07 – Chapter 1
Instructor Leng squinted his eyes, leaning close to the sunlight by the window, extremely gently caressing the thin Bai Zhe Dao in his hands. After a long while, he nodded approvingly: “Hmm, no nicks, no scratches, the blade sharp as ever. It seems you use your blade with care.”
Meng Jianqing sheathed the Bai Zhe Dao and smiled: “Thank you for Instructor Leng’s praise.”
Instructor Leng turned to scrutinize him for a long time before speaking with a stern expression: “You little rascal, you haven’t returned for several years, and today you suddenly remember to find me. This is not as simple as asking me to examine your blade, is it? Let me make this clear first – regardless of whether you’re handling a case or have other matters, you are not allowed to cause any ghostly wailing and howling inside Jiangwu Hall!”
Meng Jianqing smiled: “Instructor Leng, how would I dare be so bold?”
Instructor Leng snorted: “Stop with that act. With Shen Guangli backing you, what wouldn’t you dare to do?”
The smile on Meng Jianqing’s face remained unchanged: “Instructor Leng has indeed misunderstood. This time I’ve come, I intend to move my mouth but not my hands-unless someone else strikes first, which would have nothing to do with me, right, Instructor Leng?”
Instructor Leng couldn’t be bothered to say more to him, stood up and said: “I don’t care what exactly you want to do. This place, I’m only lending it to you for one day. When the time is up, you immediately get out of here!”
Meng Jianqing also stood up, bowing and replying: “Yes. Instructor Leng, farewell.”
Watching Instructor Leng step out through the armory’s main door, Meng Jianqing turned around, his face already changed as if he wore a different mask, and said to the three servants in the armory: “According to my list, you will go invite people one by one. Just say Instructor Leng has business with them. If anyone talks too much, don’t blame me for not giving Instructor Leng face!”
The people Meng Jianqing wanted to see were three second-year students.
Jin Yi Xing – Chapter One
Han Xiaotian stepped into the gloomy armory in confusion, looking around. The towering weapon racks extended layer by layer into the depths of the warehouse, as if endlessly. Dense iron-barred small skylights, hidden under long protruding eaves, allowed cool breezes to blow through thread by thread, yet little light could penetrate, making the warehouse appear even more cold and dark.
Han Xiaotian waited for a long time without seeing anyone come out. In his hesitation, he felt that looking left and right would make him appear too immature, so he continued to stand straight in place. But in the silence, he couldn’t help reaching out to gently touch a row of spear racks in front of him. The spear racks were spotless. He raised his head to look at the rows of spear tips towering high before him, clusters of red tassels swaying slightly in the threads of cool breeze.
Who had polished every weapon to such brilliance and cleaned every row of weapon racks so thoroughly – was it those three servants, or this seemingly never-ceasing cool breeze that passed through the hall?
Meng Jianqing stood quietly behind a row of long spears, observing this second-year student who carried himself with magnificent bearing like a dragon soaring beyond the heavens, yet stood there with a composed concentration quite inconsistent with his age. Han Xiaotian’s father was a Qianhu of the Fengyang Guard. Though his official rank wasn’t particularly high, his position was very important – Fengyang was the birthplace of the dynasty, where the imperial mausoleum was located, and Qianhu Han was directly responsible for the mausoleum’s security.
This year’s new students were all military children with clean backgrounds. Their records contained absolutely no falsehoods – Instructor Lu, who managed student files, had assured him of this.
But what did clean records matter? Hadn’t his record when entering school been spotlessly clean as well?
Han Xiaotian finally sensed his gaze and turned his eyes over.
Meng Jianqing slowly walked out.
Han Xiaotian recognized his uniform colors and couldn’t help being startled, though the surprised expression on his face vanished in an instant. He cupped his hands composedly: “Xiao Wei, it was you who wanted to see me, not Instructor Leng, correct?”
Meng Jianqing couldn’t help smiling slightly.
After all, this was someone selected from ten thousand, at an age that feared neither tigers nor wolves. No wonder he dared to face him so righteously.
Meng Jianqing nodded slightly: “My surname is Meng, third-term student of Jiangwu Hall. Student Han, please sit.”
Han Xiaotian was only momentarily stunned before remembering who this Xiao Wei Meng was.
This time, his shock wasn’t so easily brushed aside.
Meng Jianqing sat down across a long table, gazing at Han Xiaotian, who sat ramrod straight across from him.
This new student with such an imposing bearing, who was even somewhat aggressive, gave him a subtle feeling of familiarity.
In that instant, he suddenly felt in a trance that Han Xiaotian was himself, while the one sitting behind this long table was Shen Guangli.
He seemed to see the tension in Han Xiaotian’s heart, just as Shen Guangli of years past had seen that tightly wound string in his own heart.
Meng Jianqing suddenly understood why Han Xiaotian gave him that familiar feeling.
This was also someone hiding some kind of secret. No matter how strong his will, how cautious his conduct, or how flamboyant his outward appearance, the secret in his heart would still leave certain traces on such a young face.
Meng Jianqing’s gaze made the tension and pressure in Han Xiaotian’s heart grow heavier and heavier. He suddenly raised his head: “Xiao Wei Meng – or perhaps I should call you Senior Meng – what is your business?”
Meng Jianqing smiled: “I want to find someone in Jiangwu Hall, someone who calls himself an envoy of the Maitreya Sect’s treasury.”
Han Xiaotian was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter: “Find such a person in Jiangwu Hall? Would there be such a person in Jiangwu Hall? Ha…”
But Meng Jianqing stared at him coldly, making him unable to continue laughing.
Meng Jianqing said flatly, “Is this very funny? Military children with clean backgrounds couldn’t betray the court and become envoys of the Maitreya Sect’s treasury?”
Han Xiaotian looked directly into his eyes: “So Senior Meng is suspecting me? Ha, this is truly a joke. I have such excellent prospects, why would I want to betray? What could I gain from betrayal?”
Meng Jianqing said slowly: “Good question – why would you betray? You’d have to ask yourself that. Perhaps you don’t consider it betrayal at all, but rather think we are the betrayers, that the Great Ming has betrayed the Bright King and Maitreya; perhaps you think today’s world is so filthy and corrupt that only by smashing it all and starting over, letting the Bright King be reborn, letting Maitreya descend again, like the phoenix reborn from fire, can a perfect world you love be established; perhaps you’re doing it merely for a woman you love, or even just for immeasurable wealth – money can move gods, let alone mortals?”
As he slowly voiced each speculation, Han Xiaotian’s expression gradually changed.
Meng Jianqing’s gaze didn’t miss any slight change in his expression, yet his tone remained unhurried: “You grew up in Fengyang – that’s the dragon’s birthplace, but also where criminal officials serve hard labor. Your father bears supervisory responsibility, which made you very familiar with them from childhood, didn’t it? They were all people with talent, ability, ambition, and hearts full of grievances or even resentment. They must have made you more aware than most people of the various ills behind this country’s glory, and also made you more persistent than most in wanting to change this world, to correct all these ills, right? Before entering Jiangwu Hall, you had already tried to put your ideas into practice at Fengyang Guard. In recent years, Fengyang Guard has dug channels to divert water to reduce the hardship of manual irrigation, established medicine and porridge distribution centers to aid the poor, invited high monks to raise funds to help families of officials who died in Fengyang transport coffins back home – all of this and more. Outsiders might see it as your father’s initiatives, but in reality, they were your initiatives. What were you trying to do in Fengyang?”
Han Xiaotian smiled: “Any person with a conscience should do these things. Who pushes for them – what does it matter?”
Meng Jianqing stared intently at his smile. Was what lay hidden behind the smile confidence or unease, or perhaps both?
Meng Jianqing continued: “The problem is, many people who benefited from you, including those who assisted you, don’t like you and aren’t willing to be grateful to you. Do you think you know why?”
The smile on Han Xiaotian’s face froze momentarily before he said: “Human nature is naturally thus, always forgetting kindness and turning ungrateful. But how they think – how could that affect me!”
Meng Jianqing firmly believed his last sentence came from the heart. Though Han Xiaotian was young and inevitably passive in his presence, he had never wavered in that unwavering determination and conviction – but what kind of conviction?
Meng Jianqing changed course: “Don’t you want to know why they act that way?”
Han Xiaotian pressed his lips tightly together without answering.
Meng Jianqing smiled slightly, knowing he had grasped the doubts and hopes in Han Xiaotian’s heart, and said slowly: “You show kindness to them, they should naturally be grateful. But you have always been so obsessed with perfection. Whether toward others or yourself, you cannot tolerate any flaws or blemishes. Everyone in your presence feels your criticism and dissatisfaction – perhaps no person or thing can make you feel satisfied, can make you feel perfect. For someone like you, even a single speck of dust would make you feel it must be eliminated, so this world must be very displeasing to your eyes indeed. You’ve always felt you have the ability and mission to change everything, to create a perfect, brand new world, haven’t you?”
Han Xiaotian met his gaze. After a long while, he suddenly laughed mockingly: “If that’s the case, hasn’t Senior Meng been monitoring me for a long time and already decided my guilt? Doesn’t the Imperial Guard always arrest people based on suspicion? Why do you still need to sneak here to meet me and ask these inexplicable questions? Could it be that you, Senior Meng, don’t think today’s world has so many flaws and blemishes that must be constantly corrected? Isn’t that exactly what the Imperial Guard does every day?”
Meng Jianqing watched him. Han Xiaotian had been backed into a corner, yet could still counterattack so sharply. Such talent – if he truly was that person, what a pity it would be! And if he wasn’t that person, what a cause for celebration!
Meng Jianqing stood up: “Correct, the Imperial Guard is dedicated to correcting all ills. The difference is, we never dream, never dream of a perfect, flawless world. We only do what we can do.”
He clapped his hands lightly. A guard responded and entered, taking Han Xiaotian into the adjacent side room to watch over him.