Tian Yuan War Chronicles: The Path of Artifacts to Ascension – Chapter 3

Ch 3: Old Beggar

Since the last time he met the Old Beggar, Hua Kong’s life had not stirred up any other waves. Every day, he was still honestly keeping accounts and helping out at the Ironware Workshop.

During his breaks, he would go and catch some game, either to improve his meals or to exchange for silver, and his days were quite fulfilling.

Of course, to prevent his things from being “lost” at home, Hua Kong had moved all of his meager belongings—three sets of clothes, some books, writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones,

a few cheap paintings and picture books—into a bamboo basket and placed it under his bunk in the Ironware Workshop. Of course, the hand crossbow he made himself and the health preservation books he exchanged from the Old Beggar were also hidden inside.

Several months later, when he returned to the village again near the end of the year, there was suddenly a legend of “thieves entering” the village.

Everyone was talking about the theft of small items and livestock from their homes, but it wasn’t anything major. It’s just that everyone suddenly discovered that if they didn’t lock their doors, some commonly used small items would go missing from their homes.

Such as oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, fire strikers, flints, clothes, hats, hunting bows, chickens, ducks, geese, dogs, pigs, and even iron nails, iron pots, and iron shovels.

When Hua Kong heard about the “thieves entering” the village, his heart skipped a beat, and the image of the Old Beggar immediately appeared in his mind.

Because during this period, apart from the passing merchant teams, Hua Kong had not seen any other strangers, and the merchant teams could not possibly run to the small village outside Duanshan City to steal some worthless trinkets.

But Hua Kong didn’t pay too much attention to this matter. The Old Beggar was making a living alone outside, and petty theft was unavoidable, otherwise how would he survive?

Today, Hua Kong, as usual, greeted a few friends to go into the mountains to hunt. After the group gathered, they headed towards Duanshan Mountain.

“Woof woof… Woof”

“Woof woof… Woof”

After walking for about half an hour on the small path that the hunters often took, the hunting dogs brought by Li Gouzi and Li Shitou suddenly became a little restless.

“What’s wrong, Lai Fu?” Li Gouzi comforted his dog.

“Woof woof… Woof”, Lai Fu stared at a small hill beside the path and kept growling.

“Tiger? Black Bear?” Li Shitou suddenly became nervous.

“Don’t jinx it,” Li Gouzi glared at his younger brother.

“Tiger? Black Bear?”

Hua Kong, Wang Erlang, and Zhao Ning also became nervous and took out their gear to be on guard.

“Don’t be nervous! We’re not even there yet! Tigers and black bears usually don’t come here!” Li Gouzi said with certainty, but the long-armed crossbow in his hand was already loaded.

“Why don’t we just leave? Wouldn’t it be better if we just ignored it?” Zhao Ning said a little scared. He was the youngest of the group, only eleven years old.

“What are you afraid of? It’s going to happen sooner or later! Shitou, let’s go up and take a look! Get the spear ready!” Li Gouzi gritted his teeth, raised the long-armed crossbow in his hand, and slowly approached the small hill.

“Okay!” Li Shitou was a little excited, picked up the spear in his hand and followed.

“Shall we go together and lend a hand?” Hua Kong looked at Wang Erlang and Zhao Ning.

“Let’s go!” Wang Erlang didn’t waste any words, put down his back basket and followed, with his long bow and quiver already prepared.

“Let’s go!” Hua Kong glanced at Zhao Ning, put on his quiver, picked up his hand crossbow, and turned around to run over.

“Hey!” Zhao Ning gritted his teeth, took out his long bow, packed his quiver, and caught up with the others.

“Quiet,” as they approached the small hill, Li Gouzi turned around and greeted the others.

Everyone nodded, indicating they understood.

“Shitou, give me the spear,” Li Gouzi whispered to Li Shitou, took the spear, and put the long-armed crossbow behind his back.

“Okay, Brother,” Li Shitou handed the spear to Li Gouzi and took out his own long-armed crossbow and loaded it.

“Go!” Li Gouzi raised his spear and rushed up first.

“Who are you?”

Hua Kong and the other two followed closely behind Li Gouzi and Li Shitou, when they suddenly heard a loud shout, it was Li Gouzi’s voice.

“Brother, that’s our family’s pig,” Li Shitou’s angry voice came.

“Old Beggar!” Hearing the voices of the two brothers, Hua Kong quickly ran forward and saw a familiar figure.

“Hero, spare me! Hero, spare me!”

The Old Beggar’s shrill scream came, and the tip of Li Gouzi’s spear was already against his back. On the ground was a pig that had been almost completely dismembered, and the pork had been packed into the bamboo basket next to it.

Only the pig’s head was placed next to it, and Li Shitou behind him recognized it.

“Xiao Kong, do you know him?” Hearing Hua Kong’s voice, the others looked at him in confusion.

“I don’t really know him. A few months ago, I went to the city to sell mountain deer and he pestered me. He asked me for some bones!” Hua Kong explained.

“Young man, it’s you! Young man, save me! This hero wants to kill me! Please save me!” The Old Beggar screamed shrilly.

“Stop howling!” Li Shitou quickly stopped him, and the Old Beggar stopped and knelt on the ground, trembling.

“Brother, what do we do?” Li Shitou looked at Li Gouzi.

“Report to the authorities!” Wang Erlang said in a deep voice.

“Yes! Report to the authorities! He has stolen from many families in the village!” Zhao Ning echoed.

“Probably useless,” Hua Kong replied.

“Why?” The others were puzzled.

“The things he stole aren’t worth more than two taels of silver in total. The government can’t beat or imprison an old beggar like him. At most, they’ll scold him a few times and kick him a few times.” Hua Kong had studied in the city and knew more.

“Hand him over to the village chief?” Zhao Ning suggested.

“What can the village chief do to him? Kill him? Or drown him in a pig cage?” Li Gouzi asked.

“This…”

Looking at the Old Beggar’s thin, dirty, and wretched appearance, the others were speechless for a moment.

“Forget it, I’ll take my family’s pig back first. I won’t go hunting in the forest today. Shitou, you take them,” Li Gouzi broke the silence.

“I’m not going either! The pig has been dismantled like this. Brother, you can’t take it all by yourself!” Li Shitou replied.

“How about lending Lai Fu to you?” Li Gouzi looked at Hua Kong and the others and asked.

“I’m not going either! We can’t just let this old guy go! Let the village chief handle it! Let’s send him to the village chief!” Hua Kong looked at Wang Erlang and Zhao Ning.

“That’s the only way,” the two were also helpless. They usually had to work and rarely had the opportunity to go into the forest to play. After this ordeal, they were afraid that they wouldn’t have time to go into the forest before the end of the year.

The group sullenly processed the pig that the Old Beggar had dismantled into pieces, packed it into their back baskets, and escorted the Old Beggar back.

Several young men dragged the Old Beggar back. Along the way, the Old Beggar kept begging for mercy, but the others were unmoved. After scolding the Old Beggar a few times, he shut up.

When they arrived at the village, Li Gouzi and Li Shitou went straight home, while Hua Kong and the others escorted the Old Beggar to the house of Village Chief Old Man Huang.

The three of them briefly told Village Chief Old Man Huang what had happened, left the Old Beggar with the village chief, and went home.

“Little Uncle is always like this, coming back to eat the family’s food and meat, but can’t he lend a hand in the fields?

All he knows is to go hunting in the forest, and he can only find some scraps and offal every time. How can it be like this?”

Hua Kong had just arrived in front of his own courtyard when he heard his sister-in-law’s voice coming from the courtyard.

“Why are you saying these things? When Ermei’s dowry is raised, where will there be any extra money for Xiao Kong to marry a wife? What’s wrong with him saving some money himself?” Elder Brother said unhappily.

“That’s a matter for Father and Mother, why are you worrying about it? How much money have you saved for our family’s Da Lang to go to private school? Are you planning to save that money? What? Is Little Uncle the only one in the family who can study?” Sister-in-law was unrelenting.

“You woman! Xiao Kong only went to private school for a few years because the family had good harvests! Don’t be unreasonable! What’s the use of Da Lang studying? Isn’t Xiao Kong also going to work as a blacksmith?” Elder Brother was already a little impatient.

“I don’t care! Little Uncle can study! Da Lang must also study!” Sister-in-law’s voice grew louder.

“Let’s talk about the future later. Da Lang is only two years old, let’s talk about it later, okay?” Elder Brother used delaying tactics.

“Hmph! You…”

Sister-in-law was still saying something, but Hua Kong didn’t want to listen anymore. He sneaked into his room through the back door of the small courtyard, took his fishhook and fishing line, and quietly slipped out again.

Now that it was approaching the end of the year, his parents had gone to Duanshan City to prepare for the New Year, and Second Elder Sister had also gone to visit neighbors, leaving only Elder Brother’s family at home. Hua Kong didn’t want to stay at home.

Ever since Elder Brother married his wife, Hua Kong and Second Elder Sister had been very careful with their words and actions, for fear of making Sister-in-law unhappy and causing trouble again.

Although it was approaching the end of the year, Duanshan City was not very cold. The small river beside the village had not frozen, so Hua Kong found a relatively remote place and cast his hook.

After fishing for a while, he actually caught two fish. Hua Kong looked at the sky, it was already past noon, and his stomach was rumbling.

He didn’t want to bother, so he directly lit a bonfire, processed the fish’s internal organs, made roasted fish, and treated it as lunch.

He continued fishing in the afternoon, and the harvest was not bad. When it was getting dark, Hua Kong estimated that his parents should be back, so he packed up his things and leisurely went back.

“Little Uncle is back. Did you go into the mountains today? How was the harvest?” As soon as he entered the courtyard gate, his sister-in-law came out of the house.

“Ah? There was something going on at Gouzi’s house today, so I didn’t go. I caught some fish,” Hua Kong didn’t even raise his eyelids.

“Oh, is that so!” Sister-in-law was a little embarrassed.

“Where’s Mother? We can have braised fish tonight!” Hua Kong said as he walked towards the kitchen.

“Mother and Second Elder Sister are cooking. Why don’t you go and lend a hand?” Sister-in-law said.

“Okay!” Hua Kong replied, already entering the kitchen.

“Erlang is back,” Mother and Second Elder Sister greeted him when they saw Hua Kong enter the house.

“I’m back,” Hua Kong replied.

“Did you go fishing? Didn’t go into the mountains?” Second Elder Sister asked in confusion.

“No! Something happened at Gouzi’s house, so I didn’t go,” Hua Kong replied.

“Xiao Ning came this afternoon and said that their shop ran out of coal. They’re going to buy some coal in the city tomorrow and want to borrow the family’s donkey cart. Go and lend a hand,” Mother said.

“Got it!”

“I’ll take care of the fish first.”