The harbor was covered in mud. Yinzhen followed Deng Yunlin, taking one step at a time, but he was keeping an eye on the surroundings.

There are quite a few corvée laborers here, and most of them are covered with mud spots. But what is strange is that some of them talk loudly with smiles on their faces, while others have pale faces and look lifeless, and they just bury their heads in their work.

Yinzhen and Deng Yunlin carried bricks and stones forward. When they arrived, Yinzhen saw an acquaintance, who was one of the guards who came in yesterday, named Sun Jin.

Yinzhen pretended to stagger to attract Sun Jin's attention.

The next second——

“Bang!”

"hiss!"

The officers and soldiers who had been watching them from the side swung the whip in their hands and hit Yinzhen, causing him to gasp in pain.

The shoulder pole fell off instantly.

Deng Yunlin quickly put down the other end and quickly went over to check on Yinzhen's condition.

The commotion caused here successfully attracted Sun Jin's attention.

The officer cursed fiercely.

"You useless thing! You can't even lift this little brick!"

Deng Yunlin and Sun Jin's eyes suddenly became fierce. Sun Jin even wanted to throw away the mud and sand on his body and run over to teach the officer a lesson.

However, he still remembered the purpose of their coming in and finally resisted the impulse.

Deng Yunlin only took a moment to smile.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. My brother is weak and has caused trouble for you..."

The officers and soldiers rolled their eyes when they heard this.

"Bah, you're weak and yet you still come to do corvée labor? Be careful that you get the money but not the life to spend it! Stop talking nonsense to me and get up and work!"

Yinzhen clenched his fists, stood up without saying a word, and took the carrying pole in his hand.

Seeing this, Deng Yunlin had no choice but to return to his original position and move forward with Yinzhen.

The officer was somewhat pleased with himself and spat behind the two men.

"waste!"

Yinzhen paused, took a few deep breaths, suppressed the frustration and anger in his heart, and slowly calmed down.

In the past, he had never seen how officers and soldiers treated corvee labor, so it was difficult for him to comment on his current situation.

He felt that he had been wronged, but if all corvee laborers were treated like this, then the problem lay with the rules and could not be entirely blamed on the officers and soldiers.

But even so, Yinzhen made up his mind to teach the man who beat him a lesson in the future.

Let him also feel the whipping.

When they reached the designated place, Yinzhen quickly exchanged glances with Sun Jin, then put down the bricks and stones and followed Deng Yunlin back.

Yinzhen spent the entire morning carrying bricks and stones. The skin on his shoulders was delicate and he had never experienced such torture before.

Even though Deng Yunlin was trying his best to help him share the burden, when it was time for dinner at noon, Yinzhen still felt a burning pain in both shoulders.

The skin must have been rubbed off.

Fortunately, after he received the whipping in the morning, no officers came to trouble him again.

Dinner was two white steamed buns and a bowl of boiled cabbage.

Yinzhen was really surprised to receive such a dinner.

The white steamed buns were acceptable to him, but the appearance of the bowl of boiled cabbage made him have no appetite at all.

Yinzhen looked around and found that everyone was eating with great relish, except for——

"Hey, kid, hand over your buns!"

A sharp voice exploded in Yinzhen's ears, making his face darken.

Turning around, I saw a familiar face.

Yinzhen didn't know this person.

He was familiar with this face probably because he had seen this person slacking off many times while he was moving bricks and stones.

After observing for a whole morning, Yinzhen also saw something on this construction site.

One of them is that only about half of the corvee labor was actually hard labor.

The other half are slacking off.

The man who asked him for steamed buns was the laziest one among them.

But the officers and soldiers just watched him slacking off, not even a word of criticism, let alone whipping him.

Yinzhen discovered it, but did not expose it.

There were too many people here, and he didn't know what the connection was between those officers and soldiers and the lazy corvee laborers. If he rashly exposed this phenomenon, it would probably cause unnecessary trouble.

He came in to investigate the case, so it's better not to cause any trouble for now.

But he never expected that even though he did not take the initiative to cause trouble, trouble came to him first.

"Why should I give it to you?"

Yinzhen stared at the ruffian in front of him with a cold expression.

The man didn't expect that he would dare to refuse, and his eyebrows furrowed.

"Hey, you're still such a tough guy. Why? Because I'm stronger than you!"

He stretched out his hand and wanted to grab Yinzhen's collar.

But he was restrained by Deng Yunlin.

"What do you want to do?"

The scoundrel felt a sharp pain in his wrist when Deng Yunlin pinched it, and he screamed in shock.

"Ouch! Let go! Let me go quickly! How dare you hit me? Do you know who my brother-in-law is?!"

Deng Yunlin threw off the ruffian's arm and protected Yinzhen behind him.

"I don't care who your brother-in-law is, I just know that you want to bully my cousin!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the other five guards who came in with Yinzhen also surrounded him.

Seeing this, the ruffian thought that Deng Yunlin and others wanted to beat him up together. He was so scared that his face turned pale. He said a few harsh words and turned around and ran away.

After he left, Yinzhen glanced at the reactions of the people around him without leaving any trace.

No one who was working hard paid any attention to what was happening here, but those who were slacking off were pointing and talking at them.

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