"Ahem..."
Realizing he had just lost his composure somewhat, Xu Taiping coughed twice, then asked the boy again in an old man's voice, "Young lad, these are the Touchstone Immortal Arts. Why don't you want to learn them?"
As he spoke, he picked up a small stone and turned it into gold before the boy again.
Though the boy's eyes were still full of astonishment, he shook his head all the same and said:
"Old sir, a stone is a stone. If you turn a stone into gold, isn't that deceiving people?"
Hearing this, Xu Taiping froze, momentarily at a loss for a rebuttal.
"Old sir, you mustn't deceive people. My mother said it's all right to be poor, but you must be kind and have ambition."
As the boy spoke, he scrambled to pick up the scroll from the ground, then waved it proudly at Xu Taiping. "My mother also said, to enrich your household, you needn't buy fertile fields, for books hold a thousand measures of grain; to live in comfort, you needn't build lofty halls, for books hold houses of gold. As long as I study well, I'll have everything."
When he spoke of studying, light suddenly shone in the eyes of this seven- or eight-year-old boy.
"Your mother is right. Study hard."
After a moment or two of silence, Xu Taiping suddenly smiled at the boy and gently patted his shoulder.
"Ayu! Come home for dinner!..."
Just then, a woman's call suddenly came from the foot of the mountain.
"Coming, Mother!"
The boy immediately stood up.
"Old sir, my mother's calling me for dinner. I have to go!"
After calling this to Xu Taiping, he hastily put away his scroll, then swung himself onto Dahei Dog and began driving the flock of sheep down the slope.