Chapter 9

Unable to meet the legendary immortals, Chen Mo felt a bit disappointed, but for him, his mother teaching him to recognize characters was more attractive than meeting immortals. After all, he had an immortal in his head, and although he didn't know if it was real, he imagined that those immortals also had extraordinary abilities like him, and perhaps he could become an immortal one day.

Confucius said: "Is it not a pleasure to learn and practice what you have learned? Is it not delightful to have friends come from afar? Is it not the mark of a gentleman to remain unperturbed even when others do not understand him?"

In the fields, Chen Mo tended to the crops while silently reciting what his mother had taught him. During breaks, he would use a stick to write the characters on the ground, albeit in a crooked manner. His memory was good, and he had memorized the shapes of the characters his mother had written in the morning. However, when he actually wrote them, they felt awkward and didn't look as neat as his mother's.

"Shit Boy, what are you doing?" A slightly older boy, carrying a hoe, came up to Chen Mo and looked at the crooked characters on the ground.

"Writing!" Chen Mo felt a bit elated, after all, he might be the only teenager in the village who could recognize characters, though he only knew these few.

"Ugly!" The boy sneered, "You should help fertilize my family's fields instead of wasting time on this."

"Pay me." Chen Mo looked at him, his eyes gleaming. He was short on money right now.

"Just spreading manure, and you want money?" The boy was unhappy.

"Then do it yourself." Chen Mo was a bit disappointed. He had always wanted to earn money by helping others fertilize their fields, but no one had ever asked him.

"Stingy!" The boy was dissatisfied. If he could do it himself, he wouldn't have come to Chen Mo. In fact, in the past, some people had tried to improve the manure like Chen Mo, but it had burned many crops, so no one tried it again. Asking Chen Mo for help, he insisted on being paid, which was partly due to his reputation as "Shit Boy."

"Don't you have to pay hired laborers too?" Chen Mo was unhappy. "Big Brother, I'm not saying this to criticize you, but you have to pay and provide food for hired laborers, and the crops they grow might not be much. But if you hire me, your crops will grow better and yield more, and the money I charge is less than one-tenth of what you'd pay a hired laborer."

He didn't understand why so many people couldn't do such simple math.

"Practice your writing." The boy wasn't angry; everyone was used to it, but he still felt a bit resentful and walked away angrily.

Chen Mo continued practicing his writing, recalling his mother's posture as she wrote. However, the characters he wrote were still far from satisfactory, at least compared to his mother's.

At noon, he ate some of the food he had brought and continued weeding the fields. But he still felt a bit resentful, thinking that no one understood him.

In the evening, Chen Mo returned home. The newly familiarized puppy was chasing a few chicks around the yard. Chen Mo was startled and quickly rescued the trembling chicks.

"Don't bully them!" He tapped the puppy's head and said sternly.

The puppy kept trying to snuggle into Chen Mo's arms, and soon Chen Mo couldn't keep up his stern demeanor and ended up playing with the puppy, giggling.

"Mo-er~" Chen Mo's mother appeared at the door and said, "Didn't you say you were going to learn from Uncle Wang? You mustn't break your word!"

Chen Mo remembered and nodded, putting the puppy down and rushing to Uncle Wang's house. Before leaving, his mother made him take a few eggs as a gift for his teacher.

"Did you argue with Wu Family's Big Brother today?" Uncle Wang had just returned. Sometimes hunters would spend several days in the mountains, as hunting was different from farming and depended on luck.

"Not really. He asked me to help fertilize his family's fields, and I asked for money, so he got angry." Chen Mo sometimes didn't want to deal with these people. They were about his age or even older, but they were always so childish. Why should he do work for free?

Uncle Wang sighed and didn't comment. Chen Mo was mature for his age, but sometimes he lacked a sense of human warmth and was too calculating. Uncle Wang couldn't say whether this was good or bad. He found a short stick and handed it to Chen Mo, asking, "What do you want to learn?"

"Martial arts, of course." Chen Mo looked at Uncle Wang in confusion. Wasn't that obvious?

"There are many types of martial arts: axes, halberds, hooks, forks, sabers, spears, swords, halberds, and bows. Which one do you want to learn?" Uncle Wang asked.

Chen Mo was amazed, "Can Uncle Wang do all of these?"

"..." Uncle Wang was silent for a moment and then shook his head. "No, we hunters usually use sabers, forks, and bows. But sabers are expensive, so we can't afford them. Most hunters here use forks and sticks."

It seemed quite different from sabers, spears, swords, and halberds, but Chen Mo didn't show his disappointment. For him, it was good enough to have something to learn. He thought for a moment and said, "Can Uncle Wang teach me stick techniques and archery?"

Uncle Wang threw a stick at him, making his intention clear. He was just asking, but he didn't really intend to teach. Chen Mo could read the situation.

"Sticks are relatively simple. Today, I'll teach you how to stand in a horse stance. Just follow my instructions and stand in the horse stance for a quarter of an hour every day. When you build up your strength, I'll teach you how to use it." Uncle Wang nodded. Chen Mo was still young, and teaching him too much would not be good for his body. The horse stance was the most basic but also the hardest. Perseverance was crucial. Although Uncle Wang had agreed to teach Chen Mo, if Chen Mo practiced inconsistently, just the horse stance alone would make him give up.

Although he didn't understand the relationship between stick techniques and the horse stance, Chen Mo nodded and watched Uncle Wang demonstrate the horse stance, which seemed not too difficult.

Chen Mo was a bit puzzled but still imitated Uncle Wang's stance.

"Sink your waist, and use your strength here." Uncle Wang began to correct Chen Mo's posture.

"Uncle Wang, this... feels so awkward!" After the adjustments, Chen Mo felt very uncomfortable. He could stand easily before, but now his legs started to tremble.

"Then stand until you get used to it. The horse stance is the foundation of all martial arts. If you can't pass this, everything you learn will be just a show." Uncle Wang looked at Chen Mo and said.

"Okay~" Chen Mo could only grit his teeth and endure, his small body trembling in the sunset.

At least he has good perseverance.

After watching for a moment, Uncle Wang nodded. Few people could hold the horse stance for a quarter of an hour on their first try, which at least showed that Chen Mo had a good physique and perseverance. However, the key was whether he could persist every day.