Chapter 15: You Must Not Fall in Love

"What does 'Dong Shi mimics a frown' mean?"

A tall, thin scholar ran over to ask Chen Shu; he had seen this phrase while organizing a certain book.

In the last few days, everyone had been very fond of coming to ask Chen Shu, which saved them a lot of effort in looking things up.

Some Chen Shu knew and could provide an answer for. Some Chen Shu knew but could not provide an answer for. Some he did not know either. If even Chen Shu could not provide an answer immediately, then there was likely no one else who could.

"'Dong Shi mimics a frown'?"

Chen Shu frowned and thought for a long time: "I haven't seen any similar records."

History requires bold speculation, yet it also requires careful verification; you cannot just say what you think it is, you must produce evidence.

But Chen Shu could not produce evidence.

This was very distressing.

When someone brings it over to ask, it means they likely couldn't derive an accurate definition from the context either. If it cannot be explained, a blank space will remain in this place—an unknown blank space.

Yet Chen Shu clearly knew, but he could not say it; he could only let it exist.

"Sigh..."

"Sigh..."

Chen Shu and the tall, thin scholar both sighed.

Then Chen Shu said: "By the way, teachers, my admission notice has come out, so I need to take a leave of absence tomorrow. I'll rest for a day to celebrate."

"It's only right, it's only right..."

"Congratulations, congratulations..."

"A boundless future ahead..."

Everyone behaved very kindly toward Chen Shu, and Chen Shu responded to each of them with a smile.

He also took the opportunity to leave work early.

At the school gate of the Sixth Talent Academy.

This is the second-best Talent Academy in Yuanzhou.

Xiaoxiao had already been standing at the gate waiting for him for a while.

Yiguo regulations state that, barring exceptional circumstances, children formally enter school at age five. Starting early is not permitted, and failing to send a child to school at the required age without cause will result in a huge fine.

Following that are five years of Children School, three years of Youth School, and three years of Qingxue—eleven years of compulsory education, which is strictly enforced; almost everyone finishes Qingxue.

After that comes four years of Talent Academy.

The full name of Talent Academy is Talented Person Academy; the initial meaning was that once you have studied to this level, you can be called a person of talent, and many people's academic journey ends here.

Finally, there is five years of university.

The standard educational process ends here.

Generally speaking, everyone enters Talent Academy at seventeen and finishes at twenty; Xiaoxiao is only fifteen this year, having skipped two grades.

The reason she is not at the Seventh Talent Academy is that the Seventh Talent Academy limits the enrollment quota for students who skip grades.

However, for Xiaoxiao, it makes little difference.

Today is the day her final exams ended, and she had previously said she would treat her brother-in-law to a meal; she had set it for today.

Chen Shu rushed over in a panic and said to the little girl carrying her schoolbag: "Doesn't this subject of yours require a two-hour exam? How come you came out and messaged me so early? You almost made me run a red light while riding your sister's beloved little scooter."

"I handed in my paper early," Xiaoxiao answered honestly.

"How early?"

"An hour and a half."

"... The proctor allowed that?"

"I came out to go to the restroom."

"Emmm..." Upon hearing this, Chen Shu fell into deep thought, then patted the little girl's head and earnestly instructed, "Don't learn these tactics from your brother-in-law in the future."

"Brother-in-law, let's go eat quickly."

"Where are we eating? I'm not familiar with your school."

"This place."

Xiaoxiao pointed at an "Old Liu Clay Pot Rice Noodles."

Two clay pots of spicy chicken rice noodles, extra spicy with added spice, plus two fried eggs; the red chili oil was thick and shiny, and the spicy chicken became more fragrant the more you chewed it. They added a few skewers and a portion of wolf-tooth potatoes; unexpectedly, the wolf-tooth potatoes tasted even better than the rice noodles.

After finishing, they wiped their mouths, the napkins covered in red oil.

Chen Shu watched Xiaoxiao go to pay the bill, and only asked when she returned: "How much was it?"

"Hm? I have money!"

"You're overthinking it, I just wanted to ask how much it cost. I'll bring your sister to eat here next time."

"Oh, 48."

"What a bargain."

"It is."

When the two walked out of the restaurant, students were only just starting to come out of the school gate one after another.

Chen Shu bought two lollipops, one for each of them.

They saw a group of seventeen or eighteen-year-old boys and girls gathered at the school gate; some were arranging candles on the ground, and others were holding up a banner with words written on it.

"Someone is confessing their love."

Chen Shu craned his neck to look over there.

Xiaoxiao, eating her lollipop, stood with him, watching the excitement from afar without making a sound.

"Ning Ji, I love you."

Chen Shu read the content on the banner word by word, revealing a bright smile: "It seems to share your surname! Children these days are getting bolder and bolder. It's really great, really great. I actually thought the social atmosphere in our country regarding this was always very conservative..."

"Brother-in-law, Ning Ji is my name."

"Ah?"

"Mm!"

The little girl nodded expressionlessly while holding a lollipop, explaining to her brother-in-law: "My full name is Ning Ji."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"Oh my..."

It hadn't appeared before.

Chen Shu patted his head and glanced at the banner again; a boy under the banner was already holding up flowers: "Is that boy from your class?"

"Not familiar."

"Hmm..."

The two looked at each other and walked away at the same time.

Chen Shu changed his previous attitude, and while walking, he lectured the little girl earnestly: "What do children so young understand? And it's just the right time for studying, why talk about dating?"

"Mm."

"Doesn't he know you're only fifteen? How shameless!"

"Mm."

"He must see that you're pretty, quite well-behaved, and young, so he thinks you're easy to fool. You must not let him fool you."

"Mm."

"Look at your brother-in-law and sister; we've known each other since we were little, and aren't we not in any rush at all?"

"Mm."

"If he harasses you again, just beat him up."

"Oh."

"If you want to date, you should wait until you're in university—ah no, wait until you're at least over twenty and have a clear understanding of the world and love before you try. At that time, whether it's a success or a failure, bitter or sweet, it will all be your gain."

"Brother-in-law, I won't date," the little girl said while eating her lollipop. "Not in this lifetime."

"Why?"

"I think dating is very unnecessary. It's not like one must spend this life with someone else," the little girl said honestly. "With my personality, no one will be able to enter my life. If someone must be stuffed into my life, they will only become a burden to me. Or it will be like Mom and Dad, ending up in a mess."

"I see..."

Chen Shu nodded, thought for a moment, and said: "It's a good thing your sister doesn't think that way."

"My sister and I are very similar."

"Tell me about it."

The fifteen-year-old girl took the lollipop out of her mouth, her small face serious: "If it weren't for brother-in-law, sister would also think this way for the rest of her life. It's just that she has been used to the life of having brother-in-law by her side since she was little. She views brother-in-law as more important than herself. To her, days with brother-in-law are better and worth looking forward to."

She stuffed the lollipop back into her mouth: "And I don't have someone like a brother-in-law."

"Xiaoxiao is very mature today."

Chen Shu didn't say things like "You're too young to understand." This kind of talk comes from a condescending angle, and even if it comes from parents, it is very annoying.

However, many people really do think this way now—

I live quite well on my own, one could even say I live very well. I'm not afraid of getting old. If finding another person doesn't increase my quality of life but instead causes it to decline, why would I do that?

This question is quite serious.

For people with personalities like Ning Qing and Xiaoxiao, born into such a family, having these thoughts is too normal.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Shu said to the little girl: "If you really don't get married in the future, it's fine to live with your sister and brother-in-law. Of course, that's on the condition that your sister and brother-in-law haven't separated."

Speaking of this, he hesitated for a moment: "If we do separate, you'll just have to find a new sister."

The little girl nodded while putting on her helmet.

The little motorcycle started.

Chen Shu carried her away from here.

The next day.

At the entrance of Anning Martial Arts Hall.

This martial arts hall was opened by Ning Qing's mother.

Her mother's surname is An, she has Night Person genes, her personality is extremely violent, and she is obsessed with the Daoist of martial arts all day, not even wanting to return home.

Chen Shu feels that the slight violent tendencies Ning Qing sometimes displays are likely influenced by Director An from when she was young, or due to genetic factors.

It's a good thing Xiaoxiao is well-behaved and quiet.

It's all thanks to my good upbringing.

Chen Shu walked into Anning Martial Arts Hall.

He used to come here often.

When they were little, the two families were neighbors, and Chen Shu and Ning Qing were the same age, attending Children School together.

At the very beginning, the Children School teacher required students to be picked up and dropped off by parents, but President Ning didn't care, and Director An found it troublesome, so Ning Qing was always picked up and dropped off by Chen Shu's parents as a convenience.

Later, Ning Qing didn't need to be picked up anymore, but Chen Shu always took good care of Ning Qing and Xiaoxiao, always calling them over to eat at his house on weekends because there was usually no one at their home.

Later on, when Xiaoxiao started school, Chen Shu took on the responsibility of picking her up and taking care of her as well.

Trash parents.

But Director An was at least somewhat sensible; when she learned that Chen Shu was interested in practicing martial arts, Chen Shu always had a membership at Anning Martial Arts Hall.

"Whoosh!"

"Whoosh, whoosh!"

Chen Shu threw punches continuously, providing his own sound effects with his mouth.

Time for another combo.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

After getting a little tired, he stopped to rest, then went to work out on the equipment to train his strength.

His current Martial Artist rank was one level higher than his Cultivation Rank, at about the Third Stage, but he struggled to fight other Third Stage Martial Artists—the members at the martial arts gym of the same rank all loved to spar with him.

Chen Shu truly couldn't beat them.

They were main-track practitioners, while he was a side-track practitioner; the energy they spent on this was completely unequal.

Other investments were also completely unequal.

Speaking of Martial Artists—

Compared to Cultivators, Martial Artists were a very low-level system that primarily explored the power of the physical body.

They didn't even belong among the major Cultivation Systems.

In ancient times, it was often those who, for various reasons, could not embark on the orthodox Cultivation System who would practice martial arts. If their talent allowed it, and other conditions were met, Martial Artists could later naturally transition onto the path of a Sword Cultivator or Martial Cultivator, becoming true Cultivators and transcending the mundane.

Only those who could not open a Spirit Sea, or who had extremely poor Spirit Power Talent, would practice martial arts purely.

The main issue was that Martial Artists had bottlenecks; no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't compare to High-Tier Cultivators, and even reaching the Intermediate Stage was very difficult. In ancient times, there was truly a difference between immortals and mortals between Martial Artists and Cultivators.

But things are different now.

With the development of technology, Martial Artists are much more awesome than before.

First, all kinds of training methods have been developed, and coupled with the development of biotechnology and pharmaceutical technology, Martial Artists can reach the Intermediate Stage more easily, and at the same rank, their comprehensive abilities surpass ancient Martial Artists in every aspect.

Second is the support of external forces.

The members Chen Shu fought had at least seven or eight Rune Groups engraved on their bodies; the power support from their Cultivator dads made them very puffed up.

And if it were on the Battlefield, the Martial Artist soldiers you see would very likely be covered in equipment created by Modern Cultivators, or even wearing Power Armor; damn, who wouldn't be scared seeing that?

Aren't these just war machines!

Third is that Cultivators have been nerfed.

Just thinking about it is sad.

Chen Shu never thought about going very far on the path of a Martial Artist, so he had neither engraved any Runes on his body nor inoculated himself with any kind of Beast Bloodline.

He hadn't even considered taking the path of a Sword Cultivator or Martial Cultivator; his greatest advantage since transmigrating was a Spirit Sea twice the size of a normal person's and the comprehensive abilities in the Spirit Sea that came with it, followed by the Rune attainments he had cultivated out of interest since childhood and a Spirit Soul stronger than the average person's, destined to walk the most orthodox Spirit Sect path.

Practicing martial arts was just for exercising his body.

Anyway, in the modern era, this path is very easy to walk.

You just have to burn money.

This thing was a money pit in ancient times, something for the rich to play with, and it's even more incredible in the modern era.

No matter how poor your talent is, as long as you are willing to spend money, with a combination of internal consumption, external application, and injections, visible results will appear. And no matter how good your talent is, if you don't spend money, you won't be able to catch up to others.

"Chen Shu!"

"Yeah!"

"Come and spar with me!"

"Alrighty..."

Chen Shu went up and got beaten up again.