Wife, I Want to Eat Meat

Chapter 41

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Xia Fenwanted to go to Bailu academy to study, the main reason wasn’t to learn goodabilities, rather to learn how to swear at people, better yet trade insultswith the `delicate and frail` bookworms. He wondered how the bookworms knowingthis, would react?

Bailuacademy was considered to be the imperial academy of cla.s.sical learning inDayan. Not only do they take in the children of influential families andofficials, at the same time the children of the imperial household also came tostudy, moreover every year they would choose two children of poor and humblebackground from all the big academies in the country, to study there free.Bailu academy wasn’t simply the centre of power for the younger generations, itwas also the centre of training for backup officials. The poor and humblechildren vied to study there even if their heads split open, with delusions ofa carp leaping through the dragon’s gate, and make friends with theinfluential officials’ children of the court in advance, hoping to somedayrapidly go up in the world. And so the children of the influential families andofficials, would also during their time studying find like-minded `closefriends`, forming around each prince, eyes burning as they stare at the mostrespected position in the world, investing blood, sweat and tears for it.

To peoplewith aspirations, the previous dynasty of Dayan were the adults’ battlefield, Bailuacademy was the grappling ground for the younger generations.

The onlydifference was, the previous dynasty did not have women officials, yet theacademy still accepted female students.

Xia Fen onlystarted studying at six and a half years old, later than everyone else by oneand a half years. Xia Ling Mei and General Xia usually taught him, commonreading and instructions simply wasn’t a problem, his martial arts was evenmore outstanding, therefore after Xia Fen reported his name, he was directlystuck into the second years hall.

Even thoughKong Xian and Wu Sheng were Xia Fen’s bodyguards on the face of things, theywere a lot older than Xia Fen. But even Kong Xian and Wu Sheng had officialpositions, when they reached Beiding City they directly reported to theMinistry of War, naturally they couldn’t go and study with Xia Fen. Only everyday after school, they would come to the Xia residence and practice martialarts manoeuvres with Xia Fen, teaching him some battlefield common sense.

Xia LingMei once again from the Xia family’s reserve shadow guards picked two children,intending to provide Xia Fen with bodyguards and at the same time study partners.Amongst the influential families, some guards were allowed to marry and havechildren, so much so that they change from shadows to public bodyguards. Eachfamily had different circ.u.mstances, naturally the way to nurture talent wasalso different. The shadow guards in the Xia family were also separated intomale and female, everyone had a teacher in charge of instructing their talentsand martial arts. After the shadow guards had their adulthood ceremony theywould turn to their teacher to be in charge of their marriage, choosinghusbands or wives on their students’ behalf.

Looking atthe Xia family, only the strongest had the power to choose, if the shadowguards wanted to control their own marriage, then they could only become thetop three amongst the shadow guards. From fourth place on the students wereentirely matched up by their teachers, unable to object. From the first day theshadow guards were chosen to enter the family, the first thing they learnt wasto unconditionally comply with their master’s plans. And the shadow guardswould arrange to get married the first year of their adulthood, within a yearthe female shadow guards are usually pregnant, if their child’s structure wasgood they may become the next generation of shadow guards, perhaps become publicbodyguards, those who structure’s weren’t as good would be arranged to learnother skills, afterwards they would be sent to live in the businesses and farmsof the Xia family in every part of the country, and some living incognito wouldbe sent to be a spy in another country. Amongst these there were also weak andinept people unable to support themselves over a wall, being beaten to the dustin numerous compet.i.tions, their silhouettes could no longer be found.

Born at thesame time, each fate was different.

Xia Fen wasyoung, the general servants of the Xia family of the same age had alreadyearlier on been a.s.signed to the other young generations of the Xia family, evenif there were people left over, they were simply those chosen to be left overby others.

Xia LingMei spoiled Xia Fen, and knowing his `grand ambitions`, therefore she was

especially cautious in selecting a study partner and bodyguard. Xia Fen did notunderstand poetry, Xia Ling Mei decided as such as before, choose a littletactician good at giving advice, like Kong Xian; then choose a modest and loyalsi shi,like Wu Sheng. One literate and one martial, balancing and restricting eachother.

These kindof children were difficult to find, Xia Ling Mei nearly became crossed-eyed.Xia Fen rarely looked down upon his mother, patting his own chest he said:“Watch me.”

The verysmall six years old child stood in front of a crowd of unevenly matched withdifferent heights young children, directly saying: “All of you trade insults, theone who finishes last will be my military counsellor.” Afterwards he ran to themartial arts practice ground, facing the group of angry looking small tigers whowas tanned almost like a crow under the sun he said: “All of you spar eachother, the one who fights to the end and remains standing will eat meat withthis young master.” Thinking about it, he thought meat this sort of thing wasnot uncommon, again adding a sentence: “After you grow up, become a generalwith me.”

As aresult, the left side of the school, saliva and cooled eyes flew; the rightside martial arts practice ground, beads of blood and sweat mixed.

Finally,Xia Fen’s military counsellor was one who looked short and fat, when he smiledhe looked like the boy sitting under the Guanyin, amongst the literary shadowguards he was ranked nineteenth. Xia Fen asked him how he won? He said: “Youngmaster made them throw insults at each other, with the least misgivings theystarted cursing. I watched, waiting for them to finish cursing until they weretired and exhausted their words, then I found the one who was proud to be thelast and started cursing him. The other person had already long ago talked toomuch, I was still full of energy, so he became mute, I won.”

Xia Fenkicked the chubby kid with one foot: “You treacherous person.” The chubby childfell to the ground rolling a few times, his head hit the table leg, dizzily heasked: “Young master you want to curse me? I am the final winner, if you don’tkeep your word your teeth will fall out.” Aiyo, he unexpectedly even threatenedXia Fen.

Xia LingMei felt this ranked nineteenth in literacy was too devious, afraid Xia Fenwould not be able to control him in the future. Knowing, someone with greatpatience, a person who knows how to choose the perfect timing to attack anotherperson’s weak point, the best at hiding a dagger in smiles, with a slip up hewould murder his master.

The finalwinner of the martial arts compet.i.tion was a skinny child, an insensitive eyesand expressionless child. Standing up he was almost the same height as Xia Fen,in reality he was older than Xia Fen by two years, both his eyes completelyblack, completely void of emotions, he was just like a blade to kill, sharpenough and without thoughts. The young shadow guards who have been trainedharshly from childhood, half the children had this expression, standing therecompletely lacking in distinguishing feature, very able to shake still a publicvenue with his appearance, with one glance a ruthless murder.

Amongst themartial artists he was ranked twenty-one, a young seedling of a killer.

However XiaLing Mei needed to choose a close bodyguard, his most important job is toprotect Xia Fen, and not make him kill someone. Xia Ling Mei was not satisfied,on the other hand Xia Fen was fond of bullying, pointing at the two people hesaid: “Twenty-one, you beat nineteen up, beat him until he’s on his lastbreath. I’ll give you…thirty minutes.”

Thus, theexpressionless Twenty-one immediately punched the beaming Nineteen flying intothe air, smashing into a chair, the stick nearly penetrating through thechild’s chest, three of his ribs broke, a tooth fell out, one ankle twisted.

Xia Fenjumped up slapping Twenty-one that half of his face swelled up: “I said thirtyminutes, I didn’t tell you to beat him to death in a short moment.”

Twenty-onestood up straight, pulling Nineteen up who was still smiling like an invitingwealth boy, helping the other person wipe the bloodstain from the corner of hismouth, the suddenly hitting the other person sprawling onto the ground. Thefirst hit could be said to kill someone quickly, right now the repeated beatinghad become a slow blade cutting apart flesh, Nineteen who was originallysmiling broadly slowly turned from surprise to pain, again unimaginable, atlast he noiselessly cried.

Xia Fencrouching to one side, watching Twenty-one without stopping push Nineteen intothe palace hall of h.e.l.l, unhurriedly he said: “A man, if he wants to laugh willlaugh out loud, if he wants to cry will cry out loud. Right now you’re cryinglike a woman, who knows if you’re truly hurting or not? Are you acting?”

Xia LingMei turned her head looking around, the surrounding hundred odd children, mostof the martial artists showed a disdainful expression, clearly they despisedNineteen who was crying like a kitten. To children who saw the fist as theboss, crying was an action of the weak. In this practice ground, traces ofchildren who cried had long ago disappeared. But the other group of shocked andfrightened children who were backing away were young scholars who had grown upwith Nineteen, they believed they could go anywhere in the world relying ontheir silver tongues. However today, they finally learned what was brute force,what was known as scholars coming across soldiers.

The dizzy Nineteen felt time was a blade usedto kill pigs, his pig trotters, belly, pig head, so much so even his pig’s tailwere cut apart with each stab, he wished he would die straightaway. But againfeeling, if he died he wouldn’t be able to seek revenge for himself, he wouldnot resign, he wanted to live, he wanted to be strong.

Twenty-onereally did beat Nineteen up until his last breath before giving up, at thattime, Nineteen had already cried so much he didn’t know what was crying, a facefull of tears and blood.

Xia Fenagain punched Twenty-one on the other side of the face, right now Twenty-one’shead had swollen up into a black steamed bun.

Xia Fensaid: “Remember, a scholar is a pretty boy, from now on you can’t hit him inthe face. I still need to use his face to scam people.”

Twenty-onestared at Xia Fen, waves of displeasure showed in his eyes for the first time:“Then why can you hit my head?”

Xia Fenclapped his hands, arrogantly laughing heartily: “Because this young masterlike to.”

From thenon, the literary Nineteen’s name changed, he was called Bai Shu, hoping he would grow up talland big, become a man capable of supporting the heaven and earth; and themartial arts Twenty-one was called Nu Ju, he needed to grow up plumpand strong, needing him to destroy all the hindrance for Xia Fen on his path tobecome an important general, be his lackey and brave and fierce unequalled warchariot.

Bai Shulaid in bed for more than ten days, the child’s foundation was good, it waseasy for him to defeat any illness. Furthermore that sort of place that trainedshadow guards, there was plenty of cruelty, Bai Shu experienced a lot, but wasnot extremely delicate. When his bones hadn’t completely healed, he laid inbed, yelling inside his heart once: I must kill Nu Ju, must kill him.

Every timeBai Shu faced Nu Ju he was itching to tear him apart, but when he saw Xia Fen,he could only remember his expression when he sent Nu Ju flying with one punch.

Compared to Nu Ju, Xia Fen was a child who genuinely licked blood on the edgeof a blade, he did not care about human life. A marshal made on the white bonesof thousands of average soldiers, Xia Fen could only see soldiers as chesspieces in his hand, a blade on the battlefield. Xia Fen ruthless andcold-bloodedness emitted from his inside blasted apart Bai Shu’s frail mentalstate, burying a seed in his very small brain. Nu Ju was even more impressive, yethe was a dog under Xia Fen’s foot, Bai Shu dared to eradicate this dog, but didnot have the delusion to resist this dog’s owner.

Nu Ju hadcarried out an a.s.sa.s.sination mission with his parents, having seen life anddeath. On the martial arts practice ground there were many who wanted to killhim, not just Bai Shu.

From thenonwards, behind Xia Fen there was a seemingly good-natured and sincere, but inreality deeply scheming chubby child, and a not lax in speech or smile,taciturn and of few words, unable to understand the ways of the world, mindlesstanned child.

Xia Fen onhis short tiny legs, stood on the rooftop, pointing at a roof ridge in thebustling Bailu academy, to the tottering Bai Shu and the firmly steady Nu Ju hesaid: “That is this young master’s next battlefield. I need to purge it, youbetter follow me closely.”

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