Chapter 26: Zhi Quan's Weakness

  Luo Er looked at Lu Xiang Sheng with a sullen expression, "How did you suddenly become so cautious today? What's the danger in this? From young to old, it's always been like this. Climbing up and down is my specialty. Don't believe me? You can go ask Xiao Xuan. When I was young, I even had a nickname called 'bandit'!"

  Xuan Saint's face was filled with helplessness, and Xuan looked at the two of them, laughing and saying to Xuan Saint, "Just let her go up, indeed, her house-robbing skills are even better than my brother's! Otherwise, how can she be called a female bandit? Haha......"

  Xuan Sheng furrowed his brow, staring at Luo Er, while Chen Zhi Quan suddenly became energetic and started climbing up the ladder without saying a word. As he climbed, he muttered to himself, "It's not like it's a big deal or anything! You don't need to worry about me, I'm worried that you won't be able to do it! Anyway, someone has to go up there, so just take your time and struggle with it... watch me say I'll go up and I'll really go up..."

  Finally, when he finished muttering to himself, he also climbed onto the rooftop. He looked gloomily at a pile of things on the rooftop and asked Luoliu, "Luoliu, what do you want? I'll throw it down for you now!"

  "Look up there," Luo Er said, rubbing his eyes and pointing. "You should find two iron frames with three legs each! I want that one!"

  "Ah!" Zhi Quan responded, searching all over the rooftop. His efforts were not in vain, and he finally found what Luo Er had mentioned - a three-legged thing! He pulled an iron frame to the edge of the roof and asked Luo Er, "Is this it?"

  The child nodded and looked up at him: "It's this one, and there's another one. You throw this one down first, then go find the other one!"

  Looking at the three people under the ladder, Chen Zhiquan thought for a moment and recalled, "But I'm telling you! You'd better stay away from me. My physical education is my worst subject, especially throwing shot put, I've never thrown it accurately, but instead threw the ball onto our teacher's face, almost smashing his face into an iron plate..."

  Listening to Chen Zhiquan's hearty laughter on one side and his endless boasting about his past glorious history on the other, the three of them shook their heads in silence, retreating because no one wanted to become another tragic figure under him!

  It's okay, maybe today is a lucky day for the kids to hide far away. Chen Zhiquan didn't hit anyone, but he got stuck on the roof and doesn't want to come down!

  "Chen Zhiquan, hurry up and come down! We still need to use the ladder later!" Lao'er stood in the yard with her hands on her hips, looking up at Zhiquan.

  But Zhi Quan shook his head and played dumb, "Aren't you guys going to build a bed? Building a bed doesn't need a ladder, you guys go ahead and build the bed first! I'll play up here for a bit! After a while, I'll come down by myself..."

  Looking at Chen Zhiquan's entangled appearance, Luo Er and Xiao Xuan reluctantly pulled two iron frames into the main room, while Xuan Sheng also followed in to help.

  "Xiao Xuan, move that iron frame forward a bit, or the bed won't be stable!" Luo Er said to Shen Xiao Xuan while holding onto the iron frame.

  "Hmm!" Xiaoxuan moved the iron frame in her hand forward a bit.

  Xuan Sheng didn't understand anything, so he could only stand aside and watch as Luo Er and Xiao Xuan skillfully assembled the iron frame. He shrugged his shoulders and said to Luo Er with a helpless expression, "Don't bother building it, I'll just call Jiaju City to deliver a bed instead. This handmade bed won't be comfortable for Grandpa to sleep on!"

  Luo Er smiled and said, "No need! This bed is actually very easy to assemble! Look, it's done now! Just put the wooden boards on top, fix them, then take the paper shell and cover it, and finally put the mattress on, isn't that good enough? Why bother spending money to buy one? Didn't Chairman Mao say, 'Self-reliance, adequate food and clothing'?"

  Xuan Sheng looked at Luo Er in front of her, this Luo Er who could not only endure hardships but was also filial, and couldn't help but feel a pang of emotion. Did she now resemble someone else? If that person were still here...

  Lu Xuan Sheng slowly exhaled, pulling himself out of his thoughts, and went forward to help.

  With one more person, the speed of setting up beds suddenly became much faster.

  Lu Xiangsheng stared unblinkingly at the bed that had already been made, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't imagine that a girl could have set it up like this. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he probably wouldn't have believed it...

  "What's going on now?" Xiaoxuan asked Lu'er.

  "Let's set up a grass shed in the yard! Grandpa is not feeling well and needs to sunbathe, but the sunlight at noon in Xinjiang is too strong, so we need to set up a small grass shed that won't block too much sunlight!" La'er smiled and swept the new bed with a broom.

  "Hehe! You're really thoughtful, but does your family have the grass for building a shed?" asked Xiao Xuan.

  "Hey! How can we build a grass shed without any grass? I cut a lot of it earlier and it's been drying on the kitchen roof! Now is the time to use them, let's go, I'll go get the grass!" Li Lu'er said as she started rolling up her sleeves.

  Xuan Sheng watched the two girls rush out again, preparing to build that so-called grass shed. He finally felt the gap between him and Luo Er, as well as the problem of estrangement. Perhaps it was his own former superiority that blinded him, making him not understand Luo Er at all, so that many things made them have no common topic. Suddenly, he realized that these might be the biggest obstacles to communication between him and Luo Er...

  "Hey, Chen Zhiquan, come down! Seriously! We're going to use a ladder! Stop messing around!" Xuan Sheng heard Xiao Xuan's voice and stopped his own thoughts, coming out to see what was going on.

  "I won't go down..." Chen Zhiquan still stood there, staring blankly.

  "What's wrong with Zhi Quan?" Xuan Sheng asked Luo Er.

  "He won't come down from there!" La'er said helplessly.

  Xuan Sheng glared at Chen Zhiquan, who was standing high up, picked up a stone and fiercely threw it at Zhiquan's body. "Hey, get down here quickly! What are you doing standing up there?"

  Zhi Quan rubbed his sore thigh and said with a wronged expression, "I just stood up there! I'm not going down!"

  "Can't you come down? If you don't come down now, I'll pull you down directly!" Xuan Sheng yelled from below.

  Zhi Quan still looked at Lu Xiang Sheng with a wronged expression, before finally telling the truth, "I'm not unwilling to go down, I just don't know how to get down, you're not unaware of it either, I have acrophobia..."

  Luo Er and Xiao Xuan looked at Chen Zhiquan in surprise, shouting "Then why did you go up? Are you sick?"

  "Chen Zhiquan, are you really not daring to come down or just bored and making trouble up there?" Luo Er looked at Zhiquan who was standing on the rooftop with a gloomy expression, she still couldn't believe what Chen Zhiquan said earlier.

  Zhi Quan shook his head dejectedly, "Li Luo'er, don't make fun of me anymore! I'm really not daring to go down, I've had acrophobia since I was a child! You guys shouldn't be skeptical... otherwise you can ask Xuan Sheng!"

  Luò ér xiū de chū yī tóu hàn, tā zhuǎn guò tóu kàn zhe xuàn shèng, hěn zhèng jīng de wèn, "tā shuō de shì fǒu zhēn de?"

  Translation:

  Luoer's face was covered in sweat, she turned her head to look at Xuan Sheng and asked very seriously, "Is what he said true?"

  Xuan Sheng nodded silently.

  Luo Er's fire suddenly burst forth, pointing at Chen Zhiquan on the roof and scolding loudly, "Are you out of your mind? You have acrophobia but still climbed up there like a hero. Tell me, did your brain get stuck in the door when you went out this morning?"

  Watching Luo Er, who usually spoke carefully, in her current state, Xuan Sheng was shocked and couldn't understand the situation.

  Xiao Xuan also pulled at Luo Er's sleeve corner, softly advising, "Don't say any more! It's already gone too far! If you keep talking, it will be a matter of life and death!"

  Luo'er looked at Xiao Xuan, then looked at Xuan Sheng, still standing in the same place, scolding Chen Zhiquan until he was covered in blood.

  Listening to the scolding from below, Chen Zhiquan's face had already turned red with anger! His whole body was trembling, since when had he ever suffered such a great injustice?

  He really couldn't hold it in anymore, and possibly still fuming, he actually argued with Luo Er while climbing down the ladder... By the time he came down, Luo Er had also stopped scolding and was squatting on the ground holding his stomach and laughing loudly, almost to the point of being out of breath.

  Chen Zhiquan, however, did not quarrel with Luo Er as Xiaoxuan and Xiansheng had imagined after he fell to the ground. Instead, like Luo Er, he leaned against the wall and laughed uncontrollably.

  Xiao Xuan looked at Luo Er, then looked at Zhi Quan, and inexplicably asked Xuan Sheng, "What's wrong with these two people?"

  Xuan Sheng shook his head and said in a low voice: "I don't know."

  Luo'er looked at Chen Zhiquan with a smile and said, "Don't laugh anymore, or else I'll laugh too, and people will think we're both crazy!"

  Zhi Quan still smiled and said, "I don't want to laugh either, but I just can't stop. This laughter is so painful that my stomach hurts! It's probably even more painful than having a seizure..."

  Xiao Xuan patted Luo Er, "Stop laughing, you know your expression is really scary! What's wrong with you? Don't scare me, okay?"

  After taking a few deep breaths, she finally held back her laughter and covered her still slightly sore belly to say to Xiao Xuan, "Don't ask me, you should go ask Chen Zhiquan!"

  Xiao Xuan looked at Chen Zhiquan with a sullen expression, "What are you two doing? One moment you're quarreling loudly, the next moment you're laughing terrifyingly. With this kind of atmosphere, I really can't stay here anymore, it's too depressing!"

  Zhiquan looked at Xiaoxuan, "You can't leave! If you go, I'll be the only one left to be a third wheel, this crime is too great, it's better for us to take it together!"

  Xiao Xuan smiled and glanced at Luo Er and Chen Zhi Quan, "Alright then, you tell me, what's going on between the two of you!"

  Chen Zhiquan suppressed his smile and began to explain the situation: "Hey, I think you guys were just scared by Li Lu'er's behavior? Actually, she used a clever trick. When I was on the rooftop, I didn't react either. Later, I came down myself, and only then did I realize what had happened. It was so ridiculous that I couldn't help but laugh!"

  After listening to Zhi Quan's words, Xuan Sheng finally took a breath, blew his bangs away from his forehead and wiped the sweat off his brow. "Hehe, I just realized that sometimes it's good to be provoked, you can do things you normally don't dare to do!"

  Xiaoxuan also nodded, "Yes, just don't be like this next time, you've got the people around you bewildered and worried about the two of you!"

  "What are you two worried about? Do you think I'd go and fight with Lí Luòér? Haha, you guys really underestimate me, Chen Zhiquan. Although I hate it when people talk about me, especially in front of me, but I've always been very tolerant towards girls..." Chen Zhiquan burst out laughing again, gasping for breath.

  Luo'er pouted and whispered to Xiao Xuan, "Just listen to him brag..."

  "Hey, Lì Luòér, what did you say?" Zhì Quán asked her.

  Luo Er shook his head, with a nonchalant expression, "I didn't say anything... what did I say? You don't believe me, ask everyone..."