The Suffering Scholar, patting the back of the Abbot's hand, shifted the conversation and said, "Do you remember that noodle shop at the nineteenth street? Two years ago, the owner passed away from illness. The noodles made by his son were bland and flavorless at first. Who would've thought the kid would hone his craft? The noodles taste even better now. Care for a bowl together?"
"Let's go." The Abbot, weighed down by troubling thoughts, didn't want to offend the other by declining.
...
The Suffering Scholar was twelve years older than the Abbot. He had been the Abbot's teacher in mysticism and the benefactor who changed his fate.
Once, in the remote Yu Family Village of Mingjiang Prefecture, the Suffering Scholar noticed the Abbot's latent potential. Not only did he bring him to Mingjiang Prefecture City, but he also helped the Abbot find a City God as his master.
Over the years, childless and without family, the Suffering Scholar came to regard the Abbot as his own son.
