Chapter 7: The Heart Method of Departing from Fire

  "Slow down while eating, slow down... don't choke... you won't starve..., don't use your hands, use chopsticks!"

  Zhou Hua sat across from her little brother, Dog Egg, who was wolfing down his food. She felt both annoyed and amused, unsure of what to do about her little brother's recent behavior. He used to be so well-behaved, but over the past few months, he had become more and more disobedient. He would often run off into the mountains for no reason, returning home covered in sweat and claiming he was practicing martial arts. But he was just a small child, what kind of martial arts could he possibly be practicing? His mother had tried to discipline him by withholding food when he was late coming home, but Dog Egg had outsmarted her by going to his sister's house to beg for food instead.

  "Sister, it's delicious, really delicious! Your cooking is the best, even better than mom's!" Dog Egg muttered to himself as he ate, flattering Zhou Hua with a few sentences. As a result, Zhou Hua was beaming with joy, proudly showing off her big belly and occasionally chatting with him.

  "You little brat, you're not old, but you've got a lot of tricks up your sleeve. Just eat and stop flattering!" Wang Tianlei sat not far away, holding a thread-bound book, expressing his dissatisfaction with his younger brother-in-law.

  "Hey, brother-in-law, what book are you reading?!"

  It all started from a month ago when Dog Egg first came to his sister's house for a free meal, he discovered the book that Wang Tianlei was holding in his hand and saw the four big words "Lihuo Heart Method" on the cover.

  Judging from the name alone, Dog Egg was able to determine that this was a martial arts secret book. Compared to the excitement when he first saw the book, Dog Egg had already calmed down a lot now.

  Because he has already memorized the entire book.

  As soon as he saw the four characters, Dog Egg rushed up and took a few glances at the book. From the text and graphics on the book, it was clear that this was an internal martial arts manual, and it was no less profound than the Great Strength Golden Gong method taught by Wang Tianlei.

  After that, Dog Egg didn't come home for dinner every three or five nights, pretending to freeload but actually hiding a secret recipe.

  Wang Tianlei treasured the "Lihuo Heart Method" in his hands, and usually kept it tightly closed. However, he had a habit of taking it out to glance at it every evening after dinner, which naturally gave Dog Eggzi an opportunity.

  As for Gou Danzi, Wang Tianlei naturally couldn't raise any guard against him either.

  A three or four-year-old child doesn't understand anything, so even if he's shown it, it doesn't matter. Taking advantage of Wang Tianlei's relaxed attitude, Dog Egg spent a month memorizing the text and oral formulas in "The Heart Method of Departing from Fire". The book isn't thick, only ten or twenty pages, all written in Chinese characters, much simpler than the English words he had learned in his past life. However, he still didn't dare to practice because he hadn't fully memorized the diagrams on it.

  He, who had practiced the mighty Golden Qigong, naturally knew that the route of internal energy flow could not have any deviation. Once a deviation occurred, it would either lead to madness or death. This good-for-nothing had the ability to recite texts from memory, but lacked experience in memorizing graphics. Although he managed to recall them one by one, he didn't dare guarantee their complete accuracy.

  So he would seize every opportunity to take a glance, in order to verify whether the images in his mind were correct or not.

  "As for 'Brother-in-law, what book are you reading?' he had asked this question several times, but each time the answer was just three words."

  "I don't know!"

  Before, he would always go "oh" after hearing this answer and wouldn't ask again.

  But today is different, because he only has the last picture to confirm, so he needs to find a starting point to take another look and determine the final step.

  After finishing the last bite of rice, Dog Egg ran to Wang Tianlei's side again, his little head close to the book, his eyes shining brightly, "Brother-in-law, you don't know what this book is, why do you read it every day?!"

  "Because my father is illiterate!" Wang Tianlei was asked to the pain by Dog Egg's one sentence, put the book in his hand on his knee, and said with some anger, "If I were literate, I wouldn't have studied this book repeatedly!"

  "What does the picture in this book mean?!" Dog Egg suddenly picked up the book from his leg, turned it over and flipped through it. He happened to flip to the last page, revealing the pattern on the last page in front of his eyes.

  "These diagrams are the running routes of internal energy!" Wang Tianlei said to himself, "Unfortunately, these diagrams can only be fully understood when combined with the text above!"

  "You don't know characters, can learn!" Dog Danzi's gaze stayed on the last page of "Lihuo Heart Method", and he said casually, "Isn't Lao Mangzi literate?"

  "Ah, how come I didn't think of that?!" Wang Tianlei suddenly let out a strange cry and his body, which had been leaning against the chair, suddenly straightened up. "Although Lao Mangzi can't see, he can still teach people to recognize characters!"

  "Right, right! I also want to learn how to recognize characters!" Dog Egg said, taking a last look at the "Heart Method of Separating Fire", and gently putting it down. "Brother-in-law, after you've learned it, teach me how, okay?!"

  "That old cheat has nothing better to do, and no one would be fooled by him anyway. Why not let him open a school in the village to teach us how to read? Not just me, but others in the village who have the heart for it can come learn too. Especially those little rascals who run around causing trouble all day, bring them over to learn some characters! And those hunters, full of energy and vigor, let them practice their skills after a long day and then learn some characters too - that way they can calm down and change their hot-headed ways. Plus, this way the old cheat can earn some food money and not have to pretend to be pitiful at the village entrance all day!"

  "Is this okay?!" Zhou Hua heard Wang Tianlei's words and a hint of doubt flashed across her face, "Can they come?"

  "Whether they are willing or not is their business, such things can only rely on volunteering. On the other hand, let all the young people in the village like Dog Egg come if they want to. Alas, I've lost out in this life for being illiterate!"

  He sighed at this point, and his breath seemed to carry a sense of having gone through all the ups and downs.

  "What's wrong with you? You're only twenty years old, but you're acting like a seventy or eighty year old man!"

  Hearing Wang Tianlei's sigh, Zhou Hua frowned and pinched Wang Tianlei discontentedly.

  "Teach us to read?" The dog egg on the side was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly understood, and admired Wang Tianlei again. Isn't this just like eliminating illiteracy? In this era, the cultural level of the common people is extremely low. In a small mountain village like theirs, not counting the freak Dog Egg, there are only a handful of people who can really read, and that old cheat is one of them, but he's blind.

  Moreover, in the eyes of people at that time, at least in the eyes of these villagers, being literate actually had no great use. In their eyes, reading and writing were things that those big masters in the county town did, while their tasks were simply to hunt during the day, farm, and hug their wives at night to reproduce the next generation.

  What Wang Tianlei thought of was much more than that of ordinary mountain people, but this kind of thing would be very difficult to implement.

  "Alright, brother-in-law, I also want to learn how to read and write. Can you talk to Dad about it later and send me there too?"

  "Of course, you're still young, learning to read early on will be beneficial for your future. Isn't your father-in-law planning to send you to Qingyang Village as an apprentice? If you learn to read, your prospects will be much better than ordinary people!" Wang Tianlei patted Dog Egg's little head and said with a smile.

  The little rascal struggled a few times, freeing his head from Wang Tianlei's grasp. "Alright, brother-in-law, when are you going to let the old blind man teach you how to read? You have to tell me about it!"

  "Don't call him Old Blind Man anymore, from now on he's your teacher. You must show respect to teachers!" Wang Tianlei's expression turned serious, and he said solemnly, "This is the rule, this is reason. You must remember that at any time, reason and rules can never be neglected!"

  "Yes, brother-in-law!" Dog Danzi hastily nodded his head, with a look of being at ease and willing to accept instruction.

  "Alright, alright, Dog Egg, you've eaten too, it's time to go home. If you don't go back now, you'll get scolded by your mom again!"

  "Oh, I see, thank you sister, sister, I'm leaving!" Dog Egg heard this and felt a great sense of relief in his heart, he quickly ran away from Wang Tianlei's house.

  "This is great, the last picture has been confirmed, and I can also use this opportunity to cover up my weakness in recognizing characters with Lao Mangzi. Not bad, really not bad. My brother-in-law is indeed a talented person, it's a pity that he's hiding in this small mountain village. However, if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have been so lucky!"

  Gou Danzi and San Gouzi Er Gouzi lived in a room, but the house was very big. Although Lao Zhou's family wasn't wealthy, they had plenty of space since they lived in the mountains. The three brothers slept in separate beds, each with their own earthen bed. Although the earthen beds were rough and not luxurious, they were warm and solid.

  Gou Danzi's bed was against the south wall, on which there was a hole just large enough to let in the bright moonlight from outside the window.

  He crawled onto the bed, covered himself with the quilt, and Dog Egg's hands searched under the bedding for a few moments before pulling out several crumpled pieces of paper. Under the moonlight shining through the small hole, he carefully examined the papers, which had a nude human figure drawn on them in charcoal. The figure was marked with multiple black lines, and at each intersection point, the names of various acupoints were written in fine print. These were exactly the illustrations that Dog Egg had memorized from the "Lihuo Heart Method". Today, he made his final confirmation!