Promise!

Chapter 31, Newcomer

Time flew by quickly, and six or seven days passed. As usual, Zhuang Jin drank a bowl of meridian-opening soup every morning, and spent the rest of the day practicing martial arts. He practiced standing meditation to refine the Black Yuan Powder, and practiced quiet meditation to condense the energy. The internal energy in the first meridian grew rapidly, which was naturally accompanied by the rapid consumption of cultivation resources. The two sets of Black Yuan Powder were almost used up, and he had to go to the medicine store to buy more.

There is nothing else to say, but if I have to say something worth mentioning, it is that after agreeing to the settlement, Hou Yong really did not appear in front of him again, and when he saw Guo Jun in the outer courtyard, they would nod to each other.

What about the other people in the dormitory?

After some hesitation, Xiang Qichen finally chose to concentrate on improving his cultivation realm or martial arts between the two paths. After all, he prided himself on being the most talented person in the dormitory, and he was unwilling to just concentrate on martial arts. He also had greater ambitions in his heart. Maybe next month he would not only be able to break through the second sutra, but after that, he could also master the Black Evil Palm martial arts in the remaining time!
There was nothing much to say about Xiong Lei, the second in the dormitory. When everyone else was practicing martial arts, he followed suit, but he didn't seem to be paying much attention. Maybe he was still thinking about that Miss Yun?
In addition, there is the love-hate relationship between Qian Wende and Xiong Lei. Qian Wende has the habit of defecating at night, and every time he asks Xiong Lei for toilet paper, he always forgets to close the door when he goes in and out. Xiong Lei, who sleeps at the door, is deeply tortured. He always curses at him, but chooses to forgive him when Qian Wende calls him Brother Xiong, which adds a lot of fun to the dormitory.

Jiao Kun, the third in the dormitory, also practices martial arts in the morning and afternoon, but he never does extra practice. Every one or two days, he will go out to listen to music and watch operas to relax himself. He lives a very happy life.

For this reason, Xiong Lei tried to persuade him twice with all his heart, but Jiao Kun did not appreciate it and almost started a quarrel. It was only after others helped to smooth things over that the quarrel was resolved.

Zhuang Jin could also see that Lin Hong, the fourth in the dormitory, was not a talkative person, but he was a man of insight and inner beauty. He would not take advantage of others, but he would not let others take advantage of him either. For example, Qian Wende could hardly take advantage of Lin Hong. In addition, although he seemed easy to get along with, he actually seemed to have a sense of distance from other people in the dormitory.

Qian Wende, the sixth in the dormitory, lived a happy life. He called Jiao Kun "Third Brother" all the time and ate a lot of his snacks. As for Xiong Lei, he probably felt that he had tested his limit, but he kept plucking the wool from the sheep, taking a small stack of paper at a time. When Xiong Lei said something, he would say, "I am doing this because we have a good relationship and I am not shy. I don't do this to others." He still often did not close the door when entering and leaving, which made Xiong Lei scold him.

At the beginning, Zhuang Jin talked about it with Xiong Lei privately once, but Xiong Lei just waved his hand and said, "It's just a little thing, a trivial matter, not worth worrying about." He shook his head and never said it again. After all, the other person didn't care, so what else could he say?
However, one strange thing is that compared to Zhuang Jin, Lin Hong and Bi Kai who could not take advantage of each other, Xiang Qichen was also quite well-off, but Qian Wende did not take advantage of them much. Instead, he called them "boss" all the time, like a lackey, and tried his best to please them.

Bi Kai, the seventh in the dormitory, probably learned his lesson after being nearly strangled to death that night, and has been keeping a very low profile lately. Even though Qian Wende is quite fond of him because of his distant uncle who often hangs out with the same kind of people, he is not very close to other people in the dormitory.

The only exception was Zhuang Jin. Perhaps because of the favor he owed him, he followed Zhuang Jin every day and acted in unison with him, like a younger brother. Gradually, he became closer to Zhuang Jin than Xiong Lei, which made the latter quite jealous.

However, Xiong Lei had become a full-fledged warrior before Zhuang Jin, and his mindset had already changed. He couldn't bring himself to follow Zhuang Jin around like he had when he was a martial artist. Furthermore, he was a bit lazy by nature, and the current environment wasn't as demanding as it had been when he was a martial artist, where he had to leave if he didn't become a full-fledged warrior. Therefore, after lunch and dinner every day, he would follow Xiang Qichen and the others to the dormitory to rest for a while, and thus gradually became distant.

……

Time passed by and it was November 25th in a blink of an eye. This day was another day off for Jiao Kun. After having breakfast together in the morning, he said hello to the other people in the dormitory and went out to play.

At noon, Zhuang Jin and six others returned to the dormitory and found a new person.

"My name is Wu Hao, and my family is a blacksmith... These are the frozen persimmons my father sent me this morning. They are so sweet. You should try them." Wu Hao looked dark and thin, but his eyes were bright. His face was square, and you could tell at a glance that he was an honest person.

When Zhuang Jin saw Wu Hao, his first thought was that he must be an honest and hardworking person. His second reaction was that he probably came from an ordinary family and his financial situation wasn't very good, after all, he was thin and had calluses on his palms.

"You're welcome, brother!" Qian Wende still looked like he was always taking advantage of others and never fell behind. He was the first to pick the largest frozen persimmon.

Afterwards, Xiang Qichen took it upon himself to introduce Wu Hao to the other dormitory members, and Wu Hao naturally became the eighth in the dormitory. ...

Practice martial arts in the afternoon.

Zhuang Jin had practiced Jing Gong and condensed the internal energy he had cultivated through Zhuang Gong. When he came out of the meditation room, he saw Xiang Qichen reading a Jing Gong booklet to Wu Hao. Seeing him looking at it, he explained, "Wu Hao can't read, so I'll read it to him and explain a few things."

Objectively speaking, after Xiang Qichen became the dormitory boss, apart from his condescending attitude that made people a little uncomfortable, he did indeed take on the responsibilities of the boss and worked hard for the title. For example, in recent days, whenever others asked him questions about cultivation, he would patiently explain them.

Zhuang Jin nodded, swallowed some Black Yuan Powder, and continued to practice the standing meditation.

In the afternoon, he sometimes came out of the quiet room. When there was no one else outside, Wu Hao would ask him for advice. After all, they were roommates and they had eaten his frozen persimmons at noon, so he was not reluctant to spend some time explaining a thing or two.

However, he found that Wu Hao was a little slow. He would memorize what he explained first, and then slowly ponder and digest it on his own.

Despite this, with the help of what he learned from Zhuang Jin and others, Wu Hao was able to master the meditation bit by bit in an afternoon, and had successfully completed it before dinner time.

After dinner, Wu Hao did not go back to rest for a while like Xiang Qichen, Xiong Lei, Qian Wende and Lin Hong. Instead, he went directly to the martial arts training ground with Zhuang Jin and Bi Kai. They practiced until the ground closed and then went back together.

When they returned to the dormitory in the evening, Wu Hao thanked them one by one for their guidance in the afternoon and distributed frozen persimmons to them.

The frozen persimmons were indeed sweet. Zhuang Jin saw that Wu Hao didn't eat them himself, but just sat there mumbling something, so he couldn't help but ask curiously.

"I'm memorizing the meditation exercises. I'm afraid I'll forget them when I wake up early tomorrow morning." Wu Hao said this with an embarrassed smile.

This made Zhuang Jin secretly sigh: This kind of stubbornness, willingness to study and work hard, is in stark contrast to Jiao Kun, another person in the dormitory.

Speak of the devil, and here comes Jiao Kun. It goes without saying that he was introduced to Wu Hao.

Jiao Kun seemed to be a little abnormal today. He didn't look very happy when he came back. However, he was not very close to the other party after all, so it was not easy to ask.

A moment later, Zhuang Jin, Bi Kai and Xiong Lei came back from washing up outside and saw the other party asking Qian Wende to borrow money.

……

(End of this chapter)