Every dad has to call his kid "dad" a few times before hearing his child call him dad.
Qin Ran knew this logic. He bent down to pick up Chasing the Wind, held the cat's front paws in front of him, and showed a twisted smile on his face, saying, "Call me again..."
Chasing the Wind's two big black eyes looked at Qin Ran blankly, not knowing what cat disease this bipedal beast had caught. He tilted his head and said, "Meow?"
"Yeah, meow..." Qin Ran looked even stranger.
Chasing the Wind meowed again: "Meow?"
"Meow..."
"Meow?"
One man and one cat, meowing back and forth, came to the chair next to the mud pit.
The mud doll Li Shiyin jumped out of the pit bottom, saw her master meowing back and forth with Chasing the Wind, was puzzled, scratched her head, smiled and asked, "Master, have you come out of seclusion?"
Qin Ran pretended to be calm, sat down on the chair holding the cat, and said, "Your master has read some books these days, looking for clues about elixirs for longevity and feeding spiritual beasts."
When Li Shiyin heard this, her eyes lit up. She hurried over and eagerly asked, "Did you find it?"
"No..." Qin Ran shook his head.
"Oh!" Li Shiyin sighed.
Qin Ran said, "If the Dao Sword Sect has elixirs to prolong the lives of mortals, it would at least be the number one sect in North Chu Country. But nowadays in North Chu Country, the most famous among the common people is still Zhican Valley..."
Having said that, he suddenly realized something and asked Li Shiyin, "When people in North Chu Country ask for immortality and medicine, they all go to Zhican Valley. Why did you want to learn alchemy and ran to the Dao Sword Sect instead?"
When this question came out, Li Shiyin was a little embarrassed. She lowered her head, mumbled and said, "My brother is stationed outside the Hengduan Mountains to prevent beasts from harassing people. I used the excuse of going to see him to sneak into the Hengduan Mountains, then apprenticed at the Dao Sword Sect.
"At that time I thought that the Dao Sword Sect and Zhican Valley were both sects of immortals, there shouldn't be much difference, and the knights at home were all down-the-mountain disciples of the Dao Sword Sect, and they were all very powerful. So I didn't think much about it."
Hmm, that's just like you. After hearing Li Shiyin's words, Qin Ran's heart didn't stir up waves. He just felt that this was her normal operation.
"So you still ran away secretly?" He asked again, "Without telling your family?"
"Yeah..." Li Shiyin responded weakly, and peeked at Qin Ran, weakly saying, "Master... you won't send me back, will you?!"
"Do I look that free?" Qin Ran retorted.
According to Li Shiyin's observation, she nodded affirmatively: "Yes!"
Chasing the Wind was so small and furry, so cute that Qin Ran originally didn't want to teach him to speak because of the social death incident of calling Chasing the Wind "mom". But... Chasing the Wind actually meowed at him!
So he continued to study how to teach Chasing the Wind to speak.
On Earth, all civilized languages have their unique points, but there is one thing in common, that is, "mom" is called "mom" or something like "ma". This is not a coincidence, but because the pronunciation of the word "ma" is the simplest sound that humans can make. The breath goes out, the mouth opens and closes, and the sound that comes out is the "ma" sound.
Newborns don't know how to speak at first. One day, their mouths open and close to make a "ma" sound. Then the mom who takes care of him every day will naturally think this is the child calling her...
Similarly, Chasing the Wind is a feline animal. When his mouth opens and closes, the sound that comes out is "meow", which is also very reasonable. Don't look at tigers being the king of beasts, roaring in the mountains and forests. When they open their mouths, their loud voices make all the beasts shiver. But when they were young, they still had to meow.
Chasing the Wind is a feline animal, but he is not an ordinary feline animal. His mother is a level seven demon beast, a demon king, so he is different from birth... Although there are currently no signs of anything special about him, at least it can be seen that this little guy is very smart.
Let's not talk about how big this little guy is. Just say that after being picked up by Li Shiyin, the first thing he did was adapt to the environment and completely forgot about his old mother. The second thing he knew was who was the boss here and how he could survive.
He may not know what “meow” and “mom” mean, but he knows Qin Ran wants him to say this word...
Qin Ran sat on the chair with Chasing the Wind lying in his arms. The wind blew by, ruffling Chasing the Wind's fine fur. His thoughts returned, and he lowered his head to look at Chasing the Wind, reaching out to smooth the fur messed up by the wind.
He looked at Chasing the Wind, and started thinking again:
The boundary between humans and animals is relatively clear, but the boundary between humans and demon beasts doesn't seem so clear.
If a demon beast can speak, is it human? If a demon beast has a civilization, is it human? Even if a demon beast becomes stronger than humans, is it human? If a demon beast transforms into a human, is it human?
He didn't know, it seems to have become a philosophical question.
"Perhaps music is the difference between humans and demon beasts," he thought.
He remembered that someone in the previous life said that no matter the nobles in the palace or the villagers, they would listen to music, be it the Yangchun Baixue or the Xiali Ba People, but pigs, chickens, sheep and other beasts would not listen to music. Confucius also believed that rites and music were the foundations of human civilization. He once heard the music of Shaoyue and didn't taste meat for three months.
So humans listen to songs while beasts don't...
Qin Ran came to this conclusion.
He was eager to prove that he was human. At that moment, he went to the back mountain to chop a bamboo stick, and made it into a flute according to memory.
That night, Qin Ran moved a stool in front of the house, sat down, took out the flute, licked the blowhole, took a deep breath, and blew lightly, making a mournful, ugly sound of "woo woo sob sob".
Then the sobbing sounds echoed around the Danfeng Mountains...
At first, Chasing the Wind was still diligently sitting in his arms, but after a while, Chasing the Wind jumped down, squatted next to him licking his fur. After another while, Chasing the Wind ran into the house and lay on the sofa. After a while, Chasing the Wind burrowed under the sofa cushion.
Li Shiyin also heard her master making "retching mocking" sounds outside. She ran out and saw Qin Ran playing the flute. She laughed and asked, "Master, you can play the flute too?"
"Hmm?" Qin Ran stopped the grating sound, frowned and said, "What? There are flutes in North Chu too?"
"Yes!" Li Shiyin nodded and replied, "There is a famous musician named Gao Yuanshan in Danyang City who is well known precisely because he plays the flute very nicely. My brother doesn't get along with him and would go find trouble every time he performs."
Qin Ran listened, silently put down the bamboo flute in his hand, and inexplicably imagined in his mind the scene of Li Shiyin’s brother seeing him play the flute and then rushing over to beat him up.
"My brother always said it was because Gao Yuanshan looked too effeminate, and he was worried it would corrupt the morals of North Chu... But I think my brother is just jealous that others look more handsome than him," Li Shiyin continued.
"Hmm?" Qin Ran looked at Li Shiyin, something's not right with you.