As Hayate lay sprawled over the living room table, writing his reflection, Hanfu's mother, Keiko, finally woke up. She slid open the door and walked out of the bedroom.
When she saw Hayate lying over the table doing his homework, a pleased smile appeared on her face. "Hayate, doing your homework?"
"Aunt Keiko."
Hayate looked up, seeming a little aggrieved, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't.
"Ahem!"
Hanfu coughed loudly twice.
His little brother immediately behaved himself.
"Hayate, do your best!"
Keiko hadn't noticed the brothers' little scheme. She smiled and encouraged him before turning back into the kitchen to prepare dinner.
Remembering Shennong, Hanfu immediately followed her into the kitchen.
Before speaking, Hanfu first gathered his thoughts, then asked in a "calm and composed" manner, "Mom, I heard a doctor with amazing medical skills is coming to the hospital. His name is Shennong?"
"Hm? Feng-chan, how did you hear about him?"
Keiko paused, then smiled. "Hayate must have told you. But Dr. Shennong hasn't arrived at the hospital yet."
Hanfu asked, "When will he get here?"
Keiko looked at him curiously. "Feng-chan, is there something you need?"
Hanfu spoke with an admiring look on his face. "I really look up to him and want to meet him. If possible, I'd also like to study medicine under him!"
"Huh?" Keiko was stunned. Her first reaction was to stop her son from pursuing such an impractical idea. "Feng-chan, your job right now is to study hard at school, understand?"
"I see..." Hanfu could only reluctantly settle for the next best thing. "I understand. Then I won't study medicine under him. Can I just meet him?"
Keiko hesitated, then nodded.
In her eyes, she had already refused Hanfu's request to study medicine. If she also refused to let him meet Shennong, she really would be unreasonable.
Still, as she thought about it, Keiko couldn't help feeling that something was off.
"Thanks, Mom!" Hanfu smiled. "When will Shennong arrive? When can I meet him?"
Keiko came back to her senses. "He'll arrive tomorrow afternoon. If you really want to meet him, I'll take you to the hospital after dinner tomorrow."
"Mm, it's settled, then!"
Hanfu was delighted. "I'll head out now."
Only after he left the kitchen did Keiko begin to catch on.
"That child..."
Keiko didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She shook her head with a sigh and continued cooking.
In the living room.
"Brother, I'm done."
As soon as Hanfu came out, Hayate handed him his homework notebook.
Hanfu took a look. Only one page?
That definitely wasn't enough words!
Hanfu shook his head. "This isn't five hundred words. Do it again."
Hayate pouted. "Brother, five hundred words is so hard to write."
"Hayate, don't let a measly five hundred words defeat you! Think about when you train in swordsmanship, sweating buckets and pushing yourself until you're exhausted. Isn't that even harder? But you stuck with it, didn't you?"
Hanfu launched into a pep talk, encouraging him to be brave, work hard, keep striving, and reach for greatness!
After Hanfu talked him around in circles, Hayate had no idea which way was up.
"This is the struggle of growing up!"
Hanfu concluded. "Everyone has to get through this! Hayate, go on, do your best!"
"I understand."
Sure enough, Hayate was fired up. He picked up his notebook and began rewriting it seriously.
Seeing this, Hanfu smiled with satisfaction.
Writing a five-hundred-word reflection would take Hayate at least two hours. If Hanfu made things a little harder for him, three hours would pass in no time.
For Hayate, training in swordsmanship was like playing a game back in his previous life: once he got hooked, he couldn't stop. Whenever Hanfu thought of the sickly-looking fellow Hayate would become when he grew up, his heart ached!
So he had to put up an unbreakable "anti-addiction" barrier and make sure Hayate played less... trained in swordsmanship less.
Of course, there was a side effect: from now on, Hanfu probably, maybe, possibly, and perhaps wouldn't be able to do his own homework ever again.
This was probably the struggle of growing up for me, too. Sigh!
After dinner, Keiko washed the dishes and made lunch boxes for the brothers for the next day, then headed to the hospital.
Hanfu had already given up on Keiko's lunch boxes. He sat in the living room and kept Hayate working on his reflection.
Hayate wasn't a fast writer, and he kept stopping to think. At this rate, even two hours might not be enough.
After waiting for a while, Hanfu got a little bored, so he moved aside and sat down cross-legged.
"Brother, what are you doing?"
Seeing that his big brother was about to get up to something, Hayate hurriedly put down his pen.
"Keep writing. Don't stop!"
Hanfu said sternly, "I'm going to refine Chakra. I'll check your homework later, understand?"
"Got it."
Hayate picked up his pen again and continued writing.
At the same time, Hanfu closed his eyes and began refining his Spiritual Energy and Physical Energy, then merging them in a one-to-one ratio.
As soon as they merged, Hanfu noticed something strange.
Before, the refinement had been so slow it could put him to sleep. Now, though, the speed was at least 40 percent faster!
Forty percent?
Hanfu's heart stirred.
He had collected the Chakra Refinement Technique from Hiramatsu Daishi twice, and from Kashima Isamu twice as well!
He'd merged the Chakra Refinement Technique four times in total!
Did that mean each merge increased its speed by 10 percent?
At this rate, ten merges would make it twice as fast, a hundred would make it ten times faster, and a thousand would make it a hundred times faster!
If I collected the Great Fireball Technique a thousand times and merged them all, would it be a hundred times more powerful than an ordinary Great Fireball?
Hanfu was excited, but then he remembered he could only collect three times a day. Even if he succeeded every time, a thousand collections would take nearly a year!
So even if he really decided to make some ninjutsu a hundred times stronger, he'd have to think it through carefully. It needed to be something lots of people knew, and it had to be powerful...
Uh... now that he thought about it, the Great Fireball Technique really did seem like a good fit.
Hanfu felt his imagination running wild, so he quickly calmed his mind and silently refined Chakra.
Half an hour later, Hanfu felt he'd reached his limit.
Even though the speed had increased by 40 percent, once he got used to it, he still found the process slow!
Sharpening the axe won't delay the work of cutting wood. He really needed to collect more techniques!
Hanfu opened his eyes and saw a huge head only a few centimeters away. He reflexively headbutted it.
Thump!
"Ow!"
Hayate clutched his reddened forehead and yelled, "It hurts, it hurts... Brother!!"
"Oh, it's you, Hayate."
Hanfu had taken a thousand points of damage to deal eight hundred, and rubbed his forehead. "Why aren't you working on your reflection? Why are you crouching here watching me?"
"Brother, my hand is sore. I'm taking a break before I write some more," Hayate said, looking aggrieved.
Hanfu's eyes lit up.
A sore hand was exactly what he wanted!
Hayate was just a kid. His hand got sore from writing a five-hundred-word reflection, but when he practiced swordsmanship, he'd train for hours at a time without ever complaining that his hand hurt. What did that mean?
It meant that when Hayate practiced swordsmanship, he pushed himself past his limits and kept gritting his teeth through it. Forget breaking through his physical limits—Hayate didn't have the Might Father and Son's monstrous constitution. If this went on, his body was bound to give out!
Hanfu patted him on the shoulder and smiled. "Then take a ten-minute break first."
Hayate's eyes lit up. "Then I'll go practice swordsmanship!"
"..."
Practice swordsmanship, my ass!
Thanks to reader Meng Xianweng for the generous reward!
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