You are not allowed to date a trainer.

Chapter 74 Fat Granny

At exactly three o'clock in the afternoon, Qin Zhen arrived at the foot of Mount Tai. He rode on Milton's back, looked at the Dai Temple not far away, and sighed deeply.

"Ah, hiss—"

Milton also sighed, his eyes looking quite lonely.

At this moment, Qin Zhen suddenly smelled a strong floral scent.

He turned his head and saw a wealthy face appear in his sight.

A short, fat old lady was standing on the shoulder of the road. There was a long bag hanging behind her, with several wooden canes sticking out of it. The strong floral scent that Qin Zhen smelled was coming from her.

"What a big motorcycle lizard!" The fat grandmother asked with a smile, "Are you here for a trip, little classmate?"

"Excuse me, who are you?" Qin Zhen was a little confused, but more alert.

"Don't be nervous. I just saw that you seemed unhappy alone, so I came to ask." The fat old woman waved her hand. "If you have any troubles, why not go to the mountain to pay your respects to the Taishan Grandmother and talk to her about your troubles? It's very effective."

"I can't call it trouble, at most it's a little regretful."

The fat grandmother's friendly attitude made Qin Zhen relax a little. He patted Miller's neck, and the trainer and the Pokémon sighed at the same time.

"My elf and I wanted to try the famous Wuyue Temple Bazirou, but when we got there we found out the restaurant doesn't open until 9pm, so we were disappointed."

"The pork belly from Wuyue Temple?" The fat old woman was stunned. "The one in downtown Qizhou?"

"Correct."

"Then what are you doing at the foot of Mount Tai? This place is more than 80 kilometers away from that Baozirou restaurant."

"Because I didn't come to Qizhou City for the pork." Qin Zhen said, "I came to challenge the Bixia Dojo on Mount Tai."

"Oh? So... you're here to climb Mount Tai?" The fat old woman's eyes lit up. She untied her backpack and showed Qin Zhen the trekking poles inside, her movements swift and agile. "How about buying a trekking pole? Elves aren't allowed on the trails of Mount Tai, so you'll definitely need one!"

Qin Zhen was stunned, thinking that it was no wonder that the old lady would take the initiative to talk to him, and the first thing she said was to recommend him to go to the mountain to worship the Taishan Goddess. It turned out that she wanted to sell him trekking poles.

"Grandma, how much is your walking stick?"

"Not expensive, fifteen dollars."

Qin Zhen was silent for a moment and looked behind the fat grandma, where there were small stalls lined up in a row. There were wooden signs in front of the stalls with white words written clearly on a red background.

——Hiking pole: five yuan each.

Facing Qin Zhen's piercing gaze, the fat grandma just smiled. She even handed her bag of walking sticks to Qin Zhen, indicating that he should pay quickly and choose one.

Generally speaking, young people are thin-skinned. When they encounter such cunning and unscrupulous merchants who try to build relationships with them before selling goods, they often pay money obediently because they cannot afford to lose face.

But Qin Zhen is not ordinary. Inside his body is the reborn soul of an old cucumber painted green.

And more importantly: he doesn't have much money, but he has to support a lot of elves.

So classmate Xiao Qin rolled his eyes.

"Grandma, is Mount Tai very high?"

"High! It's incredibly high! A full 1,500 meters! As high as a 500-story building!"

"One thousand five hundred meters?" Qin Zhen was waiting for this sentence. He gave a thumbs-up and nodded to himself, a smug smile on his face. "I just went to Siguniang Mountain in Jinguan City a month ago. The altitude of that mountain is six thousand meters."

………………“Hiccup——”

Qin Zhen sat on the stone steps, gasping for breath and retching. The fat grandma sat next to him, smiling and patting Qin Zhen's back gently to help him breathe.

"Little classmate, you still need to exercise more."

Qin Zhen's fault actually. It seemed that in order to retaliate against Qin Zhen's behavior towards Grandet, the fat grandmother went up the mountain with him and ran with Qin Zhen the whole time. Whenever Qin Zhen wanted to stop and rest for a while, the fat grandmother would turn her head as if she could read his mind, and stare at Qin Zhen with a very tolerant and curious look.

"Little classmate, have you really climbed a mountain 6,000 meters above sea level?"

It would be too embarrassing to say at this time that it was my Milton who carried me up or that I teleported up there, so Qin Zhen could only grit his teeth and persevere, thinking that it was only a small hill of 1,500 meters, and he could climb it in one breath with some effort.

Then, as expected, Xiao Qin felt nauseous.

At this time, a glass of water was brought to Qin Zhen.

"Drink water."

"Okay." Qin Zhen took a breath, took the paper cup from the other person's head, tilted his head back and drank it all.

The water temperature was just right, neither cold nor hot. After the warm water went down his throat, the nausea from long-term intense exercise gradually faded away. Qin Zhen let out a long sigh, put down the paper cup and prepared to say thank you. As soon as he lowered his head, he met a pair of deep purple eyes.

"Ball Sea Lion!?"

Qin Zhen leaned back suddenly, and the back of his head almost hit the stone steps behind him.

"Where did you come from!?"

"When you're thirsty and someone hands you a glass of water, you should say 'thank you' instead of 'where did you come from?'" In Qin Zhen's mind, the sea lion spoke calmly. "Qin Zhen, you were very rude just now."

Qin Zhen felt that there was something wrong with this sentence, but he couldn't find any point to refute it for a while, so he had to lower his head to the little sea lion.

"sorry."

At this moment, Qin Zhen suddenly felt a Poké Ball behind his waist suddenly jump up. Qin Zhen's face changed, and he quickly put his hands behind his back, tightly holding the red and white ball.

Qiuqiu Sea Lion nodded, accepting Qin Zhen's apology. She stepped forward and pushed the empty paper cup out of Qin Zhen's hand, then plopped down towards a trash can not far away.

Because the attitude and movements of the ball-shaped sea lion were so natural, Qin Zhen couldn't help but doubt himself, wondering if there was something wrong with his memory. He actually didn't resist the temptation of the "Drop of Life" that day, and secretly subdued the ball-shaped sea lion and took it out of the breeding bureau.

"Was that a sea lion?" the fat woman cast a curious glance. "Your initial Pokémon?"

"No, she is mine..." Qin Zhen closed his mouth halfway through his words and slowly shook his head. He didn't know how to describe the relationship between himself and the sea lion.

After a short rest, Qin Zhen's strength recovered, but the ball sea lion still did not return. Qin Zhen stood up. Behind him was a wide square with a red Taoist temple standing on the edge of the square. Little Qin looked around but could not find the little blue figure.

"The Taoist temple you are looking at now is called Doumu Palace, and the deity enshrined in it is Doumu Yuanjun, the mother of the Big Dipper." said the fat old woman next to him.

"Isn't Taishan the dojo of Grandma Taishan?"

"Mount Tai is so big, it's no problem for a few more gods to live there. There's the Emperor of Dongyue, the Three Officials Emperor, Doumu Yuanjun, the Blue Emperor, Shi Gan Dang, the Queen Mother..." The fat woman listed them all. "Oh, and there's also Grandma Taishan."

Qin Zhen wasn't interested in myths, so he casually asked, "Who's the most powerful among them?"

"The most powerful one? That should be the Great Emperor Dongyue, right? He's the mountain god of Mount Tai. The Dai Temple we passed before going up the mountain is dedicated to him." The fat woman smiled. "Legend has it that he's the god who rules the underworld. Every one of us will meet him after we die."

(End of this chapter)