Entertainment Circle Ancient Female General

It was only a few days ago that Tuoba Yan and the elderlies got to know each other.

When Qiao Chunyi would be away, Tuoba Yan would sneak downstairs to relax. One day, while sneaking, she saw some casually dressed elders seriously practising Taijijian* with some soothing music.

[TL: Tai Chi Swords {Taijijian} are any traditional Chinese Jian {double edged straight swords} having no special shape or styling – any Jian could be used for Tai Chi training (taken from Google)]

Tuoba Yan was good at martial arts. Although she knew that those people were only entertaining themselves and keeping their bodies fit, even if the seventies to eighties elders were entrusted to learn the orthodox martial arts from a famous teacher, their physical conditions won’t be able to keep up. But looking at their ridiculous errors, she couldn’t help but to casually point out a few pointers.

Besides, Old Li and the others had been fighting [in the army] all their lives, and they had no different opinions from being at home or being abroad. Heck, at first, they weren’t willing to be taught by Tuoba Yan when they had committed themselves to the sanatorium affiliated to the little Yuchuan hospital. Not to mention that she was just a childish girl. What could she possibly know? They were immediately unconvinced and argued with her.

Without another word, Tuoba Yan went up and turned off the stereo.  She took one of the swords and reproduced the moves that the old men demonstrated earlier, step-by-step. She pointed out in detail what moves they had done wrong and the unreasonable design of how the sword moves, which could hurt them if they practised for too long.

General Tuoba taught more and more vigorously as she became too absorbed. As she had always used a Fang Tian halberd* before, she was familiar with what she was doing. For swordsmanship, having a superficial knowledge of it was as good as being empty-handed. Excited, Tuoba Yan kept aside the light sword and gave the elderlies a set of fist techniques that she and the military instructor had painstakingly simplified and popularized in the army back in those days.

[TL: Fang Tian halberd PIC, a Chinese halberd with two crescent blades instead of one.]

Although her body was weak and she couldn’t move her left arm couldn’t properly, the fierce and incomparable momentum she protrayed still appeared to be decisive. Tuoba Yan was teaching happily. The eyes of Old Li, who once glared at her, was now bulging with surprise. They have been friends ever since.

Tuoba Yan asked Old Li to practice the first three moves of health and fitness boxing and pointed out the mistakes in detail. Several old men gathered and attentively listened to her; the conversation between the old and young was particularly interesting and hard to resist to not listen.

Far away from the fountain (where Tuoba Yan and the rest were at), Li Yanrao asked the doctor with interest, “Doctor Zhang, who is that little girl?”

“It seems to be the girl called Tuoba Yan. She met with Mr. Li the other day. We weren’t feeling assured, so we went to inquire about her,” Dr Zhang, the doctor responsible for Old Li, replied, “This child was admitted to the hospital half a month ago after a suicide attempt, I heard it was because of schizophrenia and anorexia. But she’s recovering well now, mentally and physically, and her mother even sent a silk banner* to the hospital.”

[TL: sent a silk banner to show appreciation.]

“Tuoba Yan…” Li Yanrao raised her head slightly, her charming phoenix eyes narrowed languidly as she observed the skinny little girl.

Although she was a little skinny, Tuoba Yan’s sickly face couldn’t hide her beauty. But the most interesting thing was not her appearance, but her confident, straightforward and arrogant temperament, which was not something a little girl of her age could possess.

Li Yanluo’s eyes swept across Tuoba Yan’s chest and hips. Although Tuoba Yan looked pitifully thin, the figure underneath the hospital clothing was quite unexpected.

[TL: Pervert FL… heh]

Perhaps it was Li Yanrao’s coveted gaze that stared for too long, Tuoba Yan turned her head suddendly, causing her sharp eyes to meet with Li Yanrao’s. The latter’s heart jumped and almost receded.

Tuoba Yan’s beautiful cherry willow eyebrows frowned slightly while looking at the beautiful young woman in a black dress with enchanting red lips. Her eyes were too strange that although it didn’t emit any maliciousness, it still made Tuoba Yan feel uncomfortable.

The woman who peeped at her didn’t shy away from her stare, in fact, she tilted her head and blinked at Tuoba Yan as she waved with a rather playful smile.

Tuoba Yan stiffly raised the corner of her lips and nodded casually as she thought, what a strange person.

Seeing Tuoba Yan withdraw her gaze and continue instructing the old man on health boxing, Li Yanrao also straightened up, no longer leaning on the guardrail. “Secretary Liu.”

The secretary of Li Yanrao, Liu Wenjjing, stepped forward. Li Yanrao slightly curled her hair, and dragged her words out, “Help me check if this Tuoba Yan has any connection with the other side.”

“All right, I will look into it and inform you.”

Tuoba Yan and the group of seniors completed the one hour morning exercise and she went back to her ward on time.

Li Dingchen [Old Li] slowly practised the first four martial arts techniques according to what the little girl had said. After he finished, he felt elated and exultant. He felt comfortable all over, and an unknown warmth was flowing through his four limbs and bones.

“That Yan girl isn’t simple.”

“Do I need you to tell me this?” Lin Xuetang also agreed, “but didn’t you let Xiao Chen check her on the first day? We’ve all seen the information. A stubborn and serious girl from a single-parent family. The mother-daughter pair is also pitiful. She hated the Tuoba family deep down her bones, so she can’t possibly be the spy whom they have arranged.”

Xu Enze, who seldom spoke, suddenly said, “Maybe someone had a fortunate encounter.” 

Li Dingchen was speechless. “Old Xu, eh, didn’t I make you read less of your miscellaneous books from your baby, Jin Sun? Those who are half dead, still watch this kind of kid stuff. Was it that interesting? Can you go to heaven or escape what?”

Lin Xuetang shook his head. As soon as Xu Enze opened his mouth, Li Dingchen, the old man, would talk back in high spirit. 

When Tuoba Yan arrived at the floor where her ward was located, she was called by her nurse, “Xiao Yan, some girls said that they are your classmates who came to visit you. I told them that you went down, so they also went after you.”

“Thank you, Nurse Qiao.”

Tuoba Yan leisurely walked back to the ward, poured herself a glass of water, and half leaned on the hospital bed as she used her mobile phone to read the Great Master’s work of boxing handouts of the Republic of martial arts.

After a half glass of water and reading a few pages, her classmates finally found her.

“Tuoba Yan, aiya*, we found you!”

At the centre was a girl with short hair, dressed in a tank top and jeans. She stood at the door with a smile and waved. “Hey, what are you staring at? I’m Fu Shuya, don’t tell me you forgot about me. I’ll be sad.”

“I really forgot about you.” Tuoba Yan laughed and carried some stools for her classmates to sit on.

“No need, you just lie down and rest.” Fu Shuya pressed Tuoba Yan back to bed. From behind, came two other girls of the same age; one had a pleasing appearance of a round face with a plump physique,  which was very cute, and the other girl had worn a refreshing sky blue dress and her long hair fluttered, but her face remained cold.

Fu Shuya and Tuoba Yan exchanged pleasantries, and soon she identified the other two people. The long-haired girl was called Chen Qing, and the round-faced one was Fang Qinying. The three of them were not very familiar with Tuoba Yan but Fu Shuya was very enthusiastic and lively while Chen Qing seemed to have been pulled along by the girls just to make up for the number of people. It alos looked like her relationship with Tuoba Yan in the past wasn’t very good. 

“…The teacher also said that the school agreed to give you a break, so you don’t have to worry about going to school. You juts have to wait get well and healthy to continue your senior year of high school next year,” Fu Shuya reassured, ”I say, you’re too stupid, don’t you know how good it is to be alive? You haven’t even had a boyfriend yet, isn’t it a pity?”

“I was confused for a while.” Tuoba Yan felt that the girl said this sincerely, “Even for the sake of my mother, I will live well.”

At this moment, Chen Qing nonchalantly said, “That’s right, can your conditions be compared to Tuoba Jiao? She’s got her dad and her grandfather on her side, it’s like you’re hitting eggs against a rock.” 

 Fang Qingying quietly tugged Chen Qing for a moment but Chen Qing just hummed and turned away.

Naturally, Tuoba Yan didn’t care what the child had said. She smiled as she said, “It won’t happen in the future, thank you.”

Chen Qing choked a bit. Unexpectedly, the always antsy Tuoba Yan did not get angry, instead, she thanked her gently, this left Chen Qing stupefied and speechless.

The people in the room chatted for a while before Fu Shuya said that they had to go since the teacher had only given them half a day off. 

Tuoba Yan insisted on getting out of bed to see them off and since Fu Shuya couldn’t hold her back, she agreed and just took it as her being unwilling due to the fact that she hadn’t seen her classmates for a long time.

Chen Qing was the first one to walk out of the ward. Today, she had worn a pair of casual clogged sandals. It was difficult to balance them.

Internally, she felt unhappy being rebutted and forced back by Tuoba Yan. Being too absorbed in her thoughts, she did not notice that the floor outside was mopped by the janitor earlier. She could no longer stand firm and suddenly slipped.

“Aiya!”

The author has something to say: Domineering president Li Yanrao is out! Field*!

TL: A gaming slang; “When someone’s in the field, they’re “in direct contact with a source of data or subject of interest,” as in doing work outside an office or laboratory.”

Hello, Kin here. This is my first time translating a novel and I don’t normally check my emails so I forgot to check the edits and hence, the mistakes and typos on the other 3 chapters. I’m so sorry, I will be sure to check it from now on and republish the other 3. BTW, I GOT A NEW LIL BRO! [This was in May 27]

Update [Feb 26]: Exams in 2 days and I’m here worrying about losing one of my toenails because I didn’t take care of it after the ingrown toenail surgery.