Chapter 14 - I’m Afraid You’ll Get Hungry

Shen Leng realized that Master Cha really liked to eat beef. Hence, he secretly made a vow that he would ensure that she was going to eat it a few more times in the future. However, they were not allowed to kill cattle, as they were the lifeblood of cultivators. But if the water bandits had killed them, it shouldn’t pose that much of an issue if I take it from them.

Master Cha looked very adorable with two bulging cheeks.

After they had finished their dinner, Shen Leng originally planned to go to bed earlier. But as he laid on his bed, he felt somewhat guilty, as though he owed something to someone. After tossing and turning, he ultimately got up and did the horse stance under the moonlight.

Master Cha rubbed her eyes, as she walked out of her room. She mumbled, “I knew that you wouldn’t be able to go to sleep.” She hung the sandbags on both his arms expressionlessly. Thereafter, she threw herself on the deck chair next to the pine tree. She seemed as though she was going to fall asleep soon.

Shen Leng laughed, feeling very satisfied.

It was already late into the night. Suddenly, they could hear someone knocking on the door. Shen Leng immediately got out of the horse stance and struggled to open the door in an awkward way, with the sandbags still attached to his arms. He gave the man outside the door a shock. He even thought that the Daoist devotee had gone to Xiangxi to learn a different trade.

Shen Leng maintained his half squat posture, while keeping his arms perfectly straight. He asked with a puzzled look on his face, “May I know who you’re looking for?”

The guest outside the door was the Commander of Jiangnan Weaving Repository’s Navy, Zhuang Yong. After he recognized Shen Leng, he smiled. “Is sir at home?”

“Come in.”

Mr. Shen had already walked out of the house, and was already standing by the door.

Zhuang Yong smiled and nodded at Shen Leng, expressing gratitude. As he walked past Shen Cha Yan, he threw a few more glances. Shen Leng walked behind him. His posture as he walked was too wonderful for words.

Mr. Shen invited Zhuang Yong into the house, and started making some tea after arranging the tea set. Shen Leng swayed over from one side of the room and pointed towards the bed with his mouth. Mr. Shen got up and brought a clean blanket and placed it on his arms. Thereafter, Shen Leng swayed back out.

Zhuang Yong found the three of them truly interesting. Extremely interesting.

Shen Leng went outside and placed the blanket on Shen Cha Yan, before going back to do the horse stance.

Zhuang Yong looked at the two children outside the window and asked smilingly, “I heard that young lady Little Cha almost got into a fight with my subordinate, Military Officer Mu Xiaofeng, because of that child.”

Mr. Shen replied, “Are you here to criticize and punish?”

Zhuang Yong shook his head. “You know I’m not that kind of person. Except that whenever I think about our game of chess, I refuse to admit defeat. If I can’t make you accept it wholeheartedly, I can’t sleep with a peace of mind either. So I might as well make a trip here.”

　

Mr. Shen set up the chess pieces nicely. “I will defeat you till you piss in your pants in terror.”

Zhuang Yong replied, “You’re still as crude as before. Back when you were in Yunxiao city, you had charmed so many girls to the point they were so infatuated and heads over heels for you. Was it because you’re so vulgar?”

Mr. Shen said, “So in the words of you well-mannered folks, how do you phrase ‘piss in your pants in terror’ in a nicer way?”

Zhuang Yong replied, “I am not a well-mannered folk. I am a warrior. I prefer to say I’ll defeat you till you abandon all your weapons and flee.”

Mr. Shen pondered for a while. “It still does not sound as straightforward as ‘piss in your pants in terror’.”

Zhuang Yong looked out of the window once again. “I heard from my subordinates that this young lady was very fierce, when she was protecting him. And not long after, it was his turn to protect her. Who’s the one protecting who?”

Mr. Shen was deep in thought. “They are both mother hens.”

Zhuang Yong thought of those words, and could not help but laugh.

Mr. Shen looked disgusted. “You well-mannered folks do not know how to find pleasure in life……”

After the two of them played their game of chess, they stopped engaging in talks for the most part. Silence ensued. When they were in the middle of their game, Mr. Shen suddenly broke the silence. “Did we make any stakes in the initial round of chess?’

Zhuang Yong shook his head. “No.”

Mr. Shen said, “I want to make a stake.”

Zhuang Yong looked at him solemnly. He knew that it must be something serious. He sat upright and said, “Go on.”

Mr. Shen looked out the window. “If I win, if anything were to happen to me in the future, please help me take care of them. If I lose, take it as I did not say anything.”

“Alright,” answered Zhuang Yong.

This game of chess was extremely long. After the yplayed for a full hour. Zhuang Yong finally admitted defeat. “It’s only one round of chess, why do we have to fight as though our lives depended on it?”

Mr. Shen’s face went slightly pale. “Nonsense. I only used thirty percent of my energy.”

Zhuang Yong forced a smile and shook his head. He got up and said, “I will head back first. There’s a saying that shameless people live longer lives. Hence, you don’t have to worry too much. If……that day ever comes, I will help you.”

Mr. Shen kept the chess pieces, one by one. “Thank you. The four words, ‘I will help you’ have a heavy significance. I won’t accept it. Save it for the two of them.”

　

Zhuang Yong replied, “You know why I came today.”

Mr. Shen said, “I will tell you what happened that night. But it’s still early.”

“Still early, again.”

Zhuang Yong turned around and left. When he walked into the yard, he saw Shen Leng practicing his knife. It was the same monotonous action, but he was patient and did not mind. He swung his knife time and time again, with such precision. His hands were stable and strong.

The young lady laying on the deck chair was probably cold - she pulled the blanket up. Shen Leng looked over and paused.

“What?” asked the girl, who covered half her face with the blanket. 　　

Shen Leng laughed, and continued swinging his knife.

Before Zhuang Yong left the door, he thought to himself: With a young man that strong, it would be impossible for Great Ning to be weak in the future.

In the second half of the night, Shen Leng finished a day’s worth of homework. He wanted to wake Shen Cha Yan up, but he did not have the heart to. Hence, he carried the deck chair into the house, before going back into the yard to draw some water to take a shower. It was less than four hours away from daybreak.

Just as before, right after daybreak, the young man would get out of bed, and fold his blanket. He would then wash up and carry a bamboo basket to go to the morning market to buy some vegetables. Shen Cha Yan heard the door in the yard creaking and opened her eyes to take a look. After that, she continued curling up on the chair, sleeping. All of a sudden, she wondered if it would be fun to go to the morning market with that fella.

She got up abruptly, so quick to the point she was a little light-headed.

As Shen Leng walked on the trail, he swayed his arms in a strange manner. That was him imagining someone attacking him. Besides, apart from them, there were no one else living on the mountain. He did not have to be afraid to get seen by anyone.

They had to walk approximately a mile along the mountain road from the Daoist temple. After they get to the bottom of the mountain, they had to walk another half a mile to get to the morning market. The mountain forest was very dense. In the mornings, the chirping of the birds sounded exceptionally pleasant.

A masked man jumped down from one of the trees. He grabbed a wooden stick tightly and struck Shen Leng from the back with all his might. Shen Leng seemed to be too focused on gesturing, and did not notice that the wooden stick had already appeared behind his head.

Shen Leng suddenly stooped forward, and the wooden stick struck the basket on his back hard. It ruptured into pieces. Shen Leng groaned for a bit before staggering a few steps forward. Two masked men appeared from the underbush - one on the left and one on the right. They coiled a rope around his legs and pulled hard, after which Shen Leng fell forward.

Right after he fell to the ground, a wooden stick was about to strike him right in the head. Shen Leng flipped himself over to dodge the attack. The wooden stick smashed right into the ground, and the soil flew up into the air.

Shen Leng got up once again, and immediately, another two men jumped down from the tree. A fishnet entrapped Shen Leng. The two people circled Shen Leng and secured the fishnet, before pulling it backwards at the same time, causing Shen Leng to fall to the ground.

The man holding onto the wooden stick struck him once more. Shen Leng instinctively twisted his body forcefully. The wooden stick landed on his shoulder so hard, to the point he could not help but let out a painful groan.

One of the men stepped on Shen Leng’s lower abdomen, and he pulled his body upwards. The attack was rather critical - Shen Leng almost died from it.

“Dead?” asked someone.

The man holding the wooden stick shook his head. “Break his limbs and cut his tendons, crippling him.”

Shen Leng could tell whose voice that belonged to……it was the Navy Military Officer, Mu Xiaofeng.

Who would have thought that they spent the entire night not sleeping? They must have asked around and found out that Shen Leng went to the morning market every day. Hence, they laid in ambush here. Although the military carried out night inspections, Mu Xiaofeng had strong figures backing him up. Hence, he could find a way to ensure the inspector would cover up for them.

Someone laughed grimly and took out a dagger. The other two held down his legs.

What was the point of living after all the tendons in one’s limbs had been cut?

Shen Leng released an explosive power and jumped up with all his might, even though the fishnet was still wrapped around him. He slammed himself against the person holding the dagger. Mu Xiaofeng cursed at him in a low voice, and swung his leg out to make him fall once more.

“Be quicker - we can’t let his partner see us. That fella has Prince Liu’s iron plate.”

“What if he outs us?”

　

“Then let’s cut off his tongue!?”

The few of them hurriedly exchanged a few sentences, before they pounced on Shen Leng, holding him down.

Two muscular men held Shen Leng down, and the other man forcefully pulled out his arm. The man with the dagger was about to make a cut on Shen Leng’s wrist.

Bam!

The man holding the dagger was kicked in the head. His neck cracked and he rolled over to one side.

“If you touch him, you will f*cking die!”

It was the furious voice of a young girl. She did not care whether or not she was refined - the words came naturally out of her mouth. The last time Shen Leng cursed in front of her and ended up getting reprimanded by him. Today, she was even more vulgar than he was back then.

When Shen Leng was killing the bandits, she did not dare to kill them. Even if she was stronger than she already was, it was not easy for her to kill.

However, at this moment, she wanted to kill them.

She picked up the dagger on the ground, and her hand movements were extremely quick. Pff pff pff. The man was stabbed thrice.

Shen Cha Yan was struck by a wooden stick in the back. She turned around and looked; her blood red eyes scared Mu Xiaofeng into taking a few steps back……he did not understand why he would be afraid by the look in a girl’s eyes.

Shen Cha Yan swung the dagger, forcing the men who were near her to get out of her way. Thereafter, she grabbed the fishnet and dashed out in a frenzy. After she was a distance away from them, she cut a hole in it.

Shen Leng was hurting so much that he was getting dizzy. He stood up and stood in front of Shen Cha Yan. He reached out and took the dagger from her hand. “Stay behind me.”

There was no way Shen Cha Yan would listen. She tried to charge forward a couple of times, but was stopped by Shen Leng.

Now, Mu Xiaofeng realized that the two fellas were well-trained in martial arts. He did not know how to account for the injury inflicted on one of his subordinates. He yelled and instructed them to leave, and started retreated.

Shen Leng charged forward and lifted his right hand, before elbowing the face of one of the men, sending his head to the back directly. He flew two to three meters upon impact, and collided into a tree.

In the next second, Shen Leng was already nearing Mu Xiaofeng. He tried to stab him three times. Mu Xiaofeng continued retreating, and tried to attack Shen Leng’s head with the stick. Shen Leng did not retreat - he tilted his head, dodging the wooden stick. Instead, it landed on his shoulder hard. However, the dagger slid across Mu Xiaofeng’s face. The black cloth got sliced open, revealing a huge scar that ran across his face, from his chin to his temple.

Mu Xiaofeng wailed in pain, and did not dare to continue fighting. He turned around and ran. The other men carried the injured person and followed suit. Shen Cha Yan was about to give chase, but Shen Leng reached out his hand and stopped her.

Shen Cha Yan said furiously, “We’re letting them off just like that?”

Shen Leng pointed to his shoulder. “It hurts.”

Shen Cha Yan hurriedly pulled down his collar and took a look. His shoulder was extremely swollen.

“Not important.”

Shen Leng kept the dagger and picked up the ruptured basket. “What’s important is that it’s nearing your mealtime. I’m afraid you’ll get hungry……”

Shen Cha Yan was dumbfounded. She went pale and started crying out loud, “Are you really that stupid?”