The sound of children's laughter echoed across the small orphanage yard, creating an atmosphere of joy and carefree innocence. Amidst the chaos of playful footsteps and lively games, there sat a boy, curled up in a corner, isolating himself from the world around him. He wore a faded shirt and old black pants, nothing particularly noticeableโexcept for his unique appearance.
The boy's name is Du Tingfei, he is twelve years old this year. He has short black hair that barely reached his shoulders and pale, smooth skin that made him stand out. His face was adorable, almost cherubic, but what truly set him apart were his eyes. His left eye shimmered with a violet hue, like a rare gemstone, while his right eye was a brilliant sky-blue, resembling the clear skies on a cloudless day.
Those eyes, as captivating as they were, became the barrier between him and the rest of the world. The other children at the orphanage looked at him with caution, even fear, as though he were some kind of strange creature. They kept their distance, whispering behind his back, and slowly, Du Tingfei became a solitary figure.
That's not what he cares about. His eyes watched the other children play, but his face betrayed no emotion. There was a mask of indifference hiding the scars of a soul that had been hurt too many times. He had long since grown used to the feeling of abandonment, the loneliness that had clung to him since he was a baby.
Du Tingfei had no memory of his parents. He was abandoned as an infant, left nameless and without a trace of his origins. He was found in a trash can, thrown away like a trash bag that no one wanted to keep. But perhaps because God had pity on his fate, an old beggar accidentally found him in that garbage can. The old man had nothing to offer Du Tingfei but rare kindness in this cruel and treacherous world. He gave the baby a nameโTingfei, meaning "soaring"โwith the hope that the boy will always overcome the difficulties that he himself will encounter in life.
For a short time, Du Tingfei lived with the old man. Those days were meager, filled with hunger and hardship, but at least those were the days when he got to be with someone who actually cared about him. Unfortunately, as God loves to play with human emotions, one day the old beggar finally passed away, leaving Tingfei all alone once again. With no one left to care for him, Tingfei was sent to the orphanage.
But even in the orphanage, life wasn't easy. The other children avoided him because of his heterochromatic eyes. To them, he was a "monster," an oddity that didn't belong in their world. He had tried to fit in once, but after repeated rejection, he gave up. The pain of exclusion only deepened his resolve.
His time spent in loneliness taught Du Tingfei one harsh truth: life was a battle, where only the strong survived. No one will care about you if you don't have power so don't expect anyone to reach out to you but stand up for yourself. So he decided to become strong on his own, no matter what the cost.ย
Du Tingfei gave up things like the need for friends as well as his deepest desire to have a real family, something he had never known. Instead, he focused on the only thing he could controlโhis intellect. He devoured every book he could find in the orphanage, whether it was outdated textbooks or novels donated by well-meaning visitors.
Among all the things he read, Du Tingfei found himself particularly drawn to novels and fanfiction. The world of those stories became his refuge, a place where his lonely soul could escape loneliness and feel joy. He didn't just read; he began to write his own stories, creating characters and adventures that were beyond his reach in the real world.
As a teenager, Du Tingfei wrote a fanfic based on Douluo Dalu, a cultivations novel that he was deeply passionate about. His fanfic was titled Douluo: A New Fate, where he combined elements from both parts (1 and 2) of the Douluo universe, featuring famous characters like Tang San and Huo Yuhao. But his plot diverged from the original. He wanted to see a world where Huo Yuhao wasn't controlled by Tang San, where both characters started on equal footing.
In his fanfic, the collision between the Sun and Moon Continent and Douluo Continent happened much earlier than in the original story. This event wasn't caused by any known forces, but by the intervention of a mysterious goddessโa character he had meticulously crafted. However, the main protagonist of his story wasn't Tang San or Huo Yuhao, but Long Yechenโa reincarnated otaku with grand dreams of building a harem in this new world, equipped with the power of twin martial souls and knowledge from the past.
But that was all part of a distant past. Du Tingfei was no longer the lonely orphaned boy he once was. Through sheer intellect and determination, he had built a new life, starting his own small company and slowly turning it into a major corporation. Yet, despite all his success, Du Tingfei never felt truly fulfilled. Perhaps it was the remnants of his lonely childhood, the unhealed wounds of his past that kept him from feeling whole.
One afternoon, on his way home from a business meeting, Du Tingfei witnessed something that would change his life. A little girl stood motionless in the middle of the street, her eyes wide with fear as a car ran a red light speeding towards her. Without hesitation, he rushed forward and pushed the girl out of the way of the approaching car. His action helped him save the child but in doing so, he could not save himself.
In the moments before darkness consumed him, memories of his entire life flashed before his eyes. The joy, the sorrow, the loneliness, the dreams he had abandoned. A faint smile appeared on his lips as he realized that, finally, he had done something meaningful in his boring life. And then, everything became silent as darkness completely engulfed him.