Childhood History

A sense of belonging.

That was what Xi Shenlian lacked when facing everyone else.

If others were not friendly to me, I would not be friendly to them either.

This was one of Xi Shenlian's fundamental beliefs.

Therefore, Xi Shenlian did not care in the slightest whether strangers or people he barely knew lived or died.

Nor did he care how they were getting along.

Of Earth's more than four billion people, he would not care even if ninety-nine percent of them died.

As long as a few were left, that was enough.

To put it bluntly.

There were only two or three people on the entire planet whom he could identify with.

And Qian Shan Xuehui, who had now appeared before him, was one of them.

When he took the initiative to greet her.

After freezing for a moment, Qian Shan Xuehui instinctively sized up Xi Shenlian before her.

To be honest.

He had a highly distinctive appearance.

He did not look like an ordinary passerby whose face would be forgotten the moment one turned away. His brightly colored hair made him even more memorable.

Logically speaking.

If she had seen him before.

She should not have been able to forget him.

Yet she genuinely had no impression of Xi Shenlian.

"Sorry, this may be a little rude, but are you..."

Not minding that she had failed to recognize him.

Xi Shenlian first poked his own head with a finger, then said:

"Xi Shenlian."

"The Xi Shenlian from the Orphanage."

"The one with something wrong with his head, who often spouted nonsense and saw hallucinations, and was therefore frequently mocked by the others."

He did not mind mentioning the fact that there had once been something wrong with his head.

Facts were facts.

And his brief yet clear words were so distinctive that they instantly reminded Qian Shan Xuehui of certain memories from several years ago.

She could not help opening her mouth slightly as she said:

"It's you!"

Then she quickly approached, covering her mouth with one hand as she carefully examined Xi Shenlian, unable to hide her surprise:

"Wow, we really haven't seen each other in several years..."

Only after a while did she smile and say:

"Looks like you've been doing pretty well."

"When I heard that you had gone out on your own to make your way in the world, I was actually a little worried."

Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that he had done a little too well.

Having grown up in a wealthy family, Qian Shan Xuehui could easily recognize the brand of the clothes Xi Shenlian was wearing.

Even for her, buying them would sting a little.

Moreover, Xi Shenlian was clearly wearing one of the brand's high-end lines.

Rather than wearing clothes, he might as well have been wearing the down payment—or even the full price—of an entire new house for most people.

Even people who could afford such clothes.

Most of the time, they would only wear them on important occasions, carefully storing them away the rest of the time.

But judging from the way Xi Shenlian had been smoking beside the gravestone earlier.

It was obvious that he treated the clothes on his body as everyday wear.

He did not look even slightly concerned about taking care of them.

This left Qian Shan Xuehui both impressed and somewhat hesitant.

At the same time, she also noticed that Xi Shenlian's appearance had changed quite drastically.

His face looked far too youthful, but she could still vaguely see traces of what he had looked like several years ago.

But what was the deal with his hair and eyes?

"Did you dye your hair?"

"Are you wearing colored contacts too?"

"Don't wear those things for too long."

The concern and goodwill in her words left Xi Shenlian slightly helpless, and he could only explain:

"My eyes and hair are real."

"They're just changes brought about by awakening."

At this moment.

Qian Shan Xuehui still had not understood:

"Awakening?"

"The awakening of an Awakened."

He had no intention of hiding it.

After all, he had no plans to play the fool while secretly holding power.

Besides, the authorities and all the major factions already knew. What use was there in hiding it from acquaintances?

Was he not deceiving outsiders, but only acquaintances?

Was there really something wrong with him?

After Xi Shenlian added to what he had said earlier.

Qian Shan Xuehui's eyes widened, and her face filled with sudden realization.

"Wow~"

Having grown up in a wealthy family.

She knew far more clearly than poor people what social class Awakened occupied.

If ordinary nobles were superior beings, then ordinary Awakened were superior beings above superior beings, with only the truly high-ranking nobles able to compare.

As for high-level Awakened, rumor had it that even the prime minister would have to greet them first.

"No wonder you can wear such nice clothes."

"You've really made it big now!!"

While exclaiming happily.

Qian Shan Xuehui began poking and prodding Xi Shenlian all over.

She acted remarkably familiar with him.

Xi Shenlian did not mind her lack of propriety or her actions either.

He simply let her pinch his face and squeeze the muscles in his arms.

The Xi Shenlian of the past had indeed been one of her underlings.

Although the Orphanage provided decent food with a fairly good balance of meat and vegetables.

Xi Shenlian had been poor, down-and-out, and greedy, so he would deliberately curry favor with her every day, hoping that the big sister would reward him with some snacks to satisfy his cravings.

That was why the two of them had always gotten along well.

After touching him for quite a while.

Qian Shan Xuehui felt that touching him any further would be inappropriate. She coughed twice, then said seriously:

"So, is your head cured now?"

"When we were children, my grandfather took you to the hospital so many times, but it never helped."

On one of those occasions, she had gone along out of boredom, wanting to see what was wrong with her little underling.

She had been eight or nine at the time.

Although she could not understand what the doctor was saying.

She clearly remembered the doctor shaking his head back then.

How should she put it...

It had looked a lot like those scenes in TV dramas where a doctor told a patient's family that there was no hope and they should wait for death.

So she had assumed that he was about to die.

She had been terribly sad.

She had even given him all her snacks for quite some time afterward.

That was until she discovered that he had stubbornly failed to die even after several months, and was still jumping around and occasionally acting like an idiot as usual...

And when he realized that she had misunderstood, his laughter as he mockingly gloated had left a particularly deep impression on Qian Shan Xuehui:

"Heh heh heh heh heh heh..."

Was that the laughter of a normal person??

It had sent Qian Shan Xuehui into a blazing rage...

After that.

Taking advantage of the fact that girls matured faster than boys, as well as her tremendous advantage of being two years older than him, she had forcibly grabbed Xi Shenlian, pulled down his pants, and given his butt a vicious beating~

Speaking of which...

I used to pull down an Awakened's pants and spank him. That probably counts as an interesting anecdote, right??

Qian Shan Xuehui thought uncertainly to herself.

Xi Shenlian, unaware that she was thinking about some of his embarrassing past, instinctively sensed that she was thinking about things that were not very flattering to him.

*?*

As a question mark silently surfaced in his mind.

He answered with an unchanged expression:

"The problem in my head was automatically cured by an Awakened's physique when I became an Awakened."

Qian Shan Xuehui did not express any doubt about this explanation.

She immediately sighed with deep conviction:

"Is that so..."

"Awakened really are mysterious creatures~"

Thanks to Ouyang Huanye for the 200 Qidian Coins! And thanks to 炎日三千炼 for the 1,500 Qidian Coins!