Improvement

"Oh? Learned how to call for backup?" The burly man sneered disdainfully. "Ranxue? I'll wait for him!" In less than a minute, the rush of wind rustling robes sounded outside, and the discipline inspector appeared. "Huh," the burly man remarked in slight surprise. "That fast?" Ranxue furrowed his brow, his breath heavy with alcohol. "Salim, this area is under my charge. I'll give you one chance: get lost right now!" He was in a foul mood. After being away for so long, he had finally returned and was having dinner with his wife when he got summoned here. Even so, he knew that although the man was not on Red Pine's official roster, he had backing behind him. "Since when do you get to boss me around?" The burly man was somewhat taken aback. "Do you know who he is?" "Leave. Immediately!" Ranxue wasted no words on him. "The New Army just cracked a rebellion case!" "The... New Army?" Salim grew increasingly bewildered. "Why the fuck are you telling me that? How much have you had to drink?" "I got dragged away halfway through my drinks!" Ranxue's hand rested on the short dagger at his waist. "Are you getting the fuck out or not?" "I'll pay!" The burly man reacted swiftly. "Ten silver dollars... no, fifty! Spill the details?" After all, their lines of work were different; he could swallow his pride and was willing to bleed cash for information. The key was to put this youth in his place to his face; otherwise, things would truly become difficult to manage down the road. "You think I give a damn about your spare change?" Ranxue glared furiously. "I'm asking you one last time: are you leaving, or not?" In the past, whenever he crossed paths with Salim, he might not have liked him, but he wouldn't have bothered making a fuss. The New Army was far above his level, but Hong Da was right beside him. And besides... as a discipline inspector, didn't he have dignity to uphold? "Fine, you're the tough guy today!" Salim truly wasn't in a position to fall out with him openly. "I hope you stay this tough forever!" With a flicker of his body, he vanished without a trace, though he faintly heard a spit from behind him: "Ptui! What a piece of trash!" Having chased the man off, Ranxue was still in a sour mood. "Why don't you go stay over at an instructor's place?" "That wouldn't be appropriate," the youth shook his head, his gaze clear. "I carry too much trouble." "Sigh." Ranxue gave a soft sigh. He had originally wanted to ask how Wu Youren had provoked Salim in the first place. Hearing the words "too much trouble," however, he decided against it—the kid's troubles weren't just numerous, they were massive! As a discipline inspector, he had witnessed all too many dark underbellies. Even with Hong Da backing things up, he had no desire to stir up extra trouble. In any case, what he had done just now was squarely within his duties. Even if the dean showed up, he would have nothing to fear! In the end, he still said, "Reorganize the mechanisms at your doorway. It's fine to make them more lethal!" The youth could bring benefits to everyone, but Ranxue didn't want more people to find out, so he couldn't arrange stronger protection. Making the mechanisms more potent, however, fell right within his jurisdiction; as long as he deemed it appropriate, it was fine. When Ranxue sobered up the next day, it was already close to noon. Several messages had arrived on his comm-watch. Glancing through them, he felt all the more fortunate that he had reacted promptly and handled matters firmly yesterday. Daiqisi's commendation had come through; not only had her faculty rank been upgraded, but the priority for her cultivation resources had been elevated as well. Even the female archer and Manna, who had merely tagged along for the ride, received plenty of perks. The City Guard Bureau stated that both of them had been present at the scene and provided necessary assistance. As for the others involved, they received nothing more than verbal commendations. "Damn sexist bias," Ranxue shook his head, caught between tears and laughter. He knew perfectly well that in the very beginning, only Daiqisi and Wu Youren had been at the scene. The bearded senior had been willing to do a favor, so Daiqisi reported those two... and there was really no arguing with that, was there? Rather regrettably, later that day, Ranxue received another piece of news that took him quite by surprise. Their treasure of a student, Wu Youren, was suspected of being a hostage from Jin! This rumor had circulated among some instructor circles in the past; he just hadn't paid any attention to it. Yet after only freezing for a dozen seconds or so, Ranxue accepted the reality: *What the hell does that have to do with me?* A hostage from Jin... it sounded like quite a troublesome identity, but once thought through, it was no big deal. After all, in the war more than a decade ago, Liang had defeated Jin, not lost! The hostage corps was just for show, mere window dressing. Expecting them to sway major state policies of Jin wasn't realistic in the first place, was it? If anything, a certain hostage from Jin currently seemed to be influencing Liang's state policy. Concretely speaking, Grand Instructor Hong might not be able to hold her ground against the Court of State Ceremonial or the Intelligence Bureau, but in the eyes of the New Army... how big of a deal was it really? Instructor Ranxue, hungover, still had a bit of a headache, but his mind was crystal clear: the world was probably about to fall into chaos. Doing his own job well and keeping their little secret safe was good enough. The development of events went just as he expected; he was not the only one who made this choice! That very day, the female archer went to visit Wu Youren—probably taking the opportunity to feed the little snow harrier as well. Daiqisi, on the other hand, did not go, because... she had to treat people to drinks! The following afternoon, Daiqisi appeared in Wu Youren's small cottage, her eyes glazed over. It couldn't be helped; she was an alcoholic to begin with, and with her good mood, she hadn't even sobered up from yesterday's drinking. After barely exchanging two sentences, she collapsed onto the youth's bed and fell fast asleep, snoring away. Wu Youren had rested for two days and basically recovered his strength—mainly because he had been stuffed to bursting with recent experience points. With the female instructor sleeping on his bed, he could only head out to the vegetable plot in the back. The vegetables he had planted were in a dreadful state. To sum it up in one phrase: the weeds were growing far more luxuriantly than the vegetables. "Winter is coming soon. I should set up a greenhouse," Wu Youren pondered as he weeded with a hoe. With his current net worth, he could afford even a glass greenhouse; two fen of land wouldn't cost much at all. Losing money was guaranteed, however. People of Liang had no habit of eating vegetables at all, not to mention that in winter, vegetables were more expensive than meat. Still, for the sake of maintaining his persona, whether he lost money or not hardly mattered. It was merely lying low for the time being. Once he became an elephant that could no longer hide itself, it wouldn't be too late to shed the disguise. With his current cultivation, hoeing two fen of land was effortless, but he didn't want to draw attention, so he worked at an unhurried pace. When he had weeded more than half of it, he glanced into the distance, furrowed his brow slightly, and went back to his work. A moment later, a motorcycle rode up from afar and stopped right outside the door. Immediately afterward, an angry female voice yelled, "Wu Youren! I demand an explanation!" "Keep your fucking voice down!" Daiqisi jolted awake from her sleep, filled with waking rage. "Get lost! Don't disturb my sleep!" "Wu! You! Ren!" "Tsk." With a flash of movement, Wu Youren appeared at the doorway of his cottage, hoe still in hand. Looking at Cynthia, he let out a helpless sigh. "An explanation... What explanation?" "Who is this woman?" The female student pointed angrily at the female instructor. "Why is she lying in my bed?" "Huh?" Daiqisi sat bolt upright, gossipy curiosity shining in her eyes. "Your bed?" "Your bed?" Wu Youren was also taken aback. "How come I knew nothing about this?" "It can only be mine!" Cynthia had clearly been provoked and was throwing all reason out the window. "I have a Cloud-Soaring Pill!" "Tch, and here I got excited for nothing," Daiqisi flopped back down, accentuating the curvaceous lines of her figure. "How many of those do you want?" Cynthia could stand it even less. "You like an old woman like this?" "Because she's rich, right?" "Wait a minute..." Wu Youren rubbed his forehead. "Let me get this straight." "First of all, she's not old. She's right at a woman's most charming age." "Secondly, I have no idea if she's rich. What I want to know most right now is: how is this your bed?" Cynthia froze for a moment before answering, "It can only belong to the two of us—you and me!" "When I heard you were back, do you know how happy I was? And then... you make me see this?" "I didn't invite you to come look," Wu Youren said, utterly speechless. "Nobody has lived in this house for a long time either." Ever since the time he parted ways with her and her Mirage Sea League companion—was his name Naimu'er?— From the moment he went hunting out in the mountains alone, the two of them were destined never to have any deeper relationship. You claim this is your bed, but have you slept in it recently? All she really wanted was to sleep with the man in the bed. Yet here she was, acting completely self-righteous... Truly, women were incomprehensible creatures. Hearing this from the bed, Daiqisi couldn't take it anymore either. She drawled lazily, "You, student. Get lost immediately, or I'll expel you!" "You even learned how to sleep with instructors?" Cynthia grew even angrier. "My Mirage Sea League has instructors too!" "Get lost." Daiqisi yawned. "Mirage Sea League, right? Let me sleep a bit more. Once I'm awake, I'll go make trouble for you lot!" "Who on earth are you?" Cynthia calmed down slightly, but judging by her tone, not by much. "Say one more word and I'll smash your mouth," the female instructor on the bed muttered indistinctly. By the time Daiqisi woke up, it was already dark outside. She sprang up from the bed with a start. With a soft snap, several cracks spread across the bed boards. "What did I... What did you do?" "Why don't you ask yourself what you did?" Manna's voice chimed in. "What did you come running over to his place for?" "You even chased off a female student and threatened to take on the Mirage Sea League..." "Stop, say no more," Daiqisi said, embarrassed. Fortunately, no lamp had been lit in the room. "I remember everything!" She was merely still recovering from a hangover, not blacked out drunk. "Then what did you come here for?" Manna said, amused and exasperated. "Do you want everyone to know the credit came from him?" She had rushed over only after receiving Wu Youren's distress call on her comm-watch. It was only because she had benefited from Daiqisi's coat-tails this time that she held back from scolding her too harshly. "I was happy, alright?" Daiqisi muttered softly under her breath. "I'll be careful next time... That little girl actually called me old!" "Can we stop fooling around?" Manna sighed helplessly. "What he needs right now is to keep a low profile!" "I came to talk about the greenhouse," Daiqisi finally remembered her reason for coming. "He wants to grow vegetables in winter!" The youth had brought up this topic back when they were at Mount Xuanling. Besides, greenhouses were somewhat related to mechanism arts anyway.