Three days later, a simple horse-drawn carriage departed from Five Soul Village, slowly making its way along the dirt road toward Nuoding City.
On board were a family of four, carrying with them a child’s dream of changing the world.
At the village entrance, beneath the old locust tree, children and villagers gathered to see them off.
“Brother Zu! Sister Xiao Wu! Come back to see us during the holidays!”
“Aunt Su, Uncle Yan, take care in the city!”
“A’zu, remember to send back the new stories you write!”
Yan Zu leaned out of the carriage window, waving vigorously.
Xiao Wu squeezed over beside him, her eyes red but still smiling.
“We’ll definitely come back! We’ll bring you city candies next time!”
The carriage gradually faded into the distance, and Five Soul Village became a tiny dot on the horizon under the golden-red glow of dawn.
Inside the carriage, Xiao Wu nestled in Su Qing’s arms, while Yan Zu sat shoulder-to-shoulder with his father.
Yan Hu patted his son’s shoulder without a word, but the warmth from his broad hand spoke volumes more than any words could.
As the morning light brightened, Nuoding City slowly awakened under the autumn sun.
In the west of the city, inside a clean and tidy small courtyard, Su Qing carefully straightened Yan Zu’s collar.
The coarse cloth uniform of Nuoding Academy, worn by Yan Zu, could not conceal the composure that surpassed his years.
Six-year-old Yan Zu stood in the morning light, taller than children his age but still retaining the roundness unique to childhood.
His face was fair, almost translucent, with faint traces of baby fat on his cheeks.
Yet, due to years of practicing the Nine Yin Manual, his jawline was defined, lending him less childishness and more of the delicate elegance characteristic of a young boy.
Most striking were his eyes—pitch-black pupils like soaked obsidian, clear and transparent, yet with a depth that held a calmness and clarity not belonging to his age.
Su Qing neatly folded the collar of his uniform and smoothed the stray hairs on his son’s forehead.
The jet-black strands were as soft as fine silk, carrying a slight coolness as they slipped through her fingers.
Looking at Yan Zu’s impossibly handsome little face, she felt both pride and a pang of sorrow—pride in her son’s precociousness and extraordinary nature, and sorrow that he was destined to go further than she had ever imagined.
From outside the courtyard came Xiao Wu’s crisp call: “Brother A’zu, hurry up! We’re going to be late!” This chapter is updated first at g.com.
Xiao Wu skipped over, her soft pink hair braided into a long plait that reached her calves, tied at the end with a simple cloth strip.
She wore a new pink dress Su Qing had made for her, the skirt fluttering as she twirled, revealing a stretch of fair, slender calves.
Her waist was so slender it seemed as if one could encircle it with a single hand.
After this period of training, her figure had grown even more agile, every movement carrying a lively energy.
Her large, watery eyes seemed to hold the clearest spring water of the forest, and when she blinked, her long, curled lashes fluttered like butterfly wings.
Her pink lips were slightly upturned, carrying a natural charm even when she wasn’t smiling.
Most striking was her exquisitely sculpted face, with skin so fair it seemed almost translucent, glowing with a healthy rosy hue under the sunlight.
Her small, upturned nose and the faint glimpse of two pointed canine teeth at the corners of her lips added a touch of playful wildness to her beauty.
“At the academy, listen to your teachers and get along well with your classmates,” Su Qing softly reminded, her eyes brimming with reluctance.
“If anyone bullies you… don’t just endure it. Come back and tell your parents.”
Yan Hu stood at the courtyard gate, carrying a bulging bundle on his back filled with pancakes Su Qing had made early that morning and boiled eggs.
“Let’s go. I’ll walk you to the academy gate,” Yan Hu grinned, though worry was hidden in his eyes.
He knew his children were extraordinary, but as parents, he and Su Qing couldn’t help but worry.
Nuoding Primary Soul Master Academy was located in the east of the city.
Within its bluestone walls stood several ancient-style teaching buildings and a spacious playground.
It was the start of the new term, and the academy entrance was bustling with parents seeing their children off, curious new students, and senior students maintaining order—all forming a lively scene.
Inside the bluestone walls of Nuoding Primary Soul Master Academy, the clamor of the first day of school washed over them.
Yan Zu and Xiao Wu followed the crowd toward the hall for the new student entrance tests.
Just as they crossed the central courtyard, a gaze inadvertently fell from an open window on the second floor.
Tang San had just finished helping Yu Xiaogang organize a batch of theoretical manuscripts and was leaning against the window for some fresh air.
His eyes aimlessly swept over the bustling crowd below until—that flash of pink suddenly caught his eye.
The morning breeze swept across the academy’s playground, gently lifting the unique scorpion-tail braid at the back of the girl’s head.
Her pink hair shimmered with a glossy sheen under the rising sun.
She was tilting her head to speak to the boy beside her, her profile exquisitely defined, with the tip of her nose slightly upturned in a charmingly naive curve.
At that moment, Tang San felt as if the clamor of voices in the academy, the breeze brushing his cheeks, and even the sunlight spilling down all suddenly faded and stilled.
He clearly saw the two small canine teeth at the corners of her lips, saw her eyes curved into crescents, brimming with a sparkling light.
That light was pure and lively, like a young deer leaping across a stream in the forest for the first time, carrying an innocence untouched by the world and a vibrant vitality.
There was a contradictory yet fatal allure about her—an aura of purity untainted by worldly dust, combined with the naive charm unique to a young girl.
These two qualities blended perfectly in the curve of her lifted lips, the gentle sway of her waist, and the shifting light in her eyes, weaving an invisible net.
Tang San felt as if his heart had been seized tightly by something, then abruptly released, the rush of blood roaring in his ears.
He had seen the most delicate girls in Holy Soul Village, the elegantly dressed young ladies on the streets of Nuoding City, but he had never encountered such a presence.
She was unlike anyone else.
She was like a wild rose blooming freely in the mountains, adorned with dewdrops—vivid, radiant, with a natural, innate allure.
Yet the next moment, that light found a clear direction.
The girl lifted her face, looking at the silent black-haired boy beside her.
The trust and affection in her eyes were so intense they seemed tangible, as if in this vast world, only the person before her deserved such unreserved devotion.
She even naturally reached out to brush off nonexistent dust from the boy’s shoulder, her movements familiar and intimate.
“If…”
A strange and scorching thought surged up without warning, burning Tang San’s throat dry.
“If the one standing beside her… were me.”
The moment this thought emerged, he ruthlessly crushed it.
Reason returned, and the cold reality settled over his heart: she was someone else’s companion, and the way she looked at that boy was so focused.
Tang San clenched the window frame in his hand, the wooden edges emitting a faint groan.
His knuckles turned white from the excessive force.
He lowered his gaze, and when he raised it again, that fleeting moment of awe and agitation had been pressed deep into the depths of his eyes, covered by an obscure and unfathomable hue.
Silently, he committed those two figures to memory, then turned and walked away from the window.