There were plenty of people like them, natives of the Eastern Nine Plains scattered far and wide, struggling to survive. Without the means to travel too far, most had ended up scattered across Victory Spirit Continent.
Just as they had after Shi Chun made his name at the Skyfall Meteor Assembly, they were once again telling the people around them about their past ties to him, saying they knew Shi Chun, that they and Shi Chun had all come from the Eastern Nine Plains, and so on.
The difference was that last time, upon hearing of Shi Chun's fame, they had rushed to seek refuge with him. Having been turned away and learned where he stood, none of them went to seek him out this time.
Instead, whenever they spoke of their connections to Shi Chun, they bitterly denounced his heartlessness and disloyalty, recounting many of the bad things he had done in the past. Some told the truth; others added oil to the fire, painting him as a villain guilty of every unforgivable evil.
Their listeners had no connection whatsoever to Shi Chun and cared little whether he was good or bad. Those kind enough to humor them offered a few words of agreement, while those who took them seriously merely sighed over their plight. More treated it as a joke, and the sharp-tongued ones asked, "Why didn't you go looking for Shi Chun before he became famous?"
No one sympathized with their suffering. Since they could no longer claim a connection to Shi Chun, they were simply whatever they were now, without even the slightest claim on anyone else's emotions.
All their talk stirred not a ripple and sometimes even earned them ridicule. Gradually, they fell silent.
But their hearts were anything but calm. Once, they had thought