"We can appreciate art not for what it's visionally made, but by how the creator put his entire soul in it."
Cale frowns, grumbling pathetically inside his mind by how boring it is.
"Now for the remaining time we have left, please create an epigram that shows how art was made into such an ethereal piece."
The redhead just sighs before pulling out a piece of paper and brush, writing bold strokes of Chinese characters and let it dry under the sun.
"Psst, Xun-ge. Do you have any ideas left?"
Cale looks apathetically at Wei Ying, pitying him since he's still too young to think such broad words to use.
The redhead leans closer to Wei Ying and whispered, "Goodluck, A-Ying."
Wei Ying's face paled, his expression screaming of betrayal as Cale stood up and gave his paper to the teacher.
Even though Jiang Cheng couldn't quite hear what they talked about, he could get the gist of it making him snort to himself.
Wei Ying grabbed another piece of paper filled with doodles and started writing while muttering the words, Jiang Cheng laughing hysterically making the teacher scold him.
"Dear diary, today marks the day that my ever so flawless Xun-ge abandoned me. The betrayal felt bitter in my tongue, like an unripe loquat with its seeds crushed out of its life. But alas, I still adore him as my elder brother."
Cale, who saw the scribbles from Wei Ying since they're seated side by side, couldn't help but frown at how dramatic the younger is.
"Wei Xun! Please get your paper, you can leave to your cultivation training next!"
Cale stands up once again but this time, with his books tuck in his arm.
"Excellent epigram, Wei Xun." The teacher praised, but Cale just nodded, uninterested.
Looking at his paper once again with a one hundred mark in the upper right area, Cale left the pavilion.
The paper crumpled under his hold, but his grip soon softened as he stopped walking in the middle of a pathway inside the Lotus Pier.
Cale looked at his epigram for one last time and recited it to himself out loud.
"You were like a small dot in a white canvas, full of opportunities to be made into a masterpiece with the right brush strokes."
The redhead doesn't know where he heard such phrase even when he still have his record ability, though the way every word was constructed like how smoothly weaving yarn to be made into clothes, it was all too familiar to him.
As Cale softly tucked away his paper, he could hear a distant yell from the pavilion he was in just minutes ago.
"Xun-ge! Wait for us!"
"Lower your voice, there are other disciples taking classes right now dumbass."
But Wei Ying still screamed his lungs out when Cale didn't looked back at them, "Xun-ge!!!"
"A-Xian is being lively today." Jiang Yanli says after arriving beside Cale.
"Children should be lively, Shijie. Good morning."
"A pleasant morning too, A-Xun."
Wei Ying who immediately sees Yanli, proceeds to feign sad and started rambling.
"Shijie! Waaaahhhh, Xun-ge didn't give XianXian ideas in our epigram! Waaaahhhh!"
Couldn't contain his second hand embarrassment, Cale left without talking.
Seeing this unusual behavior, Wei Ying couldn't help but worry as he ran and clutched Cale's left hand before looking up at him.
Now that Wei Ying thinks, his Xun-ge seems to have grown taller the last time they have seen each other before he became a disciple of Yunmeng Sect.
"Xun-ge, are you okay?" Wei Ying asks as he tugged Cale's hand, noticing a small detail.
His hands are decorated with scars, although not that visible, he can still feel it when he held Cale's hand.
Wei Ying wonders where did he get such lines.
"I'm alright, just feeling sleepy. No need to worry." Cale says and patted Wei Ying's head.
Wei Ying wasn't convinced, but he knows better to not pry about it. He's sure his gege would tell him himself if it gets worse, right?
But he remembers, they only just became brothers out of Cale's goodwill back in the alleyways of Yiling. So who was he before he became his Xun-ge?
Wei Ying is too smart for his age.
"Xun-ge, you are my brother...right?" Wei Ying asks, his hold against the redhead's hand weakened.
He wants to make sure if Cale also sees him as his own brother.
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Cale says in a stoic manner, making Wei Ying flinch.
'Ah, did I get too ahead with calling him gege? Maybe he's annoyed but just didn't talk about itㅡ'
"Of course you're my little brother. Why else would I let you call me gege?"
"Butㅡ"
"Stop thinking such useless things A-Ying. If I hate something, I would tell you about it."
After that, Cale held Wei Ying and carried him up in his arms, surprising the younger but welcomed the sensation.
"Let's go to Sect Leader Jiang now." Cale says before looking back at the Jiang siblings who were watching them from behind.
"Aren't I too heavy for your lanky arms to carry, gege?"
Jiang Cheng almost choked on his spit while Yanli giggled.
"For your information, you weigh lighter than a haystack. You should eat more since you're still a growing child."
Yanli then also carried Jiang Cheng in her arms since the other looks jealous of Wei Ying, she then says, "But you're still also a child, A-Xun."
Cale blinks for a while as if he just remembered that just now( he did).
"I am indeed a child, that's why I need sleep and photosynthesize if that's what it mean for me to grow."
Jiang Cheng then snorts, "Just say that you want to slack off."
Cale then admits shamelessly, "Indeed, I want to be a slacker while being rich at the same time."
Yanli chuckles, "What a beautiful dream that is, A-Xun."
The redhead smiles, finally happy that someone gets how beautiful slacker life is.
"Then, can we give gege his courtesy name now? I just thought of something though it's still incomplete."
Wei Ying, as if remembering something, asks Cale, "Is that alright to you gege?"
"Go ahead, as long as it's usable."
"Then Huan(1)!" Jiang Cheng immediately says, grinning in victory as Wei Ying gasped.
Yanli laughs again, "Don't be angry XianXian, A-Cheng and I thought about it too."
"If Shijie says so, then how about Xiang(2)? Xianghuan...Wei Xianghuan! Do you like it gege?"
Cale smiles, ruffling Wei Ying's hair as he teased him.
"I don't like it, A-Ying." The redhead says solemnly that he could see Wei Ying turning into stone and started cracking.
"I love it, A-Ying, A-Cheng, Shijie. Thank you for giving me a courtesy name."
Of course Cale couldn't help but love the name they gave him, since it was made with such ambience fitting for a person like him. And for one, it does suit him.
"Let's go."
The four of them walked, Wei Ying being happy that he lifted his gege's mood together with his Shijie and shidi.
And he hopes that he would bask in such life like this for a long time.
The redhead discreetly looks behind him with a menacing glare while he let Wei Ying and the Jiang siblings talk, his jaw clenching as he stared at the eyes that were looking at him from afar.
1. 欢 (huān) – happiness
2. 详 (xiáng) – peaceful