Running Away from Home · At Last, Meeting Hina

Yang Yunzhi was not the kind of transmigrator whose parents had both died. His soul had been reborn, and his memories had awakened when he was three years old, so naturally, he had parents.

And with parents, he could not join the navy without telling them.

Just as he had expected, the moment he returned home and told them his plans, they immediately began objecting.

"Why do you want to become a soldier when things are going fine? You went to a naval academy. Shouldn't you become a sailor after graduation?"

That was his father.

"Exactly. Your eldest uncle has a fishing boat. I'll talk to him later and have him arrange for you to work aboard it. How does that sound?"

That was his mother.

"Not good!" Yang Yunzhi shook his head. "I don't want to be a fisherman for the rest of my life!"

"What's wrong with being a fisherman? It's stable. Be a fisherman for two years, then get a loan in the city and buy a big house. After that, we'll find you a wife and you can have two or three children. Wouldn't that be better than being a soldier?"

Yang Yunzhi's scalp went numb at once. Marriage, children, and a mortgage? Are you trying to make my life less comfortable?

"No, no. I have to become a soldier!"

"You!" His father was instantly furious. "I... I can't talk to you!"

"I'll talk to him!" His mother took over, then looked at Yang Yunzhi. "Do you know how dangerous it is to be a soldier? You'll have to fight pirates!"

"Can't you encounter pirates while out fishing?" Yang Yunzhi asked.

His mother immediately fell silent.

"If I'm in the navy, I can fight back when I encounter pirates. If I'm a fisherman, I can only wait to die!"

Both of his parents fell silent.

That did seem to make sense!

Just because this was Eight Treasures Navy territory did not mean there were no pirates.

There were fewer of them, but fewer did not mean none. Some people simply could not survive at home, and would rather go to sea as pirates than stay in their hometowns.

And fishermen from their area had encountered pirates before.

Their child had always been strong-willed since he was young. Their family had risen from ordinary fishermen to a fairly comfortable life, even managing to send several sons and daughters to school. Most of the credit belonged to their third son.

Now that this son wanted to join the navy, it was clear that the two of them could not persuade him otherwise.

"You stay at home and don't go anywhere. I'll call your eldest uncle over!" His mother felt she could not handle this alone and needed a whole group of relatives to help persuade him.

His father was afraid he would run away, so he simply found a lock and locked his door.

Yang Yunzhi stayed in his room and sighed.

He understood his parents' way of thinking. Parents always hoped their sons could live safe, steady lives, get married, and have children.

And ordinary sons would not defy their parents, like his two older brothers and younger sister.

But he was not from this world. His active mind would not allow him to sink into the mundane world.

The path he wanted to take was destined to be different from that of ordinary people.

Of course, most importantly, he had a system!

After thinking for a moment, Yang Yunzhi found a sheet of paper in a drawer and wrote down four lines of poetry to show his resolve.

A son leaves home with lofty ambition; until he succeeds and earns his name, he swears not to return.

Why must one's bones be buried in native soil? There are green hills everywhere beneath the sky.

He weighed the paper down with a brush washer, then went to the window and opened it.

Fortunately, his room was on the first floor, with the backyard right outside.

Yang Yunzhi climbed straight out, used the wooden horse in the backyard to get over the wall, and then ran from home.

When he met fellow villagers on the road, he even greeted them politely, showing no sign whatsoever that he was running away from home.

After all, he was not carrying any luggage—everything was stored in his space.

With that, he smoothly left the village and caught a ride back to Golden City.

He entrusted the house he had bought to Little Black's care. To keep his parents from knowing where he had gone, he also had Little Black buy him a ticket for a ship bound for the Neighboring Country. The ship departed that afternoon.

By the time his father called him to dinner that evening, he was already drifting across the sea.

Only his father remained, looking at the poem in his hand and sighing.

He had long felt that his child was no ordinary person. After all, what child had been so intelligent from such a young age?

He had thought Yang Yunzhi would settle down after failing to make it in martial arts, but who would have thought that he would leave in the end?

From Flower Country to Grass Country, from Grass Country to Cloud Country, from Cloud Country to Pillar Country, and then from Pillar Country to Gem Country.

The twelve-day journey was fairly peaceful. There was no cliché of the protagonist encountering pirates the moment he set out to sea.

This region was Eight Treasures Navy territory, and Green Pepper's reputation was well known. Unless necessary, ordinary pirates would not cause trouble here.

Glazed Town was in Gem Country, but there were no tickets sold for ships going there. He could only catch a passing fishing boat by the shore, and that cost money too.

Fortunately, Yang Yunzhi was not short on money, and after another day of travel—

On the afternoon of the thirteenth day, he finally set foot on the ground of Glazed Town.

Glazed Town was not large, and because of that, the sprawling naval base was especially conspicuous. Yang Yunzhi had spotted it before even getting off the boat.

Naturally, he did not need anyone to guide him. He made his way to the gates of the naval base himself, where two guards stopped him.

"Stop. What are you here for?"

"I'm here to enlist!" Yang Yunzhi said.

"Enlist?" The marine carefully looked Yang Yunzhi over, then burst out laughing. "With your soft, delicate build, you want to join the navy?"

Yang Yunzhi did not want to waste time arguing with two gatekeepers. Losing an argument would leave him irritated, while winning would accomplish nothing. They might even badmouth him to their superiors.

So he directly pulled out one thousand Beli from his pocket and discreetly handed it to them. "Brothers, could you make things convenient for me?"

Perhaps Hina's rule was not strict enough, or perhaps she had only been here for two months and had yet to take control of the situation. In any case, the moment the Beli appeared, the expressions on both men's faces changed.

The one who had mocked Yang Yunzhi became friendly, while the other, who had been standing by indifferently, began smiling too.

"Ah, brother, you want to enlist, right? They're recruiting up there. I'll take you in right away. But your build is really too weak. Whether you can get selected is hard to say!"

"I have to give it a try!" Yang Yunzhi had not expected that even becoming the most basic sort of marine required meeting physical standards. That made no sense at all!

After all, weren't there plenty of rank-and-file marines in naval bases? Don't tell me I can't even qualify as a grunt?

"Oh, right. My name's Ryan. What should I call you, brother?"

"Rick!" Yang Yunzhi said.

He planned to enlist under a false name. Otherwise, if he gained fame and pirates came after his family in retaliation, what then?

Wasn't that how Zephyr's family had died?

Of course, he could still give his real name if necessary. If Hina wanted to know, he would tell her.

"Brother Rick, you really came at an unfortunate time. The higher-ups sent over a female major, and she runs a tight ship!" Ryan draped an arm over Yang Yunzhi's shoulder. "Before, we could get up at ten in the morning and sleep at midnight. If we had money, we could even go into town for drinks and women. But once that major arrived, she banned it all. Forget drinks and women—we can't even leave the gates now!"

"Aren't you standing guard outside the gates?"

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Does that count as leaving? Isn't that just standing around like a corpse?"

Then he added, "Still, you're lucky too. That major has high standards for recruits. Before, someone like you would have been accepted, but not anymore. If you want to enlist, you have to run five laps around the field first, then do two hundred push-ups!"

"That hard?" Yang Yunzhi frowned at once. Since he had not yet joined the navy, he had not received the system's reward of basic strength.

Without the system reward, running five laps around the field really did not seem easy.

He did not know how big this field was, either.

But with a test like this, could it still be called luck?

Once they went around a row of buildings and Yang Yunzhi saw the so-called field, his vision went dark.

What kind of field was this? It was clearly a plaza!

What school field had a track that was not four hundred meters? This one looked like it was at least a thousand meters!

At that moment, eight people were running around the field. Outside it, seven or eight marines surrounded a female marine and watched the eight runners.

The female marine was nearly 1.9 meters tall, with pink hair, stunning looks, and a dashing, heroic air.

When she saw Ryan bring Yang Yunzhi over, she said nothing. She merely flicked her hand casually, and Ryan pushed Yang Yunzhi onto the field.

"What are you doing?"

"Running laps. Five laps!"

Yang Yunzhi was speechless, but he started running anyway.

He knew he would not be able to finish, but he could not give up without even trying. That would make everyone look down on him.

Even if he wanted to negotiate terms with Hina, he first had to show his determination!