Goose Passes Plucking Feathers

Truong Ha was not a fool; he could understand the meaning behind Tran Mac's words.

But Hu... Hu Nhi was just a child.

"Bro Mac, this..."

Truong Ha wanted to say something, but Tran Mac directly interrupted him, saying, "Don't tell me, I don't want to know."

Truong Ha's heart hardened. Since it was done, there was no turning back: "Bro Mac, the day isn't over yet. Wait for me, I'll be back in a moment."

"I didn't say anything," Tran Mac said indifferently.

"I... understand."

Truong Ha left.

When it was almost dark, Truong Ha came again.

Tran Mac ignored him, still practicing his saber by himself.

[Number of swings +1, Demon-Breaking Saber Technique experience +1.]

[...]

Truong Ha walked before Tran Mac, wanting to say something. The latter directly opened his mouth: "Still that same sentence, don't tell me, I don't want to know."

Truong Ha's heart felt heavy, thinking Bro Mac was still dissatisfied.

But Tran Mac's next words made him let out a soft sigh of relief.

"Eaten yet?" Tran Mac asked.

"Still... haven't."

"Then stay and eat together."

"...Ah? Okay! Thank you, Bro Mac! Thank you, Bro Mac!"

Truong Ha knew this meant Bro Mac had agreed to let him follow him.

...

During dinner.

Truong Ha lowered his head, scooping corn rice, not daring to say a word, not daring to pick up the bear meat or bear blood in his bowl.

However, just eating the plain rice, Truong Ha already felt it was a delicacy.

Tran Mac picked up a piece of bear meat for him. Truong Ha was immediately grateful. But just as he was about to eat, Tran Mac suddenly spoke: "It's okay to follow me, but there are a few warnings I must say upfront."

Truong Ha quickly put down his chopsticks, sat up straight, pricking his ears to listen.

Han An Nuong picked up some food and put it in her bowl, then silently carried her rice bowl, left the kitchen, and returned to her room.

After Han An Nuong left, Tran Mac said, "First, you cannot use my banner to cause trouble in the village, especially don't go looking for trouble for no reason and bring trouble to me."

Tran Mac had seen no small amount of this kind of thing.

When his father was first venturing into society, he made quite a few "friends." But these friends didn't help his father much.

After his father's career became successful, they instead used his father's banner, causing trouble everywhere, fighting with people.

One time in a bar, when fighting with others over a girl, they even got someone's head split open, almost sending his father to the police station.

However, at that time, both sides had known each other for a long time, their feelings were "deep"; his father found it hard to deal with.

Tran Mac was also afraid of encountering this kind of thing, so he had to tell Truong Ha in advance.

At that time, once he discovered Truong Ha also had this tendency, he absolutely wouldn't show mercy.

Truong Ha nodded lightly: "Bro Mac, rest assured on this point."

"Second, in any matter hereafter, you must listen to me. If I tell you to go east, you cannot go west," Tran Mac perceived the change in his address and said in a low voice.

Truong Ha patted his chest and guaranteed, "From now on, this life of mine belongs to you, Bro Mac. I will absolutely follow your orders."

Tran Mac nodded, but towards Truong Ha's words, he didn't believe them one bit:

"Third, starting tomorrow, train with me."

Since he had taken an underling, then naturally he couldn't take one who didn't know how to fight; his physique definitely had to be good.

Of course, Tran Mac certainly wouldn't teach the Nourishing Blood Technique or saber techniques to Truong Ha.

Just pure physical training.

Alright, Tran Mac's main purpose in doing this was to have his own eyes and ears in the village. After all, Sister-in-law was just a woman; it wasn't good for her to handle outside affairs.

Tran Mac, on the other hand, wasn't worried about him betraying or anything.

Truong Ha's family had five mouths to feed: two elders, a wife, and a child.

This was Truong Ha's vulnerability.

If Truong Ha were just a lone person, no matter what he did, Tran Mac wouldn't have agreed.

"Okay." Truong Ha nodded again.

"Mm, eat. Follow me, other things I can't guarantee, but if I have a bite to eat, your family will have a bite to eat," Tran Mac said.

...

Time flew like a shuttle; the sky brightened and darkened twice.

During this time, Tran Mac took Truong Ha up the mountain through the snow once, originally thinking he wouldn't gain anything.

Because the heavy snow had long sealed the mountains, the accumulated snow was chest-deep.

At this time, prey were all hiding in their own dens, unable to come out. Wanting to find their dens and catch them was harder than reaching the sky.

However, on the outskirts of the mountain, he actually saw that Grey Fox again.

This was the third time Tran Mac had seen this Grey Fox.

The Grey Fox also seemed to recognize him.

Perhaps because it had run away the previous two times, the Grey Fox was a little less wary of Tran Mac, this two-legged beast. Seeing him and Truong Ha, it actually didn't run away immediately, but instead leisurely sniffed around on the snowy ground, west and east, presumably looking for prey.

This really made Tran Mac happy.

He had Truong Ha go attract the Grey Fox's attention, also telling him not to scare the Grey Fox away.

Then he stealthily hid behind a tree, put down the wood-chopping knife, took out the dagger from his waist. At this moment, his strength was 38+30.

The strength added by a dagger was a bit less than that of a wood-chopping knife.

Tran Mac held the blade side of the dagger, aimed at the Grey Fox's position, then suddenly threw it out.

Under circumstances of sufficiently great strength, thrown objects also wouldn't be slow. Foxes are very sensitive; it vaguely sensed something, wanted to dodge, but was still a step too slow.

Accompanied by a mournful cry, the Grey Fox was directly pinned by Tran Mac into a snowdrift. After a few yelps, it fell silent.

"Bro Mac is amazing! Such a good shot!" Truong Ha ran over, picked up the Grey Fox, and walked before Tran Mac.

Tran Mac pulled out the dagger from the corpse. Before transmigrating, he had played with darts, and played well. Although a dagger wasn't a dart, the techniques for playing darts could be used for playing with throwing knives. The result was not bad.

Wiping the bloodstains off the dagger in the snowdrift, Tran Mac put it away and said, "Before early spring, wanting to hunt in the mountains again is not very realistic. After returning to the village, take the Grey Fox to Butcher Tong's house, have him skin it. Bring the fur to me. You and the Tong family share the meat. Then you go to Dai Dong Lake again, find out clearly how the fishing tax is collected."

"Alright, Bro Mac."

...

Truong Ha's work efficiency was not bad.

Early the next morning, Truong Ha not only brought back the skinned fox pelt but also clearly inquired about the Dai Dong Lake matter.

Tran Mac secretly nodded. Entrusting this matter to Truong Ha to handle was also a kind of test for Truong Ha.

One was to test his greed.

Two was to test his ability to handle affairs.

Of course, Tran Mac also wasn't afraid of things going wrong.

He had been keeping an eye on that marten skin all along.

According to what Truong Ha heard.

Tran Mac first learned that the entire surface of Dai Dong Lake was frozen solid. Catching fish was much more difficult than in the past.

But the tax hadn't decreased; instead, it had increased.

If you just wanted to go to Dai Dong Lake to fish, you had to first pay ten wen.

At the same time, there was a three-shichen (six hours) time limit. Once the time was up, regardless of whether you caught fish or not, you had to leave or pay another ten wen.

Next, if the caught fish didn't exceed fifty kilograms, no extra tax was collected.

If it exceeded fifty kilograms, for the exceeding part, one wen was collected for every ten jin.

But this still wasn't the most crucial part. The most crucial part was, after you paid all the aforementioned taxes, you temporarily couldn't take the caught fish away; you could only sell it to the Thanh Ha Gang.

If you wanted to take it away, that was also possible. The Thanh Ha Gang would, based on your catch, collect tax again from you at a rate of one wen per ten jin...