Chapter 10: Relaxing under the bamboo, with warm sunshine in my heart
The morning dew gradually evaporated in the sun, and the mist in the bamboo forest dissipated, revealing a clear expanse of green. The water stains on the bluestone slabs shrank into small puddles, reflecting the swaying bamboo leaves overhead, like shattered jadeite scattered on the ground.
Xiaoyanzi sat in a horse stance, beads of sweat trickling down her cheeks and onto her moon-white shorts, creating a dark smudge. She had been in this position for nearly an hour, her legs aching like they didn't belong to her, her knees shaking like leaves in the autumn wind. Yet, she gritted her teeth and refused to utter a single word, her eyes fixed on the thickest bamboo ahead, as if she could peer through it.
"Keep your waist straight, don't slump." Xiao Jian's voice came from the side, and the bamboo stick in his hand tapped her lower back lightly again, "Sinking your Qi into your Dantian doesn't mean that you should release all your strength in your legs." He was wearing shorts of the same color, standing in the morning light, his posture straight like a young bamboo, but his eyes were filled with a helpless smile.
Little Swallow secretly rolled her eyes, mentally cursing the bamboo stick a thousand times. What was this about sinking Qi into the Dantian? She just felt her stomach growling with hunger, longing for the freshly steamed rice cakes in the kitchen—sweet and soft, a hundred times better than this rigid horse stance. She quietly twitched her toes to relieve the numbness, but she moved too quickly, her body lurching, and she nearly fell forward.
"Ah!" She screamed and reached out to hold the bamboo next to her, but her palm hit nothing and she was tripped by the bamboo branch. She fell hard to the ground, and her butt hit the bluestone slab, making her grimace in pain.
Xiao Jian quickly put down the bamboo stick and walked over. He bent down to pull her. Seeing her wrinkled face, he couldn't help laughing: "What? Can you do a horse stance and turn yourself into a sitting cannon?"
"It hurts!" Xiaoyanzi covered her buttocks, her eyes red, not because of the pain, but because of the embarrassment. She clearly wanted to act better, like she could learn martial arts, but she ended up in such a mess. She knocked away Xiao Jian's outstretched hand, supported herself on the ground and stood up, patted the dust off her pants, and said stubbornly, "I sat down to rest for a while on purpose. Who told you not to let me move?"
Xiao Jian raised an eyebrow, but didn't expose her. He just put the bamboo stick aside and said, "Okay, rest for a quarter of an hour." He walked to the stone table, picked up the kettle, poured a cup of warm water, and handed it to her, "Drink slowly, don't choke."
Xiaoyanzi took the cup and gulped down half of it. The water flowed down her mouth and down her neck, feeling cool and refreshing, which actually washed away her embarrassment. She sat on the stone bench next to Xiao Jian, looking at the courtyard outside the bamboo forest. The sunlight had climbed over the high courtyard wall and shone on the lotus pond, making it dazzling.
"Brother, when do you think I can learn to fly?" She twisted the tassels at the end of her braids with her fingers, her voice full of longing. "It's like what you said, 'a swallow flying through the forest,' without even touching the ground, just soaring away in an instant."
"Wait until you can hold the horse stance for two hours and breathe in and out calmly, then we can talk about flying." Xiao Jian picked up a piece of rice cake he had just brought from the kitchen and handed it to her. "First, build a solid foundation. Otherwise, no matter how high you fly, a gust of wind will blow you down."
Xiaoyanzi took a big bite of the rice cake, the sweet fragrance spreading in her mouth. She mumbled, "I won't be blown down." She remembered that in her previous life, on the roof of the slum, Liu Qing taught her to use the momentum to jump farther, and Liu Hong clapped and cheered below. The laughter seemed to still ring in her ears. "I used to... I mean, I dreamed that I could fly very steadily and even take someone with me."
Xiao Jian looked into her sparkling eyes, the light hidden in them not like she was talking in her sleep. He didn't ask any further questions, just rubbed her hair. "It's good to have ambition, but you have to eat one bite at a time, and practice martial arts step by step." He pointed to his father watering the flowers in the distance. "Look, even when my father plants lotus roots, he has to bury them in the mud first, so they can bloom next year."
Little Swallow looked in the direction he pointed. Her father, dressed in a navy blue gown, was bending over to water the roses by the lotus pond. His movements were slow and leisurely, the sunlight falling warmly on his white beard. Her mother sat on a bamboo chair in the porch, needle and thread in hand, sewing a new shorts for her. The stitches were as fine as the stars in the sky.
She suddenly felt that even the pain and exhaustion of horse stance held a sweetness. In her previous life, she'd been displaced, never to have experienced such a life. With parents who loved her, a brother to protect her, and martial arts skills to learn, she could cherish this sweetness herself.
"I understand." Xiaoyanzi stuffed the last bite of rice cake into her mouth, stood up, patted her pants, and assumed the horse stance again. Although her legs were still shaking, her waist was straight. "Xiao Jian, you supervise me again. I will definitely not shake this time!"
Xiao Jian looked at her shoulders, which had tightened again, and the smile on his lips deepened. He picked up the bamboo stick, but he was not as strict as before, just leaning on it gently in his hand: "Okay, I won't hit you this time, just keep steady yourself."
Sunlight filtered through the bamboo leaves, casting flickering spots of light on her. Little Swallow gritted her teeth, muttering to herself, "Little Swallow, come on! For my parents, for my brother, and for the sweetness of this yard, I must learn martial arts." The wind rustled through the bamboo forest, as if cheering her on and singing a gentle song for these peaceful days.
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