Qian Renxue, Your Existence Was a Mistake

Spirit City, a side hall of the Pope's Palace.

Qian Renxue stood before a tightly shut door, dressed in a white gown and cradling an exquisite sandalwood box.

For a long while.

She took a deep breath and raised her hand to knock.

"Mother."

Her voice held a note of hope.

There was no answer from inside.

Qian Renxue bit her lip and knocked again.

"Mother, today is your birthday. I..."

"Get out."

One word.

Cold as ice, sharp as a blade, like the frost she had faced every time she drew near over the years.

"Mother, I just wanted to..."

Qian Renxue froze where she stood. She wanted to explain, but...

The door was suddenly yanked open.

Bibi Dong stood in the doorway.

She stared at Qian Renxue as though she were someone utterly unimportant.

"I said, get out."

Qian Renxue parted her lips. The box slipped from her arms and hit the ground with a sharp crack.

The hairpin inside fell out and shattered into pieces on the floor.

"Mother..."

"Don't call me that."

Bibi Dong finally raised her eyes.

There was no warmth in them, only boundless loathing.

"Your existence was a mistake from the very beginning."

Qian Renxue's face turned deathly pale.

She stared at the door as it shut once more, at the last glimpse of that figure disappearing through the crack.

For a long while.

She bent down and picked up the fragments one by one. She didn't even notice when they cut her fingertips.

Drops of blood fell onto the plain white hem of her skirt, like red plum blossoms blooming in the snow.

When Qian Anci found her, Qian Renxue was curled up in a corner behind the Pope's Palace.

Several fragments lay scattered before her, now and then catching a faint glimmer in the gloom.

She wasn't sobbing aloud.

Her shoulders only trembled softly, like a cub abandoned by its mother, hiding alone in a corner to lick its wounds.

Qian Anci sat down beside her without a word.

He took a plain white handkerchief from his robe and held it out.

Qian Renxue didn't take it.

"What did you come here for?" Her voice was hoarse, thick with a nasal twang. "To laugh at me?"

"Mm," Qian Anci replied. "To watch someone who's tough on the outside but soft-hearted secretly hide away and cry."

"...Get out."

"All right. I'll go."

Qian Anci stood up, pretending to leave.

Qian Renxue jerked her head up, tears shimmering in her eyes.

"You!"

"I was kidding."

He sat back down and pressed the handkerchief into her hand.

Then he lowered his head and picked up the fragments on the ground one by one, gathering them in his palm.

"It's broken,"

Qian Anci said.

"I know it's broken!" Qian Renxue's voice caught with a sob. "I spent three days choosing it... She didn't even look at it..."

"Then pick out another one."

"She won't accept it."

"Then keep picking until she wants it."

Qian Anci glanced at her, gray light settling in his eyes like a deep abyss. "Or keep picking until you don't want to anymore."

Qian Renxue was stunned.

She looked at the fragments in Qian Anci's palm.

At the edges that caught the light, and the hurt buried in her heart suddenly burst free.

"You don't understand."

Qian Renxue turned her face away.

"She hates me. She's hated me since the day I was born."

"I know."

"What do you know!"

Qian Renxue whipped around, tears finally spilling from her golden eyes.

"Do you know what it feels like to be hated by your own mother? Do you know what it feels like to be pushed away every time you try to get close? Do you know..."

Her voice abruptly broke off.

Because Qian Anci had reached out.

His small, youthful hand rested gently on the back of hers.

Warm and steady, like a silent anchor.

"I know."

His voice was soft, but it cut clearly through the darkness of that corner.

"Six years ago, I woke up in the ruins left by an Evil Soul Master. I had no memories, no name, no past. I didn't know who I was, where I'd come from, or why I was lying in that pool of blood."

Qian Renxue stared at him in a daze.

"Grandfather picked me up."

Qian Anci continued.

"He gave me a name and a home."

"I have no roots. No past, no relatives bound to me by blood."

He turned to meet Qian Renxue's tear-blurred golden eyes.

"But at least now, I have you and Grandfather."

Qian Renxue's tears finally fell.

One drop, then another, landing on the plain white handkerchief and spreading into dark stains.

She suddenly leaned toward him, resting her forehead against his shoulder. At last, her stifled sobs broke free.

It was as though all the grievances she had kept locked away behind her pride for years had finally found a crack to escape through.

Qian Anci didn't move. He let Qian Renxue's tears soak through his clothes.

He simply sat there, letting her tears dampen his robe, letting the hand clutching his sleeve tremble faintly.

"...Anci."

"Mm."

"Your shoulder's so hard."

"Mm."

"...Next time I pick out a gift, come with me."

"Okay."

In the distance, the bell of the Pope's Palace rang out, its echo drifting through the air.

Qian Renxue gradually stopped crying, but she still kept her face buried against his shoulder and refused to look up.

"Big sister," Qian Anci suddenly said.

"...Mm?"

"Your blood's about to drip on my robe."

Qian Renxue froze and lowered her eyes to her fingertips.

The cut she'd gotten while picking up the fragments was now beading with blood.

She hurried to wipe it away, but Qian Anci caught her wrist.

"Don't move."

He took out another handkerchief and awkwardly but carefully bandaged her hand.

The cloth quickly turned red, but he seemed not to notice.

Qian Renxue watched his lowered brows and suddenly felt her nose sting again.

"Anci."

"Mm?"

"You're terrible at bandaging."

"...Mm."

Qian Renxue laughed through her tears. Her eyes were still wet, but her lips had curled into a smile.

It was faint, like a ray of daylight slipping through the gloom.

She suddenly reached out and gathered all the purple crystal fragments in Qian Anci's palm into her own.

"I'll keep these..."

"They're broken."

"I know they're broken." She carefully tucked the fragments into her sleeve, her voice growing softer. "But I spent three days choosing them."

Qian Anci looked at her, gray light settling in his eyes. He said nothing more.

They sat side by side in that shadowy corner, gazing up at the narrow strips of sky cut out by the buildings above.

A bird swept past, leaving a string of clear chirps behind.

"Anci."

"Mm."

"From now on..." Qian Renxue paused, a faint blush spreading across the tips of her ears. "From now on, whenever I hide away to cry, you have to find me."

Qian Anci glanced sideways at her.

Qian Renxue turned her face away, her voice muffled. "...And don't be late."

"Okay."

Time flew like a white colt glimpsed through a crack.

In the blink of an eye, three years had passed.

Over those three years, Qian Anci's life had been filled with cultivation and combat.

Every morning, he meditated in the Saint Son Palace, drawing on the Death Qi of the Netherworld to temper his meridians.

In the afternoons, he sparred with the Twelve Patrol Envoys one after another on the training grounds. From Ya Jiu to Ya Yi, from Soul Emperor to Soul Douluo, he fought nearly all of them.

The dark-attribute resources Qian Daoliu had found for him were absorbed without exception.

The aura of death that ordinary people shunned nourished his martial soul like sweet rain.

Qian Renxue often came to see him.