723: A Shining Star

A Shining Star

Lu Yizhou smiled and shook his head.1

That year, maybe because the trauma inflicted on him was too deep, Lu Yizhou's sickness did not recover for a very long time. The wealthy couple had invited their family doctor to examine him, but the test result was far from positive. His illness did not originate from his body, but his heart. It was the shadow of his heart that had grown too heavy and affected his physical health as well. As long as the shadow was not cured, it was expected that he would stay bedridden for an indefinite period in the future.

The couple had initially purchased him in order to train him to become a servant. What was the point if the child added to their burden instead? It's not like they had the responsibility to care for his well-being…

Zeke trembled as he gnashed on his teeth. He had no idea whether it was sadness, rage or distress for everything Lu Yizhou had gone through that year – or perhaps it was all of the above. The pain in his chest was searing as if someone had flayed his heart raw bit by bit, leaving blood and flesh dripping from the mawing wound. He had no idea what to do except for clinging to Lu Yizhou tighter, as if he was trying to share his warmth to the miserable three years old toddler.

"It's okay, it's really nothing at all…" Lu Yizhou brought him into an embrace and stroked his back in soothing circles. 

Lu Yizhou understood where the couple came from. They had bought Lu Yizhou and automatically it was up to them how they planned to use him. Broken goods would be thrown away when they were no longer useful, and the same could be applied to Lu Yizhou. At the very least, this part of his life was the most peaceful one he could think of, because after that… what he entered was the deepest pit of Hell.

Lu Yizhou buried his nose into Zeke's hair and inhaled his lover's soft and unique scent. That's right, he had escaped from that nightmare. Right now, nothing was more real than the person in his arms.

Seeing that Zeke had calmed down, he continued with a voice as soft as he could muster, "The Master planned to re-sell me. His connection was vast, it was easy for him to find a buyer who would be interested in me. But the Madam did not agree. In the middle of the night, she shoved me some money, food and clothes then told me to run away. That's the most she could do for me…"

Zeke pursed lips tight and pressed his forehead to Lu Yizhou's shoulder, inhaling deeply. It's okay… he told himself, everything is already the past. This person had grown up safely. He was alive, warm and breathing…

However, he could not stop himself from imagining the three-years old Lu Yizhou who was stranded on a foreign planet, sick and helpless with no home to return to and no one to rely on… His heart ached. It ached so badly that he felt like dying. He could only pull Lu Yizhou closer to him as though wanting to confirm to himself that this person indeed existed. 

"After that…?" He asked, his voice hoarse.

This time, Lu Yizhou hesitated for a bit. "I lived on the street for a while." When he heard Zeke suck in a breath, Lu Yizhou tightened his arms in reflex. "Homeless people often gather under the bridge to take shelter, especially when the weather is bad. Sometimes, you have no idea what kind of tiger and dragon was crouching there. When I was fighting someone who wanted to grab my food, a member from the organization took notice of me…" his voice suddenly tightened. He cleared his throat and tried to speak in an even tone that did not betray the turmoil in his heart. "He gave me a test and I passed. That's how I became an assassin."

Lu Yizhou did not elaborate what kind of test it was because….it was simply too inhuman. He did not wish to taint Zeke's ears with something so filthy. 

Members from the organization deliberately hung out under the bridge where the homeless people gathered because that was the most ideal place for recruitment. Children with ambitions were the best. They were young and flexible, and they had known how it felt to suffer from cold and hunger. Thus it would be easier to instill the principle to kill.

If you don't want to starve to death, you have to get rid of someone. If you don't want to go back to the street and suffer, you have to listen to us.

It was a simple test of endurance and survival. 

Lu Yizhou was thrown into an underground warehouse with a few beggar children similar to him in age. It was very dark, pungent and suffocating. Just like the breeding ground of some hideous beasts – and ironically it was quite correct in a sense. They were locked in there without food and drink. That person threw a sentence to them before he left, "Only one person can get out of this place. Remember, losers don't have the right to live."

How many days could a child hold on without food or drink? In that hellish place, fear gave birth to desperation and desperation gave birth to courage. The darkness seemed to amplify every negative emotion in their hearts, displaying the ugly and brutal nature of human beings to the extreme.

Lu Yizhou had no recollection of the passage of time. It was always dark in that place. All he could hear was despairing cries, muffled sobs and enraged roars. They were hungry, so hungry and thirsty they could die… but the only way they could escape this place was…

Once a child took the initiative to move, it was like a little push that toppled the fragile domino house. Even the most cowardly child could grab onto the other and bite their neck in desperation. 

'I want to eat' became 'I don't want to die'. If you don't want to die, then you have to kill. As simple as that.

Lu Yizhou had forgotten how he crawled out of that hellish hole. He only recalled how the sun was so bright to the point where he could not open his eyes, yet he only felt chill all over his body, so cold that his teeth could not stop chattering. It was as if he had been submerged in an icy cold lake for years. He could not describe what he was feeling, only the faint feeling that something deep inside him had shattered to pieces. And once broken, it could not be mended anymore.

Distantly, he heard that person say, "Do you understand it now? The world doesn't have a place for the weak."

He was going so mad with hunger that he could not care for anything other than the food in front of him. He ravenously shoved it into his mouth despite the blood and dirt in his hands, just like a little monster that had just been fed for the first time. 

It was the beginning of his long, unending nightmare. A great sin that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

There was no turning back. Once he embarked on this thorny path, he had to walk for a very, very long time, not caring for how many wounds he had sustained or how deep he was pulled into the abyss. 

Alas, just as he thought that he would perish within this suffocating darkness… 

…he found a shining star.

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