Chapter 2 - I Want to Laugh

Shen Leng held the small hunting knife in his mouth and charged into the icy cold river. It was fortunate that he was fit, otherwise if he were to jump in like that with no preparation, he would most likely have had a cramp and end up drowning in the deep river.

A young man, who was unaware of his ferocity.

He was impetuous because he was ignorant. He was fearless because he was impetuous.

He caught up with the cargo ship and since he was fully drenched, his risk of catching fire had lowered. He followed along the back of the ship and climbed onto it. This was indeed Mr. Shen’s cargo ship. Leng’er had loaded the goods multiple times over the past few years, hence it was only normal for him to be familiar with it. However, the ship was empty. There were no goods or people.

Leng’er was relieved. Since there were no people, it meant that he was still alive. He was aware of the sea bandits’ methods of doing things. If nobody was killed, there was a 70 to 80 percent chance that the sea bandits were familiar with the routes of the cargo ships. If they captured the people, they would ask for a random. In reality, even if they had received the ransom, they would not let them go - they would definitely tie them to rocks and sink them to the bottom of the river.

Shen Leng saw something on the deck that was reflecting light. He went over to pick it up - it was a small and exquisite scabbard. Instinctively he inserted his hunting knife into it. It fit perfectly...however, why did Mr. Shen leave the scabbard behind?

As long one was alive, he must not give up. This was what Mr. Shen told him before. No matter how tough or miserable the situation was, as long as one was alive, he must never give up hope.

Shen Leng kept his small hunting knife. He jumped into the river once more. Before he jumped into the river, he thought to himself: I had eaten a steamed bun earlier on. I should have enough strength.

As he was going against the current, judging from the state of the ship, Leng’er deduced that the sea bandits should be roughly one to two miles upstream, at the very most. He was not sure how far he was able to swim; all he knew was that he had to go no matter what.

If anyone knew about this, they would be extremely shocked. He was only a mere twelve-year -old boy, how was he able to swim against the current for one to two miles?

What kind of physique did he have!

After Leng’er saw the sea bandits’ ship, he secretly swam over and climbed up onto the deck. He realized that Mr. Shen was not on the ship. The ship was filled with plundered goods. Evidently, the sea bandits looked extremely pleased and happy. They gathered together and seemed to be discussing something.

“Second-in-command, the Shen guy should be able to fetch us quite a good amount of money, right?”

“The first-in-command had already had his eye on him for several years - he sent some people to that fella’s hometown and collected a lot of intel on him. He’s from a rich family, getting several thousand taels of silver should not be difficult.”

The second-in-command gestured, “Move faster, we got to steer the ship back.”

One of the bandits smiled, “Don’t worry, second-in-command. You should know how efficient I am.”

The second-in-command replied, “I know you are efficient, the young lady, Xiao Die, of Manyue Brothel told me so many times before that you’re the fastest.”

Everyone burst out laughing.

Shen Leng, who was hiding in one corner, felt a chill run down his spine. He originally thought that the sea bandits were going to go as far as they could away from Yulin town. However, Manyue Brothel was in Yulin town itself. He had walked past young lady Xiao Die a couple of times before.

The sea bandits’ battleship was merely an ordinary cargo ship. However, it was covered with a layer of galvanized iron sheet, and they had also added a ram. Naturally, an ordinary cargo ship would not be able to match up to it. Leng’er hid within the battleship and followed the sea bandits back to their base. To a twelve year old boy, how scary would this experience be?

Leng’er realized that he was initially starting to get scared, but towards the end, he was not afraid at all.

Strange.

It was to be noted that the sea bandits’ was a lot more adept at steering the ship, as compared to the Water Patrol. They managed to maneuver their way out of a narrow aqueduct into the Nanping river, before entering a reed marsh.

Leng’er hid amongst the goods, which were then loaded into a cargo cart, he felt as though they were heading downstream.

He was not worried about his safety; instead, he was wondering where Mr. Shen was, as well as the young lady named Cha Yan.

The moment he thought of her, Shen Leng felt somewhat strange. She was always rather rude towards him, and was very fierce as well. It also seemed as though she looked down on him, and yet she was always talking to him every single time.

She was an outrageously beautiful young lady, even though she always acted savage like a boy. Mr. Shen mentioned before that she was reincarnated into the wrong body - the embryo of an outstanding beauty met with a terrible temper.

At this very moment, Mr. Shen was sitting in a chariot with Cha Yan. Their hands and feet were bound.

“Is it worth it?”

Cha Yen suddenly asked him.

Mr. Shen nodded, replied as earnestly as possible, “Of course it’s worth it. He’s coming.”

Cha Yan lifted her head and said, “So what if he’s coming? With a cowardly nature like that, how would he be able to accomplish any great things? If I were him, I would have beat Mr. Meng up a hundred times.”

“Hence you’re better than Meng Changan.”

Cha Yan furrowed her brows slightly, “Merely better than Meng Changan?”

“You know that in the future, there aren’t many people who are better than Meng Changan.”

“I don’t think he’s that great. That Shen Leng, hmph...how can his last name be Shen? His last name should be...”

Mr. Shen shook his head slightly, “Let him have that last name...Leng’er.”

When he mentioned Leng’er’s name, Mr. Shen smiled. Evidently, he was gratified. “Him? Twenty years from now, nobody would be better than him in this world.”

“You are that certain it’s him?”

Cha Yan was somewhat unhappy, “Why can’t it be me? I was also an abandoned infant, who is he to...”

Seeing the look in Mr. Shen’s eyes, she did not have the cheek to continue.

That was right - she was abandoned too.

After a few moments of silence, Cha Yan asked Mr. Shen, “When you brought me home, was it because you felt guilty for abandoning him?”

Mr. Shen looked into her eyes and earnestly answered her with another question, “Why do you keep comparing yourself to him?”

Cha Yan stopped looking at the front of the chariot. She impatiently undid the ropes around her hands and feet, “I will tie myself up again later...You’re asking me why I keep comparing myself to him? That’s because we are both very similar - we both got abandoned and adopted. Even our names were given to us on a whim.”

Mr. Shen sighed and said, “You are never going to let go of this.”

“Isn’t it so? He was found on a cold winter day, hence he was named Leng’er (note: ‘leng’ means cold in chinese). I was found under a camellia tree, hence you named me Cha’er (note: camellia in chinese is ‘cha hua(flower)’). Weren’t we casually named?”

“Didn’t I change it to Cha Yan after that?”

“That was probably because you got tired of me harping on it. Shen Cha Yan...how boring. Three years ago, you found Leng’er and started doing textile business. All the investigations made by the different government offices gave you a headache, and so you conveniently changed my name. Did you think I don’t know?”

Mr. Shen lowered his head in silence.

Seeing him like this, Cha Yan helplessly shook her head, “Forget it, I accept my fate...However, did you ever think - what if he’s not the child that you abandoned?”

“How would that be possible?”

Mr. Shen continued, “There is no such coincidence in this world.”

“On the contrary, there are indeed a lot of coincidences.”

“You may be right...however, I have confirmed it before. The date and route that Mr. Meng took were both correct. Furthermore, I wouldn’t make an error of judgement. When I was at the Sanqing Temple in Yunxiao city, I specialized in fortune telling. Even though I’m not certain about Leng’er’s physiognomy, I was fine with the rest.”

“Yes, yes. You were so awesome. But didn’t you get scared afterwards to the point you took off your Daoist robe?”

“Could you please be more respectful towards me? After all, I’m your father in name.”

“Ok...”

Cha Yan glanced at Mr. Shen and said, “Didn’t you mention before that you couldn’t read the fortune of three people accurately thus far? One of them was Shen Leng. Since it was not accurate, why are you so sure that it’s him?”

“I have a gut feeling. Sometimes gut feeling is more accurate that fortune telling. Furthermore, the evidence is right there. There’s no way I can be wrong.”

“Normally, people who use gut feeling as an excuse to explain things that they have no explanation for...forget it. Let’s change the topic and not talk about this. You mentioned before that you could not read the fortune of three people. One of them is Leng’er, the other is His Majesty. Who is the other one? Why can’t you just tell me?”

“I’ll tell you next time.”

Mr. Shen glanced at Cha Yan hard. Even though he saw her every single day, he still could not help but feel a little shocked every time. She had such strong features, to the point it made him feel as though everything he had learned before was wrong. How could her physiognomy belong to that of a girl?

And precisely because she was a girl, otherwise he would have felt that Cha Yan was the person he was looking for. However, the route and timing did not match. It was three years apart.

“Did you think about your next steps after taking Leng’er away?”

“If he’s with me, his life would be better than Meng Changan’s life in the Yanta Academy of Classical Learning.”

“Yanta Academy of Classical Learning? An academy is nothing. In my opinion, he should go to the Four Depositories Military Repository. It’s a place for real men!”

Cha Yan gestured her small fist enthusiastically before realizing that she was not behaving like a girl. She stopped and tried to act ladylike by sitting properly.

“Don’t forget, Pei Tingshan once attended Yanta Academy of Classical Learning.”

It was only after Mr. Shen reminded her about it that Cha Yan remembered the Great General of the Eastern border. He was someone who led 9,000 combat soldiers and traversed right outside of Changan city; a person who was feared by 80,000 troops within the city.

Out of the four Great Generals of Great Ning, Pei Tingshan was the only one who was not affiliated to the Four Depositories Military Repository. Instead, he was an erudite from the Yanta Academy of Classical Learning. However, amongst the four of them, the one who was the most unreasonable and least scholarly-like was also him.

“Are you trying to tell me that Meng Changan had similar physiognomy to Pei Tingshan?”

“Pei Tingshan? How can he be compared to him!”

Mr. Shen scoffed. He was not sure if she meant that Meng Changan could not be compared to Pei Tingshan or vice versa.

“What are you thinking about?”

Mr. Shen asked Cha Yan.

Cha Yan thought about what had crossed her mind earlier, and realized she did not have a comeback. “Oh, nothing. Just tongue twisters.”

“You’re thinking of tongue twisters at a time like this?”

“When are we not allowed to think of tongue twisters?”

“We’re almost there.”

Mr. Shen reminded her.

Once again, Cha Yan had an impatient and annoyed look on her face. She took the ropes and tied herself up again. She actually managed to do it!

“One last question.”

Cha Yan asked Mr. Shen, “You purposely left the scabbard on the ship, right?”

“Yes.”

Mr. Shen laughed, “I hope he knows what I’m trying to convey to him.”

Cha Yan curled her lips, “With his intellect...forget it. Pretend I didn’t say anything.”

She lowered her head and resentfully stuffed the cloth back into her mouth. Mr. Shen could not help but ask, “Why didn’t you stuff the cloth into your mouth before you tied yourself up? Instead of going through all the trouble after tying yourself up.”

Cha Yan was dumbfounded for a moment. She thought of the word ‘intellect’ and got angry.

The chariot that the both of them were in was slower than the cargo cart that Shen Leng was hiding in. Shen Leng used the small unsharpened hunting knife to cut the sack open with much difficulty and got out of it, after which he gasped for air. He was almost suffocated to death.

He squatted behind the goods and could not help but think to himself - why am I still unafraid?

Thereafter, he heard footsteps. Almost immediately after, he heard the sound of the door opening. He secretly stole a glance from behind the goods. His eyes widened.

Four or five ferocious looking bandits had a long sword in their hands. They shoved a young man, wearing clothes made from brocade fabric. Shen Leng had never expected Meng Changan to get captured by them. Furthermore, it seemed as though he was crying earlier on. As it turned out, an arrogant and haughty young man could be scared into tears...

At times like these, Shen Leng tried his best to hold himself back from laughing. If not, he would ruin the ambience.

But he really wanted to laugh.