Chapter 22 - Training Camp I (1/2)

Chapter 22: Training Camp I

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Translations

The date of the camp was confirmed—it would be in the beginning of next month. After counting, one would notice that the trip was in less than four days.

Lu Shang was going to ask Uncle Yuen to prepare food and other materials for Li Sui to bring to the camp, but then he heard from Yue PengFei that the camp was a closed-off one. They wouldn’t even allow attendees to bring any electronic devices, let alone food and other materials. In other words, they only allowed you to bring yourself and nothing else.

Since Lu Shang had already agreed to it, he couldn’t refuse now. Luckily, it was in the mid-summer, so he didn’t have to worry about Li Sui getting a cold during the training camp. As such, Lu Shang only prepared a small medicine box with some medications and mosquito sprays.

The night before Li Sui had to leave, he quit studying. Instead, he took a shower very early on and just stuck to Lu Shang as much as possible afterwards.

Lu Shang was holding a vocabulary book with one hand, preaching Li Sui on the topic. Unexpectedly, Lu Shang didn’t lecture Li Sui for not paying attention, not only that, he brought Li Sui up to the study on the second floor.

Li Sui heard rumors that this was where Lu Shang’s father passed away, so very few people would come in here. Lu Shang pulled out the drawer of the desk in the middle of the room, he picked up a piece of ornament from the drawer. Batting away the dust, he handed it to Li Sui, “Here. Take it.”

“What is it?”

“A foldable blade.”

Li Sui held the piece in his hand, it was a little thing with an exquisite design. On a simple glance, it looked like nothing more than an ornament with a military emblem etched on top. However, there was a small hidden opening on the side, and when you pulled on an equally concealed lever on the badge, a sharp knife would pop out. Apart from being extremely sharp, the blade was also pure black in color. Li Sui wasn’t sure what the blade was made of, but it seemed to be able to absorb all light, giving it a somber luster. Even though Li Sui wasn’t an expert on knives and weapons, he could tell that this blade was no low-quality weapon. “I thought they won’t let us bring anything to the camp?”

Lu Shang pulled out a string, and after threading it through the ornament, he hung it on Li Sui’s neck, “Wear it just in case, as protection.” Li Sui was at least one head-space taller than Lu Shang, so when they stood face-to-face, Lu Shang had to tilt his head up to look at Li Sui.

“Are you giving this to me?” Li Sui held the ornament in his hand, his lovely eyes closing into a beautiful curve.

Lu Shang averted his gaze, “Once the mission is over, it will be yours.”

The second Lu Shang mentioned about the camp, Li Sui’s headache returned. Yue PengFei was worried—he left his two sons in his care, asking Li Sui to educate the two, and also not to let the two fight. However, Li Sui wasn’t much older than the two of them to begin with, so if even their father couldn’t handle them, what could Li Sui do?

“Honestly, is it a must for me to go with the two boat anchors?” Li Sui said dejectedly.

“You only have to ensure that they survive.” Lu Shang added, “For the rest, just do what you can. If it is dangerous, then it is your first priority to ensure your own well-being.”

Lu Shang’s reminders were a lot different from Yue PengFei’s; he felt touched but also found it funny. Lu Shang was protecting his own pup so obviously that Li Sui wondered if Yue PengFei were to hear Lu Shang now, would he be furious to death.

“What are you laughing at?” As Lu Shang asked, he began laughing himself as well, “Just have fun. Even if the sky collapsed, I will be there for you.”

The campsite was located amongst the woods of a mountain which was hundreds of kilometers away from the city. Walking further into the woods from the campsite would lead to an area called the Protected Woodlands. Because the campsite was in a very remote place, they couldn’t even get any bars on their phone, the only thing that could be used for communication were the communication satellites.

Lu Shang didn’t bring Li Sui there himself—he only asked Uncle Yuen to drive Li Sui to the foot of the mountain. The moment Li Sui got out of the car, he was immensely reluctant to leave. The feeling was similar to that of a child’s first day of school; even though he was feeling homesick already, he did his best to bottle these emotions up. Picking up the little medicine box, he walked up the mountain alone. As a man, since he promised Lu Shang, then no matter what he was going to fulfill his mission.

The path leading up to the campsite was a plank road, forests were on both sides of the path, and the environment was quite serene. However, the mountain lacked forestry management—the trees were too dense, so the path was poorly lit. On the way up, Li Sui began thinking about the poor maintenance; it was hard enough for a person to get up here, so it would be even harder for vehicles to reach the campsite. If anyone took a wrong turn and wandered out of the Protected Woodlands, it would be extremely hard to launch a rescue.

“The campsite’s main building is in front of you, that area is the forest area. There is a protective fence surrounding the whole training grounds; if there are no special reasons, don’t wander around on your own. That blue building is where you will be having your meals. These will be provided at seven in the morning, at twelve, and at six. We serve food on the clock—if you are late, then you will not be getting any food,” the trainer explained as he led Li Sui around the campsite. Finally, they went up a dormitory building. “This is the dormitory. Room 203, this is where you’re going to sleep.”

The room Li Sui got allocated to was a four-person room, when Li Sui opened the door, the bed near the window was already occupied. The person lying in bed was watching a movie on his tablet; seeing Li Sui, he raised his head and said a short “hi”. That face was a familiar one.

“Why are you here?” Li Sui asked, then his gaze went to the tablet in his hands, “I thought electronic appliances are not allowed.”

SiMa JingRong hit the side of his bed, signaling for Li Sui to sit down. Then he pulled out a can of coke from under the bed, handing the can to Li Sui, he said, “They only said we can’t bring any, but they didn’t say others can’t bring them to us.”

“……”

“But it’s basically useless.” SiMa JingRong waved his hand in the air, “There’s no signal here, so at best I can watch a movie or play some single-player games. It’s such a buzzkill.”

T/N: I feel you SiMa JingRong, my limited game events, stupid training camps!!!

As the two of them spoke, another duo entered the room, each holding a water bucket. The one walking in the front was a scrawny-looking teenager; he was about 16 or 17 years old, and his appearance was quite similar to SiMa JingRong, but his skin was paler, and he looked more intelligent. Li Sui guessed that this person must be SiMa Yan, the SiMa family’s youngest son.

The moment SiMa JingRong saw him, he turned his head to the side in dismay while clicking his tongue. The younger one, however, was polite—he glanced at SiMa JingRong, then nodded at Li Sui. The younger son was obviously more mature than the older one, it wasn’t hard to imagine why Yue PengFei preferred him.

“Hi, I’m Wang Wei.”

That was when Li Sui noticed that another person was at the door, he had a round face and a pair of thick glasses. The person called Wang Wei was smiling at Li Sui.

“I’m Li Sui.”

Wang Wei extended his neck in confusion, “Ha?”

Li Sui explained, “The Li for ‘dawn’, and Sui as in ‘deep’.”

“Oh…” Wang Wei nodded, he pointed at the water bucket at the floor, “You two have to go get some warm water, or else you won’t have any to take a bath tonight. There are no shower valves here.”

Li Sui nodded, he put his luggage down and was going to get a water bucket.

“Sorry, I forgot again.” Wang Wei stopped Li Sui, he pushed his glasses embarrassingly, “What is your name again?”

“……”

T/N: Haha, I gave the word Sui to all of my Chinese-speaking friends, and none of them knew the word.

Before Li Sui arrived at the campsite, he made a plan to smooth out the two SiMas’ relationship, and to train seriously to please the trainers. He was going to hold out until Lu Shang came to pick him up again in one month, then get his praises from Lu Shang. However, the heavens seemed to be against his plan—his plans were foiled on their first night at the campsite.

At first, it was because Wang Wei spoke too loudly, and it annoyed SiMa JingRong. So, he scolded Wang Wei for being too loud. SiMa Yan couldn’t accept SiMa JingRong’s rudeness, so he spoke a few words in Wang Wei’s defense. The two SiMas then began fighting in the room.

Clothes and pillows were thrown all around, they even threw SiMa JingRong’s tablet. Wang Wei’s hearing seemed to be faulty, he didn’t even think to stop the two, even when they were making so much noise. It took all of Li Sui’s strength to pull the two of them apart, he even got hit in the process, not knowing who hit him. The commotion notified the trainers in the lower floor, in no time, everyone in their room were kicked out for punishment. They were punished to stand outside in the woods.

Nights in the old forest were nothing like the ones in the city; there were no lights, it was as if the air around them were soaked in black ink—they couldn’t even see their own fingers. The weather was not in their favor. They couldn’t see the moon, and the only thing they could hear was the rustling of leaves. It always felt like someone was walking behind them, but when they turned back, nothing was there.

The howling of wolves from afar reached their ears, all of them were petrified. They were just kids who’d left home for the first time, none of them could handle being in a deserted place like this. Everyone shivered in the darkness, not daring to move an inch, worried that the wolves might come for them. SiMa JingRong was homesick from the second he entered this campsite, so now, standing in this chilly place, he began sobbing.

“You’re crying? How old are you already?” SiMa Yan scoffed.

SiMa JingRong stopped crying immediately, he turned to scold SiMa Yan, “You are doing this on purpose, aren’t you? You just want me to feel bad.”

“Yeah, it is on purpose. You’re the one who started it.”

“Oh, do you think I won’t hit you here?”

Li Sui’s headache grew; he was already missing Lu Shang so much, and these two’s screeching got him even more furious. Li Sui yelled, “Shut up, the both of you!”

The two really went silent. Li Sui continued, “From now on, resolve your affairs internally; everyone will suffer if the problems reach the trainers. Next time, whoever started it and joined in should take responsibility themselves. We are not going down with you.”

A gust of wind blew past them at the right moment. Li Sui finished his speech, and none of them said anything afterwards.

In this pitch-black environment, everyone thought of ghost stories to scare themselves, but that was just at the beginning. In no time, everyone was numb to the creepiness of the forest; instead, their upper and lower eyelids began fighting. None of them had any strength left to think of anything but sleep.

An uncertain amount of time had passed; just when Li Sui felt that both of his legs were going to give out, the trainer blew the whistle from the dormitory. Li Sui breathed a sigh of relief; slapping SiMa JingRong’s back, he said, “Let’s go. We can finally get some sleep.”

All of them were out of it after having to stand for so long, they pulled themselves back to the dormitory, dragging their feet like zombies. After walking for a while, they noticed that Wang Wei wasn’t with them. Turning back, they found Wang Wei still standing at the same position, his eyes were shut, and he was asleep. He just fell asleep standing there.

“……”

At night, Lu Shang was sitting at the office desk, looking at company documents. Uncle Yuen closed the door behind him, “They’ve reduced his sentence—he will be released in six years.”

Lu Shang nodded, “Thank you for your hard work.”

“You are not telling him about it?”