Chapter 103 – Fast
It was a whole night of chaos – everybody was dead drunk. More than half of them laid on the table the entire night, while the rest of them slept on the floor.

The owner of the restaurant was very kind; he managed to get several blankets to cover them, for fear of them catching a cold. In the cold nights in the northern border, when they peed, they did not dare not to tremble. What if they froze? Pouring hot water created a thick mist in a cold temperature as such.

When Meng Changan finally woke up, Shen Leng was already gone. He did not even get to say goodbye.

Ever since they left Yulin town at the age of twelve, six years had already passed. The number of times they were reunited ever since could be counted on one’s fingers. However, that did not change anything.

Meng Changan rubbed his temples. His head was hurting so much that it seemed as though his brain was shaking. The northern border’s strong wine did indeed live up to its reputation – it managed to make a group of young and vigorous men throw up all night before sleeping. After a good night’s rest, they became vigorous and lively again. After thirty years of age, they would not be able to have such physical energy.

Meng Changan was very embarrassed; he went over to apologize to the restaurant owner. They vomited all over and even broke several plates and cups, as well as chopsticks, and yet the owner did not grumble at all. He even insisted on taking half off the entire bill.

“I’m not only here to do business.”

The owner, who looked like he was at least sixty years old, had an exceptionally kind smile on his face. Perhaps he had worked too hard to the extent that he looked older than his actual age. The hair on his temples were white, and there were wrinkles on his forehead. When he looked at Meng Changan, his eyes were gleaming.

“My son was originally a soldier of the northern border’s army too. At that time, he also managed to become a military officer. He was wearing the exact same uniform as you. He looked very good in it. Very formidable.”

He patted Meng Changan on the shoulder. “Live well. He could not survive…ten years ago, during the battle at Feng Yan Tai, he killed nine Heiwu men all by himself. But…”

Meng Changan’s chest tightened. He stood at attention and gave the restaurant owner Great Ning’s standardized military salute.

“I like to see you people coming here to drink.”

The owner wiped the tears from his eyes with his hand. He was still smiling. “Come here when you’re free. I will prepare more servings of food for you. Eat more while you’re still young. At that time, my son used to wolf down his food like a bull…”

He turned around and walked towards the counter. “You should go back now. If you head back too late, you will get reprimanded by the general. Soldiers should always make their generals happy.”

After Meng Changan left the restaurant, it took him a long time for him to feel less emotional. That was Great Ning’s civilian, and a soldier’s father.

The owner went to An city to open up a restaurant not to earn money, but to take a good look at Great Ning’s border soldiers who were wearing their black uniform – young men who were full of vigor, eating and drinking happily together.

When he had gotten back to the military camp in An city, he could see Great General Tie Liuli shadowboxing from afar. It was a simple technique used by Great Ning’s military, yet his movements were very ferocious and overbearing. Every punch he threw seemed as though it could erupt the air surrounding it. He definitely did not seem like a fifty year old elder.

“Eh?”

After seeing Meng Changan, Tie Liuli could not help but be shocked. “Why are you back so early? Why didn’t you spend more time with your brother for a few more days? The northern landscape is worth seeing. Jiangnan might be refined and beautiful, but the northern border is majestic.”

“Leng has already gone back.”

Meng Changan continued, “He cannot be delayed any further. He was in such a hurry that he did not even wait for me to wake up.”

“Smart guy.”

Tie Liuli laughed. “He’s smarter than you.”

Not only was Meng Changan not offended by that, he even laughed. “It’s a good thing.”

Tie Liuli asked, “Warm up?”

Meng Changan moved his arms around. “Ok.”

The elder and the young man exchanged blows on the drill ground. They did that for half an hour straight. Meng Changan received six to seven punches and yet he could not land a single blow on Tie Liuli.

“Great general, you are very skilled.”

Meng Changan could not help but exclaim in admiration. Even though he was evidently hurting everywhere, he was still standing upright. When other people praised the great general for his great skills, more often than not, they were fawning on him. However, when Meng Changan said it, he did not have that intention at all. He truly meant what he said.

Hence, it made Tie Liuli very happy.

“The young will always prevail. If we continue exchanging blows, I will lose…but if we are having a death match, I can kill you.”

Tie Liuli took a towel from his soldier and wiped off his sweat. “But if we fought when I was younger, I might not be able to defeat you. The older one gets, the more cunning he becomes. Hence, we will be more inclined to play tricks. Despite using a lot of force, your stamina did not decrease. If you train for another year, nobody in the entire Great Ning military can be your match…there’s something I need to tell you in advance. The Great Ning’s all-military competition will he held a year from now. Young men who are below the age of thirty, Fifth pin and below, can take part in it. It is to evaluate the new batch of soldiers for the ten new talents in the military. In the previous competition, the winner was unable to match up to the second runner-up of the competition before. Hence, nobody from the last competition could make it into the ten new talents.”

“For the soldiers below forty years old, Class B Fifth pin and above, the best soldiers will also be selected to join. However, their competition is a lot more significant – it is for ‘ten great generals’, which is a lot bigger than ‘ten new talents’. If nothing bad were to happen, you will be competing for ‘ten great generals’, instead of ‘ten new talents’.

Meng Changan grunted. “In that case, he better catch up.”

“Who?”

“Leng.”

Meng Changan said rather helplessly, “I can’t possibly making mistakes intentionally to get punished by you in order to get demoted so that I can fight against him.”

Tie Liuli was dumbfounded for a moment. Thereafter, he burst out laughing. He felt that the loyalty between young men was the most beautiful thing ever.

And at this moment, Shen Leng had already left An city when his ten-man squad, as they rushed as fast as they could on the interconnecting path. He did not want Meng Changan to find out too soon that he stole thirty to forty good horses from the scouts. If not for the fact that Tie Liuli said that Shen Leng’s participation in that matter could not be known to more people, he would have hesitated. Since nobody dared to talk about it, he might as well steal them.

Also, when they went there, each person had two horses. When they left, every one of them acted as though they were wealthy. When they rode the horses, they were sitting more upright than they normally did.

It felt good.

Traveling a long distance; killing a lot of people; meeting each other again, getting drunk together. It made him feel very contented.

As Shen Leng rode on his horse, he turned around to look at An city. He thought to himself that if there was an opportunity again in the future, he would want to make a trip to the northern border once more to take a good look and explore. He told himself that he must see the snow in the north. He heard that the snow in Heiwu was thick all-year round. He also heard that if one were to hide within a snow shellscrape, he would not freeze to death that easily. This place was truly vast and lofty.

“Military officer, why did you buy so much wine?”

Chen Ran looked at the jars of wine on the back of the horse. Shen Leng bought at least twenty of the northern border’s strong wine. The wine was way too strong – it was hard to swallow. It felt as though one’s throat was on fire.

“Sir and uncle Chen are fond of drinking. I want to give some to General Zhuang Yong too. And when we pass by Changan, I want to give two of them to Yanta Academy’s head too.”

“Why do you want to give him?”

“Perhaps…Master Cha has been torturing him over the past few days.”

Shen Leng thought of his instructions before he went there. He could not help but want to laugh.

。

Since the academy head notified General Cen Zheng to send him to the northern border, naturally, the academy head could not stay out of it. On his way there, not only did he strip a Seventh pin magistrate of his uniform, he even burned the mansion of a prince. Perhaps, the academy head had to be responsible for all his doings.

At this very moment, in Changan city’s Yanta Academy, Master Cha was sitting across from the academy head with a calm look on her face. Regardless of what the academy head asked, she had a ready answer. Initially, the academy head thought that she had only read a few books and that was it. However, after chatting with her for a couple of days, he was astonished to find that the young lady was a lot more knowledgeable than 90% of the students in the academy!

Not only that – even when he asked her about the military and martial arts, Master Cha still managed to display a good understanding about them. In fact, she said the right things.

The academy head thought to himself – if he could not tell that her mind and heart were somewhere else, he would have requested His Majesty to make an exception to enroll her into the academy and groom her well. And perhaps, within a short period of time, the academy would produce a female top scorer.

“Ahem, young lady. You have already spent several days here. Are you waiting for Shen Leng to return before you leave?”

“Academy head, you know that too. Leng went to the northern border. If anything happens to Leng, I need to stay here to get an explanation from you.”

The academy head had no choice but to act against his conscience and said, “Over at the northern border, they have already made the proper arrangements, so nothing will happen. Do you think that the great general of the northern border, who’s able to defeat Heiwu, is unable to protect Leng…?”

Guilty. Especially guilty.

The academy head cautiously looked at Master Cha. That girl seemed like she was born with a frightful temperament. It was not that she had a murderous aura, or a baleful look; she simply made the academy head afraid of her. It was scary because he felt that it would be great if she was his granddaughter. Even if she pulled his beard out, he would not be mad at her.

“I will stay here temporarily. Once Leng is back, I will leave.”

Master Cha stood up. “It’s almost noon. I will make some food for you.”

The academy head extended his hand. “Young lady, sit here!”

“Don’t tell me you’re not hungry?”

“No, no. I’m not hungry.”

The academy head pressed his stomach that was already rumbling. “Young lady, I can tell that you are very well-bred, right?”

Master Cha thought about Mr. Shen. She was a little unsure about how to answer. “I guess so. Why?”

The academy head was thinking to himself: If you’re not well-bred, how am I supposed to eat the food you cook? The first time she wanted to cook, he thought to himself about how a refined young lady as her took the initiative to cook, so naturally, it should not be too bad. Later on, he realized that it was not the case…

“Is there anything you want to talk about?”

“As long as you don’t cook, we can talk about anything.”

The academy head heaved a sigh of relief. “Actually, I know what you are worried about. You are worried that when the Navy link up with the Imperial Household Department, people might find out that Shen Leng is not around, and it’ll be hard to explain, right?”

Master Cha laughed. “Yeah.”

“Later on, I will tell people that I summoned Shen Leng, and that he spent a few days in the academy alone with me, while I taught him.”

It sounded like he said it just for show, but Master Cha stood up immediately and mimicked Shen Leng cupping his fist before bowing. “I thank you on behalf of Shen Leng!”

The academy head laughed, because he knew that she understood. She was a smart person.

If he were to do what he said, Shen Leng would immediately become a more important figure. He was not a disciple of the academy and yet he was being taught by the academy head one-on-one for a while. That would mean that Shen Leng had a huge potential. This piece of news would spread very fast. By then, Shen Leng’s name would be brought up in the presence of the big figures. Most importantly…Great Scholar Mu Zhao Tong would hear about it.

If Mu Zhaotong knew that the academy head summoned for Shen Leng alone to the academy, he would ought to carefully ponder about what attitude he should adopt.

How should he deal with the feud between Mu Xiaofeng and Shen Leng?

The academy head’s seemingly indifferent words were of a great help to Shen Leng. Very. very great.

Master Cha seemed very agitated and also very moved at the same time. She felt somewhat embarrassed and said, “How should I thank you? Why don’t I cook for you?”

The academy head tossed his head to the back. “I…actually, I am fasting.”