Chapter 244 Epilogue - New World Arc (41)
What remained in my mind at the end—
It was the woman's frantic screams and the roaring flames burning in the darkness.
It almost dyed half the sky red.
And in the distant sky, the clouds dispersed, revealing a full moon so bright it was almost eerie, its silvery white tinged with a faint crimson, as if stained with blood.
After that day, Li Nian lost her mother.
It seems there's not much difference between having it and not having it.
The woman burned herself to death in her bedchamber. Li Nian survived by chance, but was unconscious for three whole days because she inhaled a large amount of smoke.
When he woke up again, he had been given the title of the son of a mad concubine.
Oh, and there's that jade pendant too.
The jade pendant, which was supposed to be burned along with the woman, somehow ended up on Li Nian's person.
When he woke up, he was lying in the drafty room.
There was no one around him.
The news of Li Nian's awakening reached the man's ears. After more than a year, he finally saw his nominal father again.
They came and went in a hurry.
Li Nian didn't feel anything.
Given their relationship, one should be grateful that the other party would condescend to do this once... but that's just wishful thinking.
In short, after rejecting well-intentioned advice from some people with ulterior motives, life became increasingly difficult.
It seems that they try to keep things as simple as possible, whether it's food, clothing, or other necessities.
Li Nian was a teenager, at the age when she was growing, and she often couldn't sleep at night because she was hungry.
Unable to sleep, he sat up and examined the jade pendant closely in the darkness.
The jade is warm to the touch... other than that, it doesn't seem to have anything special.
In a daze, an image suddenly appeared in my mind.
Under the moonlight, a white hem fluttered in the breeze, and a young man with an obscured face gazed at him with a gentle smile.
Please accept this.
Moving the gaze downwards, a small jade pendant was prominently displayed in the young man's outstretched palm.
Consider this a token of gratitude for what you just said. If you encounter any urgent situation, break the jade pendant; it may provide emergency relief.
[...]
After a moment's hesitation, he still took the jade pendant from the other party.
The jade pendant is small, but it is not weightless.
He instinctively clenched his fist, and when he looked up again, the young man was nowhere to be seen in the pale moonlight.
It's as if... it vanished into thin air!
Upon closer inspection, it was not only the youth who had disappeared from sight, but also the hillside and the stream.
Only a waning moon in the sky shone through the lattice window onto the cold bed.
Li Nian regained consciousness.
It turned out that he had been examining the jade pendant so closely that he had unknowingly fallen asleep.
I also had a dream that seemed both real and unreal.
It's true, there's no such thing as a young man in white giving gifts under the moon...
It can be said to be fake—
For no reason at all, I dreamt of someone I'd never met before and heard such strange and unusual words.
Thinking of this, Li Nian's heart stirred slightly.
If what is said is truly true...
Perhaps if I break this jade pendant, I might be able to see the other person and see what they look like.
For a moment, Li Nian's mind was almost entirely filled with the same thought.
Why not give it a try?
Even with his arms already raised above his head, he still couldn't bear to let go.
It wasn't because it was an heirloom inherited from his birth mother... In fact, he hadn't even considered that possibility.
In Li Nian's view, once something is in his hands, it belongs to him.
—Regardless of means or process, the result is more important than anything else.
He was reluctant to break the jade pendant to verify his thoughts. Firstly, he feared the dream was illusory, and secondly, even if the dream was real, there was no guarantee that what the person in the dream said wouldn't be false.
So let's keep it.
He thought, keeping it is still a memento.
And so, Li Nian never had the thought of smashing the jade again.
Even when he later lived a miserable life, like a stray dog at the mercy of others, he never had the slightest thought of giving up.
Until Li Nian accidentally pushed the person into the water.
It was indeed an accident at first.
In fact, Li Nian's first instinct was to reach out and pull the other person out of the pool.
But as soon as that damned thing poked its head out, it started wailing and cursing at him.
While ordering him to pull himself up quickly, he spewed out disgusting threats and intimidation.
—It's so noisy.
Li Nian couldn't help but think.
I want that noisy mouth to be shut up forever, and I want that despicable face to never be arrogant again.
As the child was thinking this, the upward pulling motion of his hand unconsciously changed direction.
The effort of pulling is transformed into the force of pressing.
Once, twice...
When she came to her senses, Li Nian was already lying in her own bed.
The thin blankets faintly exuded a dampness.
I don't know if it was because I caught a cold or because I lost all my strength after the previous struggle.
In a daze, Li Nian suddenly had the idea of smashing the jade again.
It wasn't that she was hoping for divine intervention to save her from her predicament; rather, she simply didn't want the jade pendant to fall into the hands of others.
It's better to destroy it than to have nothing to take with you when you die...
At that time, Li Nian was still unsure what kind of future awaited her.
That was the first time he killed someone.
Although the other party was a damned person, he did indeed kill someone.
Will I die...?
I guess I'll still be locked up...
Li Nian was lost in thought... and instinctively curled up into a ball, clutching the jade pendant to her heart, and then fell into a deep sleep.
result……
Nothing happened.
The man even made an unprecedented appearance halfway through.
At first, Li Nian thought the other party had come to interrogate her.
However, he was overthinking it, because the man seemed to barely remember even having a son like him. Not to mention an unknown servant.
Yes, lackey.
A life for a life, but not for a slave.
This is a truth that Li Nian gradually confirmed through repeated observation and practice.
People and people...
Humans and animals...
Beasts and beasts...
These are all different, what a load of rubbish about equality for all beings!
To avoid being trampled underfoot, you must climb step by step to the highest point.
Only by killing the person who was originally at the top and taking their place can one truly stand up and be a decent human being...
To kill that person, you must first get close to them.
This is neither simple nor difficult—but it is still feasible to some extent.
For example, a man may have few children, while she at least has the title of the eldest son, and... a lovely face that looks just like her birth mother.
Li Nian thought about many things and made many plans.
This includes taking into account all the small sacrifices that had to be made for this purpose.
However, during the actual implementation process, an unexpected event occurred—to be precise, it involved a completely unexpected person.
That day, on a breezy summer afternoon.
The child, who was resting by the well, was suddenly startled by a burning sensation in his chest.
He suddenly opened his eyes, and in his blurry vision, he saw a person standing not far away among the swaying shadows of trees.
The white hem of her dress fluttered slightly in the wind.
Seemingly noticing the commotion, the young man slightly turned his head, revealing a slightly tired but calm face beneath his tied-up black hair.
As their eyes met, a jolt of electricity suddenly ran down their spines.
Li Nian suddenly recognized that the person in front of her was the one she had seen in her dream... the person she had seen before!
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