Chapter 313 Bending a Brick as Easily as Bread
Fang Qiu’s father jogged the whole way and took out the broom.
He passed it to Fang Qiu’s mom and whispered, “You should be careful. You can’t defeat him!”
Fang Qiu’s mother was immediately annoyed with his words.
She raised her voice and glared at Fang Qiu with the broom raised high as she said, “I refuse to believe that this naughty kid would dare to lay a hand on me.”
“No, of course not,” Fang Qiu quickly shook his head and his hands. Then, he raised his hands as a gesture of surrender and said miserably, “Alright, alright, I’ll tell what’s going on.”
“Humph,” Fang Qiu’s mother scoffed proudly and said, “spill, what is going on?”
“This is what happened,” Fang Qiu said, “I, your son, had a chance encounter with an elderly man while I was out playing as a kid. This elderly man said that I would be a martial arts genius, so he promised that he would teach me kung fu every day. This is why you weren’t able to find me when I went out to play every day as a child. However, the elderly man swore me to secrecy, so you weren’t aware of this pact.”
“Does this mean that you haven’t just been learning medical skills over the past six months?” Fang Qiu’s mother asked.
“Yes!” Fang Qiu nodded repeatedly and said, “Haven’t I learned...”
“You’ve learned how to tell lies, haven’t you?” His mother raised the broom high and looked as though she was about to hit him.
“No, no,” Fang Qiu hurriedly took a few steps backward and said. “This is the truth. I didn’t make it up, I swear.”
“Kid, stop making things up,” Fang Qiu’s father couldn’t stand it any longer and said. “You should come up with something more believable even if you want to lie. Your words sound like something right out of a martial arts novel. It is no wonder that we managed to see through your lies. I can tell that you’re lying, so do you really think that your mother won’t be able to tell the same?”
Fang Qiu smiled wryly and said, “I’m neither lying nor making things up. I was telling the truth.”
His parents exchanged a glance and they both looked exasperated.
“Alright, let’s say that you’re telling the truth, why don’t you tell us how strong you are right now?” Fang Qiu’s mother asked.
“How strong?” Fang Qiu thought for a moment before he casually said, “100 people won’t be able to come near me.”
The moment he uttered those words, his parents were astonished.
“What did you just say?” Fang Qiu’s father asked, his eyes widening in shock.
“Did you just say that 100 people wouldn’t be able to come near you? Do you think that these people are all weaklings?” Fang Qiu’s mother said as she glared at Fang Qiu. “Did you learn how to brag from that elderly man as well? How could that elderly man teach a young child such things?”
“Why don’t you believe me?” Fang Qiu said as he looked innocently at his parents. “I swear I’m telling the truth. I did not make a single word of this up.”
“Alright, why don’t you show me your abilities?” Fang Qiu’s mother asked.
“Sure, get me 100 people,” Fang Qiu said as he splayed his hands helplessly.
His mother’s broom came sweeping down toward his buttocks.
“Smack.”
She didn’t use excessive force but neither was it a light smack. She said, “Who told you to beat others up? Don’t you have any talents other than beating people up? Why can’t you show these off?”
Fang Qiu rubbed at his buttocks and chuckled.
He knew his mother couldn’t bear to hit him.
Moreover, Fang Qiu was so strong that his internal Qi could have easily broken the broom.
“Fine, let me show you,” Fang Qiu said.
Then, he walked outside, picked up a brick, and went back into the living room.
“Are you going to slice the brick apart with your bare hands?” His mother asked mockingly.
“There’s no need to slice it apart with my hands,” he said.
Then, he held the brick in his left hand and tore it into pieces as easily as bread with his left hand.
He made it seem like an effortless feat.
“Crack crack...”
He chuckled as he tore the brick apart and asked, “Do you believe me now?”
His parents were dumbfounded.
They stared at him in shock and stood rooted to the spot.
Soon, his father walked up to him in disbelief, picked up the shards of bricks that Fang Qiu threw onto the floor, and took the remaining half of the brick from Fang Qiu’s hand. He examined it and saw that it was a real brick!
Fang Qiu’s mother walked over to take a closer look as well.
Then, they tried to tear apart the brick as Fang Qiu did earlier.
No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t tear the brick apart. Instead, this only made their hands hurt.
“Uh...”
Fang Qiu’s father stuttered.
Fang Qiu’s mother passed the brick that was the size of two fingers back to Fang Qiu and said, “Do what you just did again.”
Fang Qiu took the brick from his mother and placed the brick in his palm before he gently squeezed it.
“Rustle...”
The brick was turned into powder after he squeezed it and turned into red sand that scattered onto the floor.
“Is this enough?” Fang Qiu asked with his hands splayed open.
“Am, amazing!” Fang Qiu’s father exclaimed.
“That was great!” Fang Qiu’s mother jumped in excitement, a sharp contrast to when she had been so astonished earlier. “Our son is both adept in the pen and the sword. We don’t need to worry about him being bullied in the future.”
“Who would dare to bully him?” Fang Qiu’s father asked with a wry smile. “I’m not worried about him being bullied but I sure hope that he wouldn’t bully anyone else. He’s so strong that if he squeezed his opponent, wouldn’t he break his opponent’s bones?”
Indeed, Fang Qiu’s parents felt that Fang Qiu was incredibly strong.
Their son could not just tear the brick apart as easily as bread, he could also crush it into sand!
He tore the brick apart so easily that he could perform this as a magic trick.
“What kind of nonsense are you spouting?” Fang Qiu’s mother said as she rolled her eyes at Fang Qiu’s father. “Our son is a good boy so I’m sure he wouldn’t bully others. Moreover, he is also a Chinese Medicine physician. Do you not understand what it means to be a physician? He would be able to cure his opponent even if he crippled him. No one would be able to take advantage of him.”
Fang Qiu’s mother became even more excited.
“Oh yes.” Fang Qiu’s mother grabbed Fang Qiu’s arm with a chuckled and asked, “What else did you learn from the elderly man? Did he just impart kung fu to you?”
“I learned a lot from him,” Fang Qiu said with a smile. “I learned how to fly and tunnel underground, as well as the zither, chess, and classical painting. I’m good at everything!”
“I can tell that in addition to the martial arts you’ve learned, you’ve also learned how to brag!” Fang Qiu’s mother rolled her eyes with a laugh. “I must say that it is great that you’ve picked up martial arts. Where does the elderly man stay? We should pay a visit to express our gratitude.”
“Yes, yes, we should,” Fang Qiu’s father nodded. “Should I buy some tonics and send it over to his place?”
“I can’t find him anywhere,” Fang Qiu said as he shook his head. “He disappeared when I was in my second year of high school.”
“What a pity,” Fang Qiu’s mother said with a sigh. “I would have really liked to thank him personally.”
“Yes, if you ever see him again, you must invite him to our home,” Fang Qiu’s father added.
“Yes,” Fang Qiu agreed with a nod.
Fang Qiu’s mother finally let him off the hook after she uncovered the truth and solved the mystery behind what she found so suspicious about him.
Fang Qiu immediately scurried back to his room after his mother finally let him off.
He dug out a wooden box in his room and carefully placed the Heaven Treasure, a plum blossom, into the box.
He might have plucked the plum blossom but he was not worried that the Qi of the sky and earth contained within the plum blossom would dissipate.
After all, this was a Heaven Treasure, so the effects and essence of the Qi of the sky and earth within it could be preserved if it was stored in a jade box after it had been plucked.
Although he did not have a jade box on hand, the Qi of the sky and earth within the plum blossom wouldn’t dissipate so quickly either.
He wasn’t left with much of a choice.
He definitely couldn’t use it here at home and moreover, it wasn’t time for him to breakthrough yet. Thus, he could only put this plum blossom in this wooden box and transport it back to college.
Over the next few days, no one could stop talking about the ferocious beast that appeared outside the county.
Some people said that the ferocious beast was extremely large and made it seem like a monster, so everyone else thought that they were spreading rumors.
There were others who said that it was a hyena that escaped from the zoo but no one knew why it was so large.
Those who had been injured by it became the focus of everyone’s attention. Many people went to visit the victims every day but strangely, the victims were all very calm. They all agreed that they didn’t see a large beast but had only been attacked by a feral beast.
On the third day of the Spring Festival, Fang Qiu and his family went to visit his relatives.
Ultimately, it didn’t matter which relatives they visited for he was asked to treat all his relatives’ ailments before they could eat which made him seem like a physician paying house calls.
It couldn’t be helped because everyone now knew how incredibly skilled he was and besides, how could he turn his relatives down?
Fang Qiu was kept busy all the way until the sixth day of the Spring Festival.
On the sixth day of the Spring Festival, they finished eating early.
Fang Qiu’s mother cleared the table and went to wash the dishes.
In the living room.
Fang Qiu and his father sat on the sofa.
“Now that you’ve mastered Chinese Medicine and kung fu, what are your plans for the future?” Fang Qiu’s father asked.
“Dad, I’m only in my first year of university,” Fang Qiu replied.
“I’m only asking you this question because you’re only in your first year of university,” Fang Qiu’s father said with a smile because he added solemnly. “If you don’t know what you want to do in the future, then you’d be wasting your five years of university. We all have limitless potential but our time on earth is limited. I hope that you’d be able to make good use of your time and choose the path that you want to take. This means that you’d be five years ahead of the rest. Five years is neither a long time nor a short time but it is enough for many things to change.”
“Let me ask you, would you like to work in a hospital upon graduation or would you like to set up your own clinic?” Fang Qiu’s father asked.
“Uh...” Fang Qiu thought for a moment before he said, “I haven’t given enough thought to this matter yet. I want to increase the awareness and the acknowledge of Chinese Medicine as a viable form of treatment as much as possible with my own abilities.”
“If you want to do it, then you should,” Fang Qiu’s father nodded and said with a smile. “If you feel that you’ve made the right decision, then you shouldn’t look back no matter what!”
Fang Qiu looked at his father in surprise.
This was the first time he realized how wise his father was!
“Yes,” Fang Qiu nodded in spite of his surprise.
He remembered his father’s advice.
“What are you talking about?” Fang Qiu’s mother asked as she emerged from the kitchen with some walnuts.
She didn’t wait for their response and immediately picked up the remote control to switch channels when she saw that they were watching the news.
Just then.
“In order to promote traditional culture and the Chinese spirit, the ‘Young Physician of China’ competition that the Chinese Central Television has spent several months preparing for is finally about to begin. We hope that emerging stars in this field would be able to bring honor to Chinese Medicine and make contributions to this field...”