The Tale Never Ends Chapter 176 Squaring off with Soldiers

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.

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."

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."

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!"

Chapter end