"Oh yeah, where has Tang Ye gone?" It was a rare occasion for Boss Shen to come to my room, yet we weren't all present so she was surprised. She remarked: "It's rare to not see you all present."
The three of us are usually together so we gave the impression that we were glued together. Boss Shen looked at us like "I told you your love triangle would ruin your relationship" expression as soon as she arrived.
I almost choked to death from the piece of pear in my mouth.
Do you still suspect me of being gay?!
Boss Shen sat on my bed. She looked at my sheets and then narrowed her eye to look at me, and ask: "Last night…"
"Nothing happened last night!"
"Are your sheets…"
"My sheets are clean!"
"I can see they've been washed." Boss Shen looked like she was smiling but at the same time not. She nodded and added: "It must tend to get dirty?"
Hey! Hey! Hey! How do you know so much?
Fuck! That's filthy!!
Su Xiao didn't understand a thing we were saying. He laughed and said: "Tang Ye went out. I don't know what his deal has been recently, but he's been training even more diligently than before. He used to get up early daily before, but now he gets up early and returns late. Recently, he's hand-balled all the missions to us while he heads outside the city to train."
Tang Ye has been much more dedicated after he lost to me last time. He disappears after we finish our patrols or missions, while Su Xiao and I go to eat. He's like an old man who found a dark cave where he can seclude himself to train. He spends at least six full hours training daily.
The last few days, he didn't seem to even return all night. It's like he's out to kill gods or something. The only time I've been so scared that it could rival his mood is the time when my shifu was chasing girls in the Western City with his eyes completely red.
Boss Shen felt reassured knowing he was training so diligently and nodded: "Tang Ye has best the best behaviour as usual. How about you two? Have you two trained at all?"
Su Xiao obediently reported: "Yes! I asked a few of the seniors at the office to teach me Liu Shan Men's sword techniques. I've been learning the Six-Forms Sword Art recently."
"Good." Boss Shen rubbed Su Xiao's head to encourage him. Su Xiao revealed a shy smile making him look like a kitten that got a pat. The room was filled with a healing aura.
Aaahh~ life is beautiful.
"Learning the sword will be good for you." Boss Shen laughed out loud and said: "You can't use your Ancient Cold Sabre during the imperial martial arts tournament. The Six-Forms Sword Art is Liu Shan Men's basics. Your original specialty is the broadsword so it's a bit difficult, but luckily you're still young. It's not too late to start learning."
"Yeah, that's what Big Brother Ming told me." Su Xiao grabbed my sleeve and continued: "Big Brother Ming said my family art excessively focuses on the Ancient Cold Sabre. He told me I should broaden my knowledge by studying the styles of other schools."
Su Xiao gave me a sudden god-tier assist!
"I never imagined you could say sensible things." Boss Shen came over to me and raised her beautiful chin as though she was rewarding me and in a tone of admiration asked: "What about you? What have you done?"
Hahaha, Boss Shen, that's too easy!
"My diligent boss, you must know that I…"
"But Big Brother Ming didn't do anything. He just went around spending money lavishly with the money earned from the missions." Su Xiao thought hard and long, and then continued: "He sometimes embezzled money to buy wine too."
Good going, you Su-tard!
That's a god-tier attack!
"I never did any of that!" I looked at Boss Shen and acted loyal. I put on a look that made it look like I was in misery over the world's matters and said: "Boss, Liu Shan Men's problems are my problems. Your problems are like my mom's problems. How could I not treat it with the utmost importance?!"
"Enough. Enough. I'm going to get goose bumps if you continue." Boss Shen sounded disgusted. She continued: "You didn't do anything, right? Feizhen, you're not young anymore and your martial arts aren't all that impressive. I don't expect you to make huge strides in a single month, but you should at least try a little."
"Right, right, right. I'll start training tonight. I promise I'll master a style per day. I'll be sure to make improve by leaps and bounds before the end of the tournament."
"Cut the bullshit. The preliminary tests start tomorrow. You're better off resting and saving your energy."
Long live boss!
Long live boss!
Now I can continue to scam them of food and wine every day as I laze around. Life is blissful!
"All you do is eat every day and run around. I've never seen you train once." Su Xiao pouted and continued: "What happens if you get defeated in the first round? The imperial martial arts tournament is important, so take it to heart."
I waved my hand to brush it off and said: "Don't worry. I definitely can't get passed round one." The imperial martial arts tournament never even occupied a corner of my mind. What good could come out of winning it? Not only would my rank on Liu Shan's Elite Rankings rise, but the ministers would start ordering us around even more. Most importantly, other than the preliminary tests, all the official fights are held in the palace.
I was lucky the emperor didn't recognise me last time. I even closed my doors, so why would I go and do something so stupid?
"I'm talking to you." Boss Shen pointed at me as she looked at me. Perhaps it's because all my memories of her are aggressive and explosive. If she weren't being so tough, then she was beautiful beyond words. Such a feminine gesture was rarely seen, sending me into a daze.
"Wh-What?"
"Where's your shifu?"
"He's probably busy hiding somewhere trying to make me nephews."
Ah, wrong choice of words.
My shifu certainly should be hiding somewhere hitting on women, but the shifu of mine that Boss Shen knows should be my senior martial uncle, Priest Wushan. Everybody in the pugilistic world knows that my senior martial uncle is famous for avoiding women. In fact, he together with the leader of Wudang, Priest Shen Fa are collectively referred to as the Fa Wu twins. Although their alias coincidentally contains the character "wu", since they're both lawless punks, the unknowing people in the martial world actually respect them even more for that.
Boss Shen frowned as I expected and asked: "Your shifu Priest Wu Shan is famous for being dedicated to his Tao practices. Now what did you say he was doing?"
"Erm… I… I said he was training in the mountains. Maybe he recruited a few decent disciples. He's already at the stage where he's recruiting grand disciples now. Doesn't that make them my martial nephews then? Hahahaha."
"I think so too. Your shifu is so reputable there's bound to be many who want to become his disciples."
Many? There are countless of them. My senior martial uncle could lie to ninety percent of the country's population that he has reached the pinnacle of inner peace, when in reality it was because he caught the cold syndrome. I can honestly say that there are more people who want to become disciples of my senior martial uncle than my shifu.
To be fair, part of the reason can be attributed to the difficulty of locating them. My senior martial uncle lives in the mountains, while my shifu is sleeping at some random's place.
But what did she mention my senior martial uncle for?
"Why do you ask, boss?"
"Because of the imperial martial arts tournament. You all may be members of Liu Shan Men, but such an important matter should at least be reported to your families." Boss Shen changed her posture, switching which leg went on top and continued: "Su Han's home is in Su Zhou. I've already sent someone to deliver a letter there. Tang Ye's family… You both know about the Mei Xiangli homicide case, so I can't do anything about him. Only your family background is unclear, so I sent a letter to Mount Daluo. I wanted to know if your shifu received it."
"Huh?"
WHAT?!
You sent a letter to Mount Daluo?!