"Mom, I'm not hungry."
"You're that big, and you're not hungry?"
"Really, I'm not."
Su Zhaowan looked at him, her gaze gentle.
"Then tell me what happened."
Su Mo began to explain.
He told her about the awakening ceremony, the Confucius Martial Soul, the holy light filling his body, and how he'd grown.
He did his best to make it sound lighthearted. When he got to "two meters twenty," he even demonstrated, spreading his arms so wide he nearly touched both walls.
Su Zhaowan listened, occasionally asking a question or smiling.
When Su Mo finished, she fell silent for a while.
Then she asked, "Did it hurt?"
Su Mo froze.
"When you were growing just now." Su Zhaowan looked at him. "Did it hurt?"
Su Mo parted his lips.
He wanted to say no.
But he remembered the moment his bones cracked, the pain of his muscles tearing and knitting themselves back together, and the muffled groan he'd let out.
"A little," he said.
Su Zhaowan nodded.
She didn't say anything like, "My poor son."
She simply reached out and gently patted his knee. It was the only place she could reach now.
"Don't force yourself to tough it out next time," she said. "If it hurts, say so. I'll listen."
Su Mo's nose stung.
He lowered his head, hid his face in the shadows, and gave a muffled "Mm."
The room fell quiet for a while.
Outside the window, Big Black Ox let out a "Moo," probably because he was hungry.
Su Zhaowan smiled. "Xiao Hei hasn't eaten yet, has he? Go give him something."
Su Mo stood and walked toward the door.
"Oh, right." Su Zhaowan's voice came from behind him. "Xiao Mo."
"Mm?"
"No matter what you look like, you're still my son."
Su Mo stopped.
He didn't turn around.
"Mm."
Then he ducked through the doorway.
In the yard, Big Black Ox gazed at him expectantly.
Su Mo walked over and pulled a bundle of hay from the haystack.
He gripped it too tightly, and the hay scattered.
He crouched to pick it up.
His hands were too big, the stalks too small.
After ages, he managed to pick up three.
Big Black Ox looked at him, his expression complicated.
"Moo." (Can you even manage that?)
Su Mo glared at him.
Then he simply shoved the entire haystack into the feeding trough.
Big Black Ox looked at the pile of hay, now heaped like a little mountain, then glanced at Su Mo and silently took a step back.
"Moo." (Heh, I was only teasing you.)
Su Mo dusted off his hands and stood.
The evening breeze blew past, carrying the scent of the fields.
He stood in the yard, gazing at the dim yellow light spilling from the house.
In the lamplight, Su Zhaowan tidied the dishes. She moved slowly, since her legs made it difficult to lean forward without bracing herself against her wheelchair. But she hummed an unfamiliar tune, her voice soft and gentle.
Su Mo watched her silhouette.
He thought of his previous life.
The hard, cold bed at the orphanage. The never-quite-enough food in the cafeteria. The nights when no one waited for him to come home.
He thought of Lin Xiaowu.
If she were still alive, surely someone would be waiting for her to come home, too.
He remembered his final thought as he fell from the third floor—
"At least, she can keep on living."
Now.
He had a home.
Someone was waiting for him to eat.
No matter what he looked like, she'd always say, "You're my son."
Su Mo sniffed.
Big Black Ox came over and rubbed his head against him.
Su Mo looked down at him.
Big Black Ox blinked.
"Moo." (It's okay. I'm your brother, too.)
Su Mo smiled.
He patted the bull's head.
"Once you've cooled off, come sleep in my room."
Then he turned and walked back into the house.
"Mom, tomorrow I'll go rent books in town and earn some more money."
"All right."
"I'll buy you medicine."
"I know."
"Once I get a little stronger, I'll find a brilliant doctor and get your legs healed."
Su Zhaowan paused.
Then she said softly,
"All right."
Her voice was full of laughter.
And a hint of bitterness, impossible to notice if you weren't listening closely.
Night deepened.
Su Mo tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep.
His two-meter-twenty frame took up far too much space. He'd tried every position.
Curling up left his legs cramped; lying on his side left an arm dangling off the bed; lying flat made his feet slam straight into the wall.
After a long struggle, he finally figured out the trick.
Shrink.
At a single thought, his muscular giant of a body deflated like a punctured ball, visibly shrinking.
Two meters twenty, two meters, one meter eighty, one meter fifty...
At last, a normal six-year-old appeared on the bed: fair, clean, small, and skinny, utterly unlike the mountain of muscle he'd been during the day.
Su Mo let out a long breath and stretched his limbs.
This body felt much more comfortable.
He sat up, ready to sleep, then suddenly remembered something.
During the Soul Power test that day, the character for "Dao" on the back of his right hand had grown hot.
He raised his hand and examined it carefully in the moonlight shining through the window.
The back of his hand was smooth. There was nothing there.
But when he closed his eyes and focused his thoughts on that spot—
Buzz.
The world changed.
Su Mo opened his eyes and found himself standing before a huge building.
A familiar outline, a familiar entrance, familiar steps.
It was the library from his previous life.
He pushed open the door and entered.
The first-floor hall was empty. Bookshelves stood in neat rows, filled with every book he'd written over the past two years—from Battle Through the Heavens to Romance of the Three Kingdoms, from Journey to the West to Armor Hero. A complete collection, arranged in perfect order.
"So..." Su Mo murmured. "This is my Second Martial Soul?"
He walked to the front desk, where the librarian should have been. A thick ledger now sat there instead.
Two large characters covered its front:
Book of Dao
Su Mo opened it to the first page.
Words appeared on their own, densely packed, recording everything he'd read over the past two years—
[Shallow Reading Records]
Zhang San read Martial Universe, gained Happiness +1, feedback to host: Happiness +1
Li Si read Battle Through the Heavens, gained Satisfaction +1, feedback to host: Satisfaction +1
Wang Gougou Bing read The Deer and the Cauldron, gained Desire +1, feedback to host: Desire +1
As Su Mo read, his expression grew increasingly peculiar.
No wonder he'd felt inexplicably happy while writing books over the past two years. It wasn't a sense of accomplishment—these readers had been "tipping" him with their emotions?
He kept flipping through the pages, unable to stop the corners of his mouth from lifting.
This was great.
When his readers enjoyed a book, he enjoyed it, too.
His motivation to write had doubled outright.
After the shallow reading records, the second major category appeared:
[Deep Reading Records]
There were far fewer entries in this category, but each one stood out.
The first entry—
Big Black Ox read your Analects, gained Confucian Dao insight, cultivation +1 year, feedback to host: Soul Power +1
Su Mo froze.
Big Black Ox?
He rubbed his eyes, making sure he hadn't misread it.
He kept flipping—
Big Black Ox read your Tao Te Ching, gained Daoist insight, cultivation +1 year, feedback to host: Soul Power +1
Big Black Ox read your Journey to the West, gained demon-path insight, cultivation +1 year, feedback to host: Soul Power +1
Big Black Ox read your Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, gained ghost-path insight, cultivation +1 year, feedback to host: Soul Power +1
Su Mo's pupils shook.
He frantically flipped through the ledger, one entry after another, densely packed, all bearing the same name—
Big Black Ox.
Big Black Ox!
Big Black Ox again!!!
He made a rough count: six hundred and thirty-seven entries!
Brother Bull, you're actually a six-hundred-year-old Demon King!