The waiting was killing Bai Zemin and seeing that his father did not respond immediately he began to feel that something was wrong. But in fact, the anxiety had been causing time to seem to flow slower for him as what seemed like an eternity to Bai Zemin had actually been no more than two or three seconds at most; seconds during which Bai Delan had been sighing over his son’s emotions.
“Don’t worry, Meng Qi is safe.”
Bai Delan’s words were like a blazing fire burning in the middle of winter to Bai Zemin’s heart and he immediately felt the strength leave his body. It was only a few seconds but the mental stress had consumed more than a few hundred Stamina points and if it wasn’t because he was a terrifying monster to the point of receiving the title Irregular from the Soul Record he would have definitely collapsed.
“Th-That’s good…” Bai Zemin said in a choked voice before taking several deep breaths.
“Come on, let’s go home. Your mother and sister will surely be happy to see you.” Bai Delan patted his son’s shoulder gently and walked towards the parking lot located a few meters short distance from where the driver had left Bai Zemin’s group earlier.
“Do you have a personal vehicle?” Bai Zemin asked still weak but quickly recovering and feeling a powerful wave of relief flooding his body.
“I’ll tell you about us later.” Bai Delan opened the door of a white SUV and sat in the driver’s seat. Once Bai Zemin got into the passenger seat, Bai Delan started the engine and as he stepped on the accelerator he slowly said, “I also want to hear your story, Zemin… I’m sure a lot of things have happened in your life.”
“…” Bai Zemin said nothing.
There were many things that had changed in this world; Bai Zemin’s life was surely among the biggest changes.
There was no way he could tell his parents that his hands were stained with the blood of over a billion living beings among which most were existences practically identical to them, humans.
At the end of the day, Bai Zemin felt a certain apprehension in his heart… That the Bai Zemin his parents knew a long time ago had disappeared.
As if she knew his thoughts and as if she could feel the sorrow in his heart, Lilith’s soft voice echoed in his mind to pacify him:
“You little scoundrel, why are you worrying about something like this? Your parents will surely understand. It’s not like you wanted to do what you did… Not that I’m trying to justify you, but it’s true that everything you did was for survival. In fact, you didn’t do anything wrong. No matter the world or race, all planets visited by the Soul Record are destined to turn into blood rivers.”
Bai Zemin opened his previously closed eyes and looked at his own reflection in the glass of the vehicle. Not only was his exterior almost completely different from the exterior he remembered having, but his heart had also gone through terrifying changes.
But at the end of it all, Lilith was right… Kill or be killed.
…
Bai Zemin was not too surprised when his father’s car stopped in front of a considerably luxurious house within the privileged residential area. After all, as a soul evolver whose combat power was comparable to that of a peak First Order existence, Bai Delan and his family members would naturally receive high-level treatment unless the top leaders of the base were out of their minds.
He stopped before a house that while it could not be considered a villa was undoubtedly at least a few thousand times more luxurious than the house he grew up in and spent most of his life in.
Even after more than two minutes, Bai Zemin stood there staring at the pure white walls as if hesitating to take a step forward; it was as if he was scared that everything before him might disappear in the next instant.
Only Lilith knew how hard he had battled during these two and a half months to get this far; only she knew the fact that there were not a few nights when while Bai Zemin slept tears slipped silently and covered his bed. Therefore, only she understood how difficult it was for him to take that first big step.
Now that everything he really longed for from the bottom of his heart was a couple of meters ahead, Lilith understood the fear that Bai Zemin felt deep in his soul and that froze his movements.
“Kid, will you stand there forever?”
Bai Delan’s voice sounded rather soft and as he looked at the dazed expression on his son’s face he couldn’t help but find his own heart squeezing to the point of pain. However, as a father figure, Bai Delan could not show weakness and instead had to show himself firm as a pillar to bear at least a bit of the burdens that troubled his family.
Bai Zemin said nothing and after lowering his head to stare at the cedarwood door a little over ten meters in front of him for a couple of seconds finally began to walk straight ahead.
Bai Delan smiled gently and opened the door.
What greeted Bai Zemin was a wide corridor with a light wood floor and two pots with bright mutant plants placed at the end of the corridor where what looked like a large living room began.
Seeing Bai Zemin again freeze again, Bai Delan shook his head and sighed. Instead of disturbing the boy, he went into the house and left the door open. Arriving at the end of the corridor, Bai Delan did not leave Bai Zemin’s sight and instead called out loudly, “Hey, Linger! Come see who came to visit!”
“Eh?”
A slight sound of surprise rang out from inside the house. Although the sound was very low, Bai Zemin’s senses didn’t miss it… and upon hearing that seemingly insignificant small sound, his entire body shuddered as if a bolt of electric current shot through his nerves.
Followed by a set of light footsteps that clearly belonged to a woman, Bai Zemin heard a faint whisper: “How is he already here? Didn’t he have work to do? I hope he didn’t bring anyone important without warning…”
The voice was delicate and tender, traits of a kind and caring person. Every word the woman whispered felt as if a small cat’s claw tickled Bai Zemin’s heart and that heart that rarely altered its rhythm began to beat so hard that all the blood in his body went out of control.
“Delan, you-“
Ye Linger’s words became mute once she reached the beginning of the corridor and her eyes remained fixed on the open door where an extremely handsome young man was staring inward and just like her his movements froze once she came into his range of vision.
Ye Linger’s small mouth hung slightly open barely exposing the underside of her pearly teeth. Her lips occasionally moved slightly but there was no sound coming from inside her mouth and with each passing second the trembling of her body became stronger and stronger.
She was sure she had never in her life seen such a handsome person… She was sure. However, her heart began to beat like crazy once her honey-colored eyes met those two eyes as black as midnight.
Even if his appearance had changed, there was something Ye Linger would definitely not forget even if he was turned into ashes; those two black eyes, the first time she saw her son’s eyes when he was born was something she would never forget for the rest of her life no matter how long it meant.
“…” A slight sound that didn’t mean anything at all came out of her mouth before her legs lost their power.
However, before her body fell even a millimeter, she felt two large arms wrap around her. Ye Linger’s entire world was surrounded by a scent that was extremely familiar and that she had felt for over 20 years but at the same time felt as distant as if it was the first time she had it close after centuries of long separation.
“… I’m back, mom.”
The hoarse voice similar to that of someone drowning in their own tears was practically unrecognizable to Ye Linger. However, if she still lacked anything to confirm her already secure feelings, those three words were more than enough to make the sun rise for the first time in months inside her inner cloudy little world.
Ye Linger’s tears began to fall silently before her face crumpled into an expression that showed more pain than relief before her silent crying turned into a piercing scream followed by disconsolate choking sobs. She automatically wrapped her arms around the body of the person holding her as if her life depended on it and her hands tried to dig inside the leather armor as if she wanted to feel the warmth beyond.
Bai Zemin closed his eyes and cried silently as he tried his best to take deep breaths and feel that motherly warmth he had missed so much and longed for all this time.
Humans were a strange race indeed, especially at a certain age. At the age close to 20, humans usually viewed their parents as nuisances without knowing that they were actually the most precious gift that life had for them; a gift that would eventually fade away until it would finally leave their side, leaving behind lifelong regrets for their children.
In the last two and a half months, how many times did Bai Zemin regret not telling his mother that he loved her more often? How many times did he blame himself for not hugging her tightly? How many times did he wish he could feel her hands caressing his face tenderly? Too many times to count.
Two and a half months that felt like a lifetime of distance were enough for Bai Zemin to realize that the most beautiful love that existed, the purest of all, was that of a mother for her child.
Ye Linger let out all the sadness she had accumulated during this time and did not care at all whether the world would end the next moment or not. Her only goal was to hug her son tightly, so tightly that her desperate movements caused them both to fall weakly to their knees while her tears made her look extremely miserable and pitiful.
How many times had she cried behind her husband’s back? How many times had she cried behind her daughter’s back? How many times had Ye Linger prayed to each and every known deity for her child’s well-being? How many times had Ye Linger felt like dying or willing to give her life in exchange for seeing her son’s face for just another 5 minutes? Too many times to be counted.
Ye Linger cried. She cried so much that each breath became harder than the next to the point where she began to choke on her own tears. Finally, after more than ten minutes of crying that went from disconsolation to utter bliss, the strong rush of emotions caused Ye Linger to lose consciousness in her son’s arms. However, even then, she refused to let him go and hugged him tightly as if she was telling to the life that it would first have to kill her if it wanted to take him from her side.
A person had silently appeared with several plastic bags and upon seeing the pair hugging each other so longingly, she froze for a moment before standing silently beside Bai Delan. A faint smile appeared on this person’s face and her eyes filled with tears of joy that were barely restrained from falling. Even if she could not see the man’s face since his back was turned, there was no need to do that to identify him at all.
The waiting was killing Bai Zemin and seeing that his father did not respond immediately he began to feel that something was wrong. But in fact, the anxiety had been causing time to seem to flow slower for him as what seemed like an eternity to Bai Zemin had actually been no more than two or three seconds at most; seconds during which Bai Delan had been sighing over his son’s emotions.
“Don’t worry, Meng Qi is safe.”
Bai Delan’s words were like a blazing fire burning in the middle of winter to Bai Zemin’s heart and he immediately felt the strength leave his body. It was only a few seconds but the mental stress had consumed more than a few hundred Stamina points and if it wasn’t because he was a terrifying monster to the point of receiving the title Irregular from the Soul Record he would have definitely collapsed.
“Th-That’s good…” Bai Zemin said in a choked voice before taking several deep breaths.
“Come on, let’s go home. Your mother and sister will surely be happy to see you.” Bai Delan patted his son’s shoulder gently and walked towards the parking lot located a few meters short distance from where the driver had left Bai Zemin’s group earlier.
“Do you have a personal vehicle?” Bai Zemin asked still weak but quickly recovering and feeling a powerful wave of relief flooding his body.
“I’ll tell you about us later.” Bai Delan opened the door of a white SUV and sat in the driver’s seat. Once Bai Zemin got into the passenger seat, Bai Delan started the engine and as he stepped on the accelerator he slowly said, “I also want to hear your story, Zemin… I’m sure a lot of things have happened in your life.”
“…” Bai Zemin said nothing.
There were many things that had changed in this world; Bai Zemin’s life was surely among the biggest changes.
There was no way he could tell his parents that his hands were stained with the blood of over a billion living beings among which most were existences practically identical to them, humans.
At the end of the day, Bai Zemin felt a certain apprehension in his heart… That the Bai Zemin his parents knew a long time ago had disappeared.
As if she knew his thoughts and as if she could feel the sorrow in his heart, Lilith’s soft voice echoed in his mind to pacify him:
“You little scoundrel, why are you worrying about something like this? Your parents will surely understand. It’s not like you wanted to do what you did… Not that I’m trying to justify you, but it’s true that everything you did was for survival. In fact, you didn’t do anything wrong. No matter the world or race, all planets visited by the Soul Record are destined to turn into blood rivers.”
Bai Zemin opened his previously closed eyes and looked at his own reflection in the glass of the vehicle. Not only was his exterior almost completely different from the exterior he remembered having, but his heart had also gone through terrifying changes.
But at the end of it all, Lilith was right… Kill or be killed.
…
Bai Zemin was not too surprised when his father’s car stopped in front of a considerably luxurious house within the privileged residential area. After all, as a soul evolver whose combat power was comparable to that of a peak First Order existence, Bai Delan and his family members would naturally receive high-level treatment unless the top leaders of the base were out of their minds.
He stopped before a house that while it could not be considered a villa was undoubtedly at least a few thousand times more luxurious than the house he grew up in and spent most of his life in.
Even after more than two minutes, Bai Zemin stood there staring at the pure white walls as if hesitating to take a step forward; it was as if he was scared that everything before him might disappear in the next instant.
Only Lilith knew how hard he had battled during these two and a half months to get this far; only she knew the fact that there were not a few nights when while Bai Zemin slept tears slipped silently and covered his bed. Therefore, only she understood how difficult it was for him to take that first big step.
Now that everything he really longed for from the bottom of his heart was a couple of meters ahead, Lilith understood the fear that Bai Zemin felt deep in his soul and that froze his movements.
“Kid, will you stand there forever?”
Bai Delan’s voice sounded rather soft and as he looked at the dazed expression on his son’s face he couldn’t help but find his own heart squeezing to the point of pain. However, as a father figure, Bai Delan could not show weakness and instead had to show himself firm as a pillar to bear at least a bit of the burdens that troubled his family.
Bai Zemin said nothing and after lowering his head to stare at the cedarwood door a little over ten meters in front of him for a couple of seconds finally began to walk straight ahead.
Bai Delan smiled gently and opened the door.
What greeted Bai Zemin was a wide corridor with a light wood floor and two pots with bright mutant plants placed at the end of the corridor where what looked like a large living room began.
Seeing Bai Zemin again freeze again, Bai Delan shook his head and sighed. Instead of disturbing the boy, he went into the house and left the door open. Arriving at the end of the corridor, Bai Delan did not leave Bai Zemin’s sight and instead called out loudly, “Hey, Linger! Come see who came to visit!”
“Eh?”
A slight sound of surprise rang out from inside the house. Although the sound was very low, Bai Zemin’s senses didn’t miss it… and upon hearing that seemingly insignificant small sound, his entire body shuddered as if a bolt of electric current shot through his nerves.
Followed by a set of light footsteps that clearly belonged to a woman, Bai Zemin heard a faint whisper: “How is he already here? Didn’t he have work to do? I hope he didn’t bring anyone important without warning…”
The voice was delicate and tender, traits of a kind and caring person. Every word the woman whispered felt as if a small cat’s claw tickled Bai Zemin’s heart and that heart that rarely altered its rhythm began to beat so hard that all the blood in his body went out of control.
“Delan, you-“
Ye Linger’s words became mute once she reached the beginning of the corridor and her eyes remained fixed on the open door where an extremely handsome young man was staring inward and just like her his movements froze once she came into his range of vision.
Ye Linger’s small mouth hung slightly open barely exposing the underside of her pearly teeth. Her lips occasionally moved slightly but there was no sound coming from inside her mouth and with each passing second the trembling of her body became stronger and stronger.
She was sure she had never in her life seen such a handsome person… She was sure. However, her heart began to beat like crazy once her honey-colored eyes met those two eyes as black as midnight.
Even if his appearance had changed, there was something Ye Linger would definitely not forget even if he was turned into ashes; those two black eyes, the first time she saw her son’s eyes when he was born was something she would never forget for the rest of her life no matter how long it meant.
“…” A slight sound that didn’t mean anything at all came out of her mouth before her legs lost their power.
However, before her body fell even a millimeter, she felt two large arms wrap around her. Ye Linger’s entire world was surrounded by a scent that was extremely familiar and that she had felt for over 20 years but at the same time felt as distant as if it was the first time she had it close after centuries of long separation.
“… I’m back, mom.”
The hoarse voice similar to that of someone drowning in their own tears was practically unrecognizable to Ye Linger. However, if she still lacked anything to confirm her already secure feelings, those three words were more than enough to make the sun rise for the first time in months inside her inner cloudy little world.
Ye Linger’s tears began to fall silently before her face crumpled into an expression that showed more pain than relief before her silent crying turned into a piercing scream followed by disconsolate choking sobs. She automatically wrapped her arms around the body of the person holding her as if her life depended on it and her hands tried to dig inside the leather armor as if she wanted to feel the warmth beyond.
Bai Zemin closed his eyes and cried silently as he tried his best to take deep breaths and feel that motherly warmth he had missed so much and longed for all this time.
Humans were a strange race indeed, especially at a certain age. At the age close to 20, humans usually viewed their parents as nuisances without knowing that they were actually the most precious gift that life had for them; a gift that would eventually fade away until it would finally leave their side, leaving behind lifelong regrets for their children.
In the last two and a half months, how many times did Bai Zemin regret not telling his mother that he loved her more often? How many times did he blame himself for not hugging her tightly? How many times did he wish he could feel her hands caressing his face tenderly? Too many times to count.
Two and a half months that felt like a lifetime of distance were enough for Bai Zemin to realize that the most beautiful love that existed, the purest of all, was that of a mother for her child.
Ye Linger let out all the sadness she had accumulated during this time and did not care at all whether the world would end the next moment or not. Her only goal was to hug her son tightly, so tightly that her desperate movements caused them both to fall weakly to their knees while her tears made her look extremely miserable and pitiful.
How many times had she cried behind her husband’s back? How many times had she cried behind her daughter’s back? How many times had Ye Linger prayed to each and every known deity for her child’s well-being? How many times had Ye Linger felt like dying or willing to give her life in exchange for seeing her son’s face for just another 5 minutes? Too many times to be counted.
Ye Linger cried. She cried so much that each breath became harder than the next to the point where she began to choke on her own tears. Finally, after more than ten minutes of crying that went from disconsolation to utter bliss, the strong rush of emotions caused Ye Linger to lose consciousness in her son’s arms. However, even then, she refused to let him go and hugged him tightly as if she was telling to the life that it would first have to kill her if it wanted to take him from her side.
A person had silently appeared with several plastic bags and upon seeing the pair hugging each other so longingly, she froze for a moment before standing silently beside Bai Delan. A faint smile appeared on this person’s face and her eyes filled with tears of joy that were barely restrained from falling. Even if she could not see the man’s face since his back was turned, there was no need to do that to identify him at all.
