Chapter Eighty-Five: The Slave

The tainted and the afflicted were easy enough to understand.

Those with scars on their faces were, in broad terms, prisoners branded by crime.

Men like that carried secrets on their backs and were not easy to control; if things went wrong, they might well draw a blade in the dark. When bandits recruited new blood, they were actually fond of such ruthless fellows, since they shared the same language, so to speak, and could piss in the same pot. But Qin Zhen was doing honest business.

Anyone with a burden on his back was not quite suitable.

One had to remember that this world was unlike Qin Zhen’s homeland.

Petty theft and small-time mischief did not warrant a prison sentence. If the victim caught you, a beating on the spot, or a few strokes after being handed over to the constables, was the end of it. Only those guilty of grave and heinous crimes were imprisoned and branded on the face.

Most of those people would be beheaded after the autumn judgments.

A few whose crimes did not merit death were released and sold as slaves.

“Understood, understood! If you gentlemen would rather wait in the teahouse nearby, I can finish selecting them and bring them over for you to choose from?” Scarface said with a fawning smile. When wealthy households came to buy servants, they usually only picked one or two, haggling over every copper. But this young man had arrived wanting a hundred at once. A truly grand deal! No matter what, he had to be served well.

Qin Zhen considered it and asked, “Can I pick them myself?”

“Well, yes, you can... It’s just that those slaves are lowborn and ignorant of the rules. I’d worry they might offend Young Master Qin by accident.” Scarface looked somewhat uneasy.

“It’s fine.” Qin Zhen said indifferently. “Lead the way.”

The cramped, shadowed alley wound forward in a crooked line with no end in sight. A foul stench mingled with the reek of rot and drifted up from the darkness. The people huddled there, hidden in the gloom, did not even dare lift their heads.

They looked withered and emaciated.

They were no different from meat on the chopping board.

“Why are there so many of them?” Qin Zhen frowned slightly.

This was his first time coming to the so-called pit of misery, and also his first direct encounter with the deepest darkness of this world.

This was a world where men devoured one another.

A world of scorched earth and starving common folk.

“Years of drought, and banditry too. Of course there are many,” Scarface sneered, as though speaking of something utterly ordinary. “In recent years there’s been fighting in the north and west as well. There are plenty of homeless people driven from place to place. Those who manage to escape either go to the mountains and become outlaws, only to have their heads chopped off by the authorities; or else they flee until they die on the road.”

“They’re still considered lucky.”

“Lucky?” Qin Zhen murmured.

It was unclear whether he was asking Scarface, or himself.

“At least they’re still alive, aren’t they?”

Scarface spat a thick gob of phlegm, which splattered onto a slave’s foot. The slave merely raised his head in a daze, then lowered it again in the same dazed fashion, staring blankly at a shallow puddle before him.

“How much for these people?” Qin Zhen asked slowly.

“Men, five taels of silver each. Women, one tael. Boys are cheaper, only one hundred cash. I have girls too, but they’re more precious; at the very least, they go for this much.” As he spoke, Scarface held out a fist.

That meant ten taels for a girl.

“A big fish from the sea can sell for several taels of silver. Why is a person worth less than a fish?” Li Han could not understand.

“Ah, that’s where you’re mistaken! The households of the powerful and wealthy are never short of people. It’s the fish from the sea that are the rare thing! As the saying goes, rarity gives value. A person, in many cases, really is worth less than a fish.” Scarface replied with narrowed eyes.

Qin Zhen had not brought much money this trip. Roughly speaking, the silver in his possession came to several hundred taels in total, but after setting aside the funds for the shop’s renovation, furnishing, and promotion, he had just a little over three hundred taels available at the moment.

It was not that Qin Zhen did not want to bring more.

Silver had weight, after all, and needed a cart to transport it.

If he carried too much, it would draw the eye. It would invite trouble.

“Lift your faces, all of you, and let Young Master Qin have a look!” Scarface shouted, beating a gong. The piercing clamor made the numb slaves slowly raise their heads. “Today is your lucky day too. Young Master Qin needs a batch of men to work as shop assistants. Don’t blame me for not giving you a chance. Young Master Qin is a rare and great benefactor!”

In the dim alley, many heads rose.

It was just like the cats and dogs Qin Zhen had seen in pet shops, standing on tiptoe, looking at him with hope, begging to be taken home.

But...

They were people.

A pair of tiny, delicate hands suddenly clutched at Qin Zhen’s trouser leg. It was a filthy child of about eight or nine years old, thin and frail. At an age when he should have been acting spoiled in his parents’ arms, he was now pressed among these slaves, and on his dirty face there was still the glaring mark of a prison brand.

“I told you to lift your heads, not to grab!” Scarface slapped the child hard across the face, knocking him to the ground. With a dark expression, he cursed, “Don’t use your filthy hands to touch my customers! If you ruin my business, I’ll kill you all and drink with the wine!”

The child shrank back tremblingly, but those eyes still looked at Qin Zhen.

For a split second, Qin Zhen did not dare meet that child’s gaze.

Then another group of buyers came over.

At their head was a wealthy man with a round face and a prominent belly.

“Ah, Lord Chen! What wind has blown you here today?” Scarface greeted him at once, delighted.

The old fat man known as Lord Chen did not speak. It was a tall, thin steward who answered.

“Third Scar, the spittoon my master bought before has broken. See if you can help him pick out a good one.”

As he spoke, Lord Chen narrowed his eyes and spotted the child.

“That one’s not bad. I’ll take him!”

“Lord Chen, that child has a mark on his face.” Scarface hesitated.

“That’s exactly the sort I like to play with. Those little bad seeds have a wicked air about them, and trampling them is the most amusing thing of all.” A warped, sickly grin spread across Lord Chen’s face. He lugged his corpulent body forward, wobbling as he went, and with no mercy at all seized the child by the hair and yanked him up.

The child cried out and struggled in pain. Then a younger girl rushed out from among the slaves, pounding at Lord Chen’s leg.

“Let go of my sister!” the little girl cried, her voice thin and tearful.

“Well, well! I didn’t expect them to be a pair of innocent little blossoms!” Instead of recoiling from the filth on the children, Lord Chen’s face twisted into an even more perverse expression. “Good! I’ll take these two! Steward, pay up!”

The tall, thin steward immediately took out two money pouches and tossed them to the ground.

Lord Chen then seized the two children by one hand and dragged them away.

“Take care, Lord Chen! Come again next time!” Scarface said with a nauseatingly obsequious smile.

The children’s desperate cries rang out sharply amid the surrounding slaves’ deadened silence.

Suddenly.

A pair of hands shoved Lord Chen aside and rescued the two children, shielding them behind him.

Qin Zhen’s somewhat youthful face was especially cold in the shadows.

“Sorry. I’ve already chosen these two children.”