The next day happened to be a day off. With clouds hanging low and a steady drizzle falling, Chen Xiao simply stayed holed up indoors.
"One times nine is nine, two times nine is eighteen..."
In the room, the girl with long, dark-purple hair sat upright at the desk, quietly reciting the multiplication table Chen Xiao had taught her as she counted on her fingers and worked out the answers.
There was an innocent charm to the way she counted so earnestly.
From what Chen Xiao had observed over the past few days, Clarice had wandered from place to place with her adoptive father since childhood, living an unsettled life and barely attending any proper school.
That was also why she had always struggled to keep up with her schoolwork after entering the school for Mutants.
Beside her, Chen Xiao lay lazily across the desk, his chin resting on the back of his hand. A crimson glow rose in his eyes, and two searing beams shone precisely onto the base of the teapot.
Under heat of several hundred degrees Celsius, the water in the pot quickly began to boil, sending up white clouds of steam.
He had never liked rainy, overcast days. No sunlight meant his source of vitality was cut off.
Unless, one day, he could truly soar into the sky, break through the thick clouds, and hover outside the atmosphere, he could not enjoy year-round, uninterrupted sunbathing from every angle.
Knock, knock!
Two light knocks came from outside the door.
The red light in Chen Xiao's eyes instantly went out. He looked up with a smile. "Come in. The door's unlocked."
With a click, the door opened, and Kitty Pryde slipped inside with light steps, followed by Colossus, Peter, whose burly frame and muscles looked cast from iron.
Chen Xiao greeted them with a smile. "Hey! Kitty, Peter, perfect timing. Try the tea I brewed."
"I heard this stuff is especially popular in the East, so I asked the teacher in charge of supplies to bring some back specially."
"Tea?"
Kitty sat down and stared curiously at the cup before her, wisps of white steam curling from it.
The tea was pale red, its delicate fragrance refreshing.
Colossus plopped down as well, his voice deep and full. "I've heard of it. Plenty of people in the East do like drinking this."
"Especially in Cherry Blossom Country. I hear you have to burn incense, wash your hands, bathe, and change clothes before drinking tea. Even the water has to be boiled three times and cooled three times... quite a hassle."
"You have to take a bath before drinking this water? That's so much trouble." Kitty blinked, not quite processing it.
The corners of Chen Xiao's mouth lifted slightly. "It's not that mysterious. Those people just have restless minds, so they rely on external steps to settle themselves down and give it the fancy name of a 'sense of ritual.'"
"Honestly, I don't really understand all that either. I just wanted to try the taste. If I like it, I'll drink more. If I don't, I'll put it down."
Before he finished speaking, he poured a cup for Clarice, who had been quietly watching beside him, then turned to introduce them. "Clarice, these two are Kitty and Peter. They're both upper-year students."
"This is Clarice, my friend."
Clarice spoke softly, her tone gentle and polite. "Hello."
Kitty smiled and waved. "Clarice, I've heard about you! I hear you can teleport. That's pretty similar to my ability to walk through walls."
Peter also offered a quiet greeting in his deep voice.
Besides drinking tea and chatting, Chen Xiao actually had two plans in mind when he invited Kitty and Peter over today: first, he wanted a chance to interact with Colossus and see whether he could awaken Man of Steel ahead of time; second, he wanted Clarice to get to know a few more dependable friends.
As he saw it, the early emergence of his Heat Ray ability was most likely connected to his fight with Scott that day. Without that intense clash, it should not have appeared so soon.
But precisely because it had been "born" too early, his Heat Ray currently had limited power.
Still, it did not matter if it was a little weak. After all, the ability would grow stronger along with him. One more ability meant one more way to respond, and it might truly turn things around at a critical moment.
After exchanging pleasantries, Kitty and Peter lifted their cups and took a sip. They found the flavor mild, nowhere near as invigorating or punchy as coffee.
Clarice took a small sip too. Her eyes widened slightly, and she stole a glance at Chen Xiao. Her lips moved, but she swallowed her words.
Seeing this, Chen Xiao chuckled. "Not quite used to it?"
She nodded.
Chen Xiao spread his hands. "That's normal. I'm not used to drinking it myself."
"Pfft!" Kitty, who had been holding back her laughter across from him, finally lost it. "Vitas, if you can't even drink it yourself, why go to all this trouble?"
"You don't understand." Chen Xiao shook his head and said no more, but his gaze fell on the bulky object on Peter's back.
"Peter, what's that you're carrying?"
Colossus gave a low chuckle. "An easel."
"An easel?" Kitty tilted her head and smiled. "Vitas, you didn't know? Peter loves drawing. Whenever he has free time, he likes carrying his easel around and drawing portraits of people."
"...That's quite an unusual hobby." Chen Xiao paused before managing to get the words out.
Who would have thought that a tough guy built like a small mountain, with bulging muscles rivaling boxing champion Tyson's, would be so obsessed with such delicate work in private?
At the mention of drawing, Peter lit up. "Vitas, Clarice, would you like me to draw a portrait of you as a keepsake?"
He had barely finished speaking when, before Chen Xiao could answer, Clarice's eyes lit up beside him. "Could you really?" she asked softly.
"Of course."
Seeing how eager she was, Chen Xiao did not decline.
Colossus deftly took off his backpack, pulled out drawing paper, pencils, and an eraser, and arranged them one by one. Then he looked at the two people across from him and concentrated for a moment.
He was considering the composition.
In less than a minute, his pencil was already scratching across the paper.
Over the clean white paper, his wrist moved with steady strength, his expression fixed in concentration. Even his breathing had grown extremely light, and a quiet artistic air seemed to envelop him.
The room fell quiet along with him. No one spoke or moved, afraid of disturbing his concentration.
After an unknown amount of time, the scratching stopped abruptly, and Colossus's taut mouth slowly relaxed. "Done."
Smiling, he gently turned the drawing board around, revealing the full picture beneath two expectant gazes.
On the left, a girl with her long hair tied back and headphones on was bent over her homework, her features delicate and her earnest expression carrying a trace of childishness; on the right, a boy sprawled lazily along the edge of the desk, his chin propped on his left hand as he tilted his head slightly toward the girl, his manner relaxed and natural.
With just a few lines, the boy's features were sharply defined and handsome, while the girl looked lively and sweet, with a gentle air. Though the entire drawing was only black and white, it radiated warmth and life.
Chen Xiao praised him sincerely. "That's amazing! I didn't expect your drawing skills to be so solid."
A smile immediately appeared on Peter's face, and he turned to Clarice. "Little Clarice, do you like it?"
"I love it!" She nodded vigorously, her eyes sparkling.
Pleased by their approval, Colossus grew even happier. He simply took the drawing off the board and solemnly placed it in her hands.
At that moment, Kitty added with a smile, "Actually, Peter originally started learning to draw to tame his strength."
"Drawing can help you control your strength?" Chen Xiao was a little surprised.
Colossus nodded. "That's right. My strength shoots up after I turn to steel. At first, I couldn't hold back at all, and it was easy to hurt people accidentally."
"Later, the Professor suggested I practice sketching. A little more or less pressure on the pencil tip makes a big difference to the mark, forcing me to break down every bit of force I used and slowly learn precise control over my strength."
"So that's how it works."
Chen Xiao looked thoughtful. "Peter, can I give it a try?"
Lately, his physical capabilities had been improving by leaps and bounds, but his mental growth had lagged somewhat behind. He vaguely sensed that his control over his limbs was no longer as precise and effortless as before.
Though nothing had gone wrong yet, he felt it was time to prepare.
"No problem."
Colossus readily agreed. He laid out a fresh sheet, secured it to the drawing board, and pushed the pencils and drawing tools in front of Chen Xiao one by one, patiently explaining:
"This one is harder, good for outlining the main shapes. This one's softer, so it lays down shading more smoothly. This thin one is specifically for soft transition lines."
"When you start sketching, you first learn composition, light and shadow, and hard and soft edges. Techniques can be practiced, but the spirit in a drawing depends entirely on what's inside you."
"Vitas, if you're starting from scratch, you could practice with geometric shapes, apples, or eggs."
"All right. Let me think about what to draw first."
Chen Xiao nodded modestly, copying Peter's earlier posture as he steadied the board with one hand and held a pencil in the other. His gaze slowly swept around the room as he considered where to begin.
Clarice beside him and Shadowcat across from him both watched quietly, curious about what sort of picture he would draw.
Just then, Chen Xiao's gaze passed over Clarice. Remembering how she always liked flipping through illustrated fairy tales, he suddenly had an idea, and a familiar figure leaped into his mind.
He lowered his eyes slightly and thought for a moment. His fingers had already begun moving naturally.
With a hundred times an ordinary person's physical coordination, his strokes were steady and precise, his hand following his thoughts without the slightest hesitation.
Following the outline in his memory, he soon brought a boy into being on the paper, his hair standing up like steel needles and a long staff slung diagonally across his back.
A dozen or so minutes later, Chen Xiao put down his pencil. Clarice immediately leaned closer, tilting her head to study it, her voice full of puzzlement. "Vitas, who's this?"
"An animated character. I call him Son Goku." With a chuckle, Chen Xiao turned the drawing board toward the others so Kitty and Colossus could see it clearly too.
"An animated character? What a distinctive style." The two leaned forward for a closer look, a hint of novelty in their eyes.
Although Chen Xiao could coordinate his hands and eyes perfectly, he had never studied drawing, and his foundations were limited.
Even with the clear image in his mind to copy, his drawing of Son Goku could only be called neat and pleasing to look at, not stunning.
Of course, this was not the furry Monkey King from Journey to the West, but the short-haired, lean, sharp-eyed young Goku from Dragon Ball.
In this world, Cherry Blossom Country's manga and animation industries were thriving as well, but there was neither the globally popular Bleach and Hokage nor Dragon Ball, which had swept across nations.
Chen Xiao had never intended to be a "copyist" anyway.
Compared with Bleach and Hokage, of which he had only skimmed a few chapters and had little interest, his memories of Dragon Ball were far more vivid and solid.
Back in elementary school, he had always kept one or two old-edition Dragon Ball volumes stuffed in his schoolbag. Recalling them now, he could still clearly picture even the yellowed corners of the pages and the explosive bursts of energy in the panels.