The next day, before dawn.
The watch drum had barely sounded for the hour of the hare when someone knocked on the side door of Number Thirty-Eight, Crouching Ox Alley.
"Who is it?"
Xiao Wei opened the door, bleary-eyed, and froze when he saw Qin Geng standing outside.
It was still dark, and the wind cut to the bone, but Qin Geng was already full of energy. He even carried the warmth of his hurried journey.
"Morning, Brother Wei."
Qin Geng wasted no words. He entered the courtyard and headed straight for the stable.
Chopping fodder, mixing feed, cracking eggs—his hands moved with a speed that belied a beginner.
Even the chestnut horse, usually so proud, behaved itself under Qin Geng's care and let him tend to it.
After feeding the horse, Qin Geng picked up a broom to clear the manure and sweep away the snow, then hauled water and chopped firewood.
By the time daylight filled the courtyard, he had swept the snow clean, filled the water vat, and stacked neatly split firewood beneath the eaves.
Xiao Wei stood under the corridor, watching Qin Geng with a faint sheen of sweat on his forehead. He could not help frowning.
"Brother Qin, you don't have to work so hard."
Xiao Wei walked over. "The master isn't even awake yet. Take your time with the chores. There are still hours before noon."
Qin Geng was stacking firewood. He looked up and smiled. "It's fine, Brother Wei. I've got nowhere else to go, and I'd only be sitting idle. Now that I've taken the job, I ought to do it well."
With that, he bent back to work, meticulous as ever.
"..."
Xiao Wei said nothing. But as he watched Qin Geng's practiced movements and industrious back, doubts began to stir in his mind.
He had heard everything clearly that day in the main hall.
Master Ye had told the kid to work for a few months without wages, providing only meals.
It was a trial for a permanent hired hand, just like his own.
Since Qin Geng had a letter of recommendation, he must have been someone the master knew well.
And judging by his build and how efficiently he worked, he was undoubtedly capable.
The courtyard's fairly big, but Master Ye lives here alone.
Xiao Wei calculated inwardly. One hired hand is plenty. I came on someone's recommendation too. My trial lasts three months, and now I've only got the last month left.
If this kid stays, won't I have to pack up and leave?
At the thought, Xiao Wei's expression shifted several times.
These days, it was terribly hard to find work with a decent master who provided food and lodging and did not beat or curse his servants at whim.
Since coming to work in Master Ye's household, Xiao Wei had had little to trouble him. Master Ye gave him plenty of freedom, hardly anyone visited, and the Ye Family had no fields that needed watering or water hauled to them...
All he had to do was tend the big horse and the slender hound. As for the hawk, Master Ye knew he could not care for it properly and handled it himself; Xiao Wei only had to feed it. To him, this was a job he would not trade for gold.
A trace of wariness entered Xiao Wei's eyes as he looked at Qin Geng.
He had originally planned to take it a little easier over the next few days and let the newcomer do more.
But now...
I'd better get moving too.
Xiao Wei said no more. He silently picked up a nearby broom and began sweeping the corners Qin Geng had already swept.
He even took the chickens' feed trough and washed it.
Qin Geng glanced at Xiao Wei, puzzled by his sudden burst of diligence, then thought nothing more of it and continued brushing the chestnut horse.
How could he know that, before he had even become anyone's apprentice, a misunderstanding had made someone see him as a fierce rival for his livelihood?
They worked until noon, when the sun was at its height.
There were not many rules in Master Ye's courtyard. They ate in a small room beside the back kitchen.
Xiao Wei led Qin Geng there with practiced ease. Two large basins of food were already on the table: one held pork stewed with glass noodles, glistening with oil;
The other held hearty cuts of red meat, glossy and trembling.
"Go ahead. That basin's yours. Master's orders."
Xiao Wei said nothing more. He grabbed a steamed bun and dug in, slurping noisily.
Qin Geng did not stand on ceremony either. The red meat had a satisfying chew and a slightly sweet flavor, with just a touch of fat. It was delicious.
A mouthful of meat, then a bite of white-flour bun—it was a wonderful meal.
Yet by the time he finished, a question had taken root in Qin Geng's mind.
When he usually ate at Stewed Delight, a pound of food left something solid in his stomach, stretching it tight.
But that fullness was heavy, as though he had swallowed stones.
This meal was different.
After eating more than half a pound of lean meat, his stomach did not feel swollen. Instead, it was as if a furnace had been lit throughout his body.
Waves of heat rushed from his stomach through his limbs. The soreness in his back and legs from the morning's work vanished beneath that warmth, leaving him so comfortable he wanted to hum.
The sensation was rather like drinking that cup of Imperial Dragon Well from Shopkeeper Lu.
There's something unusual about this meat.
Qin Geng considered it in silence.
This was not meat sold in the markets.
It held vital energy and was deeply nourishing. Among martial artists, this was called Blood Fare: meat from creatures of the mountains.
Scholarship Is Cheap, Martial Arts Are Expensive. Medicinal baths were not the only expense; everyday food was a bottomless pit too.
Without Blood Fare to nourish the body, training without replenishment would eventually wear a person down.
Qin Geng stole a glance at Xiao Wei beside him.
Xiao Wei ate with grease all around his mouth, but showed no sign of feeling anything unusual. Presumably, there was nothing extraordinary about his basin of pork and glass noodles.
So this isn't what the Ye Family eats every day. It was prepared specially for me.
Qin Geng understood.
Even if they never became master and apprentice, Qin Geng would remember this gift of Blood Fare.
Full and satisfied, Qin Geng took his leave.
It was noon when he returned to the shanties in South City.
There was an unusual sight today: a dense crowd had gathered on the open ground outside Xu Jin's Shanty.
One look was enough for Qin Geng to grasp the situation.
The heads of nearly all the dozen or so shanties, large and small, in this part of South City had gathered.
Shanty heads were men much like Xu Chun and Ma Laifu, each a leader of his own shanty.
These old hands, men whose words carried weight among South City's carriage drivers, were crouched on the ground with worried faces, smoking their pipes. Smoke curled around them, and a stifling gloom hung in the air.
South City was poor.
None of its carriage drivers could afford a room in a tenement courtyard. Most crowded into these shanties, more than two hundred of them.
Add those who could not even afford a place in a shanty and slept wherever they found a wall to lean against, and South City had roughly three hundred carriage drivers in all.
Those three hundred-odd people made up the world of carriage drivers at the bottom of South City.
"Fifth Brother's back!"
Someone called out.
The carriage drivers who had been crouching on the ground rose one after another, looking at Qin Geng with eager eyes.
Qin Geng had made a name for himself. Even in coarse cloth, he cut an intimidating figure, the swelling at his temples plain to see.
"Fifth Brother."
"Brother Qin."
Greetings rose from all sides, carrying respect that came from the heart.
They respected Qin Geng because he had dared to smash the Bluestone Table, refuse the Dragon King Society's ghost marriage, and establish himself by killing Chen Sanpi with a single punch.
When a man had the strength to back him up, everyone had to show respect.
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