From a refugee to a martial artist

Chapter 19 Both Civil and Military
It was still dark when Meng Yuan opened his eyes at the first crow of the rooster.

I didn't sleep last night, and another acupoint was opened, which is in the skin and flesh of the spine under the back of the neck.

Now the true energy in the three acupoints was surging. Although he had not slept all night, he was still full of energy, not only did he not look tired at all, but he also looked like he was holding up the sky.

After going out to fetch some well water, washing his body and getting rid of the heat, Meng Yuan began to practice again.

As expected, there were three extra eggs for breakfast. Meng Yuan gave one to Tie Niu, but he didn't want it.

"This is the privilege you get after becoming a rank official. I can't accept it." Tie Niu was very sensible.

"Who taught you this?" Meng Yuan knew that Tie Niu could not think of this, so he must have been taught by someone, so he asked with a smile.

"No one taught me." Tie Niu answered honestly, but he was not good at lying, and his eyes unconsciously glanced at Wu Changsheng.

"Senior Brother, I was just talking nonsense to Tie Niu last night." Wu Changsheng smiled awkwardly.

"It's okay." Meng Yuan nodded to Wu Changsheng, and then said to Tie Niu: "I asked your father to take care of Uncle Jiang, so I have to take care of you. I'll give you one of the three eggs. When you become qualified, you can give me another one."

"Brother, you are so nice!" Tie Niu is a simple and honest man, without too many complicated thoughts.

Meng Yuan needs to nourish his energy now, so he doesn't lack this egg. Besides, Tie Niu is not an outsider, and his father Zhao Datou doesn't treat him as an outsider either. He can still remember the incident of wiping his hands with donkey dung.

"But I won't share the meat for lunch with you." Meng Yuan said with a smile.

"I understand." Tie Niu said as he peeled the eggshells, "Brother, you have to eat a lot to build up your strength and open up more acupoints so that you can bring back the little girl from the Jiang family."

Meng Yuan patted Tie Niu on the shoulder and said nothing more.

After breakfast, they continued to practice hard. When the sun was high in the sky, Nie Yannian finally arrived.

"Follow me." Nie Yannian waved to Meng Yuan.

Meng Yuan hurriedly followed, and did not tell Nie Yannian about the opening of another acupoint.

Nie Yannian put his hands behind his back and came to the warehouse in the parade ground. He opened the lock, went in to pick and choose, and finally took out a longbow and two old quivers.

When they arrived at the shooting range in the training ground, Nie Yannian taught them the art of archery.

Meng Yuan tried shooting five times, and after listening to Nie Yannian correct him on his breathing and posture while shooting, he considered it successful.

This bow is a two-stone bow, which is about 60 kilograms, which is very easy for Meng Yuan. However, practicing archery is mainly for practicing skills and body coordination.

"In the big sects or those aristocratic families, besides learning breathing exercises, they also learn to walk on a single pole, carry water, shoot arrows, and practice swords since they were young. Firstly, they learn the method of self-defense early, and secondly, it helps to open the acupoints. When the body is coordinated, the acupoints will be easier to open. This is what we know from experience."

Nie Yannian briefly explained, then became impatient, "I have something else to do, so I have to go. Are these guys alright?"

"No." Meng Yuan saw Nie Yannian was about to leave, so he quickly stopped him and asked, "Master Nie, can I leave the training ground?"

"What are you going out for?" Nie Yannian looked at Meng Yuan and said with a strange smile, "You have so much energy, you want to go out and find something soft to play with?"

Why does this guy always make dirty jokes?
"I want to find Sister Mei." Meng Yuan said.

"Oh, you've called me. Let's go!" Nie Yannian smiled and patted Meng Yuan on the shoulder. "Xunmei is our princess's confidant, you have to curry favor with her! Don't go empty-handed!"

What is flattery? This is called building relationships!

"Yes." Meng Yuan agreed.

As soon as Nie Yannian left, Meng Yuan started shooting arrows.

Stand with your feet flat and shoulder-width apart. Hold the bow in your left hand, with the bow pointing downward toward your feet, and draw the arrow and put it on the string.

Hook the bowstring with your right index, middle and ring fingers.

Raise the bow, pull the bowstring to the corner of your mouth, breathe steadily, and anchor the arrowhead.

With a calm mind, he shot the arrows. He would take a short breath after shooting ten arrows, and he would not call it a day until he had shot a hundred arrows.

After another morning of training and lunch, Meng Yuan explained the reason to Hu Qian. After her instructions, he took a cold shower before leaving the training ground.

Following Hu Qian's instructions, she found a little maid and asked her to go look for Mei, thus saving two cents of silver in fees for delivering the message.

Not long after, Xunmei came out.

"Sister Mei!" Meng Yuan's eyes were clear and there was a smile on his face.

"Why did you come out to find me?" Xunmei's expression remained unchanged and there was a smile on her face. She glanced at Meng Yuan and felt that after more than a month, the boy's spirit and spirit were very different. He was dressed neatly, with a rosy face, which made him look even more handsome.

"I'm here to ask Sister Mei for help." Meng Yuan didn't waste any words, he stated his purpose as soon as he spoke.

"What's wrong? Did someone bully you?" Xun Mei smiled and said, "I heard that you had a fight with someone on your first day in the training ground. Manager Liu came to me and wanted to kick you out."

Meng Yuan bowed to Xun Mei and said without further explanation, "I'm sorry to trouble you, sister."

"That's nothing. Now that you've passed the rank, it shows that you are indeed a good candidate for martial arts. Just work harder and earn my respect back." Xunmei put her hands together and asked with a smile, "What do you want me to do for you?"

"I've been practicing martial arts recently, and I still have a lot of free time. I think time is the most precious thing, and I heard that reading history makes people wise, so I want to borrow some books from my sister." Meng Yuan thought it through during morning practice. Now that his martial arts progress is so fast, but he still has free time, he should find something else to do.

I don't know much about this world. If I want to explore the deeper things and more rules of this world, I should read history.

Besides, this can be considered as strengthening the relationship with Xunmei. She is the princess's favorite maid, she has no shortage of food, clothing, money and property, and she is not a little girl, so it is useless to give her anything, and she has no time to flirt with flirting, so just ask for it directly.

Asking people to do small, unimportant favors will deepen your relationship with them, and you can make more unreasonable demands in the future.

Moreover, when Meng Yuan met Xun Mei for the first time, he felt that she treated scholars differently. He thought that he was able to defeat Li Zhuangtou because he could read and was looked up to by others.

Now that he has come to ask for a book, Meng Yuan is certain that Xun Mei will be able to help.

Sure enough, Xunmei's eyes showed something strange. She looked at Meng Yuan curiously, then smiled and said, "I never thought that you would choose to be both civil and military."

"Sister, don't make fun of me." Meng Yuan smiled.

"You go back and wait, I'll have someone send it there later." Xunmei smiled gently.

After they parted, Meng Yuan left the palace again and went outside to buy a bag of sesame candy.

Sesame candy is made of glutinous rice, sesame and maltose, and is very sweet and crispy.

"Here." He returned to the training ground and gave the sesame candy to Hu Qian.

It was Hu Qian who gave Meng Yuan the way to find Mei, which saved him the fee for passing the message, so he naturally had to thank her.

"..." Hu Qian took it and asked, "How do you know I like sweet food?"

Is there any need to ask this? There are few sweets in this world, and eight out of ten people love sweets! If you don’t know what to give as a gift, giving sweets is definitely the right choice!
"Sister Qian loves to help others and is optimistic and cheerful. I guess she likes sweets." Meng Yuan said something nonsense without any cause or effect.

"You are diligent and careful, no wonder you are the first one to be admitted." Hu Qian praised.

Is this right? Meng Yuan just smiled and thanked him.

Not long after, a little girl came to deliver a book, and Meng Yuan happily took it.

In the days that followed, Meng Yuan trained hard, shooting two hundred arrows each morning and evening, and reading history books whenever he had free time.

At the same time, the acupoints were not stopped.

By the beginning of February, all sixteen acupoints on Meng Yuan's torso had opened, and more than half of the lower thirty-three days had been opened.

Meng Yuan also faced two problems. One was that his spirit fire was growing slower and slower; the other was that it was time to talk about bringing back the Jiang family's grandfather and grandson.

(End of this chapter)