Quick Transmigration: Why did you provoke him? He's love-struck!

Up to the capital, at the military training grounds on the outskirts of Beijing.

General Liu Su stood with his hands behind his back, coldly watching as Xiahou Che was thrown heavily to the ground by a soldier's over-the-shoulder throw, grimacing in pain and unable to get up for a long time.

"Get up!" Liu Su shouted sternly. "If you can't even endure this little bit of hardship, what kind of martial arts are you practicing!"

Xiahou Che's face was deathly pale, and his whole body ached as if it were falling apart. Upon hearing Liu Su's words, he gritted his teeth, got up, and assumed a posture of preparing to attack in front of his soldiers.

Although the soldier was young, he clearly didn't take him seriously. With a contemptuous expression, he rushed forward and swept his lower body. With a "thud," Xiahou Che fell face down, landing face-first in the mud once again.

When he finally managed to lift his head, his lip was cut and his mouth was covered in blood.

Upon seeing this, the attending eunuch hurriedly ran to Liu Su, bowed obsequiously, and said, "General, please have mercy! If he gets injured like this and the Emperor sees him when we return to the palace, I won't be able to explain it to him."

Liu Su sneered, "This is nothing! If Your Highness thinks I'm too strict, then go back. You're as delicate as a little girl. What's the point of practicing martial arts!"

He raised his voice for the last sentence, deliberately saying it so that Xiahou Che could hear it.

Xiahou Che turned his head and glanced at Liu Su. He did not argue, but instead showed his determination through his actions—he got up again and wrestled with the soldier.

Xiahou Che was thrown around countless times throughout the morning.

Fortunately, although Liu Su wanted to force him to back down, he still respected that he was the eleventh prince and proceeded with restraint. After practicing for two hours, he called a halt.

As Xiahou Che was helped aside by the attending eunuch to rinse his mouth, soldiers brought over two boxes. Inside were small black gunpowder shells, one of which was tightly wrapped in oiled paper.

"General, the cause of the dud ammunition from the last exercise has been found. It was caused by the continuous rain and dampness in the capital during that period."

The soldier said, "The people at the gunpowder workshop came up with a method to wrap the gunpowder in oiled paper to prevent moisture. All the gunpowder in this box that wasn't wrapped in oiled paper has become damp and dud. Please check it against the description, General."

Liu Su glanced at the two boxes, then had someone bring a torch and immediately tested a piece of gunpowder wrapped in oil paper.

With a loud bang, the thick smoke dissipated, leaving a deep crater in the place where the gunpowder exploded.

Xiahou Che's pupils contracted slightly in shock at the sight.

Liu Su saw his reaction, narrowed his eyes, and began to play a trick on him.

If we can scare him into never coming to the military camp again, that would be the best outcome.

Thinking of this, Liu Su adopted the air of a scholar: "Your Highness, come here."

Xiahou Che immediately stood up, limped over to Liu Su, and cupped his hands in greeting, saying, "Master."

"Do you know what this is?" Liu Su picked up a damp gunpowder bomb and weighed it in front of him.

Gunpowder bombs have been around for over a hundred years in this dynasty. Xiahou Che had studied many military books and naturally knew what they were.

"It's a gunpowder shell."

“That’s right,” Liu Su said. “You just saw how powerful these gunpowder shells are. Our Great Jin Dynasty was protected by these. There are three ways to use gunpowder shells: one is with catapults, the second is in conjunction with muskets, and as for the third…”

Liu Su took the torch from the soldier and lit the fuse: "If you have enough strength, you can throw it by hand."

As he spoke, the fuse burned and shortened rapidly, and Xiahou Che's eyes tensed up.

With only one-third of the fuse remaining, Liu Su made a gesture as if he was about to throw the gunpowder bomb.

But his hand "accidentally" slipped, and the gunpowder bullet immediately slipped from his grasp, landing a meter below the feet of the two men.

Xiahou Che's pupils contracted.

Liu Su clearly saw the fear that surged in his eyes in an instant. He raised an eyebrow and guessed whether this pampered little prince would turn and run away in a panic, or be so frightened that his legs went weak and he fell to the ground, or even worse, be so frightened that he wet his pants.

But the next moment, Xiahou Che neither ran nor was his legs weak with fear. He lunged forward, using his body to pin down the gunpowder bomb whose fuse was almost completely burned out, and turned to shout at Liu Su and the soldiers surrounding him, "Run!!!"

Liu Su was stunned.

The soldiers around them, who had been waiting to see the joke, fell silent and could no longer laugh.

The fuse burned out, and the dud gunpowder shell made a muffled "poof" sound before going silent.

Xiahou Che closed his eyes and waited for a while, but there was no explosion or the pain of being smashed to pieces. He opened his eyes and saw Liu Su looking at him with complicated eyes. When he saw the intact gunpowder shell that he had pressed under him, he was stunned.

Realizing he had done something stupid, his ears turned bright red instantly. He scrambled to his feet and stood awkwardly to the side, too embarrassed to look up.

But this time, no one laughed at him.

In the silence, Liu Su spoke up: "Alright, that's enough for today's training. You can go back now."

Xiahou Che bit his lower lip and asked softly, "Master, can I come again tomorrow?"

Liu Su put on a stern face: "What, you don't want to come tomorrow?"

"Yes! I want to!"

"I will be waiting for you at the West Gate at 5:00 AM tomorrow. If you are even a moment late, you don't need to come again."

Upon receiving an affirmative reply, Xiahou Che breathed a sigh of relief and bowed to Liu Su, saying, "Yes."

The attending eunuch helped Xiahou Che leave, and Liu Su watched his figure disappear at the entrance of the training ground, letting out a soft sigh.

"This boy is kind-hearted. If he can be trained into a general, he will surely treat his soldiers well in the future."

Xiahou Che boarded the carriage parked outside the training ground. As soon as the curtain was drawn, the embarrassment and anxiety on his face vanished completely.

He leaned against the car wall, narrowed his eyes, and his gaze was gloomy and dangerous.

The attending eunuch took out a medicine box to treat Xiahou Che's wounds, and was not surprised by his Sichuan opera-like face-changing expressions: "Your Highness has suffered today."

The eunuch's name was Yang Pei, who was two years older than Xiahou Che and was an old acquaintance of his from the Yeting Palace.

When they were in the Yeting Palace, the two of them could only do the dirtiest and most tiring work, and they were both targeted by Liang Sheng, so they had a certain mutual respect for each other.

A few days ago, Xiahou Che used his privileges as a prince to get Yang Pei out of the Yeting Palace and transfer him to the Linzhi Palace to be his personal eunuch.

Yang Pei is quick-witted and tactful, and has done a lot for him these days.

Xiahou Che glanced at the bloodied back of his hand and scoffed, "What's the big deal?"

These are all superficial injuries. In the past, when I was in the Yeting Palace, a beating would have been more serious than these injuries.

Yang Pei said in a low voice, "But you took too much risk today. If that gunpowder bomb had exploded, the consequences would have been unimaginable..."

"No," Xiahou Che said calmly. "If Liu Su were to die because of such a basic mistake, he wouldn't deserve to be called a loyal and brave general."

Yang Pei knew he understood, so she said no more and carefully applied ointment to the wound on the back of his hand.

The medicinal powder seeped into his flesh, causing Xiahou Che, who was always sensitive to pain, to shudder.

Yang Pei quickly blew air onto his wound: "Your Highness, please bear with it a little longer."

Xiahou Che was in so much pain that cold sweat beaded on his forehead. All the suffering he had endured on the training ground rushed back to his mind. He gritted his teeth and said, "Yang Pei, the soldier who beat me on the training ground today—kill him, chop off his hands and feed them to the dogs!"

Yang Pei paused, then replied, "Yes!"