Soldier Keep On Marching On

Chapter 3

Qiuyue Meiyi held her son's hand securely as she lead him outside to their garden. Only a day had passed since her internal declaration, but she was more than eager to get started on her plans to keep her son safe. Though she knew that she would do her best to always be there for him, she also wanted her son to be able to protect himself. The first step to completing that process was 'Communication and Understanding'. Or at least as something somewhat similar to that. Overnight, she had managed to think of a way for A-cheng to learn about and understand the world around him as best as he could, even if he couldn't exactly talk or listen to her.

Qiuyue Meiyi knew her son was very intelligent, despite his disabilities. At just a mere few months old, A-cheng had taught himself how to laugh by (what she assumed to be) memorizing the feeling of the vibrations her voice box made whenever she laughed or talked, and how it was related to the inhalation and exhalation of air through her nose and mouth. She had always wondered why A-cheng had such a fascination with placing his hands on her mouth or nose whenever she spoke, sang or laughed. He also (somehow) taught himself to smile, as small and rare as those smiles may be, by memorizing the movement of the muscles in her face. She had been shocked when the boy began to giggle one late afternoon as he played with a forest rabbit. Wouldn't you be surprised if your blind and deaf son suddenly knew how to laugh and smile?

And all of that was just beginning to scratch the surface of what her son could do. A-cheng had fast reflexes and sharp instincts, and his potential for cultivation was practically limitless. He hadn't even formed a golden core as yet, but he was so in sync with the spiritual energy around him and within him that it was as if they were both one singular entity, and not separate beings as a human and life energy. Though, he had somehow taught himself how to meditate and was well on his way to forming one.

Qiuyue Meiyi sat A-cheng on the ground before picking up a nearby stick and sitting down next to him. She then used the stick to trace the characters making up his name, Qiuyue Cheng, into the dirt in front of him. Afterwards she placed the stick on the ground next to her and gently picked up her son's hand, using his index finger to trace the characters. Once she had done that, she took the same index finger used to trace the characters and pointed it at his chest, poking it lightly. She repeated the process.

"This," she spoke softly as she once again traced the characters written in the dirt with her son's finger, "Means you," she took A-cheng's finger and poked his chest with it.

Her son looked confused for a moment before interpreting what she was doing as a game. He used his finger and traced random patterns in the dirt. When he was satisfied he took her hand and traced over the lines of the pattern with one of her fingers, then took those same fingers and tapped her on the nose. He then turned to face her, a small smile on his face. Qiuyue Meiyi huffed out a breath that was partly a sigh and partly a laugh. She had known this wouldn't be easy but she was willing to be as patient as necessary.

A-cheng may be blind and deaf, but he could still touch and feel things. He wouldn't be able to read books and wouldn't be able to hear her music, but he could still learn how to write and understand said writing.

Two weeks passed like that, with Qiuyue Meiyi bringing her son outside and tracing characters in the dirt or writing the characters on pages when it was raining or too dark to go outside. Within those two weeks, she traced the characters for leaf, bunny, flower, grass, guqin, paper, table, chair, wall, door, dirt, food, rabbit, her son's name, her own name, characters for different kinds of leaves and the characters for different species of flowers. Other than her own name, for which she took her son's hand and pointed it to herself before giving it a small kiss, she had A-cheng hold and trace the object or plant. She let him feel the textures of the leaves, petals and materials so that he would be able to remember them by touch. She also let him do the same thing for the forest rabbits when she traced the character for bunny on the ground.