The second thing Meng Jianqing had not expected was that the food at Jiangwu Hall would be so poor.

The benches in the dining hall were narrow and hard, barely adequate for support, as if deliberately designed to prevent them from sitting down comfortably for a proper meal. On the pitted long tables, crude earthenware bowls and bamboo chopsticks were lined up in rows—nothing more than a bowl of coarse rice and a plate of pickled vegetables per person.

The new students inevitably began buzzing with discussion.

Deputy Chief Instructor Cai Ben walked in.

Though they were new students, many had heard of this Chief Instructor Cai, renowned for his strictness. It was said that Cai Ben had originally been a personal guard to the Hongwu Emperor, had repeatedly achieved great merit and been granted the rank of Qianhu, stationed at Suzhou Guard—that was Zhang Shicheng’s old stronghold, showing the Hongwu Emperor’s trust in Cai Ben. The sensational Gao Qi case from a few years ago had been exposed by Cai Ben, resulting in the poet, acclaimed as the greatest of his time, being executed by waist-cutting. This also seemed to involve other rather troublesome matters, which led to Cai Ben being transferred back to Yingtian and ordered to establish Jiangwu Hall, to avoid outside troubles. In terms of position, Cai Ben was only Deputy Chief Instructor, but the Chief Instructor position was held in name by Crown Prince Zhu Biao. Since the Crown Prince was busy with governmental affairs, all matters were left entirely to Cai Ben’s management. Thus, this Deputy Chief Instructor wielded enormous power, and everyone at Jiangwu Hall knew that Chief Instructor Cai was the real Chief Instructor.

As soon as Cai Ben entered, there was a gloomy oppressive atmosphere, and the new students all fell silent involuntarily.

Cai Ben looked around and said slowly, “Mencius said: ‘When Heaven is about to confer a great office on a man, it first exercises his mind with suffering and his sinews and bones with toil.’ As the common saying goes, ‘One who can chew vegetable roots can accomplish anything.’ If you cannot even overcome this desire for food and drink, what kind of good men are you?”

The new students looked at each other, each smiling knowingly in their hearts. “One who can chew vegetable roots can accomplish anything” was Chief Instructor Cai’s favorite admonition, so it naturally became Chief Instructor Cai’s nickname. Some mean-spirited people added the word “bitter” in front—Bitter Vegetable Root.

In the silence, someone timidly asked, “May I ask Chief Instructor Cai, how long must we endure before we pass this trial?”

Cai Ben’s sharp gaze pierced over, and the questioning new student couldn’t help but shrink back.

Cai Ben slowly replied, “Until I think you can pass.”

Almost all the new students in the dining hall gasped in shock.

Cai Ben sat down.

Later, everyone learned that for the past two years, Chief Instructor Cai had insisted on dining together with the students, so they would have no reason to complain.

The new students couldn’t help but gasp even more. To think that for the next three years, they would have to spend their time under the watchful eye of such a Chief Instructor—it was truly terrifying…

When the bell rang, all the students raised their chopsticks in unison and swept through their food like a whirlwind. In an instant, everything was cleaned up. They looked at each other, all feeling that after eating, their stomachs felt even more uncomfortably hungry.

But no one dared complain again in front of Chief Instructor Cai.

Meng Jianqing was awakened by hunger in the middle of the night.

Besides Meng Jianchen and Gongsun Yi, there were three other new students from Zhejiang in the same room. They had all awakened by now, and the gurgling sounds from their stomachs rose and fell in succession. Gongsun Yi muttered, “This is no life for humans.”

His appetite had always been enormous. During these three months at Jiangwu Hall, he had endured and endured, but tonight he finally could endure no more. He got up and said, “How about you all? I absolutely must find something to eat, or I’ll truly starve to death here!”

Everyone immediately perked up. One person asked, “Where do you plan to find food?”

Gongsun Yi said matter-of-factly, “The kitchen, of course!”

Although sneaking out at midnight would earn ten military rod strikes if discovered, compared to the cat-scratching sensation of hunger, Gongsun Yi would rather take those ten strikes—besides, he might not necessarily be discovered.

Gongsun Yi returned in less than half an hour, looking dejected and saying resentfully, “How strange! There’s nothing in the kitchen except oil, salt, and firewood—not even a handful of vegetables or rice!”

The kitchen must have already suffered from various foods disappearing mysteriously, so they had adopted a scorched earth policy, leaving nothing for them.

The croaking of frogs outside the high walls came in waves, making them even more irritated.

Meng Jianchen suddenly said, “Go to the kitchen and get some salt. We’ll catch some frogs to roast.”

This was indeed a solution. They decided that Gongsun Yi would still steal the salt—he had already made the trip once and knew the way—while the Meng brothers would take the salt, climb over the wall, and roast frogs.

The wall, three men high, could not stop Meng Jianchen. Meng Jianchen pulled a long spear from the weapon rack beside the training ground, held it aloft as he ran toward the high wall, and when he neared it, touched the spear tip to the ground, leaped up with the spear, bounded toward the wall top, rolled over, and landed outside the wall.

Meng Jianqing threw the spear out to him.

He knew Meng Jianchen wouldn’t necessarily want to use his method to climb back over the wall.

Meng Jianqing flicked his hand and threw out the thin rope tightly wrapped around his waist. The rope’s five-claw hook caught on the wall top, and he climbed out along the rope.

Meng Jianchen looked him over and curled his lip, saying, “This kind of lowly thief’s tool—to think you treasure it and keep it hidden on your person. You don’t also have sleeping powder hidden on you, do you?”

Meng Jianqing said indifferently, “I didn’t dare bring sleeping powder with me, lest the instructors see it and cause trouble. As for the rope and hook, as long as it’s useful, what does it matter what kind of person likes to use such weapons?”

Especially when catching frogs.

In just a moment, they had caught a full bag. Meng Jianchen started a fire and watched as Meng Jianqing skillfully skinned and salted the frogs, then roasted them over the fire, turning them frequently. He couldn’t help feeling somewhat strange inside. He had never done such things.

Meng Jianqing looked up at him and said, “You need to learn to do this. In the future, when you’re out there, you won’t always have cooks following you.”

Meng Jianchen naturally knew this was true, but hearing it from Meng Jianqing’s mouth made him angry no matter how he listened. Just as he was considering how to make some sarcastic remarks, the night wind faintly carried the aroma of roasted fish. Both couldn’t help but sniff—who else would be roasting fish in the wild at this hour?

When they had eaten their fill and were sneaking back with a bag of roasted frogs, they unexpectedly ran into Guanxi and another second-term student. Guanxi was carrying a cloth bag with a fish head poking out of the opening.

The four looked at each other speechlessly. After a long moment, they looked at each other and laughed.

If Chief Instructor Cai knew how they filled their stomachs, would he be so angry that smoke would pour from his seven orifices?

Every night before sleep, they pondered how to sneak out, where to find food, and how to sneak back. Meng Jianqing, surprisingly, no longer dreamed of Mr. Yan Er, who had been troubling him.

More and more people snuck out at night. Finally, one night, the night patrol soldiers caught two of them. Each received ten rod strikes, room inspections increased from once to three times, and iron caltrops over a foot high were installed on the wall tops.

However, where there’s a will, there’s a way. Soon, people began digging tunnels. Each person entering and exiting would leave behind a portion of the food they brought back. But this tunnel later became too prosperous for business. The guards became somewhat carried away with success, and in a moment of carelessness, were discovered by the night patrol soldiers. This route was thus abandoned.

Some students from wealthy families secretly arranged with shops near Jiangwu Hall, agreeing on times and places. At midnight, food would be thrown in, they would catch the packages, then throw out silver in return. This continued many times until it was finally discovered—frequent mountain climbing eventually leads to meeting tigers, which was inevitable.

Meng Jianqing and his five roommates watched these cat-and-mouse games with cold eyes. They still used the old method—climbing walls. Although the wall was high, it could not stop the Meng brothers. As the saying goes, the most dangerous place is the safest place. Everyone thought this wall was heavily guarded and had become forbidden territory, so even the night patrol soldiers had become slack, which made it convenient for them to enter and exit.

Although going in and out was no problem, the Meng brothers encountered another issue—the frogs in the vicinity were becoming increasingly scarce and insufficient to fill their stomachs.

Originally, Xuanwu Lake was a life-release lake with numerous fish of all sizes. But Guanxi and his group had caught fish in the lake too many times, and were finally discovered by the monks of Jiming Temple by the lake. When they tried to stop them, a fight broke out. Those monks were naturally no match, but being unable to catch the fish thieves, they patrolled nightly. At any disturbance, they would beat gongs and drums. Guanxi’s group, fearing they would be caught by the patrol inspectors and cause big trouble, could only change locations. The Jiming Temple monks, still worried, continued their patrols without stopping even for a single night. Meng Jianqing and the others could only gaze at the fish and sigh, secretly cursing why these monks had to be so conscientious.

Thus, the range of Meng Jianqing’s food searching expanded further and further, from within five li of Jiangwu Hall to within ten li, then twenty li… from frogs to wild rabbits, wild chickens, fish, shrimp, snakes, and crabs… Later, within a radius of thirty li, anything that flew in the sky, crawled on the ground, or swam in the water would flee at the first scent of them. When this was mentioned, it caused Gongsun Yi and the other four to burst into wild laughter.

Instructor Kong’s archery classes at this time inspired them. The Meng brothers began shooting fish. They tied thin, long fishing line to arrow tails and lay in wait outside the patrol routes of the Jiming Temple monks. The moment those monks looked away, two fish would be shot and quickly dragged into the grove. Meng Jianchen carried a bag of fish, following behind Meng Jianqing, crouching low and holding their breath as they fled through the low bushes. Only when they were far from Xuanwu Lake would they sit down to roast fish. He found it quite interesting and fun, while at the same time feeling uncomfortable that if both he and Meng Jianqing were thrown into wild mountains and wilderness, Meng Jianqing would be the one more likely to survive.

If Instructor Kong knew they were practicing archery this way, would he be furious with smoke pouring from his seven orifices, or would he just laugh it off?

Meng Jianqing couldn’t help thinking that those fellows who could still fill their stomachs at Jiangwu Hall would probably all become experts at raiding camps and capturing strongholds in the future—people who could survive anywhere they were thrown…

Working so hard at night inevitably led to insufficient sleep. Fortunately, during this period, they had started another course on historical military systems and battle cases.

When they first saw Instructor Gui Younian, there was a chorus of gasps in the lecture hall. They began to understand the second-term students’ exclamation: “A towering mountain to look up to!”

With such a huge mountain of flesh standing in the lecture hall, it was hard not to look up at it…

Instructor Gui’s smile remained perpetually unchanged on his face like Maitreya Buddha. Each class, he would routinely deliver earnest instructions about the principle that “if you read three hundred Tang poems thoroughly, you can compose poetry even if you don’t know how.” Then he would distribute a large sheet densely covered with text for everyone to memorize. After that, the old gentleman would comfortably recline on the enormous arhat couch behind the lectern and sleep soundly until one hour before the dinner bell rang, when he would wake up precisely on time and have everyone recite in turn. Those who could recite could leave first; those who couldn’t had to stay behind. Instructor Gui only had one hour of wakefulness. After this hour, he would sleep soundly again and wouldn’t wake up until two hours later—those students left behind had to stay hungry in the lecture hall for two hours.

Meng Jianqing and Meng Jianchen thus seized the time to sleep for an hour while Instructor Gui was deeply asleep, then used another hour to memorize that densely packed large sheet. Killing two birds with one stone, they were truly grateful beyond measure to this Instructor Gui who seemed to be holding a sinecure.

The second-term students had originally nicknamed Instructor Gui “Gui Mountain”—a mountain of flesh. Some new students who were slightly more well-read quietly laughed, saying that back in the day, Scholar Dongpo had mocked a colleague who was good at sleeping by calling him a “six-eyed turtle”—one who could sleep as much as three ordinary turtles in one breath. Instructor Gui just happened to have the surname “Gui” (which sounds like “turtle”), so wasn’t he exactly a six-eyed turtle? Though the words were harsh, they were perfectly apt. After the new students finished laughing, the nickname “Six-eyed Gui” spread from there.