"Yu-ge'er! Tell us a story! Tell us a story!"
In the courtyard of the Servant's Quarters at the northwest corner of Cangwu Academy, a Cyan-clothed youth of about sixteen sat upright on a stone bench beneath a tree. A group of boys around his age had gathered around him.
The Cyan-clothed youth was named Li Yu. His unusually short hair made him seem rather out of place among these boys with their long hair tied up in topknots.
"Yu-ge'er, hurry and tell us a story!"
"Yeah! Yeah! That story you told yesterday about the romantic scholar Liang Shanbo disguising himself as a woman and sneaking into a ladies' academy was great."
"Right! Right! The story of the invincible Great Sage Sun sweeping through Coiled Silk Cave with one staff and defeating one hundred and eight female demons was great too."
"Ah..."
Li Yu let out a long sigh, his face full of helplessness. "Telling my brothers a few stories is nothing, of course. But... I still haven't finished my work! What am I supposed to do?"
"What's the big deal? Leave it to us."
"Exactly, exactly. Yu-ge'er, don't worry. You don't need to trouble yourself with these chores. We'll handle them all."
The boys eagerly volunteered, taking the initiative to share Li Yu's burden.
"This... how could I possibly accept that?"
Li Yu seemed somewhat ashamed and lowered his head slightly. Of course, if anyone had looked closely, the faint upward curve of his lips would have exposed his true thoughts.
"We're all brothers. What's there to be embarrassed about?"
"Exactly, exactly. Yu-ge'er, you're weak. You don't need to do this heavy work. You have us!"
"Then I'll have to trouble you all, brothers."
Li Yu cupped his hands and bowed to everyone with a smile. "Later, I'll tell you all the tale of the romantic Elder Tang's amorous adventure in the Kingdom of Women as a reward. How does that sound?"
"Hahaha! Great! Romantic Elder Tang, hahaha, that's fantastic!"
"Hehe. The Kingdom of Women? Wonderful."
The boys were instantly fired up, and their enthusiasm for work rose even higher.
"Ah..."
After the boys had all left, Li Yu let out another long sigh. This sigh was truly heartfelt.
"My transmigration stance must have been wrong!"
Li Yu looked at his thin arms and legs and shook his head helplessly.
"It would've been fine if I'd just become younger. But why did I have to transmigrate into such an insanely powerful world?"
"I went to the kitchen to help kill chickens, only to be knocked over by a rooster. What kind of chicken was that? I couldn't hold it down even with my whole body pressing on it! Everyone already knows I don't even have the strength to tie up a chicken!"
"If even chickens are this fierce, you can imagine what people are like. These servant boys can casually carry one or two hundred jin and still walk as fast as the wind!"
"If I weren't truly incapable, why would I tell these dirty jokes just to get them to do my work for me?"
Shaking his head helplessly, Li Yu picked up a teacup from the stone table in front of him and took a light sip.
"System, you've been booting up for months already. When will you finally finish?"
Li Yu grumbled inwardly, There isn't even a progress bar. Who designed this thing? They really have no common sense at all.
That was right. He had a system.
When he had first transmigrated here, Li Yu had plunged headfirst to the ground, landing on his face. Then Yin Kangming, the steward of the Servant's Quarters, had found and brought him back.
Normally, for a vagrant who had fainted by the roadside, even someone as kind-hearted as Yin Kangming would at most give them some food and money. Yet Li Yu's extraordinarily terrible physical condition had piqued Yin Kangming's interest.
He wanted to know how someone with bones as brittle as dried hemp stalks and blood and vitality as weak as a firefly could possibly still be alive. So Li Yu had been brought to the Servant's Quarters of Cangwu Academy and made an unofficial servant.
When Li Yu learned the reason, he had nearly spat out blood.
My body is perfectly normal, all right? You people are the abnormal ones, all right? Kids here throw stones weighing ten or twenty jin, and every one of them can throw them over a dozen zhang away. In my world, they'd all be superheroes, all right?
After arriving at the Servant's Quarters, Yin Kangming had also tried teaching Li Yu some basic methods for strengthening the body. Unfortunately, more than two months had passed, and Li Yu's body still remained the same.
Li Yu had grievances he could not voice.
It was all because of this system! Whenever he cultivated even a little blood and vitality, the system immediately swallowed it. Then the words "System booting up..." would appear in Li Yu's mind, and that was it.
"You've been booting up for months already. How long are you going to keep booting?"
Li Yu held his head in his hands and sighed inwardly.
"Li Yu, you're slacking off again!"
A young girl in a goose-yellow dress suddenly appeared behind Li Yu. Her willow brows rose as she glared fiercely at him, putting on an intimidating act.
"So it's Yin Luo!"
Li Yu turned around, saw the young girl, and greeted her with a smile.
This young girl was the daughter of Yin Kangming, the steward of the Servant's Quarters. She was fourteen this year. Though still a loli, she had grown into a delicate and pretty young girl, the dream lover of all twenty-seven boys in the Servant's Quarters.
All right, Li Yu did not count among them. Having endured countless visual shocks in his previous life, Li Yu had no love for washboards.
"Li Yu, why are you slacking off again? Your bones are so poor and your blood and vitality are so weak. If you don't train, my father says you might not even live past thirty. Do you not care about your life at all?"
Yin Luo glared at Li Yu, seeming rather angry.
Seeing that Li Yu still looked utterly unconcerned, Yin Luo snorted angrily and stomped her foot hard.
Bang...
Her immense force left a dent in the ground, while the teacup on Li Yu's stone table clinked and rattled without end.
All right, that was reality.
Looking at this seemingly delicate young girl, Li Yu suddenly felt his teeth ache.
This world prized martial prowess. Even ordinary commoners knew a few crude farming-style moves. In a place of Confucian Sect cultivation like Cangwu Academy, superheroes were everywhere.
"Being a weakling feels absolutely terrible! System, hurry up and boot already!"
Li Yu cried out gloomily in his heart.
Clang!
A Jade Stone Bottle was tossed onto the stone table in front of Li Yu.
"This is for you! Hurry up and take it!"
Yin Luo's furious pretty face appeared before Li Yu again.
"For me?"
Li Yu picked up the jade bottle, removed the stopper, and was greeted by a burst of fragrance. His entire body felt refreshed, as though every cell in him were cheering.
"What... is this?"
Li Yu knew that whatever was in this bottle was probably no ordinary item. If Yin Luo had secretly given it to him without Yin Kangming's permission, she herself would likely get into trouble.
"My father told me to give it to you. It's an Essence Nourishing Blood Pill. After you take it, your body will improve somewhat."
Yin Luo looked up at Li Yu, her eyes faintly carrying a hint of concern.
"My father also said that your body is innately deficient. Medicine is only external nourishment. If you truly want to get better, you need to strengthen yourself from within. That depends on you. Stop slacking off like this. Exercise more, and you'll get better."
"Oh! Got it."
Li Yu nodded and answered casually as he poured out the pill from the bottle. His body had been perfectly normal all along, so how could he believe that nonsense about dying before thirty?
"I wonder whether taking this pill can get the system to boot up?"
Looking at the pigeon-egg-sized, blood-red pill in his hand, Li Yu smiled, tossed it into his mouth, and swallowed it whole.
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