Chapter 1: Encounter

Chapter 1: Encounter
In the heavy rain, Mu Yangling stood in the rain with her comrades. In front of them, the captain was shouting loudly, “You’re soldiers! You’ve studied in university for four years and trained here for a year. Is this all you’re capable of? I’m f*cking embarrassed for you!”
About to go crazy from anger, the captain stuffed the report card under his team members’ eyes. “Aren’t you embarrassed? Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves? With such results, you still want to enlist in the special forces? Don’t you think it’s disgraceful? You might as well skin yourself alive and go home to farm.”
Standing at attention in the contingent, Mu Yangling felt that her face was burning in spite of the cold autumn rain. She clenched her fists by her side. Coincidentally, the captain saw this as he turned around, and aimed the cannon at her. “Mu Yangling, are you not convinced?”
“Reporting to Captain, they’re old special forces soldiers...”
“Bullsh*t. Are you going to compare seniority with your enemy on the battlefield? You people are there to carry out a mission that could get you killed at any moment. If you’re not careful, your head will be gone. Don’t tell me your enemy won’t fight you if you tell him that he’s 30 and you’re 20? Then you might as well say that you’re women and they’re men, so you’re naturally inferior to them!”
...
Mu Yangling hated it the most when people made an issue of gender, even if the other party was her beloved and respected captain. She turned around with a “whoosh” and looked at him with eyes full of anger, shouting, “Captain, let’s have a fight!”
The captain and Mu Yangling’s comrades: “...”
The captain pointed at Mu Yangling, speechless. In the end, he tossed aside the report card in his hand, rolled up his sleeves, and said, “Come, come on out. If I don’t skin you alive today, I’ll take your surname.”
Mu Yangling threw away the backpack on her back, took three steps forward and assumed a fighting stance. Just as the captain shouted “Come”, Mu Yangling rushed towards him.
The two of them exchanged three moves in an instant. The captain caught one of Mu Yangling’s fists and complained endlessly in his heart. Even though it had been a year, he was still not used to Mu Yangling’s moves, for this young lass’s tactics were ever-changing. Yesterday, when he exchanged blows with her, she had taken the slow approach. Today, she was like a whirlwind, only caring about attacking and not defending. Moreover, the key was that this girl was incredibly strong. Overwhelmed, he wondered what he should do next.
The surrounding team members mourned for their captain in their hearts.
In the recent sparring competition, Mu Yangling had won the individual all-round championship. Notably, she was ranked first in mixed martial arts. Not only did she defeat the special forces captain of her own military region, but she also defeated the special forces captain of the neighboring military region.
In fact, the reason their team had placed last this time was all because of them. Although they were tough women, they were still women, after all.
Mu Yangling’s capabilities had already crossed the line between that of a man and a woman. It was as if she had truly become a man...
With a loud roar, Mu Yangling kicked out. Instantly, there was a bang and a delicate cry. Feeling a pain in her ears, Mu Yangling immediately opened her eyes and looked over with murderous eyes. Shu Wanniang held her stomach, visibly shocked. Then, tears welled up in her eyes. Heart aching, she asked worriedly, “Ah Ling, did you have a nightmare again? Child, look at how you shattered the pit table your father just made.”
Mu Yangling turned her neck stiffly. Only then did she see the broken pieces of wood on the brick bed. She seemed to have kicked the pit table, thinking it was the captain, again.
Mu Yangling jumped up and gathered the smashed wood on the brick bed together. Acting nonchalant, she said, “It’s fine. I’ll go into the mountains to chop some wood later and make another table.”
Shu Wanniang frowned. “What exactly did you dream of? This is already the fifth table. It was the same when you were young. When you were still drinking milk, you also kicked constantly...”
Shu Wanniang passed her daughter some clothes. Watching her quickly put them on in an un-ladylike manner, she couldn’t help but worry. How could she marry off such a daughter in the future?
Mu Yangling naturally wouldn’t say that she had dreamed of the scene where the captain trained and lectured them in her previous life. She only dared to say this in her heart and certainly not out loud.
“Mother, where’s Father?”
“Your father went to look for the Junior Officer to pay taxes again. We haven’t sold our leather goods yet, so we can’t pay the money for the time being. He went to ask if he could delay it for two days.” Worry was evident on Shu Wanniang’s face. “With the little we earned this year, I’m afraid we won’t have much money left after paying taxes. I originally wanted to send your brother to a private school, but from the looks of it, I’m afraid we’ll have to postpone it for another year.”
Mu Yangling frowned. “This year’s taxes increased 10% from last year. Why do they have to raise the taxes every year? If this continues, we won’t even be able to afford rice.”
Shu Wanniang sighed. “What can we do? The Jin soldiers are always harassing our borders. I heard that those extra taxes go towards our soldiers’ pay.”
“Bullsh*t.” Mu Yangling jumped up. “The Jin soldiers have been harassing the borders every year, but I’ve never seen anyone from our side come out to resist. What soldiers’ pay?”
“Child, there are things you shouldn’t say out loud.” Shu Wanniang looked at her reproachfully, but she didn’t go on. It was common to complain about the soldiers of the imperial court. She was just being cautious when she reprimanded her daughter.
Mu Yangling put on her clothes unhappily. Seeing that her younger brother, Mu Bowen, was still asleep, she went forward and pinched his nose. At the sight of this, Shu Wanniang hit her and said, “Don’t. Your brother is still young. Let him sleep a little longer.”
Mu Yangling pursed her lips in response. After drinking a bowl of water, Mu Yangling picked up her basket and bow, and prepared to head into the mountains. Just then, Shu Wanniang hurriedly grabbed a piece of flatbread from the table and chased after her. “Take a piece of flatbread to fill your stomach. How can you not eat when you’re still a child?”
Mu Yangling glanced at Shu Wanniang’s sharp and protruding stomach and hesitated for a moment. Shu Wanniang stuffed the flatbread into her hand and stroked her head. “Silly child, you’re still a child yourself. Your father will take care of things. You don’t have to worry.”
With a silly grin, Mu Yangling took the flatbread and entered the mountains. She decided to hunt more prey today and sell them to buy more fine rice. Her mother wasn’t used to coarse rice at all, for some reason. She wondered if it had something to do with her mother’s family background, which she had no idea about. Moreover, her father doted on her mother and couldn’t bear to see her suffer. Therefore, even though her father was capable and returned with something from his trip into the mountains everyday, in order to maintain such high living standards at home on top of shouldering such heavy taxes, he only managed to save very little money.
To make things worse, her mother had fallen seriously ill two years ago and depleted all their savings.
As Mu Yangling walked deeper and deeper into the mountains with the piece of flatbread in her mouth, she pricked up her ears and peered around. Just like that, she met the eyes of the two dirty youths under the tree.
With bright eyes, Qi Haoran and Fan Zijin gazed at Mu Yangling... not her, but the flatbread that was in her mouth. They involuntarily swallowed their saliva.
Even though Mu Yangling had the soul of an adult, she couldn’t help but blush at this moment. She took the flatbread out of her mouth. After thinking for a moment, she tore off the saliva-stained part and stuffed it into her mouth, handing the rest to the two youths.
Qi Haoran took a careful look at Mu Yangling. After confirming that she did not possess any ill intentions, he quickly tore off half of the flatbread and stuffed it into Fan Zijin’s mouth. “Thank you.”
Fan Zijin ate so quickly that he choked. Seeing this, Mu Yangling had no choice but to remove the water bottle from her waist and hand it over.
Qi Haoran flusteredly fed Fan Zijin the water. The latter tore off most of the flatbread from his mouth and only recovered when he swallowed the remaining bit. After glaring at Qi Haoran, he stood up and bowed. “Thank you, Miss. My cousin and I were separated from our family and ended up here. May I know what your name and address is? When we find my family, we will definitely come back to repay you.”