Chapter 61: chapter 61 The Swing
After Wu Ming left, Zhang quickly started to collect pieces of straw and a sturdy enough piece of wood.
He needed to find a particularly sturdy log of wood so that it wouldn't break if a small person such as Wang Yan would sit on it. He was able to locate a tree that was seemingly dying, but had a particularly strong trunk to it. He started chopping the tree using the ax he had brought with him.
He did have to stop for a second considering chopping trees was an especially hard task.
"A chainsaw would have been so much quicker." He said to himself while he had stopped to rest. Clearly, he wasn't used to this sort of extreme physical work, as his arms had started to feel like putty by the time he was done.
Once the tree was down, he cut it into even smaller pieces, such that would be the perfect size for a "seat". He carried two to three of these seat sized logs, and started collecting straw from near by and rushed back home.
His steward had already gotten back to the hut before Zhang Jian, which honestly impressed him considering he had to travel to a town miles away. He complimented him upon his efficiency by saying, "Right on time Wu Ming." and with that a huge smile appeared on his face.
Wu Ming had this amazing ability of covering large distances in a short amount of time without getting tired. This gave him an advantage whenever he had to deliver something from one place to the other quick.
One of the reasons why Zhang had started to compliment Wu Ming a bit more had been because it was apparent how he had not been appreciated much by people in his entire life, and his reactions provided proof for that.
Zhang then quickly got back to work, as almost half of his day had already passed by and he wanted to finish this by today. He formed a neat bundle with the straws and tied them on top of the log of wood making the "seat". Once he was satisfied with the it, he inserted the rope into holes he had cut out on both the sides of the log earlier and tied them tightly.
Then, he took this "contraption" to a nearby willow tree. All that was left to do now was to tie both the ropes to a strong branch of the tree.
He tested the branches by shaking and hanging from them to ensure that they wouldn't snap. He couldn't risk them snapping and making this a traumatic experience for Wang Yan, instead of a happy one.
Once he had located a stronger branch, one that wouldn't even bend under his weight, he then instructed Wu Ming to tie multiple knots for both of the ropes onto the branch.
"Master, if you don't mind, can I ask you something?" Wu Ming asked while he was tying the knots.
"Go ahead, what do you want to know?"
"You've spent almost, six hours on this. What does it even do?" This surprised Zhang once he heard it.
"Have you never sat on a swing before?" Zhang Jian asked him, hoping for him to say yes but a confused yet embarassed look covered his face.
Before he could respond Zhang made it easier for him by saying, "Its quite alright if you haven't since now you will."
Afterward he took a test ride on his "DIY" swing to make sure that it was working safely. For example the ropes wouldn't snap, or the straw doesn't come lose from the ropes and his swing passed all of those tests. It surprised Zhang how he hadn't landed on his butt and had quite successfully made a swing on his own. Apart from that, it honestly did not look half bad. Well maybe it was a little ugly but he did not car much for that, as it was still really fun to sit on it. So Zhang sat on the swing and took a few swings on it and honestly he loved it a lot. It was majorly because of how the wind felt on his skin when he was riding the it.
The swing had been a success and it felt quite relaxing after an exhausting day of work, which he realized was something Wang Yan needed. So he quickly got off of it, and decided it was time to call her to introduce her to his creation.
He then turned around to call her, but instead was greeted by all of his pheasants alongside Cerberus. It seemed that they had been observing him for quite a while now, wondering what exactly their owner was up to. Which somewhat embarrassed him because of two reason. The first one being that he actually assumed that his pets were judging him and secondly that he was acting like a little kid.
'They probably think I've gone crazy.' He thought to himself, 'But it is alright to act like a kid sometimes, since adults are grown up kids anyway.' He retorted back at himself.
After his tiny phase of self-contemplation, he asked his steward to go call Wang Yan, while he decided to feed the pheasants as well as Cerberus. He had entirely forgotten about them while he was making the swing, which made him feel quite guilty as he had taken responsibility for them so he was required to take care of them. He wanted to pick up Cerberus and ride the swing with him, but he decided against it. He wasn't a small puppy anymore, and the amount of food he consumed on a daily basis had made him slightly chubby which meant if Zhang did try to ride the swing with him, he would fall.
Wang Yan walked out of the house, and surprisingly she didn't look like the grinch anymore. Her posture was correct as well as her hair which was tucked into a neat little pony tail. It seemed that she had taken his comments to heart perhaps but she did have a gloomy expression, almost as if she was unhappy with her life.
She looked a bit confused as to what she was seeing right now.
"Master? What is this contraption?" She inquired, "Is it some kind of a weapon?"
Zhang Jian started laughing, but then he realized how if you fell from a swing, you could possibly break your neck, so perhaps it was a weapon?
"No, no it's not a weapon, look."
Zhang Jian sat on the swing and demonstrated to her how a person was supposed to ride it. An amused look suddenly covered her face, so he asked her to try it once. Though hesitant at first, she eventually agreed to try it.
"Just hold onto the ropes alright?" He told her
He then lightly pushed her forward, assuming that it'd be the preferable speed since she clearly had never sat on a swing before so everything would be alright. Right? No, he was terribly wrong about that.
Because Wang Yan suddenly lost her balance and almost fell down, Zhang Jian had to grab her from falling face first onto the ground.
The first thought that came into his mind was how a moment ago he had thought, that it could be a weapon if a person lost their balance and broke their neck.
'Did I manifest this?' Zhang thought to himself.
But he wasn't ready to let a project he had worked on for almost 5 hours go to waste, so he instructed Wang Yan to relax her body since she was trying to shift her balance to one spot, despite the fact that the swing was moving back and forth.
He gave her a push again, but accidentally used more force than the last time so she shrieked all of a sudden
"EEEEKK," She let out a high-pitched scream which caught Zhang off guard, "MASTER IM SCARED MAKE THIS STOP MAKE IT STOP!"
Wang Yan started sobbing and tried to grab Zhang Jian's hand all of a sudden but the swing didn't stop suddenly so she started crying even louder.
He stopped the swing and Wang Yan quickly got off of it. She was having a full breakdown at this point so she instantly started hugging him during it.
'Poor girl' he thought to himself, 'but is she really that dumb to not even be able to ride a swing?'
Wang Yan who suddenly realized how awkward the situation, quickly composed herself and got back into her senses. She started thinking rationally again and acknowledged Zhang Jian's efforts in trying to make her smile. He had even built this strange contraption for her even though she had lost her balance on it. She had never felt such an imbalance in her life, for example even when she'd be flying on top of her sword, she was able to retain her balance perfectly. This was the reason why she felt so immensely scared as her body didn't seem to be in her control anymore. She still decided to give this thing another try though, because while she was intrigued by it, she also acknowledged how rude it would be to not even gave something a shot when it was made by someone for you. She sat on the swing once again and Zhang Jian said to her, "Relax yourself. You're complicating it for yourself."
Zhang Jian comforted her as she appeared to be timid. He genuinely wanted her to enjoy the swing so he pushed her forward but gently this time, and this time she did not feel afraid and finally started to enjoy riding it. The swing felt like such an amusing way of having fun, it almost felt as if she was flying but she did not have to channel her qi or get tired. She started giggling because she felt as if she was on cloud nine, so free.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone