Martial Arts Awakening, Bloodfire Fist Master

"Get the hell up! As soon as the ship docks, I'll weigh myself in with the helmsman, and then you bunch of scoundrels will have to hurry up and take over the cargo! Anyone who dawdles won't be spared my whip!"

"Snapped!"

The leather whip, polished to a gleaming shine with horn oil, was over two meters long. It struck the thin, sallow back with a crisp, clear sound, and blood splattered everywhere.

"Ah, Mr. Ma, you..."

Ma Junfeng, one of the five foremen of the Qingshui Gang's labor team, grinned ferociously. "You son of a bitch, Wang Quan, don't take my words as a fart. Next time, the one who gets up the slowest won't just get a whipping."

After saying that, he glared fiercely at the screaming laborer and said, "If you fucking scream again, I'll make sure you never scream again. The mill in the gang is short of people."

Upon hearing this, the person who screamed trembled with fear, and the others lowered their heads and tensed up.

In Qingshui City, several major powers have mills. Anyone who makes a mistake, is disobedient, or is hostile is sent to the mill and never comes out.

Rumor has it that the mill didn't peel grain husks or rice bran, nor did it grind flour or oil; it peeled hands, feet, liver, and lungs, and ground flesh, bone, and marrow. Although it seemed absurd, no one wanted to verify it.

Master Ma scanned all the laborers, and seeing that no one dared to meet his gaze, he smiled smugly.

He left with the words, "All peasants are worthless and deserve a beating," before heading towards the approaching merchant ship.

The laborers only relaxed slightly after he had walked away.

Someone went to help Wang Quan, who was slumped on the ground groaning and convulsing in pain, and sighed with a sense of shared sorrow.

"Hey, that leather whip is too brutal, Lao Wang. You need to rest for a couple of days, otherwise you might injure your spine..."

"This time it was Old Wang, I wonder who it will be next time. Ma Junfeng is too ruthless, he also came from our peasant background."

"If I'd known, Old Wang, you should have worn that coarse cloth jacket; it would have been better than being naked."

Wang Quan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and the tears from his eyes, stood up shakily, looked at his old friend who was urging him to rest, and sighed, "I can't, the family is waiting for me to eat, the kids can't take it anymore."

He paused for a moment, staring blankly at the figure: "Besides, if I don't go to work today, Master Ma will think I'm trying to sabotage him. That mill is a man-eating monster."

There was silence; no one dared to dissuade them anymore.

Someone else muttered under their breath, "I heard that guy surnamed Ma lost money playing Pai Gow these past few days, so he's taking it out on us."

Many others had blank stares and remained silent. Although most of the laborers were middle-aged or young men, they looked as withered and aged as old men nearing the end of their lives.

Zhang Qingshan stood among this group of people, his head also lowered, only daring to watch out of the corner of his eye as the man surnamed Ma walked away, his thin body taut.

A hand slapped him on the shoulder. "Brother Zhang, don't be afraid. Master Ma doesn't lose money every day. We just need to be able to tell the difference."

Turning his head slightly, he saw a frail, old-looking face. This man had a large frame and was at least 1.8 meters tall when he was young, but now he seemed to be about the same height as Zhang Qingshan, who was 1.7 meters tall.

He was very thin and frail, with little flesh on his body. Whether it was due to a hunchback or a habit, his back was slightly hunched, as if something was weighing him down.

This is Lao Liu, whose full name is Liu Beizhou. He looks like an old man, but he is actually only forty years old.

Meeting Zhang Qingshan's gaze, he forced a dry laugh and said, "Let's go, follow Master Ma. Try to think positively. We peasants are already doing well just to make a living at the docks. You know, if we really offend Master Ma, even if we're not sent to the mill, being thrown into the hauling caravan would be truly miserable!"

Someone chimed in:

"Our lowly professions are never easy to make a living. The other day, I heard that the brothers in the hauling team encountered the Dragon King turning over and more than a dozen of them died. The water ghost team went down the river to retrieve treasure and I heard that they also met a bad time with water monkeys. And the rickshaw pullers, I saw several of them run themselves ragged. The two silver dollars that the rickshaw company gave as compensation were all embezzled by the rickshaw driver! I heard that he even came to the other party's house to demand compensation for washing the rickshaw."

"Yes, these days are tough. Farming is plagued by natural disasters, and the martial arts world is filled with human calamities. The outside world is in chaos, with wars raging in many places. I've heard that the northwest and southwest are suffering from drought and locust plagues, leaving nine out of ten houses empty. Our Qingshui City is already considered good; at least if you're willing to work, you can still earn a living. Brother Zhang, relax, you'll get used to it."

Zhang Qingshan didn't explain, but nodded bitterly and self-deprecatingly, and followed the crowd forward.

Only he knew that he was tense not because of fear, but because he was suppressing his anger.

This is a cannibalistic society, but his own weakness, his shock and disbelief at the unfamiliar world, and his rationality forced him to keep his head down, not daring to show even the slightest resentment or dissatisfaction in his eyes.

People from humble backgrounds are not entitled to expressions or eyes other than numbness, indifference, honesty, cowardice, or sleazy.

Everywhere are man-eating jackals. In front of the jackals, even if he shows a spirit of youthful indomitable will intimidate him, or even if he shows a little of his knowledge and skills from his previous life.

There's a small chance you might gain favor with a benefactor, but there's a high probability you'll be disliked by some scoundrel who sees you as a coward with ambitions, and then torment you before tearing you to shreds.

"Huff huff..."

His panting sounded like a broken bellows, his back was bruised and bloodied from the pressure, and his hands, with bulging veins, gripped the rough edges of the burlap sacks. His spine and ribs seemed to bulge out, and his thin muscles were twisted into knots.

It looks like it might collapse at any moment.

My temples and teeth were clenched and strained, and I felt slightly dizzy. I took a deep breath, steadied myself a little, and then carefully and cautiously walked on the narrow plank that had been set up.

He could still hear the fierce shouts in his ears: "You all better be on your guard! It's nothing if your worthless lives fall into the river, but if anyone dares to drop cargo into the water, don't blame me for throwing him into the river."

His body seemed to be creaking as he finally carried the goods to a far corner of the dock.

He breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a little lightheaded. He walked to the other side, pulled out a wooden stick from the bamboo tube, and got a coin.

Zhang Qingshan was no exception; the others were the same. Although he was only sixteen and still quite young, and his resilience was not as strong as others, he still had the advantage of being young and having more vitality and tenacity.

I glanced at Lao Liu with concern. He was trembling as if he was about to fall at any moment, but fortunately, he turned out to be as resilient as a donkey and didn't have any problems.

My shoulders are throbbing, and my calves are trembling.

On the other side of the merchant ship, there was another, wider plank, where men and women of decent appearance disembarked one by one, looking at them with disdain or pity.

Among them was a young man dressed in modern clothes carrying a crudely constructed bicycle, looking around with a smug expression.

Zhang Qingshan sighed inwardly and continued to carry the load.

The path I chose, I will walk to the end, even if I have to crawl. Having awakened my memories of my past life, I can't bear to live the life of struggling to make ends meet in the village. Since I've already run away, how could I be willing to go back in disgrace? Besides, going back home would just mean another mouth to feed.

After holding out for a while longer, the cargo on the merchant ship began to run out.

Suddenly a cry rang out, and Zhang Qingshan and the surrounding laborers instinctively looked over.

There was a man named Master Ma, who had one hand around the neck of a laborer and lifted him up with the other. His face was full of fat that was twitching. He turned to look at everyone.

He sneered menacingly, "How dare you try to outsmart me, Master Ma! You all better watch out, this is what happens when you mess around with your hands."

The laborer gripped the thick arm with both hands, barely managing to breathe.

"Master Ma, please spare me! My elderly mother is sick, and I wanted to earn more money to buy medicine, so I was blinded by greed and took an extra skewer. Master Ma, I'm willing to pay double... no, I'm willing to give you my wages for today..."

Master Ma sneered again, "Too late!"

With a forceful twist of his hand, he snapped the other man's neck, then lifted the body with one arm and threw it into the river. The water swirled once before returning to its calm state.

The laborers who witnessed this scene felt a pang of sadness. "Old Meng is finished. Without this pillar of the Meng family, their family is finished too."

"Meng Daping is confused! What's gotten into him today? Everyone knows that Master Ma has a sharp eye; it's not like no one's ever been fooled before. He... sigh!"

"He was worried that his mother would be distraught, which is a huge problem. He figured he could always scrape together the money by carrying the bags properly. Sigh! If his mother knew, she probably wouldn't survive. Sigh!"

Satisfied with the laborers' reaction, Master Ma killed someone, seemingly quite pleased with himself. He lifted his shirt, revealing his strong chest, his fierce eyes gleaming. "Without rules, there can be no order. This is the price for breaking the rules."

Zhang Qingshan lowered his head, a flame burning fiercely deep within his eyes.

The current era resembles the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China of the past, but in reality, there are some fundamental differences.

Ma Junfeng, also known as Master Ma, was merely a gang leader, one of the lower-level managers of the Qingshui Gang.

Such people, if not fifty or thirty-two in the Qingshui Gang, can lift a worker weighing at least 100 jin with one hand, break their neck with one hand, and throw their corpse out with one hand.

Zhang Qingshan saw his ruthlessness, and also the power revealed within that ruthlessness.

He took a deep breath, raised his head, and returned to his dull and honest demeanor, continuing to bear the burden. Some died, and some were still alive.