Farming to Defy My Fate 9

Chapter 9: Human Traffickers are the Most Despicable

Zhao An ordered them to make food not only because he was hungry, but also to drive away some of the surrounding crowd. Although they were mostly thin and small women who posed little threat, there were too many of them. If they all rushed him at once, he would have no choice but to abandon his hostage and flee.

Fortunately, Zhao Tongming himself was the master of the house, and his old mother, Madam Li, also held some authority, but she doted most on her only son. When the others saw Zhao Tongming captured, they lost any will to resist. Ordered to cook, they all hid away in the kitchen together.

After the extra people had left, only Madam Li, a twelve-year-old boy—Zhao Tongming’s third son, Zhao Fukang—and a long-term laborer named Ah Wu remained. These were the two Zhao An planned to send after Hai Bo and the others.

Zhao An had Madam Li give them fifty liang of silver. “If you’re not back before dark, I’ll cut a piece of flesh from Zhao Tongming. If you’re not back by tomorrow morning, I’ll cut off two.”

Madam Li’s eyes were red, a clear sign she had been secretly crying. Hearing the words “cut flesh,” her heart pounded with fear, and she quickly said, “Our family’s donkey cart has already been taken by Ah Ping and Ah Xiang. Let’s just wait for them to return before going.”

Zhao An yanked the rope in his hand. Zhao Tongming stumbled, and his head slammed onto the table. “Aiya~!” he cried out. A large lump swelled on his forehead, and a few tears actually rolled down his fat face.

“Figure out the cart situation yourselves. And don’t try to pull any tricks on me. Even if those two come back, you won’t be able to handle me. Unless, of course, you don’t want him to live,” Zhao An’s attitude remained unyielding, showing no intention of compromising.

Madam Li could only grit her teeth and say to her third grandson, “Hurry and borrow a cart from your Uncle Ah Gen’s house.” After lowering her head, she suppressed a hateful expression, thinking to herself, Zhao An is making such an ugly scene now. Let’s see how he’ll manage to live in this village in the future.

Zhao Tongming had been beaten repeatedly. His legs, waist, neck, and forehead all throbbed with a dull pain, leaving him no room to think about anything else. Seeing his third son still standing there foolishly, he flew into a rage and roared, “What are you waiting for? Go!”

Soon, the cart was borrowed. With it came the Liu clan head, Liu Huan, and several elders from the Zhao family. They all stood in the courtyard, their gazes filled with curiosity and scrutiny as they looked at the bound Zhao Tongming inside the house.

Seeing this group of men arrive, Madam Li quickly ran out and wailed to the people outside, “Look at him! What has he become? To think our Zhao family has produced such a vicious tyrant! He should be dragged to the authorities and beaten to death with clubs!”

The Zhao family elders had all received favors from the Prime Minister in the past, and out of consideration for Zhao An’s status, none of them had shown their faces around him recently. Now, seeing him in this state, they thought that the reason he had been sent back was most likely because he had caused trouble and committed misdeeds in the capital. At the same time, they mentally blamed Zhao Tongming for provoking such a malevolent silkpants.

In short, the onlookers had a poor impression of both Zhao An and Zhao Tongming. This was even more true for the Liu family members, who adopted a “none of my business” attitude, purely there to watch the excitement.

Zhao An had already clearly analyzed the situation in the village and wasn’t particularly worried. He said, neither salty nor bland, “I admit I’m no saint.” After speaking, he kicked Zhao Tongming without hesitation. Hearing his miserable cry, Zhao An curled his lips into a smile. “But I’m also not a human trafficker who randomly kidnaps and sells people. You all live in this village without any fear? Look at this family, just grabbing people and selling them off. You should all be careful with your own daughters and children. If any of them have gone missing for no reason, maybe they were taken and sold by this family. You’d better be careful in your own lives from now on.”

So it’s a slander match, is it? Bring it on. Who’s afraid of whom?

At this moment, Zhao An no longer had the cotton-like temperament of someone who smiled at everyone and seemed to have no temper. The way he struck Zhao Tongming without a second thought made people’s hearts tremble. But the words he spoke left an impression on the minds of the onlookers.

Because Zhao An wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t that there weren’t brave and combative young men in the village; some had knocked out people’s teeth in fights, and one hunter had even fought off a wolf. But they weren’t afraid of people like that. It was the families who bought and sold people that made their skin crawl. In the past, even if it was their own parents selling someone, they would unconsciously keep their distance from such people. This time, it was only two servants who were being sold, but many in the village had worked for Zhao Tongming’s family as long-term or short-term laborers. What if Zhao Tongming’s family just decided to grab them and sell them off one day?

These villagers weren’t worldly, but they had heard some rumors about great landlords. It wasn’t uncommon for some landlords to collude with officials, seizing land and the children of villagers. If Zhao Tongming succeeded in selling people this time, he might become such a great landlord, and then the entire Zhaojia Village would suffer.

Zhao An himself didn’t know that his few words would be so effective, scaring the onlookers into submission. At this moment, his attention had been diverted because a woman, carrying a plate of stir-fried pickled vegetables, walked over tremblingly and placed it on the table.

Zhao An didn’t nitpick. He directly pulled Zhao Tongming over and said to the woman who had brought the dish, “Feed it to him. Make him eat all of it.”

But neither Zhao Tongming nor the woman would cooperate. Zhao An had no choice but to do it himself. He pinched Zhao Tongming’s chin and personally fed him the pickled vegetables.

After Zhao An had forced three mouthfuls of pickled vegetables down Zhao Tongming’s throat, he finally let go. Zhao Tongming could finally cough and say, “It’s too salty. I want water.”

“You won’t even eat it yourself, so why are you giving it to me?” Zhao An really couldn’t understand this family’s logic. Things had already come to this point; did they still think he was easy to fool?

Zhao Tongming spat out the last few bits of pickled vegetables in his mouth and, with an ugly expression, said to the concubine who had brought the dish, “Hurry and kill a chicken for the Second Master. And slice up the cured meat from the house, stir-fry it, and bring it over quickly.”

The concubine obediently left. Zhao Tongming asked Zhao An for water again, but Zhao An simply ignored him, so he could only stand there swallowing his saliva.

When the table was set with chicken soup, stir-fried cured meat, a plate of boiled fava beans, a large bucket of rice, and a large pot of wine, Zhao An forced Zhao Tongming to taste everything again to make sure it wasn’t poisoned before he started eating himself. Of course, he didn’t touch the pot of wine.

By this time, more and more people were crowding at the entrance of Zhao Tongming’s house to watch the spectacle. Zhao An sat there, appearing quite at ease. Zhao Tongming, being led around like a dog, was extremely embarrassed. He could only shift his body to face away from the entrance, not wanting people to see his face. But with his nearly two-hundred-jin frame, how could he possibly be mistaken for someone else?

The afternoon passed like this. Finally, two people parted the crowd and walked in. They were seventeen or eighteen years old—of course, they were Zhao Fuping and Zhao Fuxiang, the ones Zhao Tongming had sent to sell the servants.

They had already heard about what had happened at home upon entering the village. Both of them looked at Zhao An with fire in their eyes, their youthful hot-headedness making them look like they were about to charge over and start a fight.

They saw Zhao An slowly and deliberately tie the rope in his hand to a table leg, forcing the bound Zhao Tongming to bend over awkwardly. Then Zhao An picked up a stick from beside his foot and said, “Are you two sure you want to test my skills?”

This provocative action made Zhao Fuping, who had seen Zhao Tongming’s miserable state, halt his steps. Zhao Fuxiang, however, charged forward without hesitation with a laundry pole, but Zhao An easily dodged it by bending down. Then, a stick struck his leg. With a “thwack,” he fell to the ground, and all that was left was his wailing.

To be honest, Zhao An really didn’t take young men like this, who had no fighting experience and hadn’t learned martial arts, seriously. He leaned on the stick and stood up. “Someone come and drag him away.”