Chapter 133 Chongxis Conundrum (2/2)
It was a simple competition: whoever reaches the finish line first would be the winner. As soon as the signal was given, Father leaped onto his sword and took into the sky like he was riding on a skateboard. Seeing Father using his magic, Zhu Mei too performed his magic, using the Windchaser technique, hoping that it would give him an edge. What he did not realize, was Father had another trick up his sleeve, the Autumn's Decline technique.
The Windchaser magic allowed its user to manipulate and bend the continuum of space on land to the will of its user. This allowed the user to affect the travel and speed of any other person on the ground. Similar to Father's Autumn's Decline technique, Father's technique controlled the movements of anything or anyone in mid-air. With his magic rendered obsolete before Father's magic, Zhu Mei suffered an utter defeat!
Old Man Chen paused and sniggered wickedly. Mr. Zhang's face was spirited to once again hear the name of ”Autumn's Decline” for he had once felt the effects of this wizardry firsthand! Enraptured by what was going to happen next, he urged Old Man Chen to get on with the story. ”What happened then? Come on, Old Chen! What happened next?” ”What else? Zhu Mei lost so badly that he was huffing and puffing like a boar barely escaping from a tiger when he reached the finishing line, before Shiyan's mother gave him three slaps on his cheek!” Across the table, everyone guffawed loudly again.
So this was why the Six Terrors of the Frontier admired Father greatly, I mused. It was all because of Zhu Mei's contest, that they were all immediate witnesses to Father's omnipotence!
It was a long dinner that stretched on for three hours; we sat and talk until the restaurant was about to close before we settled the bill and left.
And because of Edelweiss and I, Lin Feng and Chongxi began contemplating bringing their girlfriends home. Lin Feng began discussing this with Yuanyuan but there was no visible reaction from Yuan Chongxi and his girlfriend, Xiao Yu. It was only one day, I found out why. ”Chongxi,” I asked him, ”Xiao Yu seems to be an honest girl. It's almost the end of the year now. Should you not be planning on a meet-together between your Teacher and Xiao Yu's mother to talk about you both?”
Oddly, Chongxi was hardly in his usually-dull self. With a morose sigh, he said, ”Well, as you well know, my teacher has his weird eccentricities. I'm afraid he might frighten Xiao Yu's family. Moreover, look at me... She's from a wealthy family but I am merely a penniless fool...” For all their power and loftiness, the Blind Master and his student barely had much money. They simply could not afford a wedding. Although we had our share of generous patrons and benefactors at the Center, we were far from being prosperous. Money makes the world go round; without it, there were reasons for Chongxi to be worried. He would need money to survive the future with his betrothed, despite what Xiao Yu and her mother thought about him.
It was a blow struck to me strong and hard. The conundrum of money was something that hardly mattered to us, especially me for the past two years. Only now I began to realize the troubling gauntlet we found ourselves in. Hence, I decided to speak to Lin Feng alone about this.
It was about two months just before the new year, when Lin Feng and I quietly decided to talk alone when it was Chongxi's turn to be at the Center that day.
”Shiyan,” he asked once we walked out of the Center, ”What is it that you wish to speak to me about without Chongxi with us?”