Chapter 455: Third Uncle, This Is Called Youth!
Translator: Noodletown Translated Editor: Noodletown Translated
Upon returning to East Ocean University, Hao Ren left Little White with Xie Yujia and went to Zhao Yanzi’s place on his own.
Zhao Yanzi was indeed a little spoiled, but Hao Ren was still worried about her school work. After all, she needed to have good grades at her age in order to live a normal mortal life.
It looked like Zhao Hongyu and Zhao Guang didn’t plan on keeping her in the dragon palace. On the other hand, they wished to let her grow up on land. Zhao Yanzi didn’t enjoy staying at the boring dragon palace anyways, and she had always considered herself a mid-schooler.
Hao Ren arrived at the stop after half an hour on the b.u.mpy bus. Then, he walked to Zhao Yanzi’s door.
A few vines climbed up on the iron gate with fresh green leaves, and there was a layer of dark green moss over the wetland.
“Summer is really coming…” Hao Ren pushed open the iron gate and knocked on Zhao Yanzi’s home’s door.
“You are here, Ren!” Zhao Hongyu opened the door with a bright smile.
“Auntie,” Hao Ren smiled cheerfully, and he carried his bag into Zhao Yanzi’s house.
“Humph!” Zhao Yanzi pouted in the living room when she saw Hao Ren coming in.
Zhao Guang was busy as usual in the study room, flipping through doc.u.ments.
Premier Xia was in his Hawaiian T-s.h.i.+rt, and he stood beside Zhao Guang’s desk in the study room, reporting some matters.
Zhao Kuo had his arms crossed in front of his chest, and he sat on the couch with a stern face, watching a TV show.
“Time for dinner!” Zhao Hongyu shouted as she walked out of the kitchen with dishes in her hands.
Zhao Yanzi quickly ran over since she was starving.
Hao Ren saw Zhao Guang coming out of the study room, so he went over to the dinner table and sat beside Zhao Yanzi.
Zhao Kuo turned off the TV and sat down opposite to Hao Ren, and his serious look pressured Hao Ren.
Zhao Guang walked beside the dinner table calmly and sat in his usual seat.
Premier Xia walked out of the study room with his back hunched. He didn’t know if he should stay or leave since the Dragon King’s family was having dinner together.
“Come and eat with us, Premier Xia!” Zhao Hongyu said.
“How could I!” Premier Xia immediately shook his head.
He had been the Premier of the Dragon Palace for hundreds of years, so he knew exactly the difference between him and the King’s family.
“Come and join us,” Zhao Guang said calmly.
Premier Xia slowly walked over at Zhao Guang’s command. After picking the furthest seat, he sat himself down.
“Would you like some rice or noodles?” Zhao Hongyu asked.
“Um… I shouldn’t…” Premier Xia waved immediately.
It was a great honor to sit with the Dragon King; how could he imagine dining with them?
“Forget about all the rules now that we are on land, Premier. I think you should have some noodles,” Zhao Guang said to Premier Xia.
“Yes… My lord,” Premier Xia nodded with reverence and awe.
Zhao Hongyu got a bowl of noodles for him, but Premier Xia was too shocked to take the bowl when he saw Zhao Hongyu handing him the noodles herself.
“Ok, let’s eat.” Zhao Guang waved.
Zhao Yanzi picked up a piece of pork rib with her chopsticks. Then, she put it in Premier Xia’s noodles. “Premier, have some ribs!”
“Thank you… Princess…” Premier Xia was too touched to talk.
“Have some more, Ren,” Zhao Hongyu said to Hao Ren.
“Um,” Hao Ren nodded.
Zhao Kuo was busy eating the big bowl of rice.
Hao Ren thought to himself, “Although this is the family of the Dragon King of the East Ocean Dragon Clan, they are still lovely and intimate.”
“Why are you crying, Premier Xia?” Zhao Yanzi asked all of a sudden.
Hao Ren turned over and found Premier Xia crying ceaselessly with the bowl of noodles in his hands.
“What’s the matter, Premier?” Zhao Hongyu asked.
Premier Xia put the bowl on the table and wiped the tears off. “The old Dragon King helped me to cultivation, and Your Majesty thinks highly of me… I… I will do whatever it takes to serve you! I wouldn’t say a word if I need to go through fire and blades for you!”
“Why are you saying this suddenly,” Zhao Hongyu looked at Premier Xie and said, “Come on land whenever you have time. Also, don’t always wear Lu Qing’s outfits. Ask him to take you shopping for some suitable clothes.”
“Thank you, Dragon Queen.” Premier Xia wiped the tears off the corner of his eyes. He was too moved to say a word.
Zhao Yanzi put the bowl of noodles in Premier Xia’s hand.
She seemed to be spoiled, but she had a kind heart. She didn’t remember much, but she knew that Premier Xia watched her grow up.
“I… I…” Premier Xia wasn’t able to say anything at this moment.
“Enjoy your noodles. You might need to come over to report to me in the future, so you will have to stay for dinner a lot,” Zhao Guang said.
Premier Xia nodded, and he finally suppressed his emotions and started eating the noodles.
Zhao Haoran used to trust him a lot, but the old Dragon King was never this kind to Premier Xia. After having served two generations of Dragon Kings, Premier Xia was very grateful.
Hao Ren smiled as he thought to himself, “Zhao Haoran, at the peak Qian-level, convinced people with his strength, but Zhao Guang won people by virtue. They each had their advantages.”
Hao Ren wouldn’t have survived a day if Zhao Haoran knew Zhao Yanzi lost her dragon core to Hao Ren. However, if Zhao Haoran oversaw the East Ocean Dragon Palace, the West Ocean Dragon Clan wouldn’t have been so aggressive.
“Ren,” Zhao Guang looked up and said, “Zhao Kuo said that he would try his best to teach you for a while in order to thank you for the Seven-Core Five-Color Lotus.”
“Um?” Hao Ren stopped moving his chopsticks and looked at Zhao Kuo.
Zhao Kuo snorted as he bit a piece of pork rib and carried on eating.
Zhao Guang continued as he looked at Hao Ren, “Don’t doubt it; Zhao Kuo mentioned it himself. He will teach you for a month and leave to cultivate afterward.”
“Is Third Uncle still leaving?” Hao Ren thought as he looked at Zhao Kuo in surprise.
Although Zhao Kuo was only at Dui-level, he used to be a peak Qian-level master. He was only one step away from the Heavenly Dragon Realm.
Most importantly, Zhao Kuo was cultivating the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll as well, and he must have a more profound understanding of it. Since he reached Dui-level in such a short time, he must have transferred all his previous cultivation experience into this technique.
If he could devote his heart to teaching Hao Ren, Hao Ren could cultivate more smoothly and make a huge improvement.
For lower-level cultivators, the instruction of a higher-level cultivator was way more valuable than any elixir pills or techniques.
However, most higher-level cultivators would be busy cultivating and wouldn’t have the time to tutor a lower-level cultivator. This was a first for Zhao Kuo to give up an entire month to instruct Hao Ren.
“I will also teach Zi,” Zhao Kuo said abruptly.
“Thank you, Third Uncle!” Zhao Yanzi cried out immediately.
She wasn’t fond of cultivating in the past, so she skipped it whenever Zhao Kuo offered to teach her.
But after entering Fifth Heaven, she felt the pressure when Xie Yujia reached the Foundation Establishment Realm. She needed some guidance from a master.
Zhao Kuo was a peak Qian-level master, and the cultivation of human and dragons were essentially the same. Therefore, it was indeed easy for Zhao Kuo to instruct Zhao Yanzi on cultivation.
Zhao Hongyu was surprised to see Zhao Yanzi’s sudden eagerness in cultivation.
Hao Ren wondered to himself, “Su Han is tutoring Xie Yujia, and Zhao Kuo will be tutoring Zhao Yanzi. Who knows which one of them will improve faster…”
After dinner, Premier Xia opened his umbrella as he was about to head back to the dragon palace.
Zhao Yanzi waved to him at the door and said, “Come here for dinner again, Premier Xia!”
“Yes… Yes…” Premier Xia kept nodding.
He thanked Zhao Guang and Zhao Hongyu again before he walked onto the road under the umbrella.
Premier Xia slowly walked away, hunchbacked.
He had always abided by the rules. Therefore, in weather like this, he would never fly into the sky.
“Go ahead with tutoring, you guys,” Zhao Hongyu said to Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi.
“Oh…” Zhao Yanzi turned to her room, pouting.
Hao Ren grabbed the tutoring material from the living room and followed Zhao Yanzi upstairs.
Zhao Yanzi was in her pajamas and slippers, and she looked very lively as she hopped upstairs.
Her long black hair fluttered loosely on her back. As she wobbled, her hair gave out a hint of a pleasant scent.
Hao Ren followed her closely into her room.
The room was a bit messy. But compared to the slight drizzle outside, the room had a warm, refres.h.i.+ng smell.
A hand suddenly appeared between the door and the doorframe when Hao Ren was about to close the door. Zhao Kuo pushed the door open and entered the room.
Zhao Yanzi looked at him, confused.
“I… am just here to check,” Zhao Kuo smiled with his mouth open.
“You don’t know any of these anyways, Third Uncle.” Zhao Yanzi pouted.
“Just checking… Just checking…” Zhao Kuo sat himself down in a little chair despite Zhao Yanzi’s complaints.
“Let’s begin,” Hao Ren moved a chair to the desk and took the paper out of his bag.
Zhao Yanzi dragged over her swivel chair, and she pulled her feet up and sat in it with her legs crossed. Then, she took out some scratch paper and a pen and started working on the mock exam Hao Ren prepared for her.
Her pajama was a bit loose. She rested her head on one hand and wrote the exam with the other. Her smooth white neck appeared under her collar.
“Uh-hem!” Zhao Kuo coughed twice by the window.
Hao Ren looked at him before turning back at Zhao Yanzi’s paper.
Rain dripped off the eaves of the house.
Zhao Yanzi read the question carefully, and she pouted, bit her lips, and frowned from time to time. Her facial expression was very interesting.
“Here! All done!” Zhao Yanzi pondered for a bit at the last question. Then, she wrote ‘Don’t Know How’ on the paper before she handed the paper to Hao Ren.
Hao Ren took the paper and read through it carefully. Their tutoring sessions had been pretty effective lately. Zhao Yanzi was able to finish 70%-80% of the questions that she didn’t know how to solve before. She could even use her own ways to answer some of the questions.
Zhao Kuo’s hip was a little sore from sitting. Therefore, he stood up and came over to take a look.
He was glad to see Hao Ren’s checkmarks on most of the questions. As an uncle, he had no idea what these middle-schoolers’ school work was about. However, it didn’t stop him from caring about Zi’s grades.
“You made a mistake on this one. This is what you should have done…” Hao Ren pointed at the first mistake she made and started showing her the right answer.
Zhao Yanzi moved her chair closer to Hao Ren. She rested her arms and upper body on the desk and listened carefully.
Hao Ren picked up the pen and said, “And this one. Let me show you how to solve it…”
Zhao Yanzi moved a bit closer, and her head was almost on Hao Ren’s shoulder.
“See, this is a linear equation here,” Hao Ren wrote quickly on the sc.r.a.p paper.
Zhao Yanzi pouted her little mouth. The two chairs had already become one, and half of Zhao Yanzi’s body was already right in front of Hao Ren. She laid comfortably in Hao Ren’s arms with her head right under his chin, and she looked closely at Hao Ren’s problem-solving procedures.
“Uh-hem!” Zhao Kuo couldn’t help but cough twice.
Zhao Yanzi looked up at Zhao Kuo and complained, “We are working on a question, Third Uncle!”
“See here… You need to use factorization…” Hao Ren was very focused.
“Um! Um!” Zhao Yanzi nodded immediately. Her hair touched Hao Ren’s chin, and she decided to ignore Zhao Kuo completely.
Although she was still sitting on her own chair, her body was completely snug in Hao Ren’s arms like a mermaid. She didn’t mean to take advantage of him; it was just really comfortable to be in Hao Ren’s arms.
“This… This…” Zhao Kuo’s eyes opened wide. He didn’t think it was a good idea to leave Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi alone in the room, so he came to check on them. But Hao Ren was…
“So, x equals 12, and y equals six. Then, we have the answer,” Hao Ren held onto Zhao Yanzi’s shoulders and said.
“Oh, I see…” Zhao Yanzi looked like she understood it as she laid in Hao Ren’s arms.
“Zi!” Zhao Kuo shouted.
“Quiet, Third Uncle! I am trying to think!” Zhao Yanzi rested her chin on her palms as she stared at Hao Ren’s solution.
“Stop yelling, Zhao Kuo.” Zhao Hongyu suddenly appeared at the door.
“No… but…” Zhao Kuo didn’t know what to say. He pointed at Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi who were sitting together by the desk.
“Come out and stop interfering.” Zhao Hongyu rolled her eyes at him.
“But… but…” Zhao Kuo walked out in surprise.
“Get some rest after tutoring, Zi. And don’t play any games,” Zhao Hongyu said to Zhao Yanzi before she closed the door behind her.
“I know, Mom!” Zhao Yanzi leaned back, sticking her little round head on Hao Ren’s chest. She stared at the paper and asked, “And the next question?”