Early in the morning, Cheng Xiao Xiao was woken up by some noisescoming from their yard and it sounded like Zheng Yuan. She was curious what wasgoing on outside.
She pulled the blanket over the sister before she put on a jacketand went outside. She found Zheng Yuan practicing the horse stand squat in thebackyard and next to him was none other than their own mother!
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Horse stance squat
Photo credit: baike.com
What was going on?
She paused for a bit and approached the two. Baffled, she asked,“Mom, Zheng Yuan is practicing martial art?”
“Yes, Zheng Yuan has been too lazy so I had to watch over him.”Said Mrs. Cheng gently, “Since you are up, you can watch him for me, and I cango prepare breakfast!”
“Ohhh….” Replied the still confused Cheng Xiao Xiao.
Sitting down in the yard, Cheng Xiao Xiao rubbed her eyes. Shelooked at the brother who was squatting in the yard motionlessly and was quiteimpressed. He had a solemn look, his thighs spread at a 15-degree angle, samewidth as his shoulders; both feet pointing forward, center of gravity moveddownward; both feet spread of two to three feet apart, both arms went from acircular formation to palm down, much like what martial artists look like inthe kung fu movies she had seen in the past.
She was very curious about the background of this family.
Normal farmers didn’t teach their kids to read and practicemartial arts. Without any memory of her “past”, she has been wondering aboutthis. She could tell her parents didn’t come across as regular villagers, nordid her siblings look like they grew up in a remote village. Now that she hadseen her parents teaching her siblings reading and martial art, she wondered ifall these have something to do with her father’s injury?
She pondered for quite a while, but couldn’t figure out anything.
After breakfast the next morning, Cheng Xiao Xiao was just aboutto take her brother Zheng Yuan up into the mountains. After all, if she wantedto level up the dimension, she’d need to find and collect more precious itemsinto the dimension. She didn’t expect visitors at her front door.
“Xiao Xiao, you and Zheng Yuan going up the mountain?”
The slightly hoa.r.s.e voice carried a hint of nervousness. The ownerof this voice was Liu Danhang, a resident of Willow Village. He was about 17year old. A slight blush was visible on his still slightly childish and honestface. He looked both of longing and infatuation.
The corner of Cheng Xiao Xiao’s mouth twitched a bit. She waswordless. It was obvious that this boy was fond of the original Cheng XiaoXiao, but without the memories between the two of them, she didn’t have toomuch fondness toward him.
She didn’t respond to him right away. Zheng Yuan, who was standingnearby, tugged at her sleeve, “Big sister, if Danhang ge1 accompany us into the mountain, we won’t have to beworried about running into dangers!”
Suddenly remembering her previous encounter with the banded krait,Cheng Xiao Xiao nodded slightly, then turned and led the way.
Cheng Zheng Yuan gave Liu Danhang a smile then dashed to followhis older sister.
Liu Danhang recovered after a slight pause. A happy smile spreadon his plain face. He quickly followed behind Cheng Xiao Xiao and her brother.
“Big sister, are we going to gather firewood or herb first?” ZhengYuan knew that they were there to gather herbs for their father, so he decidedto ask her for her decision first.
After trekking through an entire mountain, Cheng Xiao Xiao was.e.xhausted and taking a break in a shadow of a tree. Liu Danhang was not faraway, but he didn’t catch up to chat with the two of them.
Wiping her sweat away, Cheng Xiao Xiao took a look around andreplied, “We still have quite a bit of firewood left at home. Let’s go gathersome herbs!”
“Okay!” Replied Cheng Zheng Yuan obediently.
Liu Danhang noticed the two of them continuing on, he resumedfollow them after a slight hesitation.
“Big sister, is this an herb?”
“Big sister, what’s the name of this? What kind of effects does ithave?”
“Big sister, why does this herb have so much spines?”
“Big sister, how much longer are we going to be gathering herbs!”
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1.Ge– literal meaning is“older brother”. Here Zheng Yuan was using that as a respectful form forsomeone older than him, not that they are actually related.
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