Xie Xie's Despair

At the thought, Li Qingyue's eyes flickered. His gaze settled on Xie Xie, who was rushing toward the car with anxiety written all over his face, and he let out a long sigh.

"I hope you can hold on to yourself. Chances are you'll still become one of the Abominations of Abundance, but if you're willing to stay true to who you are, perhaps I can help you die in peace."

Li Qingyue spoke so softly that no one but Na'er, standing beside him, heard a word.

Na'er looked at him in confusion. She hadn't understood what he meant.

Li Qingyue stepped forward and reached the car.

The butler was about to get in when he saw the boy, beautiful beyond compare. A flash of wonder rose unbidden in his eyes.

There was no trace of desire in his gaze, though.

Faced with a beautiful woman, a person might feel some urge to possess her.

But faced with this boy, whose beauty bordered on the divine, no such feeling could take root. That almost blasphemous desire could not even arise.

Li Qingyue wasted no time. He looked straight at Xie Xie.

"Take me with you. I have a healing-type Martial Soul. I might be able to save your mother."

He said it casually.

The butler and the two bodyguards did not believe him at all.

But Xie Xie didn't know any better.

The moment he heard that Li Qingyue might be able to save his mother, he nodded hurriedly, opened the door, and let Li Qingyue and Na'er into the car.

The car sped along, running several red lights without anyone stopping it.

As it raced onward, the butler sat silent in the front passenger seat.

The two bodyguards in the back row were silent too.

In the middle row, Xie Xie clenched his hands tight.

The playfulness and cheer had vanished from his eyes. Only a heavy fear remained.

He didn't know why this had happened to his mother so suddenly, why word had come that she was gravely ill.

But he was afraid.

He was afraid of losing his mother, of losing the person closest to him in the world.

That fear—fear of the unknown—was more than any six-year-old child could bear.

Someone who had loved him with all her heart for six years, the person who had given birth to him, was suddenly going to die the year he turned six. She was going to leave him and return to heaven.

It was a blow no six-year-old could bear.

Xie Xie was already crying.

Tears and snot smeared his face, but he had no thought to wipe them away.

The car screeched to a halt at the Xie Estate, and Xie Xie leaped out.

He charged toward the estate's entrance as fast as he could.

He did not wait for the gate to open fully. The instant a gap appeared, he turned sideways and squeezed through.

The butler and bodyguards followed close behind.

Watching Xie Xie lose all control, Li Qingyue sighed softly.

He turned to Na'er beside him.

There was still a childlike uncertainty in her eyes, but she pointed ahead.

"Brother, let's go too. His mother sounds very sick. He's so worried."

Concern tinged Na'er's voice.

Li Qingyue did not correct her. Instead, he spoke gently and stroked her little head.

"Don't worry. I'm here. I don't know what the future holds, but she should be all right for now."

Li Qingyue sighed softly as he said it.

He suddenly thought of his own parents. In his previous life, they had both still been alive.

And he had died not long after starting university.

He wondered what his parents had thought, and how they were doing now.

His expression grew troubled. He walked into the estate.

Deep within the estate, a woman of gentle, striking beauty lay motionless.

She wore white cotton pajamas, and her face had gone deathly pale.

She had a severe illness, one that could not be cured. It was something like late-stage cancer, only worse.

It was a terminal disease almost entirely beyond treatment. She had been holding on by sheer will so she could stay with Xie Xie.

But now she clearly could not hold on much longer.

Deep exhaustion marked her pale face. She knew she had only days left to live.

She did not blame her husband for failing to come back.

After all, though he was her husband, he was also the head of the entire Xie Family, responsible for managing it.

But not blaming him did not mean she had no regrets.

She was dying, and before she died, the three of them could not even be together one last time.

At the thought, she coughed twice.

Specks of blood stained the back of her hand. She silently wiped them away, her face still drawn and weary.

Just then, the door flew open with a bang.

The maid waiting nearby jumped in fright.

Xie Xie paid her no mind. He threw himself beside the bed and gripped his mother's hand.

At the sight of her deathly pale face, he burst into tears again.

His sobs were filled with grief and despair.

Looking at her son, who had only just turned six, Xie Xie's mother could not hold back her own tears.

Tears spilled from her eyes, which were filled with a deep reluctance to leave him.

She wanted to watch Xie Xie grow up, become an adult, and find a girlfriend.

She even wanted to see him build a life, have children of his own, and only then die.

But she knew she could not. She was going to die soon, and there was no way for her to recover.

Unless she could find a top-tier Life-System Soul Master—someone like Ya Li, Deputy Pavilion Master of the Sea God Pavilion, the Level 98 Super Douluo known as Holy Spirit Douluo.

Unless someone like that treated her, she had no chance of survival.

And there was only one such mighty expert in the world.

So Xie Xie's mother knew she could not survive. She was certain to die.

But looking at her sobbing son, she did not know what to say to him.

Should she tell him his mother was going to die?

Tell him she could not survive, that there was no possibility of her living on?

"Mom, I don't want you to die! Mom, please don't die! I'm begging you, please, please don't die! Don't leave me all alone! I don't want to live alone! I don't want to live alone!"

As Xie Xie spoke, his eyes turned bloodshot.

He was at an age when he was utterly helpless, unable to do anything or change anything, yet forced to watch his mother die before his eyes.

The blow was too much for him. It had driven him to despair.

Xie Xie's mother could not say a word.

She watched her son sob, opening her mouth again and again.

She pressed her pale lips together, but they remained painfully dry.

Just then, the door opened, and Li Qingyue walked in hand in hand with Na'er.

Li Qingyue looked calmly at the woman before him.

There was curiosity in his ink-black eyes, but no surprise or unease.

After all, he was the inheritor of the God of Abundance.

An illness that was all but fatal to others was nothing much to him.