"…" Grandma Liu and Axiu were dumbfounded.
Especially when meeting the children's frightened-turned-adulation eyes.
Axiu subconsciously did as Liu Yusheng ordered. When she said she wanted a hug, he broke away from Grandma Liu and picked the child up.
"Lift high."
Lifted.
"Ride the big horse."
Rode.
"Fly."
She didn't, because Axiu didn't know how to present the verb fly.
This didn't prevent the children who gradually came around from sighing and being envious.
"Do ghosts do these?" Riding on Axiu's neck, Liu Yusheng condescended, her eyes looking askance and quite imposing.
The children shook their heads. "No."
"Look at how scared you were just now, crying tears and snot streaming down your nose. Is it embarrassing? If the little children in the other villages know about it, they would laugh at you to death."
"… Nannan, Brother Axiu is so powerful. Can you let him also-also take us to play in the future?" To be shamed in another village? Definitely not! A child stumbled over the question.
"Sure, we're usually home. You can come visit us at my house sometime."
"That's a deal, you can't go back on your word. Like brother Dabao, he never takes us to play."
"A promise is a promise. I'll be waiting for you to come." Liu Yusheng promised with a pat on her small chest, then her little hand patted the top of Axiu's head. "Brother Axiu, let's go home!"
The humanoid horse immediately started up.
Looking at the back of the three departing, there was an envious little child. "Nannan is awesome, and Brother Axiu is so good at listening to her…"
"I wish I had a brother like him…"
After walking a distance away, Grandma slowly grinned, and finally felt a pain from her chest from holding her laughter.
"Aigoo, I never thought that our Nannan has this set of skills to train a bunch of kids into obedience."
"What I said is the truth. Brother Axiu is already powerful and capable."
"Yes-yes-yes, no wonder the neighbors say you are the children's king." Everyone in the village pampered Nannan, but she was worthy of everyone's pampering.
Especially Axiu. He obeyed whatever Nannan said; she said to ride a big horse, he really let her ride. "All right, there is still a long way from home. Get down Nannan. Axiu is still a child too, so he won't grow taller if his bones are pressured down like this."
"Grandma, I'm not heavy." Liu Yusheng was speechless; she really wasn't heavy.
"I'm afraid he'll get tired. Let me carry you."
This time, without waiting for Liu Yusheng to speak, Axiu promptly dodged Grandma Liu's outstretched hand and instantly leaped far away, afraid that the little baby sitting on his neck would be snatched.
Grandma Liu: "…" Guffawed once more.
She had just been genuinely worried that the children's unintentional words would hurt Axiu, and that he would be ostracized and ridiculed by the village kids.
But the child appeared unaffected. Nannan also has resolved things quite satisfactorily, better than an adult would.
She could rest assured.
The young man in front rocked the child, walking smoothly and steadily in a jovial mood.
Shengsheng still smells the best, no smoke scent, sweet and fragrant, like… the white steamed bun in the morning.
Back home, Grandma Liu went to the kitchen to prepare lunch.
Liu Yusheng sat in the hall with Axiu in tow, then under the pretext of a trip back to her room, she took out a small cup of spirit spring water from her space, diluted it and returned to the hall.
Spiritual spring water has a healing effect on the skin and could also be perfect for removing scars.
It was just that some things couldn't be too eye-catching and needed to be done gradually. It would bring misfortune to the family if it was too shocking.
Back in the hall, the young man was still sitting obediently on the stool, quietly watching her.
His hair, which she had helped to bind, along with the bangs she brushed on his forehead allowed the scars to be exposed on half of his face.
Liu Yusheng approached and stood in front of the boy, looking at his face that was half angel and half devil.
His scar stretched from the right side of his face, running from below his eye to the corner of the mouth to the base of the ear.
It was uneven and gnarled, with reddish discoloration, and looked ugly and hideous.
No wonder those little children were scared.
Liu Yusheng's heart tightened, overflowing with a dull pain. "Brother Axiu, I'm going to put some medicine on you, so behave and don't move. It's for treating the scars on your face. Trust me, I'll cure you and you'll be just as before."
Axiu blinked without responding.
Neither did he move.
Liu Yusheng dipped a clean cotton ball into the spirit spring water and applied it bit by bit on top of his scars; her movements were gentle and meticulous.
Although the effect of the spirit spring water was reduced after diluting it, if applied continuously, it would eliminate these ugly scars in a few months' time at most.
She would have liked to have him back to his original state in three or two days, but if she did that, once word spread out, she feared that the entire Liu family and even Xinghua Village would never be at peace again.
The spirit spring water would attract countless people to loot it, and in a time and place where imperial power reigned supreme, she wouldn't even have the power to fight back.
As the spirit spring water soaked into his skin, sending a refreshing coolness, the teenager comfortably squinted his eyes in a look of enjoyment.
When the coolness on his face vanished, the boy became dissatisfied and glared, clasping the child's hand against his cheek, indicating that she should continue.
Liu Yusheng was so angry and amused. His small hand pinched the boy's other cheek. "You think this is a game, don't make a fuss."
The boy pursed his lips as if aggrieved by her pinch, so she gently caressed his smooth hair.
Axiu immediately became obedient.
Pouring the leftover spring water into the vegetable patch behind the house, Liu Yusheng set up another small square table in the courtyard, took out a brush, ink, paper and ink stone, and wrote a Three-Character Classic on the paper.
The young man followed her the entire time, curious at her every move.
"You taught me these before. I don't know if you still remember." Thinking back to the days when the boy taught her how to recite and study characters, Liu Yusheng smiled, nostalgia in her eyes. "Back then, we all used tree branches to practice writing on the sand."
Later when their conditions improved, she practiced writing with a brush, ink, paper and ink stone without being distressed, but he disappeared.
Come to think of it, she seemed to have never seen him write with a brush before. She wondered if it was as vigorous and elegant as his writing on the sand.
"Brother Axiu, you try." She shoved the brush into the young man's hand, and taught him the correct way to hold the brush. "Just follow these I wrote. This is the Three Character Classic you taught me when I started learning from you."
The young man was startled and somewhat stunned, his gaze falling on the white paper, as if puzzled by the black shapes on it.
His fingers held the quill repeatedly, relaxed, and squeezed.
And yet he couldn't get the pen down, he didn't know what to do.
But Shengsheng was watching him, and she wanted him to write, filled with expectation.
Axiu became anxious. His face grew whiter and whiter, his forehead oozed fine beads of sweat, and his hands trembled.
No, he couldn't. He wanted to drop the pen. He wanted to shred all the paper in front of him. He wanted to flip the whole table out!
He didn't want to see this stuff!