103 Chapter 103 - Come and kneel

At this moment, she was emitting a kind of radiance that inexplicably drew people's attention.

Qian Wanjin gazed at her for a long time, unable to snap back to his senses. He only felt a certain corner of his thumping violently. He couldn't point a finger to it, but it was akin to … the excitement of meeting a rival.

But she wasn't his rival, but was his partner.

That, more than anything else, made it hard for him to contain himself.

He was tempted to pick her up and spin her around a few times, screaming at the top of his lungs.

But before he could move, hands preceded him and pulled the little girl away.

Qian Wanjin, "…" Damn this guy, is a radar detector? He knows in advance what he's thinking!

It was like a meeting of the minds, but he didn't have tacit understanding with this guy at all!

"Shengsheng is going to take a nap." The indifferent boy said more indifferently than how he looked.

The implication was: You can get lost.

Get lost, your sister!

At the gate, Da Huang drove the carriage as promised. He peered into the courtyard and saw his young master covering his heart, staring at the youth sitting across from him unwillingly, his resentment rushing to the sky.

"Young Master, your subordinate is here to pick you up. Shall we leave now?"

"What's the rush! I haven't brought my vegetables with me yet!" Qian Wanjin stomped to the back of the house in a huff – to help Grandma pick vegetables!

Da Huang quickly chased after him, so as not to be used as a punching bag again later.

It was tough to provoke the old woman.

Liu Yusheng waited until the two figures disappeared before looking up helplessly. She pinched the boy's cheeks with both hands and stretched them to the sides. "You deliberately pissed him off again."

"It's time." The boy looked up at the sky, signaling the hour.

"Not a moment too soon. The Young Boss is leaving soon, and we always need to see him off. This is being hospitable. Besides, he's not a guest at home; he's a friend." He was a friend and she could see that Qian Wanjin genuinely treated the Liu family. That was why she finally took out those two bottles of potion.

Sort of as a way of returning the favor to him.

The young man tilted his head and looked at her for a moment, his eyes so dark that she couldn't see through them, then asked, "What about me?"

Liu Yusheng was startled and understood what the teenager meant. Qian Wanjin was a guest as well as a friend, so he often appeared in the Liu courtyard and was able to mingle with her family.

What about him? He was staying in the house. What was he?

"You're family." Liu Yusheng looked him in the eyes and said, serious and solemn.

A smile slowly spread on the young man's face, brushing away the dust from his eyes and shining past the brightest stars.

He was happy.

Qian Wanjin left with a basket of greens and two bottles of potions.

Before leaving, he even played cutesy with the two elders of the family for a while. He sweetly coaxed several requests to be fulfilled on his next visit.

It was all about food.

With one less person in the house who could make a fuss anytime, anywhere, the house seemed cleaner all of a sudden.

For this reason, Grandma Liu sighed a few times. While Liu Yusheng was wondering how to coax her Grandma to be happy, Grandma Liu turned her head, lifted the soles of her shoes, and went out cheerfully – to discuss flowers with her old sisters.

"I found out that the family's self-healing ability from the oldest down to the youngest is like this." Liu Yusheng cryptically compared with her thumbs up.

They were the kind that wouldn't worry anyone.

So cute that she wanted to hug and kiss the old lady.

Axiu pursed his lips and smiled, clean and soft. "It's great."

Grandma has always been so cheerful. Everyone in the family was always so cheerful, that Shengsheng smiled every day.

He liked to see her devoid of worries.

Not long after the spring plowing, in the blink of an eye, it was the Qingming Festival.

At the time for ancestral worship, the heavens responded in line with the occasion. It drizzled for several days in a row and rendered the sadness and grief during the Qingming Festival to the extreme.

Because it was a big holiday, the school in town took a special two-day break, and the students went home to pay homage to their ancestors.

The first thing the brothers Liu Zhixia and Liu Zhiqiu did when they arrived home was to circle around Axiu several times with excitement as well as pity, but minus the disgust or dislike for his half-burned face.

When they were at the academy, Qian Wanjin visited a few times and had already told them about the family without forgetting to mention Axiu. They were aware of Axiu's condition.

"It's good to have you back." Lu Zhixia lightly punched Axiu in the shoulder to express his feelings.

Liu Zhiqiu scratched his head, wanting more than anything to grab Axiu's shoulder and shout – but when he saw him, everything was stuck in his mouth.

Axiu was now even quieter and more indifferent than before. Because he's been through so much.

All they could talk to him about was the old times. How dared they talk about it?

There was Axiu's deepest pain in that period of time.

In three years, the two brothers also reached the age of 11. Because they were well-fed, they were now more than a half head taller than Axiu, and of more robust build. In the end, Liu Zhiqiu pounded his chest. "Axiu, do you see my physique? I'm the strongest and most powerful in the entire academy. I'll cover you from now on!"

Liu Yusheng pursed her mouth and snickered. Second brother was still as one-track minded as ever, exactly like the second uncle. If they were really talking about covering, when could he take his turn? He and Big Brother combined were no match for Brother Axiu.

On the fifth day of April, the Liu family prepared things needed for the ancestral worship early in the morning; pig's head, chickens and ducks, wine, incense, candles and paper money, etc. Liu Dalin and Liu Erlin were responsible for carrying the head baskets. The family followed suit, treading the muddy path to pay their respects to all the ancestors of the Liu family.

Fortunately, the spring rain stopped in the morning. Otherwise, the road would have been more difficult.

Paper money was scattered all over the ground along the road, and the smell of burning incense and candles was in the air.

Axiu didn't seem to understand what was happening, and just blithely followed Liu Yusheng's lead. He learned her movements, kneeled down, kowtowed, lit candles, inserted incense, and burned paper money.

After a round of walking, it was already noon. Liu Zhiqiu was so tired that he wanted to sit on the ground. "My shoes are all muddy shoes. I can't walk any more."

Grandpa Liu smacked him on the back of his head. "A strange Daoist priest said it's useless to be a scholar! What's the use of having a pot-full of ink? We're hiking up the mountain to pay respects to your ancestors, yet you're already panting like this! Unacceptable! Hurry up and keep up, we still have one place to go!"

"Eh, Grandpa, haven't we finished the rituals here? I remember the graves of several ancestors in the family clearly, don't bluff me!"

Another blow landed on the back of his head. This time, it was from Grandma Liu. "When told to keep up, just keep up! So much talk – you're just begging for a beating, isn't it?!"

Liu Zhiqiu weakly hung on to his big brother, shaking his head and screaming. "We boys are just straw, just straw …"

Liu Zhixia shook his shoulders and took two steps forward, ignoring this fool.

The group bypassed the village's more centralized cemetery and followed the path that turned behind the hill, and immediately saw a small graveyard standing not far from the foot of the hill.

A single one, with no tombstone.

Sitting there alone, on such a festive day, it was bleak and sad.

"Axiu, come and kneel."