The Teacher’s Grace Is Like Heaven

4 – Never Forget (4)

The day’s work begins in the early morning before the sun has fully risen. She first tidies up her own bedding.

As she neatly folds the still-warm blanket, the sight of her master sleeping deeply next to her continually catches her eye.

Bi Yan touches her own lips. The surging desire that arises every morning when she sees her master is no trivial frustration.

But Bi Yan exercises superhuman patience to endure it. Now is not the time. Bi Yan knows full well the sin she has committed.

Until she ties up all the tangled threads of her sins, she cannot dare approach with blood-stained hands. Bi Yan bows her head and soon steps outside.

“I’ll be relying on you again today.”

“You really are a diligent child.”

The place Bi Yan heads every morning is none other than the neighbor’s home. Neighbor Ajumma who has free time and a generous temperament helps her here and there.

Especially from Ajumma’s position, preparing meals for her still young master must feel incredibly touching, no?

So Ajumma teaches Bi Yan how to cook and about various ingredients. Bi Yan also thinks this person isn’t so bad.

“By the way, isn’t it tiring to work so early every morning?”

“I have to learn household chores well now so I can later support my husband, right?”

“My word! Especially if you can cook well, you can grab your husband tightly and capture his heart!”

Seeing Ajumma pretend to clench her fist, Bi Yan smiles. In this manner, she diligently learns cooking until the break of dawn.

Before the sun fully rises, Bi Yan prepares to return. As always, Ajumma hands Bi Yan side dishes and ingredients to take back today as well.

“I feel uncomfortable only receiving like this.”

“Don’t feel burdened! My husband gave permission too!”

“Thank you again.”

“Ho ho! Come play with your master sometime! Let’s eat together! Oh, and.”

“Yes?”

The smile that filled Ajumma’s face disappears in an instant. Ajumma looks around then opens her mouth cautiously.

“Lately there’s an ill-boding rumor going around, don’t go down deserted paths.”

“May I ask what rumor it is?”

“Master Sega’s elder did a reading, saying the evil of the Heavenly Disaster Star has descended upon this Sungseo region….”

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“I’ll be careful.”

Sungseo was the ancestral home of Zhuge Sega and where he wielded his influence. Naturally, as he spread his teachings widely to the citizens here,

the citizens of Sungseo, unlike other citizens, were clever and many could read. Indeed, it seems that rumor was not entirely false gossip.

Bi Yan snorts with laughter as she steps onto the road. Arriving right at the kitchen, she takes out the side dishes Ajumma made and unhesitatingly tosses them into the fire without hesitation.

The deliciously made side dishes turn into lumps of charcoal without being able to shine. And Bi Yan watches them expressionlessly.

“Now that I think about it… I’ve never properly treated him to a meal.”

Someone said that when a child realizes their parents’ kindness, and looks back, the parents are no longer there. It’s true.

Unlike those beasts who abused me for the same stupid reason, Master is the one who sincerely birthed and raised me as his child.

The Bi Yan back then did not realize it. But at the very end, she finally understood. Master truly loved and cherished me.

But that is a parent’s love, not a lover’s love. Will I be satisfied with just that? At first, I was satisfied with just that.

However… when I saw Master again, I felt a surging desire from deep within rise up. Those feelings grew stronger by the day.

Whenever I think of Master, my body heats up like heated iron. It was a feeling Bi Yan had never felt before.

But I don’t think of it as wrong. Rather, my true self naturally accepts it. Bi Yan touches the corner of her mouth.

The corners of her mouth are curved like a crescent moon. Bi Yan wipes away her smile. Now is not the time. I should focus on my role as disciple first.

Bi Yan who completed the breakfast table with the food she learned from Ajumma, went to her master resting in his room and presented the breakfast.

“Breakfast is lavish again today.”

“Is it to your taste?”

“It is… but aren’t you working too hard?”

“This much is really nothing at all.”

No matter how a disciple struggles, how can it compare to the master’s kindness? Bi Yan smiles. Little by little, step by step.

So there’s no chance for escape later… After breakfast ended, Bi Yan quickly finished washing up at the stream then immediately snuck into the backyard.

Soon after Bi Yan finished eating, her master came out to the yard. He started swinging his wooden sword. That form was the Three Talents Sword Technique.

Three Talents Sword Technique 三才劍法

A basic sword technique that even fools can easily buy on the street just by paying money. The basics are so shabby that martial artists don’t even glance at it.

When she was still ignorant, Bi Yan’s perceptions weren’t much different. So she looked down on and ignored the master who only taught that.

Ow. Blood flowed. Unknowingly, she clenched her teeth like a tiger and bit down. Unable to withstand it, Bi Yan’s lips split and bled.

Of course there was pain, but Bi Yan paid it no mind. She felt resentful at her foolish, ignorant past self. What did number one under heaven even mean?

When she failed to notice the pearl right before her eyes, of course, she looked down on her master’s basics with ‘only’. How dare she put ‘only’ before it?

Sometimes as slow as a turtle, sometimes as fast as lightning. Switching hands, switching feet, can she take the form in any situation?

[The sword is me, I am the sword.]

I think I understand a little of the meaning behind those words Master repeated like a habit. Bi Yan practiced the Three Talents Sword Technique. Although it is basic among basics,

Cutting down the enemy with the sword is beheading. Evading the enemy’s sword is evasion, and if it cannot be avoided, then block it. This is the foundation of martial arts, and

it is also far too obvious. If these things don’t come first, then no matter how flashy and powerful the form, what meaning does it have?

She had realized this truth a whole month ago already. It was a refreshing shock. For someone who could learn martial arts just by watching,

the best yet worst genius took a full month just to realize this. Bi Yan felt her own lacking.

And she realized anew, the only one who could handle her desires was her master. She approached the master.

“No matter how flashy the form, it is meaningless if it cannot cut down the enemy. And no matter how powerful the strength, it is meaningless if it cannot block the enemy’s attack.”

“…….”

“I have fully understood the truth of the Three Talents Sword Technique you taught, Master.”

She briskly puts away her wooden sword, assumes a pose of greeting, and readily bows her head. From Bi Yan’s actions, drops of respect and inexplicable emotions are falling.

If someone who knew of her deeds saw this, they would scream in horror without even looking back and flee at full speed.

* * *

“I have fully understood the truth of the Three Talents Sword Technique you taught, Master.”

After finishing breakfast and coming out to the yard as usual, I heard this nonsense from Bi Yan. What bullsh*t is this? No matter how you call it truth, the Three Talents Sword Technique is still the Three Talents Sword Technique.

Wait a minute… Now that I think about it, there was a setting like that, wasn’t there? That the Three Talents Sword Technique I ignored actually contained extreme subtleties…

Could it be, did she somehow realize that herself? I let out a sigh. Seriously, this is why I hate damned prodigies.