The Grudge of a Whip Lash

The man glanced at the wood-chopping knife at Tran Mac's waist, smiled faintly, and said, "My name is Li Mu, the shopkeeper of this cloth shop. May I know how to address you, sir?"

"Tran Mac. 'Mac' as in ink," Tran Mac said.

The man frowned: "You've studied?"

"Passed the county examination last year." There was nothing to hide about this; Tran Mac spoke truthfully.

Li Mu regarded him a little more highly. Let alone this current year of disaster, even in previous peaceful times, not every family could afford to send their children to study.

Moreover, a scholar, with a wood-chopping knife at his waist, taking out a wild boar skin to sell, gave a feeling of a scholar doing embroidery – somewhat out of place.

Li Mu said, "This skin, although the workmanship is rough, its advantage is it's over a finger thick. One and a half strings of cash. What do you think?"

One guan of money, also called one string of cash, totaled one thousand wen.

One and a half strings, which is one thousand five hundred wen.

Tran Mac felt it was acceptable: "Many thanks, Shopkeeper Li."

Li Mu raised his hand, calling for the cashier to bring the money.

"Count it," Li Mu said.

Tran Mac weighed it a bit, then put it away: "I trust you."

"Good, a straightforward person." Li Mu patted Tran Mac's shoulder, saying, "If you have more goods in the future, just bring them here. I'll give you the county town price. We buy all kinds of animal skins."

Tran Mac nodded lightly. Before leaving, he suddenly thought of something and said, "Shopkeeper Li, do you have ready-made clothes here?"

"Since it's a cloth shop, naturally we do. Are you buying for yourself?" Li Mu said.

Tran Mac nodded lightly: "One set for myself, and also a set for my... wife."

He originally wanted to say "sister-in-law," but saying it like that would definitely cause misunderstandings, so he decisively said "wife."

After all, what kind of younger brother-in-law buys clothes for his own sister-in-law?

After buying clothes.

Tran Mac went to a grain shop again and purchased ten jin of rice, ten meters of corn, and ten jin of coarse salt.

Also some soybeans, and a small bag of white sugar.

If one wanted to improve life.

Spices and seasonings like these were indispensable.

The food he ate before only had oil and salt.

Didn't even have soy sauce.

The food made could only be said to be edible, fundamentally couldn't be stretched to delicious.

After a round of shopping, Tran Mac's one and a half strings of cash from just now didn't have much left.

Tran Mac originally also wanted to go to a blacksmith shop to buy a saber.

The government's control over civilian weapons wasn't strict. Except for armor, powerful crossbows, and other clearly prohibited items, other weapons could be bought at a blacksmith shop.

However, he asked around; the cheapest simple saber (phác đao) was three guan of money or more.

Custom-made was even more expensive, and required a deposit first.

In his original thoughts, he wanted to have the blacksmith shop forge a "Tang Dao" (Tang saber) he had seen online.

Now he could only wait until he had money.

...

Passing by a street vendor, Tran Mac saw that the stall was selling some jewelry. He took a fancy to a jade hairpin.

Thinking that Sister-in-law still only used a wooden hairpin, he immediately decided to buy it.

Tran Mac still understood a bit about jade. This jade hairpin was just made of ordinary jade stone, not any good jade, so the price was also not expensive.

After some haggling, Tran Mac got it for thirty wen.

Tran Mac wrapped the hairpin carefully and put it in his bosom, thinking of giving Sister-in-law a surprise at a good time.

Walking on the street, a commotion suddenly came from ahead.

"Move aside!"

"Move aside!"

"You bunch of commoners, get out of this young miss's way!"

...

Only to see a white horse, as if frightened, scattering on the road. Pedestrians on the road hurriedly dodged, afraid of encountering this unexpected disaster.

Tran Mac also quickly made way.

Riding the white horse was a young woman in black clothes, holding a horsewhip, with a beautiful face. Her long hair was tied up high, her posture heroic and imposing.

Most crucially, Tran Mac saw on the nape of her neck a red number, "31+5."

To stop the frightened horse, the woman in black tightly reined it in. Finally, both horse and rider tumbled to the ground, looking very pathetic.

No world lacks onlookers. This action of the woman in black naturally attracted a crowd of pedestrians to watch.

But who knew, after the woman in black stood up, she lashed out with her whip.

With a crisp "slap," the person hit by the whip fell to the ground with a cry, groans rising all around.

"Commoner! What are you looking at?"

The woman in black didn't let up, whipping another person behind her, then turning back and lashing out with her whip towards another passerby.

Again, a person fell to the ground with a cry.

The woman in black struck without any mercy.

"Is it so good to look at? Look again and I'll gouge out all your eyes!"

The woman in black led the white horse over, but seemed still not appeased. It was clearly the white horse that caused her to fall, but her anger was vented on the surrounding commoners. She turned back and lashed out with her whip again.

And this time, the target was actually Tran Mac.

Tran Mac swore, he absolutely had no intention of watching the commotion. He was just trying to get away just now, so he stood to one side. Who did he provoke?

He naturally didn't want to be hit, quickly dodging to one side.

The whip struck the stall behind him, instantly shattering it into pieces.

Tran Mac frowned.

And at this, the woman in black became even angrier: "Commoner! You dare to dodge!"

Saying so, she raised her hand and was about to whip Tran Mac again.

"Zhi Ning! Don't be impolite!"

Suddenly, a pleasant female voice came from behind the woman in black. The woman in black stopped.

Only to see a horse carriage slowly drive over. Beside the carriage, four mounted guards with sabers followed. And on the foreheads of these guards, all had characters; the highest reached "92+10."

The female voice came from inside the carriage. It was just that the person in the carriage didn't come out to meet people, only called a guard beside her to take some silver to compensate those injured.

"Older Sister! What are you doing?! If not for this bunch of commoners, my Xue Long Jun wouldn't have been startled!" the woman in black said.

"Zhi Ning, don't be mischievous. If you hadn't ridden so fast, how could this kind of thing have happened?"

"Older Sister!"

"Zhi Ning!"

"..."

Tran Mac knew he had encountered an arrogant young miss. Although annoyed in his heart, he could only swallow this breath and prepare to leave.

But this woman called "Zhi Ning" clearly didn't want to let it go.

She directly raised the whip in her hand and lashed out.

With a crisp "slap," the whip fiercely landed on Tran Mac's back.

Tran Mac fundamentally didn't expect the woman to be so arrogant. He took the blow squarely. His back burned with pain, and he almost stumbled and fell to the ground.

"Hiss..." Tran Mac sucked in a cold breath.

"Zhi Ning! You've gone too far..." The woman in the carriage reprimanded the woman in black.

However, it was just a verbal reprimand. She had a guard compensate Tran Mac with some silver.

Looking at the broken silver pieces handed over by the guard, Tran Mac only felt aggrieved.

However, seeing the "92+10" on the guard's forehead, he could only swallow this grievance.

He also didn't, like in movies and TV dramas, swat away the offered silver. After receiving it, he just turned his head to look at the woman in black once, then left.

No one noticed a fierce glint flash in his eyes.

His current strength was not equal to the opponent's; he could endure, could compromise for the sake of a greater goal, but absolutely could not lose his backbone.

This grudge of a whip lash, he remembered.

In the future, when his strength was great, he would definitely repay it tenfold, a hundredfold...