After Tie Liuli heard about Shen Leng leaving behind those words in Hulan, his hand trembled slightly. Thereafter, he suddenly laughed out loud and scolded, “That little bastard, bringing me more trouble.”

After he wrote ‘youthful spirit’ on the paper, the black ink seeped through the paper.

Hulan city’s general, Guo Leiming, could not comprehend. “Great general, why did you laugh?”

“I heard that he left behind the same words back in Changan city. He left it for those people who want to kill Meng Changan to see.”

Tie Liuli asked Guo Leiming, “He clearly knew that Hulan is your jurisdiction, and that you are my man. Why did he still write those words? For who to see?”

Guo Leiming’s face fell. “Since he wrote it in the northern border, naturally it’s not for the eastern border people to see.”

Tie Liuli passed the piece of paper with the two words written on it to Guo Leiming. “For you. That little fella is brave. While he still has a youthful spirit, he would stop at nothing to do what he wants. We no longer have such energy anymore.”

On the other hand, Guo Leiming did not feel good about this. He felt that he was unbridled and too immature.

From the northern border to Changan, nothing much happened. Shen Leng sped there with his men as fast as they could. Based on the time calculated, there should be no problems. Before they entered the city, he sent someone to find out if the Navy’s ship was still at the pier. Once he found out that it was still there, he was relieved.

After all, after they got to Changan city, he had not shown his face. His subordinates would have talked about it in private. Furthermore, they could not guarantee that there were not any Mu Xiaofeng’s men within the troops. Some of the soldiers used to work under Mu Xiaofeng after all.

The people of the Imperial Household Department, as well as Jiangnan Weaving Repository, would ask about him as well. Hence, ultimately, the academy head still had to step in.

After Shen Leng brought his men into Changan city, he headed straight to Yanta Academy. Since they had several horses with them, they attracted a lot of attention from the people in the city. Shen Leng did was not thinking of hiding anything. If the academy head was willing to help, then there would be no need to hide. If he was not willing to help, then there was no way he could hide it anyway.

Just a word from the academy head was enough to justify Shen Leng bringing nearly a hundred horses into Changan city. If he were to explain himself, regardless of how he tried, it still would not work.

When he got to the academy, he saw that the person guarding the door was a middle-aged man who seemed to be at least forty years old. However, his lazy appearance bore some semblance. It seemed as though lifting his eyelids to look at Shen Leng properly was a tiring thing to do.

“Could you please pass a message – I would like to meet with the academy head.”

“The academy head does not wish to meet with anyone.”

“Oh, did a young lady enter the academy two days ago?”

“Huh?”

The middle-aged man immediately looked up. He looked more energetic. “Do you happen to be the person the academy head is waiting for?”

Shen Leng forced a laugh, thinking to himself – indeed, Master Cha did not disappoint him…

“Did the academy head say that he does not want to meet with any ordinary guests, but if a person asks for the young lady, you should let him in?”

“How did you know?”

“Oh…it was just a casual guess.”

Shen Leng cupped his fist. “In that case, please inform him.”

“The academy head said that there is no need to inform him. Once you’re here, I should bring you in. However, you’re not allowed to bring those people and horses into the backyard. I don’t dare to mess with the rules…After they enter the front yard, they need to find a quiet place to wait. Make sure that the horses don’t run around, disrupting the peace and quiet within the academy.”

Evidently, the academy head had given him prior instructions. Hence, he was more polite towards Shen Leng.

“Alright.”

Shen Leng gave Chen Ran and the rest some instructions before following the man to the backyard. It was Shen Leng’s first time entering Yanta Academy. The first thing that caught his attention was the white old pagoda. It was rumored that Yanta Academy was at the center of Changan city.

After he entered the backyard, the surroundings were different. The front yard had a lot of pine and cypress. The backyard was more like Jiangnan’s courtyard. He thought about Meng Changan probably walked on the same path he was currently walking on. Shen Leng had never yearned for this place. Not even a single bit. Mr. Shen said that he was a lot more capable than the teachers in Yanta Academy. From the looks of it, Mr. Shen was not bragging. No matter how great the academy was, the only capable person they produced was Meng Changan.

As for the great general of the eastern border, Pei Tingshan, Shen Leng did not think about him at all.

Shen Leng waited outside of the academy head’s courtyard, waiting for the person at the door to inform him of his arrival. Just as he was looking around and observing the surroundings, suddenly, he heard a burst of hurried footsteps. When he turned around, he saw a black figure pouncing onto him. It clung onto him like a koala.

Master Cha almost knocked Shen Leng onto the ground. Originally, she felt that she would probably be more reserved and aloof. But when she heard that Shen Leng had arrived, she did not even have the time to think about acting reserved. Besides, behaving in a reserved manner was for others to see – not Shen Leng. Naturally, it was of no use. She was still clinging onto him, refusing to budge.

Shen Leng coughed a couple of times. “Ahem, ahem…I have dust all over my body, quickly get down.”

Master Cha shook her head. She rested her face on Shen Leng’s shoulder. “I want to hug for a little while more.”

Shen Leng laughed. “Alright, let’s hug for a while.”

The watchman walked out and looked at them. There was sorrow in his eyes, as though saying that men today were degenerates, whose public morals were degenerating with each passing day.

“Are you intending to take her away just like that?”

The academy head’s voice was heard. His tone of his voice made it sound as though they still owed them something, and that they were not allowed to leave. Master Cha quickly jumped off of Shen Leng. She was blushing as she tidied up her clothes. Thereafter, she acted as though nothing happened and followed behind Shen Leng as they entered the door.

The academy head sized Shen Leng up. “You entered the city just like that?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you change your clothes? You walked into the academy wearing the Navy’s combat soldier uniform; the people in Changan city are not blind.”

“It’s more troublesome to change my clothes.”

“Reason being?”

“If I return from the northern border wearing civilian clothes, along with dozens of horses, and entered the city, I would be strictly interrogated. For all I know, I might be arrested. Hence, after carefully pondering over it, instead of troubling you to save me from prison, it’s better for you to think of an excuse to cover it up.”

The academy head could vaguely sense Shen Leng’s shamelessness.

“Alas…come in.”

Shen Leng and Master Cha followed the academy head into the room. Shen Leng stood there like a javelin.

“Why aren’t you sitting down?”

“I am wearing an armor, it’s better to stand.”

“You came back pretty quick.”

“There are some urgent military affairs that cannot be delayed. Furthermore, it’s better to come back within the shortest possible time to tell you everything that happened in detail, in order to come up with a response. My Navy subordinates have not seen me for too long; the people from the Imperial Household Department and Jiangnan Weaving Repository would be suspicious as well. Hence I rushed here to ask for instructions from you. What should I say?”

“That’s on you.”

“Oh, understood.”

“What do you intend to say?”

“The journey was delayed hence we could not travel at the same speed as the battleship.”

“The journey was delayed? Why were you not on the battleship?”

“Well, it’s like that.”

Shen Leng suddenly started laughing. When he was laughing, the academy head had a bad feeling that things might have been worse than he expeted. He was about to stop Shen Leng from continuing but it was too late.

Shen Leng said in a serious manner, “Originally, I took a ten-man squad with me and got off at the dock to survey the surroundings. After all, we were safeguarding the items for the Imperial Household Department. Hence, we had to be more cautious. In the end, we came across a group of swindlers. Even though it should have been dealt with by the local officials, as a Great Ning military officer, of course I could not sit around and ignore the matter at hand.”

“Ultimately, after we tracked them down, we found out that they used Feng Cheng ancient village in Qingya county as their lair. More than ten thousand Great Ning soldiers were buried there. Naturally, it was a place that should not be profaned. Hence, in a fit of anger, I stripped the magistrate of his uniform…”

The academy head let out a long sigh. “Can you stop talking now? If you continue, I might not be able to clean up after your mess.”

Shen Leng shook his head and continued talking, “The entire thing is true. I need to explain thoroughly. After I removed the magistrate’s uniform, I sent someone to report it. After I calculated the time to go back, the Navy’s battleship had already left the dock. So we had no choice but to take a shortcut by heading to the corner of the river channel to wait there. In order to do that, we had to go through Dongchi county…”

The academy head sighed. “Indeed, it was you.

Shen Leng asked, “Do you still want to me to continue?”

The academy head glared at him hard. “I only asked you to go to the northern border to help Meng Changan, yet you did so many things on your way there. You even impersonated Mu Xiaofeng. Do you really think that they can’t investigate and find out the truth?”

Shen Leng said, “I impersonated Mu Xiaofeng because there is someone who would not dare to let them to continue investigating.”

The academy head’s eyes lit up. He thought to himself: How is this little fella so meticulous in his thoughts? When he just got wind of the news, he had to think for quite a while before he understood his intention behind it. He was gambling, but it was not a gamble with no basis. In fact, it was one that he would surely win.

After the matter got reported, Mu Zhaotong would not find out about it later than anyone else. In fact, he would find out about it before the others. Hence, Mu Zhaotong was very well in the know about the Qingya incident, as well as the news about the manor in Dongchi catching on fire. If they were to keep investigating and find out that he had sent someone to the manor, how would he be able to explain himself?

Shen Leng intentionally impersonated Mu Xiaofeng because he knew that the matter was too big, and could not be kept under wraps. Unless a significant figure wanted to keep it under wraps…Shen Leng was not a god – he could have been able to predict that he would burn the manor in Dongchi after what happened in Qingya. However, before that, he was also being pursued by the Guan Tang Kou people.

It was a feud between Mu Xiaofeng and Shen Leng; why did the men from Guan Tang Kou try to kill him? Why did the Guan Tang Kou people work for Mu Xiaofeng? Even if Mu Xiaofeng hired assassins from Changan city’s underworld, Mu Zhaotong would definitely keep this matter a secret.

Guan Tang Kou was his.

If this were to come to light, the emperor would definitely not give him the chance to justify himself.

Guan Tang Kou’s people carried the repeating crossbows used by Great Ning’s military. When the corpses were found, the weapons and horses had already disappeared. Of course, Mu Zhaotong would think about the fact that Shen Leng wanted to keep the evidence. There were dozens of headless corpses. The human heads served as extremely important evidences. Those repeating crossbows would implicate a large number of people. The number people His Majesty would behead was far greater than the number of Guan Tang Kou people who got beheaded!

After this matter got investigated, naturally, Shen Leng would be done for. He had broke both military and state laws. Zhuang Yong would not be able to protect him.

But what about Mu Zhaotong?

Was it worth exchanging the great scholar for a Navy military officer’s life?

After the academy head understood, he realized that Shen Leng’s thoughts were too meticulous and sharp. An ordinary person would not think as much as he did. However, he did wonder if Shen Leng casually impersonated Mu Xiaofeng purely for the sake of seeking revenge. If that were the case, Mu Zhaotong being passive would be an unintended consequence – in other words, a stroke of luck. Hence, the academy head asked him about it.

Shen Leng’s response proved that he was not being impetuous at that time, but rather, his course of actions were a result of careful deliberations.

The academy head heaved a sigh of relief. He thought to himself: Sticking up for a young man as such is not considered a loss. His Majesty placed him in charge of Tian Wen Ge. Over the past several years, he had met too many talented young men. Initially, he felt that Meng Changan was the best out of them all. But right now, from the looks of it, this little fella who had not been formally educated in the academy was clearly more capable, and it made him look forward more to his performance in the future.

He was neither from the four borders and depositories nor the academy.

“I will let people know that you spent the past few days in the academy, and perhaps also tell them that the battle horses are a gift from me to the Navy. I will also let them know that you never left the fleet.”

The academy head leaned back. “So, you were involved in Qingya and Dongchi’s incidents. I’m guessing that some people would be happy with a conclusion as such. After all, if they pursue the matter, they are the ones who will suffer more…however, are you intending to only use those two jars of northern aged wine as a thank you gift?

Shen Leng placed the two jars of aged wine onto the table. After that, he stood upright again. “I will make some food for you.”

It seemed as though the academy head was dealt with a heavy blow. “Make…some food?”

Immediately, Master Cha was embarrassed. She turned her head the other way and did not dare to say anything.

Naturally, the academy head had a kitchen in his courtyard. When he had nothing to do, he liked tidying up and rearranging his food. Shen Leng told him to wait and shortly after, he entered the kitchen. In less than an hour, he placed six to seven seemingly ordinary home cooked dishes on the table.

The academy head took a whiff and his eyes lit up immediately after.

He was about to take some wine, but Shen Leng had already opened a jar of aged wine and poured a cup for him.

After sampling his food, the academy head smiled. Eating while drinking made him happier and happier. He could not help but look at Master Cha. “There’s a saying that people close to one another influence each other… why?”

What he meant was – why did you not learn how to cook?

Master Cha looked out of the window and was somewhat out of sorts. “Getting close to Leng makes you fat.”