Oh. My. Fate?! (BL, Volume #2)

260 Helping in All Situations

While Qiu Ling imagined countless scenarios involving Shao Hai and mud, Jing Yi was currently pondering an issue of his own.

"Shao Hai, there's something I've been wondering about."

Shao Hai sat down next to Jing Yi on the bench and blinked his eyes. "What is it about? Maybe I can help you." He really hoped that he could. Otherwise, wouldn't that be really embarrassing?

Jing Yi pursed his lips and pondered how to phrase his thoughts. "Well, it's about that story your father told us. That hero was able to defeat lots of people and my father was able to at least hold that fat man back. My grandfather also managed to defeat the bandits. Now, I've been washing clothes and sweeping the floor in the buildings and the leaves outside and I don't really know how to beat a bad person. I mean I know it's important to do these tasks but how can I use that for beating the bad people?"

Shao Hai bit his lip. He felt that these senior martial brothers were definitely scamming his Xiao Yi but he hadn't wanted to hear anything about that when the talked about it the last time so he didn't know how to bring it up again. And maybe there really was something to this that had to do with cultivation that he couldn't think of right now? After all, he didn't have spirit veins. Maybe doing these things was good for cultivation and practitioners couldn't understand?

Whatever it was, Shao Hai didn't feel that he could admit that he didn't know. After all, this person was his future wife. Wouldn't he think that he was dumb if he didn't even know this? He couldn't let that happen! Thus Shao Hai pondered the question very seriously and finally had an epiphany. "Ah! I know!"

Jing Yi's eyes went wide. He had no idea what the answer could be. Thankfully, Shao Hai knew. This was really great!

Shao Hai raised a finger. "It's the first step."

Jing Yi blinked his eyes in return. "The first step? What first step?"

"The first step to becoming a hero. Mn, do you know about ... how people do business?"

Jing Yi shook his head. He had only seen a bit of how Shao Hai's father did business when he lived in the capital. He didn't really know though.

"Well, then let me tell you about my father. When he started out, he had absolutely nothing. But then he looked around what people needed and found out that they would have liked to have that pottery that the people in the cities had. So he put the bit of money he had into that pottery and brought it to them."

Jing Yi blinked his eyes. That sounded a lot like what he had seen Shao Hai's father do when they lived in the capital. What did this have to do with being a hero though?

Before he could ask, Shao Hai already continued on. "Some of that pottery was sold to a blacksmith that was living close by. And after they did quite a bit of trading, that blacksmith once told my father that he was having a hard time because people wouldn't buy his weapons. You have to know, back then, we weren't living in the capital yet. People would need things from the blacksmith sometimes but not always. So it was hard for him to make sure that he would always have enough people to sell to."

Jing Yi nodded with big eyes even though he still didn't understand what this had to do with his question.

Shao Hai was far from finishing though. "And that was when my father had an idea. He was currently selling the pottery that he had brought not just in our town but also in the towns around ours. So if he could do that, then why shouldn't he help that blacksmith sell his wares too? After all, he had to go to the other towns anyway so he could just take his weapons him with.

"So after he thought about it a while, he went to the blacksmith and told him that he might be able to help him out. Then he brought several of the weapons he had made and the blacksmith was very happy. My father then took the goods and the pottery and drove through the other towns, selling everything off.

"Soon, people asked him about whether he could find other things for them that they needed and my father searched around and slowly made more connections. In turn, he was able to offer more goods to these people. And like this, my father finally became a great merchant and we even moved to the capital because it was easier for him to do his business from there."

Jing Yi nodded. "I see. But what does that have to do with being a hero? Has your father learned how to fight bad guys from that?"

Shao Hai shook his head. Honestly, he couldn't imagine his father fighting with anybody at all. And that even though his father was a pretty tall and buff guy. Compared to his Xiao Yi ... Well, there was no need to make any comparison. "No, that's not what it's about. My father didn't want to become a hero. He wanted to become a merchant. And since he wanted to do that, he first had to do other tasks. He first had to find out what the people wanted and then get the pottery and then he had to sell it and then he had to make connections and then he had to get other offers and then he was finally a merchant someday. So maybe becoming a hero is just like that. Maybe you also have to do some simple things first because they'll be required for doing the things that are more difficult in the future."

Jing Yi's expression lit up. Shao Hai was right. That might be it! He first had to help his senior martial brothers with washing their clothes and sweeping the leaves and the floor before he could fight bad guys. After all, all of that was still having people, wasn't it?

Heroes probably wouldn't just fight bad people. No, they would be able to help others in any kind of situation. Most likely, that was what his senior martial brothers wanted him to understand. Actually, now that he thought about it, he felt a bit bad that he had actually needed Shao Hai to understand that. Something like this, if he wanted to be a qualified hero in the future, then he probably should have been able to figure it out by himself.

He turned to Shao Hai and couldn't help but look sad. "Shao Hai, do you think I can be a hero even if I'm not very smart?"

Even though Shao Hai had managed to answer the previous question somehow, he really didn't know how to respond to this. In the end, he could only nod weakly.