Considering his bodily natural ability to defend itself earlier, Li Yi wondered if the girl could really carry out her threat. That said, he didn’t know that much about the world he was in from Wu Si’s memories, and still needed some time to go through the memories in greater detail.
Picking up the rags, it was nothing more than a loose robe with a thin robe around the waist. Li Yi slip it on in one breath and took a step forward quickly. Little did he expect his body to use much more force than expected!
His body lunged forward as he could hear and feel the wood below his feet being smashed apart. In the blink of an eye, he clumsily flew out of the wooden cart, past the girl, and even the horse that was in front of the cart.
“Oh snap. How do I land? How can I even safely land?!” screams Li Yi in his mind.
Just before he hit the ground, his body twisted itself and performed a backflip naturally before landing Li Yi firmly on his two feet. Li Yi reeled in surprise for a few moments before using both hands to feel for his face and body to see if anything was broken. Amazingly, he feels better than all his years before coming to this world.
“How long are you going to make me wait for? You are sure slow...huh? Where did you go, brat?” says the girl, who did not notice Li Yi performing that accidental acrobatic move over her.
She runs about in a panicky manner for a few breaths before noticing Li Yi standing there with a smug look on his face. Before he could react, the girl appeared in front of him and e could feel a blunt force hitting him hard on the top of his head.
“Huh?” says Li Yi in a surprised tone while rubbing his head.
The blunt force that hit him hard hurts a lot less than he thought it would. In fact, there was almost no pain at all. The girl, on the other hand, had a look of surprise on her face before it contorted into one of immerse pain. Her hand that was used to hit Li Yi is shivering quite badly by now, which she tried to control by gripping onto it tightly with her other hand.
“Ah. Erm...are you all right?” asks Li Yi out of concern.
Before she could reply, a shout comes from behind Li Yi, asking if they were trying to make life by taking so long. By now, tears started to form at the girl’s eyes as she turns around.
“Just go...” she murmurs as she walks away.
Li Yi wanted to check to see if she was okay, but had a feeling that he injured something more than the girl’s hand. Without another word, he turns around and walks in the direction which the shouting voice came from either.
Passing by a few more carts and a carriage, Li Yi walks up to a group of ten men sitting by a campfire while eating their dinner. Their dinner didn’t appear to be too lavish, consisting of nothing more than a bun and what appears to be dried meat. As for the men, apart from the burly one, the rest were of average build if not skinny.
“Oi kiddo, over here.” signals the burly man sitting on a tree stump to Li Yi.
Unsure of their true identity, Li Yi decides to play it safe and walks to the point the burly man signalled to before standing there quietly. The burly man eyes him without a word for a while. In a swift motion, he grabs a large wooden bat from behind and slams it down onto the ground, causing the rest of the men to look over.
“Hmm...not very good slave material, are you?” grunts the burly man.
Li Yi wondered for a bit before understanding that it is due to the fact he calmly looked at the burly man the entire time without flinching. Considering that when the burly man had made the grab for his bat, everything suddenly slowed down for Li Yi and his swift motion looked like he was moving at normal speed.
“So be it. I am Da Di. The rest here are my men and we are the Da Chuan mercenaries.” declares the burly man called Da Di in a proud voice.
Feeling like he has seen this in some show back in his original world, Li Yi couldn’t hide his unimpressed expression. Fortunately for him, it seems like the rest of his men thinks the same way, and are only surprised when they noticed Li Yi having the same expression that they had.
“That’s some guts right there. Are you sure that he shouldn’t be made as one of us, Da-ge?” says a skinny man by the campfire.
“I would have liked to. But as Yan-er has said earlier...” answers Da Di with a sigh.
“Yes, he is indeed too dangerous to keep around for long.”
Walking past Li Yi from behind, the girl from before stops next to Da Di. Even though she tried to hide it, Da Di noticed the medical scent and grabbed on her arm. The girl does not resist, but looks away without a word as he examines her bandage over her hand.
“How did you get injured?” asks Da Di while looking fiercely at Li Yi.
“It’s nothing. A crate dropped onto my hand by accident earlier when I got those rags for Wu...the brat.” says the girl.
Li Yi didn’t understand why she didn’t say it was caused by her hitting himself. Even Da Di gave her a look of doubt before releasing her arm.
“Since that’s the case, your pay from the next deal is halved for the medicine used and the fact we have less manpower due to your injury!”
The girl grimaced when he said that, but she didn’t argue with him. Instead, she threw Li Yi a very angry glare. On Li Yi’s part, he could only look downward apologetically for the injury that was caused by him. Then again, wasn’t she the one who attacked him with so much force to begin with? If Li Yi had been any weaker, she might have cracked open his head!
“It’s late now. Get to business, Yan-er.” orders Da Di, who looks like he figured out what was the cause of her injury.
“As Uncle Di should have mentioned by now, we are the Da Chuan mercenaries. Back when we found you, you were bleeding profusely in the head and about to die. Since you had a good build for a young boy, we decided to save you and to sell you at the slave market.” explain the girl called Yan-er.
Li Yi was shocked once more. Slave? There is slavery in this world? Searching through Wu Si’s memories, nothing about slavery popped up in his head. In fact, his memories suggests that people who dealt in any form of slavery would face capital punishment from the empire!
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“There is a slave market?” asks Li Yi.
Da Di and the girl turns to look at each other in a surprised manner, but seemed to come to some unspoken conclusion between themselves.
“Considering the time we found you half dead, you looked like a bloodied beggar in rags. As a fellow peasant, you should know that slave markets are commonplace. But if you are telling us that you are some rich young master, sister here will believe you and convince Uncle Di to escort you back to your family even. So which are you?”
Li Yi was tongue tied. On one hand, he could say he was from the Wu family, and be escorted to one of his relatives’ place. Although they might not welcome him to stay, but they should at least recognise him and pay off these people. On the other hand, he did not actually know these people, and considering Wu Si’s memories of the last place he stayed at, they almost hired a divine priest to check on their family, which would have exposed Wu Si as a cursed child for his luck draining birthright earlier.
Becoming a slave definitely isn’t an option. Or what about Wu Si’s body? As a blessed child who was mostly brought up by his parents and relatives till the recent years, Li Yi knew that his body is abnormally powerful. Is it possible to take down these mercenaries or to just run away from them?
“Don’t keep us waiting. You either are, or are not.” demands the girl.
“About that, miss...” answers Li Yi with a trailing voice to buy time.
The girl look at Li Yi strangely for a while till Da Di whispers something to her.
“Ahem. I forgot to mention it earlier. My name is Li Yan. I’m okay with you calling me Miss Li.” says Li Yan in a declaratively manner.
Oh, thought Li Yi as he realised that his words caused them to misunderstand it as his way of asking for her name. In any case, Li Yi didn’t want to know get to know these slave traders any better, especially since they plan on trading him as one!
“You guessed right. I’m indeed a young master. My family is Wu, and I would like to request the Da Chuan mercenaries to escort me safely to the abode of my relatives in Qingshan.”
A sparkle could almost literally be seen in Li Yan’s eyes when she heard that. But before anyone could do anything, a fear inducing slam shook the campsite. The one who caused that slam was none other than Da Di himself.
The night was dark, but the moonlight and campfire shone enough light on Da Di’s face for it to be visibly pale with cold sweat.
“Wu family, you say.” mumbles Da Di in a daze aloud.
“Uncle Di, what’s the matter?” asked Li Yan, who is in shock from Da Di’s sudden change in behaviour.
“You have bad luck, kiddo. Now we all have bad luck too.” answers Da Di.
It was at this point that Li Yi noticed some of the other men shivering with fear as well, accompanied with some other with shocked expressions on their face.
“You see, kid. I know the famous Wu family. But most of the rest here didn’t until earlier today. And they only know because the Wu family was just convicted of treason by the empire earlier today. News doesn’t spread fast normally. But when the empire accuses people of treason, it transmitted to most of the empire within a day.” explains Da Di.
Li Yi takes a step back in shock. How can this be? Am I really that unlucky even with Wu Si’s body?! Clearing his throat, Li Yi proceeds to speak.
“In that case, can’t you just surrender me as a traitor? The empire will even reward you, won’t they?” asks Li Yi.
“WE CAN’T. Look, after finding you yesterday, we went into the city to sell the goods on those wooden carts over there and resupplied our provisions at the same time. While we were doing so, the Imperial messengers arrived to make the announcement. When they did so, the city also restricted entry and exit to specific few for a week. As we were friends with the city lord, we were allowed to leave on the account we make a blood oath that none of us had anything to do with anyone of the surname Wu.”
What? That makes no sense to Li Yi. Then why were some people like Li Yan looking like they had no idea what was going on?
“Well, when I said we, only half of us went in since not everything we had could legally enter the city. Now, the problem is not because we left you outside the city. The problem is that we had confidently made that blood oath knowing you!” answers Da Di with a deep sense of regret in his voice.
By now, even Li Yan had turned pale from the news. Although she was not one of those who made the blood oath, she seems to care about this group enough to be concerned about their fate should half of them along with their boss perish.
“Wait. But you did not know he was of surname Wu at that time!” declares Li Yan in a desperate tone.
“Yan-er. You know that the Imperial soldiers do not care. Neither does the blood oath. If you are caught with breaking the oath and the enforcement is activated, the blood oath will still claim your life. Also, they will not stop with just us and probably execute the whole group.” says Da Di sadly.
“Hmm...doesn’t that mean you just do not have to be caught?” mumbles Li Yi aloud.
A second passed by before Li YI noticed that everyone now stared at him wide-eyed.
“Impossible! How can we escape the Imperial guards?!”
“Then again, we have no choice if we are to survive, now don’t we?”
As the men argued amongst themselves, Da Di thought about this quietly by himself before slamming his bat down again.
“Kiddo’s right. If we are going to die if we are caught, might as well test our luck first!”
Upon saying that, Da Di cast a knowing look at Li Yan, who nods in response.
“Hold on. What’s with the nodding? What are you planning to do?” asks Li Yi with a hint of fear in his voice.
“Oh, Young Master Wu? What a silly question. We will sell you as a slave, of course.” answers Li Yan with a frighteningly sweet smile.