Learning from the Tiger

Yingtai Mall.

Feeling the mall's warm air-conditioning, Jiang Yan Yue took a deep breath. Her body was like a fish entering water, coming alive all at once.

She tossed the pajamas back to Jiang Shu and hurried over to the all-you-can-eat barbecue restaurant with the lowest per-person cost.

"No drinks, no starch sausages. A little seafood, mainly meat."

After paying, Jiang Shu casually found a seat and half-sat. After three months of martial arts training, he naturally knew that only fresh meat could replenish and strengthen a practitioner's Blood Qi to the greatest extent.

Much of the meat at buffets had been frozen for who knew how many years, its Blood Qi energy already chilled to rock bottom. It was only good enough to give ordinary people a taste.

But then again, the one eating was his own little sister.

Watching Jiang Yan Yue dart back and forth between the counters like a diligent bee, Jiang Shu closed his eyes and circulated the Hungry Tiger Breathing Method. Half-sitting, he held the Hungry Tiger Sitting Cave Stance for over ten minutes, until low rumbles occasionally sounded from his stomach.

When Jiang Yan Yue returned and saw Jiang Shu standing in stance with his eyes closed, she said nothing. She scrolled through her phone while placing grilled meat onto his plate.

"Jiang Shu, have you already sensed Blood Qi?"

Just as Jiang Shu opened his eyes and picked up the first skewer of meat, Jiang Yan Yue suddenly asked.

Since the Xia Kingdom had made Martial Dao public, many people had learned through the news and the internet that stance training had three realms.

Qi and Blood Sensing, Qi and Blood Circulation, and Whole Body Qi and Blood Great Circulation.

But among ordinary people, few knew what specific signs marked these three realms, or how the realms were divided.

"How would I know?"

Dipping the meat in the soul seasoning, Jiang Shu took a huge bite and answered somewhat vaguely.

"Ah, now that I think about it, that's probably impossible. How could someone who's only trained for three months immediately reach minor accomplishment in the Horse Stance and be guaranteed to clear the undergraduate cutoff? If you were that outrageous, Jiang Shu, if you'd started martial arts and stance training in elementary school, then before I even started middle school, you'd already be in college!"

"No, that's not right. Your body wouldn't have developed yet in elementary school. You'd have to start in your first or second year of high school. After three years, you'd at least get into a Key University, maybe even have a shot at an Academy! Terrifying beyond measure!"

Jiang Yan Yue wore an expression as though she had been shocked enough to drop her little dried fish.

Universities in the Xia Kingdom were divided into vocational colleges, ordinary universities, Key Universities, and Academies. Among them, Academies carried the greatest prestige. In the vast Xia Kingdom, there were only four Academies.

Shengjing Academy, East Sea Academy, Jiangnan Academy, and Tianshu Academy.

Without exception, those who could enter an Academy were the chosen prodigies of their schools. If they had not won several provincial-level awards, they would be too embarrassed to fill one in on their applications.

Even in Jicheng, a second-tier city, only forty or fifty students made it into Academies each year.

Thank goodness, thank goodness Jiang Shu was not that kind of Martial Dao genius.

If he could really enter an Academy based on his Martial Dao talent, how could she, his little sister, hire him in the future?

Wouldn't he just suppress her with one hand?

"Enough with the terrifying beyond measure. If you've got nothing to do this afternoon, come to the zoo with me."

Jiang Shu ate meat extremely quickly. Before long, a pile of metal skewers had accumulated on the table.

"I'm so jealous of you. If only I could eat as much as you. An all-you-can-eat barbecue costs eighty. Jiang Shu, you can eat at least three or four hundred worth of the owner's costs. By that calculation, you make a net profit of two or three hundred per meal. Two meals a day means saving ten thousand a month!"

"Oh, right, what did you just say? Go to the zoo? Do you have money?"

"Yes!"

"How much?" Jiang Yan Yue's eyes lit up. She had thought that treating herself to a meal off her older brother today was already pretty good, but she had not expected extra spending money.

Down with the rich! Down with the landlords!

The eight hundred she had taken from him—today, she would make him pay it all back with interest!

"One hundred."

"Fine! Transfer it now! My WeiXun is already thirsting for it."

"Deduct it from my future salary." Jiang Shu ate a few skewers of vegetables to cut the grease. "Didn't you, the CEO, say you were hiring me as both bodyguard and driver? My salary should start at ten thousand at the very least. A hundred yuan is pocket change. Just deduct it from my salary!"

"???"

No, are you a dog?

Her fists hardened.

At that moment, Jiang Yan Yue truly had the urge to practice martial arts.

Very strong.

She just wanted to ask: how could an ordinary person improve through martial arts in one minute and suppress a practitioner who might already have sensed Blood Qi?

One minute. Not a second more.

Any longer, and she would get tired.

In the end, Jiang Yan Yue still decided to accompany Jiang Shu to the zoo.

It was definitely not because of the milk tea in her hands.

"Jiang Shu, if you buy me a cup of milk tea this delicious every day, I won't be mad at you anymore."

"Sure. Buy it yourself, and deduct the money from my salary."

"If you use the same joke too many times, money should be deducted."

"From my salary?"

Jiang Yan Yue suddenly felt exhausted. She vaguely remembered that her brother had not been like this before.

Back then, she had always utterly crushed him in intelligence.

Could practicing martial arts grow not only limbs, but intelligence too?

Jiang Yan Yue looked out the window. She decided that for the entire day, she would not speak to this bodyguard-slash-driver who only knew how to say "deduct it from my salary."

He was far too unprofessional!

Fifteen minutes later.

"Hey, Jiang Shu, look! There are so many people."

Jiang Yan Yue turned around, opened the car window, and stuck her head out to peer behind them. On the other side of the road, more than a dozen people were still buying tickets at the zoo's ticket office, while even more entered the zoo one by one under the security guards' direction.

Even the not-so-small parking lot was already packed with cars.

It was not as though she had never been to the zoo.

When she was little, she had even been a regular visitor.

But in recent years, as times changed, she and her classmates mostly went out to eat good food, play murder mystery games, escape rooms, and things like that. They rarely came here anymore.

She had not expected so many people today.

Hopping out of the car, Jiang Yan Yue drained the last sip of milk tea and tossed the cup into a trash can. After crossing the road, she discovered a sign outside that read: "Jicheng Zoo is relocating soon! Final three days! Free admission! Register at the ticket office!"

"Oh, so it's moving. No wonder there are so many people. Jiang Shu, did you see the relocation news earlier, so you came specifically to take a look?"

"Do I look like the kind of person who scrolls through news like that?"

Jiang Shu rolled his eyes at Jiang Yan Yue, though he was puzzled as well. A zoo counted as part of a city's infrastructure. How could it relocate so casually? Even stranger, normally this sort of relocation would be announced in advance on Jicheng's official public account, explaining where it was moving.

Yet when he opened his phone now, he could not find a single message about it on Jicheng's public account.

Only while browsing Forums and online communities did he find posts claiming that under a new government order, zoos in second- and third-tier prefecture-level cities would collectively relocate to their provincial capitals in the coming days.

Some first-tier cities had even begun catching stray cats and dogs.

This order had come suddenly, and it was strange.

Just like the policy announced three months ago, allowing high school students, regardless of whether they studied the arts or sciences, to switch to becoming Martial Arts Students and practice the Horse Stance.

After lining up at the ticket office for over twenty minutes, the two of them finally entered the zoo.

Jiang Yan Yue decided to follow the route from her childhood and revisit every corner of the zoo, taking photos now and then to post in her class group chat.

Jiang Shu, meanwhile, put his phone in his pocket and stopped thinking about it. After saying a word to his sister,

he walked straight to the Tiger Zone and quietly watched the tigers in the zoo through the glass.

He imitated their pacing, crouching, sitting, and breathing.

The tiger, Old Man Chou, and himself.

The three figures continuously practiced in Jiang Shu's mind, gradually overlapping.