The Romance of Dragon and Ginseng

Well, he was still in bed snoring away, knocked out by the residual aftereffects of the wine.

"Zzz…"

*Muffled* "Disciple Fu will kneel and wait for senior's approval."

"Zzz…"

A couple of hours later, Di Tou finally woke up and felt rather refreshed. It had been awhile since he had slept that sound, and he had managed to forget that damn rotten egg smell.

F*ck.

The moment he thought of the rotten egg smell he felt like he could smell it again.

A constipated crying expression surfaced on Di Tou's face, it seemed like he wouldn't be able to escape the fate of the smell for awhile now.

"Me and my stupid theories… I just had to test it out didn't I? Well now you know Di Tou your sense of smell gets stronger so strong that you wish you could rip your nose off, but hey! It's stronger!"

After grumbling for another moment or two, Di Tou started getting somewhat used to the smell.

Of course, unfortunately, while Di Tou's sense of smell seemed to have gotten stronger, his sense of sound seemed to have diminished, as he didn't notice the comotion going on outside.

Thus, Di Tou remained entirely oblivious to the fact that Fu Hao Xin had been kneeling for the past three hours or so, and had in the meantime gathered a small crowd that was curious why this random kid was kneeling outside the janitor's lodge.

Instead, Di Tou stretched, and decided he should do his best to make sure the day started off right.

Sure he couldn't get rid of the smell, and sure he didn't have a toothbrush or easily accessible water here, but one step at a time right?

Whistling a small tune to himself, Di Tou went over to the small basin from the night before that he had designated clean water and grabbed the relatively cleaner rag to wipe his face.

"Hmm… With no mirrors I could almost forget about the fact that I'm old with how good my body has been feeling." Di Tou mumbled to himself while rubbing his fingers over his face.

"Ah well."

Turning around, Di Tou started to rearrange his sheets.

*Outside*

With a deathly pale face, Fu Hao Xin continued kneeling.

"Persevere, I must persevere. This is just a test, are you scared of a little pain?" Fu Hao Xin thought to himself. "What would mother and father think if they knew you lost a God sent chance because you were scared of some hardship? Just keep kneeling… Kneel till your f*cking knees break, then keep kneeling."

As a defense mechanism to the pain, Fu Hao Xin was entirely focused on his thoughts and unaware of his surroundings, all he could think about was persevering just a little bit longer, even if it was just a second, because every second he persevered was one second closer to getting approval from Mu Di Bai, this mysterious old man who called himself a janitor, but at the same time could cow the fierce Li Chang Yin and casually bring out a superior grade spirit stone.

But unbeknownst to him, while he was kneeling, a small crowd had gathered, most of them were just passerbys who were curious as to what was going on and why someone was kneeling so early in the morning, but had quickly gotten bored and moved on seeing that nothing had changed after a few minutes.

Of course, there were a few stubborn individuals who had nothing better to do and had spent the greater part of the morning sitting around chatting and waiting for something to happen.

One such person was a middle aged auntie named Jue, we'll call her Auntie Jue. At the moment, Auntie Jue was responding to someone who had just arrived and had asked what was going on.

"Nobody's quite sure, the boy seems to have lost his mind. Tsk tsk. He's been out here since just after the sun rose and has been kneeling since. I've heard the kid is a straggler in his class and has been getting harassed. At first I thought maybe he's gone crazy from the stress and decided to come and kneel to pray away the bad luck, but this isn't a temple, so who know's what he's thinking."

Rolling her eyes, Auntie Jue thought for a second and continued, "As far as I know this residence belongs to the Academy staff, I think one of the floor sweepers, who knows what's going on… Maybe they have an illicit relationship." Auntie Jue licked her lips, "And the boy's been heartbroken after being dumped by his lover in the midst the bullying and it broke his mind."

"Wah? There's such a story?" And like this, another five or so people were enticed to join the group watching Fu Hao Xin kneel.

Like this the morning went on, and while people continued to leave the crowd, more and more joined over time, and by the time it was noon the crowd had grown to a sizable state.

"Tsk tsk, what a tragedy, what a tragedy" Auntie Jue was currently sitting on a small stool peeling melon seeds narrating to the large crowd, "They say this child was once a proud son of the heavens and was destined to soar above the clouds and jump above the mountains in one leap, but coming to the Academy he was willing to throw that all away for one thing…"

The crowed stilled, after a while someone couldn't take suspense anymore and shouted, "What! Go on old lady, tell the story."

"Che, I'll have you know that this sister is still less than a hundred years young."

"We get it, we get it, go on sister fairy, tell the story!" Another voice joked.

"Where was I… ah right, A proud son of the heavens who gave it all up for a lover…"

Boos rang out from the crowd, and a few people flaked out and left clearly disinterested.

"BUT!" Auntie Jue's voice rose, halting everyone in their steps, "Their romance was forbidden, as it was between a young man and an old janitor. They called it, the romance of dragon and ginseng."