Joy of Life: The Mei Family's Son Grows Up

Chapter 61: Battle Shadow
Mei Cheng'an had originally planned to prepare to put away his sword. It was just a competition, not a real life-and-death fight.

Then he saw an incredible scene. The shadow's body actually rotated at a small angle in the air again, avoiding his sword.

Mei Cheng'an was stunned. Is this something a human can do?

However, Shadow did dodge, but his landing posture was not very good, even a little embarrassing, and he staggered back several steps before he could steady himself.

Mei Cheng'an put away his sword and turned around.

"how did you do that?"

After Shadow steadied himself, he felt a little embarrassed. He felt ashamed to be forced into such an awkward situation by a ninth-rank beginner. Even if he was attacked by a long-planned hidden weapon, it was still embarrassing, because he was the ancestor of hidden weapons.

Fortunately, Mei Chengan did not seize on this bit of sarcasm this time, thus saving a little bit of his face.

"Ahem, it's nothing, my body is just a little more flexible. If you want to learn, I'll teach you."

Mei Cheng'an's eyes lit up. He didn't know what being polite meant. This move could save his life at the critical moment.

"Is it true? Then teach me."

Shadow nodded.

"Of course it's true. If you want to learn, I can teach you. But even if I teach you, you won't be able to learn. You have to practice from a young age. At your age, your body has already taken shape. It's not impossible for you to learn, but you have to break all the bones in your body and apply secret medicine... Do you really want to learn?"

Mei Cheng'an rolled his eyes the biggest time in his life, then rushed towards the shadow with a sword in hand, "Cut you to death, you bastard."

The two men fought again.

As the two men's true energy and physical strength were depleted, they were inevitably injured. Of course, Mei Cheng'an was injured much more than Shadow.

He used all his tricks, but Shadow still had many tricks to deal with the enemy. He used a sneak attack to force Shadow into such an embarrassing situation, but Shadow could not be merciful and not care. He would launch a sneak attack from time to time to force Mei Chengan into a panic.

Shadow attacked at will, without considering the timing, so Mei Cheng'an was never sure when Shadow would launch a surprise attack on him. Since his hidden weapon of silver needles had been exposed, Shadow was always on guard and it was of no use at all.

Of course, Mei Cheng'an is not without advantages, that is the special repair property of his true Qi. Although external injuries cannot heal in an instant, they can greatly reduce the amount of bleeding and greatly increase the speed of wound healing. This makes his combat endurance much stronger than that of ordinary warriors. His main feature is that he can resist, but his true Qi is consumed a little faster.

If it was simply an external injury, it wouldn't consume so much true energy. The main reason was that Shadow's sword was coated with poison. Once the poison entered his body, it was directly digested and dissolved by his protective true energy, but it also increased the consumption of true energy.

However, it also helped to clarify the principle of the ninth-grade anti-poison that Mei Chengan wanted to understand before.

After fighting for a while, Mei Cheng'an felt that he was almost exhausted, so he found the right opportunity and voluntarily withdrew from the battle area.

Mei Cheng'an didn't care about his image at all and sat down on the ground, breathing heavily and waving his hands randomly.

"I won't fight anymore. I can't bear it anymore."

Shadow also put away his sword and was in much better condition than Mei Chengan.

"You have greatly exceeded my expectations by being able to hold on for this long."

Mei Chengan fell to the ground.

"What a pity, I still can't let you fight to your heart's content."

Shadow said with a somewhat relaxed tone.

“I had a great time in the second half.”

Mei Chengan was a little skeptical.

"Really?"

Shadow nodded seriously.

"Really, if we only talk about swordsmanship, an average ninth-grade warrior may not be your opponent. You are too fast. I win because I have more skills, more true energy, and better physical strength than you. Moreover, you are much more resistant than I thought. All these injuries did not even deplete your physical strength. It is also remarkable."

Mei Cheng'an didn't hide anything.

"My true qi is somewhat special, and it is stronger in body repair."

Shadow nodded.

"I see. How is it? Is it okay?"

Mei Chengan waved his hand.

"I've used up a lot of energy. I'll be fine after a short rest."

Shadow stopped talking, giving Mei Chengan some time to recover his strength.

After a while he walked up to him and stretched out his right hand.

Mei Chengan grabbed his hand and stood up.

Shadow patted Mei Chengan on the shoulder.

"Let's go."

……

Chen Pingping looked at the shadow and Mei Chengan in front of him. He didn't even need to ask the result, as he could tell from their appearance.

Although Shadow had some wounds on his body, there were only one or two and they didn't look serious.

Mei Chengan on the other side looked much more miserable, with many wounds on his body and his clothes were torn to shreds.

Chen Pingping looked at Mei Chengan and spoke softly.

"Is everything okay?"

Mei Chengan shook his head.

"It's okay, it just looks scary."

Chen Pingping smiled. "I see that you are in good spirits and not depressed at all."

Mei Chengan smiled.

"Well, it's normal that I can't win. There's nothing to be disappointed about."

Chen Pingping admired Mei Cheng'an's attitude very much.

"If you can keep your head above water even after a defeat, you are already on the right path to becoming a strong person. You are still young, so don't rush. Just take your time."

Mei Chengan nodded obediently.

Chen Pingping looked at the shadow.

"Let's go, we have to go back and report."

Shadow nodded.

Just as the two were about to leave, Mei Chengan called out to them and they all looked at him.

"Hey... can you spare me a set of clothes? My outfit is really... unsightly. I'm afraid I'll scare people when I go into the city."

Chen Pingping and Yingzi suddenly laughed.

Chen Pingping spoke with a smile.

"You forgot that you are a young man, and it is time to save face. Shadow, go find him a set of spare clothes."

Shadow nodded, turned around and left. After a while, he came back holding a set of black clothes.

"We are about the same size, if you don't mind, you can wear mine."

Mei Chengan took it gratefully.

"I don't mind. I don't mind."

Watching Chen Pingping and Shadow walking away, Mei Cheng'an looked around and after confirming that there was no one around, he took off all his tattered clothes and put on Shadow's clothes.

Finally, he put on a cloak with a big hood. You know what, you really can't say that Mei Chengan's appearance at this moment is just a smaller version of his original appearance, except for the absence of the bird-beak mask.

He is now only 1.73 meters tall, one centimeter taller than before, but still much shorter than his shadow who is over 1.8 meters tall.

Mei Chengan looked left and right and was very satisfied with the outfit.

Once you put on a hood, no one will love you!

Come back home!

He walked to the little red horse, touched its face, untied the rope tied to the tree, climbed on the horse, and galloped back the way he came.

……

Mei Cheng'an's wound was almost healed after one day, or to be more precise, it healed in half a day, and the remaining half a day was spent shedding blood scabs. After the blood scabs fell off, his skin was as smooth as before, and there was not even a trace of scar visible.

The maids were a little worried when he first came back, but they were relieved when they saw that the healing effect was exactly as the young master said.

In the following days, Mei Cheng'an returned to his daily routine. Occasionally, he would make plans to fight with Yingzi during his days off. Although his life was dull, it was still fulfilling.

Time passed into late autumn in this dull atmosphere.

When the chrysanthemums were in full bloom, the Mei family gathered together to drink and appreciate the chrysanthemums as they did in previous years, and they were very happy.

It is worth mentioning that the purple chrysanthemums in Mei Cheng'an's courtyard were not only kept alive, but also grown quite well. This made Mei Zhili, who occasionally came to inspect the chrysanthemum cultivation, very satisfied and he reluctantly forgave Mei Cheng'an for stealing the flowers from him.

Mei Cheng'an also took the maids and Lao Wang's family to Akihabara again to enjoy the maple leaves.

After the winter came, something happened that was not a small matter for Mei Cheng'an. The eldest prince Li Chengru was going back to Beijing, and it was said that he would stay until after the New Year.

The eldest prince is 7 years older than Mei Chengan. He is 21 years old this year. He was stationed at the border at the age of 16. This is his first time back to Beijing.

The eldest prince is a noble prince. He stayed in the frontier for five years at such a young age and made such a great sacrifice to protect the border of Qing Kingdom. Naturally, the court received him with the highest standards.

Emperor Qing gave the task of welcoming the prince to the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Rites and the Honglu Temple had close ties. The reception ceremony also included Nuo dance and ritual music, so the Ministry of Rites borrowed them from the Honglu Temple, and this part happened to be under the jurisdiction of the department that Mei Cheng'an was in charge of.

So during those days, Mei Cheng'an joined the Ministry of Rites' special team to welcome the eldest prince and was very busy.

Mei Cheng'an had a good impression of the eldest prince, and since it was his job, he did his job very dedicatedly.

On the day of welcoming the eldest prince, all of Emperor Qing's sons except Fan Xian were present. In addition to the crown prince and the second prince, even the little prince, who was only about eight or nine years old at the moment, came. He looked quiet and well-behaved.

First, the crown prince came to chat with him, and later the second prince came with the little prince. As they chatted, Mei Chengan had nothing to do, and the two of them started arguing with each other, leaving Mei Chengan speechless. In his spare time, he played eye games with the little prince, who was curious about his brother's bickering.

When the eldest prince entered the city, Mei Cheng'an organized a ritual music and Nuo dance performance while secretly taking a few glances at him. He looked almost the same as he would a few years later, and was very heroic.

After welcoming the eldest prince, Mei Cheng'an was free again. He fished for a few days and then officially started his one-month long New Year holiday.

After working for a year, Mei Chengan was a little tired, so he planned to take a good rest for a month, and spend every day eating, drinking, having fun and strolling around the streets.

Of course, Mei Chengan would not miss hunting, a regular entertainment activity a few days before New Year's Eve every year. This time, Mei Chengan and Wang Qinian ran even farther as there were too many people at Pengyue Mountain.

Unfortunately, their luck was not very good. Although the mountain they chose was sparsely populated, there were not many prey either. They didn't know where the cat had gone. The two became curious and checked for various traces and explored the tracks. Finally, they came to the conclusion that the mountain had just been looted.

The prey was either hunted away or scared away, so there wasn't much left for them.

The two were not too disappointed. To use Wang Qinian's own words, no matter how little they gained, it was still much more than the time they gained at Pengyue Mountain. Only when you are content can you be happy.

With the fireworks on New Year's Eve, the first year of the Qingli period officially ended and the second year of the Qingli period arrived.

This year, Mei Cheng'an was fifteen years old.

(End of this chapter)