Chapter 57: Smiling Renovation
Seeing the opening, Qinyue immediately stepped up. It was her turn now.
"Looks like your new expanded hut needs some proper lighting," she said.
With Jian and Liangyu quickly coordinating to the side, using their qi to punch perfectly spaced holes in the walls for proper lamps, Qinyue went to work.
She summoned bright flames, floating them into the newly made spaces, instantly warming the room and lighting up the entire hut with a golden glow.
She let out a sharp gasp. She looked down at her palm, which was still wreathed in harmless fire, and jerked her hand back. She acted as if she had just suffered a terrible burn, clutching her wrist and screaming dramatically.
Right on cue, Mei burst into the room. She rushed to Qinyue’s side with the urgency of a battlefield medic, glowing with a soft aura and laid her hands on the "wound," acting like she was pouring all her energy into healing the burn.
Watching the overly theatrical performance, Yanyin almost broke out into a genuine smile this time. You could see the amusement in her eyes. Almost.
Seeing the progress, Jian turned to Liangyu, dusting his palms off on his robes. "Alright. For real this time, wanna actually fix the hut?"
"On the count of three," Liangyu replied, shifting himself from playful to intensely focused.
They stood side-by-side, closed their eyes, and breathed in unison. They focused their qi properly this time, letting the raw energy flow harmoniously between them and the earth.
Before our eyes, the chaotic mess of a building began to shift. They completely transformed the expanded monstrosity back into a moderately sized, beautiful hut. The sleeping cow vanished. The grinding stopped.
Each wall was now smoothly designed and perfectly placed, featuring uniquely shaped, aesthetically pleasing windows that framed the outside world perfectly.
Outside, the ground rumbled softly one last time. They recreated the backyard with leveled ground, completely erasing the zigzag path and the sad swing. In its place, a small, vibrant garden bloomed from the soil, filled with various colorful flowers.
To the side, a safe and sturdy little play area rose from the earth.
Qinyue joined in for the final touch, adjusting the flames in the spaces in the walls, lighting up the hut in precise angles which made the interior light feel incredibly soft, warm, and natural. It felt like a home.
"Do you like your new place?" Qinyue asked, turning to Yanyin with a gentle smile.
Yanyin couldn’t control her reaction this time. She looked around at her beautiful new hut, her eyes wide in genuine awe. A real and beautiful smile finally broke across her face.
Yet, as quickly as it appeared, a shadow fell over her features. She suppressed the smile as much as she could, her shoulders dropping. She turned her head away, her voice dropping back to a whisper. "It’s nice. I just wish uncle was here to see it."
The magic of the moment shattered. We collectively let out a heavy, defeated sigh, our hearts breaking for her all over again. We felt sorry for her. We had tried everything we could think of, and it still wasn’t enough to fill the void.
Desperate, I shifted my gaze towards the corner where Longwei still stood, looking entirely unfazed by the emotional journey we were on.
I walked over to him. "I suppose you don’t got any ideas left?" I asked with exhaustion.
He merely shrugged his broad shoulders. "The fuck do I know about consoling kids? You know damn well I’m just gonna resort to violence."
He was right about that.
"Hmm... resort to violence," I muttered to myself, rubbing my chin.
Then, it hit me. An idea struck me with a velocity faster than even his legendary lightning speed. It was so utterly ridiculous it just might work.
I spun around and urgently instructed Jian and Liangyu to summon a few small-sized boulders from the earth. They looked at me like I had lost my mind, but they complied, pulling up chunks of dense rock from the ground until a small pile sat at my feet.
After they finished, I bent down and picked one up. I turned toward the doorway.
"Hey Yanyin! Watch this!" I called out, injecting as much artificial cheer into my voice as possible.
Yanyin turned around slowly, and watched me as I lugged the heavy boulder over to where Longwei was standing. Longwei stared down at me in confusion, silently wondering what on earth I was planning to do with a rock. Was I going to throw it at him?
Exactly.
Without warning, I hoisted the boulder up and chucked it as hard as I could directly at his head.
I watched with immense satisfaction as the solid rock collided with his skull and immediately split cleanly into two halves, the pieces tumbling to the floor. Longwei, of course, didn’t even flinch. He just slowly blinked, hardening into a look of profound annoyance.
I burst out laughing. I laughed hard, pointing my finger directly at his unamused face.
"Ain’t that funny?" I yelled over to Yanyin, gesturing wildly. "He’s a brick wall! You can throw as many as you want at him and he won’t even move an inch!"
What’s that? You think that’s the stupidest and the most absurd attempt at consoling someone you’ve ever come across? Hey, it’s not like I was trying to console some kind of wrathful god of lightning. I was trying to console Yanyin!
And honestly, who knows what could make a grieving kid laugh?
And if you’re still a skeptic sitting there judging my parenting methods, jokes on you, because it worked flawlessly!
We formed a line and enthusiastically took turns picking up the heavy stones and hurling them at his chest, his arms, his head. Longwei just stood there, rigidly enduring the barrage with his arms crossed over his chest, looking supremely annoyed and incredibly bored by the entire ordeal.
I watched Yanyin carefully. Her eyes tracked the rocks shattering against him. Her trembling lips finally began to slowly curve upward. The curve grew wider, pushing past the sadness, until it finally reached its glorious destination. A full, bright and teeth filled smile!
"Yay! Throw more!" she screamed joyfully.
She ran over to the pile, her small hands grabbing a few of the smaller stones she could manage, and started enthusiastically throwing them at the immortal deity, giggling every time one bounced off his immovable frame.
We watched her laugh and a wave of relief washed over us. Violence really does cheer people up sometimes, I guess.
