Misty Rain of the Old Times

Chapter 96 Overjoyed
Gao Jingming's description made the children startled.

Gao Jingming has been to bottomless cliffs, pythons as thick as bowls, and giant beasts ten feet long. He has ridden on them and experienced them. Zhou Lin and the others were both afraid and envious. Why didn't they have such experiences? It was because Gao Jingming had a good master.

Gradually, it attracted a lot of people to come and listen, and the room was almost full. Some people simply climbed on the windows. Gao Jingming became more and more excited as he spoke, and he was really showing off.

Chen Xuan silently retracted his previous evaluation of him in his heart. He thought he had become more stable, but he still hadn't changed. After all, he was just a child. He didn't know when he would change his habit of showing off...

Life in school is boring but fulfilling. Infected by the children's laughter, Chen Xuan seems to have returned to his childhood. Occasionally, he "let go" and join them in playing, but later he felt childish.

In fact, there are many ways for children here to entertain themselves, such as kicking cuju, kicking shuttlecock, spinning tops, playing diabolo, pushing iron rings for oil presses, pulling flywheels made of bamboo strips, and things similar to gyroscopes made of tiles. These are just some of them. There are many different ways to entertain yourself.

Some children would throw coins into a pit. They would stand in a fixed position and each person would contribute a share. Whoever threw the coin into the pit would own it. This was a bit like gambling and was strictly prohibited by the school. However, there were always children who did it secretly, and many of them were beaten by their teachers.

The sun rises and the moon sets, time flies, and in the blink of an eye it is the day of vacation again.

Chen Xuan practiced the Qi-calming and health-preserving exercises every day, which others did not take seriously. After practicing for more than a month, he was surprised by the improvement in his physique. He grew a few centimeters taller, and the clothes that originally fit him became a little short. Moreover, his body became quite flexible. It was not known whether it was because children had soft bones, but Chen Xuan could do some difficult movements such as splits and iron bridge.

In addition, his strength has also increased significantly. He is only five years old, which was confirmed by the Gao family after feeling his bones, but he can already lift a full bucket of water with a little effort. You must know that wooden buckets are heavy, and this wooden bucket is quite large. It weighs more than 40 kilograms when filled with water. Some thin adults have difficulty lifting it.

Such an improvement made Chen Xuan feel incredible. The Qi-calming and health-preserving exercises were useless to others, but they worked remarkably well on him. This was not a problem with the "exercise method" or others' problem, but a problem with Chen Xuan himself!
Liu Changhe's words from that day, as he was dying, seemed to ring in his ears. He said Chen Xuan's martial arts roots were unprecedented, which made Chen Xuan often wonder, was he really a martial arts genius? Perhaps it was because of the time travel, that he could travel through this world, his body was reshaped, so it was normal for him to have some peculiarities... right?

What makes Chen Xuan regretful is that although his physical fitness has improved a lot, his brain has not. He can only keep up with the learning pace by relying on the concentration and hard work of adults. In fact, he is not better than those children in learning, and sometimes he even feels struggling.

You must know that many children usually play and their minds are not on studying. For this reason, Chen Xuan's learning level is only at the middle level. He can only say that the new 'CPU' is easy to use.

The key point is that not only are the new brains useful, but many of the older kids are also very competitive. They want to study hard and study hard, and each of them is like a test-taker. Chen Xuan is so frustrated that he feels that there is no hope for him to change his fate by taking the imperial examination. He is not very smart, and he is not as good at testing as others, so he can't compete with them at all.

Many times, Chen Xuan couldn't help but think to himself, will he become a rough man who is not good at literature but invincible in martial arts in the future?

Forget about being invincible. Since ancient times, there has been no first in literature and no second in martial arts. Who dares to claim to be invincible? Who dares to claim to be undefeated? But having strong strength is not bad, but it sounds elegant and refined without fame.

Although he already knew that there was no future for him in studying literature, Chen Xuan still wanted to try the imperial examination in the future to test his own abilities. If he couldn't do it, he would just forget it and not force himself.

He was also qualified to take the imperial examination, but he had to have the Gao family's permission to act as a guarantor. However, without a clear identity, he would not be able to become an official even if he passed the exam.

Well, whether it works or not is one thing, but it doesn’t stop Chen Xuan from thinking about it a lot, just like many children who are struggling with whether to go to Tsinghua University or Peking University when they grow up.

During this period, Chen Xuan also occasionally took the time to sort out the things that Liu Changhe had instilled in his mind. He guessed that they were roughly divided into three categories: martial arts, secondary occupations and miscellaneous items.

In terms of martial arts, there are secret manuals for improving cultivation, as well as various martial arts. There is only one martial art, and I don't know whether Liu Changhe created it himself or he only practiced this one, but he mastered many martial arts, including light skills, hidden weapons, swordsmanship, knife skills, spear skills, and boxing and kicking. Anyway, Chen Xuan can't even recognize all the words now, and has no common sense, so naturally he can't tell good from bad. But that martial art, Liu Changhe can practice it to above the master level and overcome the tribulation. He is only one step away from stepping into the realm of human immortals. It must be an extraordinary thing.

The secondary occupations are mainly divided into weapon refining, alchemy and medicine. The weapon refining category comes with hundreds of detailed drawings, which Chen Xuan cannot understand at the moment. There are also more than a hundred kinds of alchemy recipes, which he still cannot understand. The medical skills are like a heavenly book. As the saying goes, medicine and martial arts are inseparable, so Chen Xuan is not surprised that Liu Changhe knows medicine.

If you don't have much ambition, mastering one of these secondary professions will be enough to make a living in the future.

Chen Xuan estimated that Liu Changhe's best secondary occupation was refining equipment. After all, the star sleeping in his palm was his masterpiece, just like the immortal sword magic weapon in Chen Xuan's cognition. It was simply awesome. He didn't know how it was made, but he could learn about it through refining equipment in the future.

There were a lot of miscellaneous items, and Chen Xuan classified them all here, such as playing chess, using poison, carving, steering a boat, etc. Liu Changhe knew a lot of things. After all, he had lived for more than two hundred years. Maybe he would pass on the little things he learned occasionally to Chen Xuan.

For him at the moment, the things in his mind are simply a treasure trove. Unfortunately, he can only look at them and cannot understand them at all. They are useless and are just like a big pancake that can only whet people's appetite.

Work hard to learn to read, learn to punctuate, professional terms and basic knowledge of martial arts, human body structure... Chen Xuan made a long-term plan for himself, which is equivalent to slowly forging a key to unlock the treasure in his mind. This matter cannot be rushed, and he has to work hard bit by bit.

Many times he envied Gao Jingming for having a master. If he also had such a good master, why would he need to worry about so many things? If he had any questions, he could just ask his master directly.

Although he envied someone, Chen Xuan had no plans to find a master for the time being. Firstly, his status was awkward and others might not look up to him. Secondly, he didn't want to find a 'father' for himself. Becoming a disciple here was no joke. To receive a master's favor meant being a father and being filial to him for the rest of your life. Moreover, if someone committed a crime that would lead to the confiscation of property and extermination of the clan, the master-disciple relationship would also be affected. No one could escape...

When Gao Jingming returned to the Gao family during the holidays, even though he was badly beaten last time, he still couldn't wait to find his mother as soon as he got home. A mother worries about her son when he is thousands of miles away, and how could a son who is away from home not miss his family?

Chen Xuan returned to the courtyard and went to see the peach pits he had planted.

It is obvious that the green beans have been taken care of during this period. They are watered when needed and are not left dry when exposed to the sun. They are growing well and have already sprouted through the soil.

Looking at the tender buds that were only one centimeter high and so green and juicy, Chen Xuan was reluctant to touch them for fear of breaking them. This was the only thing he had brought into this world, and whether he could taste the flavor of his hometown in the future depended on it.

"It's normal for the seedlings to sprout after more than 20 days, but shouldn't they grow very fast after sprouting? Not to mention growing more than a meter overnight like bamboo, but why are there only such small seedlings? Is this normal? I'll ask the gardener Liang Bo some time."

After looking at the sapling in the flowerpot for a while, Chen Xuan placed it in front of the window and started studying again. He couldn't help but look up and wondered whether he should get a birdcage or something to cover it to prevent it from being harmed by small animals. This was really his only seedling.

The next morning, when Chen Xuan was practicing the Qigong in the courtyard, Gao Jingming waved at Chen Xuan from the main building and said, "Xuan, go eat something when you're done, and then we'll go watch the fun."

He was no longer surprised by Chen Xuanlian's useless stuff and didn't even mention it now.

Surprisingly, she wasn't clamoring to accompany him to study. Chen Xuan asked curiously, "Master, what are you going to watch?"

"A Xuan, don't you know yet? Today is the wedding day of Xiaojuan and Guard Niu in the mansion. Since you have nothing to do, just go and join in the fun. Hurry up, there will be wedding candies," Gao Jingming took the time to explain and hurriedly went to eat.

His reminder made Chen Xuan remember that the maid named Guoguo on the boat last time said that Xiaojuan and Niu Le would get married next month, and it would be today. He had to go and see it. Chen Xuan had never seen an ancient wedding.

After finishing his work, Chen Xuan went with Gao Jingming and the others to join in the fun. He had prepared three taels of silver in advance so that he could give them as a gift when the time came. Gao Jingming had already prepared a gift without his reminder, a festive red box, but no one knew what was inside. In fact, as the eldest son of the Gao family, his personal presence was already the biggest gift, but he just didn't understand it.

However, the process made Chen Xuan feel mixed emotions.

Well, Xiaojuan is a maid in the Gao family, and she has no living relatives. She married into the Gao family. To some extent, the Gao family can be regarded as her mother's family.

When Xiaojuan got married, there was no phoenix crown, red bridal veil, or sedan chair carried by eight people. There was no gongs, drums, or firecrackers. She left through the back door of the Gao family. She wore a red festive dress and a piece of red cloth as a veil. She was supported by her maid Guoguo.

Outside the door, Niu Le brought an ox cart with a big red flower on it. Several familiar guards and perhaps some of his relatives formed the wedding procession. Although they looked a bit shabby, their faces were filled with joy.

Not everyone has wedding candy, but the Gao family gave out some Niu Le to everyone they saw. This thing is very precious in today's era. If everyone in the neighborhood who came to watch the wedding gave out Niu Le, they would probably go bankrupt and would not be able to make ends meet in the future.

As a maid with no relatives, Xiaojuan naturally could not enjoy the treatment of a grand wedding. It was good enough that she had a few people who had good relations with the Gao family to give her a wedding gift.

This alone made the onlookers envious. I heard from some people that some families didn't even have a proper wedding for their daughters' marriage. They just took the daughters home to live as a family. This was in good years. In years of famine, daughters couldn't get married at all. Even if they were given away as gifts, no one would want them, because one more person meant one more food supply. How could they have enough to feed another person if they couldn't even feed themselves?

After all, it was Xiaojuan and Niu Le's big day, and congratulations were endless. Chen Xuan, Gao Jingming and the others followed them all the way to Niu Le's house to join in the fun. Chen Xuan always felt that Gao Jingming was up to something bad...

(End of this chapter)