NOVEL WEB Chapter 6: Chapter 6: The Sui Family
"Wang, it's your turn." Shuò made his move on the Go board and gestured to the person opposite him.
The black-haired young man before him had dragon horns similar to Shuò's, and similar patterns on his arms, though Shuò's were brown while the other's were black.
"...Big Brother, did you steal one of my pieces while I was distracted?" the young man looked at the board, then said to Shuò with a deadpan expression. "I thought stealing pieces was a trick only kids and the Master would use..."
"Ahem! Ah... hahaha..." Shuò gave a dry cough and returned the piece he had sneakily taken to its original position.
He muttered to the side, "Wang, I didn't see you notice when the Master was stealing your pieces... By the way, where is the Master?"
Hearing this topic, the young man named Wang replied with an even more helpless expression, "He took little Nian and little Xi to fly a kite... It's just..."
"Just what?"
"The thing hanging on the kite is Ling..." Wang covered his face. "This morning when he woke up, the Master found Ling in the yellow wine vat in the backyard, passed out drunk from last night... so he fished her out..."
"Then the Master said he found a quick way to dry Ling out, so he took little Nian and little Xi and tied Ling to the kite to fly her... and Ling... she hasn't even woken up yet."
Wang recalled that Hong Yu seemed to have also said something like, "Of course, she won't wake up that fast. She's been soaking in a wine vat all night and has turned into a blue tangyuan. Besides, dragon bubbles are fun to play with..."
The image of Hong Yu fiddling with the kite and the limp ball of Ling-bubble, while smiling and teasing him, the only one concerned for Ling's safety, seemed to flash before his eyes. Wang sighed again.
As for the two dragon bubbles, one red and one black, on Hong Yu's shoulder, they were even more...
Sigh, never mind the mischievous little Nian, even the usually quiet little Xi had a rather excited expression at the time.
Their two small hands kept patting Hong Yu's shoulder, seeming to have the idea of trying to put their big sister in the sky.
Hearing this, Shuò also felt a wave of helplessness and supported his forehead.
"The Master... he seems to have always been like this, right?"
"How would I know? Shouldn't you, Big Brother, be the one who has spent the most time with the Master while conscious?"
Wang didn't answer, just looked at Shuò and said, "However, I did hear the Master say that you, Big Brother, didn't seem to get along very well with him at the beginning."
"Ha, that's true. With the Master's personality, who could get along with him right from the start?" Shuò said, hitting the nail on the head.
"That fake smile, and those lifeless eyes..." Shuò recalled his first impression of Hong Yu. "As long as you spend enough time with him, anyone can see that the Master seems to have a great emotional deficit."
"So, his somewhat overly mischievous personality is like a kind of... self-protection mechanism for him? He doesn't want to get too close to too many people, to prevent too many people from establishing connections with him?" Wang took over the conversation, analyzing with his chin in his hand.
"Mm, probably."
"But if the Master hates others knowing about his emotional impairment, why does he live with us?" Wang asked again. "As a group of ageless (and) immortal beasts... the Master doing this will sooner or later let us know about this matter, right?"
"Who knows?" Shuò looked up at the sky outside the house, which was already tinged with the colors of twilight. "After all, the Master's strange actions... we've never really understood the reason, have we?"
Shuò sighed. He didn't know much about illnesses. He could only hope that among his yet-to-be-humanoid dragon-bubble younger siblings, one of them possessed the authority over medicine.
In the blink of an eye, a year had passed since Hong Yu had been wandering around Yan with Shuò.
During this period, the other fragments of the Sui family had also awakened one after another, but the only one who had stabilized himself and taken human form was the second brother among the Sui fragments—Wang.
The other fragments still maintained their dragon bubble form.
During this year of getting along, for some reason, Wang maintained a high degree of awe towards Hong Yu, calling him "Master." And even Shuò's way of addressing Hong Yu was unconsciously influenced by Wang and changed to "Master."
Time passes so quickly...
Looking at the orange-red sunset clouds over the mountains in the distance, Shuò sighed with emotion.
"SHUÒ!!!!! NIAN LET LING FLY INTO THE MOUNTAIN GORGE!!!! QUICKLY, COME WITH ME AND WANG TO FIND HER!!" Hong Yu's voice pierced through Shuò's ears, instantly shattering the little bit of melancholy he had felt.
An indescribable sense of helplessness and calmness welled up in Shuò's heart. Shuò smiled helplessly, grabbed Wang, who was already wearing the same expression as the sweating soybean emoji, and headed for the back mountain.
"Coming!"
"By the way... didn't they go to fly the 'kite' in the morning?" Wang, being dragged along by Shuò, scratched his cheek and then asked with a hint of strangeness.
"But... the sun is almost setting now, and the Master said Ling was let go by Nian into the mountains... Could it be that Ling has been floating in the sky all day?!" Shuò's eyes widened instantly, and then he wordlessly quickened his pace.
You've had it rough, Ling.
"Master! Which direction!"
"I don't know!"
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At the Sui family's once-a-decade reunion dinner...
"That old man?" Ling asked curiously, taking the rice wine Shu brought her. "You want to hear about what happened between us and the old man before you took human form?"
"Mm," Shu nodded. She opened the rice wine she had brought, took a small sip, and then said, "I'm just a little curious. We don't often have time to gather together, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to ask about the interesting stories about the Master that I don't know."
"Hah, that old guy... there's not much to talk about, really. After all, the more interesting things he did, you and I both know most of them..."
"I probably know less than you. After all, in that old guy's words, I'm the kind of delinquent girl who stays out all night..." Ling gulped down the wine, as if deliberately trying to get drunk.
"Honestly, that old guy..."
"Sister Ling, drinking like this is bad for your stomach," Shu tried to persuade her big sister about her豪迈 drinking style, although she had never succeeded even once over the years.
"Oh! Right, right! I remember something!" At this moment, Ling suddenly stopped pouring wine into her mouth and then smiled at Shu. "There's one thing that happened after you went to the Great Wild City and I happened to come back from my travels."
Ling suddenly pointed to a bottle of chili sauce on the table that almost only Nian was eating, and said, "See that? It's that kind of chili sauce. Little Nian once successfully played a prank with it."
"Mm, what do you mean?" Shu followed Ling's finger to the table.
At the table were the other ten fragments. Nian was secretly pouring that bottle of chili sauce into Xi's bowl.
I remember... that bottle of chili sauce seems to be something only the Master can make, right?
Did he teach Nian or the youngest brother?
As Shu's thoughts gradually drifted away, Ling began to tell a story about Hong Yu's past.
"You know how that old guy really likes to eat the tanghulu bought on the street, right? One day, little Nian took the tanghulu he bought, and while he wasn't looking, she slathered it with chili oil. Heh! And that day, that old guy wasn't paying special attention, so he ate it, and then he kept coughing... hahaha! See, isn't that funny?" Ling laughed and took another sip of wine.
After listening, Shu just smiled lightly and didn't reply.
But in her heart, she thought...
Yu... he did it on purpose, right? After all, it was a crude prank that could be discovered with just a sniff... was it just to make little Nian happy?
But Sister Ling is laughing so happily, I can feel that her resentment towards Yu seems to be very deep...
Although I also have some resentment towards Yu...
Shu's eyes suddenly became a little gloomy and dangerous.
After all, a guy who leaves without a word should be...
PS: Please vote and recommend.
Damn it, the sensitive word for ageless (and) immortal is fcking ageless (and) immortal...*
This is just ridiculous.
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