Chapter 3

After paying thirty fen, Du Qian felt a pang of pain. After all, his monthly allowance was only five yuan, which was equivalent to five hundred fen. A fish cost thirty fen, and this was even at half price. How could he not feel the pain?

Looking at the fish in his hand, Du Qian felt happy again. This ugly fish had a broken head and no tail, but its body was basically intact. Most importantly, different types of fish had very different flavors. Although the ugly fish was ugly, its meat was tender and smooth, ranking among the top few in the second tier, even if it couldn't compare to first-tier sea fish.

This type of fish was best for grilling, though it could also be made into soup. As a war orphan, making soup with an ugly fish was a luxury he would never indulge in. Soup is about the broth, and the flavor of the fish would be diluted, making it less enjoyable to eat.

This ugly fish was quite large, weighing over ten pounds. After removing the guts and bones, there would still be about six to seven pounds of meat. Even with Lei Ming, a big eater, Du Qian could have a hearty meal.

"Same as usual, I'll clean the fish, and you start the fire," Du Qian said, holding the ugly fish and walking to the Chuan River to begin cleaning it. This required skill; without some technique, the grilled fish would taste much worse.

"Okay," Lei Ming replied, moving a few large rocks, pulling up two small trees, and chopping branches to start the fire and build the stove. They had cooperated so many times that Lei Ming knew what to do without being told.

Lei Ming and Du Qian were born in the same year and on the same day, with Du Qian being only one hour older. Both entered the Pingchuan War Orphan School at the age of eight. At that time, Lei Ming was very small and thin, malnourished, and somewhat silly-looking, rarely speaking and often bullied by other war orphans.

The War Orphan School was a welfare institution, and the empire's welfare and laws could reach here, but few people cared about the details. Teachers never intervened in the children's affairs, leaving them to handle things themselves.

This had its benefits. Children who grew up in the War Orphan School understood the rules of survival from a young age and could adapt to society more quickly and easily.

The ugly fish had no scales, and its skin was thick with a layer of mucus, making it slippery and difficult to handle. However, Du Qian had done this many times before. He first used sea sand to clean off the mucus and then rinsed it with fresh water, getting rid of the mucus that housewives found so troublesome in just a few minutes.

Next, he had to clean the internal organs. Grilling a fish was different from cooking it; the belly couldn't be cut open. Cutting it open would not only lose the unique freshness of the ugly fish but also make it difficult to skewer it for grilling, as the exposed part could easily burn the skewer or turn it black, adding a burnt flavor.

This required a bit of skill. Using a one-foot-long branch with a rough surface, Du Qian inserted it into the fish's mouth until he could fit half his hand inside. Satisfied, he nodded, indicating that the branch was in place.

He then rotated the branch with his fingers, using its rough surface to twist the fish's guts into a ball. Once it was compacted, he pulled it out, clearing the fish's internal organs.

Everything was going smoothly until he felt a sharp pain in his fingertip, and his vision went dark for a moment. Du Qian paused for a few seconds, remaining calm. Fish have teeth, and the flesh has spines, so it wasn't strange for his finger to be pricked. However, he was slightly puzzled by the sudden darkness in his vision.

"Brother Qian? You're glowing?" Lei Ming, who had just started the fire, called out in surprise from a distance.

"Bullshit, you're the one glowing," Du Qian teased. The two had grown up together for ten years and knew each other as well as they knew their own younger brothers.

Don't be fooled by Lei Ming's simple appearance; he wasn't stupid at all. He was quite shrewd and had a strong sense of self. However, his emotional intelligence was a concern for Du Qian. It was better when he didn't speak; once he opened his mouth, trouble was never far behind.

Lei Ming was aware of his problem and tried to keep quiet most of the time, letting Du Qian handle things and waiting for his share of the food.

Since following Du Qian, the two had rarely suffered in the war orphanage. Du Qian handled external affairs, and when it came to using their fists, they worked together.

As they grew older, Lei Ming's growth and combat power increased rapidly, like a rocket. By this point, no one dared to provoke them.

"You really are glowing, and even the fish in your hand is glowing, like the motion-activated lights in the toilet," Lei Ming said seriously.

Well, as soon as this kid opened his mouth, Du Qian knew it wouldn't be good. Why did he have to mention the toilet's motion-activated lights?

"Alright, you must be seeing things. Look up at the sun. In this light, if you could see me glowing as bright as a motion-activated light, it would have to be incredibly bright," Du Qian said irritably.

Lei Ming looked up, squinting his eyes. It was already past one in the afternoon, the sun was at its strongest, and even though it was September and autumn in Pingchuan, the sun was still scorching.

It seemed he had indeed seen wrong. In this light, even the interrogation room lights in the police station would be hard to see, let alone the motion-activated lights in the school toilet.

Good thing he didn't say that out loud, or Du Qian would have scolded him again. Every time Lei Ming opened his mouth, it was never good, always mentioning the toilet or the interrogation room. Couldn't he pick a better place to talk about?

After skewering the fish and placing it on the grill, the ugly fish, being a sea fish, didn't need any salt. Just before it was done, they added some finely chopped leaves and a bit of Sichuan pepper powder, making it a delicious treat for them.

Forty minutes later, the grilled ugly fish, now golden brown, was split in half, and the two of them devoured it, not caring that the fish was still steaming hot. This heat would have been enough to scald ordinary people, but for the two of them, whose combat power had long exceeded five thousand or even ten thousand, it was nothing.

Du Qian couldn't finish even a third of the fish, while Lei Ming had already finished the remaining two-thirds. He handed the leftover fish to Lei Ming and took out two bottles of beer, taking a sip.

"I don't oppose your decision to join the military. With your personality, you wouldn't last a day in society. You'd offend your boss and colleagues in no time, and in a fit of anger, you might even beat your boss half to death. But I have to give you some advice about joining the military."

Lei Ming nodded, quickly finishing the fish, and opened a bottle of beer, taking a satisfying sip. After his parents died in battle, he stayed with relatives for only half a month before entering the War Orphan School. In this world, he only recognized Du Qian.

"Same as always, talk less and train more. On the battlefield, don't run at the front or lag behind; the middle is the safest. No matter what the officer says, just say 'yes.' If they send you on a suicide mission, ignore them. Pretend to comply but don't die, and don't become a deserter," Du Qian continued.

"Brother Qian, join the military with me, and you can still protect me," Lei Ming said, knowing it was impossible but still trying. He was very clear that the military was the best fit for him, but without Du Qian by his side, he felt empty and extremely insecure, even though he knew Du Qian was more afraid of death and had lower combat power.

"Hehe, forget it. I'm not cut out for the military. You have a good foundation and are already at over thirteen thousand combat power. Once you join the military, you'll start as a non-commissioned officer and could easily become a squad leader, managing a hundred or so people. If you play your cards right, you might even become a deputy company commander."

After saying this, he laughed self-deprecatingly. "I can't do it. My foundation is poor, and no matter how hard I try, I can't match you. The military is different from civilian life; small tricks are useless. You need either great wisdom to see far ahead or immense strength and combat power. Otherwise, you won't achieve much and might even die. Even though there's no major war now, small skirmishes on the border never stop, and tens of thousands die each year. I don't want to join that chaos."

"Isn't being a police officer also dangerous?" Lei Ming tried to persuade him, but he knew his mouth was naturally bad at persuasion and good at provoking people.

"Bullshit, I'm just a patrol officer. I can bully small hooligans and avoid those with connections. At worst, I can kneel and apologize. As long as I stay alive, I can slowly work my way up. We'll have our day."

"Okay," Lei Ming knew he couldn't persuade Brother Qian. Despite Du Qian's usual carefree demeanor, he was more determined than Lei Ming and, more importantly, was ruthless, both to others and to himself.

Du Qian's combat power was less than half of Lei Ming's, but Lei Ming knew very well that Brother Qian worked at least twice as hard as he did. Talent, many say, is useless, but it exists and can bring both joy and sorrow.

"I'm counting on you. The couplet at the school gate sounds impressive, but how many can actually achieve it? We don't aim to become War Masters. If you can become a War King one day, I'll be content. When I can't make it anymore, I'll rely on you for a meal."

"Chopping the sky and earth, waving to break the heavens. Money and power, flipping the city with a wave of the hand. Unmatched combat power, indeed impressive," Lei Ming finished the bottle of beer and recited the couplet softly.

This couplet was everywhere, from the imperial palace to kindergartens, and not just in Zhou Shan Empire but also in Zhenhai Alliance and Butian Republic. It could be said to be the faith of all humanity. No one knew its origin, but it had been passed down for at least tens of thousands of years.

No matter how impressive the couplet sounded, it conveyed one simple message: as long as your combat power is unmatched, you are the most impressive.

Easier said than done. Who in the world could achieve unmatched combat power?

The basic threshold for a martial cultivator is ten thousand combat power. Among the war orphans graduating this year, only five in Pingchuan City reached the benchmark, and only about thirty had over five thousand combat power.

This year's class of war orphans numbered one thousand two hundred. Including regular schools, it would be difficult for Pingchuan City to have a hundred graduates reaching the martial cultivator benchmark by graduation season.

Most of these hundred would go on to higher institutions, and for war orphans, even reaching the benchmark only gave them a slightly higher starting point than ordinary people.