Xiao Jue stood at the edge of paradise, holding a small piece of gold foil he had brought back from the Donghuang Temple. The fragment of the Heavenly Rule that was originally engraved with "The Law is Irreversible" was now covered by Lingbao's bright red crayon graffiti, with only the distorted outline of the strokes underneath vaguely visible, and a little emerald green crayon shavings on the edge.
He twirled the glittering gold foil between his fingers, his gaze sweeping across the small figure before the drawing board, lost in his own world, then gazing out at the destiny of the four kingdoms, already smudged by childish innocence. The cold sheath of the Guihong Ruler reflected the vibrant lights of the paradise.
A deep voice, carrying a sense of the vastness of the changing laws of nature and a faint sense of relief, echoed amidst the swishing sounds of Lingbao's graffiti:
"Engrave it on gold and jade, and enshrine it as an eternal rule."
"Hanging in the starry sky, it is regarded as an eternal and unchanging order."
"This magnificent heavenly rule..."
He loosened his fingers, and the gold foil fragments fell. The moment they touched the soil of the paradise, they were gently wrapped, decomposed, and absorbed by a ball of "grass" that emerged from the ground and was drawn by Lingbao with green crayons, turning into nutrients to nourish new sprouts.
"...the so-called 'golden rules' that are claimed to be inviolable,"
He walked to the drawing board, squatted down, and watched his daughter using purple crayon to sign her name crookedly in the corner of the drawing board - a "zero" made up of circles and dots.
Lingbao finished her last stroke and contentedly put down her crayon, leaving a few streaks of rainbow paint on her face. She turned around, saw her father, and immediately reached out her paint-stained little hand and stuffed her freshly torn "masterpiece"—a doodle covered in lollipops and smiley faces—into Xiao Jue's hands.
"Daddy! Drawing! It's beautiful!" Lingbao tilted his little face up, his eyes sparkling, and a trace of saliva mixed with crayon shavings hung from the corner of his mouth.
Xiao Jue took the "painting" filled with childlike innocence and chaos, his broad hands firmly supporting the trust and joy his daughter handed him. On the paper, those vivid colors and uninhibited lines danced.
"He finally became my son..."
He stared at the huge lollipop with a smiling sun on top on the drawing paper, then looked at his daughter's expectant eyes. The corners of his cold lips rarely curved upwards in a tiny but very real arc.
“…when I was doodling,”
Seeing his father smile, Lingbao became even happier. He twisted his little body and rushed to the drawing board again. He grabbed a yellow crayon and drew a bigger, radiant sun in the new blank space.
“A bright background.”
The swish of scribbles, like the most joyful funeral song, buried the decayed carcass of the old Heavenly Dao and painted the first strokes of pure and majestic chaotic primary colors on the canvas of the new world. Wherever the child's brush touched on the paper, it was the place where the Heavenly Dao was born.
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