Chapter 123: Like Father, Like Son
It was over. The matter with the Ten Saints had come to an end.
The Ten Saints should have been the strongest lineup that Mo Immortal Castle could currently mobilize. But now they had lost two top generals one after another, and were at the risk of being abandoned any time by Third Saint, who had decided to retire from the battlefield.
It was very clear that for the time being, it was pretty much impossible to organize another large-scale operation to grab the stone ghost mask.
Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal could hence take advantage of this time to happily continue searching for the whereabouts of the mask's maker.
When Wang Ling recalled his clone, his real body was already on the way home. He felt the dispersed spirit energy return, and the gloom which he had been feeling the whole day suddenly lifted.
He felt that this was a major drawback of the Great Separation Spell; for him, his clone wasn't made just purely of energy — it contained too many things, including realm, prowess and mood... in most cases, he tended to avoid using the Great Separation Spell since it gave him even more of a poker face.
When Wang Ling returned home, he found that there was one more person in the house today. Even without using his spiritual senses, he knew that Lie Mengmeng was here since the big white bunny slippers at the door were missing; these were slippers which Father Wang had prepared exclusively for him.
Today, Lie Mengmeng had come to check on Grandfather Wang again.
After meeting Teacher Pan during the home visit, the old man had obviously been in better spirits; the knots in his heart had unraveled and he was now at ease. However, Father Wang was still a little worried, so he had asked Lie Mengmeng to come help take a look. And so, in the name of performing a follow-up, some person had come running for a free meal...
The old man on the sofa held Lie Mengmeng's hands as he said gratefully, "Little Song, I will have to trouble you again!"
These simple words were already a huge relief to Lie Mengmeng and Father Wang! That was because the old man hadn't called them by the wrong names this time! It was enough to make Lie Mengmeng believe that even if the old man's dementia wasn't completely cured, it had at least been alleviated significantly...
"You're welcome, Grandfather Wang! I'm now going to ask you some questions." As he spoke, Lie Mengmeng took a sheaf of papers out of his backpack. These were a collection of dementia assessment questions which he had put together, including yes-or-no questions, multiple choice questions and brain teasers.
The old man nodded cooperatively. "Okay, Little Song. Ask me!"
Lie Mengmeng: "First question: when you eat scrambled eggs with tomatoes, do you often struggle to decide whether you should eat the tomatoes or the eggs first?"
The old man straightaway shook his head.
Lie Mengmeng took his answer down, then asked, "Which would you choose, chocolate-flavored shit or shit-flavored chocolate?"
The old man thought about it, then suddenly asked, "Either way, the chocolate has sugar, right?"
Lie Mengmeng nodded. "That's right."
The old man: "I'm hyperglycemic, so I can't eat either of them."
Lie Mengmeng: "..."
"By the way, how can you ask elderly people this type of question? A lot of them now have diabetes. Asking them this type of question would be too unkind!"
"...Then let me change questions."
Lie Mengmeng: "Grandfather Wang, under what circumstance does one plus one equal two?"
The old man stared at Lie Mengmeng as if he was retarded. "Of course it equals two when the calculation is right! I say, Little Song, can you not use a question from a spring festival gala thirty years ago to test me? I may be old, but I'm not stupid, alright? These questions of yours are so out-of-date!"
Lie Mengmeng: "..."
The old man glared at Lie Mengmeng as he criticized him. "I find that young people nowadays don't have foresight when it comes to dealing with problems. Like you, Little Song, and the dilemma of your past choices — not thinking carefully about how to move forward is wrong. Can't you use fresh and more catchy questions? If a youngster can't keep abreast of the times, how is he going to find a girlfriend and make her happy? By the way, Little Song... it doesn't seem like you have a girlfriend yet?"
No...
No girlfriend...
"..." Lie Mengmeng instantly had the urge to cover his face and cry.
After these questions and answers, next to them, Father Wang could now be sure of two things.
First, the old man's dementia was completely cured. That sweet-talking, fast-talking rogue from back then had returned...
Second, after this face-to-face exchange with Grandfather Wang, Lie Mengmeng this boy with a pure heart who had yet to taste the sweet honey of first love had been struck an unprecedentedly deep and painful blow by the old man.
...
After dinner, Wang Ling was just in time to watch the broadcast of In the Name of Cultivation . He hadn't used the little TV in his bedroom for a long time, and if it wasn't for the Small Raccoon lucky draw during the series premiere, he might have gone forever without lifting the dark seal on the TV. This was because it was more convenient to just use his wristwatch to participate directly in a program and scan his lottery numbers for the draw.
Nowadays, anything could be acquired through the wristwatch. Old-fashioned gadgets like the TV were dying out, and only Grandfather Wang used it to watch his TV series Country Love.
...
It was early in the morning on Tuesday, May 25th.
Wang Ling's mood was a bit downcast this morning, because as a diehard Small Raccoon fan, he hadn't even won an encouragement prize in last night's lucky draw! How annoying!
He felt that things like the lucky draw had the same probability of upgrading your equipment in games produced by Penguin Company 1 . Even if there was a ninety percent chance of a successful upgrade, you could still fail regardless...
When Wang Ling entered the class, Grade One, Class Three was gossiping in the morning as usual. The subject of the second mock exams which had already been discussed several days in a row had been temporarily brushed aside, and the hot topic now was yesterday's parent-teacher conference.
The class's gossip master Dopey Guo shared the following information: "I heard that there was a vote held in the parent-teacher conference yesterday."
Someone asked, "What type of vote?"
Dopey Guo replied, "Our school wants to organize an inter-class song competition. Yesterday, Teacher Pan had the parents give song recommendations, and then they voted on it. Then we have to choose one of the top three songs for our class to sing in the competition."
When he said this, Master of Dopey threw out a piece of paper; on it were notes which Father Guo had jolted down at the parent-teacher conference yesterday. A large part of them had to do with the class song selection for the school event.
Everyone gathered to look at the notes, which clearly listed the songs in contention.
The song with the most votes was "The Brightest Star in the Night Sky" which was recommended by Classmate Li's father, Li Gouhai.
The runner-up was "Run" as recommended by Super Chen's old man.
The third was "Little Apple," chosen by Little Peanut's father Big Nut.
When everyone saw this, they nodded their heads and felt that the song titles really reflected the parents' characters.
Of course, apart from these three songs, there were several other recommended songs that hadn't made the cut.
For example, "The Will of the East Wind" 2 recommended by Feather Lin's mother... with one glance, anyone could tell that Mother Lin was definitely a veteran figure in the fujoshi circle.
As another example, Master of Dopey's father, Father Guo, had chosen a song called "Itch" 3 ... this song was like the unofficial anthem for this playful pair — as expected, like father, like son.
Coming to the end of the notes, everyone noticed that there was one song recommendation without a single vote. "Eh? No one voted for this song?! Even the song 'Itch' got a vote..."
Someone asked, "Who recommended it?"
"Someone called Wang Lei."
"..." As soon as Wang Ling heard this, he knew without a doubt that this was the alias Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal had used for the occasion.
Super Chen had a brainwave. "Wang Lei? Is this Classmate Wang Ling's father?" After all, there was only one student with the surname Wang in their class.
"What song did he recommend?"
"'Pomp and Circumstance' 4 ..."
After hearing this, the whole class instantly sunk into a dead silence. Everyone looked at Wang Ling and couldn't help sighing in their hearts; who could have imagined that under Classmate Wang Ling's cold and deadpan appearance, there was actually such a sultry heart...
Right now, Wang Ling really had to struggle to calm himself down. "..."