บท 27: A new home

Stepping out of his room, Jia Bi Yu spotted Chen Mei Ling standing right in front of him with her hands behind her back, eyes squinting into crescent moons and pearl white teeth flashing with a bright smile on her face.

The once small girl had now grown into a lovely young lady, sporting a shoulder length wavy cut that wrapped around a fair face that still had a faint hint of her old freckles.

As Jia Bi Yu stood in front of her, she quickly brought out the piece of paper she had been hiding behind her back, holding it up at his face with both of her hands.

"Look! Look! I got a 92% on my last math practice exam!"

His eyes widened slightly with praise, as his lips twitched up into a gentle smile.

He took the paper from her hands, looking over its contents before putting it down and looking at the girl as one of his hands lifted up to ruffle her hair.

"Good job! When did Xiao Ling get so smart?"

"Hmph. Of course! Who do you think I'm the little sister of? The Healer! The Shadow Knight of Orz! The first Sword Saint in all of Trinix, as well as Earth! And the genius who can learn things in mere seconds! The almighty, one of a kind, JIA BI YU!"

Her fists were raised in a victory pose as she shouted out with fervor in her voice.

Jia Bi Yu's hand that was on top of her head reached down toward her forehead, his middle finger locking itself behind his thumb as he gave a quick flick.

"If you have so much energy, go study more for the actual exam."

Chen Mei Ling placed both of her hands over the slightly red dot, her eyes looking up at Jia Bi Yu with indignation as she pouted her lips.

On that night two years ago in front of their countryside house, Jia Bi Yu had talked to her about enrolling back in school.

She had stopped in the first place because she did not want to leave behind the small plot of land her parents had left her.

If she did not start working, she would have been forced to move into one of those faraway relatives' homes.

Truthfully, she missed going to school, from the boring lectures to the courtyard filled with her energetic schoolmates.

As the time passed, her friends contacted her less and less, as they grew up and either moving away to the big city or made new friends, slowly putting the existence of Chen Mei Ling to the back of their minds.

She did not blame any of them since she chose this life herself.

It was just that she couldn't help but feel a bit empty at times.

Jia Bi Yu had used quite a lot of energy to persuade her to go to a high school in A City, promising they won't sell the plot of land and come back to visit every month.

At long last, she reluctantly agreed.

By chance, she had learned of his miraculous healing magic earlier, which he deemed unworthy of mention due to it being only of the basic level.

She had fallen off the bicycle when it ran over a small rock on the road, earning her knees a bad scrape.

Maybe because she had fallen pretty hard, the wound bled badly, and she could only sit down holding in her cries.

It took but a second before the pain magically disappeared, her knees looking as though it had never even been slightly blemished before.

She shifted her eyes from her knees to the hand that was hovering over them, as the faint glow on it slowly vanished.

That was her first time seeing actual magic.

It wasn't like when he made his helmet disappear, or that drawing in midair, or even the voice transmission.

They were all nothing compared to what she just witnessed.

It was a true bonafide magic.

Seeing her reaction, he thought he might be able to use healing magic to his advantages.

It didn't take long before the name of the Healer spread throughout the city.

From the earnings and some of the leftover inheritance from her parents, they were able to buy a small apartment close to her new high school a year ago.

They were just in time for the beginning of school, and being a first year student helped a lot with making new friends, as most were from different junior highs in and outside of A City.

She was preparing early for the college entrance exams, as she had a lot of catch up on, and the exam was known to be extremely gruesome.

Being able to get above 90% was already an amazing ordeal, not to mention she had only just begun her second year, and had missed all three years of junior high before that.

Jia Bi Yu looked at the still pouting Xiao Ling and heaved a sigh.

"Okay, okay. Stop sulking already. What would you like as a reward?"

Her face instantly brightened.

"Can I ask for anything?"

He suspiciously nodded at her question.

"You promise?"

Thinking about it carefully, he quickly added.

"Anything except asking me to go shopping with you in a dress."

She clicked her tongue in disappointment as her plans were immediately seen through.

He let out a sigh of relief in having dodged that bullet.

He had done this once with her, thinking it wasn't such a big deal, but the stares from the large number of people in the shopping center were truly frightening.

He thought he was already used to such stares as the Healer, but the stares on that day were as though they were able to strip him down to his bone, causing goosebumps to form all over his body.

Some even tried following them back.

It was a true nightmare, something that he did not want to go through ever again.