Chapter 8: First Love

  Table of Contents

  Love

  The moon is veiled and has a subtle beauty

  Smoke and cloud pass through

  Lonely shadow hides heart and adds color

  In the painting

  Mountain misty precipice steeply piercing frosty peak

  A single finger points to one place

  Alone with a beauty to appreciate

  Just as I was thinking, Uncle Zhang said: "Let's go, and Master will tell you outside." After hearing Uncle Zhang's words, I had to stop my own wild thoughts and followed Yue out of the cave with him. As soon as we stepped out of the cave entrance, Bang! The cave door closed tightly again.

  "What you just saw is the elder of the snake spirit, Zi Lin Wang." Zhang Shu said as he walked. "A snake can also be called a king?" Yue asked curiously, and I was also puzzled.

  "What have you guys seen in the world, Zixia Wang is in the snake spirit although the status is lower than the purple-robed Yu Snake, but in terms of magical powers, they are not inferior! Just now he said you have a disaster, it must be so, so recently, you must be careful." Zhang Shu.

  "Ah! I know, but it completely ignored me. Do I need to summon it again? Uncle Zhang." The more I think about what happened earlier, the angrier I get. It may be very powerful, but it also looks down on me too much.

  "Hehe, no need for that. Since you've been summoned, you two are already connected by fate. It just wants to test you." Zhang Shu turned around and said to Yue: "For the time being, follow him closely, in case things get too urgent. When we return, I'll give you both the cultivation manual, and you can start your formal training." The two of us nodded silently, and my cultivation journey officially began...

  After going back, I started learning from the Tao Te Ching. Every day after school, I would read it on my way home. The days passed by quietly and uneventfully. Every day at school was a struggle to learn, but after school, You Yue would accompany me home, and after dinner, we would study the Heart Sutra together.

  Finally, in the high school entrance examination, I performed exceptionally well and was admitted to the best high school in the city. Our school had a total of five students who were accepted. It's really tough for kids from rural areas, our school didn't have any reserved spots, and the teacher resources were no match for those in the city. I was relatively lucky to be able to enter such a good school. Daqing was admitted to No. 9 Middle School, I heard that the environment there is quite good.

  Zhang Shu and Yue were delighted when they learned that I had been admitted to such a good high school. However, Zhang Shu said that Yue couldn't go to school with me, saying that he was afraid of being taken as an evil spirit by the virtuous scholars in unfamiliar places, so Yue stayed at Zhang Shu's house from then on, and Zhang Shu could also help him improve his cultivation. When I heard this, both Yue and I felt quite uncomfortable, as we had been cultivating together for such a long time and had become inseparable friends. However, if I had something to do or wanted to see him, I could summon him with my seal.

  The day before the official start of school, after saying goodbye to my parents, I went to Uncle Zhang's house to bid farewell to Uncle Zhang and Yue. For so long, I have been taken care of by Uncle Zhang and Yue. Although Uncle Zhang's mouth is occasionally poisonous, I know he is genuinely good to me, let alone Yue. When I arrived at Uncle Zhang's house, he was busy packing his luggage. He looked up at me and said, "Mingming has arrived! Yue, come out too! Let's sit down and have a good meal together." As he spoke, Yue came out of the inner room with a gloomy face. I understood what he was thinking, and to be honest, my heart was also aching.

  I forced a smile and said: "Yue, in the future when I'm not around, you can't slack off on your cultivation! Otherwise if something happens to me, there won't be anyone who can help me, haha!"

  "Gotcha... How could I possibly be lazy, it's you who should not forget to cultivate yourself." Yue can actually make jokes too! I rarely hear Yue say so many words. Yue moved the tables and chairs into a neat arrangement, and we sat down first, while Uncle Zhang was still over there organizing his luggage. I asked Yue: "What is Uncle Zhang doing over there? Is he going out?"

  "Stupid! Those are the magical tools and some life-saving items that Uncle Zhang prepared for you, he's worried about you..." Yue said. My eyes actually felt a bit red, I stood up and walked over: "Uncle Zhang, you're really good to me."

  "On the one hand, how did you suddenly become like a little girl? I'm afraid that if you go out and get hurt, it would be my loss as your master..." Zhang Shu's mouth was still venomous, but this time I didn't retort."

  Uncle Zhang finally finished collecting things. The three of us sat at the table, and I drank for the first time to accompany Uncle Zhang, while Yue was using candles and some tributes. That night, both Uncle Zhang and I were drunk and dazed, only vaguely remembering that Uncle Zhang had cried, saying that I was his only disciple and would never let me get hurt. Later, when I woke up, it was already the second day, and there was still a package on the bedside table. When I opened it at school, it contained several magic tools, a few talismans, and a book. It must have been sent by Yue.

  My parents have come in to urge me, want to send me to attend the first day of school opening ceremony, I quickly got up and tidied up, until I reached the station and stepped into the car door, I looked back and saw a faint glimpse of an umbrella in the sky, and then was pushed into the car door, heading towards the new campus.

  The first day of school, everywhere was crowded, finally under the guidance of the staff, I found my dormitory and put away my things, then followed him to the classroom to report my name. After everything was settled, my parents left, and the school arranged for a formal assembly notice the next day.

  That night, all six people in the dormitory had arrived. The other five were from the city or suburbs, and I was the only one from a rural area. That evening, everyone ate together and chatted happily, and they also gave each other nicknames, most of which were "old" plus their surname. They were Old Zhang, Old Liu, Old Wang, Old Gong, Old Yang, and I was Little Sweetie... I struggled with this nickname for a long time, but in the end, I was suppressed by the other five using force, although they promised to only call me that in the dormitory, and outside they would call me Old Xu, which doesn't sound much better. That night, we chatted all night in the dormitory, and that evening I didn't notice any differences between myself and others, it was just like ordinary people chatting.

  On the second day, our dormitory was the first to arrive at the classroom. We saw our head teacher, a middle-aged man with a big beer belly. We greeted him and sat down in the third row, staring widely at the new female classmates who had just arrived. "Hey, this one's not bad, but her legs are too thick." "Look at that one who just came in, so cute!" "Haha, Old Gong is such a lecher!" "Shut up..."

  Listening to their comments, I had no interest at all. I felt that I didn't yearn for love at all. I started reading the book that Uncle Zhang gave me. After a while, someone suddenly patted my shoulder, and when I looked up, I met a big smile, just like a rose after the rain, so beautiful! Even now, I don't know how to describe the feeling at that time. I only felt that my whole body was hot all over, even my ears were red.

  "Um, classmate, can I sit here? Sorry about that, I've been sitting in this seat since junior high and you don't mind, do you?" The girl with the carnation smiled at me.

  "Okay, okay", I just felt that I couldn't think of anything at the time and just followed her instructions. I took a book and sat behind her, then suffered collective disdain from our dormitory people...

  Later, I found out that the name of the rose girl was Tian Qing. Her parents were both junior high school teachers. She liked reading and dancing. At that time, I knew that meeting her made me believe in that sentence - it's not that you haven't fallen in love yet, but rather you just haven't met that person yet. I firmly believed she was the one for me. Later on, it proved that love at first sight isn't always reliable, but at least we were together purely.

  After mastering all the situations of Tian Jie, I wanted to pursue her by all means. At first, every time she was on duty sweeping and cleaning, I would enthusiastically help her sweep the floor. Later, I would intentionally go find her to ask for answers to questions, and occasionally be teased as silly, but my heart felt incredibly beautiful at that moment... Then later, I thought about taking concrete actions to confess. In the dormitory, I fantasized about various methods, even thinking of writing love poems with talismans to confess to her, but fearing it would scare her off, I gave up in the end.

  One day, our class had a physical education test. Both boys and girls had to kick a football, of course not playing the whole game, but just kicking the ball with force to see how far they could kick it. (Later I met many people and asked them if their school had such an event, they all said they hadn't even heard of it... maybe it was our school's specialty)

  Then I saw Tian Qian reporting to the teacher, saying that her leg hurt and she couldn't kick today. Unexpectedly, the teacher was very strict, saying that if she didn't kick today, she would score zero points. I thought to myself, isn't this my chance to be a hero and save the beauty?! I ran to the front of the teacher: "Teacher! I'm willing to replace her in kicking, you can give me zero points instead!" Both she and the teacher were shocked, while I calmly walked to the white line for testing. Our dormitory mates were all cheering for me by whistling on one side. I must show her my strong side, thinking so, I used all my strength and kicked the ball with a loud "whoosh"! The ball flew far away! Haha, now her score is definitely not low!

  No way! The ball flew out, how could it make a "psst" sound?! I looked down and at that moment, I really wanted to just bang my head against the wall and die. My pants were ripped... I was so embarrassed at that time, everyone in our dormitory was stunned, occasionally you could hear some classmates snickering, I thought this time I'm completely done for! In front of my favorite girl, I made such a fool of myself. Suddenly, Tian Qing walked straight towards me! I felt like I was scared to the point where my heart stopped beating, she wouldn't be coming over to mock me, would she?! Unexpectedly, she directly took off her jacket and wrapped it around my waist! Then I heard the applause and teasing from the classmates nearby.

  After that, we got together. I asked her how she had the courage to do it back then, wasn't she afraid of being rejected? She said she was afraid of being rejected, but she was more afraid of missing the opportunity, and things not working out between people. It turned out she also fell in love with me at first sight, haha! At that time, she wanted me to give up my seat, and was worried I wouldn't agree or would make things awkward for her. Who knew I just smiled foolishly? At that moment, she thought how could there be such a lovely boy... Okay, I guess this is also a case of turning misfortune into fortune, haha!

  But anyway, the playground incident will be the most beautiful fragment in my life chapter called 'youth', every time I recall this clip, this scene always warms my heart and makes me smile slightly.