The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 21 Big Cat
Those people who were chatting were local servants.

In feudal times, servants in wealthy families were divided into two types: one was the maids who sold themselves to the master, and the other was the hired help.

Those who sell their bodies are actually slaves, and their masters have the final say over their life and death. They don't get paid, and their weddings and funerals don't count.

It sounds miserable, but in fact, if you meet a kind-hearted host, at least you won't starve to death. During festivals, you can get some good luck, and during famine years, your life is much better than that of ordinary people.

Of course, there are requirements for selling yourself into slavery - you have to be good-looking.

The wealthy families also had something to say: "That's it! How many people want to kneel, but they don't have a way!"

For example, the ones chatting here are maids hired by wealthy families when they are short of manpower at home. They do chores like sweeping, cleaning, and repairing. The money is paid in exchange for the goods, and they are actually temporary workers.

Most of the gossip and rumors about wealthy families come from this kind of people.

Because those who sell their bodies have their food and lodging provided by the master, and their life and death are decided by the master.

If you get caught gossiping, you might even lose your life.

As for maids, they would go back and forth between the various wealthy families. After finishing their work, they would have a small gathering before going home. After a few drinks, the gossip would naturally spread.

At this time, these people had already had three rounds of drinks, their faces were flushed, their hearts were hot, and they were confused.

Seeing Li Miao coming over with wine, he knew from the jug that it was good wine that he couldn't afford normally, so he naturally wouldn't refuse it.

I quickly made room for Li Miao, and we started talking about this "haunted" story.

Speaking of Mr. Wu, he was a well-known wealthy man in Pingshanwei. He owned thousands of acres of fertile land and his mansion was magnificent.

The process by which Mr. Wu's ancestors became rich was actually very cruel.

The primitive accumulation of capital is bloody, especially in the feudal era.

Thousands of acres of fertile land certainly do not fall from the sky; they are often obtained through trickery and robbery.

Of course, splendor and splendor are not something that one is born with; every bit of it is stripped away from a person.

Fortunately, Mr. Wu’s ancestors were smart people. They knew that the key to passing on wealth was not to make the wealth more, but to make everyone feel that “you deserve to have so much money.”

So he began to make friends with officials and powerful people and found some support for himself.

He also began to curb his bad habits, do good deeds, and even provide porridge in years of famine. When tenants were a few days late in paying rent, he would ask his subordinates to come to their homes and say something like "the landlord has no surplus food" and extend the time for a while.

This was passed down for two or three generations. By the time of Mr. Wu, the reputation in Pingshanwei had become "No wonder they are rich."

Mr. Wu himself was not very smart and had not been good at studying, so he just lived an honest life as a rich man in Pingshanwei and lived a comfortable life.

But since a month ago, Mr. Wu's life has become difficult.

At first, he was a security guard in the mansion. When he was on patrol at night, he always felt cold and scared, and he couldn't find the reason.

Later, the flowers and plants in the mansion began to wilt.

A few days later, when the servants were cleaning the yard, they always found animal carcasses in some corners.

At first there were snakes, insects, rats and ants, then birds, and then wild cats.

You have to know that it is already late autumn and the weather is getting cooler. It usually takes two or three days for a corpse to start to rot.

These corpses looked like they had been dead for some time and had begun to infest with maggots, rot and stink.

At first, the servants thought that some wild cats might have brought the body in and not finished eating it, or that some naughty children might have thrown it in over the wall, so they didn't pay much attention to it.

As a result, after one batch was cleaned up, another batch died the next day. The number of corpses increased, and the originally quiet yard was filled with a foul smell.

More than ten days passed like this, and Mr. Wu finally couldn't bear it anymore, so he asked the guards to go to the yard at night to watch what was going on.

According to the night watchman, it was very cold that night and the moon was covered by clouds.

The entire yard was lit only by the light of lanterns. A group of people were scattered in the yard and could only barely see each other's figures. They couldn't even see the faces of the people opposite them.

A group of people were in the yard, smelling the faint stench of corpse and feeling scared.

Just when they forced themselves to stay awake until the fourth watch, thinking that the night was over.

meow~~
In the silence, a cat's meow was heard.

A big snow-white cat walked over from the courtyard wall, its eyes were emerald green, like two will-o'-the-wisp fires floating in the air.

The big cat's steps were stiff. It was not as agile as an ordinary wild cat. Instead, it limped, just like a corpse that had just learned to walk.

A security guard holding a lantern bravely went to see what was happening, but he was so frightened that he cried "Oh my God" and sat on the ground.

The big cat's skin and flesh were rotten and its body was emaciated. A piece of flesh on its face had fallen off, revealing its white teeth.

There was a complete emptiness in his belly, with dried intestines dragging under his feet and ribs growing unevenly on his chest.

That big cat was obviously a corpse!
A pair of eyes were staring at the security guard!

Hearing this, Li Miao glanced at Xiao Si who was whispering to Wang Hai, as if intentionally or unintentionally, and turned around to pour a glass of wine for the person who was speaking.

"and then?"

The man drank and lowered his voice as he continued speaking.

The security guard screamed and fell to the ground, and the rest of the people rushed over to help him.

People of this era are generally superstitious. At most, they have heard a few ghost stories from their elders at home, but have never seen such a scene.

As a result, they were all frightened by the big cat and stood there in a daze, not daring to move.

The big cat stopped when it saw people, and stared at them with its two green eyes.

On that face with only half of its flesh left, there was clearly a stiff, human-like smile!

Meow--!!!
With a scream, he pounced towards the group of people!

There was an older man among the security guards. He was a wanderer in his youth and was very experienced and courageous. He used the long stick in his hand to stop the man in mid-air.

Snap.

There was a crisp sound, and the cat corpse was split into two pieces.

The upper and lower body of the big cat fell to the ground, and it was still struggling, trying to climb onto the man.

Several people were so frightened that their faces turned pale, and some of the timid ones even vomited on the spot.

It was the old security guard who asked someone to bring hay and kerosene and burned the body.

A group of people waited until dawn to report to Mr. Wu. Mr. Wu didn't believe it at first, but after the group swore that they saw it truly, he no longer doubted it.

He publicly rewarded the old guard with twenty taels of silver, gave him a few days off, and allowed him to go home and rest for a while.

But after a few days, the old guard didn't come back no matter how hard he waited.

When Mr. Wu sent people to check on the old guard's home, they found that the old guard had died at home, and his body was rotten beyond recognition.

The skin and flesh on his face was also half gone, just like that of the big cat.

(End of this chapter)