This year.
It was Chu Ning's first year in the Liang Dynasty, and he called it Chu's first year.
At first, people thought it was just an ordinary New Year.
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From the first to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Daning County Town was bustling with all sorts of festivities.
Having surpassed the poverty line, Chu Ning and his old aunt had a very comfortable year.
Because he was a constable in the town, Chu Ning didn't have to maintain order in the city during the Spring Festival. Every day, he would accompany his old aunt to the City God Temple to worship, to the Taoist Temple to burn incense, and to the monasteries to pray for peace talismans.
Out of curiosity, he once asked his aunt, "Auntie, aren't you afraid of angering the gods and the Buddha by visiting both the Taoist Temple and the monasteries?"
"Silly boy, naturally you worship whoever is efficacious. How can we know which is effective? So we pray to all, and surely there will be no harm," she replied.
"True, it's all about being sincere, even if there's no faith."
The old aunt: "?"
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On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, Chu Ning's holiday had ended.
It was time to return to Xiazhen Town.
He hadn't brought his old aunt along, not because he couldn't afford a house in Xiazhen Town, but because the old lady was not suited to live there now.
Last year, the old aunt's body was still robust, but ever since he became a constable, her health suddenly declined. The doctor said it was due to a loss of Vital Essence.
Chu Ning understood that his aunt's better health compared to a young person like him wasn't due to her actually being healthier, but because she held onto a breath inside her, not daring to fall ill. If she did, who would take care of him?
But now that he had become a constable and their lives were getting better, the aunt's worries were gone, and so was that breath of life.
Once that breath was released, all the suffering her body had endured over the years came to the fore.
According to the doctor, the old aunt needed to convalesce in quiet, and should not leave a familiar place, or her health might deteriorate even further.
Chu Ning had just mentioned to his aunt about asking Director Huang to transfer him back, but she scolded him for it.
With no other choice, Chu Ning had to entrust the care of his aunt to Mrs. Huang and decided he would come back to the county town every weekend to see her.
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Back in Xiazhen Town, Chu Ning resumed his usual routines: practicing martial arts, hunting, and loafing around.
The townsfolk and merchants were no longer as wary of Chu Ning as they had been at the beginning, and would occasionally crack a few jokes with him. Only one person, whenever they saw Chu Ning, still had a hint of fear in their eyes.
Liu Da felt a bit panicky inside.
He had impulsively told the constable about his cousin coming to Xiazhen Town, but then his cousin never showed up. It wasn't until he visited his cousin's house during the New Year that he learned his cousin had been killed one night under the cover of darkness, struck dead with a single punch.
Although his cousin had also told him that living this kind of life, one either hacks at others or gets hacked, and with so many enemies in the county, it was normal to be killed any day.
Yet for some reason, when he heard the news, Chu Ning's image sprang to mind.
Chu Ning, however, hadn't noticed this detail, or perhaps he saw Liu Da's panic but didn't think much of it.
He assumed Liu Da's nervousness was probably because with his cousin dead, he no longer had a backer.
With this in mind, he even patted Liu Da on the shoulder reassuringly, "Don't worry, I won't give you a hard time here. Protection… pay as much Tax Silver as you want."
Little did he know, his words only made Liu Da more anxious.
This month, Chu Ning continued to collect the protection money very leniently, charging less or allowing a delay in payment for those who weren't doing well in business. When one merchant mentioned his wife had given birth while paying protection money, Chu Ning refunded some of it to the merchant as a gift and went to join the feast.
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By the second month, Chu Ning's life had expanded to include not just martial arts practice, hunting, and strolling, but also attending banquets.
Whenever the townsfolk invited him, he would join them, which fostered his connection with the people of the town and gave him a more comprehensive understanding of their circumstances.
He learned who had recently had a child, which daughter-in-law was always quarreling with her mother-in-law, which man was most fond of gambling, and whose business was the largest…
These were bits of information that people wouldn't readily share if asked, but by attending banquets and sitting with the women, he would find out everything after a while.
Chu Ning's strength had also reached slightly over 1,200 jin.
A gain of 200 jin in a little over two months was clearly much slower than before, which Chu Ning knew was due to hitting a bottleneck in his Bull Demon Strength. Any strength gains were now minimal, sustained only by the base effect of the Longevity Fruit.
The base effect.
This was a term Chu Ning had devised from nearly a year of research on the energy release of the Longevity Fruit.
If the energy released by the Longevity Fruit was denoted as M, then four factors affected the magnitude of M: food, progress in the Martial Heart Method, training, and the base effect.
When the effectiveness of martial arts training began to wane, or even hit a bottleneck, only food and the base effect remained.
The base effect was a minimum guaranteed strength gain as long as he was well-fed.
Currently, the base effect had dropped to a daily increase of four jin in strength. Why there were fluctuations in the base effect was something Chu Ning surmised had to do with his body's capacity to endure.
If his body was likened to a road, the increase in strength was like cars traveling on this road; a breakthrough in the Martial Heart Method was akin to widening this road to allow more vehicles to travel on it.
With every lane already filled with cars, there was no room to add more vehicles to travel side by side; at most, more motorcycles or bicycles could be added to travel along the edges.
Once he achieved a breakthrough to the fifth level of Bull Demon Strength, his strength gains would accelerate once again.
Slow and steady wins the race. He was bound to break through the fifth level eventually, and now his Bull Demon Punch could already unleash three times his own strength. With just his strength alone, he should be able to take on two Tang Ruoweis, and if he added chili powder to the mix, defeating three Tang Ruoweis wouldn't be a problem.
In a head-to-head clash relying purely on strength, excluding speed and technique, a difference of 200 jin was a significant hurdle to overcome, and anything more than 500 jin was like bringing a lower dimension to the fight.
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…
The day to collect protection fees had come again.
As Chu Ning collected money, he declined an invite from a businessman celebrating a happy family occasion who wanted him to join a banquet the coming weekend. It wasn't that he couldn't afford the gift money; it was just that he planned to return to the county town over the weekend.
In the Liang Dynasty, there were no weekends as such. Officials like Director Huang could rest one day for every five-day work cycle. Of course, if Director Huang only worked five days a month, no one would have anything to say about it.
For a minor constable like himself, the standard policy was a day off every ten days. Similarly, Chu Ning taking a weekly day off didn't bother anyone.
"Sir, business is poor this month, can we reduce the payment a bit?"
Chu Ning looked at the middle-aged man with a pleading smile and nodded, "Alright."
Yet the middle-aged man still did not take out his money, instead he said, "Then, can I give the rest next month? I truly don't have the money this month."
Chu Ning looked at the man with an amused expression, making the man's forehead break out in sweat. After a few moments, the man hastily pulled a pouch from his waist, "Sir… this is the Tax Silver."
"Wang Daniu, there must be no next time, or you won't need to come at all," Chu Ning said coldly, as the surrounding merchants did not plead on Wang Daniu's behalf. Chu Ning was considered very fair-minded, and the Tax Silver he charged was already low. If someone had an urgent family matter that required money, it could even be deferred, but Wang Daniu was being dishonest and tried not to pay.
Even if Chu Ning barred him from setting up his stall on the street, they would think it was only fair.
"Sir, I wouldn't dare do it again, it won't happen again."
Wang Daniu was quick to beg for mercy, but Chu Ning left without paying him any further attention.
He had forgotten whether it was during a funeral banquet or a wedding banquet when he overheard a table of women discussing Wang Daniu.
Wang Daniu often went to the county town to buy cosmetics and sell them in Xiazhen Town, but he had recently become addicted to gambling; every few days, he had to visit the gambling houses in town, and his family's savings were gambled away.
Fortunately, Wang Daniu's wife was very resolute. Unable to persuade her husband, she took her children and moved back to her parents' home, and it was she who usually ran their stall.
In his past life, Chu Ning had encountered many gamblers and knew all too well that none of them deserved sympathy.
He was a constable, not one to interfere in family affairs, but he guessed that Wang Daniu knew today was the day for Tax Silver collection, probably coaxing the money from his wife under the pretense of paying the Tax Silver, only to consider not actually paying it in hopes of using it for gambling.
He accepted the money, knowing that if he didn't, Wang Daniu's wife would still be able to run her stall here. If he gave it to Wang Daniu, that money would likely end up in a gambler's pocket by the day's end.
His pointed statement in front of all the merchants was deliberate, aware that it would definitely reach Wang Daniu's wife and her parents, ensuring that, despite her soft heart, for the sake of her children's livelihood, she would not give Wang Daniu any more money.
That was all the help he could offer. As for the Wang Family's future, that was in the hands of Wang Daniu's wife.