The kick landed right on my sore thigh . The afternoon had seen me running Heaven knows how many laps around the field . My legs had become so frail that I could have sworn they had turned as soft as marshmallows . A painful yelp escaped me when the blow hit my leg and I cursed, "Who the hell would do such a terrible thing!" Even before I could clearly see who it was, I swore, "What the hell! Are you crazy!?"
In truth, I had no reservations of sprouting any expletives; not when most of the students in my zither class were almost my size, even though I was still the same scrawny boy fresh out of high school . I was never afraid to get into a fight, more so, when the odds of physical size were more or less even . Right after the chain of curses, I thought, "Here am I, tired as a log, and you dare come provoke me! Come at me then! But don't you ever blame me when I get my tit for tat with a Charm of Divine Sight to make you honest! Let's see how you'd dare come at me again after two whole days of seeing ghosts!!"
But just when I was still thinking about ways to retaliate against my attacker, another blow struck on the same spot on my thigh . A sharp voice cut through the air over us, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, MURONG SHIYAN! YOU'RE DISMISSED! GET OUT OF HERE!" He crouched down and sneered . "How do you like my hospitality today? It's just barely more than ten laps today, so you'd better learn how to behave!" "Oh Heavens, it's Instructor Cao!" I grimaced quietly . But I was hardly pleased with what he did and what he just said . "Asking me to behave when you clearly have a personal vendetta against me!" With an unknown burst of strength, I sprang to my feet and barked loudly enough for everyone to turn their heads our way, "So what if I do behave, and what if I refuse to behave!!"
Being spoken to this way must be a first for Instructor Cao; he was stunned beyond words when he heard me . But he was nevertheless a young man in his early twenties, the same hot-headed youth as all of us were . He quickly recollected himself and coldly hissed, "Humph . Behave, and slink back quietly to your dorms like how a good dog would . Otherwise, my fists . . . " I cackled before he could finish . "Enough prattling . Here I was, wondering if I should help you . But your manners clearly show that I shouldn't . So good luck!"
As a matter of fact, I knew why Instructor Cao was losing his temper . The cursed aura about him was influencing him . It would not be enough to cause him a danger, but it was adequate enough to make his life miserable . He had been met with a string of bad luck and clearly, the bad fortune had hardly seen its end .
I did not wait for any reaction from him . I promptly spun on my heels and helped my dorm mate up . We were barely a couple of steps of clambering away when a hand grabbed on my shoulder . "What did you say?! Speak clearly!" Instructor Cao barked . I looked back and pushed his hand away, but not before shooting a wicked smile . "Nothing . Just food for thought . " My dorm mate nudged me hastily, motioning me to stop prodding him and get on our way . But I was rather enjoying myself as Instructor Cao stood rooted to the spot, his face boiling with rage to the point of becoming purple . Suddenly, he raised his arm and prepared to punch .
The punch would have lopped off my row of front teeth . But I chortled and that made him stopped . "Think before you act . " The fist stopped barely some inches away from my face and I continued giggling . "I'm sure you've noticed how bad your luck has become today? You've barely hit the bottom yet . But hit me, and you'll see . " The army instructor's expression turned infinitely sourer . Even my companion was too perplexed to speak a word .
Instructor Cao lowered his fist . He stared at me and yelled, "What the hell is going on?!" My friend and I traded quick looks and we smirked, still saying nothing .
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Instead, we turned and held on to each other on our way out of the field . But the episode did not go unnoticed . Everyone crowded around us with inquisitive and curious questions, asking about what happened between the instructor and us . I guffawed, as if to make things worse, and remarked, "What else? I merely uttered a joke, but someone here seems to take it really personally and now he wants payback . " Out of the crowd waded out a horrified Lu Shengnan . She coiled an arm under my armpit and steered me away, whispering, "What's wrong with you? I'd just left you alone for a minute and you're asking for a fight with the instructor in the next!?" I chuckled . "Well, I guess that's the short version of it . "
Mistaking that Lu Shengnan and I were a couple, my dorm mate expertly eased himself away from my arm and slipped away into the crowd, but not after leaving me to her . I shook my head when I realized he was gone, scowling, "What a bloody snake!"
Lu Shengnan took control of my wearied and sore self, steering me away as she began grilling me for answers . "Everyone could clearly see that the instructor was in you two like a viper! You'd think no one noticed his flaring eyes when he sees you? What have you done to get on his wrong side?" I shook my head . "How else? Your friend, Huang Li, of course! I had merely made a little joke about him just before the afternoon session and he used his chance to get back at me . " Lu Shengnan grumbled while jested how daft I was . But this tomboy girl had become my only friend aside from my dorm mate, so I was only too happy to set aside her rebukes .
But I suddenly realized that Lu Shengnan was not bringing me to the cafeteria . "Where are you taking me to?" She grinned . "Come on, Let's go someplace good! Let's have steak!" I narrowed my eyes at her and relented at last, "All right then . "
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Lu Shengnan then told me about her . She came from a prosperous family, although she was a tad too manly for her own good . Her parents were both business people who were too busy in their career lives to have a proper look at her, and hence she became a carefree daughter with too much cash in her pockets to spare .
I had never been a stranger to eating steaks since I was a child; Father had always shown extraordinary talents in culinary and I was accustomed to eating the steaks he grilled . But as I watched the plate of steak laid before me in this so-called "good place" that Lu Shengnan had brought me to, I could not help but feel vexed . "Can this poorly-cooked slab of meat even be called steak?! It's stark different from the ones Father makes!" But I lifted my fork and knife nevertheless, knowing better than to judge a book by its cover . Lu Shengnan noticed my familiarity with using knives and forks and she chuckled . "Wow . I see you're an aficionado of Western food too . " "Can this be adequately seen as a true Western food joint?" I asked and that made her frown . "Why? What makes you say that?" "Of course not," I mused, "This restaurant is nothing but a fraud to cheat young and gullible rich like you . . . And what makes you think eating steak is only for the rich and famous? What's so great about the medium-well ribeye you seem to be enjoying now?"
But I merely kept my thoughts to myself . I shrugged . "Enough of this . Let's talk about Huang Li . " Lu Shengnan held me in a long stare before she grinned . "Why are you so interested in Huang Li? Ah . . . I understand now! No wonder Instructor Cao punished you!" "Well, that's one way of thinking about it, I guess, although not the right one . " I shrugged again . "No . It's not what you're thinking of right now . I'm only curious about how you became friends . You weirdos seem unlikely friends, you two . " She was hardly perturbed by the "weirdo" remark; it must be something new to her .
Huang Li and Lu Shengnan met only after they were assigned to share a dorm . The rest of the other girls in the dormitories had shunned them; one being a tomboy, a girl wrongly born into the body of a girl, while the other was most undoubtedly deranged . As the only two pariahs among the girls, they had only each other to look after for and they became intimate as sisters . But it was hardly a surprise, since Lu Shengnan had the gift of making fast friends . "So, has she always been prone to speaking to herself?" I asked and she nodded . "Too much, actually . She's been talking to the ouija board almost every day and no one in the dormitory would get near her without a ten-yard pole . In truth, I'm on the brink of going mad myself . "
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I pursed my lips . So Huang Li was no stranger to games like this . . . I smiled bleakly and said nothing . But Lu Shengnan began interrogating me for answers, asking me about my family background as the dinner went on and I merely did my perfunctory best to satisfy her curiosity .
We departed the restaurant and I walked through the doors of my dormitory, realizing the time was already eight at night . But the boys in the dorm were all waiting for me . They stared at me when I came in and I, dumbfounded by their stares, was frozen on the spot . "WHY ARE YOU BACK?!" They bellowed and I asked, genuinely confused, "What's this? Am I not allowed to return to my own dorm?" I would later find out that everyone had thought that I would be spending the night with Lu Shengnan like actual lovebirds!
I snickered, exasperated . Young boys, I mused, All hot-blooded youth with wild imaginations! I refused to provide more coal to the bonfire of their gossip and scandals, extricating myself to get myself cleaned up for bed . I was too tired and sleep came quickly for me .
I woke up to a brilliant and sunny morning . The exercise would only end after three days, a fact that gave no pleasure to everyone . We quickly dressed and dragged our limp bodies out to the school field, stepping on the mushy grass still bedewed with the fresh morning dew . Lu Shengnan found me and scampered over . "Shiyan, I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry!" "What's going on? Have you gone insane too?" I stared at her . Then I saw someone approaching her from behind . Huang Li angrily yanked at Lu Shengnan's hand and pulled her away from me, but not before shooting a seething and venomous look at me .
I stood there, dumbfounded and dazed, as Huang Li's hated and spiteful look fixated upon me even as she grew further away . What the hell?! Then two men, both clad in military fatigues, strode through the scores of students purposefully . One of them was Instructor Cao, while I could not recognize the other . The man found our class and yelled, "Which of you is Murong Shiyan!"Please download our sponsor's game to support us!