Nine Star Burden

Chapter 226: Roasted Sweet Potato and the Fairy Wand

Jiang Xiao really regretted it.

When he was in the snowfield, he told Han Jiangxue, “I want to eat dumplings and drink some warm dumpling soup.”

Hence, after returning home last night, the first meal he had was dinner that consisted of frozen dumplings.

When Jiang Xiao was urged to go to the kitchen by Xia Yan, he discovered that they were still going to have dumplings for breakfast…

There were two plates of piping hot dumplings on the dining table with three bowls of dumpling soup.

Jiang Xiao wished he could ask, “Why are we eating dumplings again?”

However, thinking about it, he didn’t dare to pop the question.

In the Beijiang dialect, Jiang Xiao didn’t dare to be arrogant…

It was good enough to have something to eat, what more dumplings cooked personally by Goddess Xue. Most people would kill to eat them, even though… they were frozen and store-bought.

Jiang Xiao scooped a small spoonful of garlic in a small dish, added appropriate amounts of soy sauce and vinegar, and then picked up a piping hot dumpling and dipped it in the sauce he had mixed. He then blew it with his mouth.

After taking a bite, the golden-yellow oil flowed out of the corner of his lips.

Wow, so fragrant!

He thought, These should be stuffed with mushrooms and pork. The ones we had last night were stuffed with cabbage and pork. Okay, this is a variance.

Han Jiangxue took a seat as well and picked some up with her chopsticks. She then asked, “Where are you going later?”

“Eh?” Xia Yan swallowed a hot dumpling without even blowing air at it to cool it down, perhaps because she was famished. She ended up scalding her tongue as she raised her head and sobbed while moving her tongue vigorously to stir the dumpling bits in her mouth. Upon hearing Han Jiangxue’s question, she immediately swallowed the dumpling and answered, “I don’t know, I don’t have a plan.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Xia Yan placed a hand on her chest. She had really scalded herself this time. She hurriedly picked up the bowl of dumpling soup beside her.

However… the dumpling soup was even hotter…

Jiang Xiao placed a hand on his forehead and thought, Look at yourself, silly child!

Some people seem to be a goddess on the surface, but they’re actually a husky in secret.

Han Jiangxue hurriedly proceeded to get her some cold water, but, by the time she turned around, Xia Yan had already used the Star Technique, Burning Flame, to cover her head. She was even spitting out flames with her mouth, perhaps because she thought that doing so would stop the burning sensation in her mouth.

Meanwhile, Jiang Xiao was still having his dumplings and watching her merrily with joy.

After reacting out of panic, Xia Yan hung her head low, parted her lips, and blew her dumplings before chewing slowly.

Well, she was reprimanded by Han Jiangxue just now, and hence, was behaving better.

“I’ll be going shopping with Xiaopi later; there are no more food and ingredients at home. We also have to get some couplets and auspicious decorations. You may go home,” Han Jiangxue said.

“Don’t chase me away,” Xia Yan said meekly, completely unlike her flustered self previously.

Han Jiangxue said in displeasure, “I’m not driving you away. Today is the 30th of the lunar month and you should be going home to spend the Lunar New Year with Uncle and Auntie.”

Xia Yan looked at Han Jiangxue pitifully and said feebly, “You… you and Xiaopi come home with me, then.”

“Cut it out,” Han Jiangxue said coldly.

“Okay.” Xia Yan found that pretending to be pitiful didn’t work and so stopped feigning. Resting her face in one hand, she said in boredom, “Sigh, we’re going to have plenty of relatives whom we aren’t close to over at our place again. It’s so annoying.”

“The wealthy often have relatives who will visit regardless of the distance, while no one cares about the poor. Having people visit you during the Lunar New Year is better than having no one at all,” Jiang Xiao remarked casually.

Who would bother visiting Jiang Xiao and Han Jiangxue during the Lunar New Year?

Ever since their parents passed away years ago, no one except the Xia Family had visited them.

Han Jiangxue noticed the hidden meaning in his words, but Xia Yan clearly didn’t.

Pretending to speak like her mother, Xia Yan said, “Come on, Yanyan, look who’s here to visit us for the Lunar New Year! Hey, kid, why have you forgotten about your fourth aunt? She dotes on you the most. She even carried you when you were a child…”

Jiang Xiao was speechless.

Unable to contain her amusement, Han Jiangxue covered her mouth and began laughing. “Okay, okay. It’s our tradition, after all.”

“Let me play outside for a while. By the way, I drove here. I’ll drive you guys out to get some festive goodies.” Xia Yan suggested enthusiastically.

…

After breakfast, the two girls began to get dressed for shopping while Jiang Xiao stayed in the kitchen to do the dishes.

In his head, he was also wondering which ingredients they should buy. Having dumplings during the Lunar New Year was a traditional custom in China. By mentioning that he was craving for dumplings in the snowfield, he was also expressing his desire to go home for the Lunar New Year. However, Han Jiangxue seemed to be planning to cook dumplings for Jiang Xiao for every meal…

Who can take it~

Due to the fact that Xia Yan’s trench coat and jeans were being washed, she had to borrow some clothes from Han Jiangxue. Both of them were of similar height. Hence, Xia Yan could fit into the latter’s outerwear and pants.

It was wintertime. Thus, Xia Yan wore Han Jiangxue’s loose white down jacket and put on a cap. The two of them walked side by side while Jiang Xiao watched from behind!

Tsk tsk, two Han Jiangxues…

Wonderful.

The trio purchased some couplets and the decorative “Fu” character, as well as a bunch of fake firecrackers that were symbolic. After all, it had been three years. They wanted some auspicious signs.

However, Xia Yan bought a lot of fairy wands, which were handheld sparklers.

After leaving the firecracker shop, Xia Yan stretched her long and slender index finger, igniting a flame at her fingertip and lighting up the sparkler.

Unfortunately, the effect was not great during the day. Jiang Xiao reckoned that it would be beautiful at night.

Burning Flame was really a good Star Technique that had multiple uses.

For example, if an Awakened student did not plan to take on the path to having a career as an Awakened and instead wanted to enter society and work normally like an ordinary person, he or she would definitely be popular since they could perform such a trick.

Imagine that there was a new employee named Ma Xiaogang in the company who could use Burning Flame. Whenever the manager went out to meet a client for dinner, he would definitely

take Ma Xiaogang with him.

His liquor level did not matter because the point was that he could light up cigarettes.

There would be no need for lighters because the Awakened could do the job.

How cool and suave.

After the three of them bought some festive goodies for the Lunar New Year and some groceries from the supermarket, Xia Yan suggested that they go shopping on Central Street.

With Han Jiangxue beside him, shopping would be really convenient because Jiang Xiao wouldn’t have to carry any shopping bags at all since he could just throw them into the Sky Smasher…

Central Street was a famous commercial district in Jiangbin City, and Xia Yan decided to splurge on items from the shops that were still open.

Being wealthy allowed one to be willful.

Xia Yan didn’t expect there to be so many shops open on the eve of the Lunar New Year and felt that it would be hard to patronize all of them. At last, she saw an elderly man selling roasted sweet potatoes in the faraway junction…

The three of them walked towards him and bought one roasted sweet potato each. Holding onto the warm, roasted sweet potato in his hand, Jiang Xiao was about to bite into it, but he felt that something was amiss.

Jiang Xiao tilted his head and suddenly found that behind the elderly man, there was a figure squatting in the corner like a thief and secretly eating sweet potatoes.

Besides, the “thief”… was wearing a special task force police uniform.

The policeman smiled embarrassedly, knowing that he had been found. He wolfed the sweet potato down quickly before scurrying away.

Jiang Xiao was speechless.

Are they that strict?

Not only are they on duty on Lunar New Year’s Eve, but they even have to hide when eating a sweet potato when they’re hungry?

Jiang Xiao shook his head helplessly, thinking to himself that the policeman was probably afraid of being caught on camera.

The three of them ate the roasted sweet potatoes leisurely and walked back to the main road.

“Eh, Xuexue, what do you think of that woolen coat?” Xia Yan stopped suddenly when she saw the mannequin behind the glass display of a store.

“Um… huh?” Han Jiangxue was about to say something, but she was slightly apprehensive. She seemed to have heard faint noises coming from a spot far ahead. There was also an uproar in the not-so-crowded street.

What’s going on?

Jiang Xiao was also stunned for a moment. The crowd in front of him was screaming and escaping like they were shooting a movie.

However, it was not a film site and everything was happening for real, right in the middle of Central Street in broad daylight, which made it rather terrifying.

“Spread out! All unrelated persons, move aside!” The sounds of screaming could be heard from behind, and a few young men clad in police uniform hurriedly dashed forward.

Jiang Xiao found one of the figures to be rather familiar.

He looked a little funny because he had yet to wipe his mouth.

However, he did look very cool when trying to move against the crowd.

The three of them were pushed into the store by the crowd and stood right beside the mannequin that was wearing the woolen coat. They then looked out through the glass window.

When they looked in the distance, they couldn’t see anything and could only hear loud bangs and continuous gunshots.

On Earth, the Victors would take care of it if a Dimensional Space were to suddenly open.

If crimes were committed, the Star Warriors Armed Police Force would handle it.

As a student, you may or may not have the ability to protect yourself, but it would be terrible if you end up being a burden instead of trying to help out of goodwill.

On Earth, the Awakened were strictly forbidden from using their techniques.

In particular, students like Jiang Xiao who had not graduated from high school and yet to apply for the Star Warrior’s ID could not act as they pleased.

Once Awakened students were discovered to have acted dangerously on Earth, the punishment enforced by the nation would be extremely severe. Even training and learning must be conducted in specific places and timings.

However, when a member of the SWAT team got blasted back and vomited large mouthfuls of blood, got his head smashed against the glass display of a store, and fell down in front of Jiang Xiao. If at such a juncture Jiang Xiao still refused to heal him, would he still be considered a damned human!?!