Starting as dockworkers, they swept through Chongqing.

"So? Are you going or not?" Kanavi nudged Celen on the shoulder. "Daisy rarely attends these kinds of parties."

Xilun withdrew his gaze and shook his head.

"Really not going? Forget it."

Kanavi stared at Xilen for a while, then sighed.

"Even if we lend a hand, it'll be over in half a day..."

Kanavi seemed to remember something and suddenly said, "After you come back, come to my house."

"What are you doing?" Xilun was taken aback.

"I'll lend you the book," Kanavi said.

"Book?"

"Classical texts," Kanavi grinned, "that is, grammar of the common language and classical literature."

Xilun frowned: "Why would I look at that? I'm not going to take the exam."

He spent a few years at a charity school, but could only barely read and write, and always kept his distance from those obscure tomes.

"You just don't understand."

Kanavi's smile faded, and he became unusually serious.

"It's extremely useful. Do you think practicing martial arts is just mindless practice?"

He pointed to his head.

"The advanced breathing techniques and fighting skills you will learn later are all written in books on occultism."

"Those books are written in ancient languages ​​from hundreds of years ago, or in coded language used only by the church. Nine out of ten of the current translations are rubbish, and they are incredibly difficult to read."

Kanavi lowered his voice: "Those who are bad at classical Chinese studies can't even understand the secret manuals. If they misunderstand a single word, their qi and blood will reverse, resulting in paralysis at best, and sudden death at worst."

Xilun was stunned.

He never imagined that practicing martial arts would require taking a Chinese language exam.

"How were your grades in school?" Canavie asked.

Xiren paused for two seconds: "He didn't graduate from the charity school."

Kanavi patted him on the shoulder sympathetically.

"Then you're doomed. You'd better just borrow books from me and read them properly. Otherwise, even if I give you a mythological classic from the Fourth Age, you'll only be able to use it as toilet paper."

Xilun pursed his lips, the mysterious symbols that resembled celestial script appearing in his mind.

"Okay." Xilen nodded. "Thank you."

"No need to thank me, just remember to come tomorrow!" Kanavi waved his hand and turned to walk towards his group of friends who were discussing the barbecue.

......

The surface of Qingshui Lake was completely clear, like a polished sapphire.

This place is two kilometers from the downtown area of ​​Saint Laurent. The black plumes of smoke from the industrial area are blocked to the south by the wind, leaving only vast expanses of reeds and shimmering lake water.

"Spread this cloth out so the stones don't hurt your bottom."

Kanavi directed several boys to clear a clearing on the grass beside the gravel beach.

Xiren was carrying a heavy iron rack, a barbecue grill that Kanavi had stolen from his home.

His arm muscles bulged slightly as he steadily inserted the iron frame into the soil, his movements as light as if he were picking up a feather.

"The scenery here is really nice."

Czech poured a large bag of charcoal on the ground and started it on fire with newspaper. "If I could build a house in a place like this someday, that would be what life is all about."

"Dream on." Kanavi skillfully took the marinated pork offal out of the oil paper package. "This kind of unpolluted land has long been fenced off by those big nobles. It's just that the factory next to this lake was recently abandoned, otherwise we wouldn't have the chance to run wild here."

Xilun didn't join their chatter; he squatted down and helped skewer the pig livers, hearts, and intestines onto sharpened branches.

The red and white offal emitted a strong aroma of spices, which was deliberately intensified with cumin and chili to mask the fishy smell.

For Siron, who eats rye bread year-round, this is the ultimate delicacy.

Not far away, several girls took off their shoes and socks and carefully stepped into the shallow water to pick lotus pods.

Daisy was at the very back.

Today she wore a white, fitted long dress, the hem of which she held up in her hand, revealing a section of her smooth and delicate calves.

Her feet were very white with rounded toes, creating a striking contrast as she stepped into the black mud.

The sunlight shone on her, as if gilding her with a layer of gold.

The boys over there had skewers of meat in their hands, but their eyes were all fixed on that direction.

"So white..." Czech swallowed, unsure whether he was referring to the pork fat or something else.

Kanavi nudged Czech with his elbow and sneered in a low voice, "Don't look, that's not a woman we can touch."

"I heard her father is a history professor at Saint Laurent University, a truly respectable man. She's just here for the novelty."

Kanavi slammed a string of fatty intestines onto the iron frame. "For us manual laborers, it's just something we dream about."

Xilun looked up.

Daisy was bending down to reach for a lotus seedpod, the fabric in her chest stretched taut and full.

She seemed to notice the gazes directed at her, straightened up, and glanced over with her cool, indifferent eyes before turning her head away as if nothing had happened.

That look in his eyes was neither disgusted nor friendly, like he was looking at the scenery by the roadside.

Xilun looked away and continued to focus on the meat skewers in his hands.

"The fire is lit!"

Czech shouted excitedly.

The charcoal fire was fanned until it glowed red-hot, and when grease dripped onto it, a plume of white smoke instantly rose, making a sizzling sound.

The intense aroma of meat exploded, instantly whetting everyone's appetite.

Xilun felt a spasm in his stomach, a feeling of extreme hunger.

The intense training of the past few days, coupled with insufficient nutrition, has left his body like a dried-up fuel tank, desperately needing fuel.

"Come on, let's eat first!"

Kanavi was a generous man. He grabbed a handful of roasted, golden-brown, and oily pig intestines and gave two skewers to Siren first. "Siren, you did the most work, you eat first."

Without any hesitation, Xilun took the skewer of meat and, ignoring the heat, took a bite.

Your teeth slice through the crispy, charred skin, and the scalding oil bursts in your mouth, mixing with the spiciness of the chili powder, burning all the way down your throat into your stomach.

Cool!

Xilun wolfed down the skewer, finishing it in just a few bites.

Food enters the stomach, is converted into heat, and quickly fills the body's deficiencies.

The girls returned, bringing back a few shriveled lotus pods and a bag of edamame.

Everyone sat around on the grass, shelling edamame and eating barbecue.

The conversation started with gossip from school and moved on to recent major events.

"Have you heard? Two more people have died in the downtown area recently," a girl whispered. "It seems they were drained of blood. The police said it was bats from the sewers that killed them."

The atmosphere froze for a moment, but was quickly dispelled by the liveliness of the young people.

Daisy sat a little distance from the fire, holding a skewer of roasted mushrooms and eating them very politely.

She rarely spoke, but listened quietly, occasionally offering a polite smile.

This sense of alienation made her stand out in the crowd, yet it also made her even more eye-catching.

After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, the sun gradually began to set in the west.

Kanavi pulled a deck of cards from his bag and shuffled them rapidly in his hand.

"Just sitting here is boring, want to play a couple of rounds?"

He raised an eyebrow. "How about Three-Card Poker? We don't need to bet too high, just one copper coin as the base, how about that?"

Several boys immediately became interested and started reaching into their pockets.

Even a few girls gathered around, wanting to see what was going on.

"Sirlen, wanna play?" Kanavi looked at Sirlen.

Xilun shook his head and brushed the cumin powder off his hands: "You guys have fun, I'm too full, I'm going over there to digest."

"How boring." Czech scoffed. "On a good day like this, you should relax."

Xilun smiled but offered no explanation.

He stood up and left the noisy crowd alone.

After walking a few hundred meters along the lake, the laughter gradually faded away.