Ten minutes later, Lin Sheng got off the bus and entered through the park entrance. He spotted the person he was looking for outside the ice cream shop on the right.
Shen Yan was standing with another girl. They stamped their feet to keep warm while chatting.
Both were dressed in white. One wore a tracksuit, the other a hoodie and jeans. They stood out.
"You're here early," Lin Sheng said as he walked over to greet them.
"I've been waiting for you for ages." The moment Shen Yan saw Lin Sheng, she let out a sigh of relief.
She had changed into a slightly more fitted tracksuit that day, and her hair had been cut short, just reaching her ears. She wasn't particularly pretty, but her tall, slender build gave her a youthful air.
"This is my best friend. We've been inseparable since we were little—Chen Lin." Shen Yan patted the long-haired girl beside her.
"Hello, I'm Shen Yan's classmate, Lin Sheng." He smiled politely at the girl.
"Hello." She seemed a little shy, and her voice was very soft.
"All right, let's see the money. I have something to do later, so let's split it up first." Lin Sheng reminded her.
Shen Yan didn't waste time. She immediately pulled a small waist pouch from behind her back and zipped it open.
"Last week, we made a total of 124 yuan. We're splitting it fifty-fifty, so 62 each. Sound good?" She counted out 62 yuan and placed it in Lin Sheng's hand.
"That's all?" Lin Sheng frowned.
Before, this would have been a decent amount. It was part of the money he and Shen Yan had made by renting out books at school.
"That's already a lot. It's only been a week!" Shen Yan protested.
Lin Sheng shook his head. The Steel Scale Club had just paid him his first month's regular salary all at once: 750 yuan.
With that much money, these sixty-odd yuan really didn't seem like much.
Of course, it was a lot for students.
After they split the money, Shen Yan invited Lin Sheng to walk around and get something to eat with them, but he politely declined.
He didn't go far. He found a secluded spot in Rainbow Park, picked up a wooden stick, and began practicing the basic moves.
Naxi Swordsmanship relied mainly on calculation and timing in combat, but the unfamiliar swordsmanship system he had acquired from Ravel and the mercenaries wasn't limited to that.
If he wanted to turn the muscle memory in his fragmented memories into instinct, he had to practice repeatedly and speed up the process.
After finishing a full set of basic moves, Lin Sheng sat down to rest.
Just then, a girl pushing a drinks cart came around the park path.
The cart was wrapped in white cardboard, giving it a clean, neat appearance. Various bottled drinks were piled on top.
Lin Sheng walked over and felt around in his pocket for some change.
"Give me a bottle of mineral water."
He handed her a yuan.
The girl wore a baseball cap, and her black hair fell over her shoulders. Her skin was fair, her eyes big and alluring, and she had a faintly innocent air about her.
At the sound of his voice, she quickly took a bottle of mineral water from the cart and handed it to him.
"Here."
"Thanks." Lin Sheng took the bottle and unscrewed the cap for a drink.
"Out exercising this early? You students sure have a lot of energy," the girl said with a smile.
"Not really. I woke up this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so I figured I'd come out and exercise," Lin Sheng replied casually.
"To be honest, getting up too early can be dangerous sometimes." The girl put on a mysterious expression. "A while ago, I got up early to push my cart, and I came to this park too. If I hadn't been lucky those few days, tsk, tsk..."
Lin Sheng said nothing. It was obvious she was fishing for him to ask what had happened.
But he had no interest in listening, so he deliberately pretended not to understand.
"You've heard about that robbery and murder, right? It happened by the back gate of Rainbow Park! I pass by there every day. Who would've thought something like that would happen out of nowhere?"
The girl was undeterred and kept rambling on.
"A robbery and murder?"
"Yeah. I heard they only finished cleaning up this morning and took down the police tape. Before that, they wouldn't let anyone through." The girl rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
"But you'd think that if it was a robbery, there wouldn't be so much blood if the victim cooperated. I pushed my cart past there once before. Tsk, tsk, there was blood everywhere! It felt more like torture!"
"This is near the center of the city. How come there's barely any news about something this big?" Lin Sheng frowned.
"Who knows? Maybe it was too awful, so the authorities are keeping it quiet to avoid upsetting people." The girl shook her head. "I also heard that some people nearby heard gunshots a while back."
"...Then it wasn't an ordinary case." Lin Sheng was now almost certain this wasn't a robbery and murder.
It was obviously a pretext cooked up by the authorities to draw everyone's attention elsewhere.
But that had nothing to do with him. What mattered now was focusing on training and improving himself.
Only by practicing constantly could he fully absorb the Memory Fragments and integrate them into his combat instincts, making them his own.
As for everything else, Lin Sheng could tell the government was covering something up. So what? He wasn't interested in these so-called secrets. If the authorities were hiding something, they must have their reasons.
After finishing his workout, he took the bus home again, then dug out his books and workbooks to study. The college entrance exams were approaching. The moment that would determine the course of his life was at hand.
If he kept slacking off like before, he really wouldn't be able to turn things around.
Lin Sheng began pushing himself and studying in earnest. His mature intellect, far beyond that of others his age, gave him an advantage in quite a few subjects. But there was nothing he could do about subjects that relied purely on calculations.
For those, grinding through practice problems was the only way.
Time passed amid his nonstop revision.
Soon, it was time for his weekly class at the Steel Scale Club again.
The Steel Scale Club.
Clang, clang, clang.
Lin Sheng was sparring with Madilan, only defending and not attacking. Their swords clashed again and again, the exchange lively and loud.
"My dad told me not to go wandering around for a while, especially not out in the wild," Russell said lazily from the corner.
"Same here. It's probably because of that case," Xiayin replied calmly.
"What do you think actually happened? I asked my dad, but they won't tell me. They're just keeping me in the dark," Russell asked quietly.
Xiayin shook her head. "I don't know either. Only my grandfather knows what's going on in my family, but he won't say a word about it. He just told us to be careful for a while and stay away from sparsely populated places."
"Heh, it was the same with that arson case at the port. More than a dozen shipping containers burned to the ground. It was right by the sea. How much fuel would it take to burn all those containers completely? That makes no sense."
Russell curled his lip. "Anyone with eyes can see something's wrong with that, right?"
"Whatever. It's the adults' business. We just need to look after ourselves. Don't worry about things you can't control. Get back to your sword practice, kid." Xiayin waved her hand irritably, not wanting to talk about it any longer.
"True. If I don't start putting in more effort, even Madilan's going to surpass me." Russell decided she had a point. He lowered his mask, picked up his sword, and walked toward the two who had just stopped sparring.
Lin Sheng knocked Madilan's sword aside and stepped back. Then Russell took his place.
The two of them went through the standard sword-fighting salute, tracing an X in the air before them with their blades.
"That case you were talking about just now—was it the one at Rainbow Park?" Lin Sheng suddenly asked.
Thanks again to everyone for supporting the new book, and thanks to Two Pineapples for being the first to become a patron, and to Ascension After for being the first to become a helmsman.
As for whether it's any good, you'll have to keep reading to find out. I'm sure Lao Gun won't disappoint everyone.
Of course, if it's really not your cup of tea, there's nothing I can do. I can only hope we'll meet again in the next book!
Also, I'd like to recommend a book of the same genre by Two Pineapples: Extreme Fist Monarch.
It's another rare dream-themed book, though the style is different. If you're interested, give it a try.
Before you continue