“Sigh!” A sigh could be heard if there were only people around.

On a road in the outskirts of Lu town, a thin 12 year old boy was standing, looking at a vast farm land.

He is called Lu Geming. He is a slave from a small village south of Lu town. He is running an errand for his master, the village chief.

As he finished looking at the vast farm land, he quickly started walking towards Lu town.

When he arrived, he directly went to the market.

As he was walking, he suddenly heard someone calling to him.

“Geming! Come here!”

It was from a merchant.

Seeing him coming, the merchant smiled.

“You look so sad again today.” The merchant said.

“Here! That’s free.” The merchant handed Lu Geming a bottle of milk.

Holding the bottle in his hands, Lu Geming looked at it.

“What are you doing? Quickly drink it before it spoils!” The merchant said.

“Uncle Wang, you don’t have to give me milk every time I come by.” Lu Geming said.

“You idiot! Look at you, you look like bones!” Uncle Wang became angry.

“That damned master of yours! Grrrr! I’ll hack him to pieces!” Uncle Wang shouted.

The nearby people looked at him and broke into discussions before going their own way.

“It’s okay Uncle Wang, at least he adopted me.” Lu Geming said.

His family was originally rich, living in Lu town, but they suddenly died when he was still four years old. No relatives showed up during his parent’s burial, so the mayor was forced to give him for adaptation.

That was when the village chief took him in as a son, but as he grew up, the treatment he got from the village chief became the same way as he treated his slaves. Years later, the village chief started calling him a slave, he even forgot that he once called Lu Geming his son.

A year ago, Lu Geming learned the reason why it became that way. It was because of the Mayor of Lu town, coveting his parent’s wealth since no relative was claiming it.

The mayor asked the village chief to change Lu Geming’s title from a village chief’s son to a slave. So that when Lu Geming grew up, he would have no authority to claim his parent’s wealth as he was a slave.    

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“He adopted you? Or he took you in as a slave? Which is it?” Uncle Wan asked.

“Uncle Wang, not this again.” Lu Geming said.

“What do you mean not this again? Your master, that fucking master of yours got paid to take you in as a slave so that someone could enjoy the pie!” Uncle Wang shouted! He was really angry this time. He knew it was the mayor who did it. But of course he could not say it, as he was in Lu town, even his family was here.

“Uncle Wang please…This is how fate wants it to be.” Lu Geming said, a pleading look appeared in his eyes. He does not want to talk about it anymore.

“Kid, you…” Uncle Wang was speechless, he only wanted Lu Geming to enjoy the life he deserved.

“Uncle Wang, I’ll be going now. I still have to buy fish and cook it.” Lu Geming said as he ran.

Seeing Lu Gemiing gone from his sight, Uncle Wang sighed. He was sad for how Lu Geming ended up.

….

Lu Geming was already a hundred meters away from Uncle Wang. The market was lively, a vast number of people were already between them, so Uncle Wang couldn’t see Lu Geming  crying.

Lu Geming was in truth not happy with fate toying with his life, he was supposed to be a rich young master with lots of slaves. Now it was turned around.

Lu Geming arrived in front of a fish stall.

Seeing him come over, the fish merchant said “Kid, I have a tuna for sale today!  580 a kilo!”

“No, I only want to buy milk fish, two kilos please!” Lu Geming said.

The fish merchant looked at him with disdain.

“Here you go! That’s 280!” The fish merchant said as he threw the plastic bag filled with milk fish to Lu Geming.

Lu Geming carefully catched the plastic bag. He was afraid that the fish would be damaged before he even cooked it, or else he would get another beating from his master.

Lu Geming handed the money to the fish merchant and left.

He was holding a plastic bag on one hand, and a bottle of milk on the other.

As he was walking, when arrived at the vast farm land, he stopped. He opened the bottle and drank the milk.

“Gulp!”

“Haaa!”

“That was refreshing!” Lu Geming said as he smiled. After looking at the vast farm land, he quickly quickened his steps towards his village, looking sad again.

As he arrived at the village chief’s house, he heard a shout.

“Where did you go that it took you so long?” A boy his age was shouting at him. It was the mayor’s son.

“I bought fish from Lu town.” Lu Geming said carefully.

But when the boy heard him say it, he got angry.

“You dare talk back to me?” The boy shouted, running towards the house.

When the boy got out. Lu Geming unconsciously took a step back.

“Running? It is too late!” The  boy was holding a whip when he got out. He whipped it towards Lu Geming, who turned his back.

“Rip!”

Lu Geming’s clothes were ripped apart, showing a bloody wound.

“Grit!”

Lu Geming could only grit his teeth as the boy kept whipping him from behind.

A lot of villagers looked towards the chief’s back yard. They could see Lu Geming being abused by the chief’s son.

A villager could no longer endure looking and was going to tell the boy to stop, when a shout came from the chief’s house.

“Stop! Junjie what are you doing!?” the village chief shouted as he went out of the house.

“Father, I…” Wang Junjie turned frantic when he heard his father shouting at him.

“Go inside the house now!” The chief said as he pointed at the door.

Wang Junjie quickly ran inside the house in fear.

The village chief only looked at the bloody Lu Geming, who was lumped on the ground before going inside the house.

“Uhhhh!” Lu Geming cried, tears slid down his face. It was so painful!

His back was mangled, but if there was no blood, one would see his back full of scars.

It wasn’t the first time that Wang Junjie had whipped him. Everyday, Wang Junjie would find him trouble in order to whip him.

When the people saw the chief go inside his house, they could only sigh. The father-son duo was really good at acting.

Lu Geming could only grit his teeth, as fighting back would only bring him more trouble.