My Little Shifu

Playing with Fire

Breakfast was a rather unusual affair for his disciples, because to their minds, Shifu was acting unnusual.  All morning since the minute he stepped foot into the dinning hall, he not only sought out each of their gazes, but it seemed as if he had found something funny to look at, the smile was plastered to his face.

They smiled back which seemed to please him, but it was very difficult to hold when he was dressed in that strange blue robe they had seen him admire the previous day.  In fact, no sooner was breakfast over, then he was ordering Liang to purchase the same material and for Cheng Bao to make another one.  Liang was his treasurer, he took care of the finances and any purchases that were needed, had to be approved by him, whereas Cheng Bao was the seamstress, he was the one who made all the garments they wore except for Shifus, who purchased his gowns himself, so it came as a surprise that he would want him to make it.  But agreeing with a smile that Mo Yuan could see was forced but happy enough that it made it happy to see it, he then rose with the order to continue their studies without him as he had urgent business to attend to.

Then taking himself to his study, Mo Yuan ignored the curious looks and soft whisperings of what they thought their master might be up to.  Instead he had missives to take care of and no sooner was he seated with the sun on his back and his first missive open, then he was once again thinking about her.

And his mind was on her evaluation of him based solely on his desire to meditate.  In fact he had skipped his meditation time that morning, which was what his disciples were discussing when he left the dining hall.  There was a lot of truth in what she had said only he did not think she meant for him to give up meditation all together, but to find other ways of gaining the same level of peace which he had surprisingly found from the Mortals.

Smiles.... he thought to himself.  They were such normal everyday occurences, but not once had he even considered that such a simple act could actually bring a lot of joy and therefore peace.  That a complete stranger could give him, another complete stranger, a brief moment of their time was also something he could be very grateful for.

Only his mind soon moved to his Disciples, who he realized were going to be a part of his experiments while he was her student.  And their smiles mingled with curiosity and even frowns suggested that he did not smile as often as he should because some of their smiles were forced.

Which once again had him thinking of those Goddesses and their fake smiles.  For a man who had spent thousands of years learning all manner of expression from his father, which was important in reading his enemies, he could imagine what his father would have said at his serious lack of attention having thought those women were attracted to his good looks.  Though according to his little Shifu, he was apparently only 'not bad looking.' so obviously not as attractive as he assumed himself to be.

And of course his ego took a hit which then in turn earned him a negative point.  In fact, he was finding her lessons exceptionally funny while at the same time disheartening.  And suddenly, the smile rose as he reached one definite conclusion.  And that was, despite her lack of manners and outright offensive insults, he actually found himself wanting to continue, which had his mind instantly switching back to his Disciples.

For centuries he had been teaching them, and they were all studious boys working very hard for promotions to higher learning or even just compliments, and that he, the Master of Kunlun Mountain, really wanted to graduate to a green robe was hilarious to him, and the laughter that bellowed for several minutes as her shaking floppy hat came to mind was heard all the way to the training grounds which instantly brought his boys to a halt to listen in awe.

But Mo Yuan was completely oblivious to it, as he kept her at the back of his mind before finally settling down to complete the first lot of missives that Die Feng had deemed important, before tackling the rest and by the time he had several replies composed, sealed and ready for dispatch, then Mo Yuan was ready to tackle her again.