Runaway Flounderers

5. From Top to Bottom, But Stuck In Between

A week passed by in a blink and the selection day had come. Wen Kexing had been running  around everywhere like a spinning top. Every morning, he went to the morning court and to his goddamn luck there would be an issue needing to be resolved right away. He had to rush to trade markets because some merchants were meddling with silk trading. Dealing with those unyielding merchants drained his energy and to add up to his headache some random barbarians from god-knows-where had to attack the southwest border, due to which he had to gallop there to mobilize the stationed troops. By the time he returned to the palace it'd already be past the working hours.

Thanks to these chaos that he hardly had time to review the nominees for selection and he had decided to personally go and observe them on the selection day. Usually, the recruitment processes would all be completed in a single day. At a time they'd usually recruit about hundred new soldiers and those of the ones already in the army who have been shortlisted for promotion would compete for the vacancies if someone is about retire. This time, the number of vacancies were for hundred soldiers, twenty troop commanders, ten colonels and four generals, and at least twice the number of candidates were shortlisted.

The recruitment process was planned and carried out by the ministry of defense. The competition happened in a wide stage which was situated in the drill ground. One side of the stage had some seats arranged in rows. In the lowest row were seated the supreme commander, the marshals and some generals neatly dressed in their uniforms with their respective badges. Each one had a scroll in their hands and more scrolls were piled up by their sides.

In the next row, there were three seats and one was occupied with the minister of defense and warfare, Gao Chong, who had a round, tanned face with strict brows, while on  another sat Wen Kexing. He was dressed in drill uniform too but while others were in blue-black combination, he was in red and black, lined with more silver and  an iron wristband. His attire was complete with the crown that would make anyone recognize him as someone with royal blood.
The crown was similar to a 'guan', which surrounds only his hair that's gathered on top of his head. It was silvery white with a pattern of a snake circling around in a ring like manner and it had a fully bloomed lotus on top of its head. Its eyes were dark red in colour. The crown was embellished with green, red and blue gems and shiny white stones. In one glance, even the westerners would get an idea that the person wearing it is from a royal family.

The topmost row  had one large, grand royal seat on which the king, Wen Huanyi, also his biological father, was seated. He was dressed in a royal green robe with golden fringes and wristbands. His crown, a mianguan, was twice as large as Wen Kexing and was black in colour. It had a cylindrical part which coverered the head and a flat board on top which had chains of pearls and gemstones dangling both in the front and back. It had golden patterns of fire flames and a snake in the middle of it, flashing out its dark forked tongue.  On closer inspection, one would notice the intricately patterns which were hard enough to comprehend, much less possible to replicate. Thus, The royal crowns of the Wen kingdom were known to be extremely unique, to the point that it had become their identities. So, even if Wen Kexing disguised himself into an old beggar, anyone would recognize him, if he had the crown.

Now and then, the people in the drill ground would eye Wen Kexing up and down, trying to remember his face. This day, he had disguised himself like he usually does when he goes to the borders. Thus, many present there did remember this face, while some pointed out on how he had looked different in the last public conference.

Wen Kexing feigned ignorance to those gossips and focused on the stage. General Shen Shen stood in the middle, looking at the candidates seated below the stage and spoke loudly, "Commencing the rules of the examination, for four positions of the General rank, we have shortlisted ten candidates, whom will have to spar three rounds with me. The first round involves wrestling without weapons, the second round with a weapon of your choice, and the third round with a sword." Thus began the first round. 

After about six candidates finished the wrestling round, Wen Kexing found the loophole. ShenShen was clearly going easy on specific candidates. For people who didn't doubt him it wouldn't be obvious but since Wen Kexing had his suspicions he could find it out easily.

"okay...next candidate, ...Zhou Zishu..?" Shenshen called out the name in confusion and Wen Kexing instinctively craned up his neck to look at the person coming up. His eyes searched around and finally spotted a head coming up the stairs. Zhou Zishu had his hair neatly done up and just like other army men, his hair ornament was dark in colour but he had extra two dark beads hanging from it at the back of his head. He had sharp facial features, arched eyebrows, a smooth nose and thin lips. He was dressed in the usual blue-black uniform with the troop-commanders' badge and wore plain black leather wrist bands. 

Wen Kexing casually eyed him from top to bottom at a thirty feet distance between them, and his eyes stopped at his waist. Hanging on his belt that circled his thin waist, was the feather pendant he had given him! 

A/n: bear with my misleading titles please...hehehe