Qu Shao thought it over for a long time. At last he gritted his teeth. "All right. I trust your character, General Long... Sit a moment. I'll go fetch brush, ink, paper and inkstone."

The corner of Ning Chen's mouth twitched... Damn it. You trust my character, and you're still fetching paper and a brush?

"Go right ahead, Master Qu!"

Qu Shao got up and went out.

Before long, he came back with the brush, ink, paper and inkstone and set them on the table, all smiles. "I trust you, General Long. There's really no need for a written pledge at all. But anyone can see General Long is a man who goes by the rules, so I can hardly break them.

Please, General Long. Any sort of pledge will do."

Shit... This guy really knows how to talk.

Ning Chen grumbled to himself for a good while before he finally picked up the brush.

With a sharp eye for what was wanted, Qu Shao ground the ink for him.

But as he set brush to paper, Ning Chen suddenly froze.

This pledge might well be shown to Kang Luo. His handwriting was uniquely ugly, and he had once written Kang Luo a letter. Would Kang Luo recognize it?

Seeing this, Qu Shao asked, "General Long, what's wrong?"

"Uh, nothing, nothing..."

Ning Chen laughed it off. If he wrote, he might be recognized. If he didn't, that wouldn't do either. Why on earth had he offered to sign a pledge? Wasn't that digging a hole for himself?

After thinking it over for a while, Ning Chen began to write anyway.

Qu Shao's eyes went wide. Why did this Long Aotian write like a child learning his characters, stroke by stroke, everything by the letter?

"General Long, are you really General Yuan's staff officer, his military adviser?"

He was starting to doubt who Ning Chen really was.

A military adviser who could barely write. How did that make sense?

A question like that was nothing to Ning Chen. Without even thinking, he opened his mouth and made something up. "I won't…