Chapter 53: Barely

  Liu Xiu was at a loss whether to laugh or cry, looking at Liu Bei's stunned face and then at Zhang Fei whose tears were welling up in his eyes. He said somewhat helplessly: "Yide, get up quickly, what is the meaning of this?"

  "Master, please accept me as your disciple and teach me painting skills." Zhang Fei clung tightly to Liu Xiu's leg, refusing to let go no matter how hard he was pulled.

  Liu Xiu hastily shouted at the two maids standing beside her, their small faces pale with tension: "What are you staring at? Can't you help your young master up? If someone sees this, what will they think?"

  The two maidservants finally came to their senses and hurried over to pull Zhang Fei, but they couldn't budge him. With a wave of his hand, he pushed the two women so that they stumbled and almost fell against the wall. He grasped Liu Xiu tightly: "Please accept me as your disciple."

  Liu Xiu ignored him and shouted at the two maids who were wincing in pain, "Don't you hurry to call your master?"

  Liu Bei also reacted and ran away, just running out of the side yard, he bumped into Ma Chao.

  Mao Jie ran to the hall, looked at the scene in front of her, and was also stunned. She pointed randomly with her fingers, sometimes pointing at Liu Xiu and sometimes at Zhang Fei: "You... what are you doing?"

  "How was I supposed to know what's going on with him?" Liu Xiu said irritably.

  A woman in brocade clothes also rushed in, and as soon as she saw Zhang Fei kneeling on the ground, she was flustered and hurriedly went up to hug Zhang Fei, trembling with her voice, calling out: "Ah Fei, Ah Fei, what's wrong with you? Get up quickly."

  "I won't." Zhang Fei was being stubborn and refused to let go, kowtowing while saying: "Please, sir, teach me your painting skills."

  "What's the matter, let's talk about it later." Zhang Fei's mother, Wu Shi, was so anxious that tears were almost coming out, and she repeatedly begged. Seeing that persuading Zhang Fei was useless, she looked up at Liu Xiu, but didn't recognize him, and immediately turned her gaze to Mao Qiang, begging: "A Qiang, A Qiang, he listens to you the most, please help me persuade him, please help me persuade him."

  Mao Jie now understood, she looked at Wu Shi with difficulty, opened her mouth several times, but couldn't speak to ask Liu Xiu, so she had to say to Wu Shi: "Aunt, this... is there a rule that forces someone to do something difficult when becoming a master?"

  "Sister, please help me beg Mr. He is a student of Taogu Jing She and will definitely give you face. Please help me beg him." Zhang Fei grasped Mao Niang's sleeve and pleaded with an upturned face: "He will definitely give you face, please help me beg him, help me beg him!"

  As they spoke, Zhang Tufu also hurried over in big strides. At the sight of this situation, he understood and scowled, shouting: "You little rascal, aren't you going to get up for me?"

  This shout was like a thunderclap, even Zhang Fei was frightened and subconsciously loosened his grip. Wu Shi and Mao Qiang quickly pulled him up, Liu Xiu didn't dare to delay, seized the opportunity to flee in disarray. Just as he returned to the main hall, Li Ding asked puzzled: "De Ran, what's going on?"

  Liu Xiu sighed and briefly recounted what had just happened, then said with embarrassment: "It was my fault for speaking out of turn, which led to this trouble."

  Li Ding looked at Liu Xiu with a puzzled expression: "You can still paint?"

  "Calligraphy and painting share a common origin, but I only know the surface." Liu Xiu hastily explained: "I didn't expect Yide to treat me as a senior."

  Li Ding hastily reported a crime and rushed to the side hall. In the side hall, Zhang Fei's wailing was as unbearable as the sound of killing pigs.

  Lu Min's face didn't look too good, his expression somewhat gloomy. Liu Xiu tentatively asked a question: "Sir, wasn't the conversation just now going smoothly?"

  Lu Min let out a sigh and didn't say anything, just nodding his head. After a while, he suddenly lifted his head and said to Liu Xiu: "De Ran, look at that young man..."

  Liu Xiu looked at Lu Min who was about to speak but hesitated, somewhat perplexed: "Sir, what do you want to say?"

  Lu Min thought for a moment, shook his head, and let out a bitter laugh: "Nothing, I was just too naive. This matter has gotten me all flustered." He sighed again and explained in a soft voice: "I mentioned to them earlier that I wanted to go to Shangjun to take a look, but Li Dingjun disagreed, saying he was afraid something would happen to me. In reality, he just didn't want us to continue with this matter. I think this might be the intention of Governor Cishi, but since it's not convenient for him to say so himself, he's using this method to block me. Alas, wanting to do something practical for my hometown is really not easy. Clearly, this is a matter that prevents problems before they arise and has no harm, why are they unwilling?"

  Liu Xiu saw his gloomy expression and could only accompany him in sighing. Just as he was thinking of saying something, Li Ding walked over with big strides, directly to Liu Xiu's face, with a frown: "De Ran, do me a favor, first agree to it and calm him down for now. This child can be quite unreasonable when he gets stubborn."

  Liu Xiu looked at Lu Min with some difficulty, just meeting Lu Min's eager gaze, but as soon as they met, Lu Min somewhat awkwardly shifted his gaze away.

  "Li Jun, it's not that I don't want to give you face, but the master wants to go to Shangjun to take a look at Hu Market and get a real understanding of the situation with the Hu people. As a student, how can I be any different? Even if I were to accept him as a disciple, there wouldn't be time to teach him anyway. To accept him but not teach him would be misleading the young man."

  Li Ding looked at Liu Xiu with some displeasure, then glanced at Lu Min, he suspected that this was taught by Lu Min, but there was no evidence. He twirled his mustache, lowered his head and thought for a moment, hesitated for a while: "Then do you think it's okay to let him go with you, and you also see if he is a material that can be cultivated? Maybe after a few days, he will also fade away."

  "This......" Liu Xiu turned his inquiring gaze towards Lu Min.

  Lu Min felt a bit awkward. Although he wanted to use Liu Xiu's acceptance of Zhang Fei as a condition to gain Li Ding's support for his trip to Shang Jun, doing so would definitely displease Li Ding, which was evident from Li Ding's current expression. He should have stayed out of it, but thinking back to what Liu Xiu had said - that one can't achieve great things without making some sacrifices - he thought to himself, "I've already made sacrifices, you should too," and forced a smile, saying: "There are many Hu people in Shang Jun, what if..."

  Looking at the expressions of these two people in front of him, Li Ding was extremely unhappy. Now Zhang Fei was being stubborn and insisted on making Liu Xiu his master, Zhang Tufu thought to himself that he didn't have such a big face, so he had no choice but to come and ask him, he accepted the heavy gift from the Zhang family, it wasn't good to just push it away, originally hoping that Liu Xiu could give him some face and accept Zhang Fei, but now it seemed, this was not an accidental event at all, but rather Lu Min's premeditated plan. Governor Lu had disagreed with Lu Min's proposal, he had already revealed his intention to Lu Min during the day, unexpectedly he would still play such a trick.

  The Zhang family pinned all their hopes on this son, and to make him somewhat accomplished, they were willing to pay any price. To get him to give Zhang Fei a character, the Zhang family sent him two black horses, a young and beautiful dancer, thinking that as long as Liu Xiu accepted Zhang Fei, they would not have any objections to preparing for battle. Li Ding thought for a moment, then smiled calmly: "This is easy, the Zhang family has at least 100 guards, plus the Mao family's guards, if it's still not enough, I can ask the governor to arrange some manpower for you. Besides, although there are many Hu people in the upper county, they are all surrendered Hu people, very obedient and law-abiding, what could happen?"

  Lu Min smiled and didn't want to argue with him over these words, so she turned her head and looked at Liu Xiu with pleading eyes.

  Taking a sworn enemy as an apprentice, Liu Xiu's heart was delighted, but his face showed helplessness: "Since it's Li Jun's order, I can only try my best to accept. However, my skills are limited, and if I'm not of much help to him with painting techniques, I'll have to ask Li Jun to explain things to me."

  "This is natural." Li Ding nodded solemnly, and looked at Liu Xiu with approval, saying: "De Ran has a good natural talent, high intelligence, and also has Master Lu's guidance. In the future, he will definitely achieve something extraordinary. I don't know how many disciples you have, but for someone like Zhang Fei, what's difficult?"