The Rise of Phoenixes Novel Translation #163

When it was almost dawn, a group of mountain people came climbing up carrying someone with them, crying all the while. 

“Physician Ruan!” An old man in the front of the group yelled when he saw the physician walking out the door with a wooden basket on his back. Throwing himself in front of the doctor, he cried “My nephew from the city came to visit me and got bit by something on the very first day. Please save him, please, please save him…” 

The young man that was carried up, his face was already turning ashen, his leg swollen like a winter melon. 

Casting a casual glance at the young man, Physician Ruan grumbled with displeasure “How is such a small injury causing all this panic?” Not bothering to prescribe a prescription, he pointed at a few medicinal herbs around and ordered his apprentice to go brew it for the young man. In a short time, the swelling disappeared and the young man woke up as well. 

The very grateful old man carried his nephew and left. The physician and his apprentice were about to continue on with their herb collecting when a team of guards suddenly showed up out of nowhere. 

“Our mistress suddenly fell ill at night, we ask you sir to please make a trip into Pucheng city with us. There will be ample rewards.”

“I won’t go!” Physician Ruan was indeed as eccentric as they say. Rolling his eyes, the man refused to pay the guards any more heed and turned to leave. 

The head guard waved his hand.

A group of men immediately pounced on the doctor and dragged him off. 

“Hey, hey! What are you guys doing! Let go of me!” Physician Ruan struggled desperately and cursed “You bandits! Pigs!” 

The apprentice threw down his herb basket, chased after the guards, and punched widely with his fists, “Robbers! Jerks! Pigs!”

Physician Ruan cursed: “Let go! Or else be careful your whole family is cursed with death!”

The apprentice jumped in and started biting, “Die with your whole family!” 

Physician Ruan cursed “Ignorant and dirty dung maggots!” 

The apprentice jumped on someone’s back and started choking the man’s neck “Maggots! Maggots!” 

The guards couldn’t do anything to the doctor but a mere apprentice is definitely someone they can do something to, so the apprentice soon got a beating from the fed-up guards. 

“If you break my apprentice then I will fight you all to death!” Unable to free himself, Physician Ruan screamed angrily. The guards finally stopped beating up the young apprentice, stuffed a dirty rug into his mouth, threw both of them into the carriage, and head straight for Puyuan city. 

When everyone left and the cliff top is empty, someone suddenly stumbled out of the house. 

After tearing out the smelly sock in his mouth and dry heaving a few times towards the ground, the green-clothed man caked with eye boggers angrily yelled at the sky a few times. 

“Wait! I will be there for sure!” 

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Ever since the army is stationed in Pucheng, things have gradually become more turbulent in the city. The Yue soldiers who returned in defeat are feeling frustrated and irritable so they frequently ended up in conflict with the citizens whenever they go into town. This has been occurring ever since they were stationed and has never stopped. Their General, Jin Siyu had repeatedly issued stern orders and even killed a few trouble-making soldiers but the conflict never ceased. Jin Siyu doesn’t dare to press too hard– to suffer a landslide loss after repeated big victories, it is easy to be influenced emotionally. With His Majesty not allowing them to retreat and an upcoming big battle next spring, things could get out of hand if the soldiers get out of control. 

However, things took a turn for the worse today– A few soldiers were found in the city trying to buy things with fake money. It wasn’t a big thing to begin with. It could’ve all been swept under the rug if they would just compensate the seller but instead, the soldiers not only arrogantly refused they ended up killing someone. The citizens and the vendors in the city immediately surrounded the soldiers. Things quickly escalated once some other soldiers that were in the city rushed over to support their colleagues and ended up in a group fight. By the time the Pucheng constables and Jin Siyu’s guards arrived, the situation was already out of control. Not only were there several casualties among the commoners and soldiers, but several of the constables were also injured. 

The incident happened right during the morning market when many of the Puyuan manor (the house Jin Siyu is at) servants were shopping (for their jobs). A few of the servants were trampled to death right then and a few disappeared. Ever since His Highness moved into Puyuan, the manor was already feeling short on hand but things have gotten even worse now. This then caused the owner of Puyuan to ask someone to seek Prince An’s approval to see if they could buy more servants. 

Jin Siyu was in the middle of dealing with this chaos that had even alarmed the palace so he agreed without asking too many questions. Before he left though, he told the reporting guard: “Follow the old rules.” 

The guard took Jin Siyu’s order and personally accompanied Puyuan’s steward to select the new servants. This is to select servants that will be in the same household as His Highness. Even if they won’t be able to enter into the inner manor, they will still need to be selected carefully by their background information, recommendation letters and many other cumbersome checks. 

By the time the head guard arrived, the first batch of the initial servant selection has been made. All the potential candidates looked sharp and are all bowing their heads waiting for their orders.

The Puyuan steward smilingly greeted him and rubbed his hands excitedly “This bath of servants all look great. You can please take a look, sir.” 

The head guard nodded. Glance over the group, he thought the candidates indeed all looked fairly sharp as he sat down on the upper seat. 

“The one you all will serve is not an ordinary person. He is our empire’s grand general, Prince An. Even if you only can serve in the outer manor, it is something that will honor your family for generations. You will need to be extremely careful, learn the rules before you enter or else if something goes wrong then no one will be able to save you…” The head guard sat on the upper seat, sternly gave his spiel, and was about to reach for the tea cup after feeling a bit thirsty when a new tall-looking servant immediately stepped forward to serve him the tea. 

Accepting the tea cup, the head guard looked over this observant servant and thought other than the pair of squinty eyes that are a bit unsightly, the guy could be considered tall and handsome. Nodding in approval, the head guards said a few more things then finished by saying “Since you all are going to serve His Highness then you will need to obey by the rules of An manor.” With a wave of his hand, someone immediately brought forward an iron plate with red burning coals on it and a soldering iron with an engraved character. 

“As a servant, the most important thing is loyalty. To be a member of Prince An’s manor for a day means being Prince An’s slave for his entire life– are you willing?”

“Yes!” Everyone answered collectively, with the tall man’s answering especially loud and he even added “To go through fire and water for His Highness, even if it means death!” 

“Oh, there is even some book learning in this one!” The head guard smiled, “No need for fire and water, just a bit of pain.” 

All the new servants raised their heads to look at that soldering iron that is now burning red, on it, it had a very clear “An” character on it. 

“This is the mark of An manor. You will carry it on your body, forever branded. This is your glory but if someone is afraid then you can take back your deed.” 

Everyone’s expression changed. To be branded like cows and horses? It is rumored that Da Yue’s nobles had this sort of tradition in the early years but it has long since been abolished because it was too barbaric but who would’ve thought An manor would still have this practice. 

The head guard sipped his tea in silence– In truth, the An manor didn’t have this rule previously. This is His Highness’s new order since they arrived in Pucheng. The reason is not something people like him could speculate. 

The room fell into silence, an expression of reluctance was on everyone’s face. Being a servant might be a second-class citizen but at least they are still considered human. Yet, this is to be treated like cows and horses…how will they ever face others if one day they were able to buy back their deed and return home? 

(There are a few types of servants. 1. Really more like slaves where the owners can kill them without any consequences. 2. Indentured servants where one is paid and can eventually buy back their freedom when they have earned enough money. 3. Employees where they are paid and can leave anytime. Here, I am guessing the new servants are more like #2 but since they are serving a prince, then they really don’t have anywhere to turn to even if they are killed like a slave.)

A door in the adjacent room opened to reveal a few narrow beds inside, waiting for people to either go inside to be branded or leave at will. 

The squinty eye tall men stared at the iron brand, seemingly trying to stare at it until a flower bloomed from it. Another silent man with an ordinary face stared at the small door instead, a pensive expression on his face.

It’s might get a little confusing in this and the next few posts regarding who is who so take a guess in the comments and I will add in my own guess. By the way, Merry Christmas everyone!

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