The leader remembered Fang Shuo's previous slander of the Divine Lady, so when assigning workers, he deliberately sent Fang Shuo to the harshest No. 7 Mine, while Ah Zheng was sent elsewhere.
The master and servant were thus forced to separate.
As the son of a governor, Fang Shuo had grown up surrounded by crowds of servants. He had always been pampered, with people waiting on him hand and foot, treating him like a little ancestor.
However, at the mine, no one was going to coddle him.
His hands, which had never done a single day of hard labor, were now forced to grip an iron pickaxe heavier than his own arm, striking the pitch-black mine wall over and over again.
Coal dust mixed with sweat, carving black streaks down his face. Any trace of his former self—dressed in fine silks and jade belts—had long since vanished, leaving behind only a soot-covered coal miner with hands covered in bloody blisters.
When it was time for a break, the miners collected their food and sat in small groups near the entrance of the mine shaft to eat.
Fang Shuo held the wowotou he had been given.
It was dry, hard, and had an indescribable, strange taste. He tried to take a bite and almost choked to death on the spot.
A dark-skinned, middle-aged man sitting next to him handed over his waterskin. “Eat slower, no one's going to steal it from you. If it's not enough, you can go to the overseer for more. Since we work here, we get all the dry rations we can eat every day.”
Fang Shuo: “...”
Looking at the grimy, black waterskin in the man's hand, he felt a wave of disgust. However, he was choking so badly that he could only frown, take the waterskin, close his eyes, and take a huge gulp.
Once he caught his breath, he returned the waterskin to the man and took the opportunity to strike up a conversation.
“Brother, can I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
The man put away his waterskin.
“How long have you been mining coal here?”
The man counted on his fingers and smiled warmly. “My memory's not great, but it's probably been two or three months.”
“Two or three months? Then shouldn't you have earned enough for the city entry fee long ago? Why are you still staying at the mine?”
As Fang Shuo spoke, he looked around before lowering his voice to ask, “Is the mine refusing to let you leave, forcing you all to stay here and dig coal?”
At the thought of having to mine coal here for the rest of his life, his face grew even paler.
Seeing that Fang Shuo had misunderstood, the man quickly explained, “No one's forcing us to dig coal. We chose to stay here.”
Hearing this, Fang Shuo looked as if he had seen a ghost. “This work is so dirty and exhausting. Who would willingly do it?”
“People like us don't know how to read, and we don't have the skills of craftsmen. All we have is our physical strength.” The man took a bite of his wowotou. “Just finding a job is hard enough. Mining coal here is tough, but it covers our food and lodging, and they even pay us a monthly wage. I calculated that if I work for another two years, I'll be able to buy a land deed in Yecheng. Once I have that, I can send my kids to study at Yecheng Academy...”
Fang Shuo fell silent, listening quietly to the man's ramblings. The more he listened, the more uncomfortable he felt.
He had only mined coal for a single morning, yet he already felt that this work was absolutely unfit for humans.
Yet the man in front of him said he wanted to do it for another two years. When he said this, his eyes were bright, without a single trace of dread about the two years of hard labor ahead.
Besides, what was so good about studying? Back home, just looking at books and brushes gave him a headache.
Yet this man was actually planning to mine coal for two years just to send his children to study at an academy?
Ever since he arrived in Yecheng, every single person he met was stranger than the last. Nothing made sense here.
Could that Divine Lady be using some kind of sorcery?
No, I have to find a way to escape!
“Brother, do you know if there's any way to leave the mine early? My grandmother is in poor health, and the young registration official didn't make her come here. I don't know where they sent her, and I'm really worried...”
“Don't worry. Everyone in Yecheng is a believer of the Divine Lady. Since the elderly, children, and pregnant women can't do heavy labor, the officials in the city will arrange lighter tasks for them.”
The man said with a look of relief, “Because my wife is pregnant, she and our two kids were placed in the Hall of Salvation run by the Governor's wife. She only has to do whatever light chores she can manage every day, and they live very comfortably.”
Fang Shuo had no idea what the man was so relieved about.
He only felt that making even the elderly, children, and pregnant women work in Yecheng was absolutely insane.
This only hardened his resolve to escape.
It was all his father's fault. He had really ruined him!
“Brother, but I'm still not at ease. My grandmother has trouble moving around, and she needs someone by her side to take care of her.”
Fang Shuo pulled half a flatbread from his shirt. “My grandmother gave me this, and I couldn't bear to eat it...”
As he spoke, his eyes actually welled with tears.
Life in this coal mine was simply too miserable. He wanted to go back to Chaoyang City. He wanted to go home, waah...
The man looked at him with sympathy. “Did you do well in your studies?”
Fang Shuo shook his head. He hated studying more than anything. Normally, he only liked playing with crickets and cockfighting with his fair-weather friends.
“Then do you know how to do carpentry or something similar?”
Fang Shuo shook his head again.
The man sighed and patted him on the shoulder. “Then you can only stay at the mine. Once you dig coal for a month and save enough silver to enter the city, you'll be able to see your grandmother.”
Fang Shuo was on the verge of a breakdown.
A month? Digging coal for a whole month?!
“Don't go thinking of any crooked ideas. General Shen, who runs the No. 7 Mine, is completely impartial and won't tolerate any nonsense.”
The man kindly warned him, “Pleading won't work either. Last time, some fella tried to enter the city without working. He went to cry to General Shen, and General Shen had him beaten with wooden planks.”
Fang Shuo, who had just been planning to throw himself at the general's feet and beg: “...”
He slumped to the ground, his heart completely dead.
“Time's up. Back to work.”
Just as the man finished speaking, disaster struck.
Rumble!
The sound, like muffled thunder, echoed from deep underground, shaking the entire mine shaft.
Coal dust cascaded down from above.
Fang Shuo's face was instantly covered in soot.
“Oh no! It's collapsing!”
The man's face paled instantly. He grabbed Fang Shuo by the collar, dragging him up from the ground. “Run!”
Fang Shuo's mind went completely blank.
His legs felt like jelly as he was dragged forward.
Screams, frantic footsteps, and the sound of falling rocks blended together as the mine shaft descended into absolute chaos.
Suddenly—
Fang Shuo was shoved to the ground by a massive force, the man's anxious voice shouting at him to get out of the way echoing in his ears.
He whipped his head around.
The man who had been helping him escape was now kneeling on the ground, his right leg pinned under a massive boulder, his face covered in coal dust.
“Run!” Veins bulged on his forehead, his eyes bloodshot. “What are you standing there for? Run!”
“Brother, you...”
“I don't think I'm making it out!” The man looked down at his leg, gritted his teeth, reached into his shirt, pulled out a cloth bundle, and threw it to Fang Shuo. “Take this!”
Fang Shuo caught it instinctively. The bundle wasn't large, but it was heavy. Through the coarse fabric, he could feel loose silver and copper coins.
“My wife's name is Juhua!”
The man's voice trembled, his eyes red with tears, but he forced out his remaining breath. “Tell her for me... tell her I saved this money for her, and she must live on!”
Rocks continued to shower down.
Fang Shuo couldn't remember how he had managed to follow the other miners and escape the collapsing shaft.
He stood in a daze in the open clearing, clutching the sweaty, old cloth bundle, staring at the mine entrance that was now completely buried under rubble.
Once reality sank in, his eyes turned red, and he threw himself forward, desperately clawing at the rocks. “There are still people inside!”
“Quick, help me save them!”
He didn't even care that his fingernails were tearing.
Blood seeped into the crevices of the stones.
Shen Jue stood not far away. After a long silence, he sighed and said, “The people inside the shaft are beyond saving...”
Fang Shuo slowly raised his head, his face a mess of tears and black soot. “You haven't even tried to save them! How do you know they can't be saved?”
If a personal guard had saved him, he would have felt sad at most. But that coal miner wasn't his guard.
In fact, they barely knew each other.
Why was everyone in Yecheng so strange?
Even strangers would sacrifice their lives to save someone else.
They were sick. Every single one of them was insane!
Rate on N.U.
