Nie Ling had never considered herself a fortunate person.
In her first lifetime, she was sold to a dubious man at the tender age of 6. At that time, all she had remembered was the cold words of her mother and the loud incessant cries of her wailings.
"Please don't blame mother, Ling'er. Mother is useless…"
The woman tearily said as she mercilessly tore away her tiny hand and pushed her to the arms of the strange man, who had instantly hauled her up on his shoulders as if she was a sack of potatoes and walked away.
After that day, she had come down with a severe fever that lasted for a full week. Despite that, she wasn't allowed the time to properly rest as she was no longer that little girl with the future in her own grip, but a slave who had to rely on her master's mood in order to see the next day.
Nie Ling remembered the dark days where she was locked in a cage with the little girls and boys of her age, intensely watched and trained to be the most loyal and capable dogs their master wished for them to be.
In those days, she was forced to undergo a series of inhumane training, lifting swords and other cold metals to fight her own till their deaths.
Nie Ling didn't know what had become of her when she finally emerged out of the cage as the last one standing, having just slain the 'friends' whom she had spent the previous days together with.
She told herself that she wasn't to be blamed. She had only done everything to survive. If it wasn't her, someone would've taken her position, and she would've ended up dying under the said person's blade.
She was not at fault. She told herself countless times, but to no avail.
Nie Ling was aware that the current her had become so cold-hearted that she was no different than a devil, a killing machine that wouldn't hesitate to take lives upon request; however, she had no choice.
She feared death. She didn't want to die. She wants to live!
In that lifetime, Nie Ling knew that she was a horrible person. She had committed numerous sins. She was beyond saving.
She deserved to die under thousands of swords and her soul can never rest in peace; however, at a certain point of her sinful life, she had done one benevolence and that was to save and raise a little beggar till he became the capable person of today who can stand on his feet on his own.
Despite having a pair of golden eyes that could stir even a millennium-year-old frozen heart like hers, that little beggar was born blind, and thus was abandoned since birth.
The little beggar was feisty at first, relentlessly biting the hand that had fed him no matter how much patience she had showered him.
Nie Ling found him incredibly cute and thus named him Yongqi with the surname Nie. She hoped that in the future, the boy would have the bravery to face the world and never break no matter how harsh the troubles the future would impose on him.
For Nie Ling, Nie Yongqi was the only right in her life that was full of irreversible wrongs. He was the only light of kindness that stood in stark contrast against the pitch-black darkness of her countless unforgivable sins.
To protect this only light in her dark life, Nie Ling didn't hesitate to spend countless efforts on the boy. Fortunately, the boy didn't disappoint her.
Nie Yongqi grew up to become a very fine young man. The bridge of his nose was tall and straight, his beautiful eyebrows drawing a willow arch and his lips, as they say, sultry and beyond perfection.
Coupled with his pair of phoenix golden eyes that would glamorously shimmer under the light as if they held countless stars within, Nie Ling genuinely thought that he could easily score a number of wives if he was to exert some effort as, although blind, her Yongqi was incredibly handsome!
But alas, she truly hadn't raised the boy for nothing. Till the end, Nie Yongqi had only her, Nie Ling, in his mind.
"I will save you, Sister Ling. Please wait for me, I will release you from all these shackles holding you back and set you free!"
Under the soft glow of the full moon on a certain night, Nie Yongqi's solemn face looked incredibly sincere and moving as he held onto her hands tight, as if afraid she would disappear out of his sight if he hadn't held her hard enough.
"Alright, I'll wait for you."
Nie Ling nodded with a soft doting smile tugged to her lips. She hadn't put much thought on his solemn vow as for her, he would always be that cute little child she had single-handedly raised.
And exactly on the night after where she had laid on the ground with a puddle of blood underneath her, her bloody hand holding onto the blade of a sword that was embedded deep into her flesh and her pale face fully drenched in cold sweat, Nie Ling had only one thought in her mind.
Would her Yongqi be able to live well without her backing from now on?
Fortunately, Nie Ling was quick to realize that she had in fact, worried for nothing as it didn't take too long for her to reunite with the boy in her second lifetime.