Figure in the Rain

Heavy leaden clouds filled the horizon, and the continuous rain seemed like the sky's own sorrow. Drip, drop, it slid and splashed, gathering into trickles on the ground. The streams grew from small to large, eventually flowing toward the edge of sight.

Gray steel and concrete, massive and towering, stood like a forest of iron monsters. Thick drainage pipes crisscrossed the area. This was a world shrouded in rain, a world of gloom devoid of light. The people living here had never seen the brilliance of sunshine, and rainbows were products that existed only in extravagant hopes and dreams.

Beneath a dilapidated building, a small figure curled up. The structure above blocked the rain, creating a curtain of water in front of him and providing a tiny, dry patch of ground. The area was less than two meters wide, but for the small figure, this was a rare luxury. After all, he had been trekking through the rain for nearly a day, and finding a place to rest as night fell was already incredibly fortunate. Moreover, he had made an unexpected discovery upon arriving here.

"Sigh, when will days like these ever end?"

A childish sigh rang out, filled with a profound sense of helplessness that contrasted sharply with the clarity of his young voice. Yet, what was even more incongruous was what the small figure held in his hand. After sighing, he gave the object a shake. It was a rat, over half a foot long—nearly the size of his own arm. The creature showed no signs of life. The boy held it by the tail, letting its body hang upside down. Its pale, sharp incisors were exposed, enough to make anyone shudder. Blood occasionally seeped from the corners of the rat's mouth, only to be swept away by the rain the moment it hit the ground. A small crimson stain would bloom on the earth, only to vanish instantly in the relentless flow of water.

In the dim light, one could faintly discern the pale complexion of the figure beneath the rain curtain. He was a child who looked to be only three or four years old. His frame was frail, his skin deathly pale and bloodless, as if he had been soaked in water for a long time. He was wrapped in an oversized top that was clearly meant for an adult. For a child less than a meter tall, even with his head poking out, he had to clutch the hem to keep it from dragging on the ground. As for pants, there was simply no need for them.

Long-term malnutrition made Yuehua Ai appear even thinner than his peers. Though he was four, he looked no different from an ordinary three-year-old.

Unyielding, sword-like brows, a high-bridged nose, thin and rosy lips, and a pair of eyes as brilliant as the stars with pupils black as gemstones—everything was perfectly assembled on his face. His pursed lips held a hint of defiance and stubbornness, while his indifferent expression and slightly raised brows gave him a lazy, nonchalant air. His dark hair hung to his back, half-wet and half-dry. All in all, he was a truly adorable child; just looking at his face would stir feelings of affection and a desire to protect him. Unfortunately, this was a time of war. Everyone was looking out for themselves, too busy fleeing for their lives to spare a thought for such a child. Thus, seeing Yuehua Ai's thin, small frame against the dark, gloomy background only made him appear all the more pitiful.

"Heh, a little rat dares to assassinate This Seat? It's fortunate that Brother was vigilant, or I really would have been bitten!" Yuehua Ai's eyes narrowed as he chuckled, looking happy and innocent. He swung the rat by its long tail, letting it sway in the air like a pendulum.

"If you had just run away, Brother wouldn't have been able to do anything to you. But you idiot, you didn't run far and even dared to turn back and taunt me—you were asking for death, weren't you? Don't you know I have a secret weapon? Now you'll just have to be my extra meal, haha!"

Yuehua Ai glanced at the nearby ruins. Debris from various buildings lay scattered around, and there were plenty of concrete chunks and bricks within reach. Seeing a fist-sized stone a few meters away, he smiled even more happily. That was the "secret weapon" he had mentioned; it was what had incapacitated the large rat, allowing Yuehua Ai to catch it and, with a swing of his small arm, perform a "Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Slams" to beat it to death.

Yuehua Ai placed the rat on the ground, then pulled a small piece of wire from his pocket. He lifted the hem of his oversized shirt, tucked it up, and squatted down, revealing a pair of small feet wrapped in thick, tattered cloth.

He shuffled forward and used the rainwater to wash the rat several times. Then, picking up the wire, he pierced one end into the rat's body. The first thing he did was skin it. The talk of an "extra meal" was no joke; as an orphan in a war-torn land, one had to do whatever it took to survive.

He couldn't start a fire, so Yuehua Ai had to be extremely careful while processing the meat. He was simply too young, and his body couldn't withstand any strain. Even a minor viral or bacterial infection could easily claim his life. Yuehua Ai was well aware of his own condition, for in his previous life, he had achieved significant success in medicine and biology.

Lu Beichen was the name he had held in his past life, but to him now, it felt like a distant memory.

Like the North Star, eternal and everlasting—the meaning of the name Lu Beichen was not bad. Unfortunately, a person's life is not determined by their name. For Lu Beichen, he had neither eternity nor longevity.

Due to a genetic disease, Lu Beichen had been sentenced to death by doctors when he was very young. Genetic-level illnesses were far beyond the reach of modern medicine, even after his parents had taken him across the country. The doctors' verdict never changed: "Your child likely won't live to adulthood." This sentence wasn't just a prognosis; it felt like a curse hanging over his head.

After years of fruitless medical treatment and no hope in sight, his parents eventually gave up. Later, they had a younger brother who, fortunately, was healthy.

With the birth of his brother, the family's focus naturally shifted. Lu Beichen felt no resentment; instead, he was relieved and grateful, which lifted a heavy burden from his heart.

Because of his illness, Lu Beichen had suffered since childhood, making him much more mature than his peers. He wasn't the type to give up hope easily. If others couldn't cure his disease, he would cure it himself. At just six years old, Lu Beichen had found his life's purpose. Under the pressure of death, he seemed to grow up overnight.

He started with the basics. Initially, due to obstacles like literacy, he needed his family's help to study, but as time passed, his learning became independent and deepened. His family, busy struggling for a living, shifted their support to being primarily emotional.

Year after year, the torment of his illness deepened, but Lu Beichen's knowledge grew more profound. He delved deeply into both Traditional Chinese and Western medicine, and his contributions to cell engineering and gene engineering made him one of the world's top researchers.

At sixteen, he finally developed a drug to suppress his genetic disease. While it couldn't cure it completely, it successfully halted the deterioration. Yet, the heavens were heartless. Just as his condition began to improve, he discovered something else wrong with his body: bone marrow cancer, a terminal illness caused by his genetic defects. Another heavy blow had struck him.

Misfortunes never come singly. It was impossible not to feel pain, but after a period of depression, Lu Beichen faced the challenge head-on. After all, if he could overcome one terminal illness, why couldn't he conquer a second? As long as he was alive, there were infinite possibilities. He was not one to give up easily.

In his constant struggle against disease, through the study of his own cancerous cells and various other viruses and bacteria, he successfully developed "Cell Reversion Technology" at the age of twenty.

Lu Beichen had developed and created many technologies that solved global medical and biological problems, but the Cell Reversion Technology was his proudest achievement.

Using a virus as a template and leveraging its infinite proliferation properties, he modified it to cultivate a new type of cell capable of inducing highly differentiated cells back into pluripotent stem cells. This was the core of the early stages of cell reversion. Theoretically, this could treat all incurable diseases and provided a significant turning point for his own condition.

However, it was a pity. While the technology was theoretically feasible, it had many technical flaws. The most significant was the lack of control. Once the reverted cells were implanted, both diseased and cancerous cells would indeed be reverted and re-differentiated, but healthy cells would also be consumed and forced into reversion. As a result, cellular information would constantly revert, and the user would become younger and younger, eventually turning into an infant and finally an embryo. This wasn't just a physical reversal; the user's memories would also degenerate during the process.

Reversion technology could make one young again and, theoretically, even grant immortality, but that would only be possible if the reverted cells possessed identification and "stop" functions. Currently, it was far from that; it couldn't even improve Lu Beichen's own condition.

To perfect the technology, he needed to find the genetic information that stopped cell differentiation among countless gene fragments and base sequences. Finding a specific functional sequence in that array was like finding a needle in a haystack. This was the most time-consuming task, and time was the one thing Lu Beichen lacked.

Four years later, he succeeded in perfecting the technology, but for his own survival, he had failed.

After testing countless sequences, he had found the fragment he needed and even discovered numerous other functional information chains along the way. However, he no longer had the time to perfect the technology he had poured his heart and soul into. His body's hematopoiesis and organ functions were nearing a standstill; even external medical machinery could no longer help.

At the final moment of his life, Lu Beichen seemed to shed all his burdens and felt suddenly light. Although he hadn't saved his own life, he had fought, and he had seen the dawn of changing his fate.

On that rainy night, the sky was an unnatural reddish hue. The wind was light, and the rain fell in a drizzle. Lu Beichen sat in his wheelchair, alone on the balcony. He had loved the rain since he was a child; the tranquility of a rainy day was a quiet that could cleanse the soul. He loved it.

Is the heavens crying for me, too? At the very last moment of his life, he felt happy and satisfied. The scent of the rain made him feel warm.

Just as his consciousness was about to fade, a massive thunder dragon pierced the sky, followed by a roar that shook the heavens. His final impression of Earth was that white, blinding thunder dragon and the lightning that filled the sky.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but when his consciousness returned, Lu Beichen found himself an infant. He was in an era of war. His parents had perished in the chaos and explosions, but the infant Lu Beichen had survived, only to be found and taken away by an elderly refugee. For the next four years, the old man fled and begged, and under his care, Lu Beichen survived tenaciously, gaining a new name: Yuehua Ai.

"What a pity..." Thinking of the old man who had died of illness while they were fleeing a few months ago, Yuehua Ai sighed softly. He was incredibly grateful to the old man; thanks to his care, he had survived from a helpless infant to this day. While he felt some emotion over the old man's passing, he wasn't overly saddened. After all, in a life of war where one's survival was never guaranteed, wasn't death a form of release?

"Honestly, rainy days just make one sentimental. Sigh, I'm starting to hate the rain now!" Yuehua Ai stood up, shook his head, and stretched his legs, which had gone numb from squatting for so long.

Looking at the cleaned rat meat in his hand, Yuehua Ai frowned, his small face filled with distress. He wavered between eating and not eating. Finally, he looked up helplessly and muttered to himself, "I'm just a child, why must I make such difficult choices?"

"Sigh, I'm really running out of food." He lowered his head again, shook the water off his hands, and stepped back into the corner. A deep frown creased his small forehead.

"Hoo." He exhaled, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small biscuit wrapped in oil paper.

"The last one. Damn it!" Little Yuehua Ai muttered, placing the final biscuit in his mouth. He used his tongue to lick it until it dissolved, savoring the taste before swallowing. That pack of biscuits had been his biggest haul in days. Although it was a bit damp, it still tasted good. Unfortunately, it was all gone now.

Yuehua Ai wrapped the rat meat tightly in the biscuit's oil paper and put it in his pocket. The values from his previous life were still deeply ingrained; he just couldn't bring himself to eat the rat meat yet.

I wonder if I can find a settlement tomorrow. If not... sigh, poor rat, poor me!

Little Yuehua Ai muttered to himself and curled his small body into the corner. Although it was only just past nightfall, he had to sleep. He needed to minimize his activity to conserve his body's energy. He had to keep moving tomorrow; he was already quite a distance behind the other refugees.

The sound of the rain splashing became even clearer in the dark night. In this area, in the shadows of the ruins, who would have thought, who would have cared, that a tiny figure was hiding there?