Long Xue's Good Fortune

A young boy who looked to be about four years old woke up to the sound of arguing in the kitchen, his father and mother, Mr. Long and Ms. Long were arguing over money a lot more lately sense hunting was becoming less common place in their village on recent years sense the villages crops were growing faster and better than ever meaning there was less need for people to risk their lives hunting. The only time they made any decent money was during late fall and winter when the crops couldn't grow and they had no choice but to hunt so they could get through it, of course they still hunted during the other seasons too just not as much.

The young boy Long Xue got out of bed and went to the kitchen, when his parents saw him they made a tactic agreement with their eyes and stopped arguing. "What's for breakfast?" Long Xue asked "I haven't cooked anything yet" answered Mrs. Long "Ah okay, what time is it?" Long Xue once again asked another question "It's 6:15, didn't I teach you how to read a clock?" Said Mr. Long looking at his son "You did but it's too high up for me to see" Long Xue said looking up at his father who looked like a giant to him. "Maybe we should move it down some than." Said Mrs. Long laughing a bit at her foolish son while already in the process of moving down the clock so he could read it.

"How about I cook some breakfast now and than you can go to work dear?" When Long Xue heard his mother say this his eyes shone brightly because when he went to work with his father he was aloud to play with swords, and he was only a loud to play with them there, after all the last time he played with them at home his mother spanked him so hard he thought his butt was going to fall off. Looking at his son's shining black eyes Mr. Long said "Alright, I'll also take Xue'er with me today" "Alright, also don't let him play with swords anymore or you'll get it!" Mrs. Long said slowly raising her small fist up and threateningly waved it at Mr. Long. "Alright I won't." "But that's not fair mom!" Complained Long Xue with tears in his eyes sense his mother was taking his favorite thing away from him. Looking at her son Mrs. Long laughed and started preparing the food, while she was doing this Mr. Long walked up to Long Xue and whispered onto his ear "Don't worry I'll let you play to your hearts content." Hearing this Long Xue's eyes shined even brighter.

15 minutes later Mrs. Long finished cooking while Mr. Long and Long Xue had already prepared the table where there were four chairs but only three plates. Looking at the fourth seat Long Xue suddenly asked "When's big sister coming back?" His father sighed upon hearing this question while his sad looking mother sighed and said "Well she got married so who knows? But when she does she'll bring her husband and my grand child along to see you." Hearing that Long Xue's mood brightend and he said "When she comes back ask her if she brought me any presents okay?" Mr. Long laughed and said "Okay, I'll tell her but what present do you want?" Without even taking a moment to think about it Long Xue said "A sword!" Both Mr. Long and Mrs. Long laughed at his answer.

After finishing eating Long Xue grabbed Mr. Long by the hand trying to drag him to the blacksmith shop that he owned "Okay okay I'm ready there's no reason to pull so hard." After walking for five minutes they made it to his fathers blacksmith and the first thing Long Xue did when entering was pick up his favorite sword that was a bit bigger than him and ran off into the back of the shop dragging it across the floor to where the training dummies were. He picked up the sword he was dragging and swung it forward but in the midst of swinging it he fell because of its weight. Just when he was about to fall down on his face a hand grabbed his shirt and pulled him up, looking up Long Xue saw his father smiling at him holding a smaller sword in his hand waving it at him. "Be careful not to cut off one of your fingers or toes because if you do I'll be losing my head next." laughingly said Mr. Long picking the sword Long Xue was playing with up off the ground and passing him the shorter one.

Long Xue grumblingly took the smaller sword out of his fathers hands, even though the the sword was lighter and he could lift it without falling down Long Xue still like the other one better. Holding the sword Long Xue stabbed it towards one of the training dummies, after stabbing his sword into it he pulled it out and slashed it down onto its stomach where it hit only a bit above the stab wound. Long Xue swung his sword in a slicing motion, his sword sliced right across the stab wound he made on the training dummie, after three swings Long Xue sat down panting he was just a four year old child after all and swinging a 25 pound sword three time's could be considered good, after a minute of rest Long Xue stood back up and started to swing the sword again.

A few hours later Long Xue walked out of the training room into the front of the shop where his father was talking to Mr. Shang the carpenter. "I meant to come by yesterday but you were closed. Anyway sorry to bother you but my hammer broke yesterday can you repair it or make me a new one?" Mr. Shang said placing a hammer that was broken from the hilt on the counter. "It's no bother, but sadly it broke from the middle so I can't repair it so I'll have to make you a new one, it'll be ready tomorrow." "Thank you. Oh, hi there Long Xue." Mr. Shang said turning around looking at him dragging a sword in both hands across the ground "Your wife will kill you if she finds out about this" "Maybe she will maybe she won't, anyway she's never going to find out." Laughingly said Mr. Long "So what are up front for Xue'er?" "I'm thirsty can I have some water?" Said the panting Long Xue "Sure just take this cup to the well out back." Said Mr. Long tossing a cup at Long Xue causing the sword hilt to fall out of his hands and fall onto his toes while at the same time the wooden cup hit him on the head. "Hahaha" Mr. Shang burst out laughing seeing this while Mr. Long himself also couldn't hold it in "Alright I'll go get the water for you, so stop crying" said Mr. Long looking at the crying Long Xue.

A minute later Mr. Long came back in the shop passing a cup of water to Long Xue who still had tears on his face. "Anyway, where were we? Ah yes the payment is going to be 10 coppers." Said Mr. Long looking Mr. Shang dead in the eyes "How about five?" "Ten" replied Mr. Long flatly "Can we do six?" "I'm already going even with ten so no." "Okay we can do ten than" Sighed Mr. Shang walking out of the shop "Are you really going even with ten dad?" asked Long Xue who was still sipping on his water "Nope, in fact I'm making three times the money it would cost to make a new one for him." "Than why did you say you were going even on it?" Asked a curious Long Xue "It's called business son. You try to make the most money you possibly can while not harming the people you're doing it with. Let's take Mr. Shang for example I know his average yearly salary so I knew he could pay ten without it harming him at all. I guess what I'm trying to say is that when you do business with someone try your best to be moral about it, if they truly can't afford it they'll leave and that's it." Altough Long Xue didn't really understand what his father was saying he knew he was trying to teach him something so he obediently listened to him.

Around eight o'clock Mr. Long closed up shop and brought Long Xue home, on the way it started to storm with thunder sounding in the sky and rain pouring down on them. When they got home both Mr. Long and Long Xue were soaking wet, when Mrs. Long saw them she said "Go change your clothes than I'll heat your supper up okay?" "Okay." Both Mr. Long and Long Xue said at the same time, after getting change they sat down at the table and Mrs. Long kept her promises and started to heat up their dinner when suddenly a knock sounded on the door. "You two stay here I'll get it" said Mr. Long walking towards the door, when he opened it an old man was there soaking wet just as Mr. Long was going to ask who he was the old man said "I am Han Li, I'm a traveler and was hoping I could stay here tonight sense the village has no inn's." Looking at the soaking wet old man Mr. Long felt a bit of litty so he said "Okay. Xuer can you bring our guest some of my clothes?" "Okay dad" Long Xue said going into his father and mother's room to get the old man a set of clothes and a towel.

Coming out of the room Long Xue handed him the towel and clothes than led him to the bathroom. Before the old man entered the bathroom he looked at Long Xue than bent down to rub his head, when the old man stopped rubbing Long Xue's head a bunch of characters appeared in his mind that said "Qi Condensation Manual" a long with those word were more that told him how to cultivate. Long Xue stood there in confusion for a minute when he heard his mother call out to him "Xue'er foods ready!" "Okay mom I'll be there either a second!" He shouted back to her rushing off to the table, a few minutes after he sat down and started eating Han Li came back and said "Thank you for the place to stay and the clothes" "That's no problem, would you like something to eat?" Asked Mrs. Long "No thank you I'm already imposing on you enough so there's no need" "Nonsense, sense your here have something to eat" said Mr. Long "Okay, thank you" Han Li said sitting down next to Long Xue. "So, uncel you're a traveler right? Can you tell me some stories?" Asked Long Xue "Of course, it's the least I could do." 30 minutes later Mrs. Long said "Alright it's time for bed." "Okay." Lonb Xue said in a disappointed voice heading back to his room. Once Long Xue got back to his room the "Qi Condensation Manual" popped up into his mind again, looking at the words he grew curious and sat in the lotus position and began to attempt to absorb the spiritual qi of heaven and earth. Suddenly pain wracked his body and he passed out, when he woke up it was around 12 in the afternoon the next day.

When he got out of the room his mom was at the table where two plates were prepared, he sat down and began to eat when Mrs.long asked "Why didn't you get up this morning?" "I don't know, I was just too tired I guess." Said Long Xue, after he finished eating Long Xue felt like he was about to pass out so he went back to his room. Around three in the morning Long Xue heard a bloody scream come from his parents room, he rushed over and saw a black robed man standing over his parents bloody corpses. Long Xue tried to scream but found that he couldn't even muster up any sound at all, the black robed man turned around and looked at Long Xue, altough Long xue couldn't see his face he seemed familiar to him. While staring at him the black robed man walked out of his parents room holding a bag of money when he suddenly kicked Long Xue in the stomach knocking him out.