Ch. 8: Enslaved

The sun had long risen when Meifeng rode into the periphery of the village on the dead man's horse. Both she and System and seen countless fields, fields for farming were buried under the snow and largely abandoned. Every now and then, they would see a lone worker, who would stare at them from a distance until they disappeared from sight far down the road.

The jostling motion was beginning to make the young girl tired, but she persevered, turning to System to relieve herself of a few questions.

"System."

System, who had been falling into a lull, startled itself back to life. "Master!"

After watching its Master end two human lives on a mere whim, it no longer wished to trifle with Meifeng.

"The mission," she said slowly, her eyes still on the road ahead. "Bringing down this empire... why?"

Regardless of how she saw it, it was an odd choice of punishment. Aside from the fact that it would be difficult to accomplish, something about it felt... personal. As if there was someone behind the scenes especially directing a piece of theatre to his or her delight with Meifeng as the puppet. Meifeng very much hated the thought of being the puppet. It brought a terrible feeling to her bones, one that made her want to tear and break something or someone and not stop until she was doused in blood.

"Uhm... I'm actually not sure?" System answered quizzically, scrolling through the meager information given for this punishment system.

As a moderator, System was similarly mystified by the lack of information. Usually, it received critical information such as background on the setting and backlogs of previous system users' experience within that particular system. However, all of System's extra functions were off, now solely limited to basic information about the Xia Empire and the ability to recognize 'key' characters within the world such as the male lead, female lead, and any other system users similarly participating in this world.

"This is an unusual punishment, isn't it System?" Meifeng asked calmly, building a strange solidarity with System of the mysterious actions of those who had condemned her to this world. As she had witnessed the delicate minded System suffer shock after shock, she knew this new pet would be more susceptible to bonding with her after its ordeals.

If System could move, it would've nodded its head vigorously. "Yes, Master. Most strange indeed!"

The tamer versions of this punishment system always involved a collapsing kingdom due to corruption or war, one that only required you to push the first domino before the rest tumbled after. This tame setting of a ruined nation was already difficult enough and only one system user to System's knowledge had ever passed that punishment system. But System's basic background information regarding the Xia Empire said one thing:

Ruled by a capable emperor and enjoying generations of wealth and peace.

Such an empire, even if attacked with a sledgehammer of great wit and exceptional battle tactics, the most capable system user would not even be able to make a dent in demolishing an accomplished nation such as this! When System turned to look at its tiny master, sitting astride a horse three times its size while wrapped in a dead man's clothes, it did not feel very optimistic.

Meifeng smiled lightly, the corner of a pink lip quirking up in a pleasing manner. Her face didn't change all that much, but System could only describe it as her face appearing more 'open'.

"Then System, please accompany me well," Meifeng said in a neutral manner, recognizing that System seemed to gain the most enjoyment when it felt like its system user needed to rely on it to survive. In truth, Meifeng knew she would be fine with or without the talking blue screen.

"Master, it would be my pleasure!" System chimed in return. The good mood emanating from the screen was palpable as Meifeng cast a curious glance at it.

Something about the blue screen jogged something in her memory and almost unconsciously, she blurted out, "You can record things?"

Once the sentence came out, Meifeng felt what she had said was odd, but felt right somehow. Like a part of her recognized one of the functions of System. However, System felt a chill run down its invisible spine. Meifeng was supposed to have undergone a complete mental wipe. Aside from speaking the common tongue and remembering how to perform a few, rudimentary tasks, she should not remember what a flushing toilet is, let alone technology.

System's sudden silence naturally did not escape Meifen'g attention. As a keen observer, the originally nameless girl noticed System's unusual reaction, her eyes narrowing a fraction before her face went back to normal. It seemed she was correct, but this was a matter she should not be able to recall.

Thus, the girl quickly added, "I want to be able to tell you certain notes that you will record for me, that way I can refer to them in the future."

System let out a long sigh, feeling its previous fear slip away. "Ah, so that is what you meant. I can certainly do that."

Meifeng raised her brows, a dainty, confused pout making her look adorable. "What did you think I meant?"

"Nothing. Nothing!" System replied hastily.

"Good." Meifeng smiled widely before continuing, "Then I want you to record how many people I kill until I finish this mission."

The sweet voice that System had been hell-bent on satisfying said such words, how could System not be frightened.

"Master!" the blue screen squeaked nervously. This was the first time it had ever met a system user so unfazed about getting blood on her hands.

"Is it too hard?"

"No, not at all!"

The sweat was still pouring down System's head when they reached the outer area of the village, a few souls already out and about in the morning. For simple people whose lives followed the same monotony, it was a strange sight to see a young maiden riding in on a horse. Meifeng had already wiped away the visible blood that Xiao Peng's clothes couldn't cover, but the cotton garbs clearly didn't fit and her face stood out too much.

Meifeng disembarked quickly, abandoning the horse and only taking with her the knapsack that had been a few cold buns.

"Master, where to?" System asked, confused by how its Master had left their trusty steed behind.

"Jiangnan," Meifeng replied, already walking away.

"Jiangnan? What for?" System replied, faintly recalling how the men were speaking of the large, western city. It was an industrial capital of the empire and possessed many wealthy merchants, but System did not understand what Meifeng was seeking there that she wouldn't find in the capital.

"A benefactor," the girl replied simply, readjusting the knapsack so it hung across her front. The village was coming back to life, children scrambling around on dirty snow as their parents vainly tried to brush chunks of ice from their doorstep. A few hecklers were on the street, trying to sell their cheap weres while clouds of smoke from small compounds filled the sky with unique aromas.

Meifeng marched through the small village, navigating through as if she knew where she was headed. Interestingly, although her appearance was frumpled and her appearance uncanny, Meifeng possessed a subtle but unmistakable presence, one that made people simultaneously want to stare at her or look away entirely. For a newcomer to an area where everyone was related through their aunts, uncles, and cousins, Meifeng was somehow able to move around without drawing too much attention to herself.

The sound of loud tears managed to draw Meifeng's mind away from her single-minded journey to Jiangnan. In a small, rickety house, a large man whose belly was disgustingly peeking out from below his outdated, city-style top had a meaty hand wrapped around a girl's twig arm. She was not extremely pretty, but her face looked honest and clean, the perfect makings of a servant within a large family's home.

"Mother, I don't want to go! I want to stay with you!" the girl cried, the tears and snot blending on her face. The mother in question did not look destitute, as her simple skirt only had a path or two on it and her hair was held by a simple, silver pin.

"Daughter, I couldn't change your uncle's mind. He said he can't afford to house you anymore," the mother replied tearily, clutching the wood gate of their home as if holding herself back from running to her daughter.

"Mother! I promise not to eat anything, I'll go seek out work. You said we would just be visiting Uncle for a few weeks so why do I have to leave? Don't sell me, please!" the girl cried again, trying in vain to escape from the meaty man's grasp. Outside of the gate of the home, a cage crudely built from wood spokes was attached to a large horse, not unlike the one Meifeng had ridden into the village on. There were several girls within, all in a state of destitution with filthy faces and dead eyes.

"Master, the Uncle is too despicable, selling his own niece for money. Is there no justice?" System said indignantly, watching the scene with undisguised irritation. The man threw a vicious hand upon the girl in his grasp, a bright red mark sprouting on her cheek. The mother cried even more pitifully her knees falling to the earth below as a man came out of the house behind.

"It's okay. She will be fine," he lied as the girl got dragged away by the slaver.

"Uncle, I hate you! When my brother hears about this from school, he will take you to court. Forcing my mother to sell me like this, you are the worst human being I have ever met!" the girl screamed at the uncle who was comforting her mother. The slaver had managed to force most of her teenage body into the cage, but she lashed out with a vicious kick to the neck to briefly stunned the chubby man.

He stumbled back a few steps before righting himself and viciously shoving the girl into the cage and clicking the rusty iron lock shut with a click.

"Mother!" the girl sobbed from within the cage. All the girls around her were lifeless and it terrified her, her eyes wide and red as she desperately tried to squeeze the gaps between the cage.

"Such a devilish girl and you're not even that pretty," the fat slaver snarled, "I'm only going to give you four of the five agreed upon taels."

This is when the mother's face, which had been devoted to prettily shedding tears began to crack.

"Just four taels for my precious daughter," she murmured despondently, clutching the simple handkerchief tightly in her grasp.

"You swindler, give us the five taels you promised," the uncle ordered angrily. He was more enraged at getting shortchanged rather than selling his female relative.

"Ha," Meifeng said, letting out a small, dry chuckle. "Women in this world are truly pitiful."

"Indeed, Master," System said, getting emotional from the scene. "You should help them."

"Why?"

System was incredulous for a moment. "Why? Because it's the right thing to do!"

Meifeng found her little pet amusing, its lack of understanding for human nature a bit endearing.

"Then what would you do, System?"

"Me? I would roll up my sleeves and teach that fatty and uncle a lesson they wouldn't be able to forget. Then I would free all the girls from their cages and let this poor girl be reunited with her mother," System proclaimed valiantly.

"Hmmm. Not bad. But would anyone thank you for it?" Meifeng said slowly, watching the girl stretch her hands out of the cage and scream for her mother as the slaver whipped the horse into a trot.

A passerby who couldn't stand the mother's pitiful sorrow approached the mother and uncle duo.

"It's just the loss of a bad seed who kept stealing from us poor villagers. You still have a good son for you to pin your hopes on," the elderly woman with a pinched face proclaimed loudly. A few other curious neighbors who had stuck their heads out of the door nodded along with her words.

System sadly watched the family get broken up before its eyes and didn't pay any mind to the nosy neighbors. "Of course they would be grateful!"

Meifeng didn't agree or disagree, prompting System to pout invisibly as its Master watched the unfolding scene with dead eyes. System found it a bit peculiar how much the mother relied on the uncle who had just sold her daughter away from 4 taels, but her tears looked very real.

As the cloud of dust churned up by the cart and horse began to disappear into the distance, Meifeng spoke again.

"If you feel so bad for her, we can follow them at a distance," Meifeng told the despondent System. She wasn't all that concerned for the girl's fate, but where else would be better to sell a slave than a large, bustling merchant-infested city like Jiangnan?

"Master, you are the best!" System yelled joyfully.