"What do you mean one day, can't I help you now?"
Feng dodged his question, but his mouth could not help but itch. Finally, he opens up regarding his family's matters, and it's rather surprising to know he's letting his long time rival discover it's condemned gutters.
"Your parents...how did they die."
Feng could no longer remember. It was but an old memory, but how come he just couldn't seem to get his hands on it?
"..."
December 4, 2003. Feng Xie Fan was in labor; she was forced to birth her only son in the middle of the forest. Blood was splattered all over the grass; Mufeng was age 13 at the time.
No one was there to assist her, and she had to use her own martial arts in order to forestall her blood loss. Feng Ge Cao, being there with her, held the baby in his arms...the young miracle was soon deemed completely healthy.
Night had fallen far too soon. Dusk was due, and the sky was pasted with but a lingering, neon blue dye that evening. They returned home soon enough, and Xie Fan was unable to walk for several weeks after that. She always had to be carried on her husband's back in order to move around the house.
"Ge Cao, my dear...I want to pass on our skill with swords to our little miracle."
"Xie Fan, I understand you want to teach him so.However, neither of us want him to take on the burden of Frozen Forlorn at a young age, don't we?..."
"The imperial palace is keeping a close eye on us, and I know for myself that Wu Shen Muo that wretch is bound to find out about Forlorn.I want our child to live on with our legacy, and one day pass it onto his children."
"We don't even know if he'll have children. As much as I want to teach him, do you really think he'll be able to find himself in all these boulders of ice that keep blocking us?"
(This is a metaphor, basically what Ge Cao means here is that it's already hard for them to find their own purpose in life while handling Forlorn, so what he thinks will happen to Luo
is that he'll go mad if he tries to find it by himself.)
"Ge Cao. Don't look down on your own son. Alone or not, you must believe in his will, whether you are dead or alive as well."
"I know. I've believed in him since his birth, but what terrifies me is that he'll have to suffer on behalf of us. Don't you think that's just being cruel to him?"
"...Oh, you're right...maybe we should just set aside Forlorn at the moment. It would truly break my heart to see him cry..."
"Don't worry. He'll find someone who'll be able to help him through it, you just need to believe in him."
"How ironic, you're using my words against me now?Hahaha."
"..."
"I...don't remember."
"Get some rest. It may be due to the fact you're too tired."
"No, I'm not...I don't feel tired at all. So why can't I..."
"Still, go to bed. We'll talk later in the morning."
"...Alright."
Dawn soon struck Ho city; the peaceful atmosphere dwelled until early noon, when the bustling city had began to conjure up quite the amount of noise. Several nobles could be seen strolling the city streets, but none as superior as Xiao Chen.
"Feng, are you feeling particularly ill?...'
"Not at all. You need not concern yourself with my duties."
"Your duties? Feng, how many times have I told you not to speak that way? I'm not that considerate as to keep you informed."
"Look at you go, clearly I'm feeling uneasy with all the eyes my gaze has to meet. If we were but commoners, we'd have to get the cheapest inn around..."
"As if I'd let you sleep on poorly maintained beds. Speaking of beds, the place is far more maintained than our dorms."
"Oh, enough blaming the university. Blame the ruthless students who proclaim themselves wealthy enough to buy their way into society.
What fools."
"Well, I am one of those people..."
"I haven't met anyone who's raised you so far, besides your parents who I'll most likely never meet. What kind of parental figure even lets you off the hook for cutting and misbehaving in Meiqiu?"
"My uncle lets me do whatever I want. He can pay more than enough to buy me an entire company, even if I fail architecture."
"Hmph. You all seem to have golden spoons shoved up your mouth, how do you think you'll survive when your only sponsors are gone?"
"It's really not my fault that I keep getting dragged into my uncle's affairs, you know? He even wants me to marry some female heir to a large company, even though I've declined at most."
"An arranged marriage? Does your uncle plan to sell some of his company shares to the other family?"
"Not at all, but the other company is persistent that he marry off a male heir to theirs, and only that way will they allow him to earn at least 40% of their shares."
"Sounds provocative. Your relatives are shameless enough to take away their own siblings' heirs and claim them as their own, only to take their freedom away and marry them off to some other company's successor."
"Well, it's definitely more than just business. Plus, the woman looks gorgeous, but I'm not in for her hand in marriage. She doesn't seem to like me either."
"Take it as a sign that you most likely will have to fix yourself before you even get yourself married."
"Fengfeng, with that cold gaze of yours, do you really think any woman would take interest in you as well?"
"I don't plan to have successors. Taking this bloodline with me to the burial ground sounds like a good plan."
"Your parents would definitely be disappointed to hear that. I bet they wanted you to have kids to continue wielding that sword art."
"Blasphemous. It's already up this much commotion; why would they want to keep this sword art...alive..."
Feng starts to hallucinate, his head spinning. He is once again reminded of the time he had dreamt; the two figures in the distance.
"Feng?...Feng? FENG?!"
"What...huh! Oh...it was another hallucination."
"Are you alright? I knew it, you were ill!"
"No. I'm fine, let's just go..."
The crowd felt too much to bear for the young general, and they had to depart quickly."Xiao Chen...let's go and see the crown prince."
"What? We can't, you're not even in your best condition! Do you still remember what that man said? We'd better not go rushing towards the palace if we're feeling ill, otherwise the owner of that inn will eventually be dragged into this mess—"
"Well, look at you...you've started to care for random people, I'm surprised..."
Xiao Chen seems heavily flustered by this, but once again, he doesn't let it show.
"By the way...regarding these men's ages..."
"Oh, this general and crown prince? They're 33."
"33?! THAT OLD?!"
"Shhh, keep your voice down. We're not allowed to reveal our age to the general public."
"What? That just sounds too egotistical."
"No, it's just that in this way, no princes of princesses will face any type of judgement when handling the throne. They usually don't like far too young royalties taking over the city,so I'm not surprised.
"And how do you know all this, really?"
"Well, according to all of that intel back at the city archives..."
"It seems rather awkward, to think that none of you royals or even generals' birthdays are not to be celebrated publicly just seems awful."
"Hah? No, from what I know, birthdays don't really matter here...I think."
"Are you serious or just unsure? They celebrate deaths more appropriately more than birthdays; that doesn't sit so well."
"Maybe it's just personal to them, but I couldn't care less about all of this. Anyway, pushing all of that aside, we should just return to the inn in the meantime."
"Wu Xiao Chen. There's no point in doing that, let's just get going, alright?"
"Fine, I trust you with this. But you'd better not put us in a tight spot, especially with that...crown prince."
Upon arriving at the palace gates, the guards don't even bother saying a thing; they just immediately open up for both of them, leaving them nonetheless confused, but aware enough as to the reason why.
The trees emit a burning glow, maybe because it was autumn all around the country. Wait, was it autumn?
"Xiao Chen, what time of the year does autumn usually start?"
"You've already forgotten? Autumn was way back in September. But, it looks like it remains all the same here..."
"Strange...is it just another time fluctuation that Mufeng only aged 7 years, or is it just how time works here?...He couldn't have learned such complex sword arts at 4 or 5...what is happening, really?..."
[To be continued in the next chapter, please be patient for the next one. Thank you for reading.]