Time slipped past like a white horse flashing through a crack. Under Xiao Yan's care, which was not entirely thorough but certainly wholehearted, Xiao Yi finally recovered most of his strength.
He could once again bounce around the courtyard, fiddling with his bottles and jars while humming off-key tunes from another world. Now and then, he would even bellow at Xiao Yan at full volume, proving that he had shaken off the clutches of illness completely and returned to being the maddeningly energetic Xiao Yi.
Warm afternoon sunlight spilled into the Xiao Clan's little courtyard. What should have been a peaceful, tranquil scene was shattered by fierce arguing and the sounds of a physical scuffle. Xiao Yan and Xiao Yi, those "good brothers" who usually had a little quarrel every three days and a big fight every five, were now wrestling in a thoroughly undignified position. Each had a death grip on the other's hair, their faces flushed red, like two roosters driven blood-eyed by their fight.
"You fake foreign devil with a head full of foreign ink! I can't believe you'd pull something like this! You couldn't find another person like you in either world!"
Xiao Yan tugged hard on Xiao Yi's slightly disheveled black hair as he roared in fury. The whole thing had started because Xiao Yi had put Easter eggs on the offering table while paying respects to his ancestral master on a special occasion!
Xiao Yi refused to back down. Although his strength was still slightly lacking after his recent illness, his tongue was as sharp as ever. He likewise clutched Xiao Yan's tied-up hair bun, making him bare his teeth in pain.
"Pah! What do you know? Just look at you! You're the very pinnacle of feudal thinking!"
Their argument was punctuated by sharp