For a very long time, mortals have been the most foolish yet the bravest and even the most ruthless beings in this vast world. They are born, they grow, they tend to their fields, they marry, and then they produce children. Yet, eventually, they abandon all of that. For what? For immortality. To seek a long life, to linger as witnesses to the world's changes. For that extremely slim chance, they abandon everything: their vowed partners, their children, and their simple, modest lives.
They rise, they fall, they cry, and they crawl—all for a single, common goal: to pursue immortality and their own virtuous encounters. Most of this amounts to empty hope.
As the son of a sect leader, I cannot understand their logic.
Why abandon your family for a year, two years, five years, ten years, twenty years, or even fifty years, merely to leave the village and live like a beggar or a bandit? They deceive themselves into believing they are on the path to immortality, prosperity, and that they can return to the village one day to show their abandoned families that their choice was right, that they are not wrong, and that they are now individuals with spiritual power and the potential for a long life.
Mortals truly are the most foolish, yet the bravest, and even the most ruthless beings in this world.
—Excerpted from "Wonder and Reality of Immortality and Aspiration" by Li Shi.
...
"Ha... Ha... Ha..."
Amid the wilderness, a young couple is running with a baby in the woman's arms. The exhaustion on the woman's face is evident as she runs ahead of her husband.
The man notices his wife's worrying condition and can't help but grit his teeth as anxiety fills his heart.
"Mei'er, hang on! We're almost there!" he encourages her, desperate to ensure she doesn't give in to fatigue and stumble over any tree roots.
The woman, referred to as Mei'er by her husband, doesn't respond to his words. She can't; she has already reached her limit long ago.
Her breath is haggard, her vision blurred, and her body aches, yet she doesn't stop running. She is running for her life, for her husband's life, and for the life of their newborn daughter.
The young couple keeps running, their sweat soaking their clothes.
As the man slows his pace slightly to guard against any danger, his ears prick at the sound of a knife slicing through the air behind him.
His steps come to a sudden halt. He turns around, his eyes sharpened like an eagle's. He unsheathes his sword and slashes at the incoming throwing knife.
The man's sword meets the knife midair with a loud metallic clang. His Qi collides with the Qi imbued in the knife, resulting in a small, purplish explosion.
"Weijin!" Mei'er calls out to her husband in panic as she notices the attack. Worry fills her eyes as she gazes at his broad back.
Weijin, the husband, sheathes his sword just in time for the sliced knife to fall to the ground.
Without shifting his focus from the shadows in the trees ahead, he says a single word to his wife. "Go!"
Mei'er's eyes well up when she hears that word. Her lips part in protest, but no words come out. In the end, she shuts her lips and nods to his back.
Mei'er turns and strides forward so quickly that the wind catches her rich, silky black hair. But the wind also reveals her secret; her eyes are red from tears. She shuts her eyes tight, but a few droplets escape, glistening in the sunlight peeking through the tree canopy.
As soon as Mei'er's tears hit the ground, Weijin swings his sword forward to parry another knife that suddenly appears, wielded by a cloaked figure.
Weijin's eyes widen as he recognizes the cloak.
"Silent Stalker!?" he exclaims.
The cloaked figure remains silent, acting according to the nature of a Silent Stalker—drawing weapons to kill.
The figure, unknowingly holding another dagger in their left hand, aims for Weijin's right eye.
Weijin's eyes contract as he realizes the danger of the second dagger.
…
"Ha... Hah... Hah!"
Mei'er keeps moving her legs.
She keeps running, never stopping for even a moment.
Then she sees it: the light. The light beyond the canopy of trees. The open field ahead!
Before long, Mei'er stands in the sunlight, surrounded by a vibrant green field. For a moment, she stops to catch her breath.
She gazes up at the sun above, drops of sweat cascading down her face, soaking her hair.
Her eyes are empty, slightly red from all the tears she has shed while racing to reach this open space.
Slowly, she lowers her gaze to the small face of her baby in her arms.
They had given her a slumber pill before they fled, and the baby girl is still sleeping peacefully amid Mei'er's frantic escape.
Mei'er gently caresses her daughter's smooth cheeks with her fingers.
So soft, so fragile, so lovely. This is what she and her husband are protecting—their child, their love.
They ran to ensure this little girl would survive. They ran so that fate would not tear them apart. They did not want any of that to happen, so they fought against it.
But in the end...
"Weijin...!"
Mei'er drops to her knees.
She hugs her little girl tightly against her chest.
Once again, tears fall.
"Aaaahhhhhhh!" Mei'er wails aloud for the first time in her life.
Mei'er, Yun Meitian, was a cold and intelligent woman. She rarely cried, as she had been told not to since birth.
But in her otherwise gray and calculating world, Weijin appeared.
He smiled sincerely, innocently, cheerfully.
"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!"
He was the sun for her.
He was her light, and now she feels she has lost that light.
So, how can she remain unbothered?
Their daughter is safe; that is good. That was their goal in escaping. But in exchange for his life?
"W-why?... Why, heaven!?"
She cannot accept that outcome. She didn't want it. But reality doesn't heed her desires.
It's just... Just... So unfair.
While Yun Meitian's cries gradually faded into quiet sobs, her daughter was unknowingly awake, with a slight opening of her eyes as evidence. In fact, she had been awake even while Yun Meitian and Weijing were still on the run.
However, instead of crying like a typical baby, she was observing her surroundings, seeing, and listening.
Silently.
Curiously.
Calculatively.
And then she realized.
That she has been reborn.