Crush's Cold Senior Sister is Actually Childhood Sweetheart - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: She Dodged Behind the Girl and Grabbed the Girl’s Sleeve Tightly

She dodged behind the girl, clutching her sleeve tightly.

After taking An Jin back, Ling Qi returned to her chamber alone.

The bl00d-red Su You flower was gently placed on a table, lined up next to the one she already had.

The communicator on the table flashed repeatedly, Yang Chongguang’s name appearing over and over, but Ling Qi didn’t even spare it a glance.

She sat quietly at the table, her eyes closed, her thoughts in a jumble.

She thought of Jiu Yang Palace, then of Carefree Island and the academy, but most of all, she thought of Yuan Shunhua. She thought of all the different ways Yuan Shunhua had looked: her smiling face, her furrowed brow in argument, and the face that only existed in Ling Qi’s fantasies… cheeks flushed and eyes hazy.

She had thought she would be impatient to use the flower.

But when she hadn’t used the first Su You flower right away, she understood very clearly. She was, in the end, afraid.

Afraid of seeing Yuan Shunhua hurt and battered.

And even more afraid of seeing nothing at all.

Ling Qi didn’t see herself as a timid person. When she first met her as a child, she had returned home with the divine Fuling without asking a single question. Eight hundred years ago, when Emperor Qingyuan fell, she had resolutely cut ties with Jiu Yang Palace and sought out Cen Xiyao.

Decisions that only concerned herself were easier to make. She knew what she wanted, what the potential consequences were, and all she had to do was not regret it.

But everything became incredibly difficult as soon as Yuan Shunhua was involved.

Ling Qi took a deep breath and crushed one of the flowers on the table. The bl00d-red juice of the Su You flower trickled down her pale wrist, leaving a shocking trail.

The crushed petals still clung to her fingers, an uncomfortable sensation, but Ling Qi ignored it.

The moment the flower was crushed, a life-sized mirror appeared out of thin air in the chamber. The mirror’s surface was transparent, reflecting nothing. At first glance, it seemed like only a mirror frame was standing there.

A dazzling white light radiated from around the mirror. Ling Qi slowly walked up to it. In the next second, she was pulled inside.

Inside the mirror was the mortal realm, rewound several hundred years.

There were no cars on the roads, and no tall buildings on the riverbanks. Light and brightness were luxuries; oil lamps and candles were the norm. Vendors on both sides of the street called out to attract customers, and a horse-drawn carriage sped past, kicking up clouds of dust.

There was a clear boundary between the Upper Realm and the mortal realm. The streets and alleys were filled with mortals, and immortals were rarely seen.

After just a quick glance around, Ling Qi knew that this time-reversal had failed.

This was her own memory.

Not far ahead, a small, thin girl walked slowly along a stone-paved road. She looked to be about eleven or twelve years old. The cloth of her shirt had been washed until it was faded, and the sleeves were noticeably too short for her wrists.

She carried a worn cloth bag on her back, its surface already frayed, filled with several thick books.

She should have left the moment she realized it was a failure. But Ling Qi told herself, with a sense of entitlement, that even if she left now, the Su You flower she had used wouldn’t come back.

Besides, since she was already here.

Just as she was about to look around, her waist tightened, and an invisible force pulled her, making her stumble. Ling Qi almost tripped and looked to see what was pulling her.

It turned out the little girl in front had just quickened her pace.

It seemed there was a restriction on the time-reversal; she couldn’t get too far from the owner of the memory, her past self.

Ling Qi followed a short distance behind the girl, deliberately keeping a few paces between them. Although it wasn’t necessary—the person reversing time couldn’t change anything, and the people here couldn’t see her at all.

Suddenly, with a loud “thud,” a stone hit the girl on her back. The girl winced and stumbled, turning to see a few young kids laughing. They were holding new stones and deliberately made a show of preparing to throw them, their faces full of provocation.

The girl lowered her head, her shoulders trembling slightly. She looked terrified. But in the instant the kids exchanged a conspiratorial glance, she suddenly bent down, picked up the broken stone that had just hit her, and threw it back with force.

The stone hit the leader right between the eyebrows. A bead of bl00d instantly oozed out, leaving a very noticeable red mark. The boy froze, clearly not expecting her to fight back, and the people around him were all stunned.

Seizing the opportunity, the girl took off running.

The kids behind her snapped out of their shock and chased after her, throwing more stones. A stone grazed the girl’s shoulder, tearing a hole in her cloth shirt.

As Ling Qi ran along, following the girl’s steps, her heart was filled with complex emotions.

She had been abandoned in the mortal world as a child, with no parents and no home, growing up in an orphanage. Children from ordinary families were not allowed by their parents to interact with the kids from the orphanage, as they believed those children had bad character due to a lack of proper upbringing.

When they met on the street, those kids always kept their distance.

The other orphans at the orphanage, however, formed gangs and even had two leaders who competed for resources. Of course, these so-called resources were nothing more than an extra few mouthfuls of porridge or half a steamed bun.

Ling Qi didn’t “bow to any mountain” like the other kids. She was a loner, which is why she was targeted by the so-called leaders of the orphanage. They would send people to cause trouble for her from time to time.

Sometimes they would deliberately take the steamed bun from her hand, and sometimes, like today, a group of them would throw stones at her.

She had a natural immortal body. She wouldn’t starve to death even if she didn’t eat or drink, and her wounds would heal quickly.

But the feeling of hunger was real. The pain was, too.

It sounded like a dark, unbearable childhood, but Ling Qi rarely recalled these memories in her daily life. The black and white scenes had long been colored over with hibiscus flowers and small cakes, the old scratches completely covered up.

But the girl in front of her didn’t know all this yet.

She dodged left and right, trying to avoid the stones thrown at her. When she realized she couldn’t escape no matter what, she gritted her teeth and just ran straight ahead.

Finally, she ran into a school and shut out the flying stones and the sounds of ridicule.

Orphanage kids weren’t supposed to get an education. It was already considered good enough if they could go out and work to earn a living. Especially for children eleven or twelve years old, the orphanage couldn’t keep feeding them for free.

But Ling Qi always used her breaks from work to sneak into the school and eavesdrop from under a window outside. In due time, she was noticed by the mistress of a wealthy family.

The mistress saw that she was a good student and let her study with her own daughter, which is how the girl got the chance to officially enter the school.

Inside the school, the girl, with her bag of books on her back, had just walked in when she suddenly froze. The young mistress who should have been waiting for her was gone. In her place was a woman in a black robe.

The woman was sitting at a desk, her gaze fixed on the girl with no warmth in her eyes. The girl was startled by her icy demeanor and instinctively took two steps back.

Ling Qi saw this scene and smiled softly.

The divine Fuling at that time was not very good at dealing with children. She wasn’t even the person Emperor Qingyuan had initially intended to send.

The original candidate had been accidentally discovered by Yuan Shunhua, who had then badgered the Emperor for days, saying, “She abandoned that girl once, how could she possibly be good to her?” Eventually, the Emperor was so bothered that he had no choice but to send the divine Fuling instead.

Back in the schoolroom, the girl had nowhere else to retreat. She leaned against the door, meeting the black-robed woman’s eyes.

“I’ve come for you. You… are to come with me.”

The divine Fuling didn’t know how to explain this slightly complicated situation to a little girl. She frowned, thought for a long time, and then spoke cautiously.

But in the girl’s eyes, her furrowed brow only made her look even more fierce.

And her tone was very firm.

Yet the girl still nodded, not hesitating for a second, and said directly, “Okay.”

The black-robed woman visibly let out a sigh of relief.

At the time, the divine Fuling just felt lucky. It seemed she was quite approachable, and the girl was easy to talk to. It was only much later that she realized the girl’s reaction at the time was extremely unusual.

She hadn’t asked any questions, hadn’t even thought for a few seconds. When a stranger suddenly offered to take her away, she had readily agreed.

At that moment, Ling Qi hadn’t thought too much either. She just instinctively felt that the other person was very remarkable and that this might be a great opportunity.

What if the person had malicious intentions?

Of course, Ling Qi had considered that possibility, but she was willing to take a gamble. Even if she lost, she wouldn’t lose anything, only her life.

In Ling Qi’s eyes at the time, it was an investment with no initial cost.

“I’ll go with you to pack your things.”

It was rare for the divine Fuling to even know about the concept of luggage. But when the girl heard her, she just looked at her and shook her head slightly. “It’s not necessary. All my things are right here.”

She pointed to the cloth bag on her back.

“Ah… okay, let’s go then.”

The divine Fuling didn’t ask anything else. She stood up and took the girl’s hand.

When she felt the warmth of the hand, the girl paused slightly and instinctively tried to pull away. But when she saw the divine Fuling’s questioning look, she put her hand back. “I’m sorry… I, I’m not used to it. No one has ever held my hand before.”

The divine Fuling simply nodded again, indicating she understood.

By then, the divine Fuling had already witnessed years of severe drought and famine, and battlefields covered with corpses. She had long forgotten what mercy and sympathy felt like.

She knew the girl seemed to have had a difficult life, but she didn’t know how to comfort her.

The divine Fuling believed she could no longer feel strong emotions about anything.

That is, until she took the girl back to the Upper Realm and found that her Jiu Yang Palace had been burned to the ground, with not a single pillar left standing.

The culprit, however, was speaking with perfect justification: “I was installing a weather system for your house! If I succeeded, it would have four seasons, just like the mortal realm. Sometimes it would be as hot as a furnace, and sometimes as cold as an ice cave…”

But the more she spoke, the more guilty she sounded, and the quieter her voice became.

The divine Fuling said expressionlessly, “So I ascended to godhood to experience human suffering?”

Yuan Shunhua blinked, and said cautiously, “But don’t worry, I already moved all the valuable things out. Just think of it as losing a storage room—”

As she said this, she retreated, clearly planning to make a run for it at the first sign of trouble.

But the divine Fuling grabbed her as if she were a small chick, rushing to her in just a few steps, about to pick her up.

Yuan Shunhua suddenly dodged behind the girl, clutching her sleeve tightly. “Sister, save me!”

The girl froze, not knowing what to do, and just stood there blankly.

Although the divine Fuling was already planning to take the girl as her disciple, the two had only known each other for a few hours. She couldn’t abruptly reach out and grab Yuan Shunhua, whose head was peeking out from behind the girl.

“…”

The two looked at each other in silence.

After an unknown amount of time, the divine Fuling cleared her throat and said to Yuan Shunhua, “Since you burned it, you’re responsible for rebuilding the Jiu Yang Palace. And you—”

She turned to the girl. “Since you’re helping her, go with her.”

The girl: “…”

Not me. I really didn’t do anything. This is unfair.