The two men were dressed in rags.
Their faces were filled with dirt, and one of them rubbed his stomach with his hand.
The man rubbing his stomach was tanned and burly.
The other man had a moustache which he twitched as he observed the mansion.
"Boss, the mansion is occupied now. Should we change our plan?" The burly man asked.
They were thieves who had targeted the mansion for a long time.
After going around and confirming that it didn't belong to any rich merchant, clan or officials, they decided to steal the valuables in the night.
But when they came to the mansion, things had changed.
"Shut up, Er Gou. Let me think of something." The boss said and twitched his moustache vigorously as he tried to come up with a plan.
Finally, he made a decision.
"Wait here, while I try and see who the new owner is." The boss said.
"I can help too, boss." Er Gou said.
The boss frowned and slapped Er Gou on the back of his head.
"Have you seen a beggar as burly as you? Stay here and wait."
Er Gou nodded his head and watched as the boss walked towards the wooden gates of the mansion.
The boss felt better when he saw that there was no one guarding the gate.
This meant that there wasn't any security for the mansion.
Maybe the new owner hadn't settled in yet to get a security detail, he thought.
This gave him the courage to knock on the wooden gate with the iron handles.
Knock.
The knock echoed in the large mansion.
Lin Xuan Qi hovered his chopsticks in the air and stopped.
He wasn't expecting any visitors.
"Wait here, while I see who it is." Lin Xuan Qi said and stood up.
Xue Cong, Yue Jie and Yue Xin who were also having their noodles nodded.
They didn't think much of it.
The sisters were still heady with the fact that Lin Xuan Qi allowed them to eat together with him.
"Who's that?" Lin Xuan Qi shouted at the wooden gate.
The boss replied, "Dear sir, would you be so kind as to spare something for a poor beggar like me."
Lin Xuan Qi frowned and felt that it was odd.
In Da Qian, everyone knew their place and for a beggar, a large mansion was the last place they would dare to approach to beg for food or money.
"Go away. Our master is busy." Lin Xuan Qi shouted, not wanting to reveal any information to the boss.
"I understand, so sorry for your time." The boss replied and left.
Lin Xuan Qi not wanting to open the wooden gate was good enough of an answer for the boss.
It signaled to him that there weren't many people inside the mansion.
Lin Xuan Qi opened the wooden gates slightly to try and catch a glimpse of what the boss looked like.
But all that he could see was the back of the boss.
Lin Xuan Qi sighed and closed the wooden gates.
He thought to himself silently and summoned the system's information panel in his mind.
Words started to appear.
[Clan Prosperity System at your service.]
[Current Tasks:]
[1. Start recruiting personnel to tend to the clan.]
[Reward: 5KG of rice daily per person recruited.]
[Host Status: Undefeatable within the mansion's compound.]
Lin Xuan Qi cheered up a little when he saw the status telling him that he was undefeatable within the mansion's compound.
If the undefeatable meant what it said literally, then there was a chance that he would be able to fend off the thieves or robbers.
Just that he didn't know how undefeatable he was.
And on top of that, he had the servant girls to worry about.
He was after all responsible for their lives now.
Lin Xuan Qi also wasn't sure whether the system might revoke the rice delivered if anything happened to them. He was not going to find out the answer to this.
About being undefeatable however...
He went back to the dining hall and joined the servant girls for the meal.
"Anything you need us to help with?" Xue Cong asked when she saw Lin Xuan Qi back.
"There is, but we shall do so after the meal." Lin Xuan Qi replied and continued to slurp on his bowl of noodles.
Soon after they were done and he had his tea, he summoned the servant girls to the main hall.
"Now, I need your help..." Lin Xuan Qi said, gave them an awkward smile and said, "...grab some firewood and smash it onto my back."
Xue Cong, Yue Jie and Yue Xin glanced at him and blinked blankly at him.
They weren't sure they had heard him correctly.
"I have been practicing some martial arts skills for a while, and I need you to do it to help me practice." Lin Xuan Qi cooked up an excuse.
Xue Cong gave a sigh of relief when she heard his excuse.
She had heard that some men were into weird kinks, like enjoying being whipped or hit for pleasure.
Lucky that Master Lin wasn't one of them.
Yue Jie blushed as she had learned from gossip with her friends that were married off in the matters of pleasures.
Only Yue Xin didn't think much about it.
She looked upon Master Lin with admiration that he knew martial arts.
Maybe she could learn from him one day to exact revenge on her father's enemies.
Xue Cong went to the firewood shed and came back with a piece of firewood.
The firewood was thick and hard to break.
Lin Xuan Qi pretended to breathe in and wielded his hands in the manner of taichi which he had watched in videos on Earth.
The servant girls were impressed by his unique and mesmerizing movements.
Master Lin wasn't lying when he said he knew martial arts. They thought.
As he moved his arms slowly, Lin Xuan Qi tried to convince himself that it was necessary to test just how undefeatable he really was.
The system should have granted him enough strength and power to withstand such a blow, at the very least, he thought.
"I'm ready. Strike my back," Lin Xuan Qi finally said.
Xue Cong hesitated for a moment but when she looked at Lin Xuan Qi's determined face, she knew she had to do it.
It was after all Master Lin's order.