Wearing People Down

The next day, before dawn had broken, everyone got up.

Meng Yuan had rested for a night. Though he was still bruised and swollen, he had recovered considerably, while the essence fire had diminished slightly.

When I was freezing and starving to death before, the essence fire kept nourishing me in return. It now seems it can slowly heal injuries too.

But what would happen if I suffered a grave, life-or-death wound?

Meng Yuan went over the events of the previous night.

The brawl last night had been nothing but blind flailing, without the slightest bit of order.

Meng Yuan and Tie Niu had the advantage of strength, so they had not feared being outnumbered. But once the lamps went out, no one could tell who was hitting whom.

Tie Niu in particular had started wildly swinging his fists once his blood was up. He had not only injured their enemies—Meng Yuan had taken two vicious blows to the back as well.

The worst injuries on Meng Yuan's body had been inflicted by Tie Niu!

And they had caused such an uproar in the dormitory right after arriving to learn martial arts. Meng Yuan had already prepared himself for the worst.

They rose before dawn to wash up, and Meng Yuan took the chance to warn Tie Niu.

"Tie Niu, remember this. If Master Nie comes to question us, just tell the truth. I was the main culprit in what happened last night, and Master Nie will know that. If he throws me out, don't spout nonsense. You have to stay."

"If you leave, what am I supposed to do?" Tie Niu looked utterly lost. "My pa told me to follow you properly. Whatever you do, I do."

"Listen to me," Meng Yuan said.

"If you leave, there ain't much point in me staying alone. We might as well leave together and go back to the manor to shovel manure." Tie Niu had not thought that far ahead.

Meng Yuan patted Tie Niu on the shoulder. Knowing he could not persuade him, he said no more.

After washing up came morning training.

The atmosphere was somewhat different that day. Both the male and female students kept glancing at Meng Yuan and Tie Niu, though their expressions varied.

Once morning training was over, everyone headed to the dining hall. Breakfast consisted of hot porridge, pickled vegetables, and steamed buns.

The moment Meng Yuan sat down, Wu Changsheng came over and sat beside him.

Without needing to be asked, Wu Changsheng spilled everything in one breath.

The person who had taken the worst beating last night was named Liu He, Steward Liu's son.

That tall girl was Hu Qian, the youngest daughter of the Princess Consort's wet nurse.

Those two had the highest status among all the students, and they were also the leaders of the male and female students. Hu Qian in particular had always been someone whose words carried weight.

"What happened last night was neither big nor small. That dog Liu He will definitely go crying to someone. When the time comes, Sister Qian and I will plead for you!" Wu Changsheng said loyally.

Meng Yuan nodded slightly and looked toward Liu He in the distance.

Liu He was looking at Meng Yuan as well. He was no longer sniveling and crying, but said fiercely, "Just you wait, brat! Once I report this to Master Nie, you'll be kicked out today!"

Meng Yuan rose to his feet. Liu He shuddered in fright and nearly lost his seat.

After they had trained for about two hours that morning, Nie Yannian finally arrived at a leisurely pace.

Seeing the boys and girls black-and-blue and covered in injuries, he grinned. "Did you fight over the title of top courtesan last night? Who won, and who lost?"

"Master Nie!" Liu He stepped forward. There was a large gash on his lip, and his eyes were swollen to narrow slits. He said aggrievedly, "Master Nie, last night, the newcomers Meng Yuan and Zhao Tie Niu beat me. The reason was—"

"Quit fucking yammering about reasons!" Nie Yannian cut Liu He off impatiently. He strode over and slapped Liu He's head with his big hand. "You came here to learn martial arts! If you lost a fight, then fight back and win next time. And you came running to me to tattle? I don't give a damn whether you were in the right or not! You're already this old and still don't understand? Want me to pull open my shirt so you can suck a few mouthfuls of milk? Your mother's too old now, or I'd stuff you, you good-for-nothing coward, straight back into her belly! Useless trash!"

Liu He had not expected Nie Yannian to ignore his complaint completely and mock him instead. He immediately broke down and started crying again.

"Even your crying sounds pretty good!" Nie Yannian laughed loudly. "If this little thing went off to be a male prostitute, he'd definitely be the top attraction!"

All the boys and girls stood frozen in shock.

Meng Yuan was dumbstruck too. Never mind how good Nie Yannian's martial arts were—just his talent for insulting people was enough for Meng Yuan to know that he would never catch up in his lifetime.

With his hands clasped behind his back, Nie Yannian paced up to Meng Yuan and asked, "I heard you're quite the fighter?"

He had questioned Meng Yuan and Tie Niu yesterday. He knew Tie Niu was simple-minded, so Meng Yuan had surely been the one who started the fight.

"It was all my fault alone. Please punish me, Master Nie!" Rather than answer the question, Meng Yuan immediately declared his willingness to accept punishment.

Whatever the punishment was, he would accept it.

"Master Nie..." Wu Changsheng had just started to plead for him when Nie Yannian glared him into silence.

"You two will hold horse stances on the Plum Blossom Stakes for an entire day. If you fall, climb back up and stand again!" Nie Yannian gave his punishment.

The Plum Blossom Stakes were used to train bodily coordination and balance, and came in high and low varieties. Fine sand was spread beneath them to prevent practitioners from getting hurt in a fall.

This hardly counted as punishment. Holding a horse stance for an entire day was certainly difficult for beginners, but Meng Yuan and Tie Niu were both sturdy young men. At worst, they would take a few tumbles.

Meng Yuan hurriedly pulled Tie Niu along to accept the punishment, and the two went to stand on the Plum Blossom Stakes.

By the end of the day, they had fallen from the Plum Blossom Stakes dozens of times, and their legs had gone numb. Yet when training ended after nightfall, they washed themselves and returned to the men's dormitory, no one dared provoke them anymore.

Their two bundles lay together, untouched. No one even wanted to get too close to them.

Liu He wore a gloomy expression and had somehow gotten hold of medicine to smear over his face.

By the rules, male and female students were strictly forbidden from leaving the Training Field, and they were not allowed to contact anyone outside it.

When Liu He saw Meng Yuan and Tie Niu, he put on airs and gave a couple of snorts. But he was ultimately afraid of getting hurt and did not dare say a single word.

Meng Yuan did not bother with him and simply went to sleep.

After that, Meng Yuan trained every day according to Master Nie's arrangements, tempering his strength and eating heartily.

But Nie Yannian had originally come twice a day. After the fight, he only came once a day. He taught no moves at all, merely having the youths temper their strength. He was truly herding them like sheep.

As the New Year drew nearer and nearer, the students saw that they would be spending it inside the Training Field. Not only did Nie Yannian refuse to teach them any real skills, he simply stopped coming altogether.

Seeing that no one was watching over them, the students inevitably began to get ideas.

At first, they only slacked off in training. Later, they simply started sleeping in and stopped attending morning training altogether.

Liu He especially, whether because he was accustomed to living well or harbored resentment toward Nie Yannian, took the lead in gathering several people around him. They did not get up until the sun was high every day. They did not train seriously either, constantly chatting up the female students. Whenever the north wind blew a little harder, they returned to the men's dormitory to sleep.

They were not fools, either. They even arranged lookouts to guard against Nie Yannian suddenly coming to inspect them. But Nie Yannian never showed his face again.

Of the twenty-seven students, nearly half were just going through the motions.

Meng Yuan watched coldly but never once entertained the thought of slacking off. Every day, he rose before dawn to train, meticulous in every detail and never cutting corners.

Tie Niu was simple and honest. His thoughts were uncomplicated, and Zhao Datou had instructed him before, so he simply followed Meng Yuan's training every day.

In the blink of an eye, nearly half a month passed. It was New Year's Eve, and snow began falling from the sky once more.

The Princess Consort was kindhearted and sent people with holiday rewards. Every student received a roast chicken and two catties of pork.

Yet Nie Yannian still did not appear, and no one was allowed to leave.

Firecrackers boomed beyond the Training Field, and they could still hear the music of strings and winds.

It was a day for families to reunite, yet they could only train in the snow. Some of the manor-born children even began to cry.

Meng Yuan did not take it to heart at all. He ate when it was time to eat and drank when it was time to drink.

On the first day of the new year, Meng Yuan got up before dawn and called Tie Niu outside with him.

The north wind howled, deep snow blanketed the ground, and the desolation grew all the more profound.

Meng Yuan and Tie Niu drew well water. After washing their faces and brushing their teeth, they began clearing snow, then started their morning training.

They first performed a set of punches to warm up, then picked up stone locks to train their arm strength, before practicing Horse Stance Punches.

Even when people slacked off normally, there would still be around ten people attending morning training. Yet after Meng Yuan and Tie Niu had trained for a quarter of an hour, not another person had appeared.

"Brother, today's New Year's. Every family ought to rest properly for a day. They ain't coming, so why should we train? They all say behind our backs that we're fools." Steam rose from Tie Niu's head as he asked in his guileless way.

"Master Nie said that one day of training earns one day of skill, while one day without training leaves ten days empty. It means martial arts require perseverance. Only by practicing every day can you keep improving. If you stop for even one day, you will lose what you built up before and need to spend even more time returning to your original level."

As Meng Yuan threw punch after punch, he said, "Tie Niu, I came from among refugees, and your father was originally a tenant farmer. To put it bluntly, we're both mud-legged peasants. Learning martial arts is our only chance to change our fate, so we must seize it tightly."

"But nobody's watching. Master Nie hasn't come for days. They all say Master Nie doesn't care about us anymore." Tie Niu did not understand.

"We train for ourselves, not for Master Nie. Don't worry about what others think. We only do what we have to do," Meng Yuan said.

In truth, Meng Yuan had his own view of the matter. Judging from how the Princess Consort had acted before, she was clearly someone capable of getting things done.

If so, with the Princess Consort's thunderous, decisive way of dealing with Manor Head Li, how could she possibly allow Master Nie to herd them like sheep?

The Princess Consort had gathered this group of youths for training, strictly forbidden them from leaving the Training Field, and barred them from going home for the New Year. Clearly, she had not forgotten them, considering she had sent meat over just yesterday on New Year's Eve.

In Meng Yuan's view, the Princess Consort was likely trying to select a group of people who could endure hardship, obey honestly, and keep their patience.

After all, martial arts training was the most grueling of pursuits. It could not be achieved in a single bound, tolerated no cutting corners or cheating, and required patience, perseverance, and resolve.

They were all youths of around fifteen. It was already somewhat late for them to begin learning martial arts, and none were exceptionally gifted. Only through self-discipline and obedience could they accomplish anything.

Therefore, Meng Yuan felt that the Princess Consort, or perhaps Master Nie, was wearing them down to select those worthy of cultivation.

Of course, Meng Yuan did not dare say his own thoughts were necessarily right.

But no matter what, having food and drink every day while also being able to temper his strength could only benefit him, never harm him.

If Master Nie still refused to teach them real skills after the first lunar month, Meng Yuan planned to jump ship. Whether he went to fawn over Xun Mei or found another way, he had to carve out a path for himself.

After all, little Jiang Tang was still waiting at the pastoral manor.