"Senior Sister! Where's my bamboo?" Luo Yunji asked groggily.
"Go cut it yourself!" The thought made her angry. She used to cut bamboo herself, only for her Little Junior Brother to take it and pass it off as his own. Even though their parents knew she was the one who had cut it, he still wouldn't change his ways. She was at a complete loss.
"Oh!" Luo Yunji slid down from the boulder, picked up the hatchet from the ground, and slowly headed forward.
After waiting a while, she still didn't see Luo Yunji choose a bamboo stalk to cut. Instead, he just kept walking farther and farther away. "Little Junior Brother! Where are you going?"
"Back, of course! Isn't it almost noon? Aren't you hungry?" Luo Yunji turned around and looked at Tian Linger in confusion.
"You!!! You haven't finished your chores yet!"
"That's all right! Where's your bamboo?"
"That's mine!" Tian Linger stamped her feet in fury.
"I know! Let's eat first!" Luo Yunji replied in his usual soft, languid voice.
"I'm going to die of anger! There's just no reasoning with him." Tian Linger stomped her feet several times. This wasn't the first time it had happened, and in the end, she could only let him have his way and follow along.
Several months passed in the blink of an eye. Eldest Senior Brother Song Daren had been away from the mountain for quite some time.
So these days, the task of waking Luo Yunji had fallen to Fourth Senior Brother.
As usual, Luo Yunji sat down at the table in a daze. After waiting a moment without hearing Master's usual pre-meal lecture, he managed to open his eyes. Everyone had already started eating. Just as he sat there, still bewildered, Eldest Senior Brother walked in from outside and took his usual seat.
"Eldest Senior Brother! You're back?" Luo Yunji cried out happily.
"Little Junior Brother! You've only just noticed? Wasn't Eldest Senior Brother the one who woke you up this morning?" Sixth Senior Brother saw that Luo Yunji was in one of his foggy moods again and laughed.
"I thought it was Fourth Senior Brother!" Luo Yunji gave Eldest Senior Brother a foolish grin, embarrassed.
"Eat up. When you're done, come with me to Heaven-Reaching Peak," Tian Buyi urged.
"Daren! Are there really only two children and one madman left?" Shiniang put down her bowl and chopsticks and looked at Song Daren.
"Yes, Shiniang. My fellow disciples and I searched carefully. Those three are all that remain." Song Daren picked up his bowl, ready to eat, but when he heard Shiniang's question, he set it down again and replied.
"How pitiful." As she spoke, she looked toward her youngest disciple. Luo Yunji had also been separated from his parents as a child. She didn't know whether he had been abandoned or lost. In any case, she believed this little disciple had suffered a hard lot in life.
Luo Yunji, unaware of what was going on, paid no attention to Su Ru's gaze. He kept eating, stuffing his mouth until his cheeks bulged. With every chew, his puffed-out cheeks wobbled. The comical yet adorable sight made everyone, whose pity for him had been stirred by Su Ru, burst out laughing.
"If you're worried about him, you'd be better off worrying about Big Yellow. Even Big Yellow is more human than he is." Tian Buyi had also been moved to pity by his little disciple's sad past, but looking at the boy, he could only scold him with a helpless laugh.
"How can you talk about your own disciple like that?" Seeing her husband's joking remark, Su Ru chided him in displeasure.
"All right! Eat up," Tian Buyi said, awkwardly changing the subject.
Luo Yunji was the only one at the table who didn't know what had just happened. He kept stuffing his cheeks until they were full, like a little chipmunk. As he chewed, he gazed at everyone with a pair of dazed, wide eyes, making them stifle another round of laughter.
The use of magic flight was forbidden on Heaven-Reaching Peak, so they stopped before two enormous wooden doors, each ten zhang high. They had heard that Senior Sister Shuiyue was ill. Su Ru had planned to take her daughter and Yunji straight to Small Bamboo Peak, but after hearing her eldest disciple's account of the tragedy at Grass Temple Village, at the foot of Azure Cloud Mountain, she decided to accompany her husband there first. They could go to Small Bamboo Peak afterward.
No one could enter Jade Purity Hall on Heaven-Reaching Peak without being summoned. So unless something important happened, no one wanted to go inside. After crossing Rainbow Bridge, Luo Yunji was stunned by the enormous creature in the pool.
"This is the Water Kirin!" Seeing his little junior brother's expression, Song Daren explained.
"Big!" That was Luo Yunji's first thought.
"Right! It could swallow you in one bite!" Tian Linger had seen the Spirit Venerable plenty of times. It was rare to see her Little Junior Brother gaping in surprise, and she teased him with a laugh.
"Shiniang, I want to play here!" Luo Yunji said, his eyes fixed on the Water Kirin, which was dozing by the pool's edge.
"No! I wouldn't feel safe leaving you here by yourself." Su Ru immediately objected. She took Luo Yunji by the hand and led him toward the steps beside the pool.
"Shiniang! I want to stay here!" Completely captivated by the divine creature before him, Luo Yunji pressed his lips together and looked at her.
"If he wants to stay, let him. He'll be right in front of Jade Purity Hall. What could possibly hurt him here? Don't worry." Tian Buyi saw the pleading look in his little disciple's eyes and spoke to his wife.
"You're the one who scolds him the most, and you're also the one who spoils him the most!" Su Ru rolled her eyes at her husband, then gave her little disciple a few instructions before letting him stay.
Luo Yunji curiously examined the enormous head in front of him. It was covered in scales, with huge eyes and a gaping mouth. Two sharp fangs glinted in the sunlight, and its face looked rather ferocious. Seeing that it seemed to be fast asleep, Luo Yunji plucked up his courage and slowly reached out his chubby little hand.
He touched its nose. It was soft, a little damp, and warm.
Luo Yunji shifted his gaze. Near the nose, two fleshy whiskers several meters long twitched now and then, so he reached out to touch them. The scales on its cheeks shimmered, so he reached out to touch those too. He touched this, then that. But he didn't know that the Spirit Venerable had already opened its eyes and was staring at the little tyke in front of its nose, its expression unreadable. It blew gently, and Luo Yunji, short and plump, tumbled backward several times before landing on his bottom with a blank look on his face.
Luo Yunji looked left and right, but saw nothing unusual. He climbed back up and reached for the Spirit Venerable again. The nose and sharp fangs weren't enough for him anymore. As bold as if he'd eaten the heart of a bear and the gall of a leopard, he pushed his luck and began climbing onto the Spirit Venerable's head. He wanted to touch its two fleshy horns.
The Qilin was an auspicious beast. To keep it from harming the innocent, its hard dragon horns were wrapped in flesh. Feeling the little tyke step on its eyelid as he climbed, the Water Kirin slowly cracked open its other eye. It regarded with some curiosity the first reckless little brat in a thousand years to climb all over it.
The higher he climbed, the more a faint fragrance drifted into Luo Yunji's nose. He sniffed hard a few times and realized the scent came from his target: the pair of enormous dragon horns. Drooling, Luo Yunji climbed onto the Spirit Venerable's head and wrapped his arms around one of the huge horns. He sniffed it hard a few times. The fragrance grew even stronger.
If the Water Kirin could have seen the expression on the little tyke perched on its head, it would surely have gone on guard—and regretted letting the reckless little brat climb up there.
"Waaah!" Unable to resist the fragrant temptation, Luo Yunji obeyed the appetite deep within him and sank his teeth into the fleshy horn before him.
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