Hard to be a master

Shen Ziliu's voice was very different from Guan Jingxuan's imagination. It was not a child's voice that was indistinguishable between male and female, but rather low and slightly hoarse, like a boy's voice in the period of voice change.

Guan Jingxuan was dumbfounded for a long while, finally recovering from the shock, and said with a tangled expression: "...So you can talk?"

Shen Ziliu pursed his lips and said, "I never said I couldn't speak, did I?"

Guan Jingxuan didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "You haven't spoken at all, okay... And when I told others that you can't speak, you didn't deny it several times before."

Shen Ziliu said: "But I never admitted it."

Guan Jingxuan thought about it and found that it was true.

"Okay, let's just say I'm preconceived." Guan Jingxuan didn't dwell on this matter for too long, and instead asked, "Then why didn't you speak before?"

Hearing this, the smile on Shen Ziliu's face gradually disappeared, and returned to his usual expressionless face.

Seeing this, Guan Jingxuan was afraid that he would stop talking, so she hurriedly said: "If you don't want to say it, don't say it. It's getting late, and you are still an injured patient. You need to go to bed early and get up early, let's go back and rest."

After Shen Ziliu was silent for a moment, his expression relaxed a little, and he said, "Okay."

Although most of Shen Ziliu's injuries had healed, Guan Jingxuan insisted on letting him sleep on a bigger old couch in case he accidentally fell and got hurt again.Guan Jingxuan himself didn't recognize the bed, and slept very peacefully on the new couch, but today he didn't know whether it was because too many things happened or he was too full from dinner, he tossed and turned on the couch for a long time, but he was still very awake.

Gently turning inside, Guan Jingxuan saw through the veil screen that Shen Ziliu was lying on the couch in an orderly manner with his eyes closed, the quilt on his chest rose and fell smoothly with his breathing, and he seemed to have fallen asleep.

Regarding Shen Ziliu's previous pretending that he was dumb, Guan Jingxuan made a guess afterward.After getting along for this period of time, Guan Jingxuan knew very well how vigilant this child was. Even on the day he just woke up, because he and Guan Jingxuan slept in the same room, Shen Ziliu just closed his eyes and fell asleep all night, keeping alert all the time.It took Guan Jingxuan a lot of time to take care of Shen Ziliu patiently and carefully like a newborn kitten, so that he could initially build up trust in himself.

At the same time, this also made Guan Jingxuan clearly realize that taking care of children is still different from taking care of small animals.Small animals will express it straightforwardly whether they are hungry, full, cold, hot, happy, angry, or frightened.Yet human beings, even as minor children, hide and disguise themselves.This is naturally also related to a person's experience. Guan Jingxuan recalled that when he was as old as Shen Ziliu, he was not as deep-minded as him.

At that time, Guan Jingxuan was already the most favored little apprentice of the master, and if he didn't want to practice, he would act like a baby with the master and his brothers, and then just hide and fish.Because of his easy-going personality and friendship with Ling Xifeng, Guan Jingxuan was very popular among the monks of the same period, and was never troubled by anyone.In addition, his aptitude for cultivating immortals is very good, although he avoided a lot of laziness before forming alchemy, the road to practice went very smoothly, and the days in Kunlun in those years were quite reckless and carefree.

So what exactly did this child go through to live so cautiously at an age where he should be innocent and carefree?

Guan Jingxuan stared at the screen in front of him and walked for a while without bounds. When he fixed his eyes again, he suddenly found that the person behind the screen also turned around and faced his direction at some point, looking at him for a moment.

Guan Jingxuan froze for a moment, then said softly: "What's wrong? Can't sleep?"

Shen Ziliu didn't answer, but just looked at Guan Jingxuan without moving for a long time, until Guan Jingxuan began to wonder if he had fallen asleep with his eyes open, only then did he hear Shen Ziliu say "thank you" in a low voice.

Guan Jingxuan blinked: "Huh?"

Shen Ziliu didn't speak any more, turned over inside and fell asleep by himself.

From the next day, Guan Jingxuan found that Shen Ziliu had suddenly changed a lot.Although he would silently accept food and treatment before, and would not refuse Guan Jingxuan's touch, he was very passive.However, from the second day onwards, Shen Ziliu obviously became more active, and his attitude towards Guan Jingxuan became much closer.

The next day, when Guan Jingxuan woke up naturally after sleeping as usual, the couch behind the screen was empty.Guan Jingxuan woke up all of a sudden, quickly put on her clothes and opened the door of the bedroom, and saw Shen Ziliu, who was already fully dressed, squatting under the maple and poplar tree that was as thick as three people hugging each other in the front yard, pulling up the leaves one by one. Grass around tree roots.Hearing movement from the bedroom, Shen Ziliu stood up holding a handful of plucked grass, and greeted Guan Jingxuan.

"morning."

Guan Jingxuan was still not quite used to being taken care of by Shen Ziliu for a while, so she responded slowly: "Morning..."

After being dazed for a moment, Guan Jingxuan quickly came back to his senses, walked to the side of Shen Ziliu a few steps, looked at the grass in his hand, and said hesitantly, "Xiaoliu... what are you doing?"

Shen said succinctly: "Weeding."

"..."

After being silent for a moment, Guan Jingxuan raised his forehead and said, "These are actually not weeds, they are the calming herbs that I moved from my second senior brother..."

Shen Ziliu: "..."

Guan Jingxuan: "..."

Seeing that Shen Ziliu's expression became more and more stiff, Guan Jingxuan quickly comforted him: "It's okay, it's okay, Xiaoliu, you don't mind, anyway, I will raise them to death sooner or later."

Shen Ziliu lowered his head, and said in a low voice with loss and embarrassment on his face: "I...I just want to help you with something..."

Guan Jingxuan, who always thought that Shen Ziliu looked like a small animal, instantly softened her heart when she saw him like this.He pulled Shen Ziliu's clenched hand and gently opened it, gently brushed the Anshen grass he held in his hand to the ground, and said softly, "Thank you, I am very happy."

Shen Ziliu looked up at him, with guilt written in his eyes: "But..."

Guan Jingxuan patted his head, smiled warmly and said: "Actually, these calming herbs are intended for you. Didn't you have trouble sleeping all the time a few days ago? Now that you can eat, sleep, run and dance, I feel relieved." Now, it doesn’t make any difference whether these calming herbs are present or not, so don’t worry about it.”

Shen Ziliu looked at Guan Jingxuan silently, with an expression of wanting to cry or not.Guan Jingxuan hugged him helplessly, and said, "If you really want to help, how about I teach you how to read?"

Shen Ziliu looked at Guan Jingxuan suspiciously, not understanding what Guan Jingxuan taught him to read and asked him to help.

Guan Jingxuan thought for a while, and then said: "Of course, the premise is that it is true that you say you are illiterate."

Shen Ziliu seemed uncomfortable for a moment, then looked at Guan Jingxuan seriously, and said, "What I told you is the truth. But you taught me how to read, I can't help you..."

Guan Jingxuan smiled and took Shen Ziliu's hand and walked to the kitchen, saying as he walked, "It's just helping me pass the time. But before that, let's have breakfast."

After that, Guan Jingxuan really became Shen Ziliu's temporary wife.Whether it is practice or literacy, Guan Jingxuan has never taught others, so she doesn't know how to teach.He originally planned to start with the simplest characters, but Shen Ziliu offered to learn to write names.Guan Jingxuan thought about it, and felt that there was nothing wrong with a person learning to write his own name first, so he wrote the three characters "Shen Ziliu" on the rice paper.

Shen Ziliu stared at his name for a while, and asked Guan Jingxuan to write his name too.After an afternoon of practice, Shen Ziliu was not very proficient in writing his own name, but he was able to write Guan Jingxuan's name neatly, and the handwriting was very similar to Guan Jingxuan's, but without his pen style.Guan Jingxuan couldn't laugh or cry, but was inexplicably happy.

Shen Ziliu is very smart and has an amazing memory. No matter how simple or complex characters are, as long as Guan Jingxuan teaches them once, he will be able to recognize them the next time he sees them.As long as a word has been copied three times, he can write it silently next time, and he can grasp the meaning of the word very quickly, and he can draw inferences from one instance, which is very worry-free for Guan Jingxuan to teach.In just one month, Shen Ziliu learned most of the commonly used words.So Guan Jingxuan casually flipped through the bookcase for an introductory method of refining qi that he had used many years ago, and asked Shen Ziliu to copy it. When encountering unfamiliar characters, Guan Jingxuan would teach him again.

One day a month later, Shen Ziliu was copying his thoughts on the stone table in the front yard as usual, and Guan Jingxuan sat opposite him, playing chess with himself.After being raised in Qingmengyuan for almost two months, Shen Ziliu no longer has any injuries on his body, his hands and feet are much more flexible than before, and he looks no different from a normal person.Guan Jingxuan's cooking skills are indeed not very good, but Shen Ziliu is not picky about food, and after two months, he has grown some meat, and he is finally not as weak as he was at the beginning.

While playing chess with herself, Guan Jingxuan asked casually, "Xiao Liu, your injury should have almost healed, do you have any plans for the future?"

Shen Ziliu, who was originally concentrating on copying the mental method, raised his head in astonishment when he heard the words, and a trace of panic flashed in his eyes.