Social Death
Ming Feizhen sped back to his room. Since his room was located rather far away from the epicentre, the renovators hadn’t reached it yet. He rummaged through the debris, rubble and displaced items to find his dream. “Crap, crap, crap, they’re all gone! My ultimate generational collection is gone! Someone took my treasures!”
Wait, wait, wait. The chest isn’t even hard to open… How am I supposed to live if everyone has seen inside the chest?! Considering everyone’s attitude towards me when I returned… If they’ve seen what’s in the chest… Aaaaaah! I need to leave the capital for three months! I need to get out of here! I need to go!
“Big Brother Ming?” Su Xiao called from the door.
“Not in! There’s nobody here!” Ming Feizhen tore his sleeve to wrap up his face and then opened his window to climb out.
Su Xiao pulled the back of Ming Feizhen’s sash. “You’re right here!”
“Nobody’s here! Really! Come back once I’m gone!”??e?????oѵ??. c?m
“Nobody’s here? I have something important to tell you about.”
Isn’t that an even more motivating reason to leave?!
“Xiao, let me explain. The books in the chest are study materials. You see…”
Su Xiao yanked Ming Feizhen back inside. “What are you talking about?! Tang Ye gasped blood!”
“Oh?”
***
Ming Feizhen removed the needles and then ordered the people around to clean up the blood Tang Ye gasped. “Let him sleep for a day, and he’ll be much better. As for his damaged true qi, I have a new medicine to fix him up. Go and prepare some medicine to supplement his qi and essence.”
The doctors started getting busy straight away.
“Tsk, tsk, impressive. Very impressive.”
Su Xiao looked to the sleeping Tang Ye, pursed his lips and sighed. “Was the enemy that strong?”
“No, Tang Ye is the impressive one.”
“Hmm?”
“It wasn’t just one person who hurt him. I’m sure he went through a war. I also heard he travelled through the night whilst fending off pursuers. He was probably empty by the time he engaged in the last fight.” Ming Feizhen pulled Su Xiao away from Tang Ye so that Tang Ye could rest in peace. “Based on my assessment, he must’ve used ‘Ancient King’.”
“Ancient… King?”
Ming Feizhen blended the essence of Ancient King String into the five blade techniques he taught Tang Ye. Each time Tang Ye ate a beating, he understood a bit more about the five blade techniques via different means. The essence of Ancient King’s mental cultivation wasn’t just countering but also absorbing and simplifying.
Mount Daluo’s martial arts curriculum was vast to begin with, and Ming Huayu shoved over a hundred different disciplines into Ming Feizhen’s brain. Ming Feizhen ended up learning a little here and a little there, but he managed to gain a solid grasp on all the disciplines’ most important aspects. Ancient King String was his way of compiling all his knowledge into a summary if you will, and the result of absorbing everything was the five blade techniques. On its own, Ancient King String was a trap-and-annihilate discipline that contained techniques ready to be transformed for different scenarios, but it all came back to the five blade techniques at the end of the day.
Tang Ye, too, learnt from a lot of different teachers as well as had plenty of experience. However, he made the mistake of trying to learn Ming Feizhen’s Ancient King String when he hadn’t learnt the same disciplines as Ming Feizhen, so it was a fruitless endeavour. Through reflecting on the five techniques Ming Feizhen imparted while he was still in the capital, Tang Ye consolidated his own skills. It was in the heat of the moment that he managed to understand the essence of Ancient King. That was when he stopped trying to imitate Ming Feizhen and, instead, synthesised it with his own training and experience. As a result, he saw growth once again. Had his opponent been significantly superior to him, he’d have been toast, though.
Ming Feizhen flapped his hand. “I’ll explain in the future. It’s too complicated for you right now. How have you been recently?”
“That’s my question!” Su Xiao rushed up to Ming Feizhen and started touching Ming Feizhen all over despite not having a lick of medical knowledge. “It must’ve been a terrible experience.”
“You were worried?”
Su Xiao gave a big nod. “Uhm!”
Su Xiao threw himself at Ming Feizhen. “I’m so glad you’re alright,” he expressed. He then lowered his head and continued, “But I was worried that nobody would fulfil your instructions… and I couldn’t go search for you. Plus, Vice-Captain Shen went, so I stayed in the capital.”
Ming Feizhen caressed Su Xiao’s head. “Idiot, I feel much more reassured knowing you’re in the capital. Boss has too much on her plate for her alone to handle, and Tang Ye is not the right person for this type of work. Without you, the situation right now would only be worse.”
“But I didn’t do anything?” Su Xiao titled his head.
Ming Feizhen smiled. “You can only do one thing right at a time, and that’s enough. By the way, what’s the situation with the idol contest?”
“It’s been pushed back!” grouched Su Xiao. “We spent ages preparing, only for some villain to perform some sorcery in the sky a few days ago, sending the entire capital into panic. I was scared, too. The academy said that, due to the magnitude of the idol contest, it would likely incite disorder if it was held, so it was pushed back a few days. So, we have four days to go.”
Oh… Thank you for that Gongsun Chu, or I’d have no way or repaying my debt.
What? Don’t I have the stash from Gongsun Chu now? That was my money! Nobody was getting their filthy hands on it! They were the ones who said they’d write off my debt if I won the contest. I wasn’t giving them a penny!
The academy’s status quo was far from as terrible as Ming Feizhen assumed. The Bai couple was set to escort Huang Yuzao back to the capital, and Confucianism disciples would pick him up on the way. Therefore, Huang Yuzao would be fine. Su Xiao mentioned Huang Yuzao’s students had done a commendable job of managing the academy in his absence; not even rumours were able to cause any stirs. From Ming Feizhen’s perspective, they also owed Gongsun Chu because Gongsun Chu spared them. Had he actually gone after them, the fact that Huang Yuzao had lost all his martial arts training would be sufficient to mess up Confucianism’s order.
“Unhurried, very Confucianism-like,” remarked Ming Feizhen.
After they caught up on the recent affairs, Ming Feizhen remembered something important that he could only broach once he had “coughed” twice. “So, uh, Xiao, I have a question.”
“What is it?”
“Uh, so, in my room, there’s this small-little chest. Did you, maybe by accident, see where it is?”
“No clue.”
No clue? Phew. At least I don’t have to embarrass myself in front of Su Xiao.
Su Xiao got up and pulled out a big chest from underneath Tang Ye’s bed. “But I did find a big chest that I placed here.”
It’s right here! And it’s been opened! You saw everything inside?!
“Big Brother Ming.”
He was called the same way not long ago, but this version was different. Dangerously different. Ming Feizhen looked back to see the eyes of someone looking at a bug.
“This, is yours?”
“Uh…” Averting his gaze, Ming Feizhen answered, “No, not mine.”
“Really?”
“Very-truly-absolutely really.”
“Shall I take it to Vice-Captain to check, then?”
“Go ahead.” Ming Feizhen crossed his legs. “Who you scaring? It’s mine just because you say it is? Are you the law?”
Su Xiao took out a book, opened it, between two hands and pulled in opposite directions.
“How could you tear it?! I was going to pass it down to the next generation! That could make me the great ancestor of my family!”
“…”
“…”
“Ehehe, it’s mine. Didn’t I tell you? It’s study material?”
“Oh, so…” Su Xiao took out another book. “What do you learn in this ‘A Hundred Flowers’ Contest’?”
“Fl-flower arrangement.”
“’Room Chronicles’?”
“Arch-architecture…”
“’A Hundred Delectable Tastes’?”
“Fine cuisine!”
“I see. You truly embody a vast library of knowledge.”
“Ahaha, you flatter me. It’s just academic research.”
Su Xiao deployed several nods. “So, ‘Unparalleled Wife and Charming Maid’, ‘Please Be Naughty with Me Again’ and ‘Please Love Me One More Time, Aunt’ are also academic research?”
Ming Feizhen prostrated himself on the ground. “Please spare me, Master Su. Please do not read out the titles, or this peasant will have to kill himself.”
Su Xiao returned the books to the chest, shut it, folded his arms, said, “Y-y-y-y-you are n-not… What are you reading?!” and then bolted out.
Once Su Xiao was gone, Ming Feizhen elatedly repossessed his precious chest. “My babies, I’ve finally found you.”
“Feizhen…”
“What?”
Hang on.
Ming Feizhen slowly turned his head to see Shen Yiren standing outside the door and started shaking.
Wh-why is Boss back already? I haven’t hidden the chest yet!
Shen Yiren entered the room, seemingly oblivious to the presence of the chest. “Feizhen…”
Ming Feizhen heard a gentleness in Shen Yiren’s voice that she’d never let a third person hear. He cautiously shifted his gaze up to see tears welled up in her eyes. “What’s wrong?! Boss, what’s wrong? Come here. Come here. Don’t cry.”
Shen Yiren, after hiccupping several times, stated, “Feizhen… Uncle… scolded me.”
Glossary
Ancient King String – For anyone who feels the description in the chapter head scratching, let me use something less abstract to explain it. Let’s use the jab, cross, rear hook and rear uppercut to put it into perspective. While each punch’s trajectory differs and typically lands at different spots on a target, no matter how you slice them, the body mechanics are still the same. You can adjust the angle at which you throw them to suit different scenarios, but you’re still performing the same foot, hip torso and head rotations; you’re still using your torso as a fulcrum, relaxing to the last minute and tensing up right as you get ready to make impact. So, in Ancient King String, you could perform techniques in the syllabus differently, but they’re still just branches of the five blade techniques. Hopefully, this makes more sense to you. If you’d like a visual of this, let me know, and I’ll be happy to film it.
