Opening his eyes, Xu Mu stared blankly for a long while before accepting the fact that he had transmigrated. A sudden car accident had killed him instantly, sending him from a neon-lit metropolis to a small cattle shed in a feudal society. In his previous life, as a senior interior designer, he had finally finished the samples for a row of villas. Just as the client was about to nod approval and the money was within reach, he had to work overtime and, on his way back late, collided head-on with a speeding truck. Such is the unpredictability of life.
Letting out a silent sigh, Xu Mu endured the stabbing pain in his head and slowly sorted through the original owner's memories. Xu Mu, sharing the same name, was a thug in a border town of the Da Ji Dynasty. His parents had died when he was young, and he was a vile, unscrupulous street ruffian. Yesterday, after drinking a few cups of rice wine, he had dared to molest a merchant's daughter on the street. As a result, over a dozen servants had beaten him to death, and his body had been dragged back to the cattle shed, waiting only for the coroner from the yamen to perform an autopsy before being discarded in a mass grave.
"Hey, so what if it's the Zhang family! A life for a life, and if not, then compensation! Just five taels of silver, five taels! Then we'll drop the matter!"
"If you don't give it, we'll come wailing every day! Oh my dear Brother Mu, you died so tragically!"
Several thugs crowded not far from the cattle shed, haggling with an old steward. The old steward, fed up, called for more servants, who came over holding cudgels.
"Cough cough—" The unpleasant smell in the cattle shed finally became too much for Xu Mu, and he began to cough softly.
"Not dead? He's not dead! Get out of the Zhang residence at once!" The old steward turned to look, his expression utterly indifferent. The death of a thug would at most cost a few taels of silver to settle; they didn't care if he lived or died. After all, such riffraff were as cheap as stray cats and dogs, destined to end up dead on the street sooner or later.
Seven or eight thugs immediately started cursing loudly. Two even unbuttoned their pants and urinated in front of the Zhang residence. Before the servants could rush over, at the shout of "The wind is tight, scatter!", they instantly dispersed.
"Brother Mu, are you all right?" The man supporting Xu Mu was a tall, burly fellow who slightly pursed his lips when speaking.
"I'm fine, brother can hold on." Xu Mu lowered his voice, imitating the original owner's tone, trying his best not to give himself away. According to the original owner's memories, this man was his childhood friend, Si Hu. The name sounded nice, but in reality, he was a simple-minded brute. The original owner had once tricked him into becoming a thug with a handful of peanuts.
Thugs in the Da Ji Dynasty, simply put, were hooligans and street loafers. One day they'd be hired as thugs by one family, the next they'd help another collect usurious debts. When they made money, they'd cause trouble in restaurants and spend nights in brothels. When they ran out of money and got desperate, they sometimes even resorted to murder and arson.
The Da Ji Dynasty had extremely strict controls on swords and blades, so ruffians like the original owner mostly carried only a short cudgel tucked at their waist to swagger through the streets. Over time, they became known as "cudgel men". In short, the reputation of Da Ji's cudgel men was as bad as mud.
The seven or eight thugs with them clamored that since he had survived a great disaster, Xu Mu must treat them to wine. Helpless, Xu Mu had to pretend to faint, which made those scoundrels leave cursing.
"Brother Mu, your money." After the others had left, Si Hu looked around cautiously before taking a handful of warm broken silver from his bosom. "And a message."
"Where did this come from?" Xu Mu was stunned. In his memories, even when they extorted money from the wealthy, they never got this much.
"Madame Sha gave it. Your hardship registration was sold. I saw her once; it was a refugee woman from the north who scraped together five taels of silver. Madame Sha took three taels, and you get two."
Madame Sha was the most famous second-hand pimp in this border town, known for her ruthless haggling, which earned her the nickname. As for the hardship registration, it was more complicated. It could be understood as a local household registration. If outsiders wanted to enter the city safely to take refuge, they had to have a status, hence the creation of the hardship registration. For example, if that refugee woman married Xu Mu, she would have the status of a servant wife, and even if the officials checked, they wouldn't trouble her. Of course, this had nothing to do with love. One did it for money, the other for survival.
Dividing the broken silver, Xu Mu handed a portion to Si Hu.
"Brother Mu, I can't take this." Si Hu was immediately confused. In the past, Xu Mu would never have shared money with him. Anything entrusted to his care would, over time, somehow turn from one tael into three, with Xu Mu relentlessly fleecing him.
"Take it." Xu Mu smiled, trying to make himself look amiable. In such dangerous times, having a big guy like Si Hu around would greatly increase his sense of security.
Si Hu awkwardly put the silver away, tucking it into a small pouch sewn into his underwear. Xu Mu twitched his lips but held back from advising otherwise.
"Brother Mu, there's more to the message. The refugee woman sent you a note." Fighting was raging in the north, with the northern Di people advancing triumphantly, breaking through three passes and eight counties of the Da Ji. Wherever the army went, there would only be more refugees.
Pulling his hand out from his underwear, Si Hu continued in a low voice, "Brother Mu, you wouldn't believe how pitiful that refugee woman is. I heard that her two maids voluntarily sold themselves to get the five taels of silver."
"She has maids?" Xu Mu shook his head, thinking it made sense. When the northern Di people broke through the passes and cities, they didn't care about young ladies or maids. Men were made into slaves, women forced into prostitution.
Unfolding the shabby piece of paper, Xu Mu read it in silence. The content was simple, totaling just over twenty characters.
Brother Xu,
For saving my life, this humble one is willing to serve you like an ox or a horse, repaying you all my life.
... Where was there any saving of a life? It was just a twist of fate that bound them together.
"Brother Mu, Madame Sha also said that the refugee woman wanted to borrow two copper coins from her to buy tung oil."
"She didn't lend it?"
"No, and Madame Sha hit her, calling her a lowly creature."
Putting the note away, Xu Mu felt a strange discomfort. According to Da Ji's laws, that stranger, the refugee woman, was already his nominal wife, which was reasonable. Moreover, he couldn't bring himself to do what other thugs would—take advantage of her for a few days, then sell her to a brothel.
It was just the Spring Equinox, and the lingering cold from winter still hung faintly over this border town. Xu Mu could already imagine his long-neglected broken courtyard: no firewood by the house, no oil in the jar. His nominal servant wife would only be able to huddle in the corner of the bed, shivering under a tattered mattress that hadn't been washed in two years.