Xiao Xiao always thought of the little fellow.
Whenever she visited, she stuffed his pockets full of all kinds of snacks: preserved fruits, pastries, candied hawthorns. She filled Xu Cheng'an's pockets to bursting.
As she packed them in, she kept reminding him that he was too skinny. "Eat more, eat more. Just look at you—you're as thin as a little bean sprout."
Xu Cheng'an lowered his head and patted his round little belly, utterly perplexed. No matter how he looked at it, he had nothing in common with a bean sprout.
Zhang Lexuan loved taking him out to clear his mind the most. She was also the one who showed him sights he couldn't see otherwise: nobles running rampant, commoners suffering terribly.
Things were a little better in the big cities, but the farther out one went, the more common such scenes became...
Sometimes, those who preyed on the weak didn't even do so openly.
The master and disciple sat side by side on the coastal rocks, breathing in the salty sea breeze as they watched the tides rise and fall, and the clouds drift by.
Zhang Lexuan would always gently teach him a lesson. "Cheng'an..."
Though Xu Cheng'an was still so young that he only half-understood, he firmly engraved her words in his heart.
Meng Hongchen wasn't good at gently coaxing and pampering him. Her way of spending time with him was the most practical: training hard alongside him.
The chill of the Vermilion Clear Ice Toad was bone-piercing, but she could always control its intensity precisely, giving Xu Cheng'an enough pressure to train without hurting him in the slightest.
The two practiced together on the training grounds every day, sweating it out. When they were tired, they would exchange a smile, perfectly in sync.
As for Xu Yanli