Conversion Method

On the way back, Zhou Ming was a little puzzled.

How did Butler Brunode's son, who was as fat as a pig, become Edward's attendant?

It wasn't that Zhou Ming was envious or jealous, but rather he was thinking, Why is it that Baum, the son of Butler Brunode, who is also from a commoner background, was able to defeat the more outstanding second sons of nobles from other territories and become a knight's attendant, which everyone dreamed of?

Was it Butler Brunode's son's ability?

Or Brunode's own flattery?

Or did Edward have a hole in his head, preferring to choose a teammate like a pig rather than a capable partner?

"Perhaps it's out of some inexplicable vanity, and absolute confidence in his own strength, which makes Edward prefer to choose a servant who can serve him and flatter him, rather than a useful talent..."

"This will definitely become a fatal weakness for Edward..."

Having lived several lives, Zhou Ming had a very clear understanding of human nature. As long as the other party exposed obvious weaknesses, Zhou Ming was confident that he could defeat him with his own mind!

"That's good. After Brunode's son becomes a knight's attendant, at least Brunode's current focus won't be on punishing and abusing me anymore. His top priority now is to raise a large sum of money to buy a set of knight's equipment for his son Baum. This equipment is quite expensive, so he won't deliberately trouble me for a while."

Zhou Ming knew a lot about the profession of a knight. Every knight was built with money. Just the land to support a knight required 4,500 mu, not including a good warhorse that cost over a thousand silver coins, armor worth hundreds of gold coins that offered amazing defense, as well as spears, greatswords, shields, bows and crossbows... all of which required a lot of money.

The cost of equipping a knight's attendant was naturally much less, but a decent horse, a sword, a set of leather armor, and a shield still had to be bought, adding up to about 80-100 gold coins. With Butler Brunode's income, it was probably a bit tight.

However, to Zhou Ming's surprise, in just one week, Brunode's son Baum appeared before all the residents of Glan Territory, wearing leather armor with a layer of iron shoulder pads on the outside, holding a medium-length sword in his hand, and riding a tall gray horse, looking energetic.

"Corruption. Besides corruption, I can't think of how a baron's territory butler could raise so much money in seven days."

Zhou Ming concluded that Butler Brunode, this dishonest fellow, must have taken a lot of money and lined his own pockets while managing the income and expenses of Glan Territory.

However, whether Brunode was corrupt or not had nothing to do with Zhou Ming. He wouldn't be foolish enough to report it to the lord. After all, Brunode's attention was no longer on him, and he hadn't deliberately made things difficult for him this past week. That was enough. He wasn't afraid of offending a gentleman, but he was afraid of offending a villain, and even more afraid of a villain holding a grudge.

Not only that, but in order to prevent villains like Brunode from "holding a grudge" against him, Zhou Ming also started another plan.

Evening.

Under the dim light of the oil lamp, at the warm dining table.

After slowly chewing and finishing a piece of bread, which was one-third of his usual dinner portion, Zhou Ming clapped his hands and put down his bowl without even drinking his favorite sheep's milk pea soup.

"Brother, why have you been eating so little these past few days? You've lost so much weight recently?"

Seeing that her brother had only eaten so little for dinner again, Alice said with some heartache.

These past few days, she didn't know what was wrong with her brother. There was clearly so much food at home, but he suddenly reduced his breakfast portion by half and his dinner portion to one-third of his usual amount, deliberately not eating enough. She didn't know why he was doing this.

Her brother's face, which was originally quite handsome, had become a little thin these past few days.

"Alice, don't worry, brother will take good care of himself. If brother is hungry, he will definitely eat more."

"If you're not hungry, why have you lost so much weight recently? Your face isn't as good-looking as before."

"Brother isn't losing weight, brother is dieting. Don't you think brother's muscles are too eye-catching in town? They can't be that eye-catching anymore, brother has to reduce them, otherwise, your brother will suffer." Zhou Ming explained.

"They're not eye-catching at all, they're good-looking. I don't want you to reduce them, they won't look good if you do." Alice pouted and sulked.

"It's good that they don't look good."

Zhou Ming sighed, patted Alice's head, then walked to the backyard and picked up the birch pole again. The handle was deeply indented from being gripped, and the shaft was shiny. In the starlight-dusted night, he began his daily spear-charging training against the blurry humanoid wooden target.

Time flew by, and two months passed.

The current Zhou Ming was completely unrecognizable from his original appearance.

He had lost over thirty pounds!

Now, the muscle groups on his arms, thighs, chest, and abdomen were all gone, and the fleshy padding on his buttocks was much thinner.

In their place were gaunt cheeks where one could almost see through the eye sockets and expose the cheekbones, ribs showing clearly on his chest, and a belly that looked like a thin sheet of paper. His frail body seemed as if a gentle breeze could blow him away.

And, in his daily life, his zombie-like state...

"Little Ryan is completely ruined. Brunode is so heartless, he won't even spare a child..."

"The devil has corrupted little Ryan's mind, and demons are sucking away his life. If little Ryan can't recover from that blow, perhaps we won't see him much longer."

"Sigh... if only this child's parents were still here, he wouldn't have suffered so much."

Even Brunode, the steward who often mocked little Ryan in the fields, gradually ignored this insignificant person. Slowly, in Brunode's eyes, little Ryan was no different from those skinny, malnourished farmers. He wasn't worth the effort of special mockery or targeting. Teasing such a pitiful person also felt meaningless to him.

However, when Zhou Ming, returning home from work each day, his ashen eyes suddenly shot out a sharp glint, his truest side was revealed before him.

"In the past two weeks, when doing my weekly work, the number of times Steward Brunode mocked and ridiculed me was 0, the number of times he penalized me was 0, and even the number of times he spoke to me was close to 0..."

"Yesterday, when Edward went hunting on horseback, he no longer looked at me with that disdainful and disgusted gaze, only indifference..."

"Titles and nicknames like 'Clever Little Ryan' and 'Lucky Little Ryan' are no longer heard from the mouths of the children in town..."

"The original clever, lively, miracle-creating, and ambitious little Ryan has probably died in their hearts, right?"

Heh.

Isn't this exactly the effect he wanted to achieve?

Trading thirty pounds of flesh that could be easily regained for a "dead" version of himself in others' impressions seemed like a very worthwhile deal.

Moreover, only if his original self "died" would the "memories" of hatred, mockery, ridicule, and sarcasm directed at him also dissipate, right?

But...

Only Zhou Ming himself knew that he had always been alive, just in a different way, a way that others couldn't guess but would ultimately surprise them greatly.

And, he would make "them" pay a heavy price!