Hua Yi lifted Chang An onto his shoulders, carefully supporting him with both hands, and carried him toward the nearest stream.

 

Although A Zhi was not very old either, she had developed early. The young man and young woman walking side by side were both quite attractive, and many passers-by could not help turning back for another look.

The young beastmen of the Vulture Tribe in particular looked at Hua Yi standing beside A Zhi with a mixture of envy and jealousy.

But those ordinary people were merely dazzled by outward beauty. None of them realized that the foreign youth, who appeared to be radiant with success, actually regarded beautiful women as no more than dirt and was simply an gluttonous foodie.

At first, A Zhi was fascinated by Hua Yi's silver beast markings and insisted on seeing them. She fussed about it until Hua Yi became extremely uncomfortable.

He had always believed himself to be completely ordinary and unworthy of possessing something so rare. In the end, he merely rolled up his sleeve for a brief moment so A Zhi could take a look before hurriedly covering it up again.

A Zhi pouted in dissatisfaction. “What's so amazing about it?”

Whenever someone spoke to Hua Yi with emotions such as anger, dissatisfaction, or provocation, he always reacted the same way—with an honest, simple smile. He had been born disliking conflict.

From experience, he knew that if he simply smiled foolishly as though he hadn't understood what they meant, people would soon find him boring and stop provoking him.

Sure enough, A Zhi rolled her eyes.

He certainly looks decent, she thought. But could he actually be an idiot?

Having lost interest in him, she went off to play with a group of girls she knew.

Faced with a noisy flock of chattering young women, Hua Yi felt it would be awkward to join them. So he wandered off by himself, sat atop a large rock some distance away, and quietly stared into space.

Just then, a faint rustling came from the bushes.

As a hunter, Hua Yi instinctively tensed his muscles and assumed a defensive stance. But when he looked carefully, he saw a filthy little child crawling out of the undergrowth.

Their eyes met unexpectedly. The child's face was covered in blood, startling Hua Yi. “Oh! How did this happen?”

The child was Chang An. Night had already fallen before he finally remembered it was time to go home.

Hearing Hua Yi's question, he casually wiped beneath his nose with his sleeve, looking completely unconcerned. Still as lively as a dragon and tiger, he turned and started running toward home.

Before he could get far, someone grabbed him by the back of the neck and lifted him into the air.

Hua Yi had not expected the child to weigh so little. The realization made him oddly anxious. He could not tell exactly how old the little boy was. He only knew he was tiny. Other than newborn kittens, puppies, or rabbits, he had never encountered such a small, delicate life before.

Even his voice unconsciously softened, as though afraid a louder breath might blow the child away. “I'll take you to wash up,” Hua Yi said as gently as he possibly could. “If you run home looking like this, you'll scare your mother half to death.”

Hua Yi was the sort of person who worried about everything. Whenever he saw a heavily pregnant woman, he worried that she might not be able to see where she was walking and might fall, causing him to fret right along with her. Whenever he saw children covered in mud like little clay monkeys, he worried their mothers would beat them when they got home.

Simply imagining it was enough to fill him with concern.

Naturally, this time he directed all that excessive worry toward Chang An.

Hua Yi placed Chang An on his shoulders, carefully supporting him with both hands as he carried him toward the nearest stream.

Chang An studied him for a moment. He never imagined this gentle giant could be the very "life-saving benefactor" Zhe Yan spoke about every single day.

Since no one had ever deliberately harmed him before, he had almost no sense of caution. He showed no concern whatsoever that this stranger might throw him into the river. Instead, he calmly rode on Hua Yi's shoulders all the way to the stream and let the big fellow wash his face.

Unfortunately, the giant was clumsy. He kept telling Chang An to lower his head.

Chang An lowered it a little. Then a little more. Then a little too much.

With a loud splash, he tipped forward and tumbled straight into the river by himself.

Fortunately, the water was shallow. Children in the tribe all knew at least a little dog-paddling.

While Hua Yi stood there flustered beyond belief, Chang An's head emerged from the water. He blinked blankly at Hua Yi, apparently unable to understand how he had ended up in the river.

Well...

At least the bath was thorough now.

Hua Yi hurriedly fished him out of the water. Still clumsy, he carefully dried him off.

When he noticed Chang An shiver, he had no choice but to remove his own outer garment and wrap it around the little boy.

That left him wearing nothing but half a beast-hide around his waist. One shoulder was completely bare. His hand could no longer cover the silver beast markings.

The brilliant silver pattern caught Chang An's eye immediately. Looking down, he saw the very silver markings Zhe Yan had talked about for years.

Without thinking, he blurted out, “Are you Hua Yi?”

Hua Yi blinked. “How do you know my name?”

Chang An fell silent.

So this is the benefactor. Zheyan said I must repay him. But... what can I possibly give him?

His understanding of how to deal with people was extremely limited. So he used the same method he always used with A Yan. He reached into his clothes, took out a flower he had picked deep in the forest, and gently placed it in Hua Yi's palm.

The flower had been soaked in the river. Its petals drooped limply.

After placing it there, Chang An suddenly felt embarrassed. This isn't nearly enough. But it was the only thing he possessed.

He carefully studied Hua Yi's face, committing every feature to memory. Then he silently made up his mind. He would say nothing today.

One day, after he had grown up… After he had become capable… After he possessed many, many wonderful things...

Then he would properly repay him.

All Hua Yi saw was a tiny child with a face paler than anyone else's, almost devoid of colour. There was a faint blush at the corners of his eyes, like two flower petals blooming against pristine white skin.

After placing a flower in Hua Yi's hand, the little fellow suddenly smiled. Then, skipping and hopping, he happily ran off into the distance.

That smile from the little child left an impression on Hua Yi that was far too deep. Perhaps it had something to do with everything that happened afterward, but Hua Yi always felt that it was the last truly pure thing he had ever seen in this world.

Even many years later, Hua Yi still believed that every child in the world, before growing up, possessed eyes as pure as flower petals. It was something they were born with—they were inherently good. Only after they grew up did they gradually become corrupted.

Whenever Hua Yi recalled those days, he would sigh to himself. He really wasn't cut out to be a chief. Because while he had been gently washing the face of a stranger's child, his kind and considerate Second Brother had quietly slipped away from the banquet and was discussing with his Gongbuduo how to slaughter his own entire family.

Of course... Hua Yi only learned all of this much, much later.

Second Brother was usually eloquent with outsiders, but surprisingly when speaking to his own people. That night, he only said two sentences to his Gongbuduo.

The first was: “The moment that fool was born, I knew he'd become a problem. I never expected that even after our people spent all these years spreading the story that he was just a big idiot, the old man would still end up favouring him.”

The second was: “This won't do. I won't accept it. We'll make our move as soon as we get back.”

*

After returning from the Vulture Tribe, Hua Yi still had very few worries in life—except that his father had announced he intended to marry A Zhi to him.

At first, Hua Yi had thought A Zhi was beautiful. But after spending a short time with her, he honestly couldn't discover anything else about her that he particularly liked, and so he was rather unwilling.

Still, unwilling or not, Hua Yi didn't dare argue with his father. Besides, deep down he knew his father was doing it for his own good.

After all, A Zhi was the Vulture Tribe chief's daughter. If one day one of his older brothers became chief and couldn't tolerate him, he could always follow A Zhi to the Vulture Tribe and at least make a living somehow. —If his father ever found out that this was what Hua Yi was thinking, he would probably ignore every attempt by the Grand Elder to stop him and beat this unambitious fool of a giant to death.

Yet events always came completely without warning.

That evening, Second Brother invited Hua Yi out for drinks.

Second Brother had always been especially close to him. Although Hua Yi knew perfectly well that his second brother wasn't exactly a good person, he went anyway without the slightest suspicion.

He was his own elder brother. Even if they weren't quite as close as Second Brother liked to pretend, surely he wouldn't actually try to harm him.

Which only proved that there was indeed some truth behind people calling fourteen-year-old Hua Yi a fool.

After three rounds of wine, Hua Yi's vision gradually became blurry. Unfortunately, that very day was also the day his father intended to test his training. Afraid that if he truly got dead drunk he'd be scolded when he returned, Hua Yi did something unusually clever for once.

First, he pretended he couldn't hold his bowl properly and deliberately spilled over half of the wine. Then, under the pretence of wiping his mouth, he secretly spat out the wine he'd been holding inside.

Next, he called Gu Cheng over, never saying that he was drunk, but simply grinning foolishly while mumbling, “Another jug... bring another jug...”

Then, just as his second brother declared that he'd had too much to drink, Hua Yi very appropriately gave a loud thud, slid off his chair, and collapsed onto the ground.

Quick-witted as always, Gu Cheng grabbed a wet towel and vigorously wiped Hua Yi's face before having one of the guards who had accompanied them support Hua Yi on the way back.

Second Brother didn't say anything. Instead, he warmly escorted them all the way to the entrance.

When Gu Cheng happened to glance back, he quietly whispered to Hua Yi, “Second Young Master's standing there squinting at us.”

Hua Yi's mind was actually still perfectly clear; he hadn't gotten very drunk at all. After walking for a while, however, he felt an urgent need to relieve himself. So he instructed the other two to wait by the roadside while he stepped aside alone.

It only took a brief moment.

Hua Yi never imagined that by the time he returned...

His Gongbuduo, Gu Cheng… And the guard his father had only just assigned to him… Were already dead.

Gu Cheng was still just a child.

His neck had been snapped cleanly and hung limply to one side. Judging from the scene, he probably hadn't even managed to cry out before he died.

The other beastman guard must have sensed something was wrong. He had only managed to half-transform before being swarmed by attackers and literally torn in two.

When Hua Yi came back, the killers hadn't all left yet. With his own eyes, he saw a familiar man push through the beastmen, walk over, crouch beside the corpse of the guard, turn over the dead man's face...

His expression immediately darkened. Without warning, he raised his hand and slapped the gigantic beastman beside him across the face. “You couldn't even kill the right person? Useless trash!”

Hidden in the grass, Hua Yi felt every drop of blood in his body turn cold. His guard had also been unusually tall and powerfully built. Seen from behind, the man's physique looked almost identical to his own.

If they were saying they had "killed the wrong one"...

Then...

Wasn't the person they had intended to kill...

Him?

The one striking the beastman wasn't anyone else. It was his good Second Brother— The very same brother who had been drinking and laughing with him only moments earlier.

Second Brother wanted him dead.

Hua Yi racked his brain but simply couldn't understand.

They shared the same father.

What earth-shattering hatred could possibly exist between them that would make his own brother try to murder him?

But Second Brother gave him no time to ponder such profound questions. Hua Yi only heard him say coldly to the killers, “All of you transform. Put those sharp noses to work. That brat is definitely still nearby. He couldn't have gone far. Search immediately. If you can't find him... then the lot of you can go die yourselves.”

 

Translator : DarNan