Indecision coursed through him, freezing him to his spot. The entire crowd was looking at Yu Feng expectantly, waiting for him to back Shen Yao up. Meanwhile, if looks could kill, Yu Feng would have been dead several times over with how hard Xian Chen was glaring at him.

  He took a deep breath. Yu Feng did not know what the situation was, but he supposed he should stand with Shen Yao, right? He had been nothing but helpful after all, so he was inclined to trust him more. Meanwhile, Xian Chen, while not having given him a bad impression, also had done nothing to earn a good one.

  He stepped through the crowd, the people parting easily to let him through, and stood beside Shen Yao, facing Xian Chen and Cai Lingxin. Her expression was a mix of guilt and anger, which gave Yu Feng a bit of pause. That was not the face someone who was being harassed would make.

  Standing beside Shen Yao, he asked his friend, "Is it true that Xian Chen was harassing her? I would like to know the whole story, if you do not mind sharing."

  Still not looking away from his adversary, Shen Yao spat, "What's there to know? We were all walking together, minding our own business, when we spotted the Toad accosting Miss Cai. She clearly looked uncomfortable, so we decided to intervene. If he had apologised, we would have let the event be, but he refuses to own up to his doings."

  "Why would I own up to something I didn't do, you bastard?" Xian Chen retorted.

  "Do you deny that you had intercepted Miss Cai on the path, with no prior invitation from her, and started troubling her?" Going Wei too jumped into the argument.

  "Yes, but I was just asking her about-"

  "See my friends, he admits it," Shen Yao exclaimed. The crowd roared its approval back.

  This whole thing was giving Yu Feng a headache. He understood things were bad between Xian Chen and the rest of the recruits, but had never realised by just how much. While Xian Chen and the others continued to argue, Yu Feng was trying to come up with a solution to resolve this peacefully, when he caught Cai Lingxin's expression.

  She was biting her lower lip slightly, and her hands were shaking a little. Every so often, she tried opening her mouth to speak, but flinched slightly whenever one of the others raised their voices more. Cocking an eyebrow, Yu Feng put a hand on Shen Yao's shoulder, signalling him to stop.

  "I have a solution Shen Yao. Why not just ask Miss Cai for her version of events, and then chart our next course of action."

  By now, Shen Yao's pale face was flushed with anger, making it seem as if steam would start rising out of his ears. At first, he opened his mouth like he was going to berate Yu Feng, but seemed to decide against it at the last second.

  Taking a few deep breathes, he tried to calm himself down. "That... is a good idea. Let's do as you say."

  Turning back to Xian Chen, he addressed the supposed victim for the first time. "Miss Cai, I am so sorry you had to suffer Xian Chen's presence. But is it not true that he was harassing you against your wishes?"

  Cai Lingxin seemed rooted to her spot, the attention too much for her. The silver streaks in her hair flashed slightly in the rising moon, as she opened her mouth slightly and mumbled something. "...no....not really...didn't do anything."

  Everyone cocked their ears, but her whisper barely reached Xian Chen, that's how quiet she was.

  "Miss Cai, I'm afraid we missed that. Could you please repeat yourself?" a muscle twitched in Shen Yao's forehead.

  She took a deep breath and repeated her answer, voice still trembling a little, "I-I said, X-Xian Chen did n-not do anything. We were just d-discussing meridian at-attributes."

  Shen Yao and the others were caught a little flat-footed, while Yu Feng just sighed. He suspected it was something like this. He didn't know what their problem was with Xian Chen, but they seemed incredibly biased against him.

  Shen Yao urged her again, "But Miss Cai, are you sure? Xian Chen has a history for slandering women's reputations. Who knows how he would twist your time spent together."

  At his words, a little anger seemed to enter Cai Lingxin's face at last. "Let me assure you, Xian Chen has been a perfect gentleman so far. It is you lot who are behaving like scoundrels."

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "B-but-" Shen Yao started to protest again, when Yu Feng put his hand on his shoulder and shook his head. On his side, Gong Wei too indicated to Shen Yao to stop. His face going through a range of emotions, Shen Yao finally stamped his foot around and turned around with a huff, intending to leave.

  Yu Feng sighed in relief, the situation being somewhat toned down. He was happy they had not come to blows.

  As they made to leave, a gleeful voice called out from behind. "Yes, run away like the cowards you are."

  Shen Yao tensed slightly under his hand, but Yu Feng kept him walking. They were finally done, and he was not going to give in to a few taunts and jabs.

  "And you, the one named Yu Feng. What kind of dog have you been raised as-"

  "Xian Chen, stop," Cai Lingxin cried out.

  "-to be so good at following your master's orders?"

  Yu Feng's feet halted, Shen Yao too stopping in his tracks. The pale man winced slightly as Yu Feng's palm dug into his shoulder, but he was suddenly released harshly, stumbling forward a little. Turning around, he saw Yu Feng striding with his large body towards Xian Chen, who had a vicious smile on his face.

  "Get you with that, did I? What's a goody two shoes like you gonna do anyways?"

  Yu Feng did not stop advancing, and with each step he took, Xian Chen's expression grew slightly more unsure. Within seconds, Yu Feng was now chest-to-chest with Xian Chen, looking down at him with his greater height. Anger danced across Yu Feng's normally calm faces as he faced Xian Chen.

  "You can insult me," Yu Feng began. "I do not take much offense to that. I've heard worse than whatever your small mind could come up with. But-" he poked Xian Chen in the chest with his finger hard enough that he took a step back, "- if you ever dare say anything about my family, or how they raised me, I will make sure to show you how a broken nose feels."

  He stared at him for a second more, before leaving Xian Chen and Cai Lingxin standing there. He stalked past Shen Yao and Gong Wei, the former of whom gave him an interested look, before he reached his living space and slammed the door behind him.

  Leaning against the door, Yu Feng took a deep, shuddering breath, his mind now catching up to what he had done. He shouldn't have lost control like that. Now all he did was antagonise Xian Chen, and maybe even Cai Lingxin. He also essentially went against Shen Yao's wishes, who clearly wanted to gang up on Xian Chen.

  He slid down the door, resting his head between his knees. God, its barely been two days and he already had made one mistake after another. His family had always been a point of pride for him, and the kids in the village had learnt not to take shots at them. But he would have to learn to control his temper here. He was pretty sure the people in his batch of recruits could not do much to harm him, but stronger ones...

  Shaking his head slightly, he got up off the floor, and turned off the lamp, not in the mood for reading anymore. He decided to apologise to Shen Yao and Cai Lingxin tomorrow. Shen Yao deserved a better friend, and the girl was just caught in the cross-fire. As for Xian Chen... only if he apologised first.

  He drifted off to a fitful sleep, body still aching from the day's exertions, his family swimming in his dreams.

  Gong Wei did not have to wake Yu Feng up the next morning. His sleep was disturbed enough that the first rays of sunlight falling through his window were enough to wake him up.

  Getting refreshed and dressed, he trudged down to the outpost on the bottom of the residence mountain, where he found Shen Yao and Gong Wei chatting. Looks like they had an early start to the day too.

  Yu Feng wondered on how to approach this? Eventually he just decided to be straight with them and hope for the best. Hailing them from a bit away, he slowly walked up to them and gave them a low bow.

  "Good morning to you two."

  They both looked at each other in amusement at that gesture, but decided to play along. "Good morning to you too, Yu Feng. I am surprised we didn't have to wake you up today too," Shen Yao jested.

  Yu Feng shuffled his feet in embarrassment. He waited a couple seconds before deciding to just get to the heart of it.

  "I.. uhh... would like to apologise to you, Shen Yao. For yesterday."

  Shen Yao raised an eyebrow. "Whatever do you mean?"

  "Well, I think I got in your way, right? You wanted me to help fight Xian Chen, yet I stopped you from doing so. And then instead, I was the one who almost took things too far."

  There was silence between the three of them for a second, before Gong Wei sighed in exasperation. "Knew something like this would happen. Yu Feng is too straight laced to not worry about yesterday."

  Yu Feng flushed red while Shen Yao laughed lightly at his plight. Walking up to the larger boy, Shen Yao placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. It was our fault too, for getting into a situation based on preconceived notions. And it was not fair of me to drag you into a situation that had nothing to do with you. So I'd like to apologise too, if you will accept it."

  "But-"

  "No buts," Shen Yao said firmly. "Either accept it, or we can't call each other friends anymore."

  Yu Feng was trying to wrap his head around all this. Here he was, trying to apologise for his mistake, but was being forced to accept one instead. The world had gone strange.

  Realising that there was no way out of this, Yu Feng smiled softly and replied, "Only if you accept mine."

  Shen Yao laughed and clasped his hand while Gong Wei shook his head fondly on the side. "If you two are done with your melodrama, I suggest we review what we were taught in the class yesterday, before the others arrive."

  Both Yu Feng and Shen Yao's faces paled a little at the thought of going through Instructor Wu's exercises again today. With a groan, they sat down around Gong Wei, who started lecturing them upon the importance of body cultivation, looking down at them with an air of smugness.

  He wasn't even part of Instructor Wu's special lessons, both Yu Feng and Shen Yao thought as one.