Chapter 18 - Not Bad, Not Bad

Shen Leng saw that the few black shadows were already approaching him. He could not help but to sneer to himself. Some people need to pay a huge price in order to learn their lesson.

“Shen Leng?”

Someone actually went as far as to call his name out softly; he was rather gutsy.

Shen Leng walked out from the darkness. “You’re calling me?”

After one of them spotted Shen Leng, he did a hand sign. The other two people behind him suddenly tossed something towards Shen Leng’s head, covering it. Even though it was very dark, Shen Leng could tell immediately that it was a quilt.

How childish. Shen Leng thought to himself.

Thereafter, he suddenly yelled, “There’s an intruder in the camp!”

He did not dodge and unexpectedly allowed the quilt to cover him.

In truth, Shen Leng’s yell managed to scare those fellas.The two people at the back’s first instinct was to run. However, they saw that the man in front had already taken action, hence they had no choice but to go over.

Shen Leng lifted his arms to protect his head. He tried to crouch and lower his body as much as possible, with his back facing upwards. At most, he would simply get hit a couple of times by a stick. He could take it.

He predicted that the second wave of people would come at a slightly later time. After all, they needed some time to respond.

However, to his surprise, they came a lot faster than expected. Shen Leng crouched under the quilt and had stopped getting beaten for only a short while, before he started hearing banging sounds. Thereafter, a series of anguished wails was heard.

Shen Leng lifted the corner of the quilt and the entire area was well-lit. The garrison soldiers were holding down the few people, violently beating them up.

Yang Qibao went over and helped Shen Leng up. “Are you ok, brother?”

Shen Leng shook his head. “I’m fine. Who are they? They gave me a scare. It’s only my first night duty, and yet there are intruders.”

Yang Qibao scoffed, “Don’t be afraid. They are not outsiders, but merely some scum.

Shen Leng acted dumb and grunted, with a look of shock on his face.

He had already expected this… How would it be possible for Zhuang Yong not to know that he got tormented? Even if he claimed that he did not know, it was only an act. The reason why Shen Leng wanted to get beaten up was because he wanted to see Zhuang Yong’s response.

If Zhuang Yong pretended not to know anything, he would have to find a different means of survival within the military camp in the future. Fortunately, sir’s friend was ultimately reliable.

“You’re one of us. One of us.”

The soldiers, who got beaten up, groaned in pain. “Do not hit us anymore.”

Naturally, Yang Qibao knew that they were new recruits. However, he did not order them to stop. Hence, his garrison soldiers continued hitting them. Shen Leng did not play nice either. He looked at those people and wore an innocent look on his face. “Did those bad people steal the new recruits’ uniform? How is it possible for General Zhuang’s subordinates to do such an evil deed. They must be outsiders.”

Yang Qibao was not stupid either. He immediately understood Shen Leng’s words. “That’s also true. Hit them harder. Let these bastards experience the aftermath of intruding a military camp.”

The garrison soldiers hit them even harder, till someone got beaten till he was about to draw a knife out. Only then did Yang Qibao stop them.

All the garrison soldiers came from unfortunate families. They used to get bullied by the other soldiers before. They also happened to be people who could fight and withstand beatings, hence Zhuang Yong took care of them by transferring them into the garrison. They personally hated Pang Zhang to the core, and since an opportunity came knocking at the door, naturally they would seize it and be as ruthless as possible.

As for Shen Leng, he acted like a weak and meek little rabbit..

“Don’t hit them anymore. Apart from the one over there, the rest of them have blood all over them.”

The moment the one that got beaten the least heard what he said, he knew he was in trouble. Before he even had the time to beg for forgiveness, the ferocious garrison soldiers pounced on him ruthlessly and continued hitting him hard. Originally, everybody got beaten up together, but as of now, he was the only one receiving special treatment…

When Yang Qibao saw that they had already been beaten hard enough, he gestured. “Tie these people up and bring them to the main tent for the General to use his discretion. I don’t know how these outsiders managed to steal those clothes. Perhaps someone from the new recruits’ camp violated a rule.”

The garrison soldiers tied those people up and brought them back. At this moment, Shen Leng suddenly collapsed. “There are knockout drops in the quilt!”

When he crashed to the ground, Yang Qibao got a huge shock. He quickly grabbed him and shook him hard. “Brother, are you ok?”

Shen Leng was befuddled. He answered, “I’m fine…I merely fainted. I will be fine after I go back and lay in bed for a while. He still have matters to attend to, so don’t worry about me. You can get the two brothers to send me back. I will be fine after I sleep.

Thereafter, Yang Qibao instructed two people to send Shen Leng back. One of the people who got captured yelled, “There aren’t any knockout drops! It’s just an ordinary quilt.”

Shen Leng said weakly, “You rat! Big Brother Yang, you could arrange to put me in a place where there’s nobody? I’m afraid other people might come and attack me.”

Yang Qibao went over and kicked that person in the mouth. He patted Shen Leng’s shoulder and said, “Don’t worry, nobody will do anything to you.”

He ordered his subordinates to send Shen Leng back to the garrison’s barracks, and looked for an empty room before placing him there.

Naturally, there were not any knockout drops hidden in the quilt. It was a tactic that was misused by gangsters. How was it possible for them to get hold of knockout drops in the military camp?”

After the two garrison soldiers sent Shen Leng back, in order to ensure his safety, Yang Qibao specially instructed the two of them to keep guard outside the barracks, making sure that nobody was allowed to get near Shen Leng.

Shen Leng laid on the wooden bed and listened to any detectable movement on the outside. After the door was closed, the two garrison soldiers that carried him back stood outside the door.

Shen Leng got up and tucked the pillow beneath the quilt and pretended to be asleep. Thereafter, he softly pried the window open and got out. In the dark night, Shen Leng was akin to a cheetah, passing through the darkness at a fast speed.

Shen Leng returned to the new recruits’ camp. With his abilities, hiding himself from the sentry was not difficult at all. He covered his face with a black cloth that he had prepared in advance. Thereafter, he knocked on Pang Zhang’s door, and spoke in a hoarse voice, “Commander, the deed is done. What do we do with him?”

Time was limited. Shen Leng calculated for a while - carrying a person from the back of the camp to the main tent in the center took approximately ten minutes. Very soon, someone would call for Pang Zhang to go to the center of the camp. If he were to run from the back of the camp to this place in five minutes, it would only leave him an additional five minutes at most. That’s because he still had to run back to continue pretending he was asleep.

As expected, Pang Zhang was not sleeping, and neither was he prepared. He yanked the door open and yelled, “Come in and talk! Are you courting death by talking nonsense outside the door!”

The moment he opened the door, Shen Leng directly landed a kick on Pang Zhang’s lower abdomen. Naturally, Pang Zhang was skilled in martial arts too - otherwise, he would not have been able to be promoted to a commander. However, he was not prepared…Shen Leng’s kick was extremely powerful; Pang Zhang flew backwards directly upon impact.

After Shen Leng entered the room, he shut the door. Thereafter, he stepped on Pang Zhang’s face hard and tore a piece of cloth from his clothes to stuff his mouth shut.

“You are…”

Pang Zhang tried to ask, but his voice was muffled. He could not speak clearly at all.

Shen Leng tried to be funny. He lowered his voice and said, “Shh. Son, I am your father.”

After that, he punched Pang Zhang in the eye. That punch made Pang Zhang light-headed and see stars; he almost fainted. Naturally, Shen Leng was not going to stop there. He needed to instill fear in Pang Zhang, to the point that in future he would not dare to create trouble.

He went over and took Pang Zhang’s quilt before using it to cover his head. He used one hand to press down against the chair and used the other to break off its leg. A ‘crack’ sound was heard and the leg of the chair got yanked out. Thereafter, he squatted there and started beating him as hard as he could. It was entirely ruthless.

After he had beaten him for three full minutes, Shen Leng took out his scabbath and cut the quilt apart. “Let me allow you to experience what friction is.”

Thereafter, he rubbed the scabbard against Pang Zhang’s face…

Pang Zhang abruptly straightened his body. That pain was akin to being thrown into hell and having a hungry ghost bite him in the face.

Shen Leng did not think of killing him, hence he did not use too much strength - he merely scraped off a layer of skin. If he used his strength, he was able to cut off the flesh on his face. He wiped the scabbard and kept it. He stepped on Pang Zhang’s head hard. The latter groaned in pain and passed out.

Shen Leng let out a long sigh. Naturally, Pang Zhang would never have been able to guess that he was the attacker. However, Shen Leng wanted him to know, since he had no evidence anyway.

After he finished beating, Shen Leng walked out of the room and shut it tight. He followed the same path and ran back. By the time he got in through the window and laid down in bed, Zhuang Yong’s subordinates had already arrived outside his door.

Shen Leng laid on the bed and covered himself with a quilt, and got comfortable. He scoffed.

He thought to himself: Pardon me, Big Brother Qibao. I made use of you this time.

His scoff was intentional. That was because he wanted to test to see if the guards outside had realized that he was gone at one point. As expected, they pushed the door open and took a look after entering. After they confirmed that nothing was amiss, they shut the door once more. Shen Leng had verified that they did not realize he was gone.

This feels good.

Within the main tent in the center of the cmap, Zhuang Yong was not sleeping either. He thought to himself: If Shen Leng really got terribly beaten up, how am I going to explain to Shen Xiaosong… Judging from their age difference, he felt that Shen Leng was most likely Shen Xiaosong’s son.

When his subordinates carried Pang Zhang in, Zhuang Yong sniggered happily. However, after a while, he realized that as a general, it was not very dignified of him to behave that way. Hence, he intentionally coughed a couple of times and cleared his throat… He certainly struggled to conceal his true emotions - his face looked uncomfortably constipated.

Explain?

Explain my ass.

When did that sneaky bastard beat him to a pulp like this?

“Qibao, go check on Shen Leng to see how he is.”

Zhuang Yong was too embarrassed to ask him directly to see if Shen Leng was still there.

Yang Qibao hurriedly responded and ran back. When he got back, he lightly pushed the door open and took a look. He heard Shen Leng snoring. Hence, he heaved a sigh of relief and asked the soldiers who were keeping guard, “Is everything ok?”

“Everything’s fine. He has been sleeping the whole time.”

“That’s good then.”

Yang Qibao turned around and went back. He met with Zhuang Yong and answered in a matter-of-fact tone, “The garrison soldiers have been keeping guard outside his door. After Shen Leng had been drugged, he fell into a deep slumber. I was afraid that something might happen to him so I did not send him back to the new recruits’ camp, and kept him in one of the rooms in the garrison barracks instead.”

What kind of person was Zhuang Yong? Of course he could guess what had happened.

He nodded, and cursed to himself: Sneaky bastard. Thereafter, he instructed earnestly, “When he’s awake, tell him to come here and meet with me!”

Yang Qibao hurriedly responded and asked, “How should we deal with the intruders?”

Zhuang Yong got someone to wake Pang Zhang up. Thereafter, he pointed at the bunch of people who were badly beaten out of shape, and asked. “Are these people from your new recruits’ camp?”

Pang Zhang’s face was distorted from the pain. He got down on his knees and did not dare to deny. All he could do was nod and say, “Yes…”

“Lock them up. Wait for me to finish investigating before I decide on the punishment.”

Zhuang Yong gestured with his hand. “You may all leave.”

Yang Qibao detained all of them. Zhuang Yong yawned and stretched his body, thinking to himself: As expected, the people that were mentored by Shen Xiaosong were as shameless as him… Nonetheless, this tactic is not bad. Not bad at all.