The Night Breeze Whispers Your Name

2. The Representatives

The journey to ShenShan took two days just as I planned. I hopped off my horse and rushed inside the old temple with my bag.

"You must be from Hong," a short old guy greeted me, caressing his long white beard.

"Obviously," I snorted, pointing at my blood red robe. It was another stupid tradition, each clan must have worn their clan colours until the official beginning of the competition.

The old guy grunted and showed me a cushion behind a small table on the floor. I took my place, folded my arms and waited for the other representatives.

Before long, the old guy came with two muscular guys. From their white and yellow robes, I deduced they were from Jin and Tu Clan respectively. They walked with confidence and sat next to me without even sparing a glance toward me. As if I cared.

In silence, we waited until the old guy came back with the last two. One was wearing a black robe, showing he was from Shui Clan. Like the other two, he was quite muscular, but he had a soft expression on his face as a characteristic of his clan. The last representative was wearing a green robe as he was from Mu Clan, but other than the robe, nothing fit the description of a representative. He was so thin that he looked like a stick and there was a contented smile painted on his thin lips as if he didn't feel the hostility in the room. He sat next to me after greeting me with a slight bow and I was shocked by his audacity.

"Welcome all, the representatives of five clans," the old guy greeted us after sitting on the table which was five stairs above us with two other old guys.

"Please introduce yourselves to us," the second old guy said and being the first on the line, the green-robed guy stood up.

"I am from Mu Clan, my name is Lu Mu Ning," he introduced himself with a low-pitched voice and sat back after bowing three times.

"I am from Hong, Hong Huo," I kept it short and sat back without a bow.

"Huang Tu, from Tu Clan," the one next to me said with a harsh tone and cold eyes.

"I am from Jin, Bai Jin," he almost spitted his words.

"I am from Shui Clan, my name is Hei Shui," this one seemed very friendly, but his black eyes were distant.

As I already hated them without even seeing them, I decided to give them attributions, Annoying for Lu Mu Ning; Angry for Huang Tu; Noxious for Bai Jin and Sly for Hei Shui.

"Nice to meet you all," the third old guy said, "I am Rao Shifu, responsible for meditation," then he pointed at the second old guy, "this is Mao Shifu, responsible for martial arts," and then at the last old guy, "and he is Tao Shifu, he will teach you about nature. As you already know, we will teach and evaluate your skills for two months. After the final combat, we will choose one of you as the commander of the Five Alliance for a year."

After he finished, we bowed at them and finally it was dinner time. Five young men entered the room with trays for each of us and exited the room after placing them on our tables.

"Isn't it too bad for a welcoming dinner?"

I heard Angry saying to Noxious and felt anger rising in my heart. Though the dinner was highly plain and less in quantity, for me it was the best I had in years.

Life was really unfair...

Trying to resist the urge to kill them on the spot and steal their food, I munched on my food with slow bites, afraid to finish it too quickly.

Suddenly, a pale hand reached above my tray and put a baozi on it. With confusion as well as shock, I raised my head and came eye to eye with Annoying. He smiled subtly at me as if he knew what I was thinking, then turned his head back.

As it was something I wasn't used to, I couldn't react for a while, but when my senses came back, I snorted "I don't want it." Indeed, I would like to have it, but my pride and hatred for all human beings prevented me.

"Help me once, I am full already," Annoying whispered to me and before I could reply, he stood up. "Thank you for the food," he said politely and followed Sly and Angry towards the garden.

As he was out already, I had no reason to give up additional food. Happily, I ate the baozi alongside the other foods, and when I was sure that the plates were cleared completely, I left the hall as well.

"As you are all here, let me explain the schedule," the old guy II said, standing in front of us, "you will wake with the sunrise and come to this hall for breakfast, then you will wait for the day's lecture in this garden. When the lectures are completed, you will be free to rest until dinner which will be at dusk. After dinner, you will return to the room to sleep. You will stay in one room and going out at night is forbidden. Now, who is the oldest among you?"

The representatives looked at each other before Annoying took a shy step forward, "I believe it is me," he said with a timid smile.

I puffed as it was impossible for him to be the oldest. His face was quite childish and his figure was anything but manly.

"Really?" Noxious snorted, rolling his eyes.

"I am twenty-six," Annoying replied and everyone, including me, gasped. The oldest winner was twenty-two years old and even at that time, people were shocked. Too bad, if Annoying had a chance before me, he could give people a bigger shock.

After the initial shock and grunting, the old guy II said "well, in this case you are the room head, you will be responsible for others. Be sure nobody does anything bad there or leave it after bedtime."

"Yes, Shifu," Annoying said firmly before bowing, and then one boy showed us the room.

The room wasn't too big, but enough for five mattresses to lie side by side with some space between them. As I didn't trust any of them, I claimed the bed which had the wall on one side and was the closest to the door.

Guess who claimed the one next to me...