Antifans

With the spread of firearms, bows and crossbows had become relatively rare in Liang, though they were far from completely gone. Certain enthusiasts still used them, and high-ranking martial artists—grand knights, or even Divine Might Knights—might also possess specially crafted bows and crossbows. The intruder's choice of a crossbow over firearms was not only a proportional countermeasure, but also equally noiseless. Darkness abruptly enveloped the surroundings once more, with only the alarm bells still ringing. "Let's go," someone spoke up, followed by a cold sneer. "If you've got the guts, don't you dare go to sleep!" Hurried footsteps rapidly receded into the distance. The ringing of the alarm bells gradually faded, and silence finally returned. The cabin door was pushed open without a sound. A figure stepped outside quietly and looked around. After a long while, he let out a soft sigh and shook his head helplessly... Early the next morning, Wu Youren replaced the outdoor lightbulb and found the culprit behind the damage. The crossbow bolt was half a meter long, tipped with a common refined steel arrowhead, and embedded three or four centimeters deep into the dilapidated earthen wall. The evidence was left behind, but... He shook his head, raised a hand to yank the bolt free, and tossed it casually to the ground. There was no point in bothering with fingerprints, lingering auras, or anything of the sort. Let it be. He didn't even consider reporting it to the academy. Without a doubt, Red Pine wouldn't react at all. It wasn't that he was willing to passively endure schoolyard bullying, but running to the teachers... was useless and would likely only bring humiliation upon himself. Another day passed. In the afternoon, three students arrived, circling leisurely around the perimeter, obviously looking for the traps he had laid. They wandered about for over an hour before leaving. Come evening, the three returned, followed by seven or eight more students. At this hour, the administrator had gone for dinner, and Red Pine's patrol teams had not yet started their rounds. Without hesitation, they wrecked the traps outside the vegetable garden. For a time, an assortment of noises rang out one after another—the jangle of alarm bells mixed with the clatter of smashing mechanisms. Seeing no reaction from inside the house, someone drew a saber once more to hack at the fence; youngsters were always easily swayed by adrenaline and mob mentality. Wu Youren walked out of the cabin and watched them in silence. The other party was destroying his traps... but he had no grounds to voice an objection. That land belonged to Red Pine, not him. If he could set up traps, others could tear them down. Strictly speaking, the same applied even to this vegetable patch. Otherwise, why would that burly lad last time have dared to set his sights on ruining the plot? It was merely that after he erected the fence, Red Pine's administrator had looked the other way, lending it a sort of quasi-official approval. And now, these people were getting carried away by demolishing the traps, to the point where they wanted to push into the vegetable patch and continue... Seeing him appear, one of the students grew even more emboldened, slashing two more times with his saber to destroy a section of the fence. *Beyond the vegetable patch, do you dare claim there are still bugs to kill?* Yet Wu Youren's hand reached toward his waist once more, four fingers gripping three small daggers, his gaze icy cold. "Forget it," someone called out to stop the student. "It's still daylight. Doing this now isn't appropriate." At those words, the youths stayed their hands and began to leave one by one, departing with sneers of disdain, contempt, and provocation. *So what if you've killed Guizu? In the end, didn't you just stand there watching your traps get destroyed without daring to utter a single word?* Wu Youren watched them depart, a faint smile touching the corners of his mouth, though his eyes remained exceptionally cold. A blatant slap in the face like this... He took a deep breath and slowly shook his head. *Fine, I'll endure it!* Yet matters did not settle down simply because he chose forbearance. More people came that night. Fortunately, Wu Youren had rigged a few makeshift warning traps beforehand. Setting traps sounded complicated, but for a simple warning mechanism, it was actually quite straightforward. One only had to bury threads shallowly in the soil and attach bells, or simply bury a few loud, brittle items. The warning sounded again, and the lamp beneath the eaves lit up once more. This time, however, the intruders showed no hesitation. A piercing whistle tore through the air, and the lamp shattered once again. Inside the cabin, however, not a sound could be heard; the Jin youth seemed to be fast asleep. "Into the garden!" someone muttered. "Smash whatever you can." "Sigh," a soft sigh finally drifted out from the room. "It seems quite a few students have truly been corrupted by Guizu!" He didn't have the authority to define Guizu corruption, but he certainly had the right to make an "erroneous judgment"! If the conflict escalated into a major scene, the Liang authorities would find it difficult to openly condone actions that harmed their international image. Turning a blind eye in secret was one thing, but even if only for show, they had to maintain a veneer of propriety, didn't they? Still, this remained a very risky move. Whenever the people of Liang had a chance to act unreasonably, they would. Nevertheless, those words gave the intruders pause. In the end, someone let out a cold snort. "Let's go. We'll be back in the second half of the night!" Their words made it clear they intended to wear him down through exhaustion. To Wu Youren, this tactic was exceptionally insidious. Standing alone against a crowd was already hard enough; who would have thought they would be shameless enough to wage a war of attrition? Yet all he could do was endure it quietly. The initiative was in their hands, leaving him no room for choice. He had more than one method to retaliate, but unfortunately, the consequences were entirely unpredictable. By now, he wasn't so naive as to believe they might actually listen to reason. Thus, he could only remind himself inwardly: *Don't be impulsive. An impulse is exactly what will get me caught in their trap!* To his surprise, however, the second half of the night passed... entirely without incident! Then it dawned on him: they weren't just employing a strategy of exhaustion, but also mixing feints with reality. "Deceive by showing weakness when strong, and strength when weak... Isn't using such high-level military stratagems against a teenage kid a bit much?" Yet grumbling aside, this tactic was an open scheme. Even knowing full well what their objective was, he had no choice but to brace himself and dance to their tune. Wu Youren despised being in such a passive position, but alas, there was nothing he could do to change it. Once dawn arrived without any surprises, he finally broke out of his meditation and entered a brief, deep sleep. After sleeping for barely an hour or so, he woke up. Although he felt in decent shape, Wu Youren knew that his sleep quality had suffered tremendously. He then replaced the bulb again. A crossbow bolt wasn't particularly cheap either; if they wanted to play this game, he would keep them company! This could be considered his last bit of stubbornness. A single person's wealth could never outlast a whole mob, even if he had recently made a bit of pocket money. Yet if they were truly rich, they would have blanketed the ground with bolts already, to say nothing of what would have happened to the vegetables in the garden. Since they lacked that kind of firepower, he didn't mind playing along with them for a while. At worst, he would simply fold when he could no longer afford it. But he couldn't show from the very start that he was too timid to play! As if he didn't have any temper of his own. In the afternoon, Cynthia actually came again, and she wasn't alone—beside her was Liu Jingming. *How did these two end up together?* Wu Youren blinked. "He's the one who wanted to see you," Cynthia said with an open-palmed shrug, making it clear she maintained her own standards of propriety. "He sought me out." Liu Jingming nodded, offering with a hint of bashfulness, "Some people are saying we know each other. Could you, could you..." "Could you do me a favor and declare that we don't know each other at all?" Wu Youren blinked again. "Isn't it completely normal that we know each other? We're both fellows from Jin." "Please, don't," Liu Jingming cupped his hands in a frantic pleading gesture. "Spare me! You're a Jin hostage—such an important figure! I'm unworthy!" This son of a matrilocal husband... Wu Youren hesitated a moment, then nodded grudgingly. "Whatever you want. It's not like knowing you puts any meat on my bones." "Thank you, milord," Liu Jingming beamed, bowing with cupped hands. This guy... truth be told, really had a talent for acting. Then his expression turned solemn. "Since you've shown regard for our shared homeland, I have something in return. "Do you know that your status as a hostage has already spread all across Red Pine?" "Then let it spread," Wu Youren replied nonchalantly, having already sensed the intention behind the statement. Given what he knew of Liu Jingming, the man wouldn't have gone out of his way to find an intermediary just to deliver a useless line. "We are innocent," the matrilocal son said calmly, "and we don't want this matter to escalate further." *Does it make sense for you to say that to me?* Wu Youren nodded impassively. "Mhm, I'm very innocent too." "That's all I had to say," Liu Jingming stated briskly. Hearing this, Wu Youren nearly choked on his breath: *You bastard... all this just for that?* At the critical moment, Cynthia spoke up. "I'm already trying my best to calm things down. Try not to hurt anyone if you can." "I'll try," Wu Youren replied, not even bothering to argue. *Is that up to me to decide?* Still, everyone held their natural stances, and further words were pointless. Cynthia thought for a moment and spoke again. "Could you reach out to other fellow countrymen and have them speak up in support of you? "Otherwise, I feel you'll be put in a very disadvantageous position." *Other countrymen... You sure have quite the imagination!* Wu Youren couldn't help but wonder what kind of logic this female martial artist operated on to come up with such an idea. Impassively, he replied, "After some time passes, I'll see if I can leave the academy with Hong Da again to hunt Guizu." "Hong Da..." Cynthia murmured under her breath, her face expressionless. "Is that really necessary?" Liu Jingming, who was listening from the side, couldn't help but get anxious. "It's extremely perilous out there." His honey was selling like hotcakes. If Wu Youren left, where would he get his supply? Besides, according to his sources of information, among all the hostages who entered the martial academies, this one at Red Pine was doing the best by far. Never mind that Wu Youren was being targeted by plenty of Liang students—even antifans were fans. In Liu Jingming's eyes, he had truly made a name for himself. Leaving aside killing Guizu, establishing ties with a grand knight, getting a girlfriend, possessing knight-grade weapons, and getting hold of large quantities of honey... Just having a private residence and openly claiming a plot of land to grow vegetables was something other hostages couldn't achieve even if they threw money at it! Liu Jingming was even counting on getting help from him if he ever got assigned a Guizu-hunting mission. Hearing this, Cynthia also chimed in, "They aren't that extreme either. I heard they planned to mount a sneak attack on you in the second half of the night, but ended up oversleeping."