"Too vicious! That Master Liu is too vicious!" a retired Elder screamed at the top of his lungs after eating burnt food all day. The slaves of his manor had began a cold war. However, the slaves of his manor were walking around so gloomy he was scared to say anything. Normally he would have had the chef dragged out and beaten. Now he had to choke down burnt food all day. What kind of situation is this? Since when nobles had to be wary of their slaves!? Just what was going on in the Imperial City of the Tolling Lands?!
In another Noble Manor, a livid retired Elder of the Manor practically jumped up and down in anger as he pointed at his son and heavily scolded and cursed his son. His son was the head of the household. He was also one of the nobles who wrote a memorandum and messed with the Lord of Liu Residence, causing the Elder to suffer utter disgrace.
On the way home, the slaves that carried him in his palanquin drop the palanquin with the poor Elder in it. The palanquin broke, and the poor Elder rolled out of the palanquin like a dumpling rolling across the street. Generally, in this situation, the slaves would immediately start kowtowing and pleading for their life.
However, the slaves aggressively stood there glaring at the Elder with such gloomy faces that the Elder got so scared and didn't dare scold them. The Elder limped all the way home with the slaves silently following behind him, leaving the many people who witness his disgrace to gossip about the matter.
What was disgraceful was that the Elder had a suspicion that the slaves did it on purpose. The slave had grown extremely gloomy after passing a group of richly dress Liu Residence male slaves coming out of a famous brothel with satisfied looks on their faces. Shortly after his palanquin 'fell.'
Yet there was nothing he could do. The slaves of his manor gave him no face. His face was completely thrown to the other side of the city! And by slaves no less! It was too unbearable for the red-faced Elder, who limped home, cursing his son and idiotic officials all the way home.
Since when nobles of the Tolling Lands had to fear their slaves? First, his favorite grandson got thrown in prison for brawling. Then he was dragged to the Imperial Palace and heavily scolded by the Emperor.
Now slaves were rebelling, and their masters daren't say anything?! Since when the officials and ministers of the Imperial court became so incompetent? Who told those idiots to go pick a fight without knowing the capabilities of the opponent first?! Ah!?
Many similar scenarios played out in the manors of the rich all over the Imperial city as slaves and servants half-heartedly performed their duties. Not only did the elders, ministers, officials, and nobles of high-society have to fight against their slaves and servants. But their wives, daughters, and woman folks were rebelling too!
The women of Nobility refused to accept that slaves were allowed education while they were being denied. They were fiercely vocally protesting this matter.
The Officials, Elders, Ministers, and Nobles of high society cursed the Lord of Liu Residence as they ran about putting out fires all day. By the end of the day, some of the rich families could no longer take it and began to compromise with the slaves and servants of their manor.
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On the flip side of that coin, on that day, many tragedy's began taking place. Some members of the Nobility and the people of influential wealthy families of high-society refused to tolerate rebelling, servants, or slaves.
For the first time in the history of the Tolling Lands, many slaves simultaneously began a passive-aggressive movement. The most notable thing about this movement was that the slaves did not get together to secretly began plotting. Things were fine one day, then the next day they weren't.
That was because, for the first time, the slaves of the Tolling Land witnessed with their own eyes that they too could live as a human being. They witness with their own eyes slaves dressed better than some nobles. These slaves were dining in the best tea house, wine houses, restaurants, and respectfully being served by others instead of being the ones to do the serving. For this reason, many stood their ground and began a passive-aggressive movement.
What was so unfortunate was that, hundred of slaves were beaten to death before the sun had set. The slave owners were killing the chickens to warn the monkeys. For some slave owners, it worked, and for some, it did not work
Those tragedies lead to yet more tragedies. In the deep in the night, in nine of the Manors where an unusually high number of slaves were beaten to death, mysteriously, those Manors burned down one after the other.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
That night in the Imperial City, manors engulfed in deep red, and amber flames lit the night. The alarming cries of fire shook the night, dragging fearful citizens from their bed. The fire brigades rushed to and fro, trying to put out the flames as fast as they could.
However, even with the help of citizens who had crawled out of bed, the fires had quickly got out of control, turning into full-blown infernos. The extreme heat and heavy smoke coming from the fires forced the fire brigades and citizens to retreat. Everyone then focused on containing the fire by keeping the flames from spreading to the land around the manors. Within several hours the manors burned to the ground.
The only good thing about the situation was that these large manors belonged to rich people who craved space and privacy. Therefore those manors were pretty much isolated with no other houses around them. Of the nine manors, only three were saved. The other six manors had burned down to nothing.
In the areas were those fires took place, a putrid overpowering smell of the burnt manors and the things that burned in the manors blanketed the area.
The strangest thing of all was that in the nine big fires, there were no fatalities. In all the excitement, many slaves slipped away into the night. The event of the fires badly frighted every rich and noble person in the Imperial City who owned slaves.
Never in the history of the Tolling Lands had slaves dared to rebel. That's not to say they never thought of it, who knows the true heart of another person. However, Liu Tián Qǔ came along and showed the slaves of the Tolling Lands that they, too, were human beings and deserved to be treated as such. She lifted the lid of a boiling pot of oil and threw a lit match in.
Fear bloomed in the heart of many slave owners as manors in the Imperial city burned through the night. That night the killing stopped, and most of the slave owners began to try to find some kind of common ground with their slaves.
If there was one thing that everyone knew of the Lord of Liu Residence by the end of the day was, don't mess with him. Without ever leaving his Residence, the Lord of Liu Residence single-handedly caused so many arguments, cold wars, fights, deaths, and financial losses. He reached into the homes of every noble, minister, and official and ripped apart the very foundation of every home without ever stepping foot into these homes. He was just too vicious. It's better to leave him alone. He can't hide his identity forever. It's was better to wait until he revealed it than allowing him to come into their homes and rip apart the very foundation of it. These were the thoughts of the members of the Imperial court.
It was said that when the Emperor heard of what was going on in the Imperial City, he went into his work-study and sat in meditation all day after listening to all the reports of the shadow warriors who monitored the events of the whole day. The Emperor wasn't worried about a possible revolt of the slaves. The Emperor was farseeing. He saw that if this situation was handled correctly, then it could help bring about a positive movement.
A secret goal of the Emperor was to abolish slavery during his reign. However, the foundation of the Tolling Lands was built on slavery. So this was something that had to be handled carefully. If he moved to fast in abolishing slavery, it would cause more harm than good. Abolishing slavery was not something that can be done overnight. The Emperor considered Liu Tián Qu's blow to the face that she sent to the nobles, ministers, and officials to be a move in the right direction.
The Emperor also saw the positive side of educating the women of the Tolling Lands. It was good to see the women once more getting active. For too long, they have been silently sitting at home that many of the men of the Tolling Lands have forgotten how capable women could be. Centuries ago, women of the Tolling Lands were very educated. They were scholars, doctors, officials, generals, ministers, and so much more. Somewhere along the line of history, the Tolling Lands regressed. It was another goal of the Emperor to pull the Tolling Lands out of regression.
What had disturbed the Emperor about the whole situation was that one move that Liu Tián Qǔ made and how she made it. Truthfully when the Emperor found out the Liu Tián Qǔ was a female, he momentarily lost sight on the warning his grandfather gave him. This move of Liu Tián Qǔ's was a wake-up call for him.
The Emperor engraved the lesson in his heart to make it serve as a warning. His mother was once a commander who lead armies against the enemies of the Tolling Lands. He knew that women could be just as dangerous and sometimes even more dangerous than men in scheming and war. His sister-in-law was one of those women. So why did his perception of Liu Tián Qǔ briefly blur when he found out she was a female? What it because she was so young?
This disturbed the Emperor greatly but not as much as Liu Tián Qǔ's capabilities. Liu Tián Qǔ was only thirteen years old. She didn't even move against the members of the Imperial court to harm them. She only wanted to send them a slap, yet this one move from her proved the warning and observation of his Imperial grandfather to be very accurate.
Liu Tián Qǔ never step foot outside of her home to do it. However, this one move shook the foundation of slavery on which Tolling Lands was built. Her reach had not only extended into the Imperial court, but it also reached into the underworld in the Imperial City.
Though many couldn't see it yet, the Emperor knew just how farreaching this one move of Liu Tián Qǔ would be.
Truthfully the Emperor would have been more wary of Liu Tián Qǔ if he didn't know that she belonged to Wang Fèn Yǒng. The Emperor saw Wang Fèn Yǒng's face when Liu Tián Qǔ claimed him. There was no way Wang Fèn Yǒng was going to allow her to escape his clutches. Technically, Liu Tián Qǔ could already be counted as a member of the Imperial family.
The Emperor was also aware of Wang Fèn Yǒng's and the Grand Prince's roll in the event.
Seeing Liu Tián Qǔ's capabilities for the first time, the Emperor understood by just that one move that she was killing the chicken to warn the monkey. It was clear that Liu Tián Qǔ didn't want to be bothered. However, she was not the type of person to lay down and allow someone to keep coming after her. The Nobility were the ones who came after her first. So she sent them a good slap.