spoiled brat

Chapter 151, Section 150: The Sun's Flame (Part 10)

After several spring rains, the weather gradually became hot and humid.

Xie Xiaoqing was awakened by mosquito bites during his afternoon nap. He felt inexplicably irritable. His back was covered in sweat, and his half-wet clothes clung to the recliner.

He struggled to sit up. On the crooked table was a chipped teapot, supposedly for cooling drinks to beat the heat, but what came out was lukewarm barley tea.

Drinking a cup of this drink not only failed to relieve the heat, but actually made me feel even more agitated.

"Young Master Xie, you're awake." A young boy slipped into the shade and said with a smile, "I was just about to come in and wake you."

Xie Xiaoqing glanced at the scorching sun; it was a quarter past noon.

He asked the boy, "Is your master, Lord Li, not here?"

After a few days of carrying out his mission, he and Li Qingwen, though outwardly friendly, were not truly at odds. They deliberately avoided each other—when he went to the north of the city to gather refugees, Li Qingwen would wait at the martial arts training ground, and vice versa. Their interactions were harmonious.

This morning he went to the north of the city and selected about a hundred refugees with intact hands and feet.

Logically, the afternoon's tasks were not his responsibility; it should have been Li Qingwen who went to the training ground to inquire about the refugees' household registrations, names, and skills, and then assign them to different groups.

"No one visits a temple without a reason," the boy said with an embarrassed smile. "Yes, my master is busy with other official business right now, so I'll have to trouble you to do it for him."

Li Qingwen is an official, so it's normal for him to have other official duties.

Xie Xiaoqing didn't dwell on trivial matters. He straightened his clothes and put on his shoes, then followed the boy out of the shaded pavilion. Under the scorching sun, they hadn't walked far before arriving at the training ground.

This is a place for officers and students to practice riding, archery, and swordsmanship. Since it has not yet been put into use, there are only soldiers on guard duty and a group of ragged refugees on the vast grassland.

The sun was scorching, and the refugees, who had been waiting for a long time, had their sallow faces tanned dark red. When they saw Xie Xiaoqing arrive, they all knelt down and called him "Your Honor, the Upright Official."

Xie Xiaoqing couldn't accept the offer, so he quickly told them to get up and asked the assistant clerk to bring some tea.

The clerk covered his nose, disgusted by the stench emanating from the huddled refugees: "Young Master Xie, tea may not be valuable, but our yamen's budget is limited. Why waste it on outsiders?"

Since the outbreak of war, the Ministry of Revenue, which was already struggling to make ends meet, has become even more destitute, with most officials in arrears on their salaries, and all the major government offices are in dire need of money.

The clerk's words made sense, and Xie Xiaoqing sighed, "Then let's ask a few brothers to fetch some well water, that should be alright, right?"

The clerk was still too lazy to move: "Young Master Xie, the nearest well is a mile away. Carrying water is hard work. You want us to go through all that trouble to serve these goods?"

Xie Xiaoqing reasoned with them: "In this sweltering heat, if we don't give them water, what if someone faints here? Wouldn't that ruin Lord Jiang's reputation?"

The clerk smiled and thanked Xiao Qing for being young, then pointed to the riverbank: "Don't worry, they won't die of thirst. If you push them too far, they'll know to drink from the river."

Seeing Li Qingwen's slick face, Xie Xiaoqing knew how Li Qingwen had been acting these past few days, and said with a sneer:
“You really don’t treat people like human beings—the upper reaches of that river are a horse farm, where all sorts of horse manure and urine are mixed in. Why don’t you feed your old mother a bowl of it? It’s not just that it’s unclean, but if people drink it and get sick, the capital will be in chaos!”

Xie Xiaoqing pulled out the bag of money Zhaozhao had given him, took out a few pieces of silver and tossed them to the clerk: "Fetch some water!"

Money makes the world go round. The clerk clutched the silver and retreated. Before long, a dozen buckets of well water were brought back by an oxcart.

The refugees, who usually endured wind and rain and lacked food, considered a bowl of clean well water a blessing and knelt down to call out to the benevolent ruler.

Xie Xiaoqing couldn't stand this and asked if any of the refugees knew how to raise horses.

Several men squeezed through the crowd and hurriedly raised their hands: "Sir, we know how to raise horses!"

They came from all directions, with different accents, and for different reasons why they were displaced.

After briefly inquiring about his background and examining several tattered household registration certificates, Xie Xiaoqing frowned and looked at the youngest man: "Your surname is Guo?"

The man surnamed Guo nodded. Xie Xiaoqing beckoned him closer, and after seeing his appearance clearly, asked, "Are you thirty?"

The man surnamed Guo nodded.

Xie Xiaoqing frowned deeply. The person in front of him was tall and thin with dark, shiny skin. He was clearly a young man like a leopard. He didn't look thirty at all.
He asked cautiously, "You are a military household member from Yunzhou, why did you flee to the capital?"

Although these times were chaotic, people would still keep their household registration certificates safe while away from home to avoid becoming unregistered vagrants and being conscripted into the army by the authorities. Being deregistered was tantamount to death, so bandits often forged household registration certificates.

The man surnamed Guo slowly raised his head, his eyes dark and bright. Xie Xiaoqing was struck by something indescribable in his eyes and inexplicably felt that he was very similar to Zhao Zhao.

"Reporting to you, sir," Guo's voice was hoarse, "Last year, I was assigned a task with my colleagues to escort a group of lowly bandits to the north to serve in the army. However, halfway there, they broke free of their shackles and suddenly started killing people in the night."

Xie Xiaoqing's eyelids twitched: "Your colleagues are all dead, and you're the only one left alive?"

The man surnamed Guo lowered his eyes and said, "I'm lucky to be alive; I escaped death."

He didn't need to tell Xie Xiaoqing what happened next; he could guess. Although he survived, he was unable to perform his duties well and could not return to the yamen, so he had to wander outside.

This seems reasonable, but this person looks like a teenager.

Xie Xiaoqing had doubts but didn't ask many questions. He said to the men who claimed to know how to raise horses, "I'm sure someone has already told you the inside story. This is not a relief effort, but rather to select some experts who know how to raise horses."

The men were eager to try, rubbing their hands together in anticipation.

Xie Xiaoqing disregarded Li Qingwen's previous procedures and proceeded in his own way, instructing a minor official to bring over several horses and introducing them one by one:

"These horses, some have poor appetites, some have a lot of hoofbeats, each has its own problems. Whoever can diagnose the problem can stay at the training ground to raise the horses."

There was a salary for raising horses, two hundred coins a month, not much, but enough to make a living. The men crowded around, carefully examining each horse's eyes, tongue, mouth, nose, hair, and hooves. Among them were a few experts who could even listen to the horse's belly and identify insects by looking at its tail.

Xie Xiaoqing was intrigued by what he saw, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the man surnamed Guo was standing silently in place, not at all like someone who knew anything about horses.

really.

Xie Xiaoqing thought to himself, this person's appearance doesn't match his age on the household registration form, and he doesn't have the knowledge that a military household should have. He must be a fugitive.

Just as they were hesitating whether to report it to the authorities afterward, the man surnamed Guo made his move. He was so thin that he walked like a black shadow and knelt straight in front of a restless horse.

Seeing him make a move to pick up the horse's hoof, Xie Xiaoqing knew in his heart that this was bad. This was a stallion with a violent temper, and this man was probably going to get his head kicked open.

But things didn't go as he expected.

The man surnamed Guo seemed to be able to talk to the horse. He whispered a few words, and the horse obediently put its hooves into his arms.

After examining it for a moment, the man surnamed Guo turned around and said, "Sir Xie, this horse is sick."

If there is no illness, there is no need to bring it out.

"...He has an illness. He was originally a good stud horse, a cross between a Northwest breed and a Hejian horse. The mares all loved him very much, and the foals he gave birth to were also plump and strong."

Xie Xiaoqing hesitated, then said, "But for some reason, since last year, it has become increasingly irritable, refusing to eat hay or play with the mare."

“It’s not limp,” said the man surnamed Guo, pointing to the horse’s forelegs. “It’s just in too much pain.”

The man surnamed Guo tapped the horse's hoof, and the horse neighed softly twice. Xie Xiaoqing knew a little about raising horses and guessed that something sharp had gotten into its hoof, so he quickly ordered someone to fetch a pry bar.

The man surnamed Guo took the pry bar and quickly removed the horseshoe. Sure enough, there was a small wound on the hoof, oozing pus pitifully.

“The horseshoes won’t fit.” The man surnamed Guo grabbed a large handful of grass and tied it to the horse’s hooves. The horse was wearing green boots. He smiled and said, “Good little horse, you’ve suffered.”

That smile revealed a lively, youthful spirit in his dark face, clean and bright. Xie Xiaoqing returned his household registration certificate and asked, "Your name is Guo..."

"Just call me Xiao Guo." He spoke with a Yunzhou accent, pronouncing "Guo" as an extra syllable.

Xie Xiaoqing asked curiously, "No one else can see the problem with this horse, but you have a keen eye—did you often ride horses when you were on official business?"

"No."

After half a year in exile, the past events in my memory have become blurred: buildings burning in flames, people with their bellies ripped open, old friends whose fates are unknown...

Xiao Duo calmly lowered his eyes: "I feed the horses for those old men."