Chapter 77 Next time, I want to be a brother.
After hearing what her brother said, Xingxing reached out and held her brother's hand in the quilt, gently touching the fine calluses on his fingers, and said softly: "Brother, studying and practicing martial arts will be very hard."
Xingxing knew what her brother was thinking and could hear the urgency in his heart.
However, Xingxing felt that her brother would have a hard time doing this, and that he would have to bear a lot because of her.
She has to take care of the stars, study hard, complete the homework assigned by the teacher, and practice martial arts.
My brother is just an 8-year-old boy.
Xingxing felt a little depressed.
His soft little hands were held backwards. In the warm quilt, Xiaowu's voice was hidden inside, and it was particularly firm, "I am not afraid of hard work. I want to protect me and Xingxing."
Xiaowu certainly knows that it is hard work.
Studying is very hard for him, and it is very stressful for his brain.
If you practice martial arts, it will be very hard on your body.
But Xiaowu is not afraid.
He held his brother's hand and said seriously: "Xingxing, I am the older brother and I need to grow up quickly. You are the younger brother and you need to grow up slowly. So the older brother should protect the younger brother!"
He wished he could grow up overnight, but at the same time he hoped his younger brother would always be a child who depended on him.
Xingxing listened to her brother's childish voice, and her heart, which had been beating normally and steadily, seemed to be injected with a little strange warm liquid.
The child pursed his lips and hugged his brother obediently, "Then I will accompany my brother~"
When his brother was studying, Xingxing was also studying.
When my brother was practicing martial arts, Xingxing was watching beside him.
Xingxing can't practice martial arts, he has to drink medicine boiled with spiritual spring water every day.
"Okay! With Xingxing accompanying me, I will feel less tired and I can become stronger faster!" Xiaowu agreed happily. His younger brother is his stimulant!
Xiaowu hugged his younger brother tightly. There was no confusion about the future in the eyes of the two little ones. Instead, they were full of determination and yearning.
The next day, before dawn, a small figure stood in the cool mist of the spring morning, constantly waving his fists and feet, and whispering "Hey ha hey ha" to himself.
Qiuqiu floated under the eaves, watching Xiaowu getting up earlier than the chickens in the morning. He had just made a promise last night and started to take practical action today. He couldn't help but sigh in his heart: With his ability to take action, he will succeed in everything he does in the future.
After watching for a while, he found that although Xiaowu was sweating profusely during the training, he had no real method. Then he shook his round body, called up a set of martial arts moves suitable for children to strengthen their bodies and strengthen their muscles and bones from his database, and flew back to the house to continue sleeping next to Xingxing who was sleeping soundly in the warm bed.
Just now, it heard Xiaowu getting up, and thought of staying outside to accompany Xingxing. Although Xiaowu couldn't see it, it didn't matter! Xiaowu fulfilled his promise, and Qiuqiu also fulfilled Xingxing's promise.
The condition of the fusion of Xingxing's body and soul was too bad. In addition, all the luck of the other little star was stolen, and the soul was in tatters. The spiritual spring water could not nourish the soul, so even if he wanted to get up early, Qiuqiu didn't dare to let him get up early.
Xiaowu didn't know, but he didn't want to wake up his brother, so he practiced hard outside the house by himself.
It was not until the master's wife and the teacher's husband got up that Xiao Wu stopped what he was doing with sweat all over his forehead. He stood in the courtyard a little stiffly, allowing the two old people to praise him continuously.
None of the three had the intention of waking Xingxing up. At the breakfast table, Master's Wife lovingly touched Xiaowu's head and said to him, "Master's Wife will send a visiting card to the Anqing Marquis' residence in a moment. You should be able to see the Anqing Marquis's wife in three days at the latest. By then, I will definitely explain the situation to Xingxing. However, words alone are not enough to convince everyone, so there may not be a result soon."
She spoke slowly and softly to Xiaowu, explaining in detail all the twists and turns and some of her concerns.
Seeing that she had even considered so many steps ahead, Xiao Wu's eyes reddened unconsciously, and he choked up and said, "Thank you, Master's Wife..."
Master's wife and Master's grandfather are the only people in the world who care so much about him and Xingxing.
But the two brothers didn't even have much relationship with them. It was just the relationship between a master and his students. The master had so many students, so he and Xingxing were not the only ones missing.
But the two old men really cared about them, not only taking them into consideration, but were even willing to negotiate with the Anqing Marquis' Mansion for them.
Xiaowu didn’t know what relatives were like, but at this moment, he truly felt the warmth from his master’s wife.
It was an emotion that made him cry uncontrollably.
It tastes sour and astringent, yet exceptionally warm.
Seeing him suddenly burst into tears, the master's wife gently embraced him, wiped away his tears, held him like her own grandson, and gently patted his back with one hand.
"Good boy, don't cry. Master's wife loves you. You and Xingxing have had a hard time these years. Master's wife is a woman in the back house and doesn't have any great abilities. I'm so happy that I can help you now."
"Hmm..." Xiao Wu tentatively grabbed the old woman's sleeve for the first time, and felt the unfamiliar gentle pat on his back. He sobbed again and cried silently in her arms.
It turns out that in this world, besides the stars, there are people who feel sorry for you and will wipe your tears.
It turns out that there are such good people in the world...
For the first time, Xiaowu felt that being loved by elders was such a heart-wrenching and reluctant experience.
He always wanted Xingxing to find his relatives, but sometimes he would be confused, why didn't he have any relatives? Why was he born a beggar?
Could he also be a lost child?
Will there be someone who loves and cares for him one day?
In addition to these confusions, what is more important is fear.
He was very determined to help his brother find his family.
But he was also afraid that after he found his family, his brother would no longer be his brother.
My younger brother will become someone else's grandson, someone else's son, someone else's nephew, someone else's...
The only one not is Xiaowu’s younger brother.
But his younger brother is his only concern in this world. Xiaowu doesn’t know what to do after losing his younger brother.
In his mind, he and his younger brother formed a small, shabby home. If his younger brother was gone, he would have no home either.
How can Xiaowu, who has no home, continue to work hard to survive?
Xiaowu didn’t know, he was afraid of that day coming, so he hoped that he could be valuable.
He wants to protect his younger brother, to be his support, and more importantly... he hopes that he is still worthy of standing by his younger brother's side.
Even servants, guards, or even gatekeepers?
It doesn’t matter, Xiaowu is willing as long as he can stay with his younger brother.
But Xiaowu is willing, and are Xingxing willing?
Xingxing is willing, but are Xingxing’s family members willing?
Xiaowu couldn't think of any more answers. He could only hastily and panickily think of all the worst possible outcomes. Then, he kept these thoughts firmly in his heart and worked harder to grow and improve himself.
But the growth in one day, two days, one month, two months...it was too slow, so slow that Xiaowu wanted to cry.
But he didn't want to cry in front of his younger brother. He hoped that he would be a reliable, strong, firm brother who could be relied upon and trusted, rather than a fragile child who could not protect his younger brother.
And now, all his fears were finally vented silently in the warm embrace of an elder.
In the arms of his master's wife, he relieved himself of all the pressure and became a child who was loved by everyone.
At the corner of the corridor.
Xingxing sat on the wooden bench in the corridor with her chin in her hand, listening to her brother's suppressed crying and his flustered and complicated thoughts. Her long eyelashes trembled slightly, and she tilted her head to look at Qiuqiu who was "eavesdropping" with her.
"Next time, I want to be a brother." He whispered to Qiuqiu.
“……Ah?” Qiuqiu was stunned.
Xingxing's eyes were curved, but there was no soft smile in them as before. All the emotions in her eyes were calm and peaceful. She whispered to Qiuqiu, "Next time, I want to be a brother."
This is the first time that Xingxing has made demands on his own mission.
Qiuqiu was stunned for a few seconds, then looked at Xiaowu who was quietly lying in the old man's arms and crying, and he probably understood Xingxing's thoughts.
It hesitated for a moment, then said hesitantly: "But Xingxing, even if you become a brother next time, the world will not change."
"You want to be a big brother because of Xiaowu, but Xiaowu can't be your little brother or sister."
It flew over, rubbed the child's face which was a little cold in the early morning, and coaxed him softly: "It's not easy to be a big brother, and it's not easy to be a little brother either. This big brother is very good to you, so Xingxing doesn't think about the next world first, but be a good little brother in this world first, okay?"
The stars understood.
Xingxing knew that Qiuqiu was right.
He wants to be a brother because he has a brother, not because of other kids.
He really just wanted to be Xiaowu's brother and not any other kid's brother.
But this world is fixed.
"A younger brother can also protect his older brother. It's not only the older brother who can protect the younger brother." Qiuqiu was still coaxing him, hoping that he would not get stuck in a rut.
Xingxing is not the type of person who would dwell on trivial matters.
He pursed his lips and thought about it seriously, then said to Qiuqiu: "Well, I will protect my brother too."
When her brother wiped away his tears, got up from his master's wife's arms, and buried his head in his food with a red face, Xingxing finally got up and walked out.
Qiuqiu looked at the tiny back of his cub and suddenly felt that the stars seemed to have changed a lot in this world.
In the past, he always slowly integrated into the world from the perspective of an observer and slowly accepted strangers and relatives.
But it seems that from beginning to end, the stars in this world have never looked at Xiaowu as a bystander.
Why?
Is it because Xiaowu can distinguish between the stars of the past and the stars of the present in his heart?
Or is it that although Xingxing has lost her memory in her missions to other worlds, her soul has already acquired the warmth of a human cub?
Or maybe both?
Qiuqiu doesn’t know whether this is a good change, because he wants Xingxing to experience a different life and more love, but he also doesn’t want Xingxing to be hurt by human emotions.
Maybe it is a greedy ball. Anyway, it just wants the stars to get all the good things!
After breakfast, the two kids went to school together in the teacher’s carriage.
After school in the evening, Master Fu wanted to take them home again, but Xiaowu shook his head and refused.
"Master, my brother has to go back to take medicine." Xingxing didn't take medicine yesterday afternoon and this morning. Xiaowu also wanted his brother's mouth not to taste so bitter with every meal. But he had to go back to take medicine today because Xingxing's face was a little pale before taking the medicine at noon.
This prescription was not the best one, because they did not have the connections to hire the best doctor in Kyoto, and this was one of the reasons why Xiaowu wanted his brother to go home.
Imperial power and wealth.
Xiaowu understands how important it is more every day than the day before.
When he returned home, Xingxing took the medicine but did not wash up and go to bed immediately.
He held the pen and slowly drew a little man on the white paper.
Xingxing is very good at drawing. Even though he has never learned it in this world, Xiaowu can understand every little person he draws!
So Xiaowu’s brother’s filter was thickened by a hundred layers.
Xingxing drew the martial arts combos that Qiuqiu had compiled for his brother in the morning. Every time he finished drawing one, his brother next to him would immediately stretch out his claws to grab one over, and then perform them all over again from beginning to end.
He played with great vigor, but Xingxing was too slow. When he finished the last picture, his brother had already lay down beside him due to exhaustion.
Xingxing reorganized the papers that her brother had pulled away, then rummaged through the space and found a small clip, and clipped the edges of the papers together, so that it became a simple book.
"Brother, here~" Xingxing squatted beside her brother holding the book, and stretched out her little hand to poke his hard flesh.
Xiaowu was so tired that he didn't even have the strength to raise his hands. He called out in a soft voice to his brother to just cover him with the book.
Xingxing obediently covered his brother's stomach with the book to keep him warm.
Then he squatted beside and watched for a while, then moved the stool away and lay down himself.
Seeing his action, Xiaowu's eyelids twitched. Before his brother lay down, he straightened up his sore body, stretched out his arm across his brother to serve as a pillow, and pulled off the book on his stomach and the cushion on the stool to place them behind his back.
After doing all this, he completely exhausted the last bit of battery and the computer crashed on the spot.
Xingxing lay beside her brother, with her head resting on his arm, and looked at the beams and tiles above with him.
"Brother, I won't leave you." The child promised earnestly in silence.
Xiaowu didn't say anything, and Xingxing didn't speak either.
After a long while, Xiao Wu's voice finally rang out: "Master's wife said that she will find your family and explain everything to you soon. Maybe..."
Maybe in a few days, Xingxing will be taken home by her relatives.
"No way~"
The little boy shook his head, swaying his head on his brother's arm. Xiaowu was silently grinning at his brother's movements, and even the confusion in his heart was crushed away by the soreness of his arm.
Xingxing turned around and said to him, "Brother, I am a little fairy. A little fairy will not abandon you."
This sentence, which made no sense at all, miraculously convinced Xiaowu.
He also tried to turn around, and his eyes, which had been tired and lifeless just now, now looked at the stars brightly. Qiyi asked, "Really?"
Xingxing nodded: "More real than my brother's tears."
Xiao Wu: “…”
Suddenly, something clicked in my mind: My brother meant that my tears are like pearls!!!
Qiuqiu: “…”
Are you just coaxed into doing this?
Just this one sentence? ?
Xiaowu, can you please hold on for a while?
Xiaowu didn't need any weird support. He happily hugged his brother and said happily, "Xingxing, I will never leave you either. I will always protect you and be your big brother forever!!"
"But I'm a little fairy?" Xingxing teased her brother with curved eyes.
Xiao Wu was stunned for a second, and then quickly hugged him tightly, "I'm so awesome! I can be the brother of the little fairy Xing Xing!"
So Xing Xing also laughed, "Brother is the best!"
"Yeah! Xingxing and I are both super awesome! We're awesome together, and no one can separate us and bully us!!"
Xiaowu was very happy.
He didn't know why he was so happy.
But when he held his younger brother, he just felt so happy. It was as if his heart had grown a pair of small wings. It tried hard to fly high into the sky, and then secretly held the hand of the little fairy Xingxing.
Happy! Hehe~
-
The Royal Palace of Lebanon.
The current emperor was furious. The messy gold and silver utensils were thrown all over the floor. The palace servants knelt down tremblingly, with their foreheads pressed tightly against the cold ground. In the whole hall, there was only the emperor's almost crazy roar of anger: "Floods! Droughts! Locusts! Uprisings in various places! Emergency on the border! What do I keep those useless cysts for?! They only know how to take salaries and do nothing to be loyal to the emperor. How can they have the face to submit these memorials?!"
His clothes were open, his expression was angry, and his eyes were red. This was the current emperor, Li Changyong.
At his feet, the fallen gold and silver utensils, the shattered wine glasses, and the mottled and messy memorials all showed how unhappy he was with his impulsive act of reviewing the memorials today.
He was not worried that his country was in a period of decline. He was in a high position in the government, enjoying all the wealth and honor in the world. He was born noble and unparalleled. Anything that displeased him should not exist, and all those who made him angry were flatterers and traitors.
No one would laugh at his absurdity.
Because in the court, all the ministers who dared to give advice were excluded from the hall by him in every possible way.
And those traitors who he saw as having rebellious intentions and ambitions were all dealt with by him with drastic measures.
So in his eyes, his country was in good order, with good governance and harmonious people, and it should be peaceful forever.
But now those ministers made him more and more displeased.
They can't even handle small matters. They only know how to submit memorials to complain every day but don't know how to work hard to solve the problems themselves. In his eyes, these people are simply a group of corrupt officials who deserve to be executed!
But what is the truth?
The fact is that the winter snow disaster caused countless people in the Li State to be crushed to death, frozen to death, and starved to death, and the roads were littered with starving people.
After the spring, the tree bark and grass roots that had been dug up and eaten in the winter did not grow back. The heavy taxes and levies made the people unable to afford it, so a large number of people had to become bandits and pirates in order to make a living. However, in this way, more honest people who were unable to resist suffered.
There is no rooster crow for thousands of miles in the red land.
Large numbers of common people became migrating refugees. The inaction of officials and the court had long made the lower-class people of Li complain. Faced with internal and external troubles, the border was in a state of emergency, banditry arose everywhere, and waves of uprisings arose one after another... There were more corpses on the roadside, and the figures of the people in the farmlands were becoming more and more hunched and old.
The drought has already begun to take shape before summer.
Before summer even arrived, the disease began to grow silently.
It’s not summer yet…and the people still can’t survive this barren spring.
But the emperor couldn't see this. The memorials submitted were rejected by him and were full of insults. Some were even thrown into the fire and burned to ashes.
The worries expressed between the lines of the local officials' writings became proof of their incompetence, the fuel that ignited the emperor's anger, but also an insignificant groan.
The officials high up in the temple couldn't see it either, because they were too busy trying to please the emperor, building relationships, proving their loyalty to the emperor, and describing a prosperous era with peaceful rivers and seas.
Those scholars who hold books and shake their heads while reading through them cannot see that they are busy writing articles and poems, attending one literary gathering after another, reciting one poem after another, chanting about love and romance, and singing about the love and hatred in the world. Their goal is to pass the imperial examinations and to pass the palace examinations. They always talk about working for the country and the people, and being officials, but the only thing they don't see between their words is what the common people are.
No one can see it.
Except the people themselves.
They saw corpses infested with maggots lying on the roadside with no one to collect them.
He saw the bloodstains he had knocked out in front of the government office.
They were like trapped beasts, unable to find a way to survive in this dynasty.
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