Chapter 48: Private Stables

The young man was stunned for a moment, then retorted angrily, "Who is your younger brother? You..."

Li Po interrupted him with a smiling face again, "Don't be in a rush. Let me reason with you. Look at how your grandfather swung his fists around—did he touch a single hair of mine?"

The youth was slightly dazed by this statement, but he subconsciously rubbed the red, swollen spots on his face, touched his backside, and then looked at Li Po and Li Chun. To his surprise, he found himself thinking that this fellow actually made some sense.

Yet, at the same time, he felt this was utterly unreasonable.

Li Po pressed on, "And why is that? Did you figure it out? ...Seeing that you're a pretty good lad, I'll enlighten you a bit more. It's not because your grandfather happens to fancy me; it's because I have genuine capability. Tell me... if we stay here together for long, whose words do you think he will listen to more easily, mine or yours?"

"Grandfather would never listen to you..." The youth argued fiercely, completely unaware that the topic had already been shifted.

"Plenty of people listen to Big Brother, and adding your grandfather to the list is no big deal either," Li Chun muttered from the side.

"Hmph, men are talking here. Less chatter from you, neither man nor woman."

"Hah! Say that again if you dare!"

"I said it just now. What can you do about it?"

These unruly kids really deserved a sound thrashing.

Li Po reached out and gave each of them a knock on the head. "Move, move, get to work right now. Hmm? I heard there's a place to stay here, but we already have a house outside... Are we supposed to live here from now on?"

Li Chun naturally kept her mouth shut and closely followed behind Big Brother's footsteps.

The youth was already accustomed to being beaten. Taking the blow, he shook his head with some annoyance, hesitated for a moment, but still followed along, shouting as he walked, "I'm not someone you can easily push around! You'd better stop laying your fists on me from now on, or my fists won't show any mercy."

Impatiently, Li Po gave him another knock on the head, which produced a rather crisp sound. "Aren't you annoying? Lead the way quickly before your grandfather loses his temper again."

The youth grew even more irritated, clenching his fists tightly. But the moment he heard the word "grandfather," his momentum completely collapsed. Clearly, the terrifying might of his grandfather was deeply rooted in his heart.

"Just live in this room right here. This is where Grandpa and I used to stay. Now there are only the four of us, nobody else. If you need anything, just shout out."

Li Po inspected the room and curled his lips in disdain. It was far inferior to his own house outside. What a pity for his new dwelling, where he had only spent a single night...

***

"What is my younger brother's name?"

"My name is Yuan Lang, and Commandery Governor Li is my maternal aunt's husband..." The youth puffed out his chest and cast a sideways glance, having changed his strategy to start reciting his family tree.

Li Po knew the old man probably had quite an impressive background; otherwise, he wouldn't curse everyone he met without the slightest hesitation. Still, Li Po was genuinely taken aback. You're just a stable hand, yet you're actually related to Li Jing? Is that counted through the horses?

Seeing Li Po's expression, the youth tilted his chin even higher, looking as though he were thinking, *You want to be my older brother? Are you even worthy?*

However, he didn't get to be smug for long. Out of nowhere, as if popping up suddenly, the old man appeared not far away and roared, "Good-for-nothing wretch! Lacking any skill of your own, you try to scare people by dropping the family head's name! You little beast, you've dragged our face right down into the dust! Let me beat the living daylights out of you useless waste today!"

Yuan Lang's face turned green at a visible speed, and he spun around and fled, clearly knowing that this time he had truly angered his grandfather.

The old man and the youth chased each other far into the distance.

Li Chun finally couldn't help it, doubling over with laughter.

Li Po was also smiling incessantly, and out of habit, he rubbed the top of Li Chun's head. "Let's go inside. It seems we won't be able to return for the time being..."

A horse cannot grow fat without grazing at night; with only four people here, there were bound to be countless chores waiting for them. Li Po could already envision the grueling, sun-up-to-sun-down hard labor under the supervision of this stubborn old man.

By evening, a bruised and swollen Yuan Lang limped over to deliver dinner.

He told Li Po with immense indignation that from now on, Li Po would be the one dealing with the kitchen staff when they sent over meals. Furthermore, he warned Li Po to stay as far away from him as possible, claiming that the newcomer had barely arrived before getting him beaten with numerous cudgels, and must surely be his nemesis reincarnated.

With this kid playing the clown to amuse them, Li Po and Li Chun enjoyed a thoroughly cheerful dinner.

Of course, as far as Li Po was concerned, the commandery government's meals were truly mediocre: millet rice served with pickles, accompanied by a bowl of soup and a basin of stewed bones.

It sounded quite lavish, but the millet was undercooked—half raw and half done. The pickles gave off a somewhat pungent odor, and the soup was not only cold but lacked salt, making it far too bland.

The stewed bones even had traces of blood on them, and despite being accustomed to mutton, one could still smell a heavy gamey odor.

Li Po desperately wanted to run over to the so-called kitchen and ask if they were trying to get themselves killed by feeding this stuff to Old Li's cousin-in-law.

Yet, Li Po soon realized that the old man and the youth possessed matching appetites, eating with great relish.

***

The night was quite peaceful. Despite the old man's fierce and ferocious appearance, resembling a tyrannical local landlord, he seemed decent enough at heart, not immediately treating Li Po like a beast of burden.

Early the next morning, a resigned Yuan Lang appeared before Li Po once more, stating that he was instructed to take Li Po around for a tour. From his reluctant expression, it was obvious he was acting under his grandfather's orders.

Li Chun, tagging along like a little tail, was deeply disliked by Yuan Lang. Clearly, the boy had very little experience dealing with girls.

After taking a tour around the place, Li Po roughly understood the situation here.

The stables looked quite large, but only eight horses were kept inside.

They were all fine warhorses. The horses here were not used for miscellaneous chores around the estate; only those holding official duties could lead horses away from here, usually for long-distance journeys to places like Jinyang.

In reality, this was the private stable of the commandery government, belonging to Commandery Governor Li Jing's personal property.

Four people and eight horses—at a glance, the workload shouldn't have been too heavy.

In truth, however, throughout the entire day, none of the four people had a moment of leisure.

Feeding the horses went without saying. While cleaning the stables, one also had to carefully inspect the horse droppings. If any horse's diet disagreed with it, it had to be put on a special diet for a few days until its droppings returned to normal.

Washing the horses' bodies and thoroughly inspecting their coats and skin was also required. If any ailment arose, just like humans, they needed a doctor. Of course, most of the time, the equine doctor was actually the stable hand himself—meaning they all had to moonlight as veterinarians.

Moreover, warhorses were unlike racing horses whose value lay solely in speed; they had to be kept robust and well-fleshed, yet absolutely prevented from becoming fat. This heavily tested a stable hand's patience and discernment.

In addition, warhorses could not simply be cooped up in the stables without movement; they had to be exercised every day. This was the moment that tested a groom's horsemanship and understanding of equine nature.

In truth, here, the horses were the masters, and the humans were the servants.