Chapter 11 Settling Down

Since they had agreed, they wouldn't consider that matter for the time being.

Hu Ma and the others didn't say much more. They first had a hearty meal and drink. Then, Hu Ma carried the jar of wine and went to the entrance of the village.

He saw that the horse, which had been riddled with Gu poison and was on the verge of death, was still breathing. Initially, when it was waiting to die, it had been lying there in a pose of sacred anticipation.

But now, it was lying down lazily, its belly facing the sky.

Seeing Hu Ma approaching, it opened its eyes weakly, glanced at him, and then closed them wearily, as if it didn't want to bother with anyone in this world...

Hu Ma said, "Old buddy, can you move a little? I brought you some wine. How about you take a sip before you go?"

The horse kept its eyes closed, ignoring him completely. Hu Ma didn't force it. He placed a bowl next to it, poured most of the wine from the jar into the bowl, and then placed the jar aside before turning back.

The horse remained lying down. For a long, long time, the more it smelled, the more fragrant it found the wine.

Finally, it couldn't resist anymore, and rolled over. It stretched its mouth into the bowl, took a small sip, and found it increasingly fragrant. Eventually, it couldn't help but grab the jar with its mouth, tilting it up and gulping down more than half of the jar. Then, the entire horse finally began to feel drowsy.

Hu Ma also returned to the hall and called over the artisans from the mine who had been waiting anxiously, along with Zhuang, the mine foreman, and his two disciples.

"Everyone, there's one thing you can be sure of."

Hu Ma smiled at everyone and said, "I'm here from the Red Lantern Society, sent by our Red Lantern Goddess to check on the properties under her name. If you're doing well, of course, we'll reward you. If you're not..."

"...then we won't punish you either, but it's necessary for us to take over the management ourselves."

"..."

As he spoke, he first looked at the mine foreman, Zhuang, only to see that he was listening silently, without any objection. If it had been before, the moment he said these words, they would probably have torn each other apart and fought.

But now, it depended on who could solve the problem first.

"But you've all seen that we only have four or five people, which means we're not planning to bring in new flesh-cutters. Your jobs are safe."

Hu Ma continued, his face full of smiles, "To be honest, there are elders in my family who rely on flesh-cutting for a living, so we know it's not easy for everyone. Plus, our Red Lantern Goddess is famous for her kindness in the surrounding villages, and she even has a temple built for her..."

"...how could she let us do such evil deeds that cut off people's livelihoods?"

"..."

The people in the mine didn't expect Hu Ma to call them over to say this, and their eyes darted around, all somewhat confused.

As for the mine foreman, Zhuang, his two disciples, and a few other mine managers, they immediately panicked and looked at Zhuang, realizing that Hu Ma was openly trying to win over the people.

Zhuang slowly shook his head, signaling them not to make a fuss, and whispered, "They're capable, and they're from the upper levels of the society. What can you do?"

"If you're not planning to tear each other apart, then just treat them well."

"Considering we're all of the Shou Sui Ren lineage, there's no reason for him to be too harsh on us."

"Besides, can any of you deal with the one outside?"

"..."

Upon hearing this, the two disciples stopped talking and sighed softly, giving the other managers a look, signaling them to remain calm.

"But we're decent people, and you all have to be decent too. If everyone's good to each other, we'll all have food to eat."

Hu Ma said the good things first, and then his face darkened slightly, saying, "Now that I'm here, I see everyone's uneasy, and there are妖人 *yao ren* (evil people) causing trouble outside. Everyone is starting to worry."

"But you don't have to worry. Now that we're here, those妖人 *yao ren* (evil people) can't harm the people in our mine. But before I take over, you have to do what you need to do. I brought the account book from the society with me, and I'm sure your mine also has its own account book."

"I can burn the one from the society, but I'm going to take a good look at the blood-flesh and inventory in this mine."

"..."

"Ah?"

Including the mine foreman, Zhuang, his two disciples, and a few of the managers among the flesh-cutting artisans, their faces changed instantly.

No wonder they didn't talk about how to deal with the Witches first, but instead wanted to gather everyone to talk.

They were targeting the current batch of blood-flesh in the mine...

In Zhuang's account, whether it was true or not, and regardless of what could be cut out from the depths of the bloodline, or how these Witches came to be, Hu Ma and Old Suanpan had both noticed one key point:

Before this incident happened, the mine had unearthed a lot of Blood Tai Sui, and even quite a few of them were good things with golden patterns...

According to their story, these few baskets of good stuff hadn't had time to be transported out yet. Shouldn't they take them quickly?

Isn't it normal for a manager sent by the Red Lantern Society to check the accounts?

Not handing them over?

If the mine didn't hand them over, then things would be serious. Did they think that just because they dug it out, it was theirs?

This belonged to our Red Lantern Goddess!

With the words "check the accounts" spoken, Hu Ma looked at Zhuang, the mine foreman, who was standing in the crowd. He saw that his face was pale and hesitant. His two disciples were also looking at him, as if they were about to take action at any moment.

But he pondered for a long time, and then sighed softly. He waved his hand and whispered a few words to his two disciples and the managers, sending them away.

Before long, the mine was buzzing with activity, and two black jars sealed with mud were carried over.

The blood-flesh from the mine had to be put into jars as soon as possible and sealed with labels to prevent attracting anything. The higher the quality, the more so. The labels could also be used to determine what was inside the jar.

When Hu Ma saw the labels on the jars, he generally knew the quality, but he wasn't in a hurry to open them and check. He just looked at them with a half-smile and said, "Is this all?"

The two disciples nodded repeatedly, but Zhuang's face was awkward. After a long time, he said, "There's, there's a little bit more."

As he spoke, he asked people to carry more, and two more jars were carried over.

Hu Ma looked at them, silent and cold, but Old Suanpan said, "I heard you say you dug up a few baskets, and these jars are ten *jin* (Chinese pound) in weight, but they're usually not filled to the brim, so they only hold about seven or eight *jin*. If one basket is about fifty *jin*, then these few jars you have now are probably..."

Zhuang's face turned pale when he heard this. He rushed to Hu Ma and pleaded in a low voice, "Manager Hu..."

"We're all of the Shou Sui lineage, please..."

"..."

"We're not unreasonable people..."

Hu Ma smiled at him and lowered his voice, "Old brother, the moment you mentioned our respective inheritances, I understood. My master, Second Master Zhou, is also a well-known figure."

"To be honest, your Green Shirt Gang is gone now. This blood-flesh mine belongs to our Red Lantern Society. I understand if you want to keep some benefits, and even in the future, it's nothing if we all make a living in this mine together."

"But this is my first time here, and I'm facing such a big issue outside, which requires me to put in effort!"

"I'm not shirking responsibility, but look at you, shouldn't you be a little more honest?"

"..."

"I..."

Zhuang didn't know what to say. He lowered his voice and said, "This opportunity is something you only get once in a lifetime. To be honest, I have two more jars hidden away, but at least let me keep a little. How about I secretly give you one jar?"

"No need!"

Hu Ma looked him in the eye and said, "No matter how much you have, bring it all over."

"Then, I'll make the decision. You take two jars back as a reward for you and your brothers' hard work. What do you think?"

"..."

Zhuang was stunned for a moment. After a long time, he suddenly smiled bitterly and nodded.

He actually led people to carry them over. Before long, three more jars were carried to their table. Now, looking at the dark mass in front of them, everyone gasped and felt a little unreal.

Eight large jars, each containing close to ten *jin* of blood-flesh. Counting it all up, wouldn't that be seventy or eighty *jin* of blood-flesh, just placed here?

Moreover, this was blood-flesh that didn't need to be offered as tribute, that they could keep for themselves...

"Enough..."

And Hu Ma, looking at it, also felt a slight weight in his heart.

He had come to this mine for blood-flesh in the first place. As long as he had enough blood-flesh, he could successfully enter the mansion. However, his shortage of blood-flesh was really quite significant, and he had thought it would take a lot of effort to obtain it...

Who knew that he would make such a small fortune as soon as he arrived, perhaps it would be enough already?

Suppressing the excitement in his heart, he took a deep breath and pointed to two of the jars, saying, "Foreman Zhuang, take these back first and check the quality."

"As for the others..."

He stood up and said to Zhou Datong, "Datong, pick a place to stay and move everything to our own room."

"I'm going to check the accounts properly tonight."

"..."

Zhou Datong jumped up excitedly when he heard this, and said repeatedly, "Okay, okay!"

Old Suanpan also became anxious and said, "What about me, what about me? I can help check the accounts too."

Hu Ma said, "It's the same if you come to my room to check."

Seeing everyone busy, Zhuang was both surprised and delighted. He was happy that Hu Ma actually dared to make the decision to assign two jars to him. This had been something that couldn't be brought to light before, but now that he had assigned it, wouldn't it become legitimately his?

Seeing that they were just moving the jars away, but were still a little uneasy, looking at the flesh-cutting artisans who were craning their necks to look outside, he quickly said, "Just checking the accounts?"

"Manager Hu, the妖人 *yao ren* (evil people) outside are still causing trouble. Shouldn't we discuss a plan?"

"..."

"Plan?"

Hu Ma narrowed his eyes when he heard this and said, "Simple."

"Datong, fill our lanterns with oil and hang them on the door!"

"Since they sent a dead crow, wanting people to move, then we'll hang up red lanterns to tell them that this is our Red Lantern Goddess's territory. If the other party doesn't know to back down, then they're at odds with our Red Lantern Goddess."

"I want to see how brave they are!"

(End of this chapter)