Chapter 57: We Have to Start A Business

After reading out all one hundred questions, Fang Che took a sip of tea, then stood up and began walking around with his hands clasped behind his back, scrutinizing everyone for any cheating or other untoward behavior.

Meanwhile, everyone had already begun answering the questions.

As time passed, some people began to display signs of agitation, and it was clear that they were not doing well.

It was a very cold winter's night, and they were sitting outside in the courtyard, but visible steam was beginning to rise up from the heads of several people.

Two hours quickly passed by, and a chorus of despairing groans immediately rang out.

Clearly, many of the test-takers were less than pleased with their performance.

"The girls will be in charge of marking the test papers. Don't let me down!"

"Thank you, Helmsmaster! We won't betray your trust!"

All of the women were ecstatic.

With their newfound marking powers, they could be more lenient when marking their own tests to ensure that they passed. Of course, they had to be strict with everyone else. Otherwise, the Starlight would not be pleased with them.

With the eight women working together, all of the tests were quickly marked before being handed to Fang Che.

The eight women all looked as if a heavy load had been lifted from their shoulders. Clearly, they had already seen their own scores, and they knew that they weren't going to be banished or whipped.

Meanwhile, everyone else was looking up at Fang Che with a wide range of different expressions, including anticipation, concern, unease, and downright fear.

"Everyone still remembers the reward and punishment scheme that I laid out before the test, right?"

"Yes, Helmsmaster."

"Good. I'll now call out your scores in descending order. Zhao Wushang, one hundred points!"

"Yes!"

Zhao Wushang couldn't help but jump out of his chair before pumping his fists in elation, and he hurriedly made his way to Fang Che to accept his test paper with tears swimming in his eyes.

"Zheng Yunqi, ninety-nine points."

Zheng Yunqi also stood up, but in a much calmer fashion, before accepting his test paper from Fang Che.

Everyone had done quite well for the most part. There were ten people who had scored in excess of ninety-five, and almost everyone had passed.

With one final test paper left, everyone waited with bated breath to see who it was that had failed the test.

"Jiang Wenwu!" Fang Che called out in a cold voice.

No one answered.

"Jiang Wenwu!"

Finally, a tall, thin, and acne-ridden young man rose unsteadily to his feet, then corrected, "Helmsmaster, my name is Jiang Bin."

"Jiang Bin?"

Fang Che faltered slightly as he glanced down at the test paper, then snapped, "You call that Bin? I could barely even distinguish the Wen and Wu! Why did you leave such a large gap between the two?"[1]

Jiang Bin was on the verge of tears.

"Fifty-seven points! Look at this pathetic score, it's even worse than your handwriting! You're a disgrace to your ancestors! I'm going to deduct two more marks for your messy handwriting, so your final score will be fifty-five!"

Jiang Bin lowered his head in a crestfallen manner.

"Zhao Wubai!"

"Here!"

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"What should his punishment be?"

Zhao Wubai took a moment to calculate the answer, then replied, "Sixty whip lashes!"

"That's right! See that tree over there? Seal his cultivation base, strip off his clothes, and hang him upside-down from that tree! Zhao Wubai, I'll get you to carry out the punishment!"

Zhao Wubai turned to him with a flabbergasted expression.

"What are you staring at me for? Hurry up! If I catch you going easy on him, you'll be subjected to the same punishment! Everyone else is to spectate and count the number of whip lashes! If you miscount or lose count, then we'll start again from the beginning!"

Jiang Bin almost collapsed to his knees as he implored, "Please don't miscount, everyone!"

Before long, he was hung up like a pig, revealing spruces of bushy black hair beneath his armpits.

A sadistic grin appeared on Zhao Wubai's face as he spat onto the palms of his hands before rubbing them together, clearly eager to begin.

"Zhao Wubai, you better not aim anywhere you shouldn't!" Jiang Bin yelled.

"Shut up!" Zhao Wubai snapped, then delivered the first whip lash.

The sound of whip cracking on flesh and guttural howls of pain rang out intermittently, and by the time all sixty lashes had been delivered, Zhao Wubai had already broken three whips.

Jiang Bin's face was deathly pale as he was lowered down, and as soon as his backside made contact with the ground, he immediately sprang up with an excruciating howl as if he had been electrocuted, then clasped his hands over his backside with a look of agony on his face.

"For this first time, willow branch whips were used, but next time, it'll be leather whips. For the third time, we'll use a metal whip, and anyone that fails the end-of-term examination will get to enjoy the taste of the Barbed Dragon Whip!"

Everyone collectively shuddered.

They were all aware of what the Barbed Dragon Whip was and how damaging it was.

If one were to intentionally target the vital regions, just a few lashes from the Barbed Dragon Whip would be enough to put an end to someone's life!

After Jiang Bin was lowered down, Fang Che instated Zhao Wushang and Zheng Yunqi as squad captains. No one else had scored in excess of ninety-eight, so the original plan of establishing five squads was adjusted to just two instead.

"Alright, return to your seats, and I'll examine the changes that you've made to your appearance."

Everyone immediately sat down, while Jiang Bin adopted a horse stance with his backside hovering just above his chair.

After examining everyone, Fang Che gave a nod of approval. All of them had made good changes following his criticisms from the day before, and even their demeanors had changed considerably.

What he failed to realize was that the changes in their demeanors were mostly a result of how terrified they were of him.

"From now on, we'll be going undercover on a long-term basis, so we'll need legitimate jobs. Even though the branch helm has been established, I still haven't made a decision on what it's going to do, so let's all brainstorm some ideas."

Everyone immediately began pondering their options.

They were doing this for their own benefit, so they were taking great care in their considerations.

They had to think of a line of work that was legal, safe, and ideally easy.

"How about we open an armed escort agency, Helmsmaster?" Jiang Bin suggested.

"That's... not a bad idea," Fang Che mused as his mind wandered to Qiao Yishu's armed escort agency.

"What do you all think?"

Everyone else also found this to be quite an appealing idea as they wouldn't have to risk their safety and go out to search for jobs, so all of them began expressing their support.

"It's not a bad idea, but I don't have even an ounce of trust for any of you! What if you take a liking to the goods that you're escorting, or simply can't be bothered to complete the journey and end up killing everyone to take the goods for yourselves? Our clients will then report us to the Hall of Protectionists, and we'll all be screwed!"

"We wouldn't do that, Helmsmaster!" Zhao Wushang argued. "If we're going to run a legitimate armed escort agency, then we can't just go around killing our own people! If we did that, you would have our heads even before the Hall of Protectionists could get to us!"

"How would I find out if none of you say anything? Like I said, I have zero trust in all of you, so I think it's best that you go out and find jobs for yourselves."

Everyone immediately began vowing to Fang Che that they would never do something like that.

They could see that he seemed averse to the idea of running an armed escort agency, and that he was also very eager to kick everyone out.

However, going out to search for jobs was a massive pain in the backside, so everyone immediately began begging him to approve the idea.

"The only way I'm approving this idea is if you all swear upon the Heavenly Centipede Deity that you'll be good, law-abiding citizens while running the armed escort agency. Otherwise, I don't trust any of you. Also, I'm nothing more than a steward looking after someone's estate right now. Isn't it too drastic a jump for me to go from steward to head escort of an escort agency overnight?"

Everyone was astonished to hear this.

Who could've possibly dared to use someone like Starlight as their steward? It was completely unthinkable to them!

No one raised any objections to this. Even someone like Starlight was sticking to the straight and narrow in the White Cloud Prefecture, so they were certainly not above the law.

With that in mind, Zhao Wushang led the way in swearing a vow of lawfulness, and everyone else quickly followed suit one by one.

They had to convince Starlight not to kick them out of the branch helm.

Fang Che paced back and forth with a sour expression while grumbling to himself, "I don't know, I still don't like it..."

"Think about it this way, Helmsmaster. If you become the head escort, then you stand to benefit as well," Zhou Mei'er said. "Prior to this, you had no subordinates, so you had to go out and serve as a steward to others, but now that you have us, you won't have to put up with such a degrading job any longer. Instead, you get to stay in the branch helm and call the shots! That's surely more appealing to you!"

"But what am I going to do about your identities? You're a bunch of powerful armed escorts that are supposed to have just popped up out of the blue? Where am I going to get legitimate identities for all of you?"

"That's easy!" Zhao Wushang said. "We'll just say that we're all members of the same sect who've come out into the world to broaden our horizons and accumulate experience. This is a very commonplace occurrence."

1. The character for Bin (斌) is Wen (文) on the left and Wu (武) on the right, so if there's a gap between the two, then it looks like Wenwu. ☜