Chapter 1

Chapter 1

As noon approached, the marketplace was bustling with activity. People came and went, the cries of vendors filled the air, and the aroma of sugar cakes sold at a stall could be smelled from far away.

Liu Nanzhou swallowed hard, trying to ignore the enticing smell, but unfortunately, his stomach still growled.

He didn't make a sound, just clung to his older brother's coattails and followed his parents.

The woman held a child in her arms, her face full of worry. The man walked beside her, with a pack on his back. He also wanted to buy a sugar cake to eat, but with a family of five mouths to feed on him, how could they afford just one cake?

He was flat broke.

The man looked down at the child who wasn't even as tall as his leg, and the slightly taller one beside him only came up to his waist.

He sighed silently. If only there were one less mouth to feed.

Thinking this, he said as much to the woman. The two exchanged a glance. The woman looked at her children; she couldn't bear to part with any of them, but she couldn't afford to keep them all.

Just then, a small hand gently tugged at the hem of her blue cloth garment, and a little voice piped up, "Mother, I'm hungry."

The woman looked down into Liu Nanzhou's eyes. He had naturally pale eyes, and staring into them for too long gave people the creeps.

The man beside her patted her shoulder. They exchanged another look, and the man said in a low voice, "Stop thinking about it. This child isn't like the eldest, who can do heavy work. He eats more than the third child. And," he said, glancing down at Liu Nanzhou, "look at his eyes. Since he was born, has our family had any good days? He's a jinx. If we get rid of him, then that's that."

The woman turned away and wept silently.

The man kneeled down and looked at Liu Nanzhou. This child, like him, had a small mole on the left side of his nose bridge.

He took Liu Nanzhou's hand and said, "Xiao Zhou, would you like to eat a sugar cake?"

Liu Nanzhou was somewhat stunned. In his memory, this man had never spoken to him so gently, let alone asked him what he wanted. Liu Nanzhou nodded.

The man didn't dare look directly into those eyes. He lowered his head, fumbled around his waist for a while, pulled out three copper coins, and placed them in Liu Nanzhou's hand. "Then, could you go buy two sugar cakes for us?"

Liu Nanzhou was bowled over by this unexpected kindness. A nagging doubt tugged at him, but his attention was still captured by the sugar cakes. He nodded vigorously. "Okay!"

The man ruffled his hair and said with a smile, "Go on."

Liu Nanzhou took the money and quickly ran to the stall, calling out brightly. "Boss, how much for a sugar cake?"

The cake vendor said, "Two coppers each."

Liu Nanzhou was a bit troubled. He bit his lip. "Boss, could you make it cheaper? I'm buying two; could it be three coppers?"

The vendor saw his tattered clothes, took pity on him, and sighed. "Alright, alright, here you go."

Liu Nanzhou thanked him profusely.

Liu Nanzhou waited for the vendor to wrap them up. Smelling the cake's aroma, he swallowed his saliva.

This was a sugar cake! He had never eaten one before. What did it taste like?

Just then, a racket of children's voices came. Liu Nanzhou turned to look. Several children came barreling through. One child bumped into him, sending him stumbling, nearly landing on his backside. A hand steadied him in time, and he smelled a clean, calming scent.

"Be careful."

Before Liu Nanzhou could thank him, the person had already left. Liu Nanzhou watched the man walk away. He wore a blue robe, had a tall, lean figure, a wine gourd hanging at his waist, and his silver hair was tied up high. He walked with a light step to a storyteller's stall, which was already surrounded by quite a few people.

"A few lines in the annals, speak of wild heroism. Subduing demons with his own self, bringing peace to all under heaven. Today, we tell the story of this young hero, Lord Fengwu—Qi Zhuo."

Liu Nanzhou had never heard this name and muttered softly, "Who is Qi Zhuo?"

"Hey, you've never even heard of Qi Zhuo?" The vendor waved a hand and gave a thumbs-up. "He's the hero of our entire world. A hundred years ago, during the great war between humans and demons, with a single spear, he sent the demons reeling again and again. If not for him, how could we have the peaceful lives we have now?"

Liu Nanzhou looked at the storyteller's stall. He used the storyteller as a distraction from his craving, which was making him drool. But as he listened, he became captivated by the content.

The storyteller's voice rose and fell dramatically, making the scene come alive. "...But how could mere mortal flesh and blood resist demons and monsters! The Demon Lord Dan Cangke, with his wolfish ambition, led hordes of demons and monsters to shatter the barrier, launching a full-scale invasion of the human world. Dark clouds pressed down upon the city; it was truly a living hell! The Four Major Sects gathered at Thunder Abyss to jointly resist the enemy. That day, the sky was a bloody red, fierce winds arose, stones flew and sand swirled, and the common people fled in panic. Thunder Abyss stirred with rolling thunder. Dan Cangke led the demon forces, breaking through defenses like splitting bamboo. And just at that moment!"

Liu Nanzhou listened, on the edge of his seat, holding his breath.

"Qi Zhuo, clad in a moon-white robe, his silver hair bound by a crown, descended from the sky holding a silver spear. His spear was like a long dragon entering the clouds, its cold edge sharp and deadly. At the tip of the silver spear hung an ornate glass bell that jingled when moved, like the death knell on the road to the underworld. And this spear had a name that fit its nature perfectly—Mountain Ghost. He fought Dan Cangke for hundreds of rounds, battling until the sky darkened and the earth lost its light. Dan Cangke swung his blade towards the fleeing commoners. Qi Zhuo followed closely, wanting to protect them. But who would have thought Dan Cangke's strike was a feint? He turned and went straight for Qi Zhuo's face. Qi Zhuo had no time to react."

*Thwack!*—The sound of the storyteller's wooden block startled Liu Nanzhou.

"If you wish to know what happened next, listen to the next installment."

The story cut off halfway. Many people chattered noisily, feeling unsatisfied and left hanging, their hearts unsettled. But no matter how the listeners agonized, the storyteller was already packing up to leave.

Just then, the vendor called to him. "Hey, kid, you got lost in the story, didn't you? I've been calling you for a while. Your sugar cakes."

Liu Nanzhou finally snapped back to reality, took the sugar cakes, and thanked the vendor again.

Freshly fried sugar cakes, their smell was irresistible. Liu Nanzhou could smell them even through the bag. He took a deep breath, hugged the cakes to his chest, not letting go even when they burned him, and quickly ran back.

Liu Nanzhou ran to the street corner and searched up and down but couldn't find his parents.

He started to cry, frantic.

Didn't you say you'd wait for me here?

He asked people nearby if they had seen a couple leading a young boy, with a baby held in their arms.

They all said they hadn't seen such people.

Liu Nanzhou was afraid to wander off, scared his parents would come back and not find him. He could only sit on a nearby stone step and wait.

His stomach growled with hunger. He had cakes in his arms but didn't eat them, hugging them tightly, wanting them to cool more slowly. Maybe his parents would be back soon.

He waited and waited, until the sun set, until the street stalls closed up shop and headed home, until every household's lamps were lit. Still, he did not wait for the parents who would take him home.

The two sugar cakes had long since gone cold, pressed against his chest. Liu Nanzhou couldn't tell if it was the cakes that were cold or his heart.

He was growing drowsy. Half-asleep, half-awake, he thought: Mother, if you don't come back soon, the cakes will get cold.

When he woke up the next day on the cold stone step, it finally dawned on him that his parents might never come back.

Liu Nanzhou's stomach had been hungry even before he bought the cakes. Now, he was so hungry he felt dizzy.

He took out the completely cold cakes, wolfed down a few mouthfuls. The cold, hard cakes choked him, making it hard to breathe. Tears blurred his vision. He wiped his face, thinking that he had no money at all, only these two cakes on him. So, once he'd taken the edge off his hunger, he tucked the cakes away.

He drifted around for a few days, wanting to find some work, but he was too scrawny and young. No place was willing to take him.

If he met kind souls, they might give him a few coppers in alms. If he met nasty types, he would be beaten, cursed, and driven away, his body always covered in bruises.

In the blink of an eye, it was already autumn. At night, under the bridge, the wind whistled through from every direction, making it too cold to sleep. His clothes were too thin to keep out the cold.

Liu Nanzhou had to prepare for winter. Fortunately, winter in Quantai Town wasn't as harsh as in the north.

He found a dilapidated temple in the western outskirts. The "original residents" of the broken temple clearly didn't welcome this unexpected guest, always "squeaking" and coming to steal his food. Liu Nanzhou had no choice but to manage to catch a couple of them and "kill the chicken to scare the monkey." They indeed became more restrained, forced to accept this neighbor, achieving a delicate peace.

Inside the dilapidated temple, two worn-out rush mats were riddled with holes from rats gnawing at them. He padded them with scrap wood and weeds to make a makeshift bed, while a discarded robe he scavenged from a garbage heap—thrown away by a wealthy family—became his blanket. When he felt cold, he would gather scrap wood from the mountain to build a fire.

He’d already made peace with not making it through the winter, thinking he might die on some snowy night. Yet, to his surprise, Springwell Town experienced no snowfall for two years, and he miraculously endured two winters.

When Liu Nanzhou heard birds chirping one early morning, he knew spring had arrived—he had made it through another winter.

Liu Nanzhou headed toward the town. A wealthy family there had been blessed with a son in their old age, and to give thanks to Guanyin Bodhisattva, they were distributing porridge at the town entrance for a month. He had to hurry, or it would be gone if he arrived too late.

Liu Nanzhou ran for the town, his broken bowl clutched in his hands—the bowl was something he had found, already cracked around the edges with a chip missing from the rim. He handled it carefully every time, afraid that even a slight force might shatter it.

In his haste, he didn’t watch his step and tripped over something, falling flat on the ground. The already-cracked bowl in his hand shattered at last.

Before Liu Nanzhou could even mourn his broken bowl, he turned and realized what had tripped him seemed to be a corpse.

The body lay on the ground, bleeding from every orifice. Liu Nanzhou swallowed nervously, stood up, and cautiously moved closer to take a look. His shadow fell over the dead man.

Liu Nanzhou squatted down and tentatively reached out to check for breath, only to find the person had long since stopped breathing.

Startled, Liu Nanzhou let out a gasp and fell on his backside, then scrambled backward as if his legs had a mind of their own. Stumbling to his feet, he ignored the shattered bowl and ran away.

He didn’t notice that, for a moment, his shadow moved differently from his own actions.

Author's Note:

----------------------

The story begins! Thank you for your support~ Happy Children’s Day to all the little friends [throws confetti]