Chapter 008: Singing Nursery Rhymes with Earphones
After teaching a nursery rhyme, Sit put down the harp and looked at Sperian who was busy doodling.
Ever since he asked me for a notebook and a quill, I have been scribbling seriously in class every day.
Why graffiti?
Because the things he drew looked like words but not like words, they were crooked and completely unrecognizable. Whenever he got stuck in the middle of a sentence, the little cub would open his notebook to check and then continue.
Although the pronunciation is still a little lacking, at least I can understand it.
Due to Sperian's special characteristics, Sit often gave him extra lessons, corrected his incorrect pronunciation, increased his vocabulary, and analyzed him word by word.
Sperian has a positive attitude, is diligent and eager to learn, and asks questions when he doesn't understand something. Unfortunately, the results are not satisfactory.
Sid felt incredible.
Fairies and elves are both favored by the God of Light, gifted with extraordinary talents and fluent in various languages. They are renowned linguists and translators on the continent and are highly sought after. If an elf or fairy joins an adventuring team, they can travel freely across the world.
However, after the War of the Gods, the Elf King sealed off the Fairy Forest, no longer interfering with worldly affairs, and essentially cut off contact with the outside world. Only a few fairies and elves in need of experience, with the Elf King's permission, travel the continent disguised as humans. When they return, they bring a wealth of information.
So, even without going out, fairies and elves can understand the outside world.
In addition, there is a huge magic mirror in the Crystal Castle of the Elf Kingdom. As long as you cast a spell, you can see everything you want through the mirror.
Thinking too far ahead.
In short, Sperian, who has no talent for languages, is simply an outlier among the fairies.
Of course, Sit won't give up on Sperian because of this.
Fairies are a race that protects their young.
Even if the cub cannot learn Elvish, just teach it patiently a few more times.
After Shu Li finished composing the lyrics to the nursery rhyme, he looked up and met Xi Te's azure eyes. He immediately closed the notebook with a guilty conscience, but then, realizing that he was writing in Chinese characters, which Xi Te wouldn't be able to understand, he boldly opened it again.
His calligraphy lessons over the past decade weren't in vain; he could switch between various fonts with ease. His cursive writing was the fastest, but the least recognizable, so those who didn't understand would just think he was scrawling.
Shu Li's fairy body was still in its cub stage, with short, fat and delicate fingers. The first time he wrote, he could hardly hold the feather pen. It took him four or five days of practice before he gradually adapted.
But the written characters are completely incomparable to the beautiful characters of the past.
No wonder Xit's expression was indescribable when he first saw the words in the little notebook.
Shu Li secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
It’s okay if you don’t understand!
"Sperian, please speak more!" Sit said with a smile.
Elf cubs under one year old mainly learn spoken language. Only when they can speak fluently can they learn the elven language.
Oral English requires practice. If you don’t speak, you will never learn it well.
"Yes." Shu Li nodded obediently.
Although he only understood half of what Sitt said, he nodded in agreement. When a teacher is talking to a student, as long as the student adopts an attitude of "Yes, yes, you're right," he can get away with it 80% of the time.
Sure enough, Sit said no more, plucked the harp lightly, and said to all the fairy cubs, "Sing again."
Then, the familiar and brisk piano music sounded.
The goblin cubs waited for him to finish the prelude, then began to sing in unison.
This time, Shu Li did not write anything. Instead, she held a small notebook and sang along with everyone according to the lip-synced lyrics she had filled in.
“I have a big pot lid
Not round but square
Square lid is not easy to use
I took it to the blacksmith.
Ask him to help change it.
The blacksmith picked up the hammer and banged
Square pot lid becomes round
I happily returned home with the pot lid.
Met an old lady on the road
The old lady wanted to trade her roast chicken for my pot lid.
I see the roast chicken smells delicious
Agree to exchange pot lid for roast chicken
The roast chicken is fragrant and crispy
I want to eat it again after eating it once
La la la——
I want to eat it again after having eaten it once.”
After playing the last syllable, Xit looked at Shu Li with a smile.
Isn’t this a good song?
Except for some words that are not pronounced correctly, the overall performance is acceptable.
Shu Li grinned, revealing two newly grown front teeth.
He is a music student with a good sense of pitch. He can learn a song after listening to it once. He has no problem humming the melody of a nursery rhyme, but his singing of the lyrics is so-so - it's similar to foreigners learning Chinese, with a strong foreign accent.
If Xit knew the meaning of the lip-synced lyrics, he would definitely not laugh, and would probably be so angry that he would jump up and down.
Because the actual lyrics of this nursery rhyme tell the story of an elf and a dwarf.
The dwarves are well-known forging geniuses, and the continent's most advanced weapons and armor all come from their hands.
While traveling, an elf encountered a dwarf who was being hunted by a demon snake. The dwarf asked the elf for help, saying that if the elf could save him, he would give him his masterpiece, a high-level golden bow.
The bow is the weapon that elves are good at.
The elf agreed to his request, drove away the snake and saved his life.
However, after being rescued, the dwarf went back on his word and refused to hand over the golden bow.
The elf didn't force it and turned away.
The dwarf laughed triumphantly, but before he could finish his laugh, the magic snake suddenly appeared again and chased him fiercely.
The elf squatted on a high branch, watched the dwarf escape in a panic, and calmly put away the flute used to summon the magic snake.
The nursery rhyme uses humorous language to tell innocent and simple children to think twice before going out, not to rescue strangers on the street, and to stay away from untrustworthy people.
Shu Li has a limited vocabulary, so when Xit was telling stories, he only vaguely understood what he was saying, but relied on his strong comprehension ability to guess the direction of the story.
After finishing the lyrics, he specially marked the true gist of the story at the back to prevent it from being distorted by hearsay.
After learning nursery rhymes for the whole morning, it’s time for lunch.
Aisha prepared a sumptuous lunch for the cubs.
The two-month-old fairy cub has finally grown teeth and can eat complementary foods other than nectar.
A variety of fresh and juicy fruits, sweet jams, mellow milk, and baked crispy biscuits.
There was a plate of supplementary food next to the small silver bowl. After washing their hands, the cubs sat cross-legged on the vine table and ate with relish.
Shu Li had just finished singing a song called "Pot Lid and Roast Chicken" and was looking at the table full of fruits and sweets. She was craving for meat.
In his original world, he loved meat, but when he traveled to another world, he couldn't even see minced meat.
By the way, can fairies eat meat?
You'll have to ask Elsa about that.
Shu Li finished the last biscuit, burped, and her tender green eyes rolled around.
Aisha was cleaning up the cubs' empty bowls and plates when she suddenly felt a burning gaze and turned her head.
"Little Sperian, how can I help you?" she asked kindly.
Shu Li licked his lips and said hesitantly: "Um...eat..."
Oops, how do you say "meat" in Elvish?
He made a wait gesture to Elsa, opened the little notebook, and looked up the Elvish pronunciation of "meat".
One page, two pages, three pages… Strange, isn’t it?
Did Xit not teach me, or did I forget to record it?
Shu Li scratched the back of his head, closed the notebook, and looked at Aisha helplessly.
Forget it, it’s not too late to talk about it later after I learn more vocabulary.
His teeth are only half grown at the moment, so he probably can't chew meat.
When Aisha heard him say the word "eat", she thought he was not full and asked her for food, so she put two small fruits on the empty plate in front of him.
She calculated the amount of food she gave to the cubs, so that except for one or two with big appetites, the others were mostly full.
“Eat!”
It is understandable that the cubs' appetite increases as they grow day by day.
Shu Li touched his round belly and reluctantly picked up the fruit. The fruit was small and could be eaten one by one, but he was very full at the moment and couldn't eat any more.
He stuffed the two small fruits into the small bag on his waist, patted them, and looked up at Elsa with a sweet smile.
I asked Aisha for this small bag not long ago to hold my notebook and quill.
When Elsa gave him the small bag, she told him that it was an ordinary cloth bag, and that he could only get his own storage bag after he learned magic.
Shu Li's eyes sparkled.
No wonder Elsa and Sit often take out large objects from the small bags on their waists. It turns out that it is the legendary storage bag, which is equipped with space magic and can hold many things.
Aisha looked at the cub's adorable smile with a gentle gaze.
Sperian is good in every way except that he is slow to learn to speak.
I hope he can overcome the difficulties and learn the Elven language well. You know, in a month, the fairy cubs will leave the nursery and enter the fairy forest to live.
If you can't speak well, you will easily suffer losses.
Shu Li had no idea of Aisha's worries. He found Red Hair and White Hair who were well fed and watered.
"Elie, Angela, go play!"
Disio made a stern face and corrected himself for the Nth time: "My name is Disio."
Angel put his hands on his hips, "I'm Angel."
"Oh, okay, Dizio, Angel." Shu Li readily agreed. Initially, she might have felt a little embarrassed for calling the wrong name, but now... she's not blushing or panting anymore.
In fact, he knew the correct pronunciation and did not make any mistakes when reciting it silently in his mind, but when he opened his mouth to speak, his mouth and tongue had their own ideas and changed the tone abruptly.
Maybe this is what is called "saying one thing and thinking another"?
"Sperian is a big fool - lululu -"
A plump, brown-haired goblin cub made faces and laughed at Shu Li.
Shu Li frowned.
It's him again!
His name is Budno, and he is a fairy cub who likes to go against him after he regains his intelligence.
To say he was being rude might be a bit of an exaggeration. After all, cubs are simple-minded, and their emotions are all expressed on their faces. One day in class, Sit asked Shu Li to answer a question, and Shu Li got three wrong in a row. Budno pointed at him and laughed.
Shu Li himself didn't care, but Desio and Angel rushed forward to fight with Budno in order to protect him.
From then on, they had a grudge against each other.
Whenever Shu Li called the wrong name or said the wrong thing, Budno would deliberately come over to laugh at him in revenge.
Shu Li, an adult, was magnanimous enough not to argue with the child. In addition, he was not good at speaking and could not win the argument.
However, the more he ignored Budno, the more Budno mocked him.
"Sperian is a little mute, a little mute!"
The little followers behind him parroted and shouted in unison: "Sperian is a little mute, little mute——"
Ever since Shu Li revealed his nature as a poor linguist, his prestige among the fairy cubs plummeted. In addition, after the cubs became smarter, their personalities and temperaments began to show, and they no longer blindly worshipped him, so many small groups emerged.
Budno and the three little elves around him are a small group. They usually act together, play together, and play games together.
Although Shu Li's prestige has declined, Dizio and Angel firmly support him as the leader and will never allow other cubs to laugh at him.
Disio stuck out his tongue at Budno, not wanting to be outdone. "Lululu, Budno is the big idiot! He fell into the pond while washing his face and was almost swallowed by a big fish."
Angel then revealed the secret: "Who is crying? Oh, it's Budno!"
Budno blushed.
The two-month-old goblin cub already has a sense of shame.
Because he was such a voracious eater, he was fatter than the other cubs. One morning, while washing his face in the pond, he plucked a small leaf. The leaf couldn't bear his weight and was submerged. As luck would have it, a large fish emerged from the water, opened its mouth to suck water, and nearly sucked him in. Fortunately, Elsa saw him and used magic to drive the fish away, saving his life.
Back on shore, Budno became more and more frightened and burst into tears uncontrollably.
Elsa told him that the fish in the pond were friends of the goblins and would not eat their young. After coaxing him for a long time, he finally stopped crying.
Unfortunately, this scene was seen by other fairy cubs, and they laughed at it for a while.
Now when he heard Discio and Angel mention this, he felt ashamed and annoyed. He pouted, flapped his wings, and pounced on them aggressively.
Shu Li envied the cubs' fluent bickering, but she stood in front of Dizio and Angel without showing any weakness, saying word by word, "No, fighting, or you'll be punished!"
God knows how hard it is for him to speak long sentences.
Budno thought that Aisha's punishment was to reduce her food supply, so he stopped suddenly and suppressed his anger with difficulty.
He endured it in order to eat!
He pouted, snorted coldly, and flew away with his little follower to play somewhere else.
Shu Li sighed, put his arms around the shoulders of Desio and Angel, and said with a touched look: "Good brothers!"
He said these three words in his native language, but Disceo and Angel repeated them in clear voices: "Good brothers!"
Shu Li: T^T
Why was it so hard for him to learn Elvish while it was so easy for them to learn Chinese?
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