Chapter 2

Long Qi endured the wave of excruciating pain inside her head. She stood there pale-faced, one hand pressed to her forehead and her eyes lowered, looking as though everyone’s words had struck her so hard that she could no longer raise her head.

She now roughly understood the limits the story’s plot placed on her freedom of action. She could not behave in any way that clearly deviated from the plot. The moment she did, an unknown, agonizing pain would strike her, even faintly destabilizing her soul. This was her punishment.

In this story, Zhu Qi was a pitiful person—a substitute at the very bottom of the food chain. Her adoptive parents did not love her, and neither did her biological parents. Now, there was not a single family that would genuinely accept her.

How could a girl like that possibly not feel hatred? She had every reason to hate this world.

Long Qi remained calm inside. She swept an indifferent gaze around the room and said, “The world is fickle, and human hearts are cruel. Everyone should remember the attitude they showed today. I owe none of you anything, and none of you owe me anything. From now on, let’s each live our own lives in peace.”

She wore only a simple white T-shirt and black sweatpants, her long hair falling loosely around her shoulders. Her features were open and elegant, her gaze lucid and clear, and deep within her eyes shone a serene light that made it difficult for anyone to stare directly at her or fathom her depths.

She walked straight toward the exit without the slightest hesitation in any of her steps. Her back was upright, and her footsteps were even light. Her departing figure was graceful, tall, and slender. Liu Wan watched her for a few moments, then lowered her eyes to conceal the unusually delighted, victorious expression on her face. This time, she would monopolize all the love and resources of both families and watch Zhu Qi die impoverished, destitute, and desperate!

No one tried to keep Long Qi there. Father Liu stopped Mother Liu when she moved to intercept her and said calmly, “What’s the hurry? Where can she possibly go? Once she runs out of money, she’ll come back to our house.”

When Mother Liu thought about it, she realized he was right. Long Qi possessed no skills with which to [unauthorized copy]earn money. Was she really going to sleep on the streets? As her parents, they would certainly still allow their biological child to return home. Even if she never accomplished anything in her life, there would still be food for her at the Liu family’s home. But before that, it would be good for such a proud, lazy child to experience some of the hardships of the outside world and temper her personality.

Only Zhu Yuan called after Long Qi with slight hesitation. “Xiaoqi…you haven’t taken any of your things…and you don’t have any money left, do you?” The Zhu parents gave Zhu Qi a monthly allowance, and she had always spent every cent she received. She probably did not have much money on hand now.

Long Qi stopped and looked back.

Afraid that she would continue pestering them, Zhu Sheng said impatiently, “If there’s anything you want, hurry up and take it. Once you walk out that door, you won’t get another chance!” Judging by the Liu parents’ clothing and mannerisms, theirs was, at best, an ordinary salaried household. How could they possibly afford Zhu Qi’s extravagant spending? Long Qi’s life was going to be difficult from now on.

He thought he was being very generous, but to his surprise, Long Qi merely looked them up and down with an unreadable expression before smiling. “You all saw it yourselves. I’m leaving this place without taking a single thing. If any of you ever come asking me for a favor in the future, remember to first make sure you understand how much weight you actually carry.”

Long Qi walked out of the Zhu family’s villa. The vivid red plot text within her vision had completely disappeared. This part of the plot was finished.

Behind her, Zhu Sheng scoffed. “With a family like ours, why would we ever need to ask Zhu Qi for a favor?”

Father Zhu said kindly to Liu Wan, “Now that Xiaowan has come home, the whole family is delighted. Why don’t you and Mom go upstairs and choose a room? You may stay as long as you like. There will always be a room for you in this house.”

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The Zhu family’s villa stood halfway up a mountain in a scenic suburb with ​bailiantales.com​an excellent location, extremely far from the bustling city center.

Long Qi had nothing on her but a phone. There were no cars or people on the road, so she followed it forward while checking the route to the police station. It would require a twenty-five-kilometer walk. She then checked Zhu Qi’s personal bank account through the mobile banking app and discovered that the balance was only 3,800 yuan.

She had truly never been this poor in her life.

But what was there to worry about? If she kept moving forward, a path would always appear.

Long Qi strolled along with both hands tucked into her pockets and a smile playing on her lips. She breathed in the fresh air and gazed into the distance. Amid the rolling mountains, flowers and grasses grew upward with vigorous vitality. Tiny insects chirped among the grass, while little birds chattered in the treetops.

Everything was flourishing, peaceful, and tranquil—completely different from the apocalypse, where resources and supplies were desperately scarce and humanity struggled to scrape out a meager existence.

Simply being reborn into a peaceful world had already made the entire ordeal worthwhile.

Long Qi was genuinely in an excellent mood. As she passed a wild lemon tree along the road, she heard several white-collared crows chattering to her from its branches. Among them were the two crows that had perched on her windowsill earlier.

【Human, where are you going?】

【Were you thrown out?】

【How miserable. The human doesn’t even have a car to drive.】

【The bus stop is still very far from here.】

【If you have any food, please share some with us.】

“Why are you lot everywhere? I’m so poor I could die. How would I have money to buy food for you? I can barely afford to feed myself.” Long Qi spoke lazily. “Why don’t you introduce me to some way of making money?”

【We can take you to steal grain to eat.】

The crows chattered: 【There’s a family behind those woods that always dries grain in their courtyard.】

Long Qi laughed. The little crows were truly adorable, although the small amount of grain they could steal would not even be enough for a single mouthful. She looked up at them for a moment, then planted one hand on the roadside guardrail, vaulted over it, and walked beneath the lemon tree. The lemon tree was quite tall and had lush foliage, with several small, unripe green lemons growing from its branches.

The mountain road winding downhill was full of bends, and immediately beyond the guardrail was a steep downward slope overgrown with a disorderly tangle of trees.

“Come down and play with me for a while,” Long Qi called casually. Read on BaiLianTalesThe entire flock of white-collared crows immediately swooped down around her. One perched on her shoulder, while another landed on her hand.

These birds of the wild were lively and spirited. Their tiny eyes were glossy black, their dark feathers gleamed, and the ring of white feathers around their necks made them exceptionally easy to recognize.

During the apocalypse, everyone had been too preoccupied with their own survival to care about others, and the legacies of many cultivators had been severed. Ever since obtaining the fragmentary scripture of the Xuanjian, Long Qi had explored and studied it entirely on her own. Born intelligent and spiritually gifted, she read and interpreted the scripture by herself and gradually found her way through the gates of the profound. She cultivated her heart into a mirror and, without a teacher, grasped the Daoist methods of breathing regulation and nourishing qi, carving out an unorthodox path of cultivation that belonged entirely to her.

A cultivator’s aura was pure and untainted, repelling dirt and filth. Corvids had always been among the most intelligent of birds, and these crows were highly spiritual. Sensing the pure qi emanating from Long Qi that made living creatures feel comfortable, they naturally grew close to her.

Long Qi gently stroked the smooth feathers along a crow’s back. Her heart was as tranquil as a still lake as she enjoyed a brief moment of peaceful, comfortable leisure.

She stood alone beside the road with her back to it, right beside the steep downward slope. Viewed from afar, she was tall and slender, her long hair lifting in the wind, yet her back looked so quiet that it even seemed melancholy. She looked as though she had no intention of continuing to live.

An extraordinarily luxurious black limousine drove past. The woman in the back seat caught sight of the figure beneath the roadside tree and said, “Stop the car.”

The woman’s voice was cold and faintly weary, carrying no trace of a request. The well-trained driver immediately brought the car to a smooth stop.

The car door rose upward like a bird spreading its wing.

A cultivator’s five senses were exceptionally sharp. Long Qi immediately turned around and saw a woman step out of the car. The woman was dressed in formal finery, wearing a strapless, floor-length gown of deep-black silk satin and a wide-brimmed pure-black hat tilted at an angle. Several dark-blue unauthorized copy lilies of the valley adorned the hat. Dark-blue gemstone earrings and a matching necklace completed her ensemble, the beautifully faceted gems refracting the sunlight into gorgeous, iridescent colors.

A thin strip of black gauze attached to the brim happened to veil her beautiful face, obscuring her features. Yet her skin was as white as snow, and her eyes were cold and bright—so striking that a single glance left a deep impression.

Long Qi stared for three seconds. Her first thought was that this woman’s eyes resembled the moon in the night sky: very bright, but also very proud and lonely.

She was also breathtakingly beautiful.

Every dark-blue lily of the valley adorning the brim of the woman’s hat was fresh and delicate, as though it had only just been plucked from the plant. Long Qi’s eyesight was excellent enough that she could even see tiny droplets of water glimmering faintly upon the petals beneath the sunlight.

Her makeup followed a rarely seen dark palette, and her lips were nearly black. Her evening gown was strapless and floor-length, paired with long gloves of the same color. Every inch of its deep-black satin reflected a subdued yet magnificent luster, but even that could not compare with the natural pearlescent glow of her fair skin beneath the daylight.

She was as beautiful as a luxuriant dark flower in full bloom, yet as cold as an eternally frozen glacier in the far north. She stood tall and graceful, as though she had bloomed within a silent abyss since time immemorial.

But when she turned her gaze toward Long Qi, all Long Qi remembered was that pair of cool, distant eyes, like moons suspended in the sky.

Long Qi studied her for a moment, then smiled at the woman. “Hello. I’m Long Qi.”

A white-collared crow perched on her shoulder, another stood on her finger, and three more crouched on the low branches behind her. The [unauthorized copy]small animals surrounded her in complete relaxation, while her expression was gentle. She did not look like someone preparing to take her own life.

Shu Ying realized that she had misunderstood the situation and originally intended to leave at once. Yet the woman standing beside the mountain possessed an ethereal, gentle bearing. Surrounded by so many chattering little birds, she looked happy and free.

It was rare to see such clear eyes or such an untainted presence among other people.

Shu Ying’s eyelashes fluttered. “What are you doing here?” Her voice was cool and as melodious as a mountain spring striking stone, but her tone was somewhat impolite.

The white-collared crows all began speaking at once: 【Wow! It’s the rich lady who lives in the big house at the top of the mountain!】

【If you’re about to starve to death, you can ask her to give you food!】

Long Qi answered the woman, “Admiring the scenery and chatting with the crows.” She turned to the crows and said, “I have to go. I’ll play with you again when I have time.”

The little crows were very obedient. At her words, they all took flight with a rush of wings.

This was the first time Shu Ying had ever seen a human coexist so harmoniously with wild birds. This was a very unusual human. Her gaze followed the crows as they flew away before returning to Long Qi.

The housekeeper in her car also stepped out and discreetly examined Long Qi, somewhat [bailiantales.com]astonished. Could this woman truly communicate with the birds, or had she merely been putting on an act and talking to herself?

The housekeeper was a middle-aged woman dressed in a dark-red, high-collared dress with a row of buttons. She possessed a steady demeanor and an old-fashioned style. She recognized Long Qi as Zhu Qi, the Zhu family’s younger daughter. News that the Zhu family had recently recovered another daughter, their biological child, had spread throughout the city, and many people knew about it.

But the housekeeper suspected that she might have misheard just now. Why did it sound as though Miss Zhu had introduced herself as “Long Qi”?

The housekeeper knew of Zhu Qi. Although she was an Alpha, her rating was low, her physical constitution was not particularly strong, and her mental power was weak. Nor had anyone ever heard of her accomplishing anything remarkable.

In addition to the male-female sex system assigned at birth, the humans of this world possessed a second sex system, classified as Alpha, Beta, and Omega. The secondary sex usually emerged through a second differentiation during puberty, when the hidden pheromone glands at the back of the neck developed. An individual’s secondary sex was jointly determined by their genetic inheritance and state of mental development. Thus, humanity was divided into six sexes in total. Among them, Alphas and Omegas possessed higher pheromone levels, greater mental power, and stronger physical constitutions. They could mark one another through pheromones, but they also tended to be unstable. Influenced by their pheromone levels, Alphas and Omegas periodically entered susceptible periods and heats, respectively. A Beta’s pheromone glands were partially atrophied, and their mental power was weaker, but they were extremely stable.

A person’s rating was a composite evaluation of the degree of perfection in their genes and the level of their mental power. A B-rank Alpha had a physical constitution similar to that of an ordinary Beta and was not a particularly desirable choice on the mating market.

The housekeeper quietly stepped forward and leaned close to Shu Ying’s ear, explaining in a low voice, “That is Zhu Qi, the Zhu family’s second daughter. She’s a B-rank Alpha from a cadet branch of the Zhu clan that deals in real estate. Their family brought home the wrong daughter…”

The Zhu clan’s primary business was real estate. The family possessed immense wealth and stood at the pinnacle of the city’s affluent class, with a status comparable to that of the Shu family. Although the Zhu family that had taken home the wrong daughter belonged only to a cadet branch of the clan, they still possessed considerable assets. There were no true secrets in high society. Once it was discovered that the Zhu family had raised the wrong daughter, the news quickly spread everywhere.

Shu Ying listened quietly but offered no reaction. She merely looked at Long Qi once more and asked, “Where are you going? I’ll take you.”