'm the only able-bodied man in my house, but I can gather a hundred single men—we'll farm the land jointly. Do you think we can't outfarm you?"

Old Liu sneered in the dark, "Liu He, if you gathered a hundred women, maybe you could farm this land. But a hundred single men together? Are you planning a brawl or a rebellion?"

Old Liu shook his head in rage, spittle flying onto Liu He's face, "Look at yourself—are you even a farmer? And who here is actually fit to till the soil?"

Liu He's face flushed red; he slapped Old Liu's head down, "I don't care—give us back our wages and land."

Old Liu, dazed from the blow, gritted his teeth: "Wages, fine. Land—no!"

"Why not?"

Old Liu: "I've already rented it out. If I take it back now, do you know how much rent I'll lose? No!"

The youth behind Liu He added, "Liu He, maybe we should just drop it. Even if we get the land back, we still have to pay taxes—and we'll pay more than Liu Tai does."

Liu He, hearing their backtracking, flew into a rage, stepped onto the bed, and sat squarely on Old Liu's back, shouting at them, "Are you all idiots? Don't you remember? I told you—we pay more tax because this brat pays less!"

Liu He swung his shoe hard against Old Liu's buttocks, addressing them: "The Daoist said he bribed the officials to shift his own tax burden onto us—that's why our taxes rise every year!"

"But what can we do?"

"Yeah, can we kill the county magistrate?"

Liu He raised his shoe in fury: "We must resist taxation! We must unite!"

Silence fell.

Liu He: "First step: take back our wages and land from him."

The youths remained silent.

Old Liu, struggling to breathe, still laughed, twisting his head: "Liu He, look—they won't even answer you. What kind of unity is this?"

Liu He looked at them in the dark, voice low: "Brothers, we've worked for him for years—not one or two. How many of you saved money? Who got a wife?"

The youths fell silent.

Liu He: "Is it because we're lazy? Or because we squander money on drinking, gambling, and whores?"

One youth muttered quietly, "There's never enough to save—the Guanshi always finds excuses to cut our pay."

Liu He smacked Old Liu's buttocks, excited: "Exactly! So are you going to keep working like this your whole life?"

"Better to risk everything with me. We're not committing treason or murder—we're just claiming what's rightfully ours, what the founding Emperor granted us. Get it, and you'll marry in three years, have a child in five. Fail, and you die—then in eighteen years, you'll be a fine man again!"

The youths were stirred again; they surged forward, pinning Old Liu down, punching him intermittently: "Give back the money! Give back the land!"

Old Liu howled in agony, finally drawing the servants' attention.

The servants lit lamps and came up—only to find their own household staff holding their master captive. They froze, stunned.

But all these servants were Liu clan members—called servants, yet never signed indenture contracts; they could leave anytime.

Soon, other masters of the Liu household arrived, and within moments, the rest of the Liu clan were alerted.

At dawn, the whole town buzzed; people gathered in groups and rushed to the Liu residence to watch.

The once-proud walls of Old Liu's estate were now crawling with onlookers, all craning their necks to see the clan elder held captive.

It was rare to see Old Liu humiliated like this.

Pan Yun and the others couldn't see it.

At this moment, they were already halfway there.

It was winter—even in the south, the countryside was empty in early winter.

The fields held stubble from harvested rice; green shoots sprouted from the roots. Pan Yun and the others had been ordered off the cart after regaining consciousness.

The cart carried too heavy a load; Tao Ji worried for the horses and oxen, so he made them walk.

Pan Yun thought it silly to walk beside the ox cart, so she left Pan Xiaohei on it to hold the reins and guide the cart, while she and Seeing Miao Zhen strode forward.

Tao Ji turned back in shock: Pan Xiaohei sat solemnly atop a sack of grain, one paw gripping the reins, occasionally flicking his tail against the ox's rump—prompting the beast to quicken its pace.

Tao Ji: "... To be this lazy is truly extraordinary."

Master Xuanmiao sat on the last ox cart, expressionless—clearly, this stirred no emotion in her. Tao Ji muttered under his breath, glaring resentfully at the three girls skipping ahead.

The three didn't care—they were rare in such ease, and rarely saw such vast, open fields.

Around Mount Sanqing, all land was hilly, fragmented, rarely exceeding one mu; most formed stepped terraces.

Even flat fields elsewhere never stretched this endlessly wide.

Distant hills were low, still lush green even in winter.

Pan Yun, raised all her life in the back courtyard with almost no outings—even when she did leave Jingcheng, its winter never looked like this.

So she was curious.

The three joyfully leapt into the fields, gently brushing their fingers over the second-growth rice shoots.

Seeing Miao Zhen plucked one, peeled back its green outer layer, revealing a white, fluffy interior—then shoved it straight into her mouth.

Pan Yun and Master Xuanmiao stared, mouths agape.

Seeing Miao Zhen beamed: "Delicious!"

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Pan Yun swallowed hard, skeptical: "Really?"

"Really! Little Master, try it yourself." Seeing Miao Zhen plucked another, carefully peeling back the green husk for her.

Pan Yun glanced at it, figured it was rice after all — even if it didn't taste good, it couldn't kill anyone — so she took it and ate a bite.

It was very tender, with a faint sweetness and a fresh green-grass fragrance. Pan Yun was surprised, ate the whole thing, and nodded. "It really is quite good."

Miao He squinted her eyes into a smile. "Right? Let's pull up some more. No wonder the cows love eating it — it's really delicious."

Pan Yun: …

She turned her head toward Seeing Miao Zhen. "You try some too."

Seeing Miao Zhen: "I don't think I can eat alongside cows."

Pan Yun pulled one up herself and ate it, muttering, "I don't think I can either, but it really is good."

So Seeing Miao Zhen helped them pull them up.

As they pulled, the three of them also pinched rice stalks into whistles, walking along blowing them — pip pip pip.

They had the direction to Shuangyang Village figured out precisely, absolutely wouldn't go off course, and cutting straight across Tian Ye's fields even saved them a stretch of road.

Tao Ji and the others had no choice but to obediently follow the road, falling a good stretch behind them.

Shuangyang Village was just ahead — the three of them could already see the low, earthen-yellow houses and the thatch spread over them.

The three of them hugged an armful of rice stalks, swinging their arms as they walked. They just had to hop down the Tian Geng ahead, cross three more fields, and they'd be there…

Just as they were thinking this, two people suddenly stood up from below the Tian Geng, and Pan Yun and the other two couldn't help but pause in their steps.

The two children who stood up stared at them like wolves. Seeing they seemed only a little older than them — also children — their gazes lost some of their fierceness, but still carried a warning in their eyes: don't come any closer.

Pan Yun was very surprised — they'd been hiding here, and she hadn't sensed them at all.

If a person wants to avoid being discovered, they must blend with their surroundings, blend with nature.

The higher the degree of blending, the stronger the concealment.

And Pan Yun was already at the Fifth Hour — for anyone to be able to conceal themselves in front of her, they must have even adjusted their breathing.

The two sides faced off for a moment, and in the end it was they who spoke first. "What do you want?"

Pan Yun: "Delivering kindness."

The other party frowned. "What?"

Pan Yun pointed at the village behind them. "We've come to deliver kindness."

The child, hearing this, instantly sharpened his gaze, bared his teeth at her, and said fiercely, "We don't need your phony, hypocritical pity! Our house isn't for sale, our land isn't for sale, and our people aren't for sale either!"

Pan Yun considered for a moment, then said, "I'm not buying a house, not buying land, and not buying people. I heard you're putting up a stele for a Daoist Priest named Sanzhu, so I came."

The child was slightly stunned. "You also came to burn incense for Daoist Priest Sanzhu?"

"No, I'm also called Sanzhu, and I'm also a Daoist Priest. I was curious, so I came to take a look."

The child, hearing this, mocked with a laugh: "How old are you, coming to impersonate Daoist Priest Sanzhu? Daoist Priest Sanzhu was a female Daoist in her twenties. If you're going to impersonate someone, you should impersonate Daoist Priest Sishui and Daoist Priest Wuhuo by her side."

Seeing Miao Zhen: "I'm Sishui."

Miao He: "I'm Wuhuo."

The child, hands on hips, burst out laughing. Pan Yun couldn't help but smile too. But the child only laughed eight times — before she could even produce her credentials, he abruptly stopped laughing, looked at them expressionlessly, and said: "You say you're Sanzhu, Sishui, and Wuhuo? Then I say I'm Celestial Master Zhang of Long Hushan!"

After he finished, the child beside him also laughed a standard eight times, then stopped, and said with a solemn face: "Then I'm Master Xuanmiao of Mount Sanqing, the one who specializes in killing Japanese pirates at sea."

One chapter owed, will make it up tomorrow, good night

(End of this chapter)