Shi Yuan

Biodata

Appearance

• Introduced with his sleeves rolled high and grease on his arms 4.
• Carries a knife at his waist, wiped clean down to its handle 4.
• Also keeps a narrow knife with a thick handle, a slightly shorter blade, and a brightly sharpened edge 6.

Personality

Shi Yuan speaks bluntly but accommodates people’s actual abilities. Elder Shi describes his tongue as stern while assuring Chen Xiuyuan that he will choose suitable work. Shi Yuan gives the injured newcomer seated tasks, later reduces his carrying duties, and warns that ruining his leg would waste the recovery already achieved 5 6 18.

He is careful about earned shares rather than casually generous. He checks completed work before recording rations, preserves uncollected earnings, and makes clear that the meat he personally delivers is food Chen Xiuyuan has already earned. When another worker questions Chen’s beast-blood allotment, he produces both tallies to show that neither person has lost anything 7 16 18 19.

During the investigation, his eagerness sometimes runs ahead of caution: he nearly wipes identifying marks from a burned tag and presses a child for a suspect’s appearance. Chen Xiuyuan intervenes to preserve the evidence and prevent a suggested answer from becoming testimony 21.

History

Bringing Chen Xiuyuan into the Meat Shed

Shi Yuan first meets Chen Xiuyuan while delivering portioned meat to Elder Shi. Having heard that the newcomer wants work, he asks whether Chen can stand the following day. At the meat shed, he instead allows him to sit and begins with sorting blood clots, bone fragments, and usable scraps 4 6.

After inspecting Chen’s completed work, Shi Yuan acknowledges that it earns a food share. He gives him a temporary-resident token, adds a knife-shaped mark beside the name he cannot fully read, and records his earnings. Chen leaves with meat and a section of leg bone for soup 7.

As Chen balances recovery with saber training, Shi Yuan helps him retain access to suitable work and uncollected rations. He later verifies the inside-gate duties through which Chen earns a separate portion of beast blood 16 18.

Investigating the Suspicious Shipment

Shi Yuan brings word that an arrow-making craftsman recognizes the workmanship of the broken arrow recovered at Broken Stream. At the workshop, he connects the craftsman’s recollection of a repaired cart shaft with an unsettled meat-exchange token 19 20.

The token remains in his records because a porter has not collected his wages. Shi Yuan settles that payment before questioning proceeds; his records then help confirm the shipment through its unloading time, unpaid share, and extra empty baskets 20.

He accompanies Chen Xiuyuan to the market, helps trace the unloading location behind a medicine stall, and reports it to the patrolman. The investigation links the adulterated medicinal roots to the Du Family 21.

Defending the Rear Gate

When a medicine cart unexpectedly returns at night, Shi Yuan helps account for the people near the grain store. He suspends grain distribution, assures residents that their recorded shares will remain available, and arranges rooms farther inside for families and witnesses 27 28.

Assigned to handle the grain store and crowd, he also stays to help operate the rear gate, whose sagging hinge requires lifting before it will close. During the attack, he braces the entrance with a short pole, makes room for Chen’s saber movements, and pours water over an attacker attempting to start a fire 28 29.

Once the attackers withdraw, Shi Yuan bars the gate and confirms that the grain is untouched. He remains responsible for the bolt when Chen moves inward to intercept a third intruder targeting the witnesses 29 30.

Compensation and Escort Arrangements

Afterward, Shi Yuan helps record compensation for lost supplies, repair materials, missed work, damaged clothing, and Chen’s torn wrist guard. He distinguishes confirmed payments from claims still awaiting settlement rather than treating the first collection as the end of compensation 31.

For the Red Sand herb shipment, he distinguishes basket-hauling wages from a guard’s share. He assists in Chen’s cart-defense test, compares the proposed payment with that of an experienced guard, and raises injury arrangements before the escort agreement is finalized 34 35.

Abilities & Skills

Beast Butchery

Shi Yuan can separate a joint and remove a leg bone quickly enough that Chen Xiuyuan cannot follow the knife movement 6.

• Identifies sinews worth preserving for thin cord 6.
• Checks sorted meat and discourages wasting good flesh through careless cutting 7.
• Explains that a hunting party’s hard-armor fragment is toughest at its center and easier to break at the edges 26.

Recordkeeping and Distribution

He maintains wooden tallies covering work, food shares, exchanges, and outstanding payments 7 20.

• Records hunting, gate duty, herb gathering, and beast dressing as share-earning work 7.
• Tracks separate provisions for households with injured people or young children 7.
• Matches split tokens and board markings before settling a porter’s wages 20.
• Teaches Chen Xiuyuan to read the marks used on compensation slips 31.

Emergency Coordination

Shi Yuan supports the defense through evacuation, gate handling, and fire prevention rather than a documented martial technique 28 29.

• Keeps evacuation routes clear instead of allowing grain removal to obstruct them 28.
• Knows how to lift the faulty gate hinge and secure the entrance 28.
• Maintains his position at the gate while Chen confronts an intruder elsewhere 29 30.

Equipment / Items

• Butchering knives — Includes the narrow knife he lends Chen Xiuyuan for sinew work 4 6.
• Wooden tokens and tally boards — Used to record labor, food entitlements, exchanges, and compensation 7 20 31.
• Marking awl — Lent to Chen to carve his name onto his first work token 7.
• Short pole — Used to brace the rear gate during the night attack 28 29.

Relationships

• Chen Xiuyuan — Work supervisor and later fellow gate defender; records his earnings, accommodates his injuries, and helps establish his escort pay 6 18 29 35.
• Elder Shi — Delivers his meat allocation and offers Chen work after learning of his situation from him 4 7.
• Auntie Sang — Works with her to check herb deliveries and arrange terms for the Red Sand shipment 27 35.
• Shi Qiren — Coordinates with him during the night emergency, taking responsibility for the grain store and crowd under his defensive assignments 28.
• Shi Lei — Assists his cart-guarding test by introducing a simulated threat toward the driver 35.

Notable Quotes

“This was work to begin with. I didn't explain it clearly when you came. I was afraid you'd hurt yourself and wouldn't last half an hour sitting here.” 7

“The grain stays here. It'll still be yours after you leave. … Take your child's hand first. Don't block the door.” 28

“If you're going to think about saber work, put it down. Don't practice on me.” 27