Next,
Li Zhiyuan set aside all distractions and began to seriously study how to raise the black dog child properly.
...
In the morning, Li Zhiyuan woke up and turned his head to look at Alii, who was sitting on a chair. Today, she wasn’t wearing a dress; instead, she had on a tight-fitting outfit in white and green.
If you handed her a sword, she could act as a young heroine in a martial arts drama.
Li Zhiyuan smiled a bit. It seed Grandma Liu had just changed her taste, and Alii had also changed her style.
"Good morning."
Walking up to the girl, Li Zhiyuan greeted her, his eyes unconsciously falling on the girl’s belt. The belt shimred with a silvery sheen and had intricate carvings on it.
Hmm, could it possibly be...
Li Zhiyuan reached out and touched it. The girl didn’t evade or show any embarrassnt, just stood there calmly.
Feeling the tactile sensation at his fingertips, Li Zhiyuan was astonished. The girl’s belt was actually a Soft Sword!
*He couldn’t help but admire Grandma Liu’s obsessive pursuit of perfection.*
*Perhaps Alii’s obsessive-compulsive tendencies were partly inherited from Liu Yui.*
Seeing Li Zhiyuan’s interest in her belt, Alii reached down as if to unbuckle it for him.
"No, no, no, you don’t need to take it off." Li Zhiyuan hurriedly grabbed her hand to stop the motion, then praised, "It’s really beautiful."
Alii’s eyelashes fluttered slightly, but this ti it wasn’t an anger sign; it was a sign of happiness.
Li Zhiyuan was pleasantly surprised to realize this was the first ti Alii had used such an obvious gesture to express her feelings aside from her usual outbursts.
*She was really changing.*
At breakfast, Uncle Qin, with a backpack on his shoulder, said his farewells to everyone and then walked down the dam.
Everyone’s emotions were quite stable, except Li Sanjiang’s.
He was probably the person most unwilling to see Qin Li leave. It wasn’t entirely because Qin Li was soone who earned little and did less work. It’s just that, after spending so much ti together, you inevitably form attachnts.
After breakfast, Li Zhiyuan approached Aunt Liu with a list and so money. "Aunt Liu, you’re going to the market in town to buy vegetables today, right? Could you help buy these things?"
"Sure, it’s no trouble." Aunt Liu took the list. After a quick glance, she first looked surprised, then turned to curiosity. "Xiao Yuan, what are you buying these things for?"
"The school assigned us a sumr project. These are the materials I need to complete it."
The reason was rather flimsy, but it didn’t matter because he only needed a reason.
"Alright, I’ll buy them for you when I go."
"Thank you, Aunt Liu."
He felt at ease letting Aunt Liu buy things for him. There was no need to give too much instruction since she was probably more professional than he was.
In the morning, Li Zhiyuan continued reading. The book was quite simple. The challenging part lay in the experintal operations. Without considering the practical portion, this upper volu was more like a manual for crafts.
At the sa ti, Li Zhiyuan also noticed that many things described in the book were actually available at the Grand Master’s House.
Whenever the Grandmaster went for Corpse Recovery or to hold a vigil, he would bring nurous items. Yet, upon a detailed comparison, the things he brought rely resembled or shared nas with those in the book—they weren’t essentially the sa.
*Li Zhiyuan couldn’t help but wonder if the Grandmaster relied on a set of counterfeit items to do Corpse Recovery up until now.*
But, the things here were indeed challenging to manage. So objects had to be designed by himself based on descriptions in the book before asking a carpenter or blacksmith to craft them.
The village had a carpenter, but where could he find a blacksmith now?
This "ding-ding-dang" iron workshop described in the book wasn’t sothing he could find now. Or perhaps he could find a factory to ask a machinist to turn it out for him?
In the afternoon, Run Sheng had to deliver tables and dishes to the Old Zhao Family. He didn’t know the way, but Li Zhiyuan did, so he went with him.
The Old Zhao Family lived just east of Shijia Bridge, not far from where Li Zhiyuan waited for the bus last night.
Run Sheng pushed the cart onto the Old Zhao Family’s yard alone, helping the Zhao Family unload the goods.
The mourning hall was already set up. Li Zhiyuan saw that lying motionless on the bed in the center of the main room was the deceased, a rather young fellow, possibly about seventeen or eighteen, only a bit older than Panzi and the others.
Two elderly won were whispering softly nearby:
"Such a fine boy, how can he just be gone?"
"They say he was coming back from watching a show in town at night, tripped along the way and fell into the fields, and just passed away like that."
"Indeed, what did Zheng Datong say, a sudden heart attack?"
"It’s such a pity. Tsk tsk, the Old Zhao Family runs a small business and is quite well-off. But this was their only son."
Just then, soone began applying makeup to the body, lifting the white cloth covering it. Li Zhiyuan saw the true face of the deceased, with sunken eyes, slack eyebrows, a smooth philtrum, and a sharp lower lip...
In face reading, this is considered [a shallow pool of blessings with a leaking bucket].
This was one of the worst facial fortunes, aning that one’s blessings were already thin, and the leaks continuously drained them away.
If one were to cherish their blessings, live a frugal and reserved life, they might barely live a stable life. But if they indulged too much, with excessive eating, drinking, and entertainnt, enjoying too fast and too hard, they could easily drain themselves dry.
Considering what the two elderly won said and the Old Zhao Family’s well-to-do living conditions, exceeding the ordinary people around them, this lifestyle was unsuitable for soone with this kind of face reading.
After delivering the goods, Li Zhiyuan walked ho with Run Sheng.
Along the road, they t Panzi and Leizi walking side by side. They had sothing slick applied to their hair, water or gel, slicking it all back with a distinct part in the middle, shiny and glossy in the sunlight.
"Hey, Yuanzi, we were just about to head to the Grand Master’s House to find you, and here we bump into you."
"Brother Panzi, Brother Lei."
Panzi ca up and took Li Zhiyuan’s hand. "Co on, Yuanzi, we’ll take you to the video hall in town to watch a movie. They’re showing Brother Fa’s ’A Better Tomorrow’ this afternoon."
Beside him, Leizi mid a shooting motion with his hands, continuously gesturing and adding sound effects with his mouth. "Bang bang bang!"
"Great, I want to go too!" Run Sheng shouted.
Li Zhiyuan didn’t want to go; he wanted to continue reading. So he said, "I’ll go back and get so money to treat you all to the movie, but I won’t go. I have howork to do."
He had already given Aunt Liu the money in his pocket this morning, and the rest was in his bedroom drawer.
"Co on, co on, it can’t be you paying all the ti. We need to save face too, okay? We really didn’t have pocket money before; it wasn’t to take advantage of you, little brother."
"Exactly, exactly, the two of us now have money. Just yesterday we moved bricks all day at the kiln factory in West Village."
As they spoke, Panzi and Leizi took out the change from their pockets, counting the heads and including Run Sheng in their tally.
After calculating, Panzi laughed, "Just right, four tickets, and we can buy four bottles of soda!"
Run Sheng was overjoyed, "I’ll return the cart first."
Seeing their high spirits and that they earned money from moving bricks just to treat him, their little brother, to have fun, Li Zhiyuan felt embarrassed to refuse further. He could only agree to go with them.
However, when returning the cart ho, Li Zhiyuan took the chance to drop by his bedroom, took so money to put in his pocket, and ntioned his outing to Alii before heading to town with them.
Finally, the four arrived at a video hall, with a small storefront and a simple sign hanging above:
"Sister i’s Video Hall."
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