Chapter 12: The Vicious Squire Zhang

“Scholar Li, Scholar Li, wake up.” A woman’s voice seemed to come from somewhere far away.

Li Si felt someone shaking him hard, shaking him until his head spun and throbbed.

This woman must have developed limbs and no brain, he thought inwardly. He only felt that if he did not wake up soon, he might be shaken to death by this woman.

Opening his eyes, Li Si saw a young maidservant desperately shaking him. He reached out and slapped the girl’s hand away, then sat up on the bed, covering his aching right cheek. In his heart, his hatred for the Zhang family had truly sunk into his bones.

If that blow had landed on the back of his head, he feared it could have directly sent him to the afterlife.

The girl bowed to Li Si and said, “Scholar Li, my master has already prepared a meal in the main hall and is waiting only for you to go over.”

“Get out!” Li Si looked coldly at the girl. In his heart, he had already decided. If the Zhang Residence did anything that threatened his life again, then the Zhang Residence would not only need to worry about its own ghost, but also about a Decapitated Ghost. As for the servant who had hit him, Li Si had already sentenced him to death in his heart.

“Scholar Li, please do not make things difficult for me.” A troubled expression appeared on the girl’s face.

“What? Do you want to hit the left side of my face too?” Li Si sneered, and his hand slowly reached toward the cloth pouch at his chest. He would never again make the mistake of underestimating people. Now he understood. In this world, people were just as dangerous as ghosts and monsters.

Seeing Li Si’s face as cold as frost, the girl immediately felt somewhat timid and turned to walk out.

“Phew.” Li Si let out a breath and lowered his hand. He looked at the environment around him. It was far better than his own home. The quilt on the bed was extremely soft and was probably a silk quilt. He had never used such a quilt even in his previous life.

The wooden bed carried a faint scent of incense. He could not recognize what wood it was, but it was probably something like sandalwood. Beside the bed were blue bed curtains. This was the ancient version of a mosquito net.

To his left was a small wooden table. On the wooden table stood a small bronze-coloured cauldron and a set of tea utensils. The small bronze cauldron occasionally released wisps of green smoke.

“What a corrupt life of the wealthy.” Li Si got down from the bed, stretched, then walked to the small wooden table, opened the lid of the small bronze cauldron, picked up the teapot, and poured water inside.

The cauldron made hiss, hiss sounds. Before long, it no longer released green smoke.

Putting down the teapot, Li Si walked to the window and opened it. A refreshing breeze blew in, and he immediately felt much more comfortable.

Looking outside the window, he found that he was in a small courtyard.

Outside the door was an open space of roughly seventy or eighty square metres. From the door of this room to the gate in the enclosing wall, a small path had been paved with bluestone slabs.

On the left side of the path was an exquisite stone table and two stone stools. To the left of the stone table, near the enclosing wall, a patch of slender bamboo had been planted just right.

The leaves of the slender bamboo happened to shield the stone table below from the sunlight, and half the bamboo already reached above the round gate.

On the round gate in the enclosing wall was a plaque with the words Little Bamboo Courtyard written on it.

“Get inside!” Suddenly, at this moment, a deep voice rang out. A wealthy-looking middle-aged man came in with two servants. The two servants were pressing down a man tied up tightly. This man was precisely the servant who had invited Li Si over.

When the bound servant saw Li Si, he cried and shouted, “Scholar Li, spare my life! Don’t kill me!”

Hearing the servant’s cry, the wealthy-looking middle-aged man also saw Li Si standing by the window. At once, he said with a guilty expression, “Teacher Li, I sent this dog to invite you, but how could I have known that he would actually strike you so viciously? I, Zhang, feel ashamed in my heart.”

After saying this, he kicked the servant kneeling on the ground hard.

This person was precisely the great landlord of Fengmen County, Squire Zhang.

“Teacher Li.” The wealthy-looking middle-aged man cupped his hands toward Li Si, who was still inside the room, then pointed at the servant kneeling on the ground and said, “With one word from you, I will have this dog beaten to death to dispel the hatred in your heart.”

Seeing this, Li Si was secretly shocked. Naturally, he knew the source of everything was Squire Zhang. That servant had merely acted under his orders.

Yet Squire Zhang said he would have this man killed just like that. No matter what, this man had done work for him. This man’s nature had actually grown this cold and ruthless. These thoughts merely flashed through his mind.

Li Si’s eyes turned, and panic immediately appeared on his face. He quickly walked out of the room and sighed to Squire Zhang, “Oh, this was a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding. At the time, I did not mean that I would not come. I only wanted to put down my vegetables first and then ride over in the carriage. Who would have known he would grow anxious and hit me?”

Li Si helped the servant kneeling on the ground up and said solemnly to Squire Zhang, “Please, Squire Zhang, you absolutely must not harm his life. He was also working for you, and his loyalty is commendable.”

Seeing Li Si speak for him, the servant immediately burst into tears and snot, moved beyond measure. He had struck Scholar Li with a club, yet Scholar Li was still excusing him. He was simply not human!

A trace of suspicion also appeared in Squire Zhang’s eyes, but it vanished at once. His face instantly turned angry, and he pointed at the servant and cursed, “You dog, you hit Teacher Li, yet still need Teacher Li to excuse you. I have never seen anyone so shameless.”

“The death penalty may be spared, but punishment cannot be escaped!” Squire Zhang said angrily. He took an exquisite dagger from his chest and walked before the servant. Li Si was also startled and took a step back. This old bastard actually carried a dagger on him.

“Master, spare my life!!! Master, spare my life!!!” Seeing Squire Zhang take out the dagger, the servant immediately fell to the ground in terror and cried out in panic.

“Hold him down for me,” Squire Zhang ordered the two men controlling the servant. When the two heard him, they restrained the servant and pressed him hard to the ground, making him completely unable to move.

When the servant was pressed to the ground, Squire Zhang crouched down, grabbed the servant’s ear with his left hand, and with the blade in his right, cut hard along the curve of the ear. The servant’s ear was immediately cut off.

Blood flowed steadily from the wound where the ear had been, filling his ear canal.

“Ah!!!” The servant let out a miserable cry. Tears, saliva, snot, and blood flowed onto the ground and mixed into a mess, and the area beneath his crotch was soaked through.

Li Si was also startled. As a modern person, when had he ever seen such a thing? Moreover, this Squire Zhang was actually so vicious. Cutting off an ear, such a brutal act, seemed as practised to him as if it had been refined a thousand times.

He immediately gained a rough understanding of the cruelty of this world’s hierarchy. Squire Zhang had probably done this sort of thing plenty of times.

“Ah, why go this far? Why go this far?” Sympathy showed in Li Si’s eyes as he shook his head and sighed.

“No need to worry. This is the price of failing to do work properly for my Zhang Residence.” Squire Zhang seemed to be implying something, but then he laughed loudly and said, “Teacher Li, you have not eaten lunch yet, have you? I have prepared the meal. Would you be willing to honour me with your presence?”

“Yes, yes.” Li Si seemed somewhat frightened and hurriedly agreed, then said, “This young brother must see a doctor as soon as possible. The injury absolutely must not be delayed.”

“No matter. Yang Er, take this dog to see a doctor,” Squire Zhang waved his hand and instructed one of the servants. Then he handed the ear to another person.