How To Survive as a Villain

Li Wuding walked back to the military account, and Xiao YuAn, who was sitting cross legged on the felt, looked at him: “What happened?”

“Some soldiers were having a fight. I have already dealt with it.” Li Wuding answered.

Xiao YuAn nodded: “Right. By the way, where’s General Fan Tong?”

“Your Majesty, you’re asking about Fan Tong?”

“Yes, yes, Fan Tong¹.”

Wuning Wangye’s trusted aide is the second candidate for the General’s position.

Li Wuding replied: “General Fan doesn’t come to the barracks that often.”

Xiao YuAn reluctantly held his head with one hand. This was the exact reason why his mind was so entangled: If, according to the original book, he gave the General’s position to Fan Tong, then the soldiers of the Northern Kingdom would become more and more dispirited and will not have any fighting spirit.

But, if it were given to Li Wuding, the one that would most likely betray the Country when the time came, then the Northern Kingdom would be like a bird trapped in a cage, a turtle trapped in its own shell, trampled by the armored horses of Southern Yan.

Seeing that Xiao YuAn was silent, Li Wuding sat upright, with his hands on his knees waiting patiently.

Suddenly, a shout of cheers came from the outside of the account, and Xiao YuAn’s line of thought was interrupted by it. He then raised his head to ask: “What’s happening outside?”

Li Wuding replied to him: “Someone must have won a competition.”

“It started already?” Xiao YuAn stood up. “Let’s look at it for a while.”

Both of them went out of the Military Account and walked towards the competition arena. Yan HeQing, who had been guarding the Account, kept his eyes on them all the way.

The three of them went towards the contest and after walking for a while, Xiao YuAn stopped all of a sudden. Turning around he took a look at Yan HeQing’s palm and reached out to pat the sand off his forehead, then he asked him: “Who provoked you?”

Yan HeQing: “Nobody.”

Li Wuding: “Nie Er.”

The both of them talked at the same time, but their answers were different.

Xiao YuAn looked at Yan HeQing and then at Li Wuding, then he said to Li Wuding: “Explain.”

“A moment ago, my improper discipline in the soldiers led them to fight and I wasn’t able to control the fighting, I plead His Majesty to punish m-…”

Xiao YuAn interrupted him: “You mentioned a name just now, could you say it again?”

Li Wuding was puzzled but still answered him: “Nie Er.”

Nie Er?

Xiao YuAn positioned his finger against his chin.

The name sounded too familiar, but Xiao YuAn couldn’t remember it from the original book just now.

There was another shout and applause coming from the arena, and Xiao YuAn decided to put down the doubts wandering in his mind and looked up instead.

Not far away, Xie Chungui hit the horse and advanced forward. Taking the bow and setting an arrow, he focused himself on stretching the bow at its fullest and then let the arrow go. The arrow hit at the red centre and a young man with high spirits started to applause and cheer. Xie Chungui didn’t show a proud look and jumped off the horse, then he bowed in gratitude for those that were applauding for him.

Someone came to report: “General Li, the results of the equestrian competition came out. The first place is for the youngest son of the Xie family, Xie Chungui.”

Not surprised, Li Wuding smiled slightly: “Yes, as expected.”

After the equestrian challenge, too many people were participating at the Martial Arts competition so they divided the platform into two arenas. Xiao YuAn stood happily under one of the arenas to watch the match with great interest. Suddenly, he heard that a sharp faced and narrow minded soldier stood victorious, and someone shouted: “Yes! That’s Nie Er.”

Xiao YuAn quickly fixed his eyes on the soldier, but the only thing he saw was the soldier making an extremely provocative gesture towards the arena.

This gesture was directed at Yan HeQing.

When he saw that Yan HeQing looked away, Nie Er immediately sneered.

Xiao YuAn then abruptly realized who this Nie Er was.

In the original book, when the Southern Yan Kingdom was invaded, and Yan HeQing was taken away from the Southern Yan towards the Northern Kingdom, this soldier was the one in charge of him.

Because his brother died on the battlefield, this soldier felt extreme disgust for the people of the Southern Yan Kingdom, so he used all means to humiliate Yan HeQing all the way back. Not only did he not give food to him, or sometimes he would give him moldy food, but also, he even nearly ruined Yan HeQing’s left arm!

Xiao YuAn was very impressed by the original book. This soldier even dared to press Yan HeQing’s head into the dirty water and maliciously said: “Aren’t you a dog? Why don’t you bark? Come on, let’s hear your bark, I’ll give you something to eat if you bark.”

Fine, Xiao YuAn understands that all of these things happened in order to pave the way for the toughening of Yan HeQing.

But he still lamented that there’s no other way than to just deal with the plot, and at the same time, he filled a 300 word length comment for the author at the comment section: ‘You evil stepmother, please accept this blade as a thank you gift’. There’s a trace of unhappiness rising from the bottom of President Xiao’s heart. He clung uneasily to the cuffs of his royal dress, and then turned his head to look at Yan HeQing and said: “I feel like I’m wearing a suit and a cigar is in my hand right now, so I will start a new chapter on my road of becoming a Tyrannical President.”

Yan HeQing didn’t understand him at all: “What?”

Xiao YuAn smiled lightly at him, then he propped himself up to the arena and clapped Nie Er: “Come on, let’s have a match.”

Footnotes:

Footnotes

1. Xiao YuAn keeps deliberately calling Fan Tong = 饭桶 (fàn tǒng) which translates to “Good for nothing”, but Fan Tong’s name actually is 范统 (fàn tǒng). They sound the same, but one’s an insult and the other it’s a name.