Chapter 2：Lin Mu

"Lin Mu, stop lazing around we still have a lot of trees left to harvest in today's quota, we barely filled our quota yesterday and I don't want to anger the supervisor again, he will definitely cut our wages this time."

Hearing the voice calling him, a youthful-looking boy of about 16 years of age and having short hair turns around towards the man calling him. Seeing the man's tense look the boy gulps and answers;

"I'm not lazing around uncle Yuan Tu, I'm just trying to be careful not to damage the spirit apples while plucking them from the trees."

The man named Yuan Tu, hearing the boy's reply, has a tint of annoyance in his eyes as he thinks the boy is merely giving excuses for his slow pace in harvesting the spirit apples from the trees.

Remembering yesterday's scolding that he got from the supervisor for being the group leader of the slowest harvesting group out of a hundred this week, he knew that if his group did not exceed their quota today, they will definitely never receive their bonus wages this week.

"Hasten your pace and stop giving excuses or you will be the one to bear the penalty we'll receive for incomplete work"

Not giving the boy another chance to reply, the man walks away to another tree to work. The boy hearing Yuan Tu's threat, quickens his pace plucking the spirit apples from the tree placing them in his basket, and then when the basket is full carefully transferring them to the wheelbarrow which will then be sent to the main collection cart.

Spirit apples were the main produce of the Northern town, which were rather lucrative and were sent to Wu Lim city, which was the main city. Wu Lim city had four satellite towns, each named according to their locations and each having their own specialty.

Spirit apples were very expensive for common peasants with each apple costing a gold coin, which only the people from the city could afford to buy. While the peasants that were harvesting them only received four silver coins every day, it would take them nearly a whole month's wages to buy just one, thus they had to be careful not to damage, bruise or scratch the apples as this would result in the spirit apples slowly losing their spirit qi making them lose value.

Two hours later, Lin Mu having done four trips to the cart emptying his basket along with the others, the wheelbarrow is nearly full when Yuan Tu walks towards the cart and empties his basket filling the wheelbarrow.

Looking at the filled wheelbarrow Yuan Tu takes a breath of relief as the day's quota is finally completed two hours before sundown, giving them plenty of time to harvest more spirit apples today. Thinking they may, at last, receive their bonus wages this week, a slight smile appears on Yuan Tu's face and he looks towards Lin Mu…

"Looks like you finally picked up the pace, now that we have finished today's quota you can send the wheelbarrow to the main collecting cart, the rest of us will continue harvesting."

Looking at the heavy-looking wheelbarrow Lin Mu furrows his brows knowing that it will be difficult for him to move it all the way to the collecting cart and will take him at least 45 minutes to come back during which the rest of the 5 people of the group will be the only ones receiving the higher bonus pay, not leaving him much time to earn his.

"Uncle Yuan Tu this wheelbarrow is very heavy for me, can't you bring it to the main cart"

Yuan Tu, having the greed of higher wages in his mind, definitely does not want to waste his time in sending the wheelbarrow back.

"Can't you just do as I asked Lin Mu, if you keep on shirking from hard work you'll never get strong, in the time you spent talking you could have very well been on your way to the collecting cart"

Looking at the annoyed look in Yuan Tu's eyes, Lin Mu knows it would be useless to argue any further and he would just have to rush back as fast as possible so that he could work more. Having thought of that, Lin Mu starts pushing the wheelbarrow towards the location of the collecting cart.

5 minutes later Lin Mu starts getting tired and is about to slow down his pace when a stone comes under the wheelbarrow making it tilt. Lin Mu unable to handle the heavy wheelbarrow loses control and with a loud noise, the wheelbarrow falls.

With a horrified expression on his face, Lin Mu is left standing, while the other workers hearing the voice gather and are shocked at the sight of a fallen wheelbarrow with all the spirit apples in it scattered around in the dirt with many scratched and damaged.

As more and more people gather the supervisor seeing the commotion also comes over to see what happened and why are the peasants not working. Seeing the supervisor approaching, the people quiet down and give way for the supervisor to come, looking at the debacle in front of him, the supervisor Li Peng is shocked at first but then anger seethes within him.

"WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS MESS? COME OUT NOW"

The surrounding people not wanting to get involved quickly point towards the frozen Lin Mu. Lin Mu now, even more horrified seeing the supervisor falls in despair.

"YOU IMBECILE DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE, HOW BIG OF A LOSS YOU'VE CAUSED, WHERE IS YOUR GROUP LEADER CALL HIM"

The supervisor shouts with spittle flying all over. The people quickly call over Yuan Tu, who was already on his way to see what had happened. Looking at the supervisor's now angry red face, Yuan Tu became pale with fear, hesitatingly approaching him.

"LOOK WHAT YOUR GROUP MEMBER HAS DONE, A WHOLE WHEEL BARROW'S WORTH OF SPIRIT APPLES ARE NOW USELESS, THIS IS MORE THAN A 1000 GOLD COINS WORTH OF LOSS. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS, HOW WILL THIS LOSS BE COMPENSATED?"

Hearing the supervisors shouting about compensation make Yuan Tu even more frightened, his ears already ringing from the shouting makes it even more difficult for him to talk.

"I… I… I my lord not all apples are damaged we can still sell the rest of them, please spare us just this once, we'll never make such a mistake ever again"

Li Peng, now calming down a brief bit, glanced at the spirit apples and saw that some are still redeemable, but the rest are still damaged apples that were worth at least 700 gold coins.

With a stern expression, he speaks, "Even if you exclude the apples that are undamaged the loss is still over 700 gold coins when the mayor hears about this he will not be happy, I cannot spare you"

Li Peng thinks about how to compensate for the over 700 gold coins worth of damage, he'll probably have to dock a whole month's wages from every peasant working here but it still won't be enough, at this point he looks at Lin Mu.

"Every peasant working here will lose one months' worth of wages in compensation for the loss and for the rest of it, as the boy caused this mistake, all his property will be seized and sold off to pay for it"

Hearing the supervisor's order every person turned pale with despair and then felt anger against Lin Mu as it was his mistake which caused them to lose everything they worked for this entire month. Lin Mu now having heard the order has tears in his eyes as he would lose everything he had, even the house that his parents left him when they died last year.

"Guards, seize this boy and his group leader, go to the boy's property and seize all valuables and the house, then throw the boy out of the town then bring the group leader to the square for 10 lashes"

One guard seizes Lin Mu and others restrain Yuan Tu taking them away for their punishments. Yuan Tu has a hateful look on his face as he looks at Lin Mu and grits his teeth, swearing to have revenge on the kid. The other peasants also look at Lin Mu with hateful gazes. Lin Mu tries to struggle but there's no way he could overpower a guard having the strength of the sixth stage of body tempering, while Lin Mu only had the second stage of body tempering having never trained properly before with a tempering technique.

The guards drag Lin Mu to his house and ransack the house taking everything of value though there was not much there to begin with, as most of the valuables were sold off in exchange for medicine when Lin Mu's mother fell sick during the last years plague. The only thing worth being the house itself and the land that it was built on.

Lin Mu watching his entire world ripped apart starts tearing up and sniffling. After checking that all valuables have been taken, the guards seal the courtyard entrance of the house and go back to report to the supervisor while one guard brings Lin Mu to the edge of the city, throws him away, and then turns back to head to his post.

Lin Mu lied there on the ground for hours before he got up, no longer crying. He had a dull look in his eyes as he walked aimlessly out of the town towards the forest. After walking for an hour, he found himself in front of the apple tree he used to play when he was a child.

There was a small stream nearby where he would catch fish and play in the water with his friends. Now tired and exhausted, he sat below the tree with his back to the tree and fell asleep under the night sky with the moon hiding in the clouds.