At the edge of the village stood a dilapidated wooden hut.
There were several holes in its roof that leaked whenever it rained.
Cracks ran through its walls, letting in the cold wind during winter. Yet in this broken old hut lived a pair of siblings.
The older brother was called A Lin. He was fourteen that year, tall and thin, with dark skin but bright eyes.
A faint trace of Ancient Qilin bloodline flowed within him, so thin it was almost negligible.
Yet it was precisely this trace of bloodline that caused him and his younger sister to suffer endless exclusion and bullying in this village, where the Human Race made up the majority.
The Human Race villagers, along with a few powerful Pureblood Demon Race members, all looked down on "mixed-bloods" like them.
Meanwhile, the other Mixed-Blood Demon Race members with equally thin bloodlines envied the trace of Ancient Qilin bloodline that had once flowed through him.
Thus, he and his sister became the least welcome people in the entire village.
His younger sister was called Little Deer. She was five that year, small and frail, with a pale complexion that made it obvious she was malnourished.
Her Qilin Bloodline was even thinner than her brother's, practically nonexistent. Yet because of A Lin, she too was ostracized.
The invisible isolation and exclusion made life very difficult for the siblings.
Every morning, before dawn had broken, A Lin would get up.
He would first check whether his sister's straw quilt was properly covering her, then quietly leave for the mountains to gather firewood.
Part of the firewood he collected was kept for their own use, while the rest was traded outside the village for rice, flour, grain, and oil.
Because the people in the village were basically unwilling to