Seeing the spiritual power's effect on Zhao Qingshan, Zhou Yuanyuan couldn't help but smile, and she became even more diligent in her cultivation. Seeing her loved ones improve and progress with her help was Zhou Yuanyuan's current goal. And the remnant soul residing in the wooden box—Zhou Yuanyuan couldn't forget it. When she achieved success in her cultivation, perhaps she could reunite her grandmother and grandfather in the wooden box? Zhou Yuanyuan wondered.
Here, I have to talk about Zhou Jiasheng.
After Zhou Jiasheng returned from Qingshan City, he would get up before dawn every day to practice with everyone, and he was not afraid of hardship or fatigue at all.
The blackmailing by Scarface and Xiaojiang in Qingshan City left a huge shadow in Zhou Jiasheng's little heart. Zhou Jiasheng only thought that one day when he was bullied by bad guys like Scarface, he would have the ability to deal with them by himself and would not need to rely on others to rescue him.
Every morning after practicing, Zhou Jiasheng, escorted by Wen Ziqing, would jog toward Sanhe Town. Although Zhao Guohui no longer worked at the Sanhe Town Supply and Marketing Cooperative, Zhou Jiasheng's preschool enrollment remained. He loved school and his friends. While Zhao Guohui was away, Wen Ziqing became Zhou Jiasheng's "guardian," taking him to school in the morning and picking him up in the afternoon to return to Zhaojiagou.
What normally takes an hour to walk was reduced to a distance of more than half an hour for Wen Ziqing and Zhou Jiasheng, down to a dozen or twenty minutes. This took them over a month of effort. Initially, Zhou Jiasheng would run until he could no longer, and Wen Ziqing would carry him on his back. Eventually, Zhou Jiasheng could easily make the journey from Zhaojiagou to Sanhe Town, relying solely on his short legs.
Zhou Yuanyuan was pleased to see her brother's progress. However, she felt sorry for Zhou Jiasheng's hard work at such a young age, and privately urged him to relax a bit. Children of Zhou Jiasheng's age in Zhaojiagou, besides helping the family collect firewood every day, would run around and play in the Daqing Mountains. Unlike him, who not only practiced martial arts but also studied, these courses were indeed a lot for an eight-year-old. Unlike Zhou Yuanyuan herself, a middle-aged woman disguised as a lolita, she could devote herself to cultivation all day.
Zhou Jiasheng listened to Zhou Yuanyuan's advice and simply shook his head. Grandpa had said that learning any skill required hardship. The more he endured now, the more powerful he would become. Studying made him wiser, and practicing martial arts increased his strength. Zhou Jiasheng couldn't bear to give up either. If he worked harder now, he would definitely learn more skills. Once he gained a certain level of strength, he could protect his sister and mother.
Poor little Zhou Jiasheng had no idea what a "monster" his sister was. Zhou Yuanyuan's martial arts prowess was so impressive that even Wen Ziqing couldn't withstand more than a few blows. After all, Wen Ziqing trained in the "Mortal Chapter" of the Zhao Clan's martial arts, while Zhou Yuanyuan trained in the "Immortal Cultivation Chapter."
Seeing Zhou Jiasheng's insistence, Zhou Yuanyuan stopped trying to persuade him. After all, it was a good thing for Zhou Jiasheng to want to learn a skill, and as his younger sister, she could only offer some help from behind.
Every five days, after Zhou Jiasheng fell asleep, Zhou Yuanyuan would sneak into his room and use her spiritual energy to comb his meridians, leaving behind a trace of it to nourish his bones and blood. It wasn't that Zhou Yuanyuan was lazy, but rather that Zhou Jiasheng was still young, his bones still underdeveloped. A five-day spiritual nourishment was the limit of what his body could endure. With Zhou Yuanyuan's covert help, Zhou Jiasheng grew rapidly. The eight-year-old was as tall as a ten-year-old, his body became much stronger, and even his already brilliant mind became even smarter.
Preschool classes were simple, and after a month, Zhou Jiasheng had mastered everything in the teacher's textbook. Every day, listening to the teacher repeat addition and subtraction within ten over and over again, Zhou Jiasheng gave up the opportunity to play with his friends and chose to stay home and study on his own.
Zhao Qingshan had someone borrow five years of elementary school textbooks for Zhou Jiasheng. Besides Zhao Qingshan and Zhao Yunxiang, there was also a young tutor, Wen Ziqing, at home. To please Zhou Jiasheng, her future brother-in-law, Wen Ziqing spared no effort in teaching him martial arts and textbook knowledge.
However, Zhou Jiasheng persisted with his daily morning jog. Every morning, Zhou Jiasheng and Wen Ziqing would run to Sanhe Town, buy steaming hot fried dough sticks and soy milk, and then run back to Zhaojiagou. This saved Zhao Yunxiang a lot of worry; at least she didn't have to make breakfast. The fried dough sticks and soy milk Zhou Jiasheng and Wen Ziqing bought from Sanhe Town and brought back to Zhaojiagou were still piping hot when the family started eating.
Three months later, Zhou Zhixin finally received a letter. In it, he explained that the army had approved Zhao Yunxiang and her son's departure, but that the destination would not be N City, but rather Kyoto. Zhou Zhixin had been transferred to the Kyoto guard regiment as battalion commander.
Zhou Yuanyuan found it a bit strange. Military transfers in China shouldn't be easy! Not to mention that Zhou Zhixin wasn't just being transferred horizontally, but rather being promoted from deputy battalion commander to full battalion commander. The Kyoto Guard Regiment, essentially the commanders' personal guards, was a highly sought-after place. Their family had no connections or power, so how had their father gotten so lucky to be transferred to such a prestigious unit?
Wen Ziqing was lost in thought after hearing this news. He knew the military situation better than Zhou Yuanyuan. It seemed there was an invisible hand helping Zhou Zhixin advance. Who was this person?
Wen Ziqing couldn't help but think of Zhou Xi's face. Wen Ziqing felt that Zhou Xi's concern for Zhou Zhixin was beyond the scope of ordinary people. After the first month of the lunar year, Zhou Xi made a special trip to Zhaojiagou and tried hard to invite Zhao Qingshan to work at Renhe Hospital in Jingdu, but Zhao Qingshan declined.
Zhou Yuanyuan, having knocked Zhou Xi unconscious in Sanhe Town, had avoided meeting Zhou Xi, using the excuse of going to play with her friend, Xiaocao. Wen Ziqing found Zhou Yuanyuan's seriousness amusing. However, Wen Ziqing wouldn't expose Zhou Yuanyuan's lies. How could a woman in her forties truly have fun playing with a little girl like Xiaocao? Zhou Yuanyuan jealously guarded the secret of her rebirth, so Wen Ziqing pretended not to know.
On that visit, Zhou Xi, besides trying to persuade Zhao Qingshan, was also trying to find out about Zhou Zhixin. Wen Ziqing, though a quiet man, was incredibly thoughtful. Ever since learning that Zhou Zhixin was Zhou Chunping's adopted son, Wen Ziqing had become suspicious of Zhou Xi's presence.
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