Chapter 33

Chapter 33:  Fierce Little Wolf Cubs!

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

 

 

Qilong and Luo Lang, upon receiving the hint in Ling Lan’s eyes, glanced at each other before immediately taking action.  Qilong’s speed was a little faster than Luo Lang’s and he was the first to arrive in front of the examiner, his fist angrily punching towards him.

The punch had a great force sunk into it, it caused the air around it to explode.  Upon hearing this, the color of the examiner’s face began to change as he rose his hand to block.  He felt that the area he used to block the attack begin to sting.  To think this little guy’s strength and speed had actually managed to increase to a new degree…The examiner realized that Qilong belonged to the kind of people who were easily hyped.  Upon seeing the effort filled performance of the other small partners, he had become more excited.

The examiner didn’t have a chance to adjust tactics and repel Qilong when at the other side, Luo Lang’s attack was already in sight — a leg whip.  

Luo Lang was clear that his strength wasn’t that great.  The force in his fists were simply no threat to the examiner.  So this time he changed his attack and used his right leg to fiercely sweep at the man.

Luo Lang’s decision was, without a doubt, correct.  Upon seeing this fierce kick, the examiner had to admit, he miscalculated.  He originally considered Luo Lang as the weakest and least threatening; however, he, too, managed to act his role, causing the examiner to consume some of his focus to block him.

The examiner felt helpless.  How come these children weren’t like six year olds at all – isn’t being rash quite a good thing?  Why were they so smart and knew how to change attacks?

He had no choice but to use his other hand, forming a grappling posture with the intent of capturing Luo Lang’s fierce kick.  He tried to forcefully repel Luo Lang away…

Damnit!

The examiner felt crisis emanating from below and quickly released the hand that had seized Luo Lang’s ankle before rapidly backing up.  

Saying it was slow but reality was fast.  Ling Lan’s attack came from below — Hidden swing kick¹!  He didn’t know when, but Ling Lan had already arrived beneath him.  He only saw her body half squatting, her hands pressed against the ground as her right foot swung upwards.

That direction…was definitely the place where men were most afraid of being injured at.

Thankfully the examiner became aware in time and managed to escape Ling Lan’s terrifying kick.

He, how cruel ah!

Upon landing, the examiner’s heart felt cold, his lower body beginning to twitch.  He saw Ling Lan standing up straight with a blank expression as she swept her gaze at his lower body, her gaze seemed to be a little sorry.  This made the examiner unconsciously back up another three steps in order to create some distance between him and the three kids before feeling a little more secure.

The examiner couldn’t help being afraid.  Just looking at the strength of that kick, if it really landed, he would never have any offspring².  The examiner felt a bit of regret, why did he have to be so curious?  He had become excited upon seeing prey³ and wanted to tease these children, but he didn’t expect that he’d end up kicking an iron board.  

How are these just a bunch of cute dolls ah; they were simply fierce little wolf cubs wearing sheepskin ah.  The examiner’s face was full of tears.

However — he liked it! (TL: goddamn he’s an M, a big fat M)

The examiner looked at the three children with different expressions in front of him.  Be they crazy (Qilong), or angry (Luo Lang), or calm (Ling Lan), no matter what, they couldn’t hide their unyielding and fierce nature.  The smile on his mouth became even more intense.  No soldier, upon seeing the future’s good seedlings, wouldn’t be delighted.  

“Haha, this time 072 examiner’s in pretty big trouble.”  The monitoring officer, upon watching to this point, couldn’t help but laugh softly.  How could he not notice the embarrassment that the examiner just went through?

The lieutenant who had passed by for an inspection accidentally heard this and took a closer look.  Upon seeing that it was the officer who had just reported on room 072, his initial anger died down.  After all, it was because of him that he received the news on Major General Ling Xiao’s son.  He whispered in warning:  “Quiet, what are you being noisy for?”

The monitoring officer looked up to see the lieutenant and stood up with a smiling face.  After saluting, he whispered his report:  “Sir, please take a look.  There’s something wrong here.”  He pointed at the screen, indicating to the lieutenant to come closer and look.

The lieutenant looked at him suspiciously before slightly bending over.  Within the screen, he saw three little kids attack at almost the same time.  One attacked above, one engaged below, while the third stuck a needle in the gap⁴.  Although the actions of the three children were a bit immature, but they had tacit understanding.  This caused the examiner to temporarily have no solutions to deal with them.

“Strange.  What is the 072 examiner doing?  He just has to knock them down and it’ll be fine.”  The lieutenant couldn’t understand.  In his mental preconception, it should be easy for the examiner to deal with two or three little kids.  

“Sir, please take a closer look to this child’s movements.”  Because the monitoring officer had watched for a longer period, he managed to see the problem.  

The lieutenant knew that the monitoring officer wouldn’t talk nonsense, so he watched intently.  

And within room 072, the more Ling Lan fought, the more smooth her movements became.  The originally somewhat disconnected consciousness and body began to unify.  Her hand and foot movements had been delayed for a moment, causing her to miss the opportunity to pummel the examiner.  However, after fighting for a bit, she felt her body becoming more nimble and merge with her consciousness.  

Of course, when Ling Lan began to feel better, the examiner became more uncomfortable.  Initially, he still had some leeway; however, gradually he found it hard to hold back.  If he didn’t fully concentrate on dealing with Ling Lan and the other’s attacks, Ling Lan would likely be able to land a hit on him.

After fighting to this point, the examiner understood what these children were aiming for.  They wanted to take advantage of when he couldn’t properly defend and use either fists or feet to leave a mark on his body.  They really were a group of little kids who loved to hate…the examiner thought helplessly.  He didn’t expect that just a single joke would cause them to not give up until they’d completed their objective.

The examiner had no choice but to whittle down their energy.  Was it even possible for him to be ruthless and injure them?  Even if the military didn’t punish him, he was honestly reluctant, ah.  The three children in front of him were such good seedlings ah.

The examiner wasn’t in a hurry, his patience was very good.  Veterans who managed to return alive from the battlefield had absolutely no shortage of patience.  Otherwise they wouldn’t be able to survive.  These children had already consumed their energy to begin with and he was sure it wouldn’t be long before they’d collapse from the lack of physical strength.  At that time, they’d no longer be able to pull out any more tricks.  

Sure enough, just as the examiner expected – Ling Lan and the other two really couldn’t support any longer.  Luo Lang was the first to exhaust his physical strength and was seized and thrown out by the examiner.  He fell into the middle of the other children, no longer able to stand up.  Of course, the examiner used qiaojin⁵ – Luo Lang’s body wasn’t injured, he was just exhausted to the point of collapse.

Thus in the confrontation with the examiner, only two people remained – Qilong and Ling Lan.  Without Luo Lang’s cover, Ling Lan’s sneak attacks lost it’s usefulness.  Seeing this, Ling Lan let go of this course of action and began taking out and using the basic fighting techniques she learned from the learning space.  

Ling Lan didn’t forget what No. 1 said; the things that she learned had to be used in actual situations.  Of course, the best would be actual combat.  Although fighting with the examiner didn’t have the same effect as a real battle, it was still an opportunity to practice.  Ling Lan didn’t want to miss it.  

Coupled with fighting for so long, Ling Lan understood that the examiner wouldn’t hurt them.  This was also why she began boldly attacking.  Since the examiner could only be on the defensive, if she didn’t grab this opportunity to practice her techniques, then when should she?

On her side, Ling Lan became more vicious while on the other side, Qilong also began to act up fiercely.  Qilong was an eccentric child.  He didn’t like to think and had a carefree personality, but it didn’t change the fact that he had a very strong instinct.  His instinct allowed for him to choose the most suitable approach.  When Ling Lan became fierce, Qilong instinctively felt that such an action was correct and began to follow suit.  

The two of them attacked like crazy, causing the examiner to unexpectedly be at a disadvantage.  In the eyes of outsiders, he looked as if he could only parry without any counterattack ability.  

The onlooking children chaotically cheered on Qilong and Ling Lan.  Only Han Jijun and Luo Lang, who finally managed to struggle into a sitting position, appeared serious.  They didn’t think that this attack by Qilong and Ling Lan had any use against the examiner.  

—

Translated by somnious, unedited

TL’s note:  Ai!  The way the author writes fights always gets my blood pumping!  They only get better, honestly – especially when it gets to mecha fights.

Tomorrow I might not be able to post any more updates due to personal reasons, so please see these three earlier chapters as my apologies for not updating.

¹ 撩阴脚 (liāo yīn jiǎo):  It’s a kick intended to crush the opponent’s crotch with the foot.  Thank you all knowing Baidu…

² 断子绝孙 (duànzǐjuésūn):  ‘Break seed, cut off son’…lmao…it’s what it means…

³ 见猎心喜(Jiàn liè xīn xǐ):  (lit.) seeing others go hunting, one is excited by memories of the thrill of the hunt (idiom); the translation is ‘upon seeing prey, happy’.

⁴ 见缝插针 (Jiànfèngchāzhēn):  lit. to see a gap and stick in a needle (idiom).  Technically the figurative meaning is ‘to make use of every second and every inch’, but in Ling Lan’s case…she’s literally the needle that’s sticking the crotch*cough* uh gap…

⁵ 巧劲 (qiǎojìn):  It’s apparently a taichi thing that means the clever use of energy (trained energy).

 

Chapter 32

Chapter 32:  Ling Lan Makes Her Move!

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

 

 

Qilong’s punch fell empty as the examiner flashed sideways of his attack.  This caused the punch to directly land on the ground, causing the dust cloud.

However, upon seeing that three inch deep and meter wide shallow crater, Ling Lan knew that the power Qilong used to attack was definitely not weaker than the power she used to lift 500 jin during the exam.

She didn’t expect that Qilong was able to rely on his own ability to reach 500 jin of power.  This result was obviously more pure and natural than Ling Lan who used the cheat-like Yangshen Qijue to obtain.

Pleasant surprise flashed through the examiner’s eyes.  Perhaps, he too didn’t expect Qilong to have such a great force.  Of course to him, this power wasn’t really that much, but Qilong was still a six year old child.  When Qilong grew up, there would be no doubt that this force would be even greater.

Missing his attack didn’t stop Qilong’s offensive momentum.  He once again jumped up from the ground, viciously charging towards the examiner.  

Unfortunately, even though Qilong had speed and strength, because his fighting skills were still immature, he was full of openings.  As a result, the examiner felt no pressure.  If Qilong had been an enemy on the battlefield, the examiner could easily one hit kill him.

The dust that had clouded the air finally dissipated and the crowd could finally see the examiner and Qilong’s fight.  They saw that the examiner was only using one hand to parry all of Qilong’s attacks.

Luo Lang whispered to Ling Lan:  “I’m going to help Qilong.  Pummeling him will rely on you.”  Upon finishing his words, he didn’t wait for Ling Lan to speak and rushed towards the examiner, utilizing his entire body’s strength and aimed a fist at the examiner’s face.

Luo Lang’s attack forced the examiner to use his other hand.  His body, which had originally been mostly standing still, began to move.  The three people were extremely submerged in the fight.  

Although Luo Lang’s voice was very light, the children around them still heard it.  Their originally wavering bodies stabilized at once.  Faces full of expectation turned towards Ling Lan, hoping that he can, like Luo Lang said, pummel the examiner.

Alright, the examiner’s words had already stirred the hatred within these children to a peak, and the hatred wasn’t low.  Thus the group collectively wanted to beat him in order to vent their anger.

Because of Qilong’s attack, Han Jijun managed to restore his calm and realized that Ling Lan was the only one within the group that was standing firmly.  That position, although somewhat weird, was surprisingly pleasing and natural to the eye.  It made the viewer think that this was how it should be.  Although he didn’t know what that posture was, but he knew that it certainly was a formidable fighting technique.

The children’s expectation felt like a mountainous pressure upon Ling Lan.  She couldn’t endure their enthusiastic eyes, and turned her head towards the area where the three people were fighting.  With an embarrassed face, she thought despondently:  Why did everyone think she could beat the examiner?  Could it be that they all knew she had a learning space?

Of course, Ling Lan knew that was impossible.  The reason why these children had put their hopes onto her was because, out of all of them, only she could move.  The one that could succeed in hitting the examiner had to be the best of them; if they fail…alright, they originally didn’t have any expectations.  They were gambling on a blind cat coming across a dead mouse super luck.  

Over there, the moment the examiner exchanged blows with Luo Lang, he knew the kid’s bottom line.  His strength wasn’t anywhere close to Qilong’s, but it still wasn’t bad.  He probably had a hundred jin of power there.  However, his physical quality was a bit worse.  With Qilong’s fighting, the more he fought, the more vicious he became.  As for Luo Lang, after a few attacks, his breath had already become unsteady.

Nevertheless, the examiner knew that a situation like Qilong was already extremely difficult to see.  The boy managed to break through his own limits and release his full potential.  In his many years, he hadn’t seen this kind of breakthrough that only relied one’s own ability and not drugs before.  It could only be said, Qilong was blessed.

Suddenly, a chill penetrated his bones.  The highly battle experienced him managed to instantly sense danger.  He didn’t stop to think and forcefully jumped backwards, his body borrowing this momentum to jump back another two steps…

But, he was too late!  In front of him, a white and tender little fist appeared.  In the next second, it was about to land on his face.

The examiner, after all, was the examiner.  In the nick of time, his arms crossed into a ten character (十) and successfully stopped this cute looking fist that was full of killing intent.

A ‘pa’ noise was heard as the two people met.  The examiner only felt a huge force pushing forwards and his originally unstable body, because of this force, was forced back by another several steps.

And Ling Lan, employing the force caused by their collision, flipped backwards like a sparrow before landing firmly in the middle of Qilong and Luo Lang.  She continued to maintain the posture from the fighting technique, preparing for the next attack.

The examiner’s originally joking eyes suddenly became serious.  Upon seeing Ling Lan, who was standing in the middle, his back became covered in cold sweat.  He didn’t expect that such a powerful kid was hidden within this group of children.  Not only that, he knew how to hide his killing intent and until waited until the final moment to reveal his fangs.

If it weren’t for the fact that he had undergone countless battlefields and accumulated large amounts of fighting experience – allowing himself to adjust himself quickly – the hit from a moment ago would definitely have landed.  It wouldn’t likely be life threatening, but for sure he’d greatly lose face.

He cursed angrily in secret.  How could such an evildoer appear?  On the outside he appeared very soft and weak.  His delicate face hung a dumbfounded expression; no matter how one looked, he appeared like a cute and naive child without any lethality.  Certainly, he had always felt that this child was a little strange, but because of the sudden appearance of Qilong, his attention became completely focused on the other boy and ignored him.

He never would have thought, the child that he ignored would be the one to almost cause him to capsize in the gutter¹.

Ling Lan’s full effort performance was a pleasant surprise to the other children.  They didn’t expect that Ling Lan’s single punch managed to knock the examiner back by a few steps.  Could their hopes really be realized?

Han Xuya was the kind of passionate extroverted girl who wore her heart on her sleeve.  Upon seeing this, she immediately shouted:  “Ling Lan, beat him! Beat him!”  This full effort scene caused her fatigue to disappear instantly.

Luo Chao was an introverted and shy girl.  She exposed a surprised but shy smile, her eyes sparkling with a bit of admiration as she watched the thin figure that stood besides her brother.  Although he couldn’t compare to her brother’s or the other person’s robustness, but in her eyes, he wasn’t worse than her brother and the other kid.  In fact, he made people feel that he was even more reliable.

Ling Lan was unaware that she had unconsciously hooked a pure and young girl’s heart full of love – wrongly attaching a lingering affection onto herself, she really sinned ah!

In the control room, the officer in charge of monitoring room 72, out of boredom, flipped the screen back to Ling Lan’s room again.  What met his eyes were two vigilant sides in mutual confrontation.  The atmosphere definitely couldn’t be considered good.  He froze on the spot in shock, his mind going:  What was going on?

The highly curious him fixed the monitor onto room 72 and opened a small window in the screen below, letting the other nine rooms rotate there for him to monitor.  

Ling Lan’s eyes indicated Qilong and Luo Lang to attack first.  Ling Lan knew that if she took the initiative to attack, she wasn’t enough to deal with the examiner.  

Although Ling Lan followed No. 9 and learned basic fighting and often sparred with No. 9, it was still, after all, mental training and had its differences from real life.  In that single attack, Ling Lan became aware of the fact that her real body couldn’t keep up with her consciousness.  Otherwise, the examiner wouldn’t have the chance to get away.

—

Translated by somnious, unedited

TL’s Note:  Happy early Thanksgiving!  I might not be able to get out that many chapters this week due to going out with friends, but I’ll try getting as many done as I can!

¹阴沟里翻船 (yīngōu lǐ fānchuán):  idiom ‘to capsize in the gutter’ means to fail miserably in a very easy task, usually due to underestimating the other party.

Chapter 31

Chapter 31: The Weak Don’t Have the Power to Speak.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

 

 

“Why?  Do you guys have the qualifications to ask this?”  The examiner sneered.

Han Jijun didn’t panic over the examiner’s question; rather, he calmly explained:  “Isn’t the exam over?  Didn’t you state it at the start – once we reach the end, it means that the speed and endurance test is complete.  We have the right to refuse your command.”

Han Jijun knew that everyone was at the very end of their ropes.  For a few of the kids, even something as simple as standing up was done out of sheer will.  Don’t just say attacking the examiner – even taking a single step would be impossible.

The examiner looked at Han Jijun, admiration flashing quickly through his eyes.  This child was calm and decisive.  He wasn’t willing to give up on his ideas just because the other person was stronger.  He knew how to argue and his analysis ability was very strong.  His thoughts were clearly organized and was good at capturing the key point of things, detecting the loopholes in words.  This kid was definitely a good military advisor seedling.

However, no matter how much he admired Han Jijun, he would not change his decision.  His mouth carried a hint of a sarcastic smile:  “Brat.  Today, this¹ examiner will let you guys know a truth that you must understand if you want to mix in this world — the weak don’t have the power to speak.”

He sternly swept his gaze over these kids that had been enraged by his words.  The ten pairs of unyielding eyes full of barely restrained violence made him feel very satisfied.  If they didn’t have even a little bit of guts, they were probably spoiled to waste by their parents.

When the examiner’s eager observation fell on Ling Lan, he was taken aback.  Ling Lan’s eyes were the calmest of the ten, as still as stagnant water, making it difficult for people to see past the surface.  Was he scared?  Or did he already see through him?  Or was he simply indifferent?  The examiner’s brow wrinkled slightly and thoughtfully glanced at Ling Lan a few times.

The examiner couldn’t know that the killing aura that saturated his entire body had no effect on Ling Lan.  She had grown up under No. 1’s formidable oppression; this kind of shallow threat didn’t cause Ling Lan to feel that much pressure.

“You are all free to reject my command; however, your speed and endurance scores, sorry, won’t be high enough for you to pass.”  The examiner withdrew his curiosity towards Ling Lan and changed his expression, his killing aura becoming subdued.  Instead, he grinned evilly, as if the killing aura from before was just an illusion.  His mouth spoke cruel words that destroyed the children’s hope.

This sentence caused Ling Lan and the group’s expressions to turn extremely ugly.  They had come with the sure confidence of entering the best scout academy, not to return home with the shame of being unable to pass.

“We have the right to make a complaint.”  Han Jijun’s young face was extremely cold.  He was an intelligent child, but no matter how intelligent, he had no idea how to deal with this kind of unreasonable soldier.  He felt a kind of rage bloom in his chest; for the first time, he felt the anger and resentment of being weak.

“NO! NO! NO!²  Did you kids not see the examinee criteria?  Children who make a complaint will have their grades from this year canceled.  Could it be that you want to wait to next year to test again?”  The examiner smiled and shook his head as he slowly walked in front of Han Jijun.  He bent slightly over, his eyes holding ridicule with a bit of play as he stared at the angry boy.  Slowly, he spoke word by word, “Clever year repeaters!”

This demeanor, these words, the absolute contempt in that stare – it really put people in a bad mood.  Ya de, this examiner really made people want to pummel him.

Made people want to pummel him?  A bunch of black lines appeared on Ling Lan’s face and, promptly, she yelled into her sea of consciousness:  “Xiao Si, you dare trespass again?”

Xiao Si finally wiggled himself out of a corner with an unhappy face.  His cute little face was crumpled into a ball, transforming from a cute bun to a soup dumpling.  He pouted in dissatisfaction:  “He’s too hateful, he dares to bully little kids!”

Alright, Ling Lan hadn’t been angered yet and was hanging out in her mind.  Only Xiao Si, with his five to six year old mentality, was riled up by the examiner:  “Master, help me beat him.”

Ling Lan’s mouth exposed a smile:  “Benefits?”

Xiao Si was bewildered; he didn’t expect comrade Ling Lan to actually seize the opportunity to make a request.  Did she not know that he was angry for her sake?

“Why?”  Xiao Si felt wronged.  Why wasn’t his host angry?

“You said it – you want me to help you pummel him.  Since it’s help, of course there needs to be a benefit.”  Ling Lan’s smiling face made Xiao Si feel that there wasn’t that much difference between Ling Lan and the examiner outside – they only knew how to bully little kids.  

“He’s bullying you, why aren’t you angry?”  Xiao Si couldn’t understand.  Even he was upset over the way the examiner was bullying people.  How could Ling Lan be so calm?

“Bullying?  I don’t feel it’s like that.”  She certainly didn’t understand the reason for the examiner’s actions; however, she couldn’t feel any malice from his posture.

Ling Lan was really grateful for No. 1 and No. 9’s oppression in these past years.  It allowed her to gain this vague ability that wasn’t like an ability and allowed her to become capable of somewhat sensing the malicious and murderous intent of others towards herself.  Of course, according to mentor No. 1’s words, Ling Lan’s ability was only at the beginning phase.  It didn’t have much use – in truth, it was really quite a waste.  If she encountered some powerful experts or killers, Ling Lan wouldn’t be able to feel anything before she ceased to exist.

Ling Lan’s words caused Xiao Si to immediately jump up and down.  His host couldn’t be super dimwitted could she?  She already had her face stepped on, yet said that she didn’t feel it.

Ling Lan was just about to comfort Xiao Si when the color in her face suddenly changed.  Outside, she felt that the atmosphere around Qilong didn’t feel right.  His spiritual power actually began violently act up.

“Help me find a solution to the test that mentor No. 1 will give in three days!”  Ling Lan directly threw down her request and ignored Xiao Si’s protest before rushing out of the sea of consciousness.  There was something wrong about Qilong’s situation, she had to be careful.

Ling Lan’s mental state at the moment was tightly coiled.  Her body leaned slightly forwards, her hands were minutely bent downwards – one above and one below, appearing like a cross shape.  Her right leg shifted backwards, the tip of foot tapping the ground — this was a posture that allowed her to easily erupt her body’s full degree of force.  This was one of the basic boxing skills that she had learned from No. 9 this year – it could attack and defend.

At this time, the Qilong’s originally lowered head suddenly looked up.  What appeared in front of everyone was his pair of red eyes, full of killing intent.  However, this murderous intent was only towards the examiner; it seemed that the examiner’s choice to play around with Han Jijun enraged Qilong and caused him to explode.

The examiner felt Qilong’s full body killing intent, a touch of surprise flashing through his eyes.  He jumped back suddenly.  At the moment of landing, he had already adjusted his aura and posture, his gaze filing with strong concentration.  

Qilong let out a shout and rushed up like a projectile, he smashed at the examiner fiercely with his tightly clenched fist.  Everyone heard a loud ‘peng’ noise that caused a giant cloud of dust, nearly blocking their view.  

Could it be that Qilong managed to hit the examiner?  And caused the examiner to viciously fall to the ground?  Because the other children couldn’t see clearly, they looked at each other in confusion, not knowing what to do.

Only Ling Lan’s face turned grim as her eyebrows rose slightly.  Because other people couldn’t see the situation on the field, they didn’t know what happened.  Ling Lan, however, saw it clearly.  With the help of Xiao Si, she could perfectly see Qilong and the examiner’s actions, her view wouldn’t be affected by the dirt cloud.

—

Translated by somnious, unedited

TL’s Note:  I went back and edited the previous chapters!  I’ve also changed Yangshen Cultivation from the various different versions to the Chinese pinyin, ‘Yangshen Qijue’.

¹ 本 (běn): He uses an arrogant/higher/more formal way of addressing himself.

² These three ‘nos’ were initially in English lol.

Chapter 30

Chapter 30: I command you to attack me!

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

 

 

The teahouse and the area opposite to it was a lustrous silver white.  Within the imposing and extensively magnificent structure was a single channel.  The endless silver white walls, in truth, had countless electronic doors that couldn’t be identified with the naked eye.  Those doors were the main entrances to the virtual environment mechanism.  It was open to the Federation’s occupational soldiers for the sake of virtual training and fighting.

The entrance that Ling Lan and the others had gone through was actually the back door of the virtual environment mechanism.  Working together with the Scout Academy, it’s outside had been camouflaged into a giant field.  This was how Ling Lan was tricked; after all, who would think that such an advanced and niubi¹ virtual environment technology would be utilized for the sake of the Scout Academy.  This emphasized the Federation’s importance towards children as well as the state’s thirst for talent.

Of course, the use of the virtual environment mechanism wasn’t just meant for the convenience of the Scout Academy’s exams.  In the future,  the improvement of the abilities of these children couldn’t do without the support of virtual environment technology.

The examiner walked for a bit along the silver white wall.  To be honest, if he didn’t use the signals set on his contact device, he himself wouldn’t know which direction room 72 was.  This was because the electronic doors merged completely into the continuous wall, becoming a whole.

After some time, the examiner felt the contact device on his wrist vibrate.  He stopped his feet, his face revealing a slight smile.  It seemed that he found the room he needed to enter.

Although it appeared arbitrary, his groping motions towards the wall had purpose.  Soon, his palm touched something that indicated to him it was there.  He gently pressed it three times.  

The wall changed as the place the examiner pressed lit up.  When he removed his hand, a monitored had appeared in the wall.  The screen showed a keypad with 10 Arabic numerals from 0 to 9, asking for the password.

The examiner smiled as his fingers quickly pressed the numbers on the keypad.  The speed was staggering to the point of making people speechless.  His fingers left a blurry afterimage that didn’t allow people to see what numbers he actually pressed.  There was a crisp click and the closed door appeared to have unlocked.  Suddenly, the it slid left, revealing a space wide enough for only a single person to enter.

The moment the examiner walked in, the door closed again.  The corridor outside restored itself to its original, pure silver white walls.  

Upon entering room 72, the examiner saw a spacious virtually created runway.  Behind him, the so-called door and wall no longer existed, just a path connecting the examiner’s station and a road that a person couldn’t see the end of.  It was so realistic that no one would be able to believe that it was actually just a wall and door.

The examiner didn’t wait for very long when he saw figures approaching in the distance of the runway.  They ran and dragged, fought and supported, their run was staggered – no – perhaps saying that they were walking was more appropriate.  It looked like these children were almost completely exhausted.  In past assessments, the children would always appear one by one, not like this group.  Everyone moved together with no one left behind and managed to reached the finish line at the same time.

The examiner’s heart was moved.  Perhaps this was what the monitoring officer wanted to tell him.  Sure enough, they were good kids.

Upon seeing his appearance, the children reacted like they ate some kind of stimulant.  They quickly rushed like ferocious tigers towards him.

The examiner laughed.  It seemed that their near triumph spurred these children to go all out.  Not bad, they were all great materials.  The examiner was very satisfied, impressed by Ling Lan and the kids.

“I saw the examiner…”  The nearly exhausted Qilong glanced up and saw the examiner, the cute kid² shouted excitedly.  Upon hearing this, the other nine kids became energized.  Their eyes became blood red and like hungry wolves…

Ao wu³!  The ten kids collectively issued a howling wolf cry, as if they spotted delicious food.  They erupted their cosmos⁴ and charged towards the distant examiner.

They blasted past the finish line, but didn’t slow down.  Rather, they were even fiercer than before, maliciously rushing towards the examiner standing at the side.

The momentum of the ten children charging like starving wolves startled the examiner.  But who what was the examiner?  A professional soldier who had experienced countless interstellar battlefields.  Quickly, his calmness was restored.

“These little bastards!”  In the face of their sudden attack, the examiner was very speechless.  With a cold expression, he barely moved – just shifting his body to the side a few times – and avoided the kids’ final energy filled tackle.

“Damn, we couldn’t even tackle the examiner!”  Qilong complained⁵, collapsing onto the runway.  He absolutely refused to give up and hammered the ground with his fist.

Luo Lang, who wasn’t far from Qilong, also laid on the ground with a face full of regret.  They only made it to halfway before they started becoming unable to support themselves.  It was Qilong’s words that allowed them to suddenly regain some strength.  

The words – they absolutely had to get revenge on the examiner.  They had to overwhelm him and have him become their very bottom meat cushion.  That’s right, like a pyramid stack, they had to let the examiners know that they also had a temper.

Alright, it was these few words that caused the ten children’s hatred to peak.  It incited the unprecedented energy within their bodies, supporting them forwards until the end.

Sure enough, the power of hatred was invincible.

As for Ling Lan, her cooperation wasn’t due to hatred, but because, damn, she thought too much.  When she thought about how these little kids were about to overwhelm the adult examiner…was this younger attacks, younger attacks, or younger attacks⁶?

Alright, Ling Lan was absolutely rotten⁷.  It was all her past life’s fault – she had no limits when reading novels.

The examiner crossed his arms, sneering:  “Heh, still got energy?  Pretty good.”  Although his face was cold, his heart was extremely happy.  

Damn, they were really like the new recruits he trained.  They had momentum, idea, courage – these were only six year old children.  How monstrous, ah.  The examiner’s hands began to itch and he suddenly felt the urge to drag these children to his barracks and train them.  In the future they would definitely become qualified soldiers.

Qilong raised his hand in surrender:  “Examiner, we’re already out of energy.”

The examiner humphed coldly several times:  “If you all want to pass, then scramble up for me.”  Ya de, if you have no energy then how can you yell so loudly.  Who are you trying to lie to?

Qilong made a ‘che’ sound, but could only bitterly climb up.  Everyone fought hard to complete the test.  If because they couldn’t stand up and failed the exam, how embarrassing would that be, ah.  Qilong was deeply influenced by his dad, and thought that a real man died standing.

Since Qilong was the first one to climb up, the second one was obviously Luo Lang.  Although Luo Lang was tired to the point of cramping all over, upon seeing Qilong stand up, he didn’t want to lose too him.  Thus he clung tightly to the scrap of energy generated by his refusal to lose and also managed to stand.  After him was Ling Lan, then Han Jijun, Luo Shaoyun, Yuan Youyun, Li Jinghong, and He Zhaoyang stood up together.  Finally, the only two girls in the group, Han Xuya and Luo Chao, stood up too.

Despite falling back down after climbing up repeatedly, in the end they managed to firmly remain standing.  Their eyes was filled with stubbornness against losing.

The examiner was satisfied:  “Pretty good.  You guys have some guts.  Now, I command you to attack me.”

This sentence surprised everyone.

Han Jijun’s response was the fastest.  The CPU in his brain ran at high speed trying to analyze the examiner’s true intentions from his words.  His expression was very dignified and serious as he asked:  “Why?”

—

Translated by somnious

TL’s note:  I bet it sounded really strange to read about how the examiner’s fingers are really fast!  I’ll tell you guys now, it’s because there’s a big reason.  Mecha piloting requires the pilot to have quick fingers when manipulating the control board.  If you haven’t guessed it, this guy’s a mecha pilot!

¹ 牛逼 (niú bī):  Basically it means ‘awesome’ but like super awesome.

² Ai the fight between localization and translation – the translation says ‘cute’ (literally), localization into english says ‘this sounds weird’ (me, pulling my hair out).

³ 嗷呜 (Áo wū!): Wolf howl noise.

⁴ 小宇宙 (xiǎoyǔzhòu): This is apparently a Saint Seiya reference.  In Chinese, it directly translates into ‘small universe’ and when used as a Saint Seiya reference, it means the source of power in the body.

⁵ 狗啃泥 (gǒu kěn ní):  Lit. ‘Dog bites mud’.  Google says it’s similar to ‘dog eats shit’, which somehow tangents to ‘complaining but not changing bad habits’…

⁶ 年下: Chinese BL slang where the younger one is the ‘top’/seme.  Ling Lan.  I’m crying.  Why.  I guess her brain short circuited for a second….囧

⁷ Chinese slang for fujoshi.

 

Chapter 29

Chapter 29:  At the Last Lap.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

 

 

The lieutenant calmed his excitement and carefully observed the performance of the ten children on the screen.  Finally, his face split into a satisfied smile:  “End their exam and let them come out.”

The officer responsible for Ling Lan’s group felt uncertainty in his heart and asked:  “How should I score them then?”

The lieutenant angrily glared:  “You still need me to teach you?  How much time did it take for them to complete the exam?  How does their physical strength look?”

The officer’s eyes flashed:  “I understand, sir.”

At Ling Lan’s place, the ten children stubbornly continued to run a few more laps.  During this time, the initially tough acting Qilong and Luo Lang had become exhausted.  Carrying a person while running and running without burden were two different concepts.  They only ran a few laps before they felt that their physical strength had vanished.  Originally, they thought they could run for another ten or twenty laps, but now they didn’t dare to be so sure anymore.

Out of the ten kids, the one who was in the best state was Ling Lan.  In fact, it should be said that she never even felt tired because, since the start of the exam, she had been running Yangshen Qijue.

Ever since Ling Lan realized its benefits during the strength examination, Ling Lan suspected that Yangshen Qijue still had some secrets she didn’t know.  So she decided that during the running exam, she would try using Yangshen Qijue again.  Evidence proved that her decision was correct – even running to this point, her body was still full of energy.  Her entire body’s data maintained the same state as the start of the test.

This data was provided by Xiao Si.  The moment Ling Lan discovered something new, Xiao Si pitter-pattered over.  He claimed that it was to help Ling Lan research Yangshen Qijue, to be a qualified contracted growth assistant…In truth, he was bored out of his mind from not being able to go onto the virtual network and wanted to find something to pass the time.  

Nevertheless, with the help of Xiao Si, Ling Lan was able to quickly analyze the secret of Yangshen Qijue.  It turned out that not only could Yangshen Qijue restore the consumption of energy, but could also repair any damage within the body and maintain the user at their best condition for a long time.

Of course, Xiao Si also noted that for such a balance between energy generation and consumption to occur was because Ling Lan’s running didn’t consume much energy.  If Ling Lan carried a person on her back while running like Qilong and Luo Lang, the balance likely wouldn’t be maintained and she would end up consuming a bit of her physical strength.

Despite that, Xiao Si told Ling Lan to not feel discouraged.  As long as she continued practicing Yangshen Qijue, the amount of energy she could recover would increase bit by bit.  If practiced to the end, it was likely that she wouldn’t even have to be afraid of any energy consumption at all (of course this result would only appear decades later…Xiao Si decisively erased this last sentence).

The physically fine Ling Lan saw the downpour of sweat on Qilong and Luo Lang’s foreheads and noticed that their pace had slowed down by a lot.  She knew that problems had appeared in their bodies and they likely couldn’t be able to continue.  Ling Lan hesitated – perhaps she should give them a hand?  But, she was afraid of performing too well.  Attracting notice from observant people wasn’t good.

Not to mention, Ling Lan, with the help of Xiao Si, made her external appearance similar to Han Jijun.  She looked to be sweating profusely and was gasping for breath.  After all, she had been helping the boy with the worst physical quality in the group.  Although she didn’t consume as much energy as Qilong who was carrying someone, but helping someone still used more energy than running without a burden.  

The devil and angel in Ling Lan’s mind started fighting; however, before they could determine the winner, an external event helped Ling Lan make a decision.  

Luo Lang pointed to the side and shouted in surprise:  “I saw the sign, there’s only one more lap left!”

Luo Lang’s words were like a shot of vitality medicine, causing the children who were having a hard time keeping up suddenly rise in spirit.  

Ling Lan glanced towards the direction that Luo Lang’s finger was pointing at and saw an examiner holding up a display with the Arabic numeral 1.  This meant that there was only one final lap.

Seeing this, Han Jijun quickly cheered:  “There’s only one lap last, keep going!  Absolutely don’t be left behind!”

“Yes!”  Including Ling Lan, the rest of the group yelled loudly.  It was the final lap, no matter what, they have to fight.

Han Xuya took a deep breath before shouting:  “Qilong, let me down.”

“What’s the matter?”  Qilong asked in surprise.

“The last lap, I can do it.”  How could Han Xuya not feel Qilong’s fatigue.  She couldn’t affect Qilong’s performance for her own sake.  He was someone who was going to enter the Special A class.  On the final lap, even if she ran to the point of fainting, she had to run by herself and couldn’t hold Qilong back.

On the other side, Luo Chao also had Luo Lang put her down for almost the same reason.  She also didn’t want to affect her brother’s score.  They wanted Qilong and Luo Lang to speed up and fight for the best time.  

Han Jijun immediately discouraged them:  “We’ve made it to the final lap.  If we can’t reach the end together, then our cooperation from before will have no point.  Not to mention, you should know the requirements to become a qualified soldier — never give up on a single comrade!”

Han Jijun’s words startled everyone; however, a few quick witted children managed to understand immediately.  Han Xuya and Luo Chao, who originally wanted to refuse, changed their minds.  Han Xuya spoke anxiously:  “Qilong, quickly run while pulling my hand.  Quick.”  Since they decided to run to the end together, then she couldn’t waste a single minute or second.

Thus in Ling Lan’s group, those who were physically better helped pull those who were physically poor.  Like this, the kids desperately finished the final lap arm in arm.  And with Ling Lan, she quietly pulled along two of the most physically weak kids.  Han Jijun gave her a grateful look.  Ling Lan’s help allowed him to run by himself.  His physical strength was close to collapse, and if he helped someone, he wasn’t confident that he could finish the final lap.

Outside of the virtual environment room was an open-air tea lounge.  Many examiners were sitting in groups of twos and threes drinking tea while chatting.  The exam lasted for nearly three to four hours, thus examiners couldn’t blindly stay behind in the room and wait.  Usually, they would come here to have a cup of hot tea or coffee to help kill time and maybe chat with a few comrades they were familiar with.

The examiner in charge of room 72 was chatting with several familiar comrades.  Just as the chat reached it’s peak, the contact device* on his wrist went off.

He tapped the receiver button and the contact device flashed silver, a virtual screen appearing in front of him.  At the same time, the officer that had originally been observing room 72 appeared on the screen.  

“Notice, room 72 candidates’ assessment is almost complete, please be prepared.”

The examiner was surprised:  “They almost completed the assessment?  In less than two hours?  Is this real or fake?”  He couldn’t be blamed for his disbelief.  The Scout Academy’s third exam had never been completed within two hours.  Only children with weak bodies and fainted halfway would be expelled from the room in such a short period of time.

However, the ten children’s status on his contact device didn’t show the red dot signifying that they passed out.  Even the yellow dot that indicated collapse from energy consumption didn’t appear.  They all had green dots that signified that the children were conscious and still had physical energy.  

The officer in charge of watching room 72 saw the look of disbelief in the examiner’s face and suddenly laughed.  He kindly reminded:  “You should go quickly, otherwise it’ll be too late.  Oh right, the group is full of good kids, you won’t be disappointed.”

The officer in charge of room 72 didn’t give the examiner a chance to ask questions before he interrupted the connection.  Thinking of the other person’s expression of complete shock, he was happy.  He suddenly felt that coming here to monitor these children wasn’t as boring as he thought it’d be.

The examiner looked speechlessly at the dark screen.  Couldn’t this non-commissioned officer at least clarify it a bit more?

The other examiners heard their conversation and looked at him in surprise.  Of course, they also had an expression of curiosity and need to gossip.

“Got it.  Once I figure out what’s going on, I’ll tell you guys.  Right now I’m going back to work.”  The examiner stood up despondently before calmly grabbing his military cap off the table.  Once he put it on, he slowly walked towards room 72.

Ya de, he hoped the kids inside won’t let him down, ah!  The examiner suppressed his growing excitement…Alright, in truth the calm from before was just him pretending.

—

Translated by somnious

TL’s Note:  So many people picked Twilight Empire…so Twilight Empire it is…

*It literally translates into communicator/contact device and I’m not sure how to deal with the term.  It’s basically this world’s ID and everything related to contact outside of the virtual reality network rolled into a single band on your wrist.  I’m still debating on what I should call this in the future ahhh.

 

Chapter 28

Chapter 28:  The Ten Children’s Information.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

 

 

Ling Lan suppressed the excitement in her heart and quietly asked Han Jijun:  “What are the requirements to become a qualified soldier?”

Han Jijun felt it was very strange for Ling Lan to suddenly ask this question, but still replied:  “A heart full of passion and loyalty dedicated to the Huaxia Federation.  Must have sincerity and and friendship, trust and love for one’s comrades-in-arms…”  Han Jijun recited the oath spoken by a soldier after putting on uniform to the nation’s flag.  It included the requirements to become a qualified soldier.

With Han Jijun’s recitation, Ling Lan’s eyes shone brighter and brighter.  She continued to ask:  “Then what is the Scout Academy?”

“The cradle that trains qualified soldiers.”  Han Jijun said without hesitation.

Ling Lan’s smile became dazzling:  “Then we cannot abandon our friendship, trust, and love of our comrades-in-arms.”

This started Han Jijun, his eyes becoming clear.  He understood Ling Lan’s implication.

“Qilong, Luo Lang, give Han Xuya and Luo Chao a hand.”  Han Jijun suddenly shouted at the two boys in front.

“Ah…”  Qilong almost stumbled.  Why did he have to help the two hindering little girls?

“I’ll explain it to you guys once we’re done with the exam.”  Although Han Jijun recognized Ling Lan’s deduction, he still didn’t want to delay their speed.  Thus he didn’t explain anything to Qilong and Luo Lang.

Qilong, of course, wouldn’t not listen.  He began to slow down, falling from the front to the back.  Luo Lang hesitated for a moment before following Qilong and slowed down too, also falling behind.  One of the two girls who needed help was his blood sister.  In contrast, Qilong had nothing to do with these two girls.

Correct – although Luo Lang wanted to beat Qilong for once, he didn’t want to win in this way.  The proud Luo Lang couldn’t accept such a shameful victory.  

To be honest, in physical quality, Qilong and Luo Lang were the best out of the ten (Ling Lan has the blessing of a gold finger and cannot be counted).  Even though they were encumbered, their speed didn’t slow down by that much.  Soon they advanced side by side, becoming the first two once again.

In a monitoring room, the officer that had just switched the screen to room 72 couldn’t help but shout in surprise.  Each surveillance officer was responsible for ten rooms, every minute the monitor would switch onto the next room, monitoring them all in a ten minute rotation.  This time, it landed on room 72 again.

The neighboring officer that was staring at his own monitor when heard his comrade’s exclamation couldn’t help but curiously glance over.  Upon seeing the monitor’s situation, he too couldn’t help but cry out in surprise:  “Huh, interesting!”

Their cries attracted the attention of the lieutenant responsible for managing the whole surveillance room.  He coldly walked over and asked:  “What happened?  Why did you violate the command to remain quiet?”

“Reporting to lieutenant, we’ve found good seedlings.”  The two officers hurried to salute and report.  Their tones didn’t carry any guilt, but rather sounded very confident.  They had protection from the higher ups¹ due to the military’s other order – soldiers had to immediately report the discovery of excellent seeds.  Wasn’t what they were doing right now just following orders?

Upon hearing this, the lieutenant’s cold expression loosened a little.  He looked at the screen; just one glance made his expression jump suddenly.  It seemed that what was on the monitor was very shocking to him.

The two officers glanced at each other, their gazes containing satisfaction as well as the rejoice of survivors that escaped disaster.  Those kids really TMD² gave effort during crucial moments.

Unfortunately the screen didn’t give effort.  The lieutenant only had the chance to watch a little bit before it switched to the next room.

“Xiao Wu, immediately switch it back.”  The lieutenant ordered the officer.  

“Yes sir!”  Officer Xiao Wu was the soldier that was responsible for monitoring Ling Lan’s group.  He quickly fixed the screen onto the kids.

Upon seeing the screen, they saw the girls Han Xuya and Luo Chao, who were originally being dragged by Qilong and Luo Lang, now being carried by them.  It seemed that their physical strength had been entirely consumed and couldn’t go further.  

Behind, Ling Lan and the five other swapped positions, assisting the two most physically poor kids.  There were also those who were mutually helping each other run, thus no one fell behind.

Of course, this situation happened because of Ling Lan and Han Jijun’s decisive choice to take action.  If they didn’t volunteer to help the worst two teammates, then people would have fallen behind long ago.

Their actions gave insight to the remaining two teammates who weren’t familiar each other.  Subsequently, when the both of them became physically exhausted, they took the initiative to support one another.  Thus creating the current scene that appeared on the monitor.

“Pull up these ten children’s information.”  The lieutenant placed aside his admiration, his brows wrinkling slightly as his heart felt some doubt.  These teammates worked together too well, causing him to suspect someone used their power to intentionally arrange familiar children into a single group.

Quickly Ling Lan and the group’s information came out.

Ling Lan:  7th Interstellar Army Corps Deputy Army Commander, God-Class expert IN Mecha Belief³ Pilot Major General Ling Xiao’s son.  Military inheritance successor.  Physical quality: S Level.  Spiritual power: Second Level.  Potential: S Level.

Qilong:  3rd Interstellar Army Corps Mecha Division Commander, Ace-Class expert MT Mecha Atlas⁴ Pilot Senior Colonel Qi Yaoyang’s son.  Physical quality: S Level.  Spiritual power: Second Level.  Potential: S Level.

Luo Lang:  9th Interstellar Army Corps Third Fleet Commander, Senior Colonel Luo Qifeng’s son.  Physical quality:  S- Level.  Spiritual power: Second Level.  Potential: S- Level.

Han Jijun:  Federal Military Central Intelligence Agency Deputy Director, Senior Colonel Han Rong’s son.  Physical quality:  A+ Level.  Spiritual power: Third Level.  Potential: S- Level.

Luo Chao:  9th Interstellar Army Corps Third Fleet Commander, Senior Colonel Luo Qifeng’s daughter.  Physical quality:  B Level.  Spiritual power: Second Level.  Potential: A- Level.

Han Xuya:  Federation Core Star Logistics Base On-Duty Corps Regiment Commander, Major Han You’s daughter.  Physical quality: B Level.  Spiritual power: Second Level.  Potential A- Level.

Luo Shaoyun⁵:  Civilian.  13th Interstellar Army Corp’s Mecha Pilot Machine Escort Regiment Third Company Commander, Senior Captain Luo Jiguang’s nephew⁶.  Military inheritance successor.  Physical Quality:  A- Level.  Spiritual Power:  First Level.  Potential:  A- Level.

Yuan Youyun:  Zhongxing Star Yuan Clan’s child.  Physical Quality:  A- Level.  Spiritual Power:  First Level.  Potential:  A- Level.

Li Jinghong:  Doha Star Li Clan’s child.  Physical Quality:  B Level.  Spiritual Power:  First Level.  Potential:  B+ Level.

He Zhaoyang:  Civilian.  17th Interstellar Army Corp’s 9th Fleet Assault Warship Deputy Captain, Senior Captain He Shaoji’s adopted son.  Military inheritance successor.  Physical Quality:  B Level.  Spiritual Power:  First Level.  Potential:  B+ Level.

Once the lieutenant saw the information, he knew that these children came from different family systems.  There were civilian children and clan children, with the largest number of children coming from the military system – accounting for more than half.  The most critical thing was that the even the one with the worst potential in the group managed to reach B+ level.  Although it wasn’t enough to enter the special classes, for the ordinary classes it was more than capable.

The lieutenant once again looked at the first line.  Ling Lan’s data excited him.  God-class expert IN Mecha Belief’s Pilot Major General Ling Xiao…He was the idol of countless soldiers.  It was a pity that he died seven years ago at the Stone Nebula’s Channel of Death.  He still remembered when the news first came out, it shook the entire Federation.  All soldiers grieved without end.

The entire Federation’s God-class experts IN Mecha pilots only numbered 12.  Each God-class pilot was the Federation’s treasure and also the ultimate power used to deter enemies.  And Major General Ling Xiao was the only one in the past 10 years to become a God-class expert, and was also the youngest IN Mecha pilot.

At the time, everyone was optimistically speculating how Major General Ling Xiao could become the most powerful of the twelve God-class experts.  Age was his biggest advantage.  Unfortunately, the tree above the forest⁷, before he could bloom into full glory, he died early.

Later, after the Federation’s investigation, it was discovered that the violent energy anomaly at the Channel of Death was highly likely to be a conspiracy by the enemy state against Major General Ling Xiao.  Unfortunately the Federal Intelligence Bureau failed to discover it in time.  The cost of the Bureau’s failure was a painful one and the Federation lost its future’s most powerful God-class expert.  This caused the two countries to become sworn enemies that would fight to the end with no possibility of cease-fire.

A God-class expert’s death was not something that the Federation’s troops can forgive!

*The enemy state stated here is the descendant of Japan, the Sunset/Twilight Empire.  Cast your vote on what name you think sounds best in the comments!

—

Translated by somnious

TL’s note:  Yingyingying.  Mercy please if I translated any of the military titles incorrectly ah T__T.  I’m not even familiar with my own country’s military positions, let alone the ones in China.  Also, I just realized that Han Jijun’s father is in the Chinese CIA…Anyway now we know the main little partners are kids of military big wigs and three out of 10 of the kids have dead fathers or relations…

Also confession: The term the author uses for ‘mecha pilot’ isn’t ‘pilot’ but ‘expert/teacher warrior’ or ‘mecha controller’.  It sounds really clunky…so I took a small liberty and localized it to pilot.  Although it doesn’t seem like a big thing, but in truth ‘shishi’ (how it’s pronounced) is actually divided into two categories – one that’s something along the lines of warrior (meant to indicate pilots below Ace) and one that means ‘expert/teacher’ (Ace and above).  I’ll point it out again when the story explains it.

Mild spoiler (highlight to see):  Although the story initially points to the Japanese (Twilight/Sunset) Empire as the cause of Ling Xiao’s ‘death’, it’s later implied that it might have been either Caeser or even people within the Huaxia Federation as the true cause.  Cough.  Caeser likes to play proxy war…

¹ 尚方宝剑 (shàngfāng bǎojiàn):  Literal meaning is “imperial sword” which is used to mean the power of higher authorities (in modern use).

² TMD is short hand for 他妈的 (Tā mā de): lit. their/his/her mom.  It’s the equivalent of swear words in english lol (i.e. think damn/fuck/shit, etc.)

³ Yeah the actual name of Ling Xiao’s mecha is ‘belief’.  The author writes this in english.

⁴ 擎天 (qíng tiān): I was debating how to translate this, but since Ling Xiao’s mecha is ‘belief’, I might as well translate it as ‘atlas’.  It literally means holding up the sky.

⁵ The ‘luo’ character in Luo Shaoyun’s name isn’t the ‘luo’ in Luo Lang/Luo Chao.  They’re not related by family.

⁶ The character used here is nephew, but it’s pronounced the same as the character before ‘son’ that’s being used.  I’m not sure if it’s a typo so I’m just leaving a note here.

⁷ 木秀于林，风必摧之 (Mù xiù yú lín, fēng bì cuī zhī): The first part of the idiom “the tree that stands above the rest of the forrest will be destroyed by the wind”.

 

Chapter 27

Chapter 27: What’s the Purpose of the Test?

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

 

 

They didn’t run for very long when the originally warm and sunny weather suddenly became cloudy.  At the crack of a thunder, Qilong, who was at the front, couldn’t help but curse:  “How unlucky.  It has to start raining when it’s our turn to test.  Everyone run faster.  Otherwise if we get caught in the rain, it’ll be more difficult.  Our results will definitely be affected.”

Right as Qilong finished and was about to speed up, he heard Han Jijun shout behind him:  “Ah Long, don’t accelerate.  Keep your original speed.”

This surprised Qilong for a moment.  He didn’t understand why Han Jijun wanted to stop his action.  If it really rained, running in the weather would consume even more physical strength and slow down their speed.  The score of the current assessment was dependent on the amount of time it took them to finish.  At this point, if one didn’t seriously run a bit more then if not now, then when?

Although Qilong was very confused, he had a big good point.  That is, great self understanding.  He knew that his best friend Han Jijun had way more brains than him; his mind was smart to the point of making him highly envious, jealous, and hateful¹.  Since his buddy decided to say this, it meant that he definitely found something out.  Past evidence had proved that listening to Han Jijun wasn’t wrong, and he absolutely trusted his brother².

As a result, Qilong decisively gave up on his idea and kept running forwards at his original speed.  Honestly, there weren’t that many children in Ling Lan’s group that had a desire to win outside of Luo Lang.  However, as arrogant as Luo Lang was, he was a smart child.  He also listened to Han Jijun’s reminder.  Thus he didn’t accelerate and kept pace with Qilong.

In their circle, Han Jijun’s intelligence was well known.  Luo Lang really admired Han Jijun, but, unfortunately, Han Jijun had become good friends with that stupid Qilong.  What endlessly plagued him was regret.  He acted too late towards Han Jijun and lost the chance to connect with him first.  Otherwise how would that Qilong kid even have a chance.

The other children also maintained their original speed and followed the team closely in order to not fall behind.  Children who qualified for the Doha Scout Academy test weren’t stupid.  Qilong and Luo Lang’s fight made them realize that the overall strength of the two kids were much stronger than theirs.  Since the people who were stronger than them weren’t afraid of delay, what were they afraid of?

Han Jijun accelerated two steps, running side by side with Ling Lan and spoke quietly:  “Ling Lan, what do you think?”  Han Jijun always felt that Ling Lan had noticed something – this was the intuition of a smart person.

“Didn’t you also notice it too?”  Ling Lan gave Han Jijun an injured look.  Ya de, this is what one would call a unique talent, ah.  He was only six years of age but was acutely aware of the problem.  This was too depressing.

The fact that she could notice the problem was because of the valuable experience obtained from her two lives as well as the learning space’s five years of all kinds of pressure and assessments.  Especially this year, Ling Lan, who had no new training tasks, was tortured with various means by No. 1.  She was forced to think in several layers whenever observing a situation.  It had simply become her instinctive reaction.

Han Jijun didn’t notice Ling Lan’s injured heart and spoke seriously:  “En, whether we accelerate or not, what will come will come.  Perhaps they want to see us panic.”

“The examiner never stated a specific distance.  This test has no so-called end…I’m very suspicious.”  Ling Lan stated her opinion as Han Jijun’s intelligence made Ling Lan no longer able to hide.

Finally, she didn’t have to act like a child.  Hanging around evildoers³ meant that she didn’t appear that much of an evildoer.  Ling Lan was touched to the point of crying.  Her past six years weren’t easy.

Ling Lan’s words made Han Jijun think deeply.  After thinking a moment, he spoke:  “Perhaps, our exam started the moment we entered the field.”

“What do you mean?”

“Is this really an athletic field?”  Han Jijun’s words startled Ling Lan.  She remembered the door that she entered from; that didn’t seem like the entrance to a big field, ah.

“Let’s wait and see.”  Ling Lan and Han Jijun came to a tacit understanding and glanced at each other before stating their decision in unison.  Since they already joined the gamble, then they could only keep walking and watching.

They didn’t run for long before a sudden downpour fell straight down, drenching Ling Lan and the nine others like drowned cats⁴.  Fog and rain blocked their sight as the road below became muddy.  Their soaked clothing became uncomfortable and heavy.  Under these conditions, after running a few thousand meters they began to feel tired – especially the two girls, who began to pant.

“It’s real water, not virtual.”  Ling Lan carefully observed the sensations felt by her body.  It seemed like the virtual environment was augmented with real props.  There was no doubt that in the room that they were in had a ceiling full of sprinklers.

Since she already knew that she was within a virtually created environment room, Ling Lan ignored what she saw and began to map the layout of the entire room in her head.

It should be noted that the athletic field presented to everyone by the virtual environment was very appropriate because the field’s runway was a big circle.  Any person inside, even after walking in countless circles, would never suspect that they were actually inside a closed room.

Ling Lan and the nine other people ran another few kilometers and felt that they had already gone around in countless circles.  However, no examiners had come out to indicate how many laps were left.  This journey of unknown length caused the weaker children to waver – especially the two girls.  Their speed dropped and soon they fell to the very back.

Luo Lang and Han Jijun, the relatives of the two girls, turned a blind eye to the situation and kept running at their original speed.

Ling Lan’s brows furrowed.  Were they not going to help them even a little bit?

Han Jijun seemed to notice Ling Lan’s hesitation and quickly explained:  “To become a qualified soldier, one has to rely on their own ability.  To help her would be to hurt her.  On the battlefield, you can’t rely on others to survive.”

Han Jijun’s words made sense.  Ling Lan wasn’t a saint⁵ who must help others.  She was just about to ignore the situation when an idea flashed through her mind, causing her heart to jump in surprise.

Was this examination really just to test endurance and speed?  If it was simply to test for that, then a normal field would also work just well.  Why would they use such precious virtual environment technology?  Not only that, was there a need to make that many groups?

She thought of the marathons in her past life – that was everyone running together.  Ling Lan observed the width of the runway and found that it was about 50 meters wide.  Even if everyone couldn’t run together, it could still be possible to accommodate hundreds to thousands of people.  Wouldn’t this be a better way to speed up the exam and save time?

Perhaps the test wanted to assess something else.  What was it’s real purpose?  Ling Lan realized that this was probably the key point of the exam.  If she could figure it out, she should be able to know how to pass this test.

What was the hidden meaning within the words that examiner said back then?  Xiao Si sensed Ling Lan’s thought and put a great amount of effort into replaying what the examiner had said.

Tch, in addition to what they want you to know, the rest could be considered as watertight.  Sure enough, they really were worthy of being the elite examiners handpicked from the army…

Picked from the army?  The army?  The flash in Ling Lan’s mind was finally caught by her:  Since all of their examiners came from the army, could this be a hint?  Not only that, a group of ten happened to be the smallest military operation unit!
—
Translated by somnious
¹ 羡慕嫉妒恨 (xiànmù jídù hèn):  To be extremely envious of.  It consists of envy, jealousy, hate.  Don’t worry, Qilong doesn’t actually hate Han Jijun here lol, he’s just frustrated that his friend’s a lot smarter.
² 兄弟 (xiōngdì): It can be used for both blood related brothers and close friends or people in relation to each other (i.e. gangs/schools/etc.).
³ 妖孽 (yāoniè): I wasn’t too sure whether to use the direct translation (evildoer) or abnormal person (internet slang?).  This is here just to clarify if readers haven’t come across the term before.  It’s essentially used to denote extremely abnormal geniuses, lol.  It appears a lot in this series.
⁴ 落汤鸡 (luòtāngjī): Lit. Fall/drop soup chicken.  It’s an idiom that’s similar to ‘drowned rat’ or ‘drowned cat’ in English.  I used the closest English version because using ‘dropped into soup chicken’ is a bit of a mouth full and sounds odd.
⁵ 圣母 (shèngmǔ):  Saint is probably the best way to translate it here?  It can also mean ‘virgin mary’ or ‘madonna’, as well as ‘goddess’.

Chapter 26

Chapter 26: The Exam Begins.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

 

 

Evidence proved that the children of this era had very strong bodies and high endurance.  No matter how angry Luo Lang was, he was still vigorous and robust despite the uncertain color of his face.  It could be seen that he was extremely enraged.

Seeing Luo Lang appear like this, Ling Lan felt like she shouldn’t continue.  Her two lives added together made her more than 30 years old.  She could be considered on the same level as a weird aunt, how could she bully other children?

A somewhat ashamed Ling Lan faced Luo Lang and smiled:  “Just kidding, you shouldn’t get angry.”

Ling Lan’s smile surprised Luo Lang for a moment and her suddenly soft attitude caught him off guard.  This stupidly stunned expression caused the little partners around them to start laughing again.  It couldn’t be helped, that look was extremely dumbly moe.  Even Luo Lang’s sister started giggling upon seeing her brother’s adorably silly appearance.  However, she quickly lowered her head shyly, feeling a bit of regret at her own behavior.  How could she laugh in such a way at the brother who loved her so much…

And Ling Lan, because of her sudden careless smile, created a headache for herself.  It really was troublesome.  She had just accidentally revealed that breathtaking smile again, causing Xiao Si to flip out.  Ling Lan worried about how she was going to pacify the little guy that was becoming more and more like a bunch of dynamite.

While Ling Lan was busily appeasing the angry Xiao Si, Luo Lang, because of the laughter of the other small partners, awoke from his stupor.  He realized that he disgraced himself.  Two spots of blush bloomed on his white face, spreading to his ears.

Then, furiously, he actually rushed towards Ling Lan…uh, towards the nearby Qilong and overwhelmed him.  The two of them began fighting.

Qilong and Luo Lang twisted into a pile.  Qilong’s good friend, Han Jijun, didn’t discourage, but actually pulled Ling Lan and Han Xuya out of the way and stood by idly.  Luo Lang’s sister silently backed up a few steps and hid to the side and only watched her brother with a worried expression.

Once Ling Lan finally coaxed Xiao Si, she realized that no one had come forwards to stop the fight.  She found it strange.  In her era, the moment children started fighting, they would be pulled apart and scolded.  Here, the field staff weren’t very far away and obviously saw the situation, but turned a blind eye.  What was going on?  Ling Lan felt her three outlooks¹ being challenged by this world.

Ling Lan wasn’t a person who could endure.  She ended up asking the question on her mind, once again attracting Han Jijun’s attention.  But when he found that Ling Lan really didn’t understand, he was stunned.  This was part of common knowledge that should be taught by the father.  Did Ling Lan’s father not tell him?

Although Han Jijun was puzzled, he still explained to Ling Lan:  “This is a habit of childhood training.  Whoever has an argument that they want to resolve, fighting is allowed.  But, no matter who wins or loses, you have to have to smile and let go of any hate afterwards.”

What a really strange teaching, were they not afraid of raising a bunch of crazy and violent people?  Ling Lan once again felt that the ideological education she received in her past life was incompatible with the strongest takes all idea here.  For example, regardless of civilian, aristocratic, or influential clan children, their first goal was to be a soldier, their second goal was to be a soldier, their third goal was to be a soldier…because soldiers were the strongest – especially after becoming mecha pilots.  Only those who were physically unqualified and couldn’t become soldiers had no other choice but to choose other occupations.

And Ling Lan’s education starting from childhood was how to become the strongest mecha pilot.  Everything she learned was meant to serve this goal.  Her mother, steward Ling Qin, never asked her if she liked it or not.

To be honest, she really didn’t feel much towards that so-called idea of piloting mecha.  After all, she was a girl; from the start she didn’t have a lot of interest in fighting. (TL: *coughs violently*)  It was just she didn’t expect she’d come to this everyone-is-a-soldier world.  Even more, she didn’t expect to be accompanied by a so-called mecha king learning machine.

Ling Lan couldn’t help but rub her chin and think:  Could this be heaven’s will?  Everything was already declared for her, she must walk down the path of a mecha pilot?

Qilong and Luo Lang fought and appeared equal.  In truth, Qilong was better in combat by a degree, but Luo Lang had an unyielding tenacity.  Although he was at a disadvantage, he was still able to hold on.

Ling Lan really wanted to know the final results of their fight.  But, when she saw the staff calling in test groups become closer and closer to their group, she knew there wasn’t a chance.  She regretfully reminded:  “It’s about to be our turn to test.  Will you guys be ok if you keep fighting like this?”

The two kids on the ground suddenly froze.  Luo Lang’s reaction was faster than Qilong.  He immediately pushed away Qilong and quickly climbed up, starting to straighten his clothing.  Although he couldn’t return to that look of a noble son, his good etiquette education didn’t allow for him to face the examiner with such an embarrassing appearance.

Qilong was caught off guard and was pushed away by Luo Lang, rolling two laps.  He quickly got up before speaking stubbornly:  “When the test is over, let’s continue our fight.”  The careless him was already accustomed to his sorry appearance and only wiped his forehead of sweat twice with his sleeves and was done.

Luo Lang, of course, refused to back down.  So the two agreed that they would determine who was stronger after the test.

What a pair of kids with high will to fight.  Ling Lan felt that she really was old and had a hard time understanding their unexplainable need to fight.  By now, Ling Lan had long forgotten that culprit that caused Qilong and Luo Lang’s fight was her.

The speed of examination for candidates was very fast.  Qilong and Luo Lang had only rested for a moment and hadn’t fully restored their physical strength when the staff shouted for Ling Lan’s group.  Ling Lan and the nine other people didn’t dare to hesitate and quickly ran over.

The ten of them stood on the runway and made their final preparations.  At this time, an examiner came over and explained the content of the exam.  The exam required the group to start running from the starting line and safely run to the end to complete the exam.  As for the score, it was dependent on the time it took to finish the exam.

As Ling Lan finished her preparation work, she didn’t forget to observe the row of candidates in front of them.  This was a bad habit she gained from No. 1.  Every time No. 1 came out, everything he did was likely a kind of test.  This made Ling Lan very nervous and was afraid to even miss a single action or remark in the case that they were hints to some kind of problem.  This rigorous caution had long become her instinct.  

Ling Lan watched as the group of candidates on the examiner’s orders began running from the starting line before quickly disappearing without a trace…

“You noticed?”  Han Jijun came over and spoke quietly.  He also noticed the problem.

“En.  The weather is obviously sunny, but once you start running on the runway, fog appears…”  Ling Lan saw what was strange and understood the reason the examinees in front of them barely ran very far before vanishing.

“Seems like they used virtual environment technology here.  I feel that this exam isn’t so simple.”  Han Jijun was definitely a smart kid.  Other kids might not be aware of the many high-tech things (such as Ling Lan), but he understood very well.  

Han Jijun’s reminder caused Ling Lan to secretly keep her guard up.

Soon, the examiner at the starting line beckoned Ling Lan and the group to come over.  Once they saw that everyone had finished their preparations, the examiners gave the order – start running.

Qilong led the way and Luo Lang followed closely.  It seemed like the two intended to compete with one another.

Ling Lan was third, followed behind by Han Jijun.  This child who liked to use his brain had the same idea as Ling Lan and intended to stay behind Qilong to observe for a while before making a decision.  The other children followed one by one after Han Jijun.

—

Translated by somnious

¹ 三观正 (sān guān zhèng ): The ‘three outlooks’ here refers to what is the ‘mainstream’ value, outlook on life, and worldview and thus supposedly ‘won’t cause harm’ because supposedly everyone agrees with it.

Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Same Group of Small Partners.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

 

 

Ling Lan couldn’t help but curiously ask:  “How do you know?”  Each child’s test scores were only known by examiners.  All the examiners were borrowed from major military regions and knew the principle of confidentiality.  They were very tight-lipped.

Qilong was embarrassed:  “In fact, when I went to take the test, the two examiners were chatting.  They said you were a rare genius and your strength was absolutely unique.  I think if the examiner said so, then your strength must be great.”

De, the examiners were too excited and accidentally leaked a bit of information.  This kid looked carefree but was not without critical thought and immediately seized the key points.

“Oh right, what’s your name?  My name’s Qilong, his name’s Han Jijun.  He and I grew up together, he’s my best friend.”  Qilong didn’t have any sense of strangers meeting for the first time and happily pointed at and introduced a small boy standing next to the chubby sister.  That expression had a bit of prideful bragging in it, causing Ling Lan to curiously glance at the boy that made Qilong so proud.

The little boy was very calm and nodded slightly at her, not speaking.  However, his gaze held a difficult to conceal look of inspection.  Of course this was likely due to his young age.  Perhaps when he grew a bit more, he’d be able to hide it better.

The inspection in the other person’s eyes did not make Ling Lan feel unhappy, because she was clear that there was no malicious intent.  It was just to determine whether or not Ling Lan had enough worth to befriend Qilong.  This worried appearance allowed Ling Lan to understand that the two of them had a deep friendship.

Seeing the nearby carefree Qilong, Ling Lan suddenly thought of the novels she had seen in the past.  Sure enough, every big silly had a cunning and good at scheming close friend at their side.  The two little boys had a very intimate relationship ah…God really was fair.

Ling Lan’s impression of Qilong and Han Jijun improved by a lot.  Her demeanor became more gentle and friendly as she faced Han Jijun:  “Hello, my name is Ling Lan, nice to meet you.”

“Ling Lan, this is Han Jijun’s cousin, Han Xuya.  She always likes to follow and play with us.  Don’t lower yourself to her level.”  Qilong didn’t wait for Han Jijun to answer before interjecting and pointing at the chubby sister.

He didn’t notice that because of his words, he angered the chubby little girl and caused her face to hatefully twist into an ugly expression¹.  This caused Han Jijun to give Ling Lan a helpless and headache-laced look.  It seemed that in order to coordinate the relationship between his good friend and cousin, he put in a lot of effort.

Ling Lan smiled without speaking, not responding to Qilong’s words.  This made the angry chubby sister’s mood a little better.  At least that little boy was tactful and wasn’t that annoying.  A girl’s emotions were always so fickle, it wasn’t a matter of age.

Like this, the children chatted like small adults.  They didn’t speak more than few words before hearing the child next to them shout:  “The test is about to start.”

The examiner responsible for the test had appeared on the big field.  The staff began to group the children.

Grouping was actually very simple.  Every 10 numbers was a group.  Ling Lan looked at her own test number – No. 7253.  When she looked at Qilong and the other’s numbers, her forehead was suddenly covered in black lines.  Ah, this was too much of a coincidence.  Their numbers were behind her – 7254, 7255, 7256…

Ignoring Qilong’s excitement, Han Jijun’s surprise, and Han Xuya’s slightly twisted expression, Ling Lan reluctantly looked up.  Her mouth couldn’t help but twitch:  This was so called law of crossing?  People who were related to each other would unconsciously gather together?  Did such an initiative directly send Qilong to her door?

In addition to them four, there were still six other people with sequential numbers who belonged to the same group gathered around them.  There was no solution, who told them to have such a big group of people?  Scattered individuals always looked to combine with larger groups of people.

Their new companions were five boys and a girl.  One of boys and the girl looked very similar and were probably dragon phoenix twins².

Although certainly nowadays there weren’t many who were ugly, that pair of dragon phoenix twins were extremely beautiful.  They were like jade dolls, crystal clear.  The boy was proud and confident and the girl was shy and lovely.  The two similar faces appeared completely different temperaments, causing Ling Lan to unconsciously glance a few times out of curiosity.

Perhaps Ling Lan’s gaze was somewhat warm.  The pair of dragon phoenix twins seemed to have noticed it, the little princess-like girl shyly smiled at her.  Ling Lan automatically returned one back.  The boy saw this scene and glared at her fiercely, as if warning her not to play around with his sister.

Ling Lan helplessly rubbed her nose.  De, she just smiled a little and was treated like a small lecher.  This little boy’s protective heart was really strong, ah.  But, to think of protecting his sister from lechers, isn’t this a little too early?

Qilong saw the other person’s glare and refused to back down, glaring back.  He didn’t forget to comfort Ling Lan and said:  “Ling Lan, it’s alright.  This kid Luo Lang’s character is just like that.  To him, his sister is more important than anything else.”

It seemed that Qilong was familiar with this dragon phoenix twin pair.  Otherwise it would be impossible to easily call out the other person’s name.

Ling Lan helplessly said: “So he’s a siscon ah!”

“Siscon?!”  Upon hearing this, Qilong froze for a moment before going ‘puchi’ and spraying out a laugh.  “Ling Lan, you’re really gifted.  How’d you perfectly capture that, siscon…Why couldn’t I think of such a wonderful description?”

Qilong’s exaggerated response stunned Ling Lan.  In truth, siscon in her original era was used until it was rotten.  Almost no one didn’t know what it was.  She didn’t expect that this era wouldn’t have that term….

Ling Lan’s heart moved.  Could it be that countless years of cataclysms and turmoil really caused a break in knowledge and culture?  Then the books that Xiao Si downloaded may really bring them their first pot of gold….

Qilong’s strange reaction made the other children curious.  They busily asked him quietly and soon the word ‘siscon’ spread amongst the small partners.  Except for the pair of dragon phoenix twins, the entire group of children knew.  They covered their mouths and laughed in secret.

Their secretly laughing movements blew their cover.  The dragon phoenix twin’s boy, Luo Lang, couldn’t continue pretending that he saw nothing.  His face became darker and darker to the point that he couldn’t tolerate it anymore.  He directly went up to Ling Lan and asked:  “Hey, what are you talking behind our backs about?”

With an innocent face, Ling Lan pointed to herself:  “I?  Talk behind your back?  Why would I talk behind your back?”  The person that was laughing wasn’t her.  If he had to find someone to condemn, he should find Qilong, right?  If it wasn’t for his big mouth, how would the surrounding children know what she said and start secretly laughing?

“Then why would they laugh at me?”  Luo Lang angrily accused.  He saw it clearly, because of some words said by Ling Lan, Qilong and the others began to laugh at him.

This accusation made Ling Lan quite powerless:  “You don’t have delusional paranoia³, do you ah?

“Delusional paranoia…”  Puchi, the surroundings once again burst into a round of snickering.  Ever since Luo Lang came up to Ling Lan, the small partners focused all their attention onto them.  As expected, they heard another interesting phrase.  They found out that this seemingly weak boy in front of them really could speak and could use words that they never heard of before.  Yet the words he spoke were very on point.  They couldn’t help but go ‘ya de, he’s really too talented’.

Qilong was the one that laughed the most uncontrollably.  Even Han Jijun’s originally calm demeanor changed.  His mouth couldn’t help but curl unconsciously into a smile, easily returning to his identity of a child.

If they didn’t laugh, it would have been fine.  However, the moment they laughed, Luo Lang became more enraged.  He pointed at them and was angered speechless.  Ling Lan shamelessly thought, will this little kid faint from anger?

—

Translated by somnious

ML appearance countdown: 83 chapters

¹ 嗤牙咧嘴 (chī yá liězuǐ):  Lit. to bare fangs/snarl

² 龙凤双胞胎 (lóngfèng shuāngbāotāi):  Dragon Phoenix twins are a pair of male/female twins (dragon – male, phoenix – female)

³ 被害妄想症 (Bèihài wàngxiǎng zhèng): Delusional Paranoia?  Initially I thought it was paranoid schizophrenia; however, after digging a bit in Baidu, it’s closer to delusional paranoia.  The literal translation is ‘fear of victimization disorder’.

Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Overly Familiar Little Boys.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

 

 

Ling Lan thought that the next test was also one by one and didn’t expect, upon arrival, it was completely out of her expectations.

The test for endurance and speed were at the same place, the academy’s athletic field.

Ling Lan and Ling Qin had just arrived when Ling Qin was stopped by an accompanying staff, indicating that parents and guardians couldn’t follow in.

Ling Lan originally didn’t need Ling Qin’s escort, but couldn’t bear to refuse the heartfelt intentions of this steward grandpa who spent his entire life loyal to the Ling family.  Upon seeing Ling Qin’s worried eyes, she busily reassured him before bidding farewell.  This considerate behavior was noticed by the staff accompanying Ling Lan.

“I didn’t expect you to be so sensible…”  The staff who was leading Ling Lan into the field praised her.  He’d seen more than enough crying, bored expressions, and various other attached expressions and behavior.  However, Ling Lan’s small adult-like consoling appearance surprised him without end.

Ling Lan smiled and didn’t speak.  It wasn’t like she couldn’t say that she was a more than thirty year old lady, how could she act like a little baby who couldn’t leave her parents or guardians?

Perhaps Ling Lan’s calm and good tempered expression made the escorting staff feel inclined towards her, so he pointed to the children on the lawn in front of them and explained:  “Over there are children who are ready to test.  There right-most with the least amount of people are civilian children, the middle are military and political family children, while the left, with the greatest amount, are large clan children.”

Upon the staff member’s actions, Ling Lan looked over to the grass and saw that a lot of people had already gathered there.  They were all children testing for this year’s enrollment.

In Doha Star, there were numerous Scout Academies like this.  But this Scout Academy that Ling Lan was enrolling in was the best one in the system, none were better.  The families that qualified for this academy test, except for the large clans who lived in Doha who already had entrance exam privileges and high ranking children who belonged to military and political families, were children who received military inheritances – such as Ling Lan.  The children who inherit military honors may be civilians, clan members, and military and political families.  Therefore, the field ended up divided into three groups.  

Of course, those who failed the exam would return to attend the Scout Academy nearest to their home.  This situation couldn’t be helped; Doha Star’s Central Scout Academy only wanted the best students, quality before quantity¹.

Most of those children who failed the entrance exam were from civilian families who had military inheritances.  The academy announced that it was because the physical quality of these children didn’t meet the school’s admission criteria.  As for if there was any other reasons, it was unknown.

Because of this claim of being the strongest Scout Academy, each year it received two special classes…of course, you have to have money, strength, and power!

Ling Lan realized that this was the staff’s sincerity and quickly smiled:  “Thank you!”

It could only be said, Ling Lan’s smile was very beautiful.  This smile was deeply carved into her bone marrow – as long as someone held good intentions, she would not withhold this smile.  In her past life, she used this smile to obtain care from the doctors and nurses.  And this life, with her perfect inheritance of the merits of both her mother and father’s good appearances, it was brimming with lethality.

Upon seeing that smile, the staff was surprised.  He subconsciously rubbed his nose and then looked around.  Finding that no one had noticed, he advised:  “Little guy, don’t smile like this from now on.  It’s not good for you.”

If this child’s family didn’t have much power, perhaps because of his young age, he likely won’t be in much danger.  However, in another five or ten years, he couldn’t be sure.

Hearing this, Ling Lan felt a moment of surprise.  She was just about to ask, but because the staff had arrived at the location and was surrounded by people, it wasn’t good to speak.  Ling Lan could only, under his worried and caring gaze, bid him farewell.

“Xiao Si, say, just what did that person mean?”  Ling Lan frowned and asked Xiao Si.

Xiao Si didn’t speak.  He just copied Ling Lan’s smile and showed it to her.  Ling Lan had never seen her current smile.  She just knew that her smile was nice and allowed people to put down any vigilance towards her and make them feel good.  But now seeing her current smile, she understood why the staff would advise her.

Ya de, it turned out that being too good looking was also a kind of trouble.  She used to be at most pretty; when she smiled it would at most give the feeling of warmth and pleasure.  Now it wasn’t the same – the androgynous her, in addition to that beautiful face, when smiling like that, carried a kind of breathtaking soul hooking effect.  This was just a six year old child, if she grew bigger…

Ling Lan didn’t believe that love between two men would have ended by this era.  Although she was really a woman, she didn’t really want a gay guy confessing to her.

Ling Lan immediately came to a decision – from now on she couldn’t smile like this anymore.

As soon as Ling Lan entered, the gaze of children from all three groups fell on her.  As it was just said, Ling Lan really did look good.  Even in this era of handsome men and beautiful women, her appearance was super-class.  And children were the kind to straightforwardly express their preferences, so beautiful children were always popular.

Thus, while Ling Lan was still trying to figure out what to do, a sturdy child standing in the middle military and political family group waved to her and shouted:  “Here, here!  Come here quickly!”

Black lines formed on Ling Lan’s forehead.  So open and familiar, who was it ah?  How come she didn’t know them?

Nevertheless, the other person’s greeting relieved her of her troubles, so she slowly walked over.  Of course, she must be slow.  In the case that she misunderstood and the person was greeting a child behind her or something, she could avoid embarrassment.

However, Ling Lan’s worry was unnecessary.  The child really was greeting her.  She hadn’t even walked halfway before he became impatient and ran up to drag her over.

Ling Lan looked at the small hand had that clasped her own without asking and thought despondently, who was he ah?  Why did he so familiarly grab her hand without asking permission?

Keke, don’t blame Ling Lan.  In two lives, this was the first time a strange man, uh, little boy held her hand.  Our fierce student, Ling Lan, was embarrassed.

Upon arrival, before the boy could speak, she heard a heavily jealous voice:  “Qilong, who is he ah?”

Ling Lan looked intently and saw that it came from a small chubby girl.  She glared fiercely at Ling Lan, as if Ling Lan was trying to rob her of a beloved thing.

Ling Lan was helpless.  Were children of this era all so precocious?  They even knew how to be jealous?  Also, if she was jealous shouldn’t she take a look at the other party?  She was a boy right now, alright?

Ling Lan felt a bit weird.  Her looks right now should be a lot better than Qilong’s.  How come it seemed like the chubby sister couldn’t see it?  Immediately becoming jealous, could this mean that this little girl didn’t like her type?

Ling Lan didn’t know that this era wasn’t like her previous era that saw thinness as beauty.  The children here used health and robustness as a beauty standard.  Ling Lan’s sick and soft bean sprout appearance, no matter how beautiful she looked, there were not that many girls who would bother to give her a glance.

Qilong didn’t notice that the small attendant at his side was jealous.  He carefreely introduced her to his friends:  “He was the one who tested before me.  Don’t assume he’s weak because he’s thin, his strength is really great.”  Qilong liked making friends with people who were stronger than him, it made him feel like he could improve.

Ling Lan froze.  It turned out that at that time, Qilong had already noticed her.

—

Translated by somnious

TL’s Note: Wheeeee! The first group of the little partners have shown up!  Also lol RIP say farewell to the cute and smiling Ling Lan…Um.  Well, it definitely can be said that the staff was correct, although we can be sure that anyone with bad intentions towards Ling Lan will have their bones snapped and spine ground to dust!  This smile also drives the male lead mad in the future (im sorry im so desperate to get to the male lead ahhhhh ;;).

ML appearance countdown: 84 chapters

¹ 宁缺毋滥 (Nìngquēwúlàn): Lit. ‘would rather be short of than have excess’