Pulling his wandering thoughts back, Lin Xiao returned his gaze to Sun Yigao in front of him. Listening to the chatter around them, he said to him,
"Brother Sun, you can go back first. I'll go to your house tonight to let you know the time and place to meet tomorrow."
Hearing this, Sun Yigao nodded in agreement, turned around, and left.
It was as if all the idle gossip and petty rumors never reached his ears, much less his heart.
Watching his retreating figure, the murmurs of the surrounding crowd did not fade with his departure. On the contrary, with the main subject of their gossip gone, their voices grew even more brazen.
An old lady stamped her walking stick and said angrily,
"Mind your mouths! Look at what you've been saying in front of the child! Do you have nothing better to do all day? Must you stick your noses into every little thing in the village? Really, sigh!"
Just then, three sturdy, sweat-drenched teenage boys came running from a distance.
Spreading out, they lowered their heads and barged into the crowd from different directions.
Shouting "make way," they rampaged about with no small amount of force. They specifically targeted the younger folks, completely throwing the circle of gossips into disarray.
Many people patted their trampled feet or rubbed their bruised waists, tossing out a few curses before finally deciding to leave the spectacle behind and head home.
As for the boys who had broken through the crowd, they ran up to Lin Xiao's table, each of them brimming with energy as they said,
"Brother Xiao! What fun things are you up to without bringing us along!"
"Yeah, yeah! We haven't seen hide nor hair of you and Fuzi these past few days!"
"We even woke up super early yesterday to catch you at your house, but we still missed you!"
Lin Xiao smiled and said to the boy who spoke last,
"Tietou, your 'super early' probably means the sun was already shining right into your room, doesn't it?"
The three boys shared the exact same dark complexion, the result of roaming about Xiushui Village all day long.
However, among the three, only one was the most robust. Even though he was only thirteen years old, his physique was as sturdy as an adult's, and he had a rather honest and simple-looking face. This person was Tietou, whose formal name was Hu Liang.
As for the other two, one was about eleven or twelve years old with a large square face. His two thick eyebrows grew wildly, making his already small, beady eyes look even smaller. This person was also one of Lin Xiao's childhood friends, named Qin Jianghe.
Among the three, the boy who was clearly the same age as everyone else but had a figure as thin as a beanpole and a bald patch on his head was named Liu Yunan. However, no one in the village called him by that name; everyone called him Baldy.
Liu Yunan was the only son of Widow Liu in the village.
But because his father had passed away when he was three, the village was always spreading rumors about his mother, causing him to be ostracized and bullied by many children in the village since he was young.
Moreover, when he was little, his grandparents would always speak ill of his mother to him, saying that sooner or later, his mother would abandon him and his sister and run off with another man.
As a result, he greatly disliked his mother back then and was not close to her at all.
But he waited and waited, and he never saw his mother make any plans to run away with anyone.
Liu Yunan's family was very poor.
However, the meals for him and his sister were always very plentiful, and he had never gone hungry.
Whenever they looked at his rosy little face, the villagers would pretend to whisper among themselves. In reality, they were saying right to his face that it was impossible for his mother, a widow, to raise two children to be so plump and fair; she must be involved in some shameful, shady business.
Although he didn't know what "shameful, shady business" meant at the time, the young Liu Yunan just knew it wasn't anything good.
So as he grew a little older, he became reluctant to eat at home. He would go out alone for the entire day, only returning after dark. He wouldn't touch the food his mother left for him, going straight to his room to sleep instead.
No one knew how he managed to get by day after day without eating.
Only Lin Xiao and his friends knew.
Ever since five-year-old Liu Yunan met Lin Xiao, who had just pulled himself together, he was freed from the daily bullying and ostracization by the village children.
To take care of the extremely malnourished, skinny, and tiny Liu Yunan at that time, Lin Xiao led Jiang Youfu and the others up the mountains and down the rivers every day, trying to find food.
Because of this, Lin Xiao and his friends all developed the habit of foraging in the wild.
Every time they went out, they had to have a full meal to make the trip complete.
Therefore, even though Liu Yunan had grown older, he still looked somewhat malnourished.
As for the small bald patch on Liu Yunan's head, it happened when he was eight. Once, a village kid called his mother a slut right to his face, and in a fit of rage, he got into a fight with the kid.
At the time, the kid had a few of his cronies with him, while Liu Yunan was completely alone.
By the time Lin Xiao and the others heard the news and rushed over, a patch of hair had already been torn from Liu Yunan's head, and bright red blood was streaming down his face.
However, Liu Yunan didn't seem to feel any pain. Looking at the culprit he had beaten to the ground, he was as proud as a victorious rooster.
From then on, he gained a nickname: Baldy.
But Liu Yunan didn't consider this nickname a mockery.
He felt that the bald patch on his head, just as Brother Xiao had said, was a medal of honor!
With the arrival of the three of them, the crowd originally gathered around Lin Xiao's table was immediately pushed aside.
Lin Xiao smiled and said to the three of them:
"Do you even know what it is, calling it a good thing?"
Qin Jianghe replied:
"Heck! Whatever you want to do, Brother Xiao, is definitely a good thing!"
Tietou nodded and said:
"Exactly, exactly. We definitely can't go wrong following you."
Baldy immediately said:
"No matter what you're doing, Brother Xiao, count me in first!"
Lin Xiao jokingly scolded them a bit, then said:
"Alright then. I'm heading back too. Help me carry the table and chairs, and we'll talk when we get back."
So, the four youngsters hoisted the table and benches, leaving the threshing floor and heading toward Lin Xiao's house.
Seeing that there was no more spectacle to watch, the crowd dispersed and returned to their respective homes.
Upon arriving home, Lin Xiao put the table and chairs into the woodshed.
There was no one else at home, so the four casually sat on the flat ground under the eaves.
Lin Xiao began to give the three of them a rough introduction about the sect and about cultivating immortality.
The three boys, who had grown up in the village, listened with shining eyes.
"Brother Xiao, that's not cool! You only looked for Fuzi for such a great thing and not us!"
"Aren't I waiting for you guys right now? When are you ever as free as Fuzi and me on a normal day? Didn't I have to wait until things with the sect took shape before coming to you? Otherwise, if it didn't work out, how would you have the time to waste with the two of us? Don't you have chores to do at home?"
The three of them scratched their heads and chuckled sheepishly.
After all, they were half-grown lads now and had already taken over all sorts of chores at home, both big and small.
As per usual, Lin Xiao walked the three of them through the sect initiation process.
And just like that, three more members were added to Lin Xiao's disciple roster.
He now had six disciples in total, only four short of his goal of ten.