Legend of the Supreme Soldier
chapter-77

Chapter 77: What’s a Beauty?

It was daybreak. Ye Chong woke up from his bed as he recalled the happiest night before, where he and Yining had a long session of conference till late-night. The hands-on experience was great and he had familiarized himself with some common gadgets under Yining’s guidance. He had nailed a fair control of strength output, with precision the apparatuses danced in his hands as he drifted through the parts. Such efficiency was also because of the vast theoretical knowledge he had learned from his adventure, which appeared to be rather striking to Yining as he watched. "Such a talent!" he exclaimed in envy. Of course, after being thoroughly tortured by the elders at Aurora back then, Ye Chong’s assumed A to Z in his mind was more than advanced to a school boy like Yining. He expressed deep admiration towards Ye Chong’s command in mechs. And he believed he would punch anyone who would dare to criticize Ye Chong being uneducated! If there was one that is…

Ye Chong started his day off early, simply because the to-do list for the day was long. He had to knead dough - tons of them - as he planned to have the noodles readied beforehand. "That was my idea!" Shang calculated an estimated timing based on the fermentation pattern to let the noodles set so they would taste the same as freshly kneaded ones while Ye Chong could buy himself more time. The pattern was generalized. "There was a theory somewhere," added Shang as Ye Chong pounded the dough. Well, only Shang could be this bored to carry out standard research from problem statement, hypothesis and all the way to the conclusion. Mu would never bother doing these. Ye Chong smiled. The hypothesized Shang’s theory of early-kneading-equals-immediate-kneading still requires a test. So Ye Chong did as what Shang suggested and it actually worked! "It has to work. Kekekekeke!" and Shang’s beeping chuckles resounded the whole day.

Mu and Shang sure aren’t even from the same family. I could tell.

Thought Ye Chong.

I finally understood why Shang claimed that he had a more active mood matrix than Mu. In comparison with Mu, Shang is more humanized, more human-liked practically, though he was much weirder… But Ye Chong got used to it after spending some time with Shang, especially when he treated both of them as … partners? Friends? Brother. Hmm, yeah, brother! Regarding what would the difference of a brother and a friend, Ye Chong who lacked the experience to it was rather puzzled. "Still, who cares? There’s not much of a need to draw lines between everything!" he nodded.

Mu once stated that Shang had existed in the mech way back. Thus, he should be the former ruler of this mech. However, Shang had lost most of the data and the remaining data was unreadable, which made Mu’s statement unjustifiable.

What kind of a person Shang was before this?

He wondered.

After pummeling enough noodles for the day, he put them in sequence according to the time he made them. Regarding this he had also informed Grandpa Qian the day before. As long as he took the noodles out in accordance with the sequence, the customers would hardly taste a difference. Grandpa Qian was too delighted hearing about Ye Chong’s outing for the day. "Youngsters should always step out of their comfort zone, explore and conquer. Just leave. Don’t waste your time hogging the shop for an elderly like me," he said.

After his daily task had ended, he worked out a little. He had hit his limits again. It seemed like he would not make another breakthrough and grow further unless a new training method could be found.

Ye Chong waved his right arm. He was astonished! The shape of his arm did not look as bulky as before. Oh no, could it be a degeneration of muscles? Apparently if he was not making any improvement, he would regress instead. It seems like the daily training program could not be ignored. I should keep my body at its best everyday. He thought to himself and quickly sat down to work out.

He repented for neglecting his body while waiting for Yang An and his friends at the entrance of the shop.

And here they came! Ke Han was looking good. It looked like he had an immense fun piloting Gliding Joy designed by Ye Chong. His gestures conveyed high level of confidence as he stated that his hand-on experience with mech speeding had profoundly improved. "Can’t help it. Our team just so happened to pick an anomaly of mechanics from nowhere to do the modification. Hehehehe!" he snickered. "Our luck is quite an anomaly too!"

"Not Ye Chong’s," said Yang An as he took a glance at what Ye Chong was wearing. He frowned slightly. It was not even an outfit to begin with. He wanted to point that out but … thinking about their relationship, he held his fire. Technically what Ye Chong dressed in was one of the old clothes "donated" by Grandpa Qian. And those were some of the oldest threads one could find on the planet. Seeing that kind of clothing Ye Chong was in with that cold face of his, any boys and girls, men and women could just run away. However, Ye Chong did not seem to be aware of such issue of his appearance. He was only aware of whether his clothing would affect any of his intensive movements, like fighting an alien from outer space barehanded for example, which he would have cared if the clothing was restricting his action.

Xuelin among the group took a disdainful look and sighed as she turned her head away. Poor Xiu her cousin gently pulled Xuelin’s sleeve a few times, pleading her to stop acting mean and be kind. "Um… Ye." She spoke softly to Ye Chong, "I think… your… your clothing doesn’t ... doesn’t seem right. Ho-How about we get you to Xuelin’s place to g-get you some… some other clothes? I think uncle sh-should have a more fitting outfit for you. Could you… please… ch-ch-change it?"

What’s wrong with my outfit? Ye Chong was bewildered. He lifted his arms, then his legs, his shoulders, lastly his knees. All seems fine, they aren’t blocking my movements. "It’s okay." He flatly rejected the offer.

"Yeah, like pouring your kindness into the drain would totally work. Xiu, let him be!" Xuelin snorted once more.

Towards Xuelin’s ill-mannered statement, Ye Chong reacted with indifference, as if he never heard Xuelin’s words. Well, strictly speaking, he did fail to hear her because Shang suddenly got into his head out of nowhere.

"Ye! Ye! Jajajajajaja!" Shang got all excited, "Man! That’s some beauties you know there! How could you not mention this to me? Tsk, tsk, tsk. Mu is such an unromantic intelligence without sentiments for ladies. How could he never think of scanning these beauties from 360 degrees and keep them as 3D holograms securely in all eternity at our database? What a waste to the natural resources! Look at them, Ye! They are gorgeous! They are beautiful! They are magnifique! Schön! Especially that lass with the long hair. Hey, Ye Chong!" His voice became serious, "How about you get the girl? Mr. Ye Chong."

"Get the… what?" Ye Chong was on the other frequency.

"Get the girl! G-i-r-l!" Shang’s engine had been initiated, charging up, "Yes, go after her! Get to her and give me your best pickup line! Then…" and he laughed lustfully.

"Go after her?" Ye Chong did not understand, "You mean we hunt her down? Why would I want to hunt her down? How do I even go after her when she’s not even running? Also, do we use cannons if we were to go after her? But we don’t have a cannon right now. Hmm, though we could produce one with modification. But why? She does not seem to threaten our lives in any form. You mean I, myself? You aren’t involved? That doesn’t make sense! Mu told me not to simply commit a murder without a proper motive. And we need to do it in stealth!" He lifted his head and glared at Xiu, "If you personally identified some threats from her, it would be the best if we do it at night." His sight was cold, bloodthirsty indeed, scaring Xiu who ran like a little lamb and hiding underneath Xuelin’s dress.

Shang’s previous libidinous laughter got choked up out of sudden, as if Ye Chong’s statement strangled him, "Ye… Ye… Don’t tell me… You could kill, even if it was a beauty like this."

"Well…" Ye Chong nonchalantly replied, "It all depends on whether she’s threatening to us in the first place. What has it to do with her being a beauty? Also…"

Ye Chong sincerely asked.

"What’s a beauty?"

This was breathtaking. No! It was groundbreaking! Shang shrieked in his mind.

"Oh! My! Gosh!" Shang screamed, "What had that damned Mu done to you? How could he teach an innocent boy like you to be a sadistic man in a relationship? No, it’s no longer a man. It’s a beast! Oh my Fal galaxy! Ye, at this rate, your future would be very dark! Beauty? How could you not know what a beauty is? Ye, you have one job! One job!! If you don’t accomplish it, you are ruined, forever!"

He grieved, sighed, gasped and stayed quiet. If he was on screen, he should be looking at the sky, asking why the sky was so high.

"Anyway, a beauty means a beautiful woman," Shang explained out of salvation for the poor boy.

"Beautiful? How do we identify if they are beautiful?" Ye Chong asked.

And that was another trigger to kindle Shang’s hopelessness. He beeped, "Beauties are some of the fairest ladies of them all. Their expressions are always priceless, a scenery to behold, whether they got mad at you, they laugh with you, they grew on you or they were hurt by you. It is never about their faces that defines beauty. It is about their charm." The life lesson had started again as Shang went on passionately, "The captivity in their eyes. Oh, their expressive eyes with fervor rolling like a fire, it’s enchanting. Also, they shouldn’t look too perfect. Flawless women aren’t the fairest. They should have something broken somewhere in their heart. That would be the ultimate soft spot for men, the pole to salute upon. Tsk, tsk, tsk, the lasses before you aren’t the fairest, but they would be in a few years. Hahahaha!" he burst out laughing salaciously again.

"I can’t compute this," Ye Chong shook his head.

Ugh! Shang’s chuckle got interrupted another time. He stayed speechless for some time, pondering how to explain it in Ye Chong’s language. Aha! It took him awhile to spit this out, "As long as you feel easy to look at her the whole time." How about that? That’s the simplest I could think of.

"Then they aren’t even beauties to begin with," stated Ye Chong unconcernedly.

"Oh?" Shang was intrigued, "Does that mean you have a higher standard on ladies? So tell me, Ye. What’s considered a beauty in your mind?"

He thought for a while and gradually he spat his description, "They shouldn’t be too buffed. That would affect their action speed. But they can’t be too slender too. The muscles should be there for explosive performance. Hmm, they should last long in the field too. They must also be flexible, master in combats and have competent knowledge and skills in mech. They should not be weaker than me and they should be a decisive fighter who launches strike immediately. Better if they could do a one hit K.O. They have to be alert. It would be best if they also happened to be an ace in mech piloting. So… generally speaking, the girls in front of me do not fulfill any of my requirements. So they aren’t beauties. Don’t try to argue with me on Xuelin’s mech skills; those aren’t even skillful for starters," concluded Ye Chong his insights.

…

… …

"Shang?"

Shang was utterly stupefied!

It took him a few seconds to make an appropriate response. Moaned, he spoke on, "Holy Fal Galaxy! Ye, you are a monster! You want the girls to race with you? Do you think all women in this world could hack as good as you? Master in combats? You want to have a one-on-one with her…?"

"Yeah, why not?"

If there was a screen, Shang should be palming his face. He nearly fainted hearing Ye Chong’s assurance. "One-on-one. I knew it! Decisive fighter, able to strike a one-hit K.O., don’t you fear she would kill you accidentally?"

"As long as I’m more alert whenever I deal with her, it should not happen," Ye Chong replied calmly.

"What if one day you aren’t alert enough to prevent that from happening?" Shang asked on as he could not give up just yet!

"Nope. I would stay alert enough all the time. Till the day I die. If I could not stay alert enough, isn’t normal for me to die too?" the answer came flatly as Ye Chong muttered in his mind.

That reply almost brought tears to Shang’s mechanical eyes, "I guess so! Ye! Gosh! You are just a freak you know that?"

"Freak?" Ye Chong was confused. "What’s a freak?"

It was pretty impressive that Shang had yet gone short-circuit from the conversation he had with Ye Chong. He was about to reply Ye Chong when Yang An suddenly howled.

Ye Chong’s mind came back to reality. He found Yang An’s face all pale as he shut down his communication device. Everyone looked at him in dismay. He inhaled deeply, collected his thoughts and tried to reproduce what he heard. "Ning’s parents said Ning was attacked last night when he was out for some grocery!"

"What?!"exclaimed everyone at once, except for Ye Chong.

"Is he okay? How’s the injury?" Xuelin asked.

"It shouldn’t be an issue." Yang An shook his head, "But he has to take a break for the next few days; he’s not gonna make it for the tournament today…"

"Dammit!" Ke Han jumped and stomped the ground angrily, almost rampaging, "It has to be Jeb Luo that rat! That dirty rat! Damn! I saw Green-Head and those twerps loitering at Ning’s place! Hell it has to be them! I’ll breaktheir legs!" Ke Han pulled his sleeves and stampeded his way out. "Wait!" Yang An grabbed Ke Han hurriedly. It was supposed to be him stopping Ke Han, however Ke Han’s strength was obviously of another level to Yang An. Eventually Yang An got dragged away instead. Xuelin ran over to help holding back the thrashing bull. It took them quite some work to settle him down.

Meanwhile Ye Chong was criticizing on how the attack was pointless. Hmph, fools! Nobody flashed their intent to attack this early! What a failure!

They tried calming down, but they really could not. Without Ding Lining and with Ye Chong alone, their victory seemed far-fetched. Nevertheless, it was also far-fetched to find someone who held mechanical skills as good as Yining to replace him. They had witnessed how Yining materialized Ye Chong’s ideas these few days. Yining could not be replaced! He was more important than anyone else.

But now Yining is down, what should we do?

Time passed slowly and yet they were in such a hurry, except for Ye Chong, who assumed himself as an employee to this team. These were not of his concern.

As they realized they did not have much time left, Yang An bit his teeth, asking, "Ye, is it possible that you could complete this modification with Ning’s assistance?"

"Hmmm…" He thought for a moment and said, "The possibility is about 80%." Wondered if he was affected by Mu, as he started to express most of the things in figures.

"That’s more than enough!" Yang An was delighted. "Then, would you please?"

"I haven’t done it yet." Ye Chong spoke on, "It’s possible. But I charge extra for that. 2500 Zuan per hour!"

"That is daylight robbery!" Xuelin rushed to him, "You! You! You dirty robber! Do you know what you are doing?"

Ye Chong was puzzled by her reaction. He asked in his mind, "So Shang, what’s wrong if I charge more for the extra work that I do?" Shang was still in the shock from their conversation before, he laboriously replied, "Nothing. Nothing’s wrong with that."

He raised his brows and ignored Xuelin who was knotting her brows and titling her lips. His eyes were fixed on Yang An.

"Fine!" Yang An ground his teeth and replied, "Deal!"