There was a huge feel of uneasiness gnawing at the back of my head, as if something or someone was warning about my next steps, but i just attributed this to being exhaust mentally, so i gave it no much mind, i already mad up my mind to get out of this life of servitude first thing in the morning .
I slumbered down on the uncomfortable bed and thought to myself that it was just temporary and tomorrow i would be sleeping in somewhere at least a bit nicer than this, i hope, i also couldn't help but curse the money grabbing Lu Family, this shabby place cost the original Tian Long half tael of silver a month, but it was either this or living in the open .
I really couldn't think that living in the open would be that much worse than living in this place, i must be getting paranoid, that bizarre feeling from before gnawed at me once more, i was really beginning to get a bad feeling about tomorrow .
What made the matters worse was the fact that i actually found that i'm in debt of half a silver tael to the Lu Family, due to the fact that i owed them the first rent .
I really can't tell if the original body's brain was working correctly or that he was tricked into accepting this kind of agreement, but i guess the kids like himself in this world are maybe lacking in knowledge to be able to tell, it seemed like the original owner lived and died as an illiterate, him being young and unable to judge might be the reason to why he did agree to this unfair treatment, but i won't .
What made this agreement so wrong and unjust in my eyes was due to the fact that the allowance was fixed at 1 tael of silver, if you are able to make some free time of your busy day and go around helping in doing different kind of chores .
You might just be able to end up with another half silver tael at the end of the month, leaving me with one silver tael that in the best case scenario, i might end up with less than 1 silver tael if i'm not carful, not to mention that the family really didn't care about how were those servants going to be fed, much less care about us who weren't even the servants of the family .
This resulting in me having to buy my food and water, i was once again surprised by my precessor line of thought, he was buying food from the Lu Family's canteen for double and some time the triple of its price, yet even that greedy price didn't stop him from buying .
It took him over 7 months and he even sold most of everything he owned just so he can gather those 4 silver taels and he wanted to use all the money that he struggled to collect in something as useless as pursuing martial arts, yeah that wasn't going to happen with me being the one now in control of this body .
The money i was beginning to fantasize about what would i do with suddenly decreased by a whole half tael, that to the current me was akin to the threat of a financial crisis looming in the distance, i really now wanted to sleep as to prevent myself from remembering anything that could make me losing even more money, soring my mood even more than it currently was .
Something that was quite bothering me personally about all that happened to the original Tian Long was that he seem to never hold a grudge against the Lu Family for some unknown reason, i really couldn't help but wonder why was my body reacting weirdly the moment that i mentioned the middle aged fat man, but it doesn't react to the Lu Family being mentioned at all .
But i to some extent could try to interpret it as him having become a slave in mind too, i can tell since back in my old world, i was one too, thinking about the memories i had from that life, my sore mood worsened even more, so i decided that the best thing to do currently was to sleep through all my worries, at least for today, i believe that i had earned the right to do so .
I first brought a bucket of water and Blocked the rodent hole with it, i was a bit restless sleeping in the same room with them, afraid that those sharp talons might do some more terrible damages, if those guys decided to go for a human snack during the night .
As i did so, i stumbled upon the iron sword that guy Lu Jong dropped earlier, i couldn't help but think what a chaotic world, this world was, even a servant can own a sword around here, something that was quite incomprehensible to me who came from a modern background .
But unless that guy came and asked for it back, i will use of it for the next period of time, even though i didn't know how to wield a sword, it apperance alone could act as a great deterrent, if someone was to try and target me again, i could also resell it in the near future for 1 silver tael and get a huge boost in my financial state thanks to it .
I laid on my back on the straw bed and sighed one last time, thinking that tomorrow will be my first official day as Tian Long and also my last day as a slave of the Lu Family, then i went to sleep .
I don't know how long did i sleep for, but from the laziness i was feeling, i somehow able to tell that i hadn't slept enough, i also had the wildest dream just now, i dreamt of myself meeting an entire army on my own and slaughtering my path through them with what seemed to be quite ease .
What was even more crazier, was the fact that i was using what seemed to be Martial arts to do so, i was laughing in my sleep and woke up with my mouth arched into a smile, suddenly i heard the sound of a bell loud ringing, the moment i heard that bell, my whole body tensed then even without understanding what was going in, i began involuntarily fix my clothes, combed my hair, strapped the sword to my waist, then in a hurry i began to get out of the house .
I was seen walking towards what appeard to be the courtyard in front of the family's gate, as i get out of the house, for whatever reason the body of Lu Jong was nowhere in sight, whether he woke up or someone else came and got him, have nothing to do with me, but i guess since he forgot to ask for the sword before he left, then it now completely belonged to me .
The courtyard of the Lu Family was huge, i was able to tell by just looking at the huge numbers of servants standing in it, i concluded that there was at least 100 hundred person standing in it, all waiting for their name to be called, that was also the reason why i was walking in a hurried manner, every morning there would be a headcount for all the servants of the family, those who were late will be punished according to the rules of the family .
My body Instinctively respond to the bell ringing due to getting accustomed to this, the instructor who was responsible for the counting arrived a bit late so luckily i didn't miss the headcount .
The moment i appeared in the courtyard, i was then met with the frowning gazes of all the people present, servants, guards, everyone present in the courtyard gave me a cold look and a sneer, i thought the scene to be quite silly, after all they were reacting like as if i stole something from their own houses and not the Lu Family .
But this atmosphere completely worked in my favor, like that i wouldn't be burdened to get along with those guys as Tian Long used to, that guy also was orphaned early on in his life just like me, so with current things staying like this, at least the chance of being found out as an imposter was now almost impossible, so that was a relief .
Then a Man suddenly came in holding a huge book in hand, but he seemed to hold it with quite ease, the guy was in his forties wearing what i would describe as taoist scholar clothes, he had a mustache that went to both sides of his cheeks and a good taken care of goatee, his hair that was barely visible from the hat he wore on was black as ink, the same goes for his eyes .
His steps were quite steady on the ground as he went to a table that was put in front of the family inner gate, the gate that led inside the inner area of the Lu family mansion, then he sat down and began calling the names in the book one by one .
I wasn't able to recall that guy name, no matter how hard i tried to recall it from Tian Long's memory, this was either related to him being new or the memories of him in Tian Long mind was lost, either way i don't believe that i will have anything to do with this family and its matters after today, the clerk then marked every person that answered to him in the book, one by one until he reached my name .
The moment he called my name all the people looked at me, i answered saying that i was here, he raised his head from the book in front of him for the first time and looked at me as well, he then raised his eyebrows at me being here, i thought that this quite weird but soon he nodded and once again continued to call each and every other person name, no one was absent but one .
That person was Lin Dong, the guy that was a family's slave just like me, but it seemed that i wasn't the only one that took a notice of his name not being called, the guy closed the book in hand and walked back to the inner part of the mansion, leaving the numerous servants in place gossiping about the reason to why Lin Dong wasn't mentioned just now, one of them went towards the closest guard and passed him a few pieces of silver .
The guard then whispered something in his ears, when that servant got the information from the guard, his face lit up, he then went back to the group of servants and began to ask them to pay him if they wanted to learn from the knowledge he had, i learned one lesson from that guy, always refrained from becoming an enemy to the masses, sadly i most likely had already became one, so i guess i will keep it in mind for the future .
The moment he opened his hand, waiting for them to give him some money, he instead was met with the assault of more than 40 servants, all decided that they might as well get the news while also releasing some of their frustration on the stupid guy .
Even after he told them what they wanted to know, they still continued to beat him until he lost conscious, only then did they stop, i witnessing this scene had become quite alarmed due to the fact, that not even one of the guards standing batted an eye on this happening in front of them .
Now it was the turn of that guy who almost cost us all of our allowance .
Suddenly a low shout sounded among the 40 guys, one of them shouted this and pointed at me, he didn't need to point, all the people present was able to know who was he talking about without an exception .
My whole body suddenly tensed and the i felt that my blood ran cold the moment they all looked at me, but i guess i made the right choice by strapping that iron sword to my waist, one look at the sword on my waist, made them all think twice before trying to cross me, with the exception being a guy folding a piece of cloth on his face and head .
I didn't recognize him at first due to how tensed the situation just now was, but now that all those guys removed the idea of attacking me from their minds, i was able to tell that the guy that tried to instigate them to attack me was non other than Lu Jong, his voice is what sold him off .
Seeing that i was looking at him through the crowds, he tensed up, but even though i determined that i could teach him a lesson right here and now, i had unshakable confidence in doing so, i don't know why, but this was good nonetheless, i decided that at least for now i would let him go and settle the scores with him later .
Anyway, i finally was able to know why was Lin Dong wasn't mentioned just now, that guy luck with good and he caught the attention of the Law Enforcement Elder and he took him as a disciple in name, i didn't understand what that even meant, but one thing was clear, his status was being elevated, i guess i would be able to leave the family now without much of a guilty conscience due to leaving him alone .
I was engrossed in my own thoughts, when i found out that the second i let my guard down, a guy ordered the others to make a circle around me, he was a guy with an impressive physical body a little bear like guy, he was taller than me by almost a head, i was 179 cm and he was 184 cm give or take, i previously thought that the sword was enough as a deterrent, but i guess this was a wishful thinking on my part .
I was now encircled in a what appeard to be a ring, inside this ring was me and the guy in front of me, his skin tone had a bit of a tan to it, his eyes were black colored, his facial features didn't seem that remarkable, the only feature that made him stand out a little, was the sword scar going horizontally on his forehead, i didn't seem to recall who he was at first, but then i remembered his name and the story he kept telling everyone he meet, about his ability to survive a sword attack, mainly depending on his strong skull alone .
His name was Lu Jiu and no one bought the story he kept telling, not even his fellow companions, he raised his left eyebrow at me and said :
I really do wonder whose dragon cut off his own wings and allowed you to be named after, i Lu Jiu want to confirm whether were you a dragon or a worm, i challenge you to a duel .
I didn't first know what he implied by the first part of his words, but i then remembered that i was currently Tian Long, so I realized he was ridiculing my name, that literally meant the ascending to heaven dragon, he was challenging me to a duel, i first wanted to refuse, but that was quite an unwise decision in this current situation .
The guards seemed to be uncaring of what might happen if things got out of control, i was also under the threat of being swarmed suddenly by more than a dozen of people, if that happened i will most likely end up laying like a dog, unconscious like that guy from before, i was in need of some condition that would put enough pressure on him to be the one calling off the duel .