Chapter 90 - Foil (1/2)

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

The fragrance of Longjing tea was fresh and crisp, its taste mellow and sweet. This small pot of tea leaves that he had brought were picked before the rainy season, thus it was called Longjing Before Rain.

Usually, the tea plant would sprout only a single leaf before the rainy season, giving the Longjing tea a mellow and more elegant taste than the other variation, Long Jing Before Ming. There was only a tael worth of tea leaves in it, yet it was priced as much as twenty thousand Federal dollars.

Qin Mang took the purple-clay teacup and gently sipped from it. The old man broke into a delightful smile almost instantly. “What great tea! The flavor is even mellower than Snow-white Silverpins. If the Snow-white Silverpins are akin to a gorgeous woman, this type of tea leaves can be likened to be a budding teenager; to each its merits, both can be considered great tea. I’ve never known that your home planet has such wondrous tea leaves.”

Xia Fei chuckled. “If these tea leaves are brewed using the local Longjing spring water, the flavor will be richer than what you’re tasting now. Since you like them so much, I still have two boxes with me; let me give them to you, too.”

With that, Xia Fei pulled out two green jars from his spatial ring and placed them on the desk. Qin Mang was not in the least bit courteous and stored the jars of tea leaves into his drawer.

“Your performance during the extreme hovercar race wasn’t bad. For a stock model hovercar to achieve the speed of a professional racing hovercar after your modifications, who taught you your skills?” asked Qin Mang as he drank tea.

Xia Fei lit a cigarette. “I learned it from an uncle called Porter whom I met while I was in a warship graveyard. Actually, in terms of retrofitting skills, I’m still nowhere near his level, but Uncle Porter told me a principle: ‘Any and every machine has its limit.’ As long as I can identify this limit, I’ll be able to tap into the machine’s full potential.”

Qin Mang rubbed the sparse silver hair on his head almost as if he was trying to recall something.

“Porter? That name sounds familiar. How old is he, and what does he look like?” asked Qin Mang.

Xia Fei described how Porter looked to Qin Mang, as well as narrated everything that had happened while he was putting together his space vessel in the warship graveyard.

A barely perceptible spark flashed in Qin Mang’s eyes, revealing great excitement.

“Uncle Qin, do you know Old Porter?” asked Xia Fei.

Qin Mang shook his head. “I don’t, but I’m really interested in getting to know that person.”

“Heh, he’s currently managing an assembly factory in the warship graveyard. Though he’s a little kooky, as long as you get to know him more, you’ll realize that he’s actually quite easy to get along with. If there ever comes a day when you wish to buy a spaceship, I’ll bring you out there to look for him,” Xia Fei very earnestly offered.

Qin Mang laughed uproariously. “What use would a spaceship have for me? I have no wish to travel across the universe at my present age. All I want is a quiet retirement; if I could enjoy days of peace and quiet, I would be content.”

Xia Fei gave it some thought. “Indeed, you ought to be at home hugging your grandchildren at your age, enjoying days of familial bliss, so why are you still working?”

Qin Mang sighed. His eyes swept across the empty library once. “That’s easy for you to say. What’s going to happen to these treasures if I retire?”

“Isn’t that simple? Just find someone else to take over the library after you retire,” answered Xia Fei.

Qin Mang was quiet for some time before he changed the subject. “The day after tomorrow will be when the training camp officially begins operation. Which division do you plan to join?”

Xia Fei stubbed out his cigarette and shook his head. “No idea. There are just so many divisions that I’m having a lot of trouble choosing. If we’re talking about what I’m really drawn to, it’ll be that secretive internal division, but I don’t have the qualifications to join it, while all the other divisions are just so-so.”

“Oh,” Qin Mang very curiously asked, “why would you say that?”

Xia Fei organized his thoughts before answering. “I checked the training camp’s charter and realized that the facilities are open for all students to use. That is to say, no matter which division I end up joining, I can use all the different facilities to train; it’ll hardly have any effect where I go.

“Moreover, it isn’t every division mentor who will teach a cadet useful things once they join it. Be it their instructors or the courses offered, they all require a certain amount of points, and the different divisions allow cross-disciplinary studies. Which is to say, a cadet of the exotic beast division can pay a certain amount of points to learn battle strategy from the command division.

“Basically, what it means is that joining a division will give you free foundational courses in that particular division, and there’s no way anyone can become a powerful expert just by learning that stuff. The moment one decides on their specialization, they’ll need to buckle down and do their research.

“The way I see it, the most important aspect of this training camp is earning points, and as long as a cadet has points, that person can learn anything they want. As for the free foundational courses… honestly speaking, anyone with a sensible head on their shoulders can pick things up just by reading books relevant to any particular branch of study. There’s nothing appealing about that.”

Qin Mang nodded his head approvingly after he finished listening to Xia Fei’s answer, his eyes vaguely revealing a measure of surprise. “That’s a very astute assessment. The training camp isn’t a school, and what it provides is just a first-rate environment for people to train. As long as you are willing to work hard, you can easily see results in any of the divisions available.”

Xia Fei nodded. “I’ve also realized that the training camp is really big and filled with people, but actually most of them are just foils.”

“What do you mean by that?” Qin Mang was puzzled. “Are you implying that the facilities in the training camp aren’t good enough?”