Liu Xiu: Senior Brother, Is There Anything You Want to Eat?

"It's nothing. I know how. Master, I'll teach you!" "......" Why don't you pause when you speak? Shi Jian looked on in silence at Liu Xiu, who had flipped the whole situation on its head and was being somewhat outrageously contrary, and in the end chose to agree to let Liu Xiu teach him English. There was no help for it. It wasn't as if he could read the thing! It wasn't that Shi Jian had never thought of buying books on electromagnetic force that were not in English. Pudong simply didn't have any. He had asked at several bookstores in Pudong, and all of them said they had no editions in Chinese characters. The shopkeepers even said that if he wanted Chinese editions of books on electromagnetism, he would have to place an order and have someone pull strings. So he simply bought the English editions outright. After all, the other party had given him an English dictionary, and had said straight out that with a dictionary to consult, it wouldn't be hard. Who could have known this dictionary was nothing like what he had imagined. He couldn't read it. He still couldn't read it! Liu Xiu knew nothing of what Shi Jian was thinking, and Shi Shaojian paid it even less mind. He was only glaring darkly at Liu Xiu, who had tricked the Heavenly Thunder Shield away from him. "Senior Brother, you and I have known each other for barely more than a month, and already you've given me the magic treasure Heavenly Thunder Sword, and then the magic treasure Heavenly Thunder Shield. Your junior brother truly doesn't deserve them. Please, Senior Brother, take them back..." Watching Shi Shaojian, who was still grinding his teeth and staring fixedly at him, Liu Xiu spoke up at just the right moment. As he spoke, he took the Heavenly Thunder Shield from his pocket. Shi Shaojian was just about to take it when he heard Liu Xiu go on. "Senior Brother is so deeply loyal and righteous..." Liu Xiu said nothing else. He simply kept on praising him. After a few sentences, the anger on Shi Shaojian's face was gone. All that remained was an embarrassed smile! Shi Shaojian, once again looking down his nose at people, waved a hand at Liu Xiu and spoke with a grand and proud smile. "Junior Brother, listen to you. Senior Brother has already given you the Heavenly Thunder Shield and the Heavenly Thunder Sword. How could there be any reason to take them back!" "Senior Brother!" Liu Xiu spoke as if moved, a glimmer of tears seeming to rise in his eyes. Even as Shi Shaojian's way of looking down his nose grew stronger, he felt only that his own heart had been too petty. It was clearly because he had misunderstood the relationship between Liu Xiu and Shi Jian that he had given Liu Xiu the Heavenly Thunder Shield. Yet not only had he gone back on it, he had thought Liu Xiu tricked the magic treasure out of him. The more he thought, the more ashamed he grew. Especially when he recalled how warmly Liu Xiu usually treated him, his gaze toward Liu Xiu grew softer and softer. Only Shi Jian felt something was a bit off. Strange. Why did he feel as if Liu Xiu were coaxing a child? And why did he suddenly feel that his unfilial son seemed a little... not all that bright! He thought it over and decided it must be an illusion. Not to mention that Liu Xiu was a good disciple, loyal and filial both, and pleasant to listen to—and he believed Liu Xiu would never deceive a fellow disciple. Besides, his son shouldn't be foolish enough to make the same mistake twice on the same matter... he shouldn't. Perhaps. Maybe he wouldn't?! Shi Jian didn't quite dare think any further. It was still the same line: he was only overthinking, and Liu Xiu was a good child! As for his son, he was merely his son! There was no help for it. Shi Jian truly could not think of anything about Shi Shaojian worth praising. He could hardly praise his son for being shock-resistant! "Master, could this bracelet of yours be the legendary storage magic treasure?" Liu Xiu said, looking at the ink-jade bracelet on Shi Jian's left wrist. "Quite right. This is precisely a storage magic treasure with a world within. The space inside isn't large, but it is enough to hold a few things..." Shi Jian gave a slight nod. He had not yet thought to say that those in the cultivation world who possessed a magic treasure of this sort were few and far between. Liu Xiu said it himself! Now that was excellent! "Mm. Quite right. Cultivators in the cultivation world who possess storage magic treasures are indeed few and far between..." Shi Jian, who happened to be one of those very few who possessed a storage magic treasure, gave a slight nod. In an instant Shi Jian tipped his head slightly back, as if he had suddenly become years younger. One could not say his way of looking down his nose was exactly the same as Shi Shaojian's—but it was exactly the same. "Master, you're awesome!" Liu Xiu said, envy in his eyes. At this moment Shi Shaojian spoke—he who had just received from his good junior brother's mouth such titles as "deeply loyal and righteous" and "righteousness towering to the clouds," a Ji Bu of the present age. Looking at Liu Xiu, a poor fellow who had nothing on him besides the two magic treasures he himself had given, he spoke to Shi Jian. "Master, I've seen other people take a master. Their masters all give their disciples gifts. You ought to give Junior Brother something too. Otherwise, if people hear of it, they'll think we can't afford to!" Shi Shaojian was copying the things Liu Xiu said when chatting with him, and so he spoke to Shi Jian. Hearing this, Liu Xiu hurriedly waved his hands and shook his head. "Ah, this—there's really no need. For Master to accept this disciple is already this disciple's greatest honor. How would this disciple dare hope for anything else..." Liu Xiu's attitude left Shi Jian deeply gratified. Expressionless, he glanced at Shi Shaojian, who left him neither gratified nor pleased, then drew a jadeite thumb ring from his sleeve and handed it to Liu Xiu. "This is a storage ring!" "!!!" Instantly unhappy, Shi Shaojian's eyes went wide. He stared at Shi Jian in disbelief—at Shi Jian, whom he had begged for so long without ever being given that storage ring taken from a demonic cultivator. This wasn't fair! I'm your son! I, Shi Shaojian, am your son! Shi Shaojian stared wide-eyed at Shi Jian. Shi Jian handed the storage ring to Liu Xiu, hummed, and looked at Shi Shaojian. "What, aren't you happy for your junior brother?" "Hap... happy!" This is my storage magic treasure! This is mine! This was supposed to be mine! Shi Shaojian said it while forcing onto his face a smile uglier than crying. Liu Xiu beamed down at the storage ring, shaped like a thumb ring, that had just gone onto the thumb of his left hand, and bowed. "Thank you, Master, for bestowing this treasure..." "Mm..." Shi Jian hummed, his expression indifferent. Then he froze and looked at the blue smoke rising from his room. "How is it on fire..." Waving a hand, he opened the door from a distance and dispersed the smoke inside, then looked with a twitching mouth at the incense burner packed full of offered incense. He instinctively looked at Shi Shaojian. Caught under that stare, Shi Shaojian blanked and his eyes went wide. He was just about to speak when he heard Liu Xiu say, "Ahem. This is the incense I offered when I went to call Master to the meal..." "...Three sticks would have been enough!" Shi Jian paused, his expression easing slightly as he spoke. Shi Shaojian, who felt only that he was being treated differently, stared wide-eyed at Shi Jian. Shi Jian couldn't be bothered with Shi Shaojian. He only looked at Liu Xiu, who said he understood. Although Liu Xiu knew Shi Jian meant to study English, he had not expected Shi Jian to start studying without even eating—and for the subject to be English, at that. This was rather strange! Liu Xiu cleared the bowls and chopsticks from the stone table in the courtyard and began the lesson. The very words "learning English" felt odd to him, but he had to marvel that Shi Jian was truly fond of study. "Truly, this is exactly the age for study!" Looking at Shi Jian, his hair already whitening, fifty-two years old and still studying hard, Liu Xiu inwardly remarked that this was a good seedling... A few minutes later! Listening to Shi Jian's halting pronunciation of the twenty-six English letters, Liu Xiu tacked on, after "a good seedling," that his gift for languages was rather poor and that this old student's memory wasn't good. "Ahem. Your master merely stayed up all night!" Seeing that look from Liu Xiu, Shi Jian instinctively offered an explanation. The moment he finished, he froze. That wasn't right. Why was he explaining himself to Liu Xiu? And what kind of look was that from Liu Xiu! "Ahem. Come, keep reading after me. ABC..." "......" Rebellious disciple, just you wait! Shi Jian's mouth twitched twice, and he went on learning English after Liu Xiu. Watching and listening in from beside the doorway of his own bedroom, Shi Shaojian wore a strange expression as he silently ran through the twenty-six English letters once. Then Shi Shaojian looked with open scorn at his own old man, who couldn't even memorize this, and instinctively clicked his tongue... which turned into two laughs. He looked up at the sky. "Fine weather today, Junior Brother. Wouldn't you say..." Meeting Shi Jian's icy gaze, Shi Shaojian forced an awkward smile and shot Liu Xiu a look begging for help. "The weather's good?" Liu Xiu, who saw no fine weather, only a sky packed with dark clouds, looked at Shi Shaojian with a puzzled face. "......" Damn it. I'm taking my magic treasures back! Hearing this, Shi Shaojian's eyes widened as he glared at this junior brother who, instead of helping him, had pulled the rug out from under him. Then he ducked his head and turned away, not daring to meet Shi Jian's eyes, and went inside to continue cultivating his thunder arts. A pity, though. Shi Shaojian had not cultivated his thunder arts for long before Shi Jian called him over to study English as well! Shi Shaojian had meant to refuse to learn English on the grounds that he still had to cultivate the Shangqing Jade Pivot Palm-Thunder Secret Instruction. But at one line from Shi Jian—"Have you mastered it yet?"—Shi Shaojian's face went dark and he shut his mouth! Liu Xiu's students: +1! Before long, though, Shi Shaojian revealed a formidable gift for languages and completely crushed his own old man at English. Shi Jian's face went dark! "Little Junior Brother, teach a bit faster. This sentence pattern is so simple to learn..." Seated by the stone table, Shi Shaojian said with a cheerful smile. Only his eyes kept drifting toward the old fellow who had just mocked him for not having mastered the thunder arts. Liu Xiu looked at the azure electric arcs beneath Shi Jian's feet. He coughed into his fist, glanced at the sun nearing noon, and said, "I just remembered my eldest uncle needs me for something. We'll continue the lesson later. I'll go see my eldest uncle first..." There was no help for it. If he didn't speak up, he was afraid his original body's eldest uncle would come to see him afterward! As he spoke, Liu Xiu paused, looked at the happily smiling Shi Shaojian, and said, "Senior Brother, is there anything you want to eat?" "???" These words... Why did they sound a bit off? Though Shi Shaojian found it strange, he didn't think too hard about it and rattled off a whole list of dishes. Liu Xiu nodded solemnly and indicated he would certainly bring them back. Of course, that was assuming Shi Shaojian could still eat! After Liu Xiu left the Yizhuang, and had walked some several hundred meters, a piercing scream of agony came from the direction of the Yizhuang—and cut off short! "I hope the person's all right..." As Liu Xiu spoke, he inwardly added a "Boundless Life-Giving Heavenly Lord," then began to examine the storage ring on his left thumb. "About one cubic meter. Not bad..." Through the spirit among the three treasures of essence, qi, and spirit—nothing that could be called divine sense, only an ability of inward contemplation—he looked at the space inside the ring, one meter in length, width, and height. Liu Xiu nodded in satisfaction. Having finished inspecting the storage ring, Liu Xiu drew from his pocket the Heavenly Thunder Sword, its surface bearing a faint layer of white frost that only he could see when he looked closely, but otherwise unchanged, and gave it a look. "Say, could it be that you're actually that primordial innate supreme treasure with forty-nine restrictions?" Liu Xiu thought, toying with the Heavenly Thunder Sword.