Chapter 2 – The First Kill, The End of Worldly Connections

Li Guanqi looked down, trembling uncontrollably. He clutched the medicine in his hand and did not dare move. But the man immediately spotted Li Guanqi’s eyes, which were not covered.

The man’s face darkened, and he slapped Li Guanqi so hard that he fell to the ground.

“Damn it! How many times have I told you to cover your eyes?! Those damn eyes bring bad luck!”

Li Dashan’s anger worsened when he saw the herbs scattered across the floor. He kicked the boy several times as he roared, “Did you spend money on medicine?!”

The boy had experienced this treatment countless times. He wrapped his hands around his head and did his best to curl up.

The crouching boy stubbornly protected the scattered medicine with his own body.

Hearing the noise, the woman on the bed-stove stumbled to her feet and pushed Li Dashan away. She screamed, “Don’t hit him... Don’t hit my child...”

In a rage, Li Dashan picked up the wooden board next to him and smashed it over her head!

Slam!

“Damn cripple! What’s the fucking point of spending money on medicine? I wish you’d die sooner! I should have sent you to the Zhao Estate as a servant when I had the chance. At least they’d pay me some money if you died!”

Blood flowed slowly down the woman’s forehead, but she clutched the boy protectively, begging furiously, “Don’t hit my child.”

Li Guanqi suddenly felt something warm and sticky on his face. Upon realizing what it was, the boy’s expression turned into a vicious snarl. He struggled as much as he could to break free from the woman’s arms. Reaching out based on memory, he instantly grabbed the cleaver on the chopping board.

Li Guanqi roared furiously at the man, venting all the anger he had suppressed in his heart. “Shut your mouth! If it wasn’t for your drinking and gambling addiction, would we have ended up like this?!

“If it wasn’t for you, would my mother still be sick after all this time? And you sold my sister to the Zhao Estate, where she worked herself to death! You’re the one who deserves to die! You! Li Dashan!”

Finally, there was an outlet for all the anger he had suppressed for years.

Li Dashan, who was still drunk, frowned even harder and scolded him, “If I hadn’t given you two food years ago, you would have long starved to death outside the city. How dare you point a knife at me now?”

Li Dashan looked around, searching for an object he could grab. The boy’s ear twitched slightly, then he braced himself and pounced on the man!

The cleaver glinted coldly in the moonlight that shone into the house. In a panic, Li Dashan picked up a clay jar and swung it at Li Guanqi.

Despite being thin and weak, the boy was agile. The moment his sensitive hearing picked up on the sound of the man lifting a heavy object, he instantly dodged sideways.

Slam!

Crash!

The clay jar shattered by Li Guanqi’s feet, along with the sound of coppers scattering on the ground. The boy froze on the spot.

He knew what that sound meant.

The few strings of coppers looked quite eye-catching beneath the moonlight.

Li Dashan cried out excitedly, “Hahahaha! Ten strings of coppers! This will surely change my luck! This time, I will earn my money back with profit! Hahaha!”

Li Guanqi stood frozen in his spot, shaking uncontrollably.

Various scenes flashed in his mind.

Ever since he could remember, he had never had a full meal. He did not know who his father was because he had never met him. He heard that his father had died during the famine a long time ago.

After they moved in with this distant uncle three years ago, the real nightmare began. Li Dashan often returned home to take money from them. Once he had money, he would either drink himself to oblivion or stay a few days at the gambling den.

Obviously, he was now here for the same purpose.

Li Guanqi did not know where his uncle had learned of his sister’s death, but his uncle had clearly set his sights on the ten strings of coppers.

Sometimes, Li Guanqi would fantasize about becoming an immortal who could roam the world freely. How nice would that be? Then, perhaps he would be free from the sufferings of mortals.

Li Guanqi turned around.

He could still hear Li Dashan’s curses. “She’s fucking dead! Who cares if you don’t cremate her?!”

Li Guanqi slowly raised the cleaver in his hand.

There was a flash of hesitance in Song Wanrong’s eyes, but in the end, she did not stop her brother. She had lost all hope in Li Dashan a long time ago, and she knew that she could not live for much longer. She did not want Li Dashan to sell off her son too after she died.

Perhaps this is... for the best.

Pfft!

The sharp cleaver sank into Li Dashan’s neck. The boy only felt a warm splatter on his face. Li Dashan collapsed in a pool of blood with disbelief in his eyes.

After experiencing such an ordeal, fatigue washed over the boy, and he slumped to the ground.

Song Wanrong felt dizzy, and her vision blurred. As her body slowly turned cold, she knew that her time had come.

With great difficulty, she forced a smile onto her pale face. She called softly, “Guanqi... Come here.”

When Li Guanqi heard his mother’s voice, he quickly hurried to her side and hugged her, still trembling all over. Song Wanrong pulled him into her arms without even sparing Li Dashan a glance.

She instinctively covered Li Guanqi’s eyes with her hand, stroking his back as she comforted him, “Don’t be afraid... It’s alright... His death was for the best.

“Come on. Let me take a good look at you.”

Li Guanqi’s keen senses picked up on her condition, and he immediately realized what was going on.

He looked up at his mother, sobbing uncontrollably. “Mother... Are you abandoning me too? What am I going to do...”

Song Wanrong’s vision grew increasingly blurred. She looked up at the snow outside the window and muttered, “I’ve been useless; you’ve suffered so much...

“When you grow up, be a man who stands tall and proud. Marry a wife; have a child.

“Your mother... will be watching you from heaven. You must... live... well. Explore the world; experience the beauty of this life.”

Thud.

Li Guanqi felt the hand on his back fall weakly to the ground. He screamed with great anguish, “Mother!!!”

But even after he yelled multiple times, there was no response.

Li Guanqi slumped in his mother’s arms with soulless eyes, muttering, “I... don’t have a mother anymore. I don’t have any... family left.”

His eyes reddened as tears streamed down his face. He did not speak. All he did was caress his mother’s face carefully, as if he wanted to burn her face into his memory.

A while later, the boy knocked on the door of the shop with the white cloth once more.

The fat shop owner took down the board covering the entrance impatiently and saw that it was the boy who had just come over not long ago. Furious, he asked, “You again? You were here just last night, what do you want?

“I’m telling you, people like us in this industry are doing business out of the kindness of our hearts! The ten coppers I asked for really isn’t much!”

𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

The boy standing barefoot in the snow hung his head and said hoarsely, “My mother has died too. Could you help me carry her inside?”

When the shop owner heard that, he swallowed his words. His anger disappeared and was replaced with heartache. He pulled the boy into the building and covered him with a tattered coat his family no longer used.

Then the shop owner said with a choked voice, “Warm up first... I was just putting on a coat to head out.

“You poor child... Your life has been so hard. If you don’t mind, come work for me. We can’t pay much, but at least you won’t starve to death.”

The unexpected gesture of kindness broke through to the boy’s heart. Although he had stopped crying, he squatted on the ground and bawled again.

***

Li Guanqi felt the warmth coming from the fire burning brightly ahead. He slowly knelt and kowtowed heavily to the fire.

“Mother, I will never forget what you sacrificed to raise me. I will live on and live well!”

In the sky above, the gray-robed old man, Su Xuan, was watching in silence.

As he did some calculations with his fingers, he could not help but sigh. He muttered softly, “This was his fate. Even with me present, he would not have been able to change this fate.”

When the boy returned home through the snow, Su Xuan was standing outside his door.

Li Guanqi sensed someone there, and he asked hoarsely, “Who are you looking for?”

There was a twinkle in the old man’s eyes. He covered the boy’s shoulders with a thick cotton cloak. Squatting down, he held the boy’s cold, frozen hands with his large, warm ones.

Although the old man had seen all types of suffering in this realm, his heart still ached after witnessing the boy’s ordeal tonight.

Su Xuan asked gently, “Child, are you willing to come with me? From today onward, I will be your grandfather, and we will leave this place.”

The boy felt numb, but he also felt a warmth he had never felt before from those hands. Tears flowed instantly from his eyes. With a trembling voice, he asked, “Will I get food to eat...?”

Su Xuan’s heart ached, then he pulled the boy into his arms and said in a low voice, “Yes! But that’s not all. You’ll be full after every meal and get warm clothes too!”

The boy nodded. There was nothing tying him to his place; all he had to do was bury his loved ones.

And so he did, placing them in graves with headstones on the outskirts of the isolated town.

Ten strings of coppers were buried together with his mother’s ashes in the grave. Li Guanqi only kept one coin in his pocket as a memento of her.