Michelle was shocked when she saw how skinny Zhang Lisheng was and mumbled, "Did he really not have enough to eat in China?" She was not as threatening as she was earlier.
Riley who was the most sensible approached Zhang Lisheng directly and gave him a comforting hug, "Nice meeting you, Lisheng. My name's Riley S. Lavin, you can call me Riley."
"Excuse me, my dear sister."
"Hi little fella, my name's Randy Lavin…" Randy whose naturally energetic was the next one to show kindness to Zhang Lisheng.
Gill and Harry became the next ones to hug and welcome Zhang Lisheng. They were the ones who were related by blood to him. Michelle was still a little bit unwilling but in the end, she still gave the young man who came far away from China's mountain village a hug.
Seeing that the atmosphere was getting better and better, Sullo clapped loudly while smiling and said, "Alright kids, our welcoming party will now begin since all of you have met your new brother."
"I'm sorry Lisheng, we'll get you a cake and lobsters tomorrow but we have fried steak and muffins now. Although they're not a great combination, those are the only two dishes that I'm capable of making and I can guarantee you that they're delicious."
"Thanks, Uncle Lavin." After Zhang Lisheng showed his gratitude, they made him sit in the middle of the dining table.
The beginning part of the dinner was considered harmonious but the atmosphere started to fall off since Zhang Lisheng was only answering questions passively and that behavior revealed that he was unsociable and introverted since he was not taking the initiative to speak.
American youngsters who were independent and possessed a personality of their own were even more self-centered than Chinese kids where they would not intentionally cater to others' feelings.
Sullo noticed that immediately and wiped his mouth with a napkin seeing that there was not much food left on the dining table, "Lisheng, are you done eating?"
"I'm done, Uncle Lavin."
"Then I'll let you rest, come take a look at the room that we've prepared for you."
"Take a hot shower and have a good night sleep, the time difference will be adjusted naturally."
"Go, baby. Follow your Uncle Lavin upstairs." Lili who was sitting beside him encouraged him.
Zhang Lisheng nodded and carried his backpack that he placed at his feet and walked upstairs following quietly behind Sullo.
Sullo cracked a joke when they were on the second floor, "Lisheng, you should train more and be more outspoken or else girls wouldn't like you." He seemed to want to resolve the rather awkward situation that he was in when being alone with Zhang Lisheng.
Zhang Lisheng responded with a smile to that, while he held his head down.
Sullo let out a sigh secretly and walked to the furthest room on the second-floor corridor. He opened the door, switched on the lights and said, "Look, Lisheng. This is your room."
"Apart from the main bedroom, this is the only bedroom that comes with an individual bathroom among all of the other bedrooms. I posted a couple of Chinese paintings on the wall, I think you would like them."
Looking into the room from the entrance, it was approximately twenty square meters big. There was a big American single-bed against the wall on the west. A small bedside table next to the bed with an iPad and a table lamp on it and a window next to it.
There were a brand new computer table and a new computer on the wall at the foot of the bed. There was a small door against the wall across, it was the bathroom.
There were faint marks of posters that were removed, the odd-styled printed images of Chinese landscape paintings were covering the poster marks.
"How is it? Isn't it amazing?"
"It's amazing indeed." Zhang Lisheng looked numbly at the poor quality landscape paintings on the wall that looked more like ink stains than landscape paintings and said, "But can I move the bed under the window instead? I'm used to sleeping with the moonlight shining on me."
Sullo was surprised and said, "Most people prefer the other way round. But it's your room, you can decorate it any way you want."
He walked in big steps to move the bedside table to the side of the wall and moved the single-bed under the window with all their strength together with Zhang Lisheng.
After adjusting the new setup of the room for the last time, Sullo took a good look at the room again and said, "How about now?"
"It looks very comfortable now. Thank you so much for everything that you've done for me, Uncle Lavin."
"It's nothing, young man. We're family, this is what I should do for you."
"Alright, I shall not bother you from taking a rest. Good night." Sullo said while backing out of the room.
Zhang Lisheng turned off the ceiling lights when he was left alone.
All of a sudden, the room was in complete darkness. The only light left was the moonlight that was shining outside of the window, giving him an idea of how the room's structure was without having to trip and fall.
Zhang Lisheng let out a sigh of relief in satisfaction as he was being in the dark. He then took out his wizard worm from his backpack.
Ever since he became a Rank-2 Wizard, he had never gotten the opportunity to cultivate with the secret witchcraft method that he possessed from the strange ancient insect sculptures back in his Zhang family old house from the lighting power. He did not expect his first cultivation to be in the Brooklyn area of New York in America.
"Life is really unexpected." Zhang Lisheng took off his shoes while mumbling then hopped onto the bed. He placed Mountoad on the window at the bed head.
There was a terrifying and cold ambiance that was indescribable when the moonlight shone on Mountoad's back which was filled with toad skin.
Looking at his wizard worm, Zhang Lisheng sat in a comfortable position while he began to focus and outlined the thoracoabdominal of the Devil's image that was changing continuously following the secret witchcraft method that he had in his head.
A mysterious connection was gradually built between Zhang Lisheng and the wizard worm. The moon's brilliance flowing from outside of the window began to integrate into the wizard worm's body.
Later on, the moon's brilliance transformed into a faint green smoke and shot out of Mountoad's nostrils and mouth. The smoke then spread to the tip of Zhang Lisheng's nose and flowed into his nose following his nostrils.
Half of the mysterious exterior and interior cycle was structured, Zhang Lisheng's body slightly shook while the wizard power in his body began to flow and transformed into tens of illusive strange insects. The toxins and impurities that had been sedimented in his blood over the years refined into black smoke and released from the five holes on his mouth, nose, and eyes.
As the five gushes of black smoke flown out, they were absorbed by the wizard worm which completed the structure of the entire cycle in and out.
Zhang Lisheng entered a magical cultivation mode as soon as the cycle was completed. He was not sleeping either was he awake, he was in a trance where he did not know how fast time was flying by.
The night went by and the moon's brilliance turned into the sun's essence. There was no pause between Zhang Lisheng's cultivation until someone knocked on the door 'bang bang bang…' the noise came outside of the door. Lili's yelling of 'Baby, are you awake?' was heard.
Snapping out of the zone, his body felt slightly sore but he did not feel low in spirit at all. Zhang Lisheng took Mountoad off the window immediately and put it into his backpack on the bedside table. He then ran to open the door quickly and said, "Mother, I'm awake."
Lili who wore a black suit which made her looked experienced smiled while standing at the entrance. "Good morning, baby. Did you have a good night sleep last night?"
"It was great. Are you going to work, mother? Don't worry, I can take care of myself."
"Of course not, I'm bringing you shopping today. We need to buy clothes that you need, daily necessities of all sort and let's get you familiarized with the entire community. But of course, we might need a couple of days to do that."
"Let's head out after you take a bath. It'll be a tiring day today, be mentally prepared."
Zhang Lisheng opened his mouth after being dazed for a while. He then helplessly nodded and said, "Alright then, I'll go take a bath right away."
Just like that, for the next three days, Lili accompanied by Zhang Lisheng went around Lowbige Community so he could be familiar with the environment and in order to help him to remove the strangeness in him. Lili was really trying her best for her son.
Three days later, Lili thought that her hard work paid off greatly as her son looked like he had slowly adapted to his new life. He could find the supermarket by himself to buy things that he needed, he began to smile and greet the neighbors around and he even strolled the streets for twenty minutes riding his new bicycle at night. Everything had shown that he should have gotten on track with his life.
On the fourth day, the sun was shining brightly when the family had gathered around for breakfast.
Lili placed a fried egg from her plate onto Zhang Lisheng's plate and said gently, "Baby, I'm thinking of bringing you to school for a test today so that you could get back on your studies as soon as possible. Is that alright?"
"Aunt Lili, all of us know that you love Lisheng very much but can you not be so disgusting? Addressing him 'baby' is making us uncomfortable, I'm having goosebumps all over my body."
"Also, it's really unhygienic that you gave Lisheng food from your plate…" Michelle said while feeling annoyed.
"Michelle, this is China's traditional way of how a mother communicates her feelings with her son. It's okay that you can't get used to this but you should at least show respect."
"Baby, is that alright?"
"Sure, mother." Zhang Lisheng said softly with his head held down.
Lili nodded in satisfaction after seeing Zhang Lisheng agreeing with what she said.
After a crowded breakfast, she called Lowbige Junior High's Student Principal Advisor Rachel, "Good morning, dear. Do you remember the thing that I spoke to you about last night? Let's proceed with our plan, I'll bring Lisheng to see you early in the morning…"
Zhang Lisheng walked up to the second floor and returned to his bedroom when his mother was talking on the phone. He found a backpack and put Mountoad that was on the bed head into it.
His cultivation of the secret method had replaced his sleep for the past few days and he had much improvement in his wizard power. However, at the same time, he slowly realized that the majority of his energy is being exhausted when he used the wizard worm as his secret method — a cultivation medium.
If there was no extra replenishment, he could not use Mountoad after a couple of times more with the sole support of his wizard power that was released naturally.
However, if he was to feed his wizard worm with his blood, it would greatly delay Zhang Lisheng's progress to breakthrough to a Rank-3 Wizard. Cultivating by chanting incantation might even be faster than using this method.
In that case, the only method that was left and would work was to feed his wizard worm with a huge amount of blood to make up for the exhaustion of his energy. Thus, at the moment, he really hoped to get his life on track so that he could have more free time to do his private matter.
"Baby, are you ready?"
"Yes, mother. I'll be there in a second." Zhang Lisheng carried the backpack and ran downstairs.
Michelle who refused to take the school bus and planned to get back to her habit of getting a free ride from Lili was stunned when she saw Zhang Lisheng running downstairs with his backpack. She said in shock with her eyes opened wide, "Zhang Lisheng, what did you put in your backpack? Oh no, please tell me it's that disgusting toad!"
Zhang Lisheng shyly smiled then firmly said, "I'm sorry, Michelle. Mountoad has to be with me at all times."
"Ahh, you really are…" Michelle said madly while her hands were on her waist.
"Michelle, we're going to be late. If you have something to say to your brother, you can say it in the car." Lili said in all seriousness.
"I've nothing to say to your 'baby'." Michelle ran out of the door madly.
"Baby, Michelle didn't mean to be spiteful…"
"Mother, I'm really not as weak as you imagined. Let's go." Zhang Lisheng said in a low spirit while forcing a smile.