Beginning with the Ubume Bird
Chapter 753 - Chapter 753 Chapter 42 Charcoal Kiln

Chapter 753: Chapter 42 Charcoal Kiln Chapter 753: Chapter 42 Charcoal Kiln “`

Hong Liangyu made his way into the mountains to the charcoal kiln and saw a stout and fierce woman standing under the shed, her face lined with horizontal fleshy creases, and behind her stood a half-grown girl in a tattered floral jacket, her chin pointed and cheeks gaunt, probably from hunger.

The charcoal collector, Li San, took a sip of his cool tea and glanced sidelong at the incessantly chattering woman before he waved his hand impatiently after a while, “Mrs. Hua, you’re wasting your breath. Master Dong has already taken a fourth wife this year, and added over ten maids to his household. Her? I can’t recommend her.”

He stood up and hitched his trousers, giving the girl the once-over and said with a snicker, “But if it’s with me, it wouldn’t be too bad.”

“Go away, go away!” Mrs. Hua pushed Li San aside, “If Master Dong married our Cui’er, he could offer a whole cart as a betrothal gift. And you, just you, how much could you give?” By the end of her sentence, Mrs. Hua’s voice had dropped.

Li San sucked on his teeth and held up two fingers: “Two strings of coins.” Mrs. Hua rolled her eyes at that, and Li San tried to persuade her, “It’s not a loss for you. She’s been with you for over half a year; she must have eaten quite a lot, right?”

Seeing Mrs. Hua’s eyeballs whirling, Li San struck while the iron was hot, “Her family is gone, aren’t they? Died from dysentery while fleeing the chaos?”

Mrs. Hua became frantic upon hearing this, “Bandit! Fleeing to safety on the road, they were killed by bandits, not sick!”

“Regardless of how they died, can you continue to support this girl? You have two sons at home; besides, I’m not buying her, I’m talking about a proper marriage, right? We’ve been neighbors for so many years, if I wed her, she’ll be my own wife, warmly cherished. Wouldn’t that be treating her parents right on your part as her relative? What kind of times are we living in? To abandon a girl in the wilderness, as if she were a stray cat, with so many people around, do you have a conscience!”

The fierce woman pondered for a moment, “I’ll think about it.” She took the girl aside after saying this.

Hong Liangyu, with a stoic expression, walked over. When Li San saw it was Hong Liangyu, he sprang up, poured a cup of tea, and offered it with a smile, “Second Brother, you’re here to start your shift.”

Hong Liangyu had not been here long, but Li San, the charcoal kiln foreman, showed great respect to him.

It turned out that not long after Hong Liangyu arrived, an accident occurred at the charcoal kiln: a mountain of carbon collapsed suddenly, trapping more than a dozen warming charcoal workers and the collecting foreman Li San underneath. It was Hong Liangyu who, barehanded, dug out all the charcoal workers from under the pile, thus averting a tragedy. For this reason, the charcoal kiln staff held great respect for the newcomer Hong Liangyu.

Hong Liangyu didn’t take the tea offered to him and said, “Li San, we both come from humble beginnings; you must not lose your conscience. She’s a human life, not some cat or dog.”

Anyone stared down by Hong Liangyu’s fierce demeanor would feel somewhat intimidated.

Li San scratched the back of his neck, “What do you mean by that, Second Brother? I didn’t… I’m almost thirty and still without a wife.”

Li San swallowed, “Mrs. Hua’s family isn’t wealthy either; this girl can’t last many more days. If something really happened… wouldn’t it be a waste of a life? Hey, Second Brother, are you interested in her? No problem, with just a word from you, brother, I…” Li San patted his chest, “I’ll step aside.”

“I didn’t mean that.”

Hong Liangyu glared, and although he wanted to say more, the words got stuck in his throat. He glanced outside the shed, where Mrs. Hua was scolding the girl one moment, kowtowing the next, putting on a melodramatic show of tears and pleading, while the girl didn’t cry. She remained silent for a while until she finally nodded.

Hong Liangyu sighed. When he was sixteen, his family couldn’t afford to keep two children, so he joined the Red Flag. Over the years, it had been through life-and-death situations, barely surviving. While recuperating on a boat, he occasionally wondered when he could stop fighting and killing, return to his peaceful hometown, or perhaps even retire with ease on Lantau Island.

One day, news came that the officials were planning to encircle and suppress the Red Flag forces; Hong Liangyu was prepared to fight to the death. Unexpectedly, Tianbao Dragon Head dismissed all the gang members who still had family in Guangdong and Guangxi. Overcome with mixed feelings, Hong Liangyu thought the world was wide open, so why did everything now seem so constrained and unsatisfying?

“`

He shook his head and said no more.

…

Bang!

A heavy basket of black charcoal was stacked on the ground. Hong Liangyu took a deep breath of the fresh air outside the kiln and slowly exhaled, shaking off the charcoal dust and clay sticking to his clothes, ending the day’s work.

A strong-looking young man, probably just over twenty, plopped down on the ground, wiped his sweat with the towel around his neck, and clenched the few Copper Coins in his hand. He couldn’t help but ask, “The government has set standards, for every thousand catties of charcoal, the payment should be three taels and three coins of silver, and the cost of raw materials five coins of silver. How come it’s reduced to merely twenty coins for a thousand catties when it gets to us?”

“That’s not right, is it?”

An old accountant sitting steadily nearby was fiddling with his abacus. “That’s not how you calculate it. How much money you earn has nothing to do with the price of charcoal,” he pointed upwards and said, “It has to do with the will of Heaven.”

The strong young man was puzzled, “How so?”

“If Heaven gets angry and the common folk suffer disasters and can’t even find food, they have to compete to become charcoal workers. With more people, Master Dong has to pay less for labor. Now, if it were a year of plenty and no one was making charcoal, wouldn’t your wages go up?”

The accountant made his abacus beads clack noisily, and finally said with finality, “Whining is useless. If you don’t want to work, there are plenty of others who will.”

Hong Liangyu usually didn’t speak up, but hearing this, he commented, “The old gentleman is good at accounting.”

Without even looking up, the accountant chuckled, “Heh, kid, don’t mock me. Let me tell you about the rules at Master Dong’s charcoal kiln. All new charcoal workers don’t get paid for the first five thousand catties; they just get fed. You’re recommended by Hong Xibin, aren’t you? Master Dong made an exception in ‘Jin Kou’ and waived that for you. You should appreciate your good fortune.”

Scratching his head, the strong young man said, “It seems to make sense, but also not. I’ve worked for so many years and have seen wages increase. It turns out Heaven is angry every year; such a big temper his old man has.”

He said it humorously, provoking laughter from the charcoal workers covered in dirt and sweat.

“Brother, I’m off work for today. How about you come to my place? My father-in-law came to see me a few days ago and left me two jin of yellow wine. Let’s you and I have a good time together.”

“Not today, I have to go to Tang Family Village. My friend has gone on a trip, and there’s no one at his place to take care of his little sister. I was thinking of bringing her over to stay with my sister-in-law.”

“Eh, brother has a kind heart, but would our Scholar lord agree to that?”

Hong Liangyu burst into a magnanimous laugh, “My elder brother has a sharp tongue but a soft heart; he’ll just scold me a couple of times.”

Some charcoal workers frowned upon hearing this, “Tang Family Village isn’t as peaceful and tranquil as our place. I heard there’s been trouble there, bandits on the roads and people rebelling. You have to be careful.”

Hong Liangyu’s face remained impassive, but in his heart, he sneered, “Rebelling? My family’s Tianbao Dragon Head is the very ancestor of rebels. In that sense, I’m also an uncle to them! What’s there to fear?”

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