Time and Days

A sturdy young man with slightly dark skin was pushing a wheelbarrow loaded with horse manure out of the military camp.

Over the past month, Chen Mo had eaten quite a bit more, and with the extra income from selling manure on the side, he could afford to buy meat every few days.

As a result, his physique was noticeably stronger than when he first started shoveling manure. The two-hundred-jin wheelbarrow moved easily in his hands, showing no strain at all.

"Let's pick up the pace. If we move faster today, we might even have time to check out the market," Chen Mo called out to Ding Bao, who was pushing a cart alongside him.

Shoveling and hauling manure was grueling work, so ever since Chen Mo could manage the cart, the three of them had taken turns resting.

The soldiers guarding the gate were long used to them, waving them off with a hand over their noses to hurry them along.

After pushing the cart over ten li down the road, an old man in hemp clothes appeared by the roadside, holding a scale and carrying a basket on his back.

He was the manure buyer—the one they'd been selling their horse manure to on the sly all this time.

"Old man, hurry it up," Chen Mo said, stopping the cart and urging him on as he noticed the old man's slow movements.

The old man nodded in agreement, but his pace didn't quicken much.

"Forty-four jin and seven liang. I'll round it up to forty-five jin. Fifty coppers, how about that?" The old man raised his scale, examined it carefully, and then spoke.

"Deal." Chen Mo nodded in satisfaction, having no issue with the price.

Though walking another dozen li to sell the manure directly to farmers would fetch a higher price, the risk of getting caught was too great.

Trading with this man was all about safety and peace of mind.

The old man wouldn't rat them out either, because with a steady supply of horse manure, he could make a tidy profit each month.

Taking the copper coins the old man handed over, Chen Mo counted them in front of him before tucking them into his own purse.

After the transaction, they nodded to each other, and Chen Mo continued pushing the cart along the main road.

"Mo-ge, when General Sun picks his personal guards, do you think we'll have a shot?" Ding Bao asked, pushing his cart and striking up a conversation.

Ever since Chen Mo came up with the idea a month ago to confess their manure-selling scheme to He Ma Guan, the two of them, while not entirely won over, had grown to respect him and often sought his opinion on things.

As for the matter of the personal guards, Chen Mo had only decided to tell Ding Bao after discussing it with Ma Cai.

Keeping it from him forever wasn't feasible.

If Ding Bao found out they'd been hiding it, it would only sour their relationship.

Ma Cai had connections, but Chen Mo didn't. If he got selected as a personal guard and left, he'd still have to deal with Ding Bao afterward.

"Who knows? There's no set rule yet. Let's just focus on feeding the horses," Chen Mo replied casually.

The Mortal Transformation Pearl in his belly had already accumulated nearly seventy percent of its blood energy. He just hoped the selection for personal guards would come a little later.

Though he didn't know the exact criteria, as long as he could complete his first Mortal Transformation and gain some strength, he should be able to make the cut.

The two of them left the main road, crossed a narrow country path, and arrived at a military camp.

Calling it a camp was generous—it looked more like an estate.

The three hundred acres of land belonging to the commandant were all farmed by the soldiers stationed here.

The harvest naturally went entirely to the commandant. The soldiers who worked the fields were lucky to get a full meal—it wasn't much different from selling themselves into slavery.

After dumping their two carts of manure by the pile, the two pushed their empty carts away.

Walking another three or four li, they reached a market that was just about to wrap up.

For a single copper coin, they paid someone to watch their carts and started wandering around.

Chen Mo had a clear goal: eat meat.

A flatbread weighing over a jin, wrapped with half a jin of saucy meat—Chen Mo wolfed down most of it in just a few bites.

Feeding horses and shoveling manure was physically draining, and on top of that, he had to supply blood energy to the Mortal Transformation Pearl. His appetite was far greater than an ordinary person's.

Pulling copper coins from his pocket to pay the stall owner, he finished the remaining half of his rolled bread and then bought a jin of white sugar and half a jin of pork head meat for He Ma Guan.

This had been arranged before they left, and the money had been given to him in advance.

After making those purchases, he retrieved his wheelbarrow. A moment later, Ding Bao returned with a red face.

"Let's go." Chen Mo wasn't surprised at all, knowing the other man had stopped by the little wine stall again.

By the time they got back to camp, the sun was already slanting westward.

Walking into the shed where steamed cornbread was kept, Chen Mo lifted the lid of the pot to reveal thirteen or fourteen steaming cornbreads.

He wasn't the only one sneaking horse feed—everyone did it, just not as much as him.

Chen Mo ate two to settle his stomach and saved the rest for a late-night snack.

There was still the mess hall meal later, so eating too much now wouldn't be wise.

As horse keepers, they got five coarse-grain cornbreads and a big bowl of vegetable stew per meal, while the other soldiers only got three.

As for the commandant's personal guards, they not only ate fine grains every day and didn't have to do any rough camp labor, but even their clothes were washed for them. They received monthly pay.

And every ten days, they got a day off, half a jin of wine, and a jin of meat.

That was just the treatment for the commandant's personal guards. It was easy to imagine that General Sun's personal guards would have it even better.

"Mo-ge!" Ma Cai called out loudly as he came back from the mess hall carrying their meals.

"What's up?" Chen Mo wiped the table and asked.

"Did you see the notice posted in camp? In another month, General Sun is recruiting personal guards right here in our camp." Ma Cai's rugged face was full of excitement.

He had joined the army precisely to wait for this opportunity, and now it had finally arrived.

"Did it say how they'll pick?" Chen Mo pressed.

With a month left, as long as nothing went wrong, he was sure he could accumulate enough blood and qi to undergo his first Mortal Transformation.

"It didn't say, but I figure it's probably lifting stones to test strength." Ma Cai's tone was confident.

To pick personal guards from a bunch of raw recruits who'd only done odd jobs and barely trained, they definitely wouldn't test military skills like riding or archery.

It should just be a test of physical strength to gauge their foundation; if the foundation was good enough, everything else could be trained slowly.

"We'll see when the time comes. Who knows if we brothers can make the cut," Chen Mo replied.

A month from now was neither far nor near; the most important thing was to eat well and stock up on blood and qi.

"I think I can do it." Ma Cai smiled confidently. The reason he'd dared to enlist was that he was definitely sturdy, and among the three of them, he had the most strength.

Chen Mo smiled and said no more. He skewered four cornbread buns with chopsticks, picked up the white sugar and pork head he'd bought, and headed off to deliver them to Master He.

"Master He." Chen Mo pushed open the door and entered the barracks.

Master He was tidying up the brushes used for grooming horses. Warhorses needed frequent brushing every few days or after being ridden.

Most of the time, no water was used—just the brush to scrub off dust and mud.

Brushing horses was a labor-intensive task that also required experience. Warhorses were spirited, and among the grooms, only Master He could handle the brushing.

"Here's the meat and sugar, and I brought your cornbread for dinner too."

Chen Mo placed the purchased items one by one on the table, then pulled three coppers from his bosom.

"The pork head was sold cheap at the end, so there were three coppers left over."

After explaining where the money came from, he took out another twenty-six coppers and set them on the table.

"The manure sold for fifty coppers. This share is yours."

Master He swept his eyes over the coppers on the table and couldn't help but smile.

He'd asked others to buy things for him before, but they'd either occasionally mess up or forget, or shortchange him on weight.

Only Chen Mo had never shortchanged him, and even when the price of goods changed, he never pocketed a single coin.

"You know about General Sun recruiting personal guards, right?" He slowly gathered the coppers from the table and asked.