Entering the City

At dawn, great pots of porridge were once again set boiling outside the city gates.

The four members of the Gu Family woke on time, picked up their wooden bowls, and went to line up at the porridge distribution point.

The government had already issued a notice yesterday: the porridge handouts would last at most another three to five days.

Once the time came, the distribution point would be withdrawn at once, and all the makeshift shelters outside the city would be torn down.

By then, refugees like them would no longer be allowed to stay outside the city.

They could either take the government relief money back to their hometowns to rebuild their houses and farm the land, or enter the city to find their own place to live and work.

In short, the government had already done all it could. If they stubbornly refused to leave, they could not blame the authorities for driving them away by force.

The Gu Family were among the earlier-rising refugees. The line for porridge was not long, so their turn came quickly.

Standing before the great pot of porridge, Gu Dashan wore a humble smile and held out his wooden bowl.

The bowl was large, but the woman serving porridge gave him only one ladleful.

Gu Dashan did not argue. He quickly stepped aside to let Gu Mother, second in line, receive hers.

After Gu Mother came the youngest sister, Gu Yingying. Gu Yang was last.

Keeping the two women between them would spare them much unnecessary trouble.

After receiving their porridge, the four returned to their shelter. Gu Yang squatted outside it, blowing on the steam as he raised the wooden bowl to his lips and slurped.

The porridge was thin and carried a moldy smell, but to hungry people, what they ate no longer mattered. So long as it filled their stomachs, that was enough.

Gu Yang slowly drank his porridge. When he had finished half of it, Gu Mother, as she had done over the past few days, brought him another half-bowl of thin porridge.

This was what Gu Mother and Gu Yingying had saved. The mother and daughter shared one bowl, while Gu Yang and Gu Dashan split the remaining bowl between them.

The mother and daughter would certainly not be full, but such was the custom. Gu Yang had resisted at first, but there was nothing he could do except accept it.

For now, he could only bury this touch of gratitude deep in his heart, powerless to change anything.

After finishing his porridge, under normal circumstances Gu Yang would have done as he had for the past half month: find somewhere deserted and continue to Exercise.

But today, he did not get up and instead remained squatting at the entrance.

Shortly afterward, Gu Dashan crawled out of the shelter and called Gu Yang to head for the city gate with him. Gu Mother stayed behind in the shelter to care for Gu Yingying.

Before long, the two arrived at the city gate.

After Gu Dashan explained who they were, the guards did not even charge them an entry fee and let them through directly.

This was Gu Yang's first time entering the city.

As he walked, he looked around. Everything seemed new and fascinating to Gu Yang.

Peddlers called out their wares with shoulder poles across their backs, while commoners had set up stalls along the road.

Inn and restaurant attendants stood at their doors soliciting customers, while shops selling rouge and face powder were crowded with women in long skirts.

The city and the outside are completely different worlds, Gu Yang thought. Father's decision was indeed right. If I have a chance to stay in the city, I absolutely cannot let it slip away.

Though living in a great city was no easy matter.

Still, nothing in the world was difficult for one who set one's heart on it.

Stopping and starting along the way, the two finally arrived at the main hall of the Government Civil Affairs Office.

A humble smile surfaced once more on Gu Dashan's face. Pointing at Gu Yang, he said to the clerk handling affairs, "Sir, this is my second son, Gu Yang. He has just turned fifteen this year."

"Mm." The clerk gave Gu Yang a glance, pulled out a sheet of yellow paper from a nearby shelf, wrote a string of words upon it, then picked up the seal to his right, stamped it, and handed the paper to Gu Dashan.

"Take this certificate to the Martial Academy in the city center, and your child may join the academy. But let me remind you of something: your child is already too old. Even if he enters the Martial Academy, he will probably be eliminated after three months."

"I understand, I understand." Gu Dashan smiled obsequiously as he backed away, taking Gu Yang out of the hall. Only then did he let out a long sigh.

The last time he had come here, he had already learned that Martial Academy disciples began practicing martial arts at the age of ten. There was not a single person Gu Yang's age who had joined the Martial Academy.

But so what? Having just endured the destruction of his home and fled disaster, there was a fire burning in his heart.

Why should ordinary people like them be able to do nothing but silently endure when natural disasters and human calamities struck?

Joining the Martial Academy—even if Gu Yang failed to cultivate any great skill, it would be enough if he learned a move or two and became stronger than ordinary people.

Once Gu Yang married and had children, he could teach the next generation from an early age.

Passed down generation after generation, Gu Dashan believed that one day, the Gu Family would produce a martial artist as well!

Gu Yang had no idea that Gu Dashan was already planning his marriage and children. He was silently studying the sheet of paper in Gu Dashan's hand.

The embarrassing part was that he was illiterate in this life. He did not recognize a single one of the square-shaped characters on the paper, so looking was useless.

Silently resolving that he would definitely learn to read and write when he had the chance, Gu Yang followed Gu Dashan toward the city center.

The streets grew increasingly bustling, and the clothes of the pedestrians became more and more luxurious.

At last, the two were stopped by a pair of guards before a Blue Steel Rock gate that stood a full ten meters tall. "Ahead lies the Martial Academy grounds. Unauthorized persons may not approach."

Well, there was no need to ask around. They had found the right place.

"Sir, we have business here. My second son has come to enroll in the Martial Academy." As he spoke, Gu Dashan handed over the yellow paper clenched tightly in his hand.

"Hm? You are refugees from around Mang Mountain?" One guard gave them a surprised look and asked for confirmation.

"Yes. We did not choose silver. To compensate us, the government allowed my second son to join the Martial Academy for free," Gu Dashan explained with a smile.

"Tsk..." The guard shook his head regretfully before saying, "Fine. Follow me."

After speaking, the guard gave an instruction to his colleague beside him before turning and walking into the Martial Academy.

"Yes." Gu Dashan and Gu Yang hurriedly followed him.

Two quarters of an hour later, Gu Dashan left alone.

Gu Yang's worn single-layered clothes had been replaced with a gray-white standard Martial Academy uniform. He followed a tall, thin academy instructor into a broad Training Ground.

The Training Ground stretched over two hundred zhang in every direction. Brick-and-stone walls surrounded it, while the ground was paved with slabs of blue stone.

At that moment, over a hundred disciples around ten years old, dressed in the same gray-white uniforms as Gu Yang, stood scattered in a square formation and practiced a set of Stance Training fist techniques.

Before the formation, a bald, muscular man over 1.9 meters tall and dressed in a fitted black martial uniform watched the disciples' movements and roared loudly.

"Breathe deeply—three short breaths and one long, then two long and one short. Your breathing rhythm must follow your movements, or ten parts of effort will yield at most five parts of result."

"Set your center of gravity between your legs; push, pull, draw, and lift like a roly-poly that cannot be knocked down. Have you all forgotten the stance mnemonic for the Blood Nourishing Stance?"

"Master Qin." As the two approached the bald man, the tall, thin instructor greeted him in a low voice. "This is a new disciple, Gu Yang. His family are refugees from Mang Mountain."

"Mang Mountain... I understand. You may return." After replying to the tall, thin instructor, the burly man, Qin Hu, lowered his head to look at Gu Yang. "Congratulations. You and your family made the right choice. Remember this: in this world, only through practicing martial arts can one hope to change one's fate!"

"Wait to the side first. Once I have finished teaching these little ones, I will come instruct you separately."

"Yes, Master Qin." Gu Yang respectfully replied, copying the tall, thin instructor's form of address. He walked to the open space on the right side of the Training Ground, turned to stand there, and watched the disciples in the formation practice Stance Training.

Quite a few disciples in the formation secretly glanced at him from time to time, their eyes full of curiosity. This drew repeated scoldings from Qin Hu, while Gu Yang simply answered them all with a smile.

Half an hour later, the formation dispersed for rest. Qin Hu finally walked toward Gu Yang and said, "Come with me. I will first teach you the Blood Nourishing Stance."

"Yes, Master Qin," Gu Yang replied.