As i reached the stables, i found that all the horses in place except for one, i also noticed that horses here are much bigger and looking much ferocious as well .
Their necks were stronger and so were their legs, big and filled with muscles, most of their eyes were even red, i felt a weird aura surrounding them too, i didn't find myself comfortable here as i thought before, in fact i was feeling so uncomfortable at the fact that i reckoned that one wrong kick from any of those guys intently or accidentally and i would be so out of it .
Not to mention getting injured, i might seriously not see the sun of tomorrow, feeling your life be threatened on a regular basis was very uncomfortable feeling, i couldn't help but wonder about what do they feed these horses for them to have become like this .
Oh, so you are the guy old Si told me to take care of, you are late .
As i was wondering about the horses in front of me, a quite an annoyed male voice sounded from right behind me, i turned to look who it was coming from, but even before i completely turn my head, i had already a frown on my face, the reason was of course the words i had just heard, him mentioning Deacon Lu name together with the word ' care ' both in one sentence was enough for me to distinguish that whoever that person was, he wasn't here with good intentions .
The face that came in my vision was the face of an old man with a farmer hat on, he wore the clothes of servants but had a haughty expression on his face that was filled with pimples, the guy had a long nose, receded chin, his eyes currently were narrowing at me, he looked at me with a smile, but in my eyes it looked more like a sneer than a smile, weirdly enough that man had uncanny resemblance to Lu Si, could they be relatives .
Why aren't you speaking did the wind cut your tongue ? .
Seeing the man in front of me acting like this, i decided that it was necessary to respond to him in the exact same way, i said :
" I see no one here just yet, so how can you determine that i came late .
He was surprised at my response, but soon he chuckled a little in a nasty manner as if ridiculing my words and said :
You are late, if i deemed that you are late, what, want to rebel .
Just as i was about to respond, he continued to say :
No one will be joining us for today, so only you was ordered to work at the stables today, that's why i'm telling you that you are late, that would cost some of your allowance next month, if you got any, haha .
He seemed to be enjoying himself rejoicing my misfortune, before he interrupted me, i was about who was he, but now there was no need to even ask the obvious .
" You are Lu Sun, i was asked to report to you for work, so what can i do around here ?.
I cut straight to the chase, his laughter was already getting on my last nerves, but for now i forced myself to bear it .
Is that a way to talk to an elder, your parents really raised a dog for a son .
I was really about to punch the man in front of me in the face without an ounce of caring about what might the consequences be .
But yes, i'm elder sun, as for what work available for you to do here, hmm, let's just say that you will be doing all kinds of works, normally the private stables are tended to by 7 to 10 servants, but due how capable you look, i will leave all their work to you, you being late already stripped you of the right to earn money for today, so get ready to worn yourself out for nothing .
He smiled widely at me as he mentioned the last part of his words, i was about to go berserk, but the rational side in my mind talk me out of it, if i went berserk here, i really might be dooming myself, i decided to bear this for now, ethics and morality, what a terrible joke .
" So what exactly i'm being asked to do here ? .
First start with feeding them and checking if they had enough water in their stalls, then start mucking out the dung and filth from their stalls and clean them throughly, if you left something, i will make you do it from the start, wash their bodies throughly and don't forget to brush them nicely, after you finish all that, go and clean the saddles, you better take good care of all the horses here, if the young masters or misses found something wrong with their ride, i will mention you to be the one responsible, hurry and get to work .
Calm down, calm down, he isn't worth it, after today, my life would change for the better, those were the thoughts that i was trying to comfort myself with, not to mention i was being tasked with the workload of 7 to 10 people, but even after i work myself to the bone, i won't be getting any money out of this .
I couldn't help but compare this new job to my old one, ironically i felt this one was actually a bit better, i also accepted the idea of working for no money, as that damn old man said, i might not even get paid an allowance for quite sometime, due to the incident two days ago .
I paid the man who was still irritatingly smiling at me no mind and went ahead to do the chores i'm tasked with .
The private stables was not that big as i thought it would, i was hearing the sound of horses neighing coming from a door in the other side of the building, so i guessed that where the actual stables of the whole family were, here the number of horses was 6, 7 if i considered the stall that was empty .
Feeding and watering them was the first problem, the black horses in front of me looked to be irritated about being kept in here, it seemed, so if i'm not extra careful in how to handle them, i might be the only one who will get a taste of their hooves .
After struggling for quite sometime, i finally was able to feed the six of them without getting hurt, i put enough food and water in the 7th stall, just in case .
I then kept on finishing one tiring job after another and i had one final task and i will be done, cleaning and organizing the saddles and i will be done for the day .
I got kicked a few times while i was trying to clean the ground around them, my back was beginning to kill me, but i believed that after a short period of rest, the pain would most likely go away .
As i went to arrange the saddles, i noticed something strange, in front of me there were 7 saddles, but that shouldn't be possible, i turned to look at the old man napping in front of the stables door and said with a loud voice :
" Was a horse is missing or something .
He jumped out of the chair he sat on and with a bit of drowsiness, he said :
No, it was just hi... , one of the young masters was talking the horse for a ride, have you finished your work ? .
Something was fishy with his response and this whole situation, people don't shift from one word to another for so reason, i still told him that i had finished most of the work what left was just organizing the saddles, he asked me to hurry and finish the work .
My heart was beginning to feel uneasy about this, my intuition was telling me this amount of work was the only plan he had for me, even though the work was tiring, but it can still be done, but seeing 7 saddles and him giving me a lame excuse as the one he told me, filled me with strong doubts .
That uneasy feeling got even more intense as i finished organizing the saddles, i should have finished my work here with that done, but Lu Sun began to walk around in the stables telling me to clean this again and began making all sort kinds of excuses to keep me from leaving the stables .
At me realizing this, i told him that i'm leaving and that he can say whatever he wants to the Elder responsible for managing the labor and hurried to the door with a hurried steps, only after doing so did i discover that the old guy in front of me was no regular guy, but a Martial Arts Practitioner .
He fixed me in place in merely a few seconds, i was about to scream for help, but he seemed to have anticipated that beforehand and he covered my mouth with his hand, the guy in front of me was strong but not to the point of the instructor Lu kind of strong, if i decided to put my life on the line, i might be able to compete or at least be able to find a way to escape .
And that was what i was exactly going to do and the reason for that was quite simple, if i didn't put my life on the line trying to get out of her in time, i might find my head tomorrow hanged down .
If my conclusion was correct, the moment i entered through that door leading to here, i unknowingly already put my life at stake, whoever thought of this plan was vicious enough to leave me a no way out, if I'm not wrong, the horse in the 7th stall was either hidden or get disposed of by Lu Sun here, that mean if the owner of that horse came to look for it, he would find that it gone missing .
Or stolen, they wouldn't suspect a man like old Sun, but they will not hesitate to point their accusing fingers at me, caught stealing from your master, that meant one thing for the culprit death .
I didn't waste my breath on asking why was he doing something like this, i directly used all the strength that i could muster and kicked towards his feet, he seemed to have not anticipated this, but he still had enough time to react and jump backwards, freeing me from his hold .
He looked to be insulted by my actions than angered, he suddenly took a weird fighting stance, one where both his fist was pushed backwards while his legs were spread wide, one look at him like this and i instantly understood that he was using a Martial Art Skill .
He understood the surrounding better than i did, his position was on the narrow path leading to the door out of the Stables, if i need to go out i will have to met his fists head on, i saw that after he took his stance, he smiled at me and was baiting me with his eyes as if telling me to go ahead and try passing now .
But that didn't discourage me in the slightest i hurried at him still and moment before he strike at me, i suddenly threw something at him that took him by surprise, but he still punched at it with his two fist, i heard a loud noise as i was sliding from beneath him, to me that noise sounded like something exploding, it was a wise decision for me in not taking that attack head on .
The saddle that i had just thrown at him was completely destroyed, according to the Martial ethics what i just did could be called cowardly and immoral, but i didn't care in the slightest about this, not to mention that this wasn't a fair fight to began with .
I had already prepared to bring the saddle with me in case of i was unable to get past him in time, that would have been the worst case scenario, i dropped on the ground earlier when he held me and fixed me in place, but him feeling offended by my attack on him ended in him trying to show off his superiority in Martial Skills, i ended up talking advantage of that .
I used the saddle as a decoy and used it to get past the guy at the door by using the element of surprise to pass him, by sliding from under him, he was still stunned at what just happened, he was unable to fix his posture in time to run after me, if he had tried forcefully to do it, he would be suffering an injury from the backlash .
You, you.... .
Those were the last words i heard him say, before i closed the door behind me and stormed out of the stables, i wonder what would his expression be when he find out that he had just destroyed the saddle that was hanged to the 7th stall, anyway i don't care about what awaited that guy, i currently was heading back home with a tensed mind and quite the unsettled heart .
What just happened was nerve-racking to the extreme, the consequences of what might could have happened if i hadn't get out of the stables on time kept on haunting me, i was getting assaulted by the picture of me getting publicly executed tomorrow morning, but luckily i was able to escape in time being framed for something that i hadn't done, it took me a whole 15 minutes just to calm myself down .
The second i calmed down, i began to be on the move again, but this time i wasn't heading towards the canteen nor any other place in the Lu Family's mansion for all that matters, i was going out, i took my cloth pouch with me and head towards the gates leading to the street, the guards who were stationing in front of the gates from both sides asked for my name then told me to pay half a tael of silver, it wasn't a fee for passing through, no it was more like a sum of money i will deposit with the guards to guarantee that i will be coming back .
Who would be an idiot enough to be a runaway slave or servant in this chaotic world, even if you managed to escape you would be caught by the different official imperial authorities and either be returned back to the family or put in prison for the rest of your life, so it was much better to return back home and get the half silver tael you deposited and just hope that it would be enough to allow you living another day in this world .
I ignored the resentful looks i was getting from the guards and instead paid the money and the gates opened a little, making an enough gap for me to squeeze myself out of the Family Complex through .
MY NEXT DESTINATION IS SOLID ROCK FIST DOJO .