It was involuntary*! Do you know what involuntary means?! Also, Almighty Immortal, why did you brought this up?!
Shu Tang"s pink cheeks heated, wishing she was actually a stupid pig without spiritual intelligence.
Shu Tang felt if she were to do something as embarra.s.sing as ask Fuyu to be her shifu*, Fuyu would make fun of her for the rest of her life. Especially since Fuyu Shangxian was socially inept, she wouldn"t even understand that it would be embarra.s.sing for Shu Tang.
Shu Tang pitied herself. She has really lost all dignity as a pig.
Unexpectedly, Fuyu didn"t ask any more questions. It was like she saw Shu Tang"s shame and changed the subject. "Alright, since you have spiritual intelligence, I won"t make the decision for you. I"ll ask you; will you study under me to become an immortal?"
Shu Tang was shocked at first, then hummed.
No matter how you put it, being a person is way more convenient than being a pig. Plus, this exceptionally mysterious fantasy had to be the blessing she"s been acc.u.mulating for the past eight reincarnations and she can"t miss out on it.
Fuyu, who had been watching her, asked: "Is this you agreeing?"
The piglet nodded twice.
Fuyu smiled bewitchingly, showing off white teeth between cherry lips. Three parts charm, seven parts beauty, and not a fraction of inelegance. Shu Tang was awestruck. Before she could snap out of it, her body was lifted up by the beauty and placed on the ground.
"I"ve seen Luhua and Nantan accept disciples before; a disciple must kneel before the shifu, kowtow* three times, and spout out some long-winded nonsense. Since you"re still a pig, you can skip the speaking, but you still have to kowtow.
The great immortal spoke in a prescriptive manner. Then, she sat straight-backed and waited for the piglet to kowtow.
Shu Tang: "……." This was all happening so fast! She felt overwhelmed.
But seeing how serious Fuyu was, she could only summon up the courage to kowtow. However, she couldn"t bend her trotters, no matter how hard she tried she couldn"t successfully kneel.
This kind of movement was just too difficult for a pig….
Since she couldn"t kneel, Shu Tang thought she would just lower her head to the ground. But, it turned out that her head was so round her neck couldn"t support looking down.
Shu Tang, who just suffered a double blow, looked at the table leg beside her. She ran over and knocked her head against it three times. Then, she looked up at Fuyu and humphed multiple times.
From this day forward, this person would be her only support in this world, her shifu.
Fuyu didn"t understand what it was saying but her heart was filled with joy. She lifted it up on the table. She"d been wanting to know just how spiritually intelligent this piglet was and now she could see that it was indeed very intelligent.
She dropped the serious expression and looked at Shu Tang pleasantly. "Henceforth, I"m your shifu. I will still call you Bai Huahua, alright?"
Shu Tang, finally getting the chance to shed this awful sounding name, wildly shook her head in objection.
Fuyu"s brow furrowed. "You don"t like this name…"
She said that with such disappointment that Shu Tang couldn"t bear it, but she forced herself to hardened her resolve. On the table, she wrote "Shu Tang".
"You want to change your name to Shu Tang?" Fuyu was shocked; she never thought the piglet could write.
Shu Tang nodded, feeling like she"d finally gotten rid of that awful name. Only a second later, she heard, "Alright, the outside world can call you Shu Tang, I"ll call you Huahua."
"……" Almighty Shifu! Why don"t you play cards according to common sense?!
But, no matter what, she"s been accepted as her disciple.
Worried about her disciple"s health, Fuyu didn"t ask it to cultivate. After feeding it three radishes, she went to find Luhua for more information on training disciples.
Meanwhile, Shu Tang spent her last leisure day soundly sleeping in bed. Early the next morning, she was snoring quietly when her shifu woke her up by dragging her into the courtyard by the ear.
Fuyu, holding onto the soft pig ear with her left hand, didn"t have the heart to do this, but Luhua said that pig"s were naturally lazy so she must be strict with it in order to help it cultivate properly.
Shu Tang was startled, to say the least. Standing on a narrow jade path, not knowing what she did wrong, she looked up at her shifu.
"In the mornings, you must run 10 laps around the courtyard. If you don"t complete the 10 laps, then you won"t be allowed to eat any radishes." In order to look like a stern shifu, Fuyu said this ferociously.
Shu Tang, seeing her beautiful shifu like this, became wide awake and obediently started her laps.
Since she wanted to become human again, she knew she had to make some sacrifices. The heavens had already given her a chance to live again. Now, she just had to run a few laps, what"s so difficult about that?
As she thought this, her short little legs desperately ran forward. However, after three laps, she couldn"t run anymore.
Back at the farm, Shu Tang was always able to drink enough pig"s milk. Here, although she"d already grown tired of the taste of radish, it still fattened her up. After her second lap, she already felt like every cell in her body was telling her: "Shu Xiaotang*! You, fat little piggy! If you keep running, you"ll die from exhaustion!"
After the third lap, Shu Tang slowed down to a walk. But, then her eye caught her shifu sitting on a chair, watching her, and picked up her speed again.
After the fifth lap, she started to believe her shifu wanted her to work out until she became lean in order to roast her for dinner.
These nonsensical thoughts brought her to her seventh lap. Just when she felt she was getting the rhythm of it, her body gave out on her and she fell to the ground.
Fuyu shot up, about to help it up, but then she remembered what Luhua said: "Having it run is training its endurance and what does cultivation require? Endurance! Cultivation required hundreds or even thousands of years, how could one do it without endurance?"
However, these words were delayed in reaching her mind. By the time they entered her thoughts, she had already stepped forward and picked up the piglet.
Fuyu grabbed its hoof which was usually so tender that she could almost pinch water* out of it. Now, it"s all red and swollen. This piglet probably just ran more than it had ever walked its life.
Shu Tang"s limbs ached as she laid there on the cold ground and blacked out for a second. Not long after, she felt herself enter a warm embrace. She forced her eyes open and her lashes brushed Fuyu"s snow-white robes.
“Hum-” she cried weakly, but in her heart, she called out, “Shifu.”
Seeing her disciple like this was like looking at the thousands of pigs that had died before, Fuyu felt guilty. She went into the bedroom with it in her arms and could not bear to let it continue running.
After some time, Shu Tang finally woke up. Her front trotters draped over Fuyu"s arm. She trembled trying get up, but fell back into her arms.
Fuyu immediately called a servant and ordered her to do two things. The first thing was to make two bowls of congee. The second thing was to go to Luhua and demand gifts.
The reason being: he had indirectly hurt her little disciple. She guessed that this feeling she"s experiencing was most likely anger.
The servant, not to know whether to laugh or cry, carried out the orders obediently. Not long after, two bowls of steaming white rice congee and four small side dishes were delivered.
The kitchen thought it was the great immortal who suddenly wanted the taste of grain, so they prepared the side dishes on their own. When Fuyu saw the delicate dishes on gla.s.s plates, she was surprised at first and then asked, “Huahua, can you eat these dishes and the congee?”
After several days of eating radish, Shu Tang nodded happily and was busy trying to jump onto the table to eat it quickly.
Fuyu didn"t imagine it would be so happy. Considering that the previous thousands of pigs had only ever eaten radishes, she felt a little guilty.
She thought that pigs could only eat radishes.
Suddenly, Fuyu found that she had not studied enough about raising pigs. If she hadn"t said earlier that she wouldn"t give her disciple radish unless all ten laps were completed, she wouldn"t have given it congee.
Since she had said no to eating radish and not to eat congee, it was fine… Fuyu Shangxian was satisfied with her justification and happily accepted it as reality.
Shu Tang, who wanted to jump onto the table, was pressed tightly against Fuyu"s arms. She was puzzled. As soon as she whined, she saw her shifu blowing on a spoonful of congee before handing it to herself.
Piglet seemed stunned. At Fuyu"s urging, it opened its mouth and ate the congee.
Before transmigrating, Shu Tang was usually so sick that the only thing she could eat was congee. She thought she was fed up with it. Now, she didn"t know why, but it tasted delicious.
Licking the spoon, she felt that it must be because the rice from this world was different from the rice in her previous world.
Fuyu watched it happily eat, and the speed of feeding gradually accelerated. From time to time, she would also give it some of the side dishes. Shu Tang ate very enthusiastically. Her* eyes narrowed to a crack as her mouth chewed.
Soon, the two bowls of congee and the side dishes were gone, and a servant came to take away the empty dishes.
Full of food, Shu Tang felt revived. After her shifu put her on the table, she immediately wagged her tail and smiled with her eyes.
Fuyu rubbed her head. “It wasn"t easy for you to run six laps today. For this week, you can just run six laps.”
Shu Tang shook her tail and agreed.
She didn"t expect to not have to run anymore. She was just grateful to be taken care of by her shifu.
To be honest, when she kowtowed yesterday, she didn"t really feel it in her heart nor did she form any desire to be a disciple. But after running herself into exhaustion, she suddenly found herself wishing her beautiful shifu would come and pick her up.
Fortunately, she did and lightened her training. From this moment on, Shu Tang thoroughly recognized her as her shifu.
From what Nandan Shangxian said, she was Fuyu Shangxian"s first disciple! To have such a beautiful shifu and to have this shifu all to herself…. Shutang was inexplicably so proud that her tail might shake so hard that a flower would grow*.
Fuyu was very happy when she saw that it had eaten. “Today, I"ll teach you how to breathe properly. If you can"t learn it, you won"t have any food for the rest of the day.”
Hearing this, Shu Tang"s tail stopped wagging and drooped down.
…..where did the pride she just had even come from?!
*It was involuntary: “情非得已懂吗” means something happening regardless of how one feels about it. I mean, Shu Tang really didn"t have a choice on the matter. She"s a baby pig who was sold and purchased then brought into the immortal realm. Where else could she go?
*Shifu: meaning teacher
*Kowtow: the act of kneeling and bowing so low that one"s forehead touching the ground.
*Shu Xiaotang: this is just a variation on Shu Tang"s name, like a nickname. A “xiao” was added which meanings “little” and it conveys endearment.
*Could almost pinch water: This author is killing me! What does this even mean??
*Her: I can"t wait until Shu Tang turns into a human so I can get these p.r.o.nouns straightened out. Currently, Fuyu refers to her as an “it” and she refers to herself as “she/her”.
*A flower would grow: idk what this means… is that a thing?
T/N: I didn"t realize how short chapter 3 was until I was halfway with this one and realized I wasn"t almost done. d.a.m.n. Why are these chapters so long and wordy?? >.< i"ve="" been="" trying="" to="" get="" these="" chapters="" out="" every="" 2="" days="" or="" so,="" but="" i="" really="" felt="" myself="" slacking="" on="" translating="" this="" chapter.="" i="" might="" take="" a="" break="" for="" a="" bit="" to="" do="" something="" else="" before="" jumping="" into="" chapter="" 5.="" if="" you="" spot="" any="" mistakes,="" please="" let="" me="" know!="" thanks="" for="">