Chapter 11 – How the first machine was made

After being fried on a frying pan and having pepper and the likes sprinkled on it, the beef that originally reek of blood started to emit a rich flavor of ingredients. The scene of the crispy surface of the beef getting sliced by silver table knife was different than the bloody scene of The Handle puncturing the buffalo’s head. Although the beef was also slightly bloody, what’s prevalent was those juices from the beef that caused one to move the index finger excessively (TL note: due to the Chinese using chopsticks to eat and index fingers were used to move the chopsticks, this should mean something that caused one to eat gluttonously).

Normal Federation citizens only get to eat synthetic foods all year round and had zero resistance towards these organic foods, let alone ones who treated meat as life like repair shop boss and youngster Xu Le.

After the splendid dinner, Xu Le put away the eating utensils and kept the remaining beef and internal organs into the fridges within the operation room beside the mine and noticed that he had obtained a rare idle time. Not knowing what to do with it, he dazed off for a short while in the room. After that, he took a bottle of wine and 2 glasses out of a drawer and walked out the door. Climbing up along the steel ladders that were in a state of disrepair, he reached the grassland above the mines.

Feng Yu the repair shop boss had been dazing off here for quite a while, staring as the final ray of light disappeared from the sky and the world fell into darkness. As he took the glass of wine passed to him from behind, he took a sip and said with a faint smile on his face. “Flattering me with this precious of mine, what do you want to ask this time?”

Holding a bottle of wine, Xu Le arrived beside the uncle and followed his line of sight, gazing towards the distance grassland, not knowing how spectacular the previous sunset was as it was now deep into the night.  He was aware that the repair shop boss kept a lot of secrets from him. However, he did not plan to inquire into it. His reason of following Feng Yu was to only learn about engineering skills instead of listening to an emotional story.

Furthermore, everyone had their own secrets that they are unwilling to be known by others.

“Actually…I’m not a fool.” Xu Le said suddenly.  He did not deliberately pretend to be awkward and speak hesitantly. Instead, he was merely stopping out of reflex at a certain important word adding to the seriousness of his tone. Ever since his parents and sister died in the mining disaster 10 years ago, he seemed to have lose focus in this lonely life of his. Therefore every once in a while when he tried to express his feelings it would be through these seemingly awkward method.

In the dark of night, the youngster narrowed his eyes and seemed somewhat cautious. In fact, he had already guessed something. In the past two years that he followed Feng Yu, apart from the engineering skills, knowledge and practical abilities, the boss also got him to practice that ugly posture and some daily exercises, which was really weird….

Normally, Xu Le had an honest temperament; however this did not mean that he was brainless. He merely believed that these postures and physical training he practiced were probably some sort of military drill exercises; hence he had always acted the fool. Perhaps this might slightly strengthen his body? Facing something that brought benefit to himself, since the boss wanted him to learn he would gladly comply.

However, as he killed that buffalo today, a chill appeared out of nowhere in his heart. Why were the things that the boss taught him so powerful when the boss was only an escaped engineer from the military? Was it possible that the things taught by him….were those never leaked secret assassination skills of the military in the legends?

“I have never thought of you as a fool. On the contrary, I believed that you are a genius.”  Feng Yu distanced the glass tip from his lips with a calm expression on his face. However the wrinkle between his eyebrows betrayed a trace of an odd smile.

“I am not a genius either. I simply do not understand, what is the point of all these things that you taught me?” Xu Le stared helplessly into Feng Yu’s eyes and said, “The Defense Department’s exam for Sergeant Engineer does not test on these field abilities. I don’t want to waste my time on this.”

As if going through some sort of unbearable suffering and ordeal, Xu Le’s voice started trembling. However, Feng Yu did not even spare him a glance and said calmly, “Based on your personality, for you to actually say this out loud means that you are really conflicted by it. What I don’t understand is where did these conflicting feelings of yours come from?”

Voice still trembling and occasionally gasping for breath, Xu Le said angrily, “It is now the 36^th year of the 37^th Constitutional Calendar. The human civilization had already progressed this far. What is the point of you training me in all these? Regardless of how strong one gets, is it possible for him to directly confront a mech? Is it possible for him to fly to the outer space and face a battleship in a battle?”

“I understand. You want to be a engineer capable of repairing mechs and battleships of the three major systems. As far as you are concerned, those ice cold metallic machines are infinitely stronger than those ant-like individuals.” Feng Yu answered coldly. “However, you should not forget that no matter how far humanity develops, a human is still a living organism. You are ultimately still stuck in this shell of yours, and this shell of yours is the last resort with which you can preserve your life, something that you must know like the back of your hands, the first sequence of machinery that you need to operate flawlessly.”

“As for the likes of mechs or battleships, those are only an extension of that.” Feng Yu slowly closed his eyes. “One would not be able to hide in a mech his whole life. You will need to eat, sleep and go to the toilet. You need to make love and experience orgasm, you also need to shower…even the time in which a person is naked would take one tenth of one’s lifetime, what about the time when you are not in your mech?”

Xu Le was dumbfounded as he heard all this. He felt that the boss’s words were illogical; however together with those words was a strand of abnormality that couldn’t be broken by sophistry.

Gulping down the remaining wine in his glass, Feng Yu lowered his head and started laughing, “Furthermore, now that the Federation is facing an energy shortage, one day those space battleships might just turn into a pile of rubbish amongst the cosmos.”

“Mechs are not reliant on crystal mines. Current intensive energy compression technology is enough to support a mech’s land operations.” Xu Le is aware that the boss said so much to convince him, however he still stubbornly retorted, “Besides, all these things, life preservation and final shell, why should I care? I will not go to Westwood to join the war against those Empire savages. I only wanted to be an engineer and make money doing what I love.”

“We don’t need to discuss about your future life as in my opinion, you might not even pass the Defense Department examination. You might end up as my free employee for life.” Feng Yu started laughing loudly before slowly holding back his laughter.

“Think about those people on that three planets of Highwood. Think again about those families that had continued for several millenniums, even the Seven Eminent Families. Why do they show so much respect to that old man and his students? It’s simply due to the strength that the old man personally possessed.”

Highwood was the name of the grand district at the capital planetary system. The capital planetary system was made up of 3 residential planets, the most developed place in the Federation, a place of utmost fidelity, a place where people lived in comfort and ease.  For an Eastwood hermit like youngster Xu Le, the Seven Eminent Families were an unreachable ancient upper class existence. As for the old man mentioned by Feng Yu….

“Mother (TL note: same context as omg!), you actually refer to the Military God as an old man…” Not knowing if it’s due to extreme suffering or fear, Xu Le’s voice started trembling excessively.

“This is enough; you can stop practicing the horse stance for today.  Just do another round of the physical training exercise.”

Feng Yu did not respond to Xu Le’s shocked words and smiled as he watched Xu Le that had maintained a perfect horse stance for half an hour. He thought to himself that although this kid was naturally against these things, however he was still very serious when doing it. Other than him, there were no other kids in their teens that were capable of enduring these trials of daily horse stance for a period extending two years.

“Pay attention to your breath and relax your mind.” Feng Yu stood up, calmly and strictly looking at Xu Le that was lying paralyzed on the ground and spoke one word at a time, “Instead of thinking of forgetting the pain, feel and memorize the route your muscles shudders where it sours the most. “

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________

TL note: edited to change some sentence structures and formatting, changed mechanic to engineer as it is more appropriate