This was an annoying problem to deal with indeed. It's not like Di Tou could just leave him there to recover, as the whole problem originated from Fu Hao Xin kneeling, leaving him stuck kneeling would only let the problem grow.
Thinking through a couple ways to deal with the situation in the end Di Tou couldn't figure out a good way to go about it, "Ah, forget it, let's just get him inside first and worry about the rest later" Di Tou thought.
Walking over to the kneeling Fu Hao Xin, Di Tou tried to lift him up, only to find.
F*ck! This kid is heavy!
This was only natural, after all Fu Hao Xin was in the Foundation realm, so although he looked rather lithe, it was only natural that his body had already developed quite a bit beyond a normal person. So even with Di Tou's 'high' attributes, he was unable to get an easy grip on Fu Hao Xin.
In addition, the greater problem beyond Fu Hao Xin being heavy was that, "AHHH! IT HURTS. Stop stop, please stop."
In reality, it wasn't like standing up was making the situation much worse. But the problem was that even though Fu Hao Xin was in pain from kneeling, after staying in the same position for so long he had already gotten somewhat acclimated to the pain in that position. But the moment he moved he was once again reminded of every bit of pain.
Frowning, Di Tou looked at Fu Hao Xin. It seemed like he had oversimplified the problem. He had thought Fu Hao Xin had merely been kneeling there for a couple of minutes and at most his knees were numb or his legs had fallen asleep, but when he had tried lifting Fu Hao Xin he had seen traces of blood that had already begun drying on the pavement below him.
"Xiao Fu… How long have you been kneeling exactly?"
"Not long… Not long at all." Fu Hao Xin replied, thinking this was a test of his mentality. In addition, he really wasn't sure how long he had been kneeling, at some point he had lost sense of time and had only focused on enduring without thinking about the time. If he had to count every second, he might have gone insane by the one hour mark.
At this moment, one of the stragglers from the crowd earlier chimed in, "Old man, that kid's been here since I arrived, and from what I heard he's been here since the sun rose."
"Ah?" Di Tou looked up. F*ck when had the sun gotten up that high in the sky? He had only been awake for one or two hours! It didn't take him that long to make his bed did it?
Wait sh*t when had he woken up?
Thinking back for a moment, it did seem to be rather bright when he woke up… But considering Di Tou's unfamiliar with the place, he hadn't thought anything odd of the fact that it was already rather bright when he woke up. At most he thought that the day and light schedule here was rather bad.
"Hmm…" As he was thinking, something finally came to Di Tou. It seemed like… He happened to have a method to deal with the situation?
Thinking back to the only reward he had gotten from the scroll up to this point [A Gentle Touch] it seemed like in the accompanying stanzas there was something about alleviating pain?
But how did he use it?
Thinking about [A Gentle Touch] a small crease formed between Di Tou's brows as he focused, and unbeknownst to him, his aura suddenly changed.
From seeming like an ambled ordinary old man, which he for the most part was, minus the old part at least mentally, in the eyes of the surrounding spectators Di Tou suddenly seemed to have a softness to him.
Looking at him they couldn't help but feel like this was someone they had to respect not necessarily because he had done anything particularly worthwhile, but because in his heart he carried infinite love and care and it was only right to reciprocate.
Looking at this visage, some of the passerbys couldn't help but feel guilty. What was wrong with them? How old were they? Why were they spending time out looking for gossip through other people's affairs, ah?
Feeling guilty, the majority of the remaining stragglers dispersed, leaving only Di Tou and Fu Hao Xin there.
In Fu Hao Xin's eyes, he couldn't help but be drawn to look at Di Tou's face, even forgetting about his pain for a second.
Fu Hao Xin, who up to this point hadn't cried, only gritting his teeth and persevering felt some tears begin to well up in his eyes. He couldn't help but whisper… "Mother..?"
Di Tou on the other hand was still focusing on [A Gentle Touch] in his mind. Hmm, it seemed like this technique had more than he gave it credit for, although he still wasn't quite sure how to use it. Because of this, he didn't notice the reactions of the people around him.
"Ah, whatever, let's just try it." Di Tou mumbled under his breath. Shaking his head he assessed Fu Hao Xin again.
"Ah, why are you crying now? Are you still a man?" Di Tou couldn't help but ask, entirely forgetting his embarrassing display not so long ago.
As Di Tou spoke, Fu Hao Xin was broken out of his trance. Did he just think he had seen his mother? Where was his mind wandering? This was senior Mu… He must have been more stressed than he imagined. Making a mental note to visit his parents graves, Fu Hao Xin replied somewhat absentmindedly, "Ah, it's nothing much senior, I just… remembered some things."
In his heart, Fu Hao Xin gave Di Tou another two points, f*ck this senior really had some methods, ah?
Hearing Fu Hao Xin brush it off, Di Tou decided to forget about it and went to go grab Fu Hao Xin again to try to lift him up.
"Ah, wait senior no, wait-"
"Huh?"