Chapter 75
Lu Shu carried his box out as he went off to sell his stinky tofu, leaving Lu Xiaoyu behind to do the dishes. Lu Xiaoyu was humming as she washed the dishes, periodically looking over to the bag of potato chips on top of the counter.
After she's done with the dishes, she could have the bag of potato chips all to herself while she was watching her dramas. Thinking of such a scene had left her filled with the happiness of having such freedom!
Upon leaving the house, Li Xianyi was yet again practicing his swordplay out in the neighboring courtyard. This time, Lu Shu did not just walk off but instead, stopped to watch.
"Hey gramps, this swordplay of yours seems to be quite awe-inspiring," as Lu Shu greeted him.
Li Xianyi was shocked. Did this kid have such a high apt.i.tude that he could spot that his swordplay was of mysterious origins?
In actual fact, when Lu Shu was engulfed in the celestial light last night, he was still worried whether Li Xianyi would be able to sense it from him. However, from this, it seemed like he could not tell at all.
This thing was just like a natural, original part of life and it wasn't any different from the usual life force and strength of a person.
Li Xianyi paused and asked, "Do you wish to learn it?"
Even though his physical condition had been great lately, he still had this sense of urgency.
His foundation had already eroded and that was a fact which cannot be ignored. But instead of choosing to run away from it, Li Xianyi had decided to face the reality.
Since things had already developed till this stage, he had to make plans for the future.
Lu Shu gave him an awkward look and replied, "I do wish to learn from you but it seems like our timings do not match and it'll be difficult."
Li Xianyi smiled and said, "Tell me your problems, I can help you solve them."
In his mind, Lu Shu's greatest trouble would be his financial situation. Even as an orphan who had to grow up whilst supporting his younger sister, he had never given up once no matter how tiring, miserable and embarra.s.sing he felt.
Li Xianyi did mention to the auntie that the reason he wanted to take Lu Shu in as a disciple was due to his apt.i.tude for ability. However, that was just a part of the reason. What he appreciated the most was Lu Shu's personality.
As long as Lu Shu would agree to his offer, he could then provide for them and therefore, solve all of their difficulties.
Was money even an issue for him? With a wave of his hands, it could be easily achieved.
Lu Shu's eyes sparkled, "Really? Can you really solve my problems?"
Li Xianyi grinned, "Yes!"
"I'm not quite sure about your academic aspects, Gramps. How is it?"
"There's nothing I do not know," as Li Xianyi proudly claimed.
"That's great!" as Lu Shu eyes gleamed, "So my issue is that I have to spend a lot of time supervising Lu Xiaoyu's revision and I'm unable to leave her side the entire night. If you could supervise her studies in the morning, that would be great!"
Supervise Lu Xiaoyu's studies?!
So that was your hards.h.i.+p?! It wasn't that you were financially inadequate? Compared to what he was thinking of… It wasn't exactly the same…
Having a Cla.s.s B expert to babysit a child?
Li Xianyi, "???"
"From Li Xianyi's distress, +291!"
Were the Cla.s.s Bs powerful? Of course they were!
Currently, no one in this whole world had ever heard of someone reaching A cla.s.s who could link the heavens and earth! But now, a
Lu Shu had already thought about this question a long time ago and even though Lu Xiaoyu had powers now, she couldn't possibly do without education. The education Lu Shu was referring to wasn't the diplomas or degrees but rather, a basic knowledge of oneself as he did not wish for her to be lacking compared to the other children.
As of now, Lu Xiaoyu's household register was with the orphanage and he did not have enough money to get her out, even so, a certification was needed in order to get her out.
The best result right now was to have someone to help him look over Lu Xiaoyu in the daytime or else she would be slacking around at home alone, secretly watching her dramas!
Just as Lu Xiaoyu had finished doing the dishes, she was about to eat her potato chips and watch her drama. However, Lu Shu shouted from just outside the house, "Lu Xiaoyu, Lu Xiaoyu, come out, come out."
She placed her chips down and ran out, only to see Lu Shu and Li Xianyi standing outside.
Lu Shu joyfully said to Lu Xiaoyu, "When I'm not at home, all you do is to watch your drama series. Starting from now, you will go to Gramp's house in the day and he will supervise your revision."
Lu Xiaoyu, who was already prepared to watch her series, looked as though she had suddenly received a shock, "???"
"From Lu Xiaoyu's distress, +666!"
Li Xianyi stood by the side looking at Lu Shu as he planned out everything within a moment. This child… He had not even agreed to anything yet.
Lu Shu turned around and said to Li Xianyi, "Sorry to trouble you Gramps. Please guide her along with her homework in the day and I'll be able to focus on learning the swordplay techniques from you in the night!"
Haha. Li Xianyi felt uneasy at that moment.
You don't have to learn anything anymore, your plans have already succeeded.
Li Xianyi strongly felt that he had just played into Lu Shu's hands.
It wasn't that Lu Shu was smarter than him nor was he smarter than all the opponents he had faced before.
However, even with his previous opponents, everyone played within the rules. But as for Lu Shu, you wouldn't know what goes on in his head!
"Lu Xiaoyu, if you are being disobedient, I won't cook tomato eggs for you for half a year!" as Lu Shu threatened.
At that moment, Lu Xiaoyu's face sank down towards the ground.
Lu Shu had nothing to worry about since both auntie and gramps were long-time neighbors with them and although they had yet to interact much with gramps, auntie did seem like a good person.
Li Xianyi saw that Lu Xiaoyu could not help but laugh upon seeing his facial expression. d.a.m.n it, did this little girl really thought that this was his own idea?
Lu Shu went off to sell his stinky tofus, leaving both of them behind as they stood across each other with the fence in between them. Auntie came out of the house with the intentions to sun-dry her clothes and as she witnessed the situation, she joyfully said, "Xiaoyu, come here, auntie has made some sweet potato for you."
Lu Xiaoyu, looking like a good-for-nothing, replied, "Is it red or white inside?"
Those that were white inside were much more watery and did not contain as much starch content as the red one. As such, it wasn't as sweet and its texture wasn't as good as those that were red inside even though it had a higher cellulose content.
But she did not care so much about these and all she knew was whether or not it was tasty. Lu Xiaoyu finally decided that the existence of sweet potatoes which were white inside defies humanity. Could food which was not delicious even be considered as food?!
"Red," as Auntie smiled. She had always been rather fond of Lu Xiaoyu.
When it was time for him to actually help out Lu Xiaoyu with her homework in the afternoon, Li Xianyi finally knew much effort was needed to help look after a child. In this little girl's mind, nothing really seemed to be normal at all!
Li Xianyi had even seriously reconsidered whether his choice to teach Lu Shu swordsmans.h.i.+p was a right one…
There was a table standing in the middle of the courtyard and it was entirely filled with Lu Xiaoyu's textbooks and all of them were hand-me-downs from Lu Shu. On the cover page of these books, someone had neatly written the two words 'Lu Shu' and the books were already filled with notes inside.
Zhi Wei had mentioned to auntie before that Lu Shu's results were rather outstanding ever since he was younger.
Currently, it seemed like this teenager had indeed put in substantial amount of effort and soul into it and one could from these notes.
They were written neatly in straight lines, perhaps even too straight, as his sense of stubbornness showed itself.
Li Xianyi had unintentionally opened up a mathematics textbook and saw that on the bottom of the cover page, an odd sentence was written there, "In order to kill someone, one only needs a technique with the knife, but in the endless pursuit of knowledge, one has to start from the bottom of his heart, then will he achieve glory."
This sentence definitely wasn't something Lu Shu had come up with but was this the kind of mentality a teenager in the middle school age should have?
At that point in time, was he deeply troubled by his livelihood?
Li Xianyi nonchalantly flipped through the book due to boredom and wanted to figure the teenager's inner thoughts through the notes he had written down in there. Upon flipping to the end, he had surprisingly found three tiny words written down at the bottom of the last page.
'Carry on living.'
In that split second, it was as if that stubborn look on the teenager's face was right in front of him.