Volume 5 – A Distance Within Reach, Chapter 43: Knock Them Down One by One
There was clearly something wrong with Qianye’s expression after another round of emptying their cups.
“Haha, Qianye. Serves you right! I remember how you made me so miserably drunk back then. Today, the heavens will let you know that I, Wei Potian, am no longer the same person!”
Wei Potian was extremely unbridled and took little notice of the expressions on Song Zining and Zhao Yuying’s faces. Song Zining was thinking “this idiot”, while Zhao Yuying immediately realized that Wei Potian’s capacity for alcohol wasn’t all that great either.
By the time they had finished the third round, Qianye was already swaying and seemingly about to collapse. Additionally, his mood was fluctuating quite a bit, and he seemed particularly excited both in terms of expression and words spoken. It was obvious that he had drunk more than he should.
This time, even Zhao Yuying became interested—she dragged Qianye over and emptied three cups with him in quick succession, hoping to bring him down. But Zhao Yuying herself began to feel somewhat dizzy after three cups, while Qianye was still hanging in there on the verge of collapse.
Zhao Yuying felt that this was normal. According to her understanding, combat strength equaled to alcohol capacity. Since Qianye possessed such great strength in battle, how could he collapse so easily?
She had just wanted to continue another three rounds when Song Zining suddenly arrived to challenge her to a few cups of wine and discuss the matter of that leaf.
How could Zhao Yuying fear Song Zining? She immediately emptied three cups with him and began to debate the grudges from back then. However, both parties naturally began claiming they were right, and very soon, they had turned back to drinking once again. Thus, a chaotic four-way battle ensued.
Meanwhile, Qianye was already wobbling quite badly since the very beginning of this war.
As they kept drinking on and on, Wei Potian grabbed Song Zining’s collar and said angrily, “Hey sissy, I know it’s your rotten idea that made those women come and pester me to drink every day! I won’t forget this matter so easily!”
Clang! Song Zining smashed his cup toward Wei Potian’s face and sneered, “So what? Empty three cups first if you’re not satisfied. What’s with all the nonsense? You’re just like a woman!”
Zhao Yuying moved before Song Zining and laughed coldly, “What is this about women?”
Song Zining’s expression was the same—he pushed the cup toward her face and said, “Nothing. Three cups to dissolve all grudges and enmity?”
“Deal!”
It was currently a battle between the three kingdoms while Qianye wobbled quietly to one side.
It was unknown how long they had been drinking. Even Qianye himself could only vaguely remember that he had drunk quite a bit, to speak nothing of the other three.
After a while, Wei Potian pulled Song Zining over and lisped, “Although I don’t like you that much, I really must admit that you’re a tiny bit stronger than other people. Only a little bit though!”
Song Zining slapped Wei Potian’s hand away and said in annoyance, “Stop touching me. How can I be only a little bit stronger than other people? Let me tell you the truth. Just my fan alone… hic… is enough to trade a dozen such ladies!”
Song Zining’s expression was calm and his movements steady, but it just so happened that the direction he had pointed at was toward Zhao Yuying. Song Zining pointed at her without much thought since there was only that single beautiful lady at the table, and the only other choice would be Qianye.
“Huh? A dozen women like me?” Zhao Yuying’s eyes immediately lit up.
Qianye understood Song Zining very well and knew that the latter had already drunk too much; his eyes were already muddled despite seemingly normal on the outside.
As expected, Song Zining only glanced once at Zhao Yuying and nodded. “This lady is not bad! Quite good in fact! A dozen really was too exaggerated, but my fan is worth at least eight of them.”
Zhao Yuying’s mood eased up a bit after hearing the first half of the sentence, but she turned completely green after hearing the follow-up words.
Sitting quietly to one side, Qianye felt an inexplicable thought arise in his heart. Zining is about to suffer.
Zhao Yuying grabbed a cup of wine, took a small sip, and pouted her lips. It seemed she was planning to feed Song Zining mouth to mouth!
Song Zining immediately puffed his chest out and raised his head in a heroic and altruistic posture. Meanwhile, Wei Potian’s mouth was opening wider and wider. The alcohol-induced redness on his face receded thoroughly, and his countenance was now fluctuating between white and blue. His right hand had tightened into a fist and his joints were beginning to crackle.
Zhao Yuying acted like flame and fire—she lifted Song Zining up directly and moved closer to his face. Their faces were now so close that they could hear each other’s breathing.
Qianye supported his head with one hand and looked on calmly. Song Zining was definitely about to suffer soon.
As expected, Zhao Yuying suddenly grasped Song Zining’s neck and pressed him onto the table. Zhao Yuying’s strength was about the same as Qianye’s—how could the Song Seventh Young Master resist? She tightened her left hand and caused Song Zining to open his mouth involuntarily. Afterward, she grabbed a full cup of wine and poured it down Song Zining’s throat. This was just the beginning—Zhao Yuying continued to pour a whole five or six cups before releasing her hand.
Song Zining immediately fell kneeling on the floor and began to cough violently. This wine was fairly strong, and he had been made to chug with great ferocity. He really couldn’t endure such a devastating blow no matter how good his alcohol capacity was.
Zhao Yuying slapped Song Zining’s back and laughed in an unbridled manner. “Ha! This mother here can handle tender birds like you all day.”
With that, she reached out to squish Song Zining’s face and said while clicking her tongue, “Your flesh seems quite fresh and delicate. You might be able to exchange a couple of moves with me if your face were thicker, but now, you’re just too inexperienced!”
Wei Potian couldn’t help but slap the table and cry out in approval.
Song Zining’s face flushed red from the insuppressible tipsiness. He had lost control under the anger and embarrassment, causing the intoxication to rush up to his head. He fell down on the spot and directly collapsed under the table.
On the other side, Wei Potian finally saw Song Zining collapse. He relaxed after trying his utmost to hold on for so long, and within moments, he too fell to the floor and started snoring.
At this moment, Zhao Yuying looked around and found that only Qianye remained among her opponents. Moreover, he was already on the verge of collapse.
She wanted to sneer at first but suddenly recalled that Qianye had been wobbling in this manner since the very beginning. How come he hadn’t collapsed yet?
Zhao Yuying immediately became interested. She poured two more cups and stuffed one into Qianye’s hands. She then sat down beside him and, quite naturally, placed her right hand over his shoulders as though she were a hedonistic son taking liberties with an innocent lady.
Qianye removed her arm and wanted to move to the side, but Zhao Yuying was immediately displeased. “What’s the big deal? I even helped you bathe when you just arrived at the Zhao clan as a kid. What’s there left to see? Right, Little Four was one year older than you. He insisted on carrying you away and everyone fell rolling onto the floor. Haha!”
Qianye was startled and even sobered up for a split second. He had thought Zhao Yuying was just speaking nonsense during the first part of the sentence, but the second part made his heart throb intensively, and he couldn’t tell whether it was due to pain or bitterness.
“Enough with the nonsense. Come! Drink!” Zhao Yuying’s hand had slapped over with great strength.
Qianye felt helpless. He wiped away the lingering sentiments and accompanied Zhao Yuying in drinking one cup after another.
He wobbled and swayed, but kept on drinking until, at one point, he heard a loud thud. Zhao Yuying had collapsed.
Qianye sat silently for a moment before he realized that he was the only one left. He let out a sigh—it seemed he was always the only one left every time they competed seriously in alcohol, and that was since Yellow Springs.
At this moment, Qianye recalled that his original intention for calling them over was to ask for their opinion regarding the westward campaign. The western expansion was a major gambit—success would allow them to open up a new territory and mold out a completely different power structure, while failure would mean a great loss in their power which would take a long time to recover.
Qianye looked around and discovered that the three whom he had hoped to discuss big things with were all collapsed on the floor like dead pigs, emitting a continuous stream of intoxicated sounds. It seemed there was no way to wake them up without resorting to extreme measures.
Although Qianye was still feeling dizzy, he knew that he would be consigned to eternal damnation the next day if he were to use these extreme methods on them. It would be impossible to endure a combined attack from Wei Potian, Song Zining, and Zhao Yuying even if he had two Wings of Inception.
Qianye rubbed his aching temples. His original plan was merely to treat them to dinner and discuss the westward campaign. How did it turn into a contest of alcohol?
These three fellows were all fierce characters who could hold up a part of the sky. For instance, Zhao Yuying’s combat strength was capable of killing the enemy leader among ten thousand troops. But together, they did nothing but undermine one another and produce a big mess without accomplishing anything.
Qianye suddenly felt an anger rush up from the depths of his heart as he roared, “We march west in three days. It’s decided!”
But the three only responded with their thunderous snores.
At this moment, it was already two in the morning; the guards and maids had long since been instructed to retire. One would have to cross the wide drill grounds in order to reach Dark Flame’s guest residences, and there were only two guest rooms on this side of the building where the high-ranking officers lived.
Qianye glanced at the three and decided to set about the task himself. Zhao Yuying naturally had to be given a single room. After tossing her onto the bed, Qianye suddenly felt that this decision wasn’t to protect her, but, instead, to avoid misfortunate befalling anyone else.
Then came Song Zining and Wei Potian—Qianye dragged each of them in one hand and tossed them into the same bed in the same room. As for how they would react after waking up, that wasn’t Qianye’s concern.
Things were unexpectedly calm the next day.
All three of them woke up early and even had breakfast with Qianye. Both Song Zining and Wei Potian conversed cheerfully with typical aristocratic elegance. Zhao Yuying also became quite lady-like this morning and didn’t even once address herself as “this mommy”.
Qianye found this ambiance to be fairly odd, but their gazes toward him were even more peculiar.
He calmly told them of his intentions to expand westward and didn’t receive any objections from them at all. Unexpectedly, no one said anything unnecessary either, and breakfast ended with an oddly harmonious atmosphere.
No one mentioned the matters from last night.
Before they dispersed, Wei Potian solicitously ran over to Zhao Yuying’s side and asked her what her origin handheld cannon was called, claiming that there was no way such a powerful grade-seven weapon would be nameless.
As expected, Zhao Yuying spat out an extremely tyrannical name: “Mountain Splitter”.
After breakfast, the four came to the war room to listen to Qianye’s plans for the westward campaign.
The march from Blackflow City to the predetermined destination would pass through the territories of four dark race viscounts. There were also many settlements, big and small, along the way.
If it were up to Song Zining, he would have likely brought out a splendid strategy utilizing an entire array of direct attacks, hidden ambushes, charging, and surrounding. Strategies like attacking the enemy base to relieve a siege and besieging a city to wipe out incoming reinforcements were simple matters to him.
Qianye’s plans were much simpler—knock them down one after another!