Chapter 90 - Foil
The fragrance of Longjing tea was fresh and crisp, its taste mellow and sweet. This small pot of tea leaves that he had brought were picked before the rainy season, thus it was called Longjing Before Rain.
Usually, the tea plant would sprout only a single leaf before the rainy season, giving the Longjing tea a mellow and more elegant taste than the other variation, Long Jing Before Ming. There was only a tael worth of tea leaves in it, yet it was priced as much as twenty thousand Federal dollars.
Qin Mang took the purple-clay teacup and gently sipped from it. The old man broke into a delightful smile almost instantly. “What great tea! The flavor is even mellower than Snow-white Silverpins. If the Snow-white Silverpins are akin to a gorgeous woman, this type of tea leaves can be likened to be a budding teenager; to each its merits, both can be considered great tea. I’ve never known that your home planet has such wondrous tea leaves.”
Xia Fei chuckled. “If these tea leaves are brewed using the local Longjing spring water, the flavor will be richer than what you’re tasting now. Since you like them so much, I still have two boxes with me; let me give them to you, too.”
With that, Xia Fei pulled out two green jars from his spatial ring and placed them on the desk. Qin Mang was not in the least bit courteous and stored the jars of tea leaves into his drawer.
“Your performance during the extreme hovercar race wasn’t bad. For a stock model hovercar to achieve the speed of a professional racing hovercar after your modifications, who taught you your skills?” asked Qin Mang as he drank tea.
Xia Fei lit a cigarette. “I learned it from an uncle called Porter whom I met while I was in a warship graveyard. Actually, in terms of retrofitting skills, I’m still nowhere near his level, but Uncle Porter told me a principle: ‘Any and every machine has its limit.’ As long as I can identify this limit, I’ll be able to tap into the machine’s full potential.”
The tea in Qin Mang’s cup quivered slightly. Excitement could not accurately describe what he was feeling right now. He had been completely shocked after hearing Xia Fei’s reasoning.
“You thought about all these by yourself?” Qin Mang asked with a slight tremble in his voice.
Xia Fei shrugged. “Yeah, but it will be far too cruel to tell it to those cadets who have no idea. They worked very hard to get here, slaughtering out a bloody path from the thousands upon thousands of people before they made it into the training camp. Their parents and family must’ve been excited for days on their behalf just getting here.
“But they’re no more than foils to a few others this entire time. They’ve been eliminated, and if they were to learn of this, they would no doubt be very upset.”
“Xia Fei, how did you learn all this?” asked Qin Mang once again.
Xia Fei flashed him a slight smile. “All this is actually very apparent. There are so many divisions that can be considered as external, while there’s just this one internal division that only enlists warriors in its midst. Logically speaking, if the internal division is reserved for elites, then the internal division should also be like the rest, setting up an equal amount of subdivisions to recruit the elites of the various branch divisions and not specifically picking out the warriors.
“This more or less proves my hypothesis that only the internal division is considered as the real Heaven Execution Training Camp. The so-called branch divisions were only set up to give the rejects a way out so that they will at least pick up skills applicable to life after they leave the training camp and find themselves a job out there.
“Furthermore, doing so will also help increase the prestige of Heaven Execution Training Camp, telling people out there that anyone who leaves the camp can do well for themselves.”
After hearing all this, Qin Mang abruptly got up and could not help but applaud. “Amazing! Brilliant! This is the most remarkable analysis I’ve heard my entire life.
“You’re absolutely right; all the branch divisions are nothing but foils to the internal division, and the only reason why there are so many outstanding cadets gathered together is to make it easier for the internal division to take its pick. After all, an internal division member mustn’t just be formidable in martial arts, their character, intelligence, and all other characteristics they have are also very important. Every individual who joins the internal division is only chosen after long-term inspection before they can be determined,” readily concurred Qin Mang.
“This point is something that many old faculty members, who have practically worked in the training camp their whole lives, have not been able to grasp even now. You’ve only been here for a handful of days, yet you’ve already identified the essence of this training camp. Just this point alone means that your analytical thinking has already achieved the criteria to join the internal division.”
It was unknown when that black cat, which had been sound asleep, opened its golden eyes and trained them onto Xia Fei as it examined him from head to toe.
It got up and walked to Xia Fei’s side in its indolent, feline behavior. It meowed a few times, almost as if asking for Xia Fei to carry it.
Xia Fei placed the cat in his arms. “D*mn buddy, you’re really heavy.”
The black cat sprawled in Xia Fei’s arms and rubbed its chubby face against him before it lowered its head and fell asleep.
“Looks like Old Black here is hungry.” Qin Mang smiled. He pulled out a silver key and handed it to Xia Fei. “Help me run an errand. Head down to the basement and bring out Old Black’s cat food. I am old and don’t wish to walk that far.”
“Understood.” Xia Fei placed Old Black on the desk and headed down the basement. “Which room is the cat food in?”
“The key’s in your hand, so find it yourself,” Qin Mang said.
Watching Xia Fei disappear as he took the corner, Qin Mang held Old Black in his arms and caressed it. “You’re still the one who knows me best. He’s been given a chance, so now it’s up to that rascal Xia Fei to see if he’s really clever enough.”
There were two doors in the basement, one on the left and on the right. Made from silver alloy, both looked completely identical with no distinguishing features.
Xia Fei first stepped to the door on his right, fitted the key into the keyhole, and twisted at the knob for quite some time, but it did not budge. Thus, he went over to his left.
He very easily opened this door, and when Xia Fei took a look at what was inside the room, he was momentarily dumbfounded.