Old Friends

The old man laughed as he tossed his wooden blade aside.

And he had a grin on his face, as he spoke to Wuying. "Your moves have a certain flavour to them. Royal Guard flavour. I think I know who you have been training with, from some of your moves. Without mentioning names ..."

"I was ... taught a few tricks, back at ... Kongmin Town. I believe you can guess who taught me that move, once I mention that."

Uncle Liu Jingchu, who was a Royal Guard himself, actually. He was the one who had showed him that little trick, and warned him not to use it careless, against the rest of the Royal Guard. Unless, of course, it was to show that he had ties with the Old Guard of the same.

Which he took to be what the old man was looking for.

"Oh? That old rascal is still accepting students? At his age? I thought he had passed away already, from drinking too much!" laughed the old man, as he clapped Wuying on the shoulder.

"Well, I can't refuse you, of course, since you are my old war-buddy's student. So ... Let's put you down as an exceptional pass, hey?"

*

"An exceptional pass? That's a Perfect Rating, isn't it? And for weapons-handling? That's not something you see everyday!" Duman Junhe exclaimed, as the two of them were walking back to rejoin the other candidates.

Yet, for some reason, there were none of them to be found. Except for Wumu Qian, who was standing there in the middle of the now-empty courtyard where they had waited earlier. And who looked somewhat relieved to see the two of them.

"You must have waited to take your tests last. The others have already left. Or were carried out. What were your results?" he asked quietly, as he stepped up to join the pair.

"I barely scraped by with a simple third-rate pass. But Brother Yue Wuying here managed a Perfect Rating!" boasted Duman Junhe at once, before Wuying could even open his mouth.

But Wumu Qian merely nodded once he heard that. "Good. He has a Perfect Rating too. That makes two of us with exceptional passes. But you made it too, Duman Junhe. So that means there will be three more Royal Guards this year," he declared, with a slightly proud tone in his voice.

"Three? But that means ... We are the only ones who passed?"

Wuying was rather surprised when he realised that. But Duman Junhe merely laughed, and threw his arms over the other two men. "Now I am so glad that I listened to you two! I actually passed! To think that I was only going through the test to impress my grandfather! Now I will have something truly exceptional to boast about!"

Wumu Qian seemed a little relieved too, although he did look a little surprised to be man-handled by Duman Junhe. "I will admit that I am somewhat pleased. My horse-riding skills were fortunately adequate. Otherwise, I might have failed."

Wuying merely shook his head as he considered what the shortest of the trio just said. Both Duman Junhe and Wumu Qian had two very strong performances, while he barely scraped through the other two tests! So it was rather obvious who was the lucky one there!

"So, what do we do now?" asked Duman Junhe, as he finally withdrew his arms. But the grin on his face warned Wuying that he was still feeling extremely pleased with himself at the moment.

"Retrieve our belongings and leave for a meal. That was what I was told. We would only need to return to the Lower Western Palace Audience Hall later, for the results."

Duman Junhe turned to Wumu Qian with a wide-eyed look. "The Lower Western Palace? By the Horse! I have never been inside the Western Palace! This is a day of many firsts for me!" he declared loudly, as he led the other two towards the exit. Which was rather clearly marked.

"There you are, my dear nephew! You didn't show up at the Testing Grounds outside, so we were wondering where you were! Guess we should have known that you were after a higher achievement, hmmm? The Royal Guard, eh? That should make your wife really happy!"

Wuying looked up, surprised to hear a familiar voice calling out, right in front of him! Onlly to find someone unexpected, standing right before his eyes! To add to his surprise, there was another man in his late middle-age, next to the infamous Royal Engineer! And from his uniform, this one was in the Administrative Services of the Western Palace too!

"Uncle ... I mean, this humble one greets Major Duan Jiu. Have you been well, Major?"

He even dipped into a very formal bow, prompting the pair beside him to do the same. But the older man's familiar laughter burst out then, which was enough to tell him that he was not in any trouble. Which was almost enough to make him give out a sigh of relief.

"There, there! No need for such manners! I've always been rather casual about such matters, as everyone knows. But you should greet Administrator Lin Zhan here! He's an old friend of mine whom I had troubled to dig your name out of the list of participants in this little test!"

Wuying obeyed at once, dipping into another formal bow. By then, he could see that there was a slight smile on the Administrator's lips. Nor did the reply from the old man surprise him greatly:

"Ah! Then this is your nephew then? Like I said before, how could he have gone missing from such an event. And there you were, insisting that he was applying for one of the more common ranks in the armed services! How could your nephew be anything less than a Royal Guard? Especially with your training?"

Major Duan Jiu laughed as he waved a hand at the official in the Administrator's robes. "You are being too polite, Lin Zhan! How could I have trained him up to this sort of standard? It is all due to Yue Baisheng's tutelage, of course!"

"Royal Guard Major Yue Baisheng!"

"Well, he is young Wuying's brother-in-law, after all, so you can understand why he had to put in a bit of effort, hey? After all, it wouldn't do to have him bring down the family name and all," Duan Jiu said with a conspiratorial smile, leaning his head a little closer to Administrator Lin as he did so.

Who merely nodded as he smiled back. He was not so close to the Major, this Administrator, Wuying realised. But it was clear that he was willing to play the game. Which was certainly going to make things a little easier for him. Especially now that his link to the Yue Family of Kongmin Town could be said to have been established.

"Then ... we should just list him down as a member of that family? For our records? I trust that will not be a problem?"

Duan Jiu laughed as he shook his head. "Of course. Of course. I think you will find every will be in order, if you do that. And you can always blame me, if anyone kicks up a fuss over it," he declared, still with his grin on his face.

He turned and started to walk out, followed closely by Administrator Lin Zhan. Which seemed to be the cue for the other two young men to turn towards Wuying. He did not doubt that they would be demanding answers from him as soon as Uncle Duan was gone.

"Ah. Before I forget," the Major suddenly turned and smiled at the young man, "I did have a message for you. It's from your wife. Ling er mentioned that she will be leaving for Kangning City tomorrow morning, and that she said that you shouldn't try to hurry back if you had made it through your test after all.

"After all, I did warn her about the tradition that dictates that you go out and get properly drunk with your new team tonight. Honestly, I think that everyone was worried about you when you didn't show up at the other site. But no matter, I shall head over there and let her know what happened here."

"Ah! Once again, I must apologise, sir. It was a rather silly mistake."

"Nonsense! I couldn't be happier! No, that's not true. I would definitely be happier if you decided to join the engineers! But hey! The Royal Guard is not so bad, for second best!"

And the old man was laughing loudly all the while he walked out of the walled section.

*

It took a little longer than expected to find the inn, but Junhe seemed to know the place a lot better than the other two of them, and he soon had them there. It became obvious that it was a haunt for the White Tiger Guard when they got closer, with so many of the troop about. And most of them recognised Wuying at once, much to the amusement of the pair at his side. And they soon had the man heading up the stairs to the Lieutenant's table, together with his 'young friends'.

He had spent a good part of the walk explaining to the other two about his relationship with the famous Royal Guard Major Yue Baisheng. Apparently, he was the Commander-in-charge of the defence of the whole of the West Court of the Royal Palace. As well as the one who had won the Arms Competition among the Three Courts for three years running!

Duman Junhe, of course, was laughing at his own luck. "Ah! No wonder the old man let me off so easily! He must have been itching to cross swords with you! Thank the Horse that you showed up when you did! Otherwise, I might have been forced to try out the second stage myself! And that would have been a disaster!"

Wumu Qian was also rather pleased to learn that one of the friends that he had made in the course of the whole competition came from such a background. "Little wonder then, that you were so careful throughout the whole event. You did not wish to let down your family name, did you? Or embarrass your brother?"

"Er ... He's more properly my brother-in-law, since I married his younger sister," he reminded the pair with a warm flush rising to his face. He wasn't about to break into a long explanation now, about the whole sword fight and what happened after that. Besides, that was likely to lead to other misconceptions.

So he had painted a simplified version of the events that had taken place. And how he had ended up at the Royal Palace. Or, at least, its Outer Grounds.

"Then we are looking for the White Tiger Guard? So that you can meet up and apologise to the ones who had been waiting for you to show up, to take their normal Army Officer examinations?" Duman Junhe asked, as he pointed at a building just up ahead.

"In that case, I think we are already here. Aren't those the White Tiger uniforms up ahead?"

He pointed then to a rather old and somewhat untidy tavern, set at the side of the street, that had a good number of soldiers in a familiar uniform loitering at its front. A uniform that Wuying was more than a little familiar with.

They were exactly that, and Wuying was suddenly swamped by a number of troopers, who didn't hold back the least, as they teased him about missing the evaluation held earlier that morning. And how he had thoroughly infuriated Lieutenant Yen Ah Man, who had been patiently waiting for him for half a day.

But eventually, they let him by, so that he could head upstairs, to the second floor of the simple tavern, to apologize to the Lieutenant in person.

The lieutenant was, as expected, sitting alone at a table next to the window, where he had already noticed Wuying's approach. And was watching his progress with a wide grin on his lips.

Wuying tendered a deep bow of apology to the man seated at the table at once. "I am so sorry, lieutenant. I had gotten lost and so ended up at the wrong test. I heard that you had been waiting for me too, all morning. I cannot tell you how sorry I am for that. Please accept my abject apology!"

But the scruffy-looking officer in the worn uniform only laughed. "It is but a small matter! You are here now, and safe! That is enough. But here! You have made new friends, I see," he said then, gesturing at the two young men at Wuying's side, "And they look like they are tough enough to handle those idiots downstairs too!"

"Ah yes! Please permit me to introduce you. This is Lieutenant Yen Ah Man, of the White Tiger Gate Guard. And these are my brothers-in-arms, Duman Junhe of Green Phoenix Town, and Wumu Qian of Yexing Ya, of the Northern Territories."

"Oho! You have made friends all over the Kingdom then! Good for you! That's what the Captain had hoped you would do, when you left Tortoise Mountain. A young man should see the more of the world, so that you'll have more pleasant memories, when you have my grey hairs," chuckled the officer.

Junhe, naturally, could not resist teasing the man at once. "Playing up your own grey hairs, Lieutenant? You look no more than twenty-five! What grey hairs are you talking about?" he laughed.

"Oho! Your brother here from the Southlands is not only good-looking but a smooth talker! You'll be losing all the womenfolk at White Tiger Town to this one if you're bringing him back with you," the officer joked, as he chuckled along with them, "But hey! You mentioned that you ended up at the wrong test? Which one did you end up taking? The Town Guard exams?"

Qian gave out a laugh at that, while Junhe shook his head with a chuckle of his own. "Oh, my dear Lieutenant, you are really putting our brother down with that! Brother Wuying has just passed the examinations for the Royal Guard!" the latter revealed with a smile.

"No, no. He means that all three of us did. That was why I couldn't be found all morning, you see? We were stuck in the Lower Western Palace."

The rough man's face went white at once. "The ... the Royal Guard?!" his voice screeched a little then, and his eyes looked as though they were going to pop out of his head, "You took the exam for the Royal Guard?"

Then he shook his head again, more violently than before. "No. Wait! You passed the Royal Guard examination? All three of you?!"

Wumu Qian frowned at the way that the question was posed. Or perhaps the tone of the questioner. "Yes, we did. Well, it was difficult, but are you implying that we aren't capable of clearing something like that?" he asked the Lieutenant then.

Who demurred at once, shaking his head at the trio. He pointed at the gold bracelets that they wore on their wrists, that cleared them to re-enter the Lower Palace Grounds. "Now that I have seen those - I'm not blind! Or stupid enough to deny it! But how ... Do you know what you have just achieved?" he asked them as he shook his head again, "Do you know what this means? There hasn't been anyone who passed the Royal Guard Examination directly like this for almost six years!"

"Doesn't that mean that we have made it as officer cadets?"

Lieutenant Yen Ah Man turned to Junhe then, as he shook his head yet again. "No, not cadets. You've made officers! There is no cadet rank in the Royal Guard. And as I have said, no one has made that grade in six years! You start off higher than anyone else anywhere!"

Wumu Qian was quick to pick up on that. "Wait! You said that we get to be officers straightaway? And does that mean we get paid as officers? As lieutenants?"

Ah Man chuckled. "Ah, yes. It's the same rate as the usual officers in the other Army posts. Well, it's not as much as what we get, after we factor in the allowances for our own White Tiger Gate posts, but it is respectable," he replied, before he named a sum, "Thirty gold coins for the first six moons. That's the basic pay, for the probation period. And that goes up to thirty-five thereafter."

Wumu Qian, of course, had not missed the qualifier. "You mentioned the West - the White Tiger Gate, and allowances. Do you mean that officers there make more coin?"

"Well, we do get hazard pay, which the other units do not. And our uniform allowance is factored in separately, rather than coming out of your own purse. We are a little hard on our clothes there, being that far from civilization," laughed the Lieutenant, "And there are the other perks too. But I really shouldn't talk about that here. Wuying will be telling everyone that I'm out recruiting again!"

"Well, you are," sighed the younger man with a smile, "Although they did ask. The casualty rate is a little higher at White Tiger too. You two should remember that. But yes, the renumeration is better, especially with the crystal shards that the enemy drops."

"That's true. There are bits and pieces that we pick up in the Old Town that we are trying to clear. And the fights do yield coin as well, if you add that up."

"To how much, exactly?" asked Qian then, putting on a stern face as he looked at the older man.

"Oh, somewhere between ten to twenty pieces of gold a moon, I suppose. Enough to keep you in alcohol and meat!" Ah Man told him, grinning as he did so, "You're expected to share with your own men though, so that will cut your profits down a bit. Say two or three gold pieces. So make in beer and wine. Meat cost more, so it wouldn't do to spend your coin on their meals. The men usually leave it at that, so you'll still rake in at least five gold."

Qian and Junhe looked a little surprised at that. And Wuying decided that he would ask about something else then, to keep their minds from digging deeper. Otherwise it would sound like the Lieutenant was recruiting! "Say, have you signed up all of those street toughs that I sent up with the Town Guards earlier? I heard that they aren't too bad, in terms of bad habits."

"Ah, yes! We snatched them up at once. That was a good move, Wuying, picking them up like that. We paid their fines for them, and right out of their recruitment bonus too! Now they're praising your name all the way back to where we are getting them fitted for uniforms! You really came through for us there! We managed to pull sixteen all together! That's better than our dismal five last trip!"

Junhe laughed then, interrupting the pair before the older man could get back to his plans for the recruits. "Ah! That reminds me: we are supposed to eat before we get back. How are the noodles here? I can say that they smell wonderful from where I am sitting!"

"The noodles? They are great! The owner of the place is an old friend of the Captain's, and he doesn't stint on his ingredients. Here! Let me stand you three a meal! It's the least that I can do after making you listen to my old spiel!"

And so they settled down to lunch at last!

*

"Your friend the Lieutenant is a colourful character indeed! And he seems to take his work very seriously too," Wumu Qian commented when they finally started back towards the Army Headquarters at the Lower Western Palace. They had spent close to an hour, listening to the Lieutenant share his stories of White Tiger Gate. And the sort of hunting that they would have to do once they were there.

"He has been at the White Tiger Gate for close to fifty years, as far as anyone can tell. As far as anyone can remember! I heard that he refused other postings too. He had lost family to the Beasts when they came across the line, according to what they say."

"But ... fifty years? You mean that he is one of the legendary Dragon-blooded? One of the Long-lived?" Junhe blurted in surprise, "Ah! His grey eyes! Well, that is ... that's incredible!"

"What do you mean?"

Junhe turned to Wumu Qian, who clearly looked more than a little lost. "Ah! You are from the North, so most of you should have experience with people with some unusual traits, like eyes of a different colour? Or those that show up green at night? Like those of a cat?"

"There are many like that, in the North. What is your point?" asked the shortest of the trio, although it was clear from the look on his face that he wasn't sure what Duman Junhe was getting at.

"Like I said, most of the North have the blood of the Long-lived in the veins. Just like Yen Ah Man. Like his grey eyes. I didn't ask if they showed up green at at night though. But I would bet that they do."

"And what does that have to do with the Long-lived? Most of them have hidden away, in the various forested lands that make up half of the Western Sector. And many of the islands in the North."

Duman Junhe grinned as he waved a hand, as if that explained everything. "The Long-lived were here before us, according to our legends. And they are still dominant, they say, in those heavily forested areas in the West and in the North. So I guess that our Lieutenant Ah Man is one of those who are descended from that race, and have their blood, diluted as it may be, in his veins."

Wuying decided that he had better step in quickly, before they really started to discuss the issue. "Well, that may be so. And what's more, the Captain of the White Tiger Garrison is one of the Long-lived himself. And it's a lot more obvious in his case: his hair is blond and his eyes are green, even during the daytime. Just so you know."

The other two nodded as soon as they heard that. Although Wumu Qian did not seem surprised, and Duman Junhe merely raised his eyebrows. Wuying felt a sense of relief at once. It seemed neither of them had any issues regarding the Long-lived.

"Regardless, Lieutenant Ah Man's advice made a lot of sense. And he knows a lot more about the Guard in the Western Sector. That was clear after we had our talk with him. You are heading back there, aren't you?" Wumu Qian asked Wuying at once, "That's what you had always intended, from the very beginning, I think."

He nodded back, and smiled. "That obvious, was I? It is true. I had alway wanted to get back there and do what I can to help. I had been to the Gate, you see. And I was one of those small farmers that kept the Garrison supplied with vegetables. They had helped me back then, so it seems only fair that I help them out when I can. To be honest, I never thought that I would make it back there as an officer!"

"A farm? So you know the area, as well as the people there? But I thought you were from Kongmin Town?" Junhe asked, looking a little confused.

Wuying laughed. He had expected that. After the meeting with Uncle Duan at the test site. "No, no. My wife is from Kongmin Town. That's where I met her, actually. She's the younger sister of ... one of the Guards at the Eunuch's Palace, over at West Gate Court," he explained quickly, "We ... met, under rather unusual circumstances, more than a year ago, back at my farm. And I ended up at his ... home, over at Kongmin Town, and being introduced to his sister. The next thing that I knew, I was married!"

Wumu Qian seemed to nod at that, looking slightly amused, but Junhe looked shocked. "Then ... it is true? That you are married into the Yue family? Royal Guard Major Yue Baisheng's family? There were rumours about ... his younger sister being ... betrothed to someone from the West. That was you?" he gasped.

That was certainly unexpected. He had not known that there was talk about Yue Ling's marriage already. "Well, yes. But it was a naked ceremony, and it only just happened, less than a moon ago," he admitted, blushing as he did so, "I had not known that it was the subject of rumours already."

"You forget, big brother, that the Yue Family is one of the most powerful families in the West, and they are linked to the Duans, who are also rather famous there," Junhe sighed, "There was a rumour that was running around the circles recently - just last Summer, in fact!

"Well,Major Yue had hinted that he would not have to duel any more suitors for his sister's hand. And that he had been beaten and that the girl had already been promised. So that was you! I guess I should have expected it, when I saw your performance at the sword trials."

* * *