Liu Zhen had been listening all along, and by now his face was flushed red with anger. "That scoundrel — Qi Yougen, is it? Damn it, I'll go find him myself tomorrow! What a piece of work! The man was too embarrassed to take money from someone who'd saved his life, so he took the man's son as a student — and then decided he was being cheated, and taught the boy nothing real. Just kept him around to wave flowery, empty forms about, and used that as a pretext to order his old father around. Fine — I could let even that pass. But he threw away three whole years, the most important three years of that boy's life, for nothing. And the boy was the son of the man who saved his life! Is he even still human!?"
Xu Yao smiled helplessly. The truth was, back at the martial arts school he had long since noticed that Master Qi wasn't teaching him anything real.
After more than a year of lessons, watching Master Qi use his name to order his own father about more and more smoothly — and knowing his father could never refuse — he had lost all desire to keep learning. After that he often stayed away for long stretches at a time, and no one at the school ever asked.
"What business is it of yours?" Chen Chong shot Liu Zhen a glare. "You think you can beat Qi Yougen?"
Liu Zhen gave a huff and said nothing more, only grumbled and cursed under his breath, clearly nursing his indignation.
Chen Chong then asked Xu Yao, "Do you hate him?"
"I wouldn't call it hate," Xu Yao answered frankly. "I am a bit angry, though."
"Just angry?" Liu Zhen put in. "Why not hate?"
"Hate takes strength," Xu Yao said, perfectly calm. "I don't have any."
Chen Chong's three brows knitted together all at once. He gave him a long look, his gaze deep and unreadable. "And if you had strength?"
Xu Yao didn't answer.
Chen Chong didn't press. He only said, "Forget everything you learned at that martial arts school. All of it does harm! From today on, you train with the Mountain Patrol Brigade, every day!"
His burly frame turned and he strode off, his voice ringing like struck iron: "I'll teach you how soldiers fight in formation! As for the breathing method — that three-long-one-short business or whatever it was — don't practice it. There is a fortuitous opportunity, and it's one you brought about with your own two hands. We'll see whether you get the chance at it."
"Thank you, brigade captain!"
Xu Yao pondered. An opportunity he had brought about with his own hands — could it be that garment? But that had never been mentioned, had it?
Yet in his heart he had already braced himself utterly, and a strange, nameless anticipation was stirring.
Chen Chong would never have said that for nothing.
And that other line — "Forget everything you learned at that martial arts school, all of it does harm!" — carried a deep and weighty meaning.
Xu Yao didn't understand, so he asked Liu Zhen, "Captain, when the brigade captain said all that was harmful just now... what did he mean?"
Liu Zhen huffed. "Without qi to sustain them, breathing methods are the lowliest kind there is. Temper your sinew and bone long enough and maybe you'll feel your strength grow — but past fifty, your whole body will ache with it... It's what the people at the very bottom practice only because they have no choice, doing the heaviest labor, hauling the heaviest loads — trading their lives for money in their prime to keep their families fed. For the lowest of the low, it can't be called harmful. But for you, it amounts to ruining you."
Xu Yao was only half following.
"Work it out yourself, silly boy."
Liu Zhen sighed. The brigade captain hadn't said it outright, and since he himself couldn't fathom what the brigade captain was thinking, he couldn't spell it out either. In truth it was simple: no one without real ability could open a martial arts school, and Qi Yougen, a martial master, had opened one. Having that ability, even if Xu Yao truly had no aptitude, he need never have taught him a tempering method that eats away at the body's foundations. There were so many gentle methods that lengthened life and preserved health.
The debt of a life saved. The trust of a son handed over. And this was what it bought?
A handle for squeezing his savior into practicing medicine for free?
The more Liu Zhen thought about it, the angrier he grew: Where was the man's conscience!?
Drill ended, and just then the aroma of food came wafting from the mess hall.
Liu Zhen followed behind Chen Chong to draw their food, and the two sat down to eat at the same table.
"Chief — Xu Yao doesn't know what those wasted three years mean. Don't tell me you don't either? Fifteen to eighteen — for a martial artist, those are the three years that decide his whole life! You saw fit to remind him about everything else. Why not about how much those three years mattered?"
Liu Zhen asked, baffled.
"Ask, and all you do is pile fresh hatred onto what's already in Xu Yao's heart. It would mend nothing. If he never gains strength, he'll swallow the grievance all his life and sicken of it. If he does gain strength, then even with no one telling him, he'll come to settle that score himself. Besides — didn't you already remind him?"
Chen Chong glared at him. "You and your talking."
"Is what I say worth the same as what you say?" Liu Zhen refused to drop it. "Can't we help him go sort Qi Yougen out? I can't swallow this."
"No."
Chen Chong swallowed a big meat bun and rolled his eyes upward. "If the boy truly turns out worthless and can't win it back himself, then of course we step in and make trouble for Qi Yougen. But if the boy has it in him, then that man has to be left standing for him. Let him keep that breath held in his chest — only then will it be of great use."
"If we win it back for him, he'll believe the matter is finished, and the breath will drain right out of him."
Chen Chong smiled. "Besides, Liu Zhen — look at the boy. Does he look like the sort who'd let someone else vent his anger for him?"
Liu Zhen thought it over, and a wry smile tugged at his mouth. "He really doesn't. This kid — clear-headed, cold, clear-eyed about reality. Scheming behind a still face, never forgets a grudge, and there's a buried streak of cheeky devilment in him too. And captain, have you noticed? There's a ruthless, fight-to-the-death edge about him. At every moment."
"Mm. The boy's got the makings."
Chen Chong nodded, and stopped chewing. Thoughtful, he said softly, "Such a pity. Born too low, starting too far behind... confidence to spare, but the aptitude is lacking, and so are the resources."
Liu Zhen was silent a moment. "Then from here... we watch how he grows."
"Mm." Chen Chong nodded. "And those eyes of his..."
He thought for a moment, but didn't go on.
Yet Liu Zhen instinctively recalled Xu Yao's eyes: cool and clear, the black and white cleanly divided, like ice and snow on the far mountains, carrying a cold edge all their own.
He couldn't help nodding. "His temperament truly is fine."
"That demon peach and ghost apricot we got this time — I meant to give him mine. And guess what? He wouldn't so much as pick up the thread."
At that, Liu Zhen went a bit glum.
Chen Chong chuckled, eyeing him sideways. "What you're really after is digging into yesterday's rewards and the final result, isn't it?"
"Heh heh heh..."
"Can his eyes really see those things?" Chen Chong asked at last, after long thought.
"They really can!" Liu Zhen said, iron-certain.
"Mm... next mission, I go along. I'll see with my own eyes just how far that sight of his reaches," Chen Chong said, brow furrowed in thought.
"Good."
Breakfast over, during the rest hour, Chen Chong called everyone together.
"Yesterday, on Third Squad's mountain patrol mission, the triplet demon peaches were dealt with — dealt with properly, cut down in their entirety and brought back. Third Squad is credited with ten points of collective merit. Captain Liu Zhen: individual Class A merit, ten points. Bao Facai: individual Class A merit, eight points. Xu Yao: individual Class A merit, eight points. The remaining five men of Third Squad: individual Class A merit, two points each. This mission's completion is rated excellent. The higher-ups have allocated twenty taels of silver, to go into the brigade's common account."
As Chen Chong spoke, Xu Yao's brush flew across the page. This was his proper duty, after all. Once the record was made, the entries still had to go into the ledger; at month's end, wages were paid out according to what was written there, different for each man.
"Furthermore: Third Squad discovered the corpse-hiding ground, reported it without delay, and handled the matter thoroughly and properly, with human warmth, winning a bond of goodwill for the brigade. Xu Yao is granted a reward of ten taels of silver. The silver is in my keeping for now. By custom, of these ten taels, the brigade keeps five for the common account; the other five taels are Xu Yao's own."
Chen Chong said, "No objections, then!"
"No objections," the big men below answered as one.
The first money he had ever earned in his life — a full five taels of silver!
Excitement rushed up in his chest. The corner of Xu Yao's mouth began to split into a grin; he hurriedly clamped his lips together and held it in.
"Third Squad found the corpse and reported it. The sect involved sent people, the superior prefecture confirmed the matter, and the sect gave its thanks: two thousand taels of silver. By regulation, the prefecture keeps two-tenths — four hundred taels — leaving one thousand six hundred. The subprefecture keeps two-tenths — three hundred and twenty taels — leaving one thousand two hundred and eighty. The county office keeps two-tenths — two hundred and fifty-six — leaving one thousand and twenty-four taels of silver, which reach this brigade."
"The brigade keeps two-tenths by regulation into its treasury: two hundred and five taels, figured down to a round two hundred. Leaving eight hundred and twenty-four taels."
"Your brigade captain keeps one-tenth by regulation, figured as a round eighty taels. Leaving seven hundred and forty-four taels."
"The brigade entire, thirty-seven men, shares two-tenths by regulation: one hundred and forty-eight taels — four taels of silver issued to every man."
"The remaining five hundred and ninety-six taels of silver belong to Third Squad, as per regulation."
"Of the three who went down the cliff: captain Liu Zhen, one hundred and twenty taels. Bao Facai and Xu Yao, one hundred taels each."
One hundred taels!
The surge in his chest grew stronger still. The corner of Xu Yao's mouth split; he pressed his lips together with all his might, and very nearly lost it.
"The remaining two hundred and seventy-six taels, split evenly among the eight men of Third Squad who went out: thirty-four and a half taels per man!"
Even I get a share!
Excitement came up like a flooding tide. The corner of Xu Yao's mouth split wide — and this time there was no holding it. Joy burst out like a flood through a broken dam, and burst past his lips.
"Bwahahaha..."",
Chapter 10