Chapter 4: Strengthening the Body and Unifying the Mind

  It's another noon, the big sun in the sky makes the leaves slightly curled up. The lively local dog has been staying under the tree in a cool place, sticking out its tongue and watching the chicken scratching sand on the ground. The children on the farm have tasted the sweetness of yesterday and today they are even more energetic in digging up frogs.

  Just after drinking milk, Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan also couldn't bear the fatigue of their young bodies, and lay down there sleeping soundly. Cherry was still sitting on the stool at the door, dozing off, while Zhang Wangshi, also known as Qiaoer, Zhang Xiaobao's mother, was busy with things around the farm.

  The butler went around, sometimes going to the front to see if there was anything that would affect the young master's sleep, and sometimes going to the back to urge people to build the house quickly without making too much noise.

  After sleeping for a while, Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan almost woke up at the same time. They opened their eyes to look around, discussed it, and prepared to exercise their bodies. First, they had to learn how to walk, possibly because they were always being carried by others, so they still didn't know how to walk until now.

  "Who would have thought your dad is still a bookworm?" Wang Juan teased, nudging Zhang Xiaobao.

  "Bookworm or not, as long as I saw him and knew it was my dad, he even lectured me on the Analects of Confucius yesterday, what do I know about that stuff?" Zhang Xiaobao recalled his father's appearance when he saw him yesterday. His father was indeed a bookworm, but upon hearing his son call out to him, he was just as delighted as any normal person and immediately hugged him and started reciting the Analects of Confucius.

  "The Tang Dynasty's imperial examination is not easy to pass, I don't know if your dad can succeed." Wang Juan was a bit envious of Zhang Xiaobao, mainly because she had never seen her parents in this life, and they had abandoned her at someone else's house. She even drank milk with Zhang Xiaobao's wet nurse, Zhang Wangshi, which wasn't as good as she imagined. Who made her own mother not have milk? Yesterday, when listening to them talking, it was mentioned.

  "Wrong, the Tang Dynasty's imperial examination is the easiest to take. As long as you have a good reputation and found the right person, there won't be any problem. This point isn't an obstacle for me either. I can even use money to pave a golden road for my dad. Yesterday they said that your parents are coming over today, so don't be shy when the time comes. Call out 'mom' and 'dad' as you should." Zhang Xiaobao was confident in his own abilities regarding this matter.

  "My own parents are still alive, but I have to call someone else's father and mother, all because of you." Wang Juan complained habitually.

  "Is it you, Sister Xianglin?"

  "Just talking won't work? Don't think that just because we sleep together, I'll marry you. Maybe I'll find someone better, humph!" Wang Juan started to take revenge.

  Zhang Xiaobao looked at Wang Juan again, sighed and said: "You're an old maid, thirty years old and haven't even had a boyfriend. Now you're acting like a child with me. How old are you? Can you find someone else? Can anyone treat you as well as I do? This is the Tang Dynasty, no matter how open-minded he is, it's still a patriarchal society. I'll take the loss, who made me drag you into this?"

  "Shut up and get down quickly." Wang Juan was clearly unwilling to hear Zhang Xiaobao speak like this, urging him to get down.

  Zhang Xiaobao poked his head down to take a look under the bed, estimating the height, and said uncertainly: "It's so high, I'll go down, it's not good if I fall, and even if I fall, I'll admit it, but what about you? Aren't we supposed to practice walking together?"

  "You're stupid, you went down, just below me, I'll jump on you, theoretically won't get hurt, you're chubby, like a meat cushion, hurry up and go down, don't give me excuses, 15 meters free fall without injury, 9 meters high wall climbed with bare hands, how can you be afraid of this little height?" Wang Juan pushed Zhang Xiaobao hard towards the edge of the bed.

  Zhang Xiaobao kept taking deep breaths, adjusting his state, looking at the bed and saying: "How about we practice on the bed now? Okay, okay, let's practice on the ground, don't push me, I'll do it myself. Like this, I'll turn around, slip out, you're on top, try to pull me up a bit, calm down, even if you throw me to death, you can't go back."

  Zhang Xiaobao said, putting his two small legs outside the bed first, holding Wang Juan's hand with one hand, and slowly sliding down, complaining as he slid: "What kind of thing is this? Cherry doesn't even think about it. The bed is bigger, but the child will roll over, what if they fall off? I don't know how to get something to block it."

  "Who has such a big kid who can turn over? Woke up to see no one around, the first thing is to cry, and then the cherry will know, wait a minute, we're both stupid, come on, help me throw down the quilt first, it can buffer a bit." Wang Juan tightly grasped Zhang Xiaobao's hand, suddenly thinking of a better way.

  Zhang Xiaobao climbed back up with great effort, and together with Wang Juan, they threw things down. The quilt was thrown directly, the mattress was kicked by two people together, and finally a layer was padded underneath.

  One roll, Zhang Xiaobao went down first, looked up at Wang Juan's lip language and said: "A bit shaken, it's okay, you go down."

  Wang Juan made sure that Zhang Xiaobao was really okay, and then she also flipped over and fell onto the mattress. As soon as she landed, her mouth opened wide, and just as she was about to get up, Zhang Xiaobao pressed down on her. "Don't move, let your internal organs calm down for a bit first, and then I'll help you lean against the bed and turn slowly."

  Wang Juan listened and waited for a moment, then slowly got up, hand in hand with Zhang Xiaobao, walking around the bed. When she found her feet unstable, she would hold onto the bed to steady herself. Although she had a sense of balance, it was hard for her leg muscles to support her. Fortunately, both of them were the kind of people who had suffered before.

  "Yesterday you said there was a way to make others believe us and do things according to our ideas, how to operate?" Having walked around the bed three times, Wang Juan asked Zhang Xiaobao beside her.

  "It's simple, as long as we can talk, there's a reason for it. Let's find two people to take care of us, and then I can deceive... no, guide them, make them think they should do what we say. I don't see any problem with that, you have to trust me." Zhang Xiaobao also walked while talking.

  The two of them just like that, as if strolling, chatting about future things, walking around the bed in circles, until they were a bit dizzy, Wang Juan suggested: "Let's go out for a walk, kids need to get some sun, it's not good to stay indoors all the time, lack of calcium."

  "It's okay now, I'm used to walking, let's move to a different place and wake up the cherry blossoms first." Zhang Xiaobao echoed.

  "What's the point of calling her? What if she doesn't let us out?" Wang Juan wanted to sneak out.

  "Do you want to see her die in front of us? I'll sneak out with you, but if my mom finds out we climbed down from the bed and went out on our own, and Cherry doesn't know about it, do you think she won't beat her to death?"

  "Well, this is highly likely, especially in such an era. If the existence of capital can risk being hanged for a 300% profit, then at least they will try to minimize risks and avoid them. But if a mother finds her child in danger, she won't even think about avoiding it, let alone hiding - just wake her up."

  Wang Juan thought for a moment and accepted Zhang Xiaobao's proposal.

  Two people came to an agreement, holding hands and walking to the still drowsy Cherry, Zhang Xiaobao stretched out his hand and gently pushed Cherry, waiting for Cherry to suddenly wake up and open her eyes, saying: "Sister Cherry, take us out for a walk."

  Zhang Xiaobao had tried his best to speak in a calm tone, but the result was not changed at all. Cherry heard these words and was so scared that she jumped up directly, looked at Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan again, and asked tremblingly: "You, how did you come down?"

  While speaking, Cherry couldn't care about anything else and ran directly to the bed, only to realize that the two kids had actually pushed all the quilts down. How is this possible?

  "Little lord, little lady, how did you two come down here?" Cherry didn't know what to say anymore, quickly rearranged the quilt and squatted in front of the two children, frowning.

  "Let's go for a walk outside." Zhang Xiaobao didn't want to say more, pointing his small hand outside, ignoring Sakura's surprised expression, and pulling Wang Juan's hand, they walked out slowly.

  Scared, Sakura hugged the two children tightly and was about to send them back. Wang Juan was really angry this time, and said to Sakura: "Go outside, go outside."

  She actually wanted to say more words, but was afraid of causing unnecessary trouble, and could only express her thoughts so briefly.

  The cherry looked at the two children with that 'angry' gaze, and finally got scared. She was afraid that the two children would say more things, especially to the lady. After thinking about it, she compromised and hugged the two children as they walked out.

  They finally made it outside, where Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan struggled to get down, under the tense gaze of Cherry, hand in hand, walking into the sunlight, slowly strolling along.

  "Sakura, how did you bring Bao Lang and Juan Juan out?" Just as Zhang Xiao Bao and Wang Juan were enjoying the sunshine, a voice suddenly appeared, startling Sakura, who looked at the two children walking there and didn't know what to say.

  As Zhang Wang entered the courtyard, she had just mentioned cherries when she suddenly discovered a miracle-like scene. Pointing at Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan, she said to a nearby couple: "Relatives, look quickly, Baolang and Jujuan can actually walk!"

  It's not necessary for her to say it, at this time, the two of them also saw the two children holding hands and walking back and forth.

  "Sister, really, they can walk now! Yesterday I heard the person you sent say that they would talk, but I didn't expect them to be able to walk on their own today. Look, they're so small and already know how to hold hands and walk." The woman was also excitedly saying this, wanting to get closer, but afraid of disturbing the two children as they walked.

  Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan of course heard these voices, and at the same time swept their eyes to the hands that were pulled up, wanting to explain that they held hands to maintain balance with each other, but couldn't say it out loud.

  Cherry was at a loss for what to do when Zhang Wang finally spoke up: "Cherry, not bad, you can bring Bao Lang and Juan Juan out for a walk, good job."

  After finishing speaking, he took out another wooden slip and threw it to Sakura, waiting for her to catch it in her hand and see the words on it. Sakura was finally excited, and on it was written "Twenty Wen".