Chapter 277: Eye-Opening!

“So the west and south sides might be more likely.

But last time, they came through the mountains, so we can’t let our guard down there either.

That river by the village—my dad and I followed it downstream. It connects to Gufeng, Changping, and even reaches Guiyuan Town in Linhai Prefecture. Those places are still okay, but upstream you’ve got Longxing and Fengming. They’re border towns, just like our Crouching Tiger.

The Northern Rong are used to crossing mountains. Who’s to say they won’t cross a river too…”

The kids were dumbfounded.

So where exactly would the Northern Rong come from?

Yan Yu summed it up: “They could come from anywhere, so we have to be prepared on all sides. That’s why we need to build watchtowers in every direction. But since we can only build one for now, the best spot is in the center. That way, it can cover all directions.”

The kids nodded in understanding.

“Then let’s build it by the big rock.”

“Xiao Er, how tall is this watchtower you’re talking about? It looks huge!”

Now that the location was settled, their attention quickly shifted back to the tower itself.

“It’s as tall as three Uncle Qi’s stacked together!” Yan Yu described vividly.

“Whoa!” the kids gasped.

That tall?

Qi Da was the tallest man in their village, towering over everyone else. Saying it was three of him tall was practically sky-high in their eyes.

This was where the difference between the Young Scouts started to show. The more practical kids—Er Tie, San Tie, Da Gouzi, and Fengnian—instinctively glanced at their stash of cement bricks, mentally calculating if they had enough to build something that tall.

The slower ones caught on after seeing their reactions and turned to look as well.

But most of the kids were still staring blankly at the drawing of the tower, eyes wide with wonder.

After all, how detailed could a drawing for kids really be?

Yan Yu stuck to her usual style of simple, bold lines. Horizontal was horizontal, vertical was vertical—plain and straightforward.

But to the kids, who had never seen a drawing on paper before, and had never even heard of something like a watchtower, it was like discovering a whole new world.

The Young Scouts quickly reached a consensus.

Yan Yu rolled up the paper and jumped straight into training.

The appearance of the Northern Rong had heightened her sense of urgency. It wasn’t just about speeding up the construction of defenses—it was also about improving the overall strength of the Young Scouts.

“Everyone, fall in! Run, go!” As their leader, Yan Yu ran three full laps around the village with them before stopping.

Then came the obstacle course. They dragged over some tree stumps to jump across, dug small pits to leap over, and a large pit to slide into and climb out of using a rope. They strung ropes between trees, marked them—some you had to jump over without touching, others you had to crawl under without brushing against them…

Yan Yu used every obstacle she could think of and recreate with their limited resources.

The kids had an absolute blast.

They ran back and forth like crazy, laughing and shouting with joy.

Later, they realized the ropes in the big pit weren’t enough, so they rushed back to the village to fetch more. A whole crowd of kids were lining up, waiting for their turn to jump into the pit and climb out.

It was time-consuming and exhausting, and even led to a queue…

Yan Yu even set up a special training area for the shorter kids.

She had Er Tie and San Tie climb trees and hang ropes down, tying a ball made of twisted hemp rope at the end.

The smaller kids would get a running start and jump up to slap the ball.

Yan Yu demonstrated the move herself a few times—graceful, light, and fluid.

Well, it had to be graceful. If she wasn’t careful, the ball would go flying all over the place…

Among all the kids, Yan Yu paid special attention to her little brother, Fengnian.

Farm kids might not be super strong, but as long as they were eating well and moving every day, they were usually pretty sturdy.

Liang Fengnian, on the other hand, was your typical little scholar—fragile and bookish.

He’d been training with the Young Scouts for a while now, and only recently started building up some endurance and stamina.

But it still wasn’t enough.

The more someone studied, the more they needed to train. How could anyone survive the Imperial Examination System without a strong body? There were countless scholars who fainted or fell ill in the exam rooms.

Wait a second… was she forgetting something?

Oh right! Her Big Brother!

Yan Yu dashed back home. At that moment, Yan Xiangheng had just returned from the mountains.

His uncle had taken a group to deliver medicine to Crouching Tiger. After the last Northern Rong raid, the villagers were on edge, so even mountain trips were done in staggered shifts, leaving some able-bodied men behind to guard the village.

Yan Xiangheng happened to be in the early-return group today.

He had just taken off his basket, washed his hands, and wiped his face. Before he could even step inside, Xiao Er came running and dragged him right back out.

When he heard it was Young Scouts training, Yan Xiangheng didn’t resist.

He was curious about what the village kids were always up to anyway.

When they reached the wooded area near their house, Yan Xiangheng’s eyes widened in astonishment.

What in the world was all this?

The kids were covered in dirt from head to toe, faces flushed red.

The ones climbing out of the pit with the rope looked like they were using every ounce of strength they had.

And the ones crawling through those narrow gaps without touching the ropes… twisting and wriggling like worms… it was almost painful to watch.

But the more he watched, the more something stirred inside Yan Xiangheng. A strange itch, a restless urge.

Yan Yu saw it all clearly.

Big Brother, what’s the matter? Think you’re too old? You’re not even older than Dad!

He was still a teenager, still just a kid.

You wanna try it, don’t you? You wanna play, don’t you? You wanna join in, don’t you?

Even if their dad were here, he’d probably want to jump in and play for a bit too.

“Big Brother, just reading books isn’t enough. Dad asked around—turns out the place where they hold the Imperial Examination is really small!

They lock everyone in these tiny rooms called exam cells.”

That room was so small, you couldn’t even fit a bed in there. Anyone taking the exam inside, if they wanted to rest for a bit, couldn’t even stretch their legs. They had to hunch over the whole time—it was miserable.

And if someone remembered to maintain the place every year, it wasn’t so bad. But if no one did, the roof would start leaking when it rained.

On windy, rainy days, the wind howled and made it freezing inside, and the rain just made everything worse.

The exam was always held at a terrible time of year too—nights were cold, and it was all too easy to catch a chill and fall sick.

That’s why, if the Imperial Examination System is going to last, knowledge is important, sure, but so is your health.

Don’t look down on us Young Scouts just because our training is dirty and rough. We can wash up when we get home. What matters is that it works!

Look at those little ones. Ever since they joined the Young Scouts, they’ve been eating better, growing taller, and they can run three laps around the village without breaking a sweat. They still have energy left to train afterward!

I’m not saying anything else, but let me ask you this, Big Brother—can you do that?”

Yan Xiangheng was stumped.

It’s not that he looked down on these kids.

Yan Huaiwen’s teachings had been subtly changing him all along.

They were making him more open to things he’d never encountered before, things that felt fresh and new.

Yan Xiangheng thought about it seriously.

Could he do it?

Running three laps around the village—he could probably manage that.

But would he still have the strength afterward to handle all the other kinds of training they did?

Yan Xiangheng asked himself that question for a long time.

He… wasn’t too sure.

Yan Yu watched the shifting expressions on his face and giggled.

“Big Brother, why don’t you give it a try? How can you know if you can do it or not if you don’t try for yourself?”

Yan Xiangheng found that very reasonable.

He adjusted his clothes slightly, then stepped up to the starting point.

(End of chapter)