Servant

As a servant of the Fang clan, Fang Han was tasked with breeding horses, and had bred a horse called Thousand Li Snow for the second lady.

Being a horse breeder was a hard job, as they had to wake up in the middle of the night and add fodder daily. Even worse was if the horse was named, then there would be even more rules to follow. Originally at the time, Fang Han was supposed to give Thousand Li Snow some soymilk made of eggs and soybeans and high quality feed to eat and then walk the horse to the horse field to aid its digestion of food while waiting for the second lady to arrive.

However, because of his morning excursion to inner court to watch martial arts and the lecture given by Fang Tong about the secrets of the divine realm, Fang Han ended up forgetting about his most important task.

Thus, Fang Han urgently ran towards the field. Upon arriving, he saw that the horse was already there, and had a cold beauty riding on it. Next to her stood some maidservants, as well as some guards. There were also others children, of both genders, who, like her, were riding on horses and shining in the light, showing off their embellished clothing.

As soon as Fang Han appeared, an old man quickly ran over, yelling, “Fang Han, you have brought a calamity about yourself! Hurry up and apologize to the second lady!”

“Big chief, this morning I had a stomachache,” said Fang Han.

This old man was the chief of the horse field.

“I don’t care about your excuses, by delaying the affairs of the second lady, you have brought calamity upon yourself. How to serve, your father taught you from childhood, but you still can’t understand that the master’s affairs are greater than the sky?” rebuked the old man.

At this time, from far away came an imposing looking maidservant. Upon seeing Fang Han, she made a sound, opened her hands, and, like an eagle grabbing a rabbit, came up and grabbed Fang Han’s shoulders. “Are you the breeder of Thousand Li Snow, Fang Han? The second lady is calling you over to answer questions!”

Fang Han suddenly felt as if his body had been bound, to his surprise, the small maidservant had completely lifted him off the ground!

Observing the maidservant’s moves and power, Fang Han suddenly thought of the moves that he had seen during his secret observation of the martial arts practices. This move is called Crane Clutching Sand. This maidservant’s strength is two to three times greater than mine.

Although he had watched the practices for a month and fully understood the theories, he still couldn’t dodge the grab because he simply didn’t have the training nor strength to compete with the second lady’s maidservant.

Not to mention, even if he could dodge, he wouldn’t dare. Otherwise, he would be in even more trouble.

“Peng!” Feng Han was suddenly thrown on the ground, his body tingling and numb.

The maidservant kicked Fang Han and said, “Kneel and answer.”

Atop the pure white horse Thousand Li Snow, the Fang clan’s second lady question was conveyed down, “So you Fang Han?”

Fang Han lowered his head and reluctantly replied, “This small person is Fang Han.” He knew that the second lady was called Fang Qing Wei, and that she was very powerful and looked down on servants. She was unsatisfied very easily, and thus many dreaded meeting her.

“My Thousand Li Snow was raised well by you, and shows the effort you put in raising it. However, this morning, you ignored your duties,” Fang Qing Wei said coldly. “I don’t care about your excuses, as a servant, all of your thoughts should be for your masters. This is my Fang clan’s rules, and is also the rules of the world. This horse, Thousand Li Snow is your life, even if you stake your life, you must serve this horse well. Understood?”

“This small person understands, from now this small person will stake his life for the horse, and raise a great horse for the second lady. Wherever the horse is, he will be, whenever the horse is busy, he will be busy. Second lady, please forgive this small person’s crime of neglect of duty this morning.” Fang Han’s head smashed against the ground like a hammer smashing garlic, for once he actually knew how to act in the situation.

Amidst his kowtowing in fear and dread, Fang Han’s eyes quietly landed on Fang Qian Wei’s boots in the stirrup. Her boots were completely white, and were inlaid with jade, causing them to look delicate yet gorgeous. Looking at these boots so high above his head, Fang Han thought to himself, one day, I too will be able to have others looking up at my shoes.

“Whip him ten times, let him remember this time’s lesson,” said Fang Qing Wei as she waved slightly.

“Yes!” The nearby maidservant promptly picked up the whip and began fiercely landing the whip on Fang Han’s body.

“Pa!” “Pa!” “Pa!”

Fang Han’s body shivered each time due to the pain, as the maidservant’s strength was so great. Each lash, the whip flew through the air, resulting in a jarring whip crack. Fang Han’s felt as if his body was being ripped apart, but he bit his teeth together and held back any sound, only cold sweat running down his body.

After ten lashes, Fang Han fell limply to the ground, as if paralyzed.

After the whipping, Fang Han, using his last breath, followed the rules of the clan, saying “Thank you second lady for bestowing lashes on me!” Otherwise, he would be seen as defiant, and would be whipped more.

“Okay!” The second lady, Fang Qing Wei, happily nodded her head, “When doing things, I always discern reward and punishment. You neglected your morning duties, so I had to whip you, but this horse Thousand Li Snow that you used your heart to raise is both refined yet fierce, and you didn’t steal a single gram of its feed, thus I need to reward you. Take this!”

A shiny silver ingot was thrown from the top of the horse, and fell in front of Fang Han. The surface of this silver ingot was inscribed with exquisite flames and veins, and had wu’liang printed on it. This was currency of the Da’li Empire.

[TL: 五 (wu) as in five, 两 (liang) as in two]

A wu’liang was equivalent to a year’s worth of Fang Han’s income, and was indeed a gracious reward.

The horses of the Fang clan ate even better than people, every day they ate a large portion of eggs and soybeans. Many of the clan’s retainers would secretly take some of the horses’ food to eat, Fang Han had truly never done this.

This reward truly showed that Fang Qing Wei was a perspicacious person.

“Remember, as a servant, doing something wrong results in punishment, while doing something good results in reward. As long as you are loyal and wholeheartedly devote yourself to your master, there will always be good towards you.” After giving the reward, Fang Qing Wei turned to the other young masters and said, “Let’s go and not miss the hunt.”

“Second lady’s governing methods have structure,” a nearby gentleman exclaimed after watching Fang Qing Wei’s treatment of Fang Han.

“The clan is large, and people are many, only if there are rules governing servants would this be possible,” coldly replied Fang Qing Wei. Continuing in her cold yet exquisite voice, “One must give incentives and penalties, and know when to have mercy, and when to use power. Just correctly grasping these two ideas is enough.”

These gentlemen and ladies along with Fang Qing Wei in their pack, rode off, avoiding angering the dragon.

[TL: I don’t know here, it’s a weird sentence]

“Aiyah! Fang Han! This time you really did receive a reward. Even though you received ten lashes, second lady also rewarded you a wu’liang. So profitable!”

“Indeed, ten lashes in return for a wu’liang silver, I welcome it.”

“Who doesn’t welcome it? Even idiots welcome it.”

“Fang Han, this time you have prospered, take us out to dinner.”

After Fang Qing Wei’s party left, only the breeders were left in the field, and they all gathered around Fang Han, looking enviously at the silver in his hand.

“This time punished by whip, but rewarded with silver. Next time maybe they will kill you, or even bury you.” Looking at these people, Fang Han coldly laughed in his heart.

“I will definitely invite you all to dinner, but right now my entire body aches, wait till my injuries heal, and I will make sure to invite you all.” Fang Han let out an ‘aiyah,’ a groan of pain, his face completely twisted, and limped his way out of the encirclement of people.

“If I train to the divine realm described by Ju’ling Hand Fang Tong, I wonder if second lady will hit the whip, or return something sweet? Will our positions be switched? Will I hold to whip and lash second lady, then bestow silver?”

[TL: It sounds weird because I translated the phrase literally since I couldn’t think of a better way to put it in English]

Once Fang Han returned to his own house, the pain from the injuries had lightened up a bit. Holding the wu’liang silver in his hand, he knew that it was the master using the servant as an example. First, he was used as an example show rewards and punishments, secondly it showed that Fang Qing Wei was perspicacious, and to warn other servants. Finally, he was rewarded after his punishment as a model servant who didn’t generate resentment after punishment, representing his loyalty.

[TL: Weird paragraph, I couldn’t understand what the point of it was, and made something up based on what I thought it was supposed to mean :/]

However, Fang Han had already become tired and weary of his life of servitude that he had gone through since youth.

The message his father secretly taught him when he was young, “I would rather be a beggar, than serve someone,” had already become ingrained in his mind.