Chapter 4: The Fantastical Adventure of Young Boy Shiyuan (1)
On a quiet, moonlit night, where only the occasional croaking of frogs could be heard in the countryside, two shadowy figures sneaked up a small hillside.
Not far from their path stood a rickety little mud house.
The duo cautiously approached the house. Upon hearing a rhythmic breathing from inside, they exchanged glances and nodded.
Then, they unlatched their oil flasks and circled the house like pros with a spray can, drenching the walls.
“FIZZ!”
As they struck a match and lit the house on fire, flames shot up into the night sky, illuminating their faces which were now sporting expressions of glee.
The fire blazed high for nearly an hour before it finally zipped out.
The little mud house was reduced to ashes, and the two of them shared a satisfied glance before strutting away like they just won the lottery.
The next morning, the brick kiln factory at the foot of the hill was alive with the furious shouts of the overseer. “Get up already! Finish your breakfast and get to work!”
A group of scrawny young boys were herded out from a cellar.
Each of them was given a single steamed bun for breakfast.
At that age, when they were still growing, that fist-sized bun wouldn’t last an hour before they were starving again.
But with their freedom gone, who dared to utter a word? Otherwise, they’d be rewarded with an endless barrage of lashes.
As the boys stood in line to grab their buns, a trail of ash-covered young lad burst through the factory doors, strutting with all the confidence of a peacock.
The overseers, who were munching their breakfast in a circle, froze like statues.
Two of them even dropped their chopsticks in shock.
“This… this is impossible?”
“We watched him last night, he was definitely in that mud house!”
“Is he a monster? Not even fire can k*ll him?”
Before they could process what was happening,
the boy plopped down next to the overseers’ table and started shoveling food into his mouth like it was a competitive eating contest.
Meanwhile, the overseers stood there, frozen as if they had just seen a ghost.
The other boys, upon seeing Shiyuan’s triumphant return, erupted with excited cheers. If it weren’t for the overseers swinging their lashes, the line for food would have turned into a bustling party.
Shiyuan cleared the table faster than you could say “steamed bun ooze,” then patted his belly, signaling he was satisfied.
One pencil-necked overseer finally shook off his shock and said to Shiyuan, “Little brother, you’ve eaten enough. Time to hit the grind!”
With an enthusiastic “mm-hmm,” Shiyuan agreed.
In the old days, brick kilns required a ridiculous number of hands due to the outdated techniques and complicated processes. Some unscrupulous owners decided it was cheaper to hire child labor, since, in this world of chaos, a few missing boys wasn’t exactly newsworthy.
For most people, just surviving to old age was a fairytale ending, so who would care if a couple of boys went missing in the night?
Hiring a child laborer meant they could squeeze seven or eight years of free labor. The initial payment in Spirit Coins was already a done deal.
But they had no idea they had got themselves a real gem in Shiyuan.
…
After witnessing Shiyuan marching into the extraction cellar with a spade, a few overseers huddled together for a whispered conference.
“This time, it’s going to work!”
The boys barely managed to drag their exhausted bodies through a whole day’s work and, with their meager rations leaving them half-starved, they could barely straighten their backs.
Meanwhile, Shiyuan was like a beast, outclassing everyone’s efforts like a champion.
The others looked on in envy, especially when they saw the overseers unable to figure him out, causing them to flock to his side like moths to a flame.
The overseers had sensed this brewing trouble long ago. If it continued, keeping the brick kiln running would become as hard as nailing jelly to a wall.
“Shiyuan, you worked so hard today; we brought you a feast — enough to fill you up!”
Two overseers carried down a basket full of giant flatbreads to the depths of the cellar.
As the delicious aroma wafted through the air, Shiyuan had no hesitation in following his nose.
Some boys tried to warn him, but the overseers promptly whipped them away like flies.
At this moment, Shiyuan was indeed famished; all he could see was that basket of flatbreads, and he was practically drooling.
“Dig in, go wild!” sneered the monkey-faced overseer.
Shiyuan didn’t need to be told twice.
He squatted down and shoved a flatbread into his mouth like it was going out of style, while the overseers even graciously provided tea.
They had previously tried to poison his food and bury him alive three meters down, but the next day, there he was, back at the table like nothing happened. It made the overseers want to pull their hair out.
Even scarier was the fact that he was immune to poison and bullets— the first overseer to try an actual kn*fe on him ended up with his head turned to mush. Talk about an unfortunate accident!
From that point on, they categorically refused to make any threats against him.
They also realized one thing.
This kid had turned the brick kiln into his golden ticket; no matter what they did, he was going to enjoy all the good food.
Realistically, he was working hard and pumping out three times the usual amount, so it wasn’t all bad.
The trouble, however, was that there were still seventy or eighty boys under the overseers, and before Shiyuan arrived, they were like a stagnant pond, not causing any ripples.
But with Shiyuan around, they started to band together and tried to stand up to the overseers, which was something that was previously out of the question.
Yet, they couldn’t find a way to deal with Shiyuan.
Even if they chucked him deep into the mountains miles away, he would still find his way back to the scent of food as if he had a built-in GPS.
The overseers were at their breaking point.
But this time, they decided it was time to pull out the big guns and eliminate Shiyuan once and for all.
The cellar’s deepest section was at least twenty meters down; if the kid was trapped down there and somehow managed to survive, they’d just walk away from everything.
As Shiyuan got busy with the flatbreads,
the overseers set fire to the support pillars and made their swift escape.
Just as they anticipated, within minutes, the cellar was filled with thick smoke, transforming into a scene from Dante’s Inferno.
With rumbling sounds and some tremors, the cellar began to collapse layer by layer.
In the end, aside from a bit of smoke oozing from the entrance, all was eerily quiet.
After waiting a moment, the overseers burst into jubilant cheers while the boys stood there pale, like they had just seen a ghost.
“That annoying brat is finally dead! Hahaha!”
“I’m so happy! I barely have enough to eat every day, and it all went to him!”
“From now on, the brick kiln is back to normal, and anyone who dares to act tough like Shiyuan will face the same fate!”
“Did you all hear that, you snot-nosed brats?”
The boys exchanged glances, struggling to believe that Shiyuan could possibly escape this situation.
This time, he had to be dead, right?
