Clear Spring Town lay near Green Pine Mountain in Bashan Commandery. It was a midsize town with a small population and no notable products. If one had to name a local specialty... the town's brothel brewed a light wine called Spring Beneath the Pines. Said to replenish blood and restore vitality, it had earned a modest reputation.
The wine was a gentle tonic, best suited to men with weak kidneys. It could effectively restore their vitality and improve their health. Taken over the long term, it might even prolong their lives.
Though... the people who drank it regularly generally did not live very long.
No amount of replenishing could make up for felling the tree night after night!
At that moment, a thick wooden post stood beside the road at the entrance to Clear Spring Town. A man so thin he was almost skin and bones was tied to it.
He had clearly been quite fat once, but now he was gaunt beyond recognition. The skin on his face and body was wrinkled, even sagging in places. Nearly every bone was visible, and shrunken veins stood out across his body like countless crawling worms.
He wore only a pair of tattered shorts. Patches of red and white sunburn covered his bare body; there was no telling how many days he had spent under the sun.
Where the ropes bound him, the abraded flesh had begun to fester, blood and pus sticking together in patches. Fortunately, someone had smeared insect repellent on him, so flies left him alone. At least he was spared that torment.
He hung there listlessly, silent and dejected. He seemed to have only one breath more than a dead man. Indeed... from the look of him, he might draw his last breath at any moment.
"Fatty Luo,