A Western Doctor's Happy Farming Life[1]

chapter 57

The couple then headed to various shops to buy something for their daily needs. And in considering the upcoming trip, Wu Dahu required a blacksmith to help him make a crossbow, a quite portable gadget for him for a self-protection. He was informed to take the finished product after three days.

But just when they were at the iron shop with the blacksmith taking a smooth conversation with them. It was kind of awkward for Song Qinghan to balance the situation, he wanted the blacksmith to shut up about the scalpel kit stuff. But the blacksmith didn’t care that much, he then came to ask whether Song Qinghan would love to forge another one. Song Qinghan refused without demonstrating a reason.

However, just as they were about to leave, they received an interesting news from this blacksmith: Lin Dafu had expanded his business to the capital of the country already. Probably this time the Lin guy would be “promoted” to be a man of upper class.

Song Qinghan and Wu Dahu stared at each other without words. But Song Qinghan then relieved finding that Wu Dahu showed no any sign of jealousy in his eyes.

At the same time Wu Dahu relieved either while he found no any sign of expectation to that Lin guy in Song Qinghan’s eyes.

On the way back, Wu Dahu couldn’t help but still expose his thought hidden deep in his mind after pondering for a while.

“Han, do you know why I showed so much eagerness to the trip of Laifu’s business? I didn’t tell you that I’m going to attend a tournament held by the central government as well.”

“A tournament?” repeated Song Qinghan, and then he continued to say, “And the winner from that competition will be honored the name of Zhuang Yuan of Martial Skills (No.1 Scholar of Martial Skills)?”

Nodding, Wu Dahu came to a shock knowing that Song Qinghan exactly comprehended the tournament thing, he then continued to explain, saying, “Yes, you’re right. And the sponsor of this tournament started its enrollment right now. Those who would love to attend the competition are required to pay five hundred silver coins for the registration fee. So I am thinking about taking the remuneration of this trip to attend this game.”

“Five hundred silver coins?”

Song Qinghan took a deep breath and asked dubiously, “That’s not a tiny amount of registration fee, isn’t it? How come? So this game is only open for those who can afford it? That’s rather unfair to those who are poor without money.”

Wu Dahu smiled bitterly and came to explain, saying, “Well, indeed. The martial arts are supposed to be the daily exercises for the noble. The poor, while owning a life of scarcity and unknown illness, couldn’t even pit against the noble in their inborn physical status. Five hundred silver coins, well, for those sons of the families of pedigree, are just something unconspicuous. In this case, the registration fee had never changed at all since the competition’s founding.”

“More importantly,” Wu Dahu continued to say while taking a pause a bit, it seemed that it was hard for him to finish his words, “The attenders will face various risks. Some might get slight injuries from it, but what’s worse, some might die. So the registration fee is used to compensate the family members.”

The couple talked while walking along the way, and not long they reached the place where they had made a promise with that chubby man. Coincidentally, the man was running over behind them while hearing something about registration fee from the two, and then he replenished the demonstration of Wu Dahu, saying, “Yes, you are right. The family of the dead one is able to gain ten thousand silver coins from the competition for their compensation. It’s quite normal to see that there are some people who show no willingness to live love to attend this game, they will borrow five hundred silver coins from other family and head to the ‘Game of Death’ for their families.”