The God of Cataka

42

"Have you not eaten yet?" Bao Yu's question made all eyes in the room spontaneously turn to Tiao.

The young man blinked and bowed with his mouth clenched. Didn't answer Bao Yu's question.

They had just arrived inside the room when Bao Yu suddenly stopped and turned to look at Tiao.

"Sister! You take it easy," Shen Zhu said to Tiao as he led the young man to the center of the room in the Guest House of Dormitory Seven and pulled him to sit in front of a low-lesehan table, which he was waiting for, where their teacher used to entertain guests. "Sir Hua is very good at cooking," he said excitedly. "You should try the cooking porridge."

Tiao glanced at Lim Hua while forcing a smile.

Lim Hua returned his smile and nodded. "I'll go cook it now!" said enthusiastically.

"I'll help you!" Shen Zhu offered no less enthusiastically.

"In that case, we'll help pick up the firewood!" Tan Liu chimed in while embracing and patting his sister on the shoulder. Tan Nuo nodded in response.

"And we'll help get some water!" timpal Zhen Juan while raising his eyebrows toward Zhang Junda while crossing. Zhang Junda responded by clenching his hands on the side of his face.

"I'll help keep an eye on Brother!" Lian Ze added with a whimper, responding to everyone's laughter.

Bao Yu folded her hands in front of her chest then circulated an amused look towards her students with a faint smile, then turned to look at Tiao.

Tiao followed his uncle's glance and smiled clumsyly.

"You wait here!" Shen Zhu patted Tiao on the shoulder.

Tiao simply nodded faintly and smiled wistfully. The warm atmosphere of the family in the dormitory made her want to cry.

It really feels like a house rather than a hostel, he said in his heart. It was different from my grand home but it felt like a prison.

Bao Yu sat cross-legged across the table in front of Tiao, while her students rushed towards the kitchen joking and laughing. Thronging in the doorway, tugging at each other, scrambling to break through first.

Tiao glanced at them and bowed stiffly.

Silence ambushed the room for a long time.

Lian Ze then appeared carrying a pot of tea and poured it for Bao Yu and Tiao, then left the room again.

Tiao heard a commotion in the kitchen room. The sound of chirping and thunderous thumping amongst the carefree laughter of the disciples of Dormitory Seven. Occasionally, a rude scream was heard every time they threw jokes at each other. The sounds of busyness that signify that they are truly alive.

The real aura of fighting spirit even though they were barely suppressed the entire time.

No one ever considered them. But they appreciate each other's existence.

I've never been nice to them. But they accepted me cheerfully, Tiao recalled bitterly.

Either because Shen Zhu was too good at bringing together or Uncle Yu taught him, Tiao thought. They are like one body.

Their spirits smolder like eternal flames.

Mentally they are as tough as eagles.

And I'm really dying, her mind bitter. Live hard, die not want. I live but like a dead man. Like a soulless undead controlled by the devil's orders.

"You really don't want to know what happened to your mother?" bao Yu asked after a moment of silence. Her soft voice jerked Tiao, as if it was the first loudest sound Tiao had heard.

But Tiao remained silent. Both of his hands were cupped around the teacup in front of him. His head was bowed, while his gaze was fixed on the thin puff of steam above his teacup.

Tiao blinked without taking his eyes off the tea cup on the table. The shadow of her mother's treatment flashed through her mind.

"That's really bad!" his mother grunts and raises her nose, responding to Tiao's defeat on the day of the College Championship. "If it wasn't for the sect's rules forbidding women from leading, that chairman's throne would definitely belong to your sister!"

He said it in front of everyone. And it wasn't just this once.

"He taught me!" hiss Tiao with a raucous voice.

"Tiao," Bao Yu stretched out one hand on the table, then gently patted the back of Tiao's hand. "You must not return the sword with the sword" he advised.

Tiao was getting deeper. I don't know when he couldn't forgive his mother. All the treatment of his mother from time to time, always left a scar in the recesses of his heart.

"The meaning of the sword is not about attacking and killing" Bao Yu said. "But about survival. About the heirlooms you have to keep their values. About the right time to use it."

Tiao finally raised his face, looking at his uncle with renewed interest. Suddenly he felt he had just found the right home to rest in. Let go of all his tiredness without worrying others see his weakness.

"Uncle Yu," he whispered almost inaudibly. "A proverb says, 'Paradise on the soles of the feet of the mother!' You think if heaven is not at your mother's feet.Where is your paradise?"

Bao Yu let out a short sigh and smiled faintly. Then pulled his hand from the back of Tiao's hand and re-sealed. "Although if heaven is really on your feet, you don't have to be a slave to your mother" he said carefully. "But you don't have to drop it either!"

Tiao looked at his uncle's face with his eyebrows intertwined. "Don't tell me I have to follow in his footsteps!" he was impatient.

Bao Yu smiled faintly again. Then shook slowly. "Make him sit down!" repelled.

Tiao was silent. Now I know what makes Dormitory Seven so alive, he said in his heart.

Words that build!

It was something Tiao never accepted. Throughout his life, he used to swallow bitter words that broke his heart, crushing his soul to the bone. It keeps getting worse from time to time.

I need a life like this, he said in his heart. A father's education and a mother's advice.

His father and mother only knew how to educate, but did not know how to advise. Both of them play the role of father.

Uncle Yu, he said inwardly. You have both. Mightiness and gentleness.

Then suddenly Tiao got up from his seat, then walked around the table and knelt down near Bao Yu.

Bao Yu flinched when she knew Tiao had already moved and slumped towards him. "Slummy Boy!" his screeches were surprised, then hurriedly pulled Tiao's shoulder. "What are you doing?"

Tiao remained down with his forehead touching the floor surface. "Uncle Yu, make me your disciple!" her door.

"You—" Bao Yu stuttered.

Shen Zhu and his elder brothers looked into the room, crammed in the doorway with eyes and mouth rounded.

Bao Yu glanced at them, and instantly the children gasped and soared away from the door.

Bao Yu opened her mouth with one hand outstretched towards them and only reached for empty air.

He pulled his hand and moved it to the back of his head. I don't know what to do with his hand. Finally he lowered his hand and touched Tiao's head. Then cleared.

"As for this matter." Bao Yu said stammeringly. "I think you need your father's approval."

"To be your student, I just need your approval" Tiao said.