Rebirth of a Star General Chapter 75
Back in those days
When He Yan was young, she was not as clever as she was now. If she were to look at her past self with the eyes of the present, she would feel that she was too stupid.
She was not very good at literature and martial arts, similar to the current Cheng Lisu, and was regarded as a loser , but unlike Cheng Lisu who had a powerful uncle, the He family’s background was not considered great in the Xiang Chang Hall. Therefore, she was not as well respected as Cheng Lisu.
Furthermore she wore a mask all day long when she was a teenager, always appearing as the odd one out in the crowd, and there was a ghost in her heart, so she had never dared to show her feet when she came and went with the teenagers[1]. After going back and forth, finally, the other teenagers from the Xiang Chang Hall began isolating her.
The rejection of the teenagers came straightforward. At first, it was just playing differently with her, not calling her when playing Cuju[2]. Then, it became even worse; the reason was not a big deal; it was merely because she worked too hard.
When He Yan was a child, she caught the idea of ”the stupid bird flies first”, so she really started from being the stupid bird. The worse in literature and martial arts one is, the more one must and should learn more seriously than anyone else. Even though the gentlemen of Xiang Chang hall felt that this child was really not suitable for studying and practicing martial arts, they were often moved by He Yan’s persistent spirit of studying. So they often praised He Yan in class.
“Diligent learner is like a seedling in springs. It doesn’t seem to grow much with the naked eye, but with each day it will grow stronger[3]. You all look at He Rufei and learn from him!”
They were all 14 or 15-year-old young men, who have always loved to fight for the best, so learning from others, moreover from He Yan? What should they learn from him? To study hard and practice hard every day, yet still be the last one? Isn’t it being out of their own mind?
However, the several gentlemen seem to like He Yan very much.
The youngsters’ anger grew from their hearts, and the root of their evil was a mixture of guilt, jealousy, and disdain., The more they saw the masked kid, the more the kid didn’t seem pleasing to their eyes, so every now and then they would find some troubles for He Yan.
Like today, the dagger would deliberately cut He Yan’s clothes during the dagger comparison. The other days when she would have to train the horse, someone would feed her horse some sneezing grass or sometimes they would deliberately poke a hole in her boots, making her fall onto the ground, causing the stone to cut through the sole of the foot. And When He Yan would get up from the ground embarrassed, the teenagers who were hiding together would make fun of her.
As a teenager, He Yan was too dumb. She couldn’t do anything to sue the students, and the gentlemen didn’t know the little actions of the students in private. So He Yan had a very difficult time.
One day, when it was winter, where the weather was very cold. When the teenagers were practicing swords in the academy, they did not know who poured a basin of water on the ground. The water froze very quickly, so they urged He Yan to come outside, “He Rufei, Hurry up, hurry up, the teacher is calling you!”
He Yan ran out in a hurry, slipped on her feet, and fell flat on her stomach.
The fall was so heavy that she only felt her head spinning, and she didn’t get up for a long time. Those teenagers hid in the corner and laughed, only saying, “He really was fooled!”
He Yan sat there for a while before standing up, pursing her lips, and said nothing. The students of Xiang Chang Hall/ returned home once a month. From the clothes she brought this month, there was no longer a clean one left. After being fooled so many times, even the deities would also not have any clothes left. Under such weather, where the sun is not seen for a long time, it was very difficult to dry them.
He Yan spent the whole day wearing semi-damp clothes. At night, she got up from the bed, did not go to practice sword, and ran straight into the hall of the academy.
Even the clay figurine also has three parts of earthiness[4], not to mention that she was the eldest master of the He family, more or less, but she did have the temperament. However, she was still judging the situation soberly. Those young men were tall and mighty; moreover, they were much better than her, so she couldn’t beat them. But was it possible to just let it go like this? Was it really impossible to do something?
How can she let out her anger?
14-year-old He Yan thought for a long time and finally figured out a way.
It started to snow at night. She wore clothes that hasn’t dried yet, braved the wind and snow, went to the backyard well to fetch a bucket of water, and ran to the hall with the bucket of water.
She remembered where everyone in the group of teenagers sat in the day. She found their copybooks under their desks. This month’s homework was to copy the “Xing Li Zi Xun [Character discipline of gender]” five times, and tomorrow was the time to hand in the homework at the end of the month.
He Yan poured all the water from the bucket on them.
The water soaked the writing instantly, and it became a big blur. He Yan let out a sigh of relief, and after that, a trace of tension rose again.
She hurriedly tucked the copybooks back to their original position and hurried out carrying the empty bucket. It was the first time she had done this kind of thing, so the anxiousness was unavoidable. She was afraid to turn on the light in the dark and walked to the door without looking at the threshold/doorstep under her feet, and with a bang, she fell.
She sucked in a cold breath with pain; it was the second time she fell that day, and this time it was even worse. Her elbow directly hit the wooden thorn on the threshold, cutting out a gash, as the blood flowed out. He Yan sat up strenuously, raised her wounded arm, and thought to herself could it be because of “that many acts of unrighteousness will kill her?”
She only did it once, okay, God treats her too harshly!
Anyway, she has to return the bucket quickly, the bucket, Ah… where’s her bucket? She just remembered that she had fallen so hard just now and that the bucket fell on the ground, so it should have made a loud noise, awakening everyone, why is it still so quiet now?
He Yan raised her head in a daze, stood up, and walked two steps forward, only to see a person standing outside the door at some unknown time. He was leaning lazily on the wooden door, with his back facing He Yan and an iron bucket in his hand.
It was Xiao Jue.
For a moment, He Yan was so nervous she didn’t dare to say anything.
Did he see it? He shouldn’t have seen it, right? Impossible, he must have seen it, he’s still holding the bucket in his hand. But if he didn’t see it, how should she explain it? Should she say she was watering the flowers here in the middle of the night?
He Yan thought wildly. The boy saw her standing blankly on the spot and raised his eyebrows and said, “Aren’ you hurt?”
He Yan, “Huh?”
His gaze fell on He Yan’s elbow, and because she had just fetched water, her sleeves were rolled up. Between the white and tender elbows, there was a bloodstain, like an ugly embroidery, which was particularly conspicuous under the faint lantern light.
He Yan subconsciously wanted to hide her hands behind her back.
The boy glanced at her impatiently and said coldly, “Follow me.”
He Yan didn’t know why she listened to him. She might probably have been too shocked and confused, which made her follow him obediently.
Xiao Jue first put the iron bucket back to the well, and turned back only to see her holding up her arm in a daze, so he sneered, with a meaningful expression, “Being a coward and yet learning to do bad things.”
He Yan clenched her fists and said nothing, she was very nervous. On normal days, Xiao Jue only walked with his few close friends and was not close with the other teenagers in the academy, so He Yan didn’t know what this person thinks. If he goes to denounce herself…
While she was immersed in her thoughts, a cold pot was thrown into her arms.
He Yan looked down and saw that it seemed to be a mandarin pot with a delicate body and intricate carvings.
She heard her own voice, as small as a gnat, “What is this?”
“Can’t you see it?” The boy turned his head, looking lazy, “Medicine.”
[1] having a ghost in heart means having a secret or bad intent, etc. Revealing feet indicates revealing the secret as we can see if someone is a ghost from their feet so she was afraid that her secret might slip out of her mouth accidentally.
[2] An ancient Chinese game involving kicking a ball through an opening into a net.
[3] It means that without hard work there will be no result and there is no such thing as a shortcut to obtaining something.
[4] Nature is difficult to change or the essence is difficult to change; just like the essence of soil can’t be erased from a clay figure.
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