blogombal Chapter 36 Bonded Laborer
Chapter 36 Bonded Laborer
Li Cunzhen and the other two looked out the door at the same time.
A man in his thirties stood at the entrance of the inn. He had a fleshy face and wore a gray-black silk shirt and trousers with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, revealing his muscular build.
When Li Cunzhen and the other two looked at him, he was grabbing a woman's hair with one hand and clenching his fist with the other, smashing it down on her face.
The woman he hit was disheveled, wearing a faded, tattered lake-green short-sleeved shirt, barefoot, and covered in sores.
She seemed numb from the beating; her eyes were lifeless, and she didn't cry out. She just instinctively covered her head and face with her hands.
The man kicked her in the waist. The woman groaned, rolled several times, and finally hit her forehead on the doorstep, where blood seeped out.
The people in the inn's lobby were startled by the scene and quickly moved away.
Without a second thought, Li Muxuan immediately charged forward.
"Don't move."
However, Li Cunzhen stopped him.
"Brother, what do you mean? You made Ghost Hand King promise to save people back then, but now that you're in trouble yourself, you're refusing to help?"
Li Muxuan was inexplicably angry.
Li Cunzhen rolled her eyes at him and didn't say anything.
While the two brothers were playing around, Zuo Ruotong had already made a preliminary judgment.
He had also been through some rough times in his youth and had some experience. In his opinion, the way the man hit her didn't seem like he was disciplining his wife, but more like he was beating a disobedient animal.
They are definitely not related.
Thinking of this, Zuo Ruotong nodded slightly and lowered her voice:
"Save lives first."
Li Cunzhen originally did not want to take action, but since Zuo Ruotong spoke up, he had no choice but to obey his master's orders.
He responded, then turned to look at Li Muxuan:
"Listen to me. Don't use any tricks yet. Go over and pick up that woman and run. The man will definitely chase after you. Make your move when you're far away."
Li Muxuan received Zuo Ruotong's order and looked at Li Cunzhen with a smug expression.
He grinned. "I understand."
He had barely finished speaking when he dashed off.
On the other side, just as the man's fist was about to strike again, he suddenly felt his arms go empty.
Upon closer inspection, the woman was gone!
He paused for a moment, then looked up and saw a young man in white carrying the woman and running several steps ahead.
"Stop right there! Where did this brat come from!"
The man roared and immediately gave chase.
A teenager, armed with his own weapons, didn't think he was outmatched.
On the other side, Li Muxuan controlled his speed, running at a pace that was neither too fast nor too slow, just enough for the man to keep up but not enough for him to catch up.
He carried the woman across the town's dirt road, turned into an empty alley, and then stopped, gently placing her against the wall.
After waiting for a while, the man finally caught up, panting.
Seeing that Li Muxuan did not move, he smiled sinisterly and pulled out a knife from his pocket.
"You brat, I've caught up with you!"
Li Muxuan laughed and walked closer to the man step by step: "Heh, if you can't catch up with me soon, I'll be getting impatient."
The man was stunned, only then realizing that there was no one around.
Oh no, this is a trap!
His more than ten years of experience in the underworld came in handy; without hesitation, he turned and ran.
However, before he could take more than a few steps, he saw another young man in white emerge from the alleyway and block his way back.
"Who...who are you?"
The man panicked, gripped the knife tightly, and stared at the Li brothers, sizing them up.
Li Cunzhen did not answer, but raised her hand and placed it on the man's shoulder.
Before the man could react, he felt a weight on his shoulder, as if an anvil had been pressed down on it. Then he felt a great force coming from him, and his legs went weak, causing him to kneel on the ground with a thud.
He struggled a few times, but found he couldn't break free at all.
"Let me go! Who gave you permission to meddle!"
"Still dare to act tough!"
Li Cunzhen increased the pressure on his hand slightly, and the man groaned, feeling pain all over his body.
"I'm asking you, what's your name?"
The man was in so much pain that sweat beaded on his forehead, but he gritted his teeth and refused to say anything.
"You don't have to tell me," Li Cunzhen said calmly. "Who is this woman to you?"
The man's eyes darted around. "She's my wife! It's none of our business if we're a couple arguing!"
Li Cunzhen then looked at the woman at the base of the wall.
"He said you're his wife, don't you think?"
The woman shook her head, her voice barely audible, "No... I'm not..."
Li Cunzhen looked back at the man: "I'll give you one more chance."
The man glared at the woman and said:
"Fine, fine, I'll talk! I'm not the one in the wrong! Let me tell you, we signed a contract. I pay her, and she works for me for three years, with room and board included, plus wages."
"She signed the contract but didn't work, and tried to run away. How could I not beat her? Even if you report her to the authorities, this woman has to come with me!"
This description suddenly reminded Li Cunzhen of an article he had studied in his previous life.
"nonsense!"
Li Muxuan didn't believe it at all, and raised his fist at the man, as if to hit him.
"He said you signed a contract with him, what do you think?"
But Li Cunzhen didn't make a direct judgment; instead, he gestured with his chin toward the woman.
"Yes...we signed a contract."
Li Muxuan was taken aback.
But the woman hadn't finished speaking.
Her body was still trembling, and she struggled to sit up straight, leaning against the wall.
Her voice was hoarse, as if she hadn't had water in a long time: "Last year, my family suffered a flood, and my parents died. A cousin in the village said there was work in Min, with food and lodging provided, a Western-style house to sleep in, meat and white flour to eat, and two silver dollars a month, so he brought me here."
As he spoke, tears streamed down his face, mingling with the ash and blood on his face, forming two murky streaks.
"But when we got there, it wasn't like that at all. Once you signed the contract, you weren't your own person anymore. You had to get up before dawn to work and couldn't go home until night. As for food..."
She paused, as if unsure how to explain, "The food... it was supposed to be porridge, but it was as thin as water, without even a single vegetable leaf."
Li Muxuan was utterly astonished; he never expected such a thing to happen.
This can be considered work?!
Isn't this feeding animals?
"He really is a bonded laborer," Li Cunzhen said calmly, but tightened her grip on the man's shoulder.
The man's face had turned pale, and his teeth were clenched so tightly that they were grinding together, but he dared not utter a sound.
"He made me work in the yarn factory, twelve hours a day, sometimes even all night. He wouldn't let me rest when I was sick, saying that if I rested for a day, I would earn less money."
The woman's voice trailed off: "Yesterday I couldn't take it anymore, so I sneaked out to go home... but he caught me. This is the third time. Last time he hung me in the house for a whole day and night, without giving me water or food..."
She didn't say anything more, but just lowered her head and sobbed, her shoulders shaking.
Li Muxuan took a deep breath and turned to look at the man.
"Signed a contract? Where's the contract?"
The man's lips trembled slightly: "In...in my arms."
Li Muxuan reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper, unfolded it, and glanced at it.
There were a few lines of text written crookedly on it, the gist of which was that the woman voluntarily gave her body to the boss to work for three years, leaving her life, health and illness to fate, and the fee for the contract was twenty silver dollars, of which ten dollars had already been paid.
"Ha! Life, death, illness, and death are all left to fate."
Li Muxuan examined the paper over and over in his hand, then suddenly smiled and tucked it into his pocket: "I'll keep this for you for now."
The man's face turned deathly pale.
You can't!
"What can't I do?"
Li Muxuan squatted down to look him in the eye.
The man's Adam's apple bobbed, and he didn't dare to speak again.