Chapter 109: Growth

Gu Xiqiao stayed at Yin Manor for two days after she got back to N City, where Tang Yanling practically stuffed her with tonics and healthy foods upon seeing that she had become thinner.

“Qiao Qiao, come look at my calligraphy.” Grandfather Yin called Gu Xiqiao over as he put down his brush. After his arm healed, he started trying out many different avenues of life that he had never tried before, greatly surprising the other members of the family in the process.

Gu Xiqiao poured a cup of tea and walked over to him, looking at the words he wrote as she did. “Strong and bold lettering, but also graceful at the same time. Good job, Grandfather, you’re old but gold!”

Grandfather Yin chuckled, before sighing softly. “Old, I really am old. I heard Shaoyuan say that you’re quite good at calligraphy? How about you show this old sack of bones how it’s done?”

Gu Xiqiao took the pen and thought for a bit, before writing four words on the xuan paper.

‘花好月圆’ (Lovely Flowers, Round Moon)

These words weren’t as strong and bold as the ones that the elder wrote but were like the product of an immortal, fluid, and spirited while having its own style, and just from a glance at it Grandfather Yin’s eyes brightened. “Such spirited writing!”

He was born as a farmer’s child, so he valued the education of the younger generation greatly. Sadly enough, his son wasn’t all that smart, while his grandson used his smartness in less satisfactory places, so this goddaughter that Tang Yanling had taken in pleased him greatly. Gu Xiqiao was smart, polite, pretty, and even had great calligraphy skills, why couldn’t she have been his biological granddaughter?

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In other words, Grandfather Yin actually had quite a grudge over this.

“Really? I’ve had so many tonics lately that I feel as if it’s affecting my head.” Gu Xiqiao felt her words were ugly the more she looked at it. She would definitely have to practice when she got into the virtual space later on.

It was true that hard work was the root of all success, and she couldn’t let up even for just a second. Anything could only be piled upon weeks and months of practice, and quite frankly, she wouldn’t know what she would do if she lost her daily activities.

Grandfather Yin realized that the girl was actually quite displeased over her own writing, so he tried to reassure her, “Qiao Qiao, don’t be too harsh on yourself. It’s already quite an achievement to write something like this at your age. Even if it’s not to the level of those masters, you’re already leagues ahead of all the people in your generation, and all you need is time.”

“I understand.” Gu Xiqiao nodded, knowing that Grandfather Yin was worried about her, but she was different than everyone else. As the host of the system, she could stretch one day into a year, and as the saying goes, with great strength comes great responsibility, so she couldn’t very well discipline herself to the standards of her age bracket.

Seeing that his words hadn’t quite gotten through to her, he only sighed, knowing that this child had gone through a lot even though she was only a young girl. He only wanted her to live and enjoy the same woes and happiness as the ones of her age, and not have her days filled with stress.

As he thought so, he wrote down the words ‘及时行乐’ (carpe diem) on the paper. “Child, I know that I won’t be able to convince you, but you must remember that you can let yourself go and be lazy sometimes when you’re tired, you have the support of…” Grandfather Yin swallowed the name Jiang Shuxuan before he continued, “The Yin family, so you can afford to be capricious sometimes.”

Gu Xiqiao waited for the words to dry slightly before she took the paper to be framed up.

She looked back at the old man that already had snow-white hair as she let her heart be warmed by his words. The luckiest thing that happened to her in this life was that she found a bunch of people that genuinely cared for her.

She had already stayed at Yin Manor for two days and was about to leave, and while Tang Yanling was reluctant to have her leave, she didn’t force her to stay, only sending loads of tonics and precious food that hadn’t been finished to Jiang Shuxuan’s villa. After that, she called Mrs. Zhang on the phone for hours, and the two settled on meal plans for Gu Xiqiao every day after.

Gu Xiqiao: …Don’t talk about me as if I’m not here!

After she hung up on the phone, Tang Yanling thought for a bit before having the butler send a bunch of new clothes over too, and after she got everything done with and stopped nagging, she pinched Gu Xiqiao’s supple cheek. “You’re finally getting some color back in your cheeks after a few days… Look at you, getting so frail after such a short time, how can I rest easy while you’re off in the Imperial Capital?”

Tang Yanling knew that Gu Xiqiao got into A University, and while she was still quite unwilling to let her go, she still found the silver lining in the cloud. “Thankfully, you’re going to A University and not abroad, or else I’d only get to see you in a few years!”

After two hours of Tang Yanling fussing over her, Gu Xiqiao finally stepped through the doors of Yin Manor. She drove her pink Lamborghini to the southern part of the city, which was the territory of the Wu family.

It’s been some time, and she thought it was about time to see if anything had come from her sudden whim to have them learn ancient martial arts.

She was actually quite expectant about it.

***

They were practicing ancient martial arts in a location that was left behind from back in the day when the Wu family delved in mobs and triads, and while it was just small, it was still guarded by the subordinates of the Wu family.

Gu Xiqiao got down the car and walked over to tell them what she was there for, and when the bodyguard saw her, his first reaction was to be amazed by her beauty, and when he heard that she was here to look for Wu Hongwen, he nodded as if it were only natural before taking out his phone and smiling politely at Gu Xiqiao. “Please wait here, miss, I’ll let you in after confirmation.”

Upon hearing that a girl with the surname Gu was there to see him, Wu Hongwen was surprised and excited. “I’m coming right now!”

His tone was so excited that the young man that was standing guard looked at Gu Xiqiao again with renewed curiosity, before glancing at the expensive-looking car. Was she an heiress of an influential family? Goodness, was she his future mistress?

As he thought of this, he became even more respectful of the girl in front of him, no wonder his young master would come out to get her personally.

Not a minute later, Wu Hongwen ran out, his eyes brightening even more when he saw Gu Xiqiao. “Er Qiao, here!”

Gu Xiqiao squinted as she looked at him from afar, noting that his footsteps were light, his eyes were bright and that he had a thin veil of chi around him, and while it was not nearly enough to be in Beginner, it was only a matter of time before he became an ancient martial artist.

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When he made his way over to her, she suddenly attacked in an action completely in Wu Hongwen’s surprise, and while he reacted, he couldn’t dodge her attack in time. With a single hit, he was knocked onto the floor.

While their reunion ended up embarrassing Wu Hongwen from the get-go, he crawled up from the ground and pat his clothes with a smile. “Er Qiao, don’t make me lose my dignity in front of all my subordinates!”

All the subordinates: Sorry Young Master, we’ll act like we didn’t see it!

The young bodyguard: F*ck, the future boss lady is a violent woman!

“How have you not improved after such a long time?” Gu Xiqiao walked in together with Wu Hongwen, her tone disdainful.

Wu Hongwen laughed before he replied, “Don’t look down on me, I’ve been winning against Xiao Yun all this while!”

Even though neither of them was as naturally gifted as Yao Jiamu, Wu Hongwen was quite athletically inclined already, and under the effect of the pills that Gu Xiqiao gave them, their progress was actually quite excellent.

Wu Hongwen brought Gu Xiqiao to the open-air martial arts hall, and there was only a single girl practicing the spear in the center.

“Yao Jiamu’s not here, that brat…” Upon mentioning Yao Jiamu, Wu Hongwen couldn’t help feeling jealous. “We all started at around the same time, but he’s leaving us behind as if he’s riding on a rocket! I would be fine with it if he were as hardworking as us, but he only comes here to practice just a couple hours a day, sometimes one, while he spends all his other time outside doing who knows what!”

Such a lazy person could beat both he and Xiao Yun at the same time, and this was the second person that made him question his talent after Gu Xiqiao.

“I don’t want to admit it, but natural talent really does count.” Gu Xiqiao sighed. “Don’t be disappointed with yourself, you can already be counted as decent in the ancient martial arts world.”

With Yao Jiamu’s talent, he would probably be able to enter a legacy base with the lowest requirements, wouldn’t he? When she found that Yao Jiamu had entered Beginner successfully, both she and the system only guessed that Yao Jiamu was a hard worker, but the truth was the opposite! No wonder Wu Hongwen was so huffy puffy over it.

“Er Qiao, does the ancient martial arts world really exist? Why does it sound like something from those online novels about secret societies?” Wu Hongwen was still quite in disbelief, and even when he could feel Chi, it still felt like a dream.

Upon seeing Gu Xiqiao, Xiao Yun wiped her sweat and walked over.

Gu Xiqiao greeted her before she spoke again, “Not only ancient martial arts, but people with supernatural abilities exist too, but it would be better for the general public to not know about everything. Can you imagine the panic it would cause?”

Wu Hongwen thought for a bit before he nodded, knowing how everything would go out of order if people knew that such a group of people existed.

“I can finally feel a stream of chi…” Xiao Yun said, but her tone didn’t sound all that happy.

“Hah, really!” Wu Hongwen laughed and nudged. “Congratulations!”

His teasing tone was quite clear, and Xiao Yun’s cool exterior cracked for all but a second as she kicked ferociously in his direction. “Buzz off!”

Wu Hongwen’s reflexes were leagues greater than they were before, of course, and while he couldn’t defeat Gu Xiqiao, it was still a breeze for him to dodge an attack by Xiao Yun.

After a few minutes of fighting on the part of the duo, the three sat down and started asking Gu Xiqiao questions on cultivation, especially Xiao Yun who didn’t understand much about the book that Gu Xiqiao had given her.

Gu Xiqiao had improved a lot in her ancient martial arts, and relatively speaking, she could already be counted as a master level character when compared to Xiao Yun and Wu Hongwen. With a single glance, she knew how to solve their problems, but she could only nudge them in the right direction. Cultivation greatly depended on one’s own understanding, after all.

“Yao Jiamu’s probably going to get here in a bit.” Wu Hongwen looked at the clock that showed that the time was four o’clock. “He always gets here at around this time, and leaves at six.”

“He’s that busy?” Gu Xiqiao asked in surprise.

Xiao Yun twisted open the bottlecap of mineral water and drank one mouthful. “I saw him near the school last time, he helped me to fight off some hoodlums. Rumor has it that the triads in this area have been in disarray, recently. I’d like to venture a guess that he’s trying to absorb them all into his own group.

“Oh, he’s getting involved in the underworld?” Wu Hongwen rubbed his chin with interest. “How could he have not brought me to play with him? What kind of bro is he?”

“You? In the mafia?” Xiao Yun scoffed. “Tell that to me when you stop carrying your financial business textbook around like its a family heirloom.”

Wu Hongwen wasn’t serious sometimes, but he would never give up once he set his mind on something. After he decided to inherit the Wu family’s large business, he didn’t give up no matter what trials and tribulations he faced.

Every day after he practiced, he learned from the seniors in the company, and under Yin Shaoyuan’s advice, he started doing sales by himself to equip himself with the tools of the trade.

Even though Xiao Yun teased him about it, but she actually respected him quite a lot after he gave up on his choice to go into sports and used all his time and energy to learn the things that he disliked with a passion.

They said that Yao Jiamu was busy with matters all the time, but were they any much idler than he was? One was trying his hardest to learn and inherit the family, while the other was attending talent course after talent course.

Xiao Yun’s brother could take care of their family business so she had much more freedom in terms of picking a career that she had an interest in, but it wasn’t that easy to be an actor, too.

Under every bright and shining exterior hid days upon weeks upon years of blood, sweat, and tears, and the duo learned this very well in just a few days.

They thought that Gu Xiqiao was just a pure genius that was good in everything that she touched, but now it was clear that she put in hard work too. No one knew how to do all the things she could at birth, and there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

They didn’t know how much effort Gu Xiqiao devoted exactly, but what they did know was that they were filled with courage and the strength to go on by her when things were the toughest.