48 Hours a Day

Zhang Heng finally arrived at Lincoln County a day earlier than initially planned.

The night he met the bailiff, Zhang Heng mentioned that he wanted to learn his equestrianism. Morton was very patient. Not only did he answer all of Zhang Heng’s questions, but he guided him on a personal level and corrected most of the wrong postures.

That night, Zhang Heng finally completed his self-learning process. The teaching continued until after midnight, and the poor bailiff did not expect to pay such a high price for a bowl of corn paste. So the two went separate ways the next morning. Morton was still yawning due to lack of sleep.

Amid his journey, Zhang Heng continued to hone his horsemanship to perfection. Such vigorous training would indeed cause him days of backache. It was one thing that couldn’t be changed immediately, even after the right ways of riding a horse were learned. He would have to get used to it by himself.

However, the good news was that his riding was indeed improving. Although there was no change in his skill panel, he could personally feel the progress. At least for now, he had no problem with performing some of the basic skillsets.

Zhang Heng also gave his first horse a nameRadish. After all, it was not a good idea to keep calling it a horse with a hair loss problem. According to plan, he replenished supplies halfway and reached the destination smoothly a couple of hours later.

The Lincoln County’s county seat looked vivacious. This place was way more extensive than the two towns he visited earlier. Apparently, there were two mining areas and many farms nearby, so so many people lived here. The town was also equipped with a bank, telegraph office, grocery store, hotel, bar, schools, and even a printing press. It was an excellent place to settle down.

Zhang Heng jumped off the Radish’s back and patted the dust off his body. Getting to Lincoln County had been no less a challenging journey. Having spent six days and five nights in the wilderness, corn paste had become almost tasteless. As of now, the matter of settlement or the search for lucky horseshoes wasn’t on his mind. The most important thing was to look for a place to take a hot bath and fill his stomach with food.

But before that, he still had some small problems to solve.

Not long after he entered the town, he felt a faint hostility along the way. An old man was sitting in front of his house spat at his feet, the spit landing only two steps away from Radish. Two cowboys were leaning against the stables, catcalling every single girl who passed them. One of them said to Zhang Heng, “Hey, boy from the east, you’d better back the f*ck off to wherever you came from. You are not welcome here.”

Zhang Heng had faced the same situation in the small town, and now, he had a good idea of how to deal with them. He drew his gun and shot at the hat of an old man nearby. The latter froze for a moment, then sent out a salvo of all kinds of filthy words. Until Zhang Heng shot at the cup he was holding, he quickly shut his mouth, and his face was reddened.

The two cowboys did not expect a new visitor like Zhang Heng to be so arrogant. Immediately, they drew their guns without saying a word. While they were doing that, Zhang Heng had already drew the second revolver and pointed it at them.

“If I were you, I would go to the bar to have a drink before the sunset. After all, life is short, and no one knows what will happen next moment.”

The two cowboys then glanced at each other. Although they were unhappy with the outcome, they decided to step back and better understand the current situation.

Then Zhang Heng looked at the old man again, “Hey, it looks like you are going to need a new cup. I hope the next one will spend a little longer time with you.”

The old man was so furious that his veins popped, his arms trembling.

However, since the revolver was pointing at his head now, not a word could be said no matter how angry he was.

Suddenly, another person spoke.

“You have gotten what you want, now, can you put away your weapons?”.

It was a middle-aged man who was about fifty years old. He was wearing a dirty shirt and reeked of alcohol. If it were not for the grayish, weathered police badge on his chest, Zhang Heng would have thought that he was a tramp.

Since he walked out of the police station, he should be the sheriff here. Although Morton and the middle-aged drunkard standing in front of him were considered law enforcers, they somewhat differed. The sheriff was usually known as sergeant as well, and the town elected a sheriff to maintain the safety of an area. On rare occasions, a sheriff would act as the local magistrate to hold trials.

Bailiffs, on the other hand, were also called lawmen. Usually affiliated with the feds, their main job was to hunt down or escort fugitives.

One was in charge of their local area, and the other worked for the federation. The nature of their work was to maintain an area’s stability, punish the evil, and reward the good.

Zhang Heng saw that Lincoln County’s sheriff had come forward, so he decided to put away his revolvers. He came here to settle in this place, not to make trouble. It was not too bad if he provoked the ordinary people here. However, if he angered the sheriff here, he would be forced to leave this place.

However, Zhang Heng did not regret what he did earlier. Although cowboys and pirates were not the same kinds of people, they both bore many similarities. To be more precise, all humans had many things in common. The two shots he fired weren’t a mere vent of anger, but rather, to send a signal that they should not be messing with him.

Considering his skin color, it would be tough to get a head start in the West of this era. Coming to a new territory alone did not mean that you will be safe even if one decided to lay low. Instead of waiting for others to bully him, Zhang Heng took this opportunity to make a scene.

In this way, if someone wanted to badmouth him, they would now have to think about the consequences. Of course, it didn’t mean that Zhang Heng would be fine afterward. In fact, things would get more serious than he imagined. Although he had temporarily scared them off, it was not easy to live in a hostile environment like this. In this world where everyone had a gun, Zhang Heng would not be able to do as he pleased.

A few glasses of whiskey, coupled with a few provocations, was enough to make a person abandon all sanity. No matter how strong Zhang Heng was, it was impossible to go up against an entire town alone. And he couldn’t be on guard 24 hours a day either. He was, after all, a human, and he would get fatigued. He might be able to hang on for a day or two, or even a week, but eventually, he would get tired.

Zhang Heng had already begun to realize that it was not easy to complete the first half of the main mission and settle in Lincoln County.