Chapter 38: Beyond Storms and Clear Skies

Although the little girl was covered in mud, her eyes shone bright and pure like stars in the night sky.

The young girl looked at Shen Lian timidly and said, “Brother, are you here to catch the bad people who took Yinyin? Please don’t eat me, okay? Yinyin is very dirty.”

Shen Lian should have smiled, but he couldn’t. The girl’s features resembled Shen Ruoxi’s by six or seven points, or perhaps they were similar to his own—delicate and refined brows, full of spirit.

He bent down and extended his hand. Though frightened, the girl still grasped Shen Lian’s hand.

In a gentle tone, Shen Lian spoke softly, “Brother is not a bad person. How did you come here?” His words seemed to carry a special magic, or perhaps it was the sharp intuition of a child that made her lower her guard.

“Uncle Bai brought me here.”

“Where is he now?”

“There were many bad people trying to catch Yinyin. Uncle Bai said he would lure them away, but he never came back.” After saying this, the girl held Shen Lian’s hand tightly and said in a clear voice, “Brother, can you find Uncle Bai?”

By now, she knew Shen Lian was not one of the bad people coming to catch her.

Shen Lian gently brushed a strand of hair from the girl’s forehead and sighed faintly, almost imperceptibly.

******

He uncovered the little girl’s background. Shen Ruoxi had been married off to the Prince of Qinghe as a concubine. Naturally, the wealthy Shen family of the northwest was now tied to the same fate as the Qinghe Prince.

This was not the doing of Elder Shen, for a year after Shen Lian left, in the dead of winter, Elder Shen passed away suddenly. A self-made man who amassed astonishing wealth, he could not escape the ravages of time. No matter how great his achievements in life, he could not take a penny with him in death.

By the time he died, he must have come to terms with it all.

He wasn’t a good man; the Shen family’s wealth was not all clean—it was stained with blood. He was not a good father either. Yet in his final days, he often visited a certain inn, sitting in the very room where Shen Lian had stayed. He died there.

Perhaps it was because of Shen Lian, or perhaps because of Shen Lian’s mother—his daughter who had passed away early.

Twelve years ago, Shen Ruoxi married the Prince of Qinghe. After seven years, she conceived the little girl but died in childbirth. The Prince had only this one daughter, and combined with the Shen family’s influence, he doted on Shen Ruoxi deeply—after all, the Shen family was still the Prince’s financial backbone.

Later, the Prince rebelled. After his defeat, he retreated to Qingzhou. However, he lost control of the rebellious troops, and before they could enter Qingzhou city, he was beheaded by his own men. The Shen family, young and old, did not escape this calamity. The little girl was saved by Bai Yufei.

Bai Yufei was one of the few who knew some of the Shen family’s secrets. After all, the little girl was, aside from Shen Lian, the last of the Shen bloodline.

Shen Lian learned all this from a severely wounded Bai Yufei, whom he also treated and healed.

******

Because Bai Yufei was found by Shen Lian with the little girl, he felt relieved. He had no hope of attaining immortality and wished to live a quiet life henceforth. He did not stay with Shen Lian but bid him farewell, seeking another place to spend his remaining years.

On the night Bai Yufei left, Shen Lian retrieved the head of the traitorous general who had sold out the family, the same one who had led the rebels to plunder the Shen estate.

Doing these things did not bring Shen Lian peace, but killing more people involved would not help either.

The little girl’s name was Ruoxi, pronounced the same as Shen Ruoxi.

Little Ruoxi did not understand why her brother called himself uncle, so she stubbornly kept calling Shen Lian “Brother.”

Uncle Bai said that as long as she stayed by her brother’s side, no bad people in the world would dare to catch her. Still, she missed her father, her grandfather, and grandmother.

Uncle Bai also said that her brother was an immortal, so she begged him to take her to find her father, because they had all gone to a faraway place, so far that they could never return.

But her brother said he couldn’t do that. Yet isn’t he an immortal? Immortals can fly like birds and go anywhere.

Little Ruoxi thought the immortal brother was a liar, because although he could fly, he refused to take her to find her father.

For days she ignored him, but she was also afraid—afraid that if she ignored brother, he would ignore her as well.

Brother also had many strange traits, because she often saw him conjure things out of thin air—things too large to hide on his person—more magical than any trick she had seen before.

Gradually, she began to enjoy being by her brother’s side.

Before, she was confined to the prince’s mansion or her grandparents’ home, rarely seeing the outside world. She loved watching magic tricks. Her father had even hired a group of magicians just to entertain her alone. But she preferred the lively bustle that came with magic shows. Ever since her wet nurse secretly took her out six months ago, she had fallen in love with the outside world—loved the excitement and noise. Because although the prince’s mansion and her grandparents’ house were large, they were lonely.

But since then, she had never seen her wet nurse again, never been outside once.

By staying with her brother, she met new people every day and saw many lively places where she could play freely.

Until one day, her brother took her to the busiest place in the world, called Shendu.

Shendu was vast and crowded, with many fun things, delicious food, and beautiful clothes. But her favorite was the candied hawthorn sticks.

Her brother allowed her only one stick a day.

After arriving in Shendu, her brother stopped moving and opened a clinic on a busy street.

She knew a clinic was a place to heal the sick, but no one came to see her brother. She heard the men and women around say her brother was too young and probably couldn’t treat illnesses.

She was very angry to hear this because her brother was very capable; they knew nothing.

Of course, besides deceiving her and limiting her candied hawthorn sticks, her brother had other things that upset her.

For example, now he wanted her to study reading and writing.

She disliked studying and writing. Except for the occasional longing for her father, she only wanted to eat tasty food and play fun games.

But she was afraid of making her brother angry, though she had never seen him lose his temper like her father.

The characters were easy to remember; she could write them after seeing them once. But her brother always said she wrote them wrong.

Later, her brother only allowed her to copy a single character: “Yong” (meaning “eternal”). This “Yong” was written by her brother himself.

She filled a sheet of paper with dense “Yong” characters and handed it to him.

Shen Lian took it and examined it carefully. Then, abruptly, the paper vanished.

Little Ruoxi was no longer surprised.

There was no praise or criticism. She felt a faint disappointment.

Sometimes Shen Lian felt little Ruoxi resembled her mother, but her features seemed a bit more like his.

Not only did little Ruoxi call him brother, but outsiders also believed they were siblings.

Shen Lian was too lazy to explain, and little Ruoxi could not correct the misunderstanding, so they let it be.

He felt a pang of guilt in his heart. That was why he would raise this child, even though he had never cared for a child before.

P.S. Thanks to Quye Xiaoxiao for the reward of 1888; congratulations to the fellow reader for becoming the chapter leader of this book and climbing to fourth place on the fan leaderboard. Also thanks to Xiao N, the Lord of Fate, aab, Storm No Snow, and the Emperor of Jing for their generous support.