Chapter 4 Shen Yu’s Feelings and Impatience

Liu Qing smiled and said, “Good, but before you resume cultivating though, I’m sure Yu'er would like to spend some time with you.”

At that, she walked over to the door and opened it. After she did so, in stumbled Shen Yu.

She was leaning against the door and when it opened she stumbled in, but she didn’t fall as she was caught by Liu Qing.

Afterwards she didn’t look up immediately as she was afraid she would be scolded. With a cute voice she instead started saying: “I only got here a little while ago. I got bored out in the garden and came here to wait for you. You said not to disturb you guys so I just waited outside.”

Liu Qing nodded and said, “I know, that’s why I’m not mad. Also, we will teach you the same stuff we taught Yun Tian in the future. Just give it some more time.”

Inwardly though, Liu Qing sighed, ‘You really are too young, you didn't even wait in the garden like I asked. Cultivating is serious business and if you mess up it could seriously harm or even kill you. Tian perfectly listens to us despite his age and has great patience, but Yu’er is still not mature enough.’

Liu Qing then said, “Go ahead and spend some time together. I know you want to ask Tian a lot of questions, but you cannot cultivate yet Yu. Tian you also cannot tell her how. Promise?”

She looked towards Yun Tian and for the first time so far he hesitated a little, ‘Cultivating feels great and I can feel myself getting stronger. If it's like Mom said, with all the great things like living longer, why can’t Yu cultivate too?’

He didn’t say yes or no immediately and instead asked, “Why can’t Yu cultivate mom?”

His father was the one to answer this time as he picked up Shen Yu and put her on the bed beside Yun Tian. Afterwards he looked at the two children, one curious and confused, the other slightly disgruntled and wearing pleading bright blue eyes, and said, “You know that we want what’s best for the two of you, right?”

The two of them both nodded their heads in response.

He continued, “Tian, we taught you now as we knew you were ready and we were right, weren’t we? Everything went well for you and now you can cultivate. So, why don’t you trust us when we say that Yu isn’t ready yet? You know we love you both and we wouldn’t play favoritism over something like this.”

Shen Yu’s pleading look diminished as she was instead just slightly sad that she wasn’t ready yet. Yun Tian also realized that he should listen to his parents as he turned to Shen Yu and hugged her saying: “It’s alright Yu. You just have to wait for a while longer.”

Shen Yu cheered up as Yun Tian hugged her and murmured, “Okay but you have to be the one to teach me in the future then.”

Yun Peng laughed hearing that as Liu Qing gave him a stern glare.

Yun Tian didn’t tell her he would immediately as he waited for his parents’ decision. His excited eyes gleamed as he looked at them. He would love to be the one to teach Shen Yu.

Under Yun Tian’s hopeful gaze Liu Qing thought, ‘As long as we supervise, nothing should go wrong since Tian is so talented and intelligent anyway. Who knows, he might be able to teach her better than I could.’

So, she said, “If you want to, you can but only when we decide Yu’er is ready.”

Shen Yu celebrated, “Yay!” as she hugged Yun Tian again.

Their mom continued though, “But we will still supervise alright?”

Yun Tian happily said in a childish voice, “That’s fine.”

He wanted to teach Shen Yu, but he was also worried he might mess up so he was instead happy they wanted to supervise.

Then, he grabbed Shen Yu’s hand and stood up as he said, “Come on let’s go play in the garden, Yu.”

She stood up and they walked hand in hand out the door as Yun Peng and Liu Qing watched on with satisfied eyes.

Liu Qing held Yun Peng’s hand as she said, “What more could we ask for? Our family is perfect. We raised such cute and obedient children. And Tian is so smart and talented in basically everything. While Yu’er might fall behind Tian somewhat, I’d say she is still above most children.”

Yun Peng agreed, “Yes and with how she always follows after Tian it only pushes her to be on the same level as him. It seems we did great jobs in raising them. Not only that, our own cultivation is going decently well too.”

Then he suddenly thought of something and said, “Oh yeah, how long do you think it will take Tian to complete the first layer of the Meridian Opening Realm.”

Liu Qing laughed and said, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I bet he can do it in two months time.”

Yun Peng also laughed heartily as he agreed, “I think so too!”

After Yun Tian left with Shen Yu, they left the house and went into the garden in the center courtyard. There, he told Shen Yu all about what cultivation was and how he felt so much stronger.

She gasped, “Woah! I can’t wait until I can do it too.”

At this part, Yun Tian became a little serious as he said, “Yu. I think I know why Mom and Dad want to wait.”

They were sitting on some stones around the large peach tree in the center of the courtyard, but when she heard his words she leapt to her feet as she jumped up and down while she grasped his sleeves saying: “Why! Why!”

Yun Tian smiled seeing her actions, but then his smile faded away and he looked troubled. He was very smart and observant, but he was also a young boy who wasn’t even six and he loved Shen Yu very much. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings or anything like that.

“Yu, this is actually one of the things I am talking about.”

Shen Yu heard his words and stopped moving as a confused expression appeared on her face. She asked, “What do you mean?”

“You know what it means to be patient right?”

She nodded her head and he continued, “One of the key things you need to have while cultivating seems to be patience. I had to-”

He stopped himself there as he remembered his parents asking him to not tell her how to cultivate.

Shen Yu didn’t realize this though as she asked, “You had to what?”

Yun Tian shook his head and said, “It doesn’t matter. But I think for you to become ready, you need to train your patience, focus, and ability to follow directions. Above all though, I am just more mature.”

He said the last part as he stuck out his chest. Shen Yu was slightly upset but when she saw his actions she laughed as she tackled him and said, “Don’t forget I’m the older one here.”

This ended their conversation about cultivating for now as they played around in the garden for sometime until their parents called them for dinner. Near the end of dinner, his mother reminded him, “Tian, I'm sure you are going to cultivate some more when you go back to your room, but make sure to not overdo it. Even if you think you can go for a longer time, don’t cultivate for longer than two hours.”

Yun Tian replied, “I will Mom,” as the jealous Shen Yu pouted causing Yun Peng to pat her head.

As if she thought of something, Liu Qing suddenly said, “Ah, wait here for a moment,” before getting up from the table and leaving back to their bedroom.

She returned a few minutes later holding a burning incense along with the same book he read before he started cultivating. She put them down on the table in front of him and said, “This should help you estimate the time better. It should burn for another two and a half hours. Make sure to remember how long you are cultivating for until you get better at estimating your own condition. And don’t forget to look at this, if you face any problems. But don’t forget me and your Dad are here too.”

Yun Tian got up and hugged his Mom saying: “Thank you Mom!”

Then he stood there with an antsy look about him.

Yun Peng laughed and said, “You're excused. Go on and go cultivate in your room.”

With that, he said, “Night Mom and Dad. Night Yu.”

Shen Yu snorted in response and said, “Go cultivate already.”

Yun Tian wanted to say something back, but his Mom patted him on the shoulder and motioned for him to go to his room.

He figured she wanted to talk to Shen Yu so he did as she said after grabbing the incense and book and left to his room.

After he left, Liu Qing sat down on the floor and asked Shen Yu, “Come sit down on my lap please.”

Shen Yu was a little afraid she was gonna be scolded but still obediently went over and sat in her mother’s lap. Afterwards, her mother took out a brush from who knows where and started to brush her hair as she said, “You're not really mad at him right?”

Shen Yu pouted and said, “We should be playing together right now.”

With a calm voice, her mother asked, “You’re not mad he’s cultivating though?”

To the side, Yun Peng watched Liu Qing skillfully pacify Shen Yu with a smile.

Shen Yu replied, “No, cultivating sounds amazing from what Tian said. I’m glad he is. I just want to do it with him instead.”

The calm smile on Liu Qing’s face grew brighter as she said, “That’s good. Just wait a little longer.”

Shen Yu’s face steeled a little as she said in a childish voice, “Yes I will. I will work hard to grow more patient and focused and follow directions better.”

Both parents grew slightly confused as Liu Qing asked, “Why do you have to do that?”

Shen Yu responded as if it was natural, “Brother told me that was why I can’t cultivate yet.”

Yun Peng laughed and said, “Tian sure is smart and observant.”

Liu Qing sighed and said, “Tian is correct, but this isn’t something that just happens. It takes time and you will have to show us through your actions that you truly have become ready.”

Shen Yu nodded and asked with bright eyes, “Mom, what is the best way for me to do that?”

Liu Qing thought for a while before saying, “How about this, Tian will be busy cultivating a lot of the time now and you might be quite bored anyway. So, how about you spend this time doing some tasks? You will do things that the servants usually do like getting water, cleaning, and tending to the garden. If you do this well, in at most a year we will most likely let you cultivate. Otherwise we can just wait till you get older. It’s up to you.”

Hearing this Shen Yu thought, ‘But I don’t want to do that stuff. It's boring.’

Shen Yu didn’t say anything immediately and both Yun Peng and Liu Qing just waited with great expectation for her answer. They wouldn’t force her to do anything but they really hoped she agreed.

Shen Yu really didn’t want to say yes to doing this stuff, but when she thought, ‘This is the only way to spend time with Tian again quickly though,’ she immediately said, “Fine, I will do it.”

Liu Qing hugged her and said, “Good girl,” along with Yun Peng patting her head.

Liu Qing said, “You will start the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow though, how about me and you go out into town and shop for whatever you want?”