Why did Jun bring that child here without a word of explanation, and why did it have to be a child like him-
There is something about him that refuses to settle quietly in my mind, as if he does not entirely belong to this world that the rest of us have learned to survive in.
I am certain that I have seen something like him before, not his face, not his voice, but something deeper, something in the way he exists...
Where did he grow up to become like this, so quiet and unreadable in ways that should not belong to a child, He doesn't even know what is *help*
As if that part of being human was never given to him in the first place.
He is simple, but not in a foolish way, rather in a way that makes him easy to understand, easy to read...
From everything I have heard about the yòu, there should be nothing like him among them... He is too pure for that..
After all, he is still just a child.
Perhaps bringing him to Qianhe Yuan was the right decision, because here he might still have a chance to live a proper childhood...
A childhood like the one I never had.
The moment I leaned to see, I been trying to blind myself from this world...
No one cared where I went or how I lived... Noone will even stay by if I just drop dead
Until Jun.
And Piao.
They never asked me where I came from or what I had gone through, but they stayed, and that alone was enough to change everything.
If I had never met them, I do not know what I would have become, and I am not sure I want to imagine it...
Lue.
Can he still find peace in a world that has already begun to close in around him?
I do not know.
Jun called him the chosen one, a threat to the entire empire if left unchecked, and yet when I look at him now, I do not see a threat...
I wanted to understand him for myself, not through fear or rumors, but through what I could see with my own eyes.
At first glance, he seems weak, almost fragile... maybe because of the wounds he carry.
He is not weak.
He is simply soft, haa... I might be the only one to say that..
but that softness is something a child should be allowed to keep.
When I see him sleeping peacefully, it feels like I am looking at something rare, something that should not be disturbed...
He does not start fights, he does not strike first, and that alone makes him different in a way that I cannot ignore.
He likes simple things, things that most people would overlook without a second thought, like sweets, small games, and even dolls, and he holds onto them as if they matter...
He really is just a child.
And I wanted to protect that.
I truly believed, even if only for a moment, that things could remain that way.
But they did not.
The war came without warning, and the world shifted so suddenly that there was no time to hold onto anything, no time to prepare for what was about to happen.
Somewhere within all of it, I could feel the truth settling in, heavy and unavoidable, that Lue was not separate from this chaos, that he was connected to it in a way that could not be ignored.
The master of yòu.
Him.
An army of that scale should not exist, and yet it stands before us, endless and overwhelming, as if it had been waiting for this moment to reveal itself.
There are too many of them.
Far too many.
And yet there is no time to question it, no time to hesitate.
Qianhe Yuan is where I need to be.
The only thing that matters now is keeping the enemy as far away from the civilians as possible, no matter what it costs.
My children are there, Jun, Piao and... Lue...
If something happens to them, if I am too late to reach them, then everything I have tried to protect will be gone.
I move forward without stopping, telling myself that I will reach them in time, that I will not fail, that I cannot afford to fail.
But something feels wrong.
The path does not feel familiar, and the surroundings do not match the place I am trying to reach, and slowly, a realization begins to take shape that I do not want to accept.
This is not Qianhe Yuan.
This is not my home.
And no matter how far I walk, I cannot find it.
Then it becomes clear.
I am not lost.
I am already in the battlefield.
The ground beneath me is soaked, the air is thick, and the smell of blood is everywhere, far too much for it to belong to anything else.
And then I see him.
Jing Li.
There is no hesitation in him, no wasted movement, and no trace of humanity in the way he approaches, and I know immediately that I cannot afford even a single mistake.
I try to strike first, to move faster than him, to close the distance before he can react, but before my blade can even reach its target, he is gone.
His voice comes from behind me, cold and effortless, as if my attempt was never worth his attention.
"Too weak "
I turn and swing again, putting everything I have into that single motion, but it does not matter, because nothing lands, nothing connects, and every strike I make is met with nothing but empty space.
He is too fast.
Far beyond what any human should be.
And while I fail to land even a single blow, his attacks find their mark with terrifying precision, each movement calculated, each strike unavoidable.
The ones behind him are no different, moving without hesitation, without thought, waiting only for the moment I falter.
I try to move again, but my body does not respond.
" Pathetic."
The word falls from him as if it carries no weight at all, and before I can even react, he turns away, leaving me where I stand, as if I am not even worth finishing.
I can feel the blood leaving my body, though the pain feels distant, as if it no longer belongs to me.
I cannot move.
I cannot stand.
And yet, through the blur of my fading vision, I see figures running toward me, voices reaching me from far away.
There is no point.
I can't even moved...
But then-
In the centre of all that chaos, I saw him...
Lue.
Still alive.
And in that moment, everything else fades away.
If he is still here, then I still have something left to protect.
Even now.
Even like this.
I try to move, to reach him, to say something, anything that could matter, but my body no longer listens, and all I can do is hold onto the thought that he is still alive.
I have to save him... no...
I need him...
Lue.
Lue…
And then-
I hear his voice.
"Qian ?"
My heart dropped...