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In one world full of misfortune, hardship, and injustice, Lord An Ding Peak considered it beneath their priorities to send aid to a small village on the edge of his and Huanghua's territories; he felt that there was no point in helping those who couldn't pay for their labors, even if Mu Qingfang liked sect sorties for the sake of helping others; his shidi was completely inept at distributing his skills, for which many would have to pay mountains of gold.
In the other world, instead of a calculating man, there was someone who had created this world without remembering every little detail, someone who rarely said 'no' to his older and younger sect brothers and sisters without having the will of a firm character to do so, simply admitting to himself that he would have to spend several sleepless nights looking for the most favorable offers to cover their bouts of righteousness.
Shang Qinghua was of course aware that the name of the village seemed familiar to him, but more names and place names pass through his hands in a day than he ever created himself, so he didn't give it much thought when he sent his shidi and his younger students on a tour to help the needy, because he knows how Mu Qingfang likes to get out of the sect to give lessons (this man had always dreamed of being a teacher, not a doctor; and he was the one who gave him this life).
He didn't think twice about it and forgot about it after a couple minutes.
This decision was like the flapping of a butterfly's wings.
His mom was dying, he knew it.
Luo Binghe was a smart kid, even if he didn't want to believe the truth — he knew it was his fault.
It's his fault because Mama always gave him his portion of food, saying she wasn't hungry or that she had eaten earlier and he believed her; it's his fault because Mama always gave him blankets on winter nights when he told her he was cold; it's his fault, then, that his mom worked harder than she used to when they were kicked out of their lord's house (he knows it's his fault because he heard the servants whispering that he'd made some suggestion to his mom about him, and that same night his mom, holding his hand, was leading them away from that house, leaving almost everything they had there).
Of course, his mom said it wasn't his fault, withering before his eyes: her hair had turned slightly gray and her cheeks sunken in, her eyes seemed bigger, accentuated by the dark spots beneath them, her limbs were thinner that he feared she might one day be carried away by the wind. Luo Binghe knows that his mom is not as old as many women further down the street, because his mom has far fewer wrinkles than those scruffy old women, and that she shouldn't have faded so quickly. Of course, it's his fault; there's no reason why his mom would be sick if it weren't for him.
And he knows his mother is trying to be strong: for his; when it is he who should be strong: for her; after all, Luo Binghe is eight years old now, he is old enough to start working harder than his mother let him, washing things in the icy river and not letting him do it for too long, though he no longer cried from his hands freezing in the raging water, cold regardless of the season.
His mom — is Luo Binghe's most precious person, and he doesn't know what he will do if she is gone; he can't imagine a world without her, even if she looks at him with loving eyes and tells him: to love life; and Luo Binghe tries, he wants to be a good son, but he can't help but beg every doctor, every rich gentleman his mom worked for in this village.
They refuse; all of them; and something black and nasty crawls up his insides as he continues to bow until they throw him away.
His mom withers, and he tries to smile brightly, the way his mom loves; she lies to him that she's fine, and he lies to her that he believes her words; and he doesn't know how it came to this.
One day, three days from the time his mother stopped getting out of bed, and he learned to cry silently at night without sleeping, without taking his eyes off her, the cultivators came to their village, the doctors came to their village.
Luo Binghe knows he has nothing to offer in return, he has nothing; and his mother would be very upset if he offered what the men at the inn were talking about; Luo Binghe doesn't understand why anyone would want someone else's body, but Luo Binghe knows pain, he could deal with it. Only, when he told his mom about it, she was scared, so much so that she made him promise that he would never try to suggest such a thing to anyone and that he should run away from anyone who might suggest such a thing. But what was the use of promising to a dead man?
No matter what it costs him, Luo Binghe will pay.
"Please", he says, falling at the adult cultivator's feet, despite his eyes, not daring to put himself so high, he begs from the ground, grasping the edges of the pink-red robes, which is nicer than anything he's ever had the chance to touch, "I beg you, immortal master, beg you, please", and he tries not to gasp, but it's hard, it's his last hope, his last chance, "my mom is sick, and she—" she won't get up, she sleeps longer than ever, she hardly eats anything, she's dying, "save my mom... I—", he has nothing, "I can't pay you anything, but I beg you, please, I'll do anything", tears choke him, but he doesn't raise his eyes, he speaks as fast as he can for the man to listen, his hands are shaking, "I'll give anything you want to get from me, and—"
Luo Binghe stops when he feels a large hand on his shoulder, and lets go of the cloth when the man practically sits down in front of him in the dirt, and:
"Show the way", Luo Binghe lifts his head, seeing a serious face in front of him, a bit unkept due to stubble and tired with dark spots under his eyes, which reminds Luo Binghe of his mom.
And he's taking this man to his house.
And this man heals his mother with some elixirs, only wrinkling his nose once, but immediately smoothing his face when he noticed Luo Binghe looking at him; the man smiled at him, and it was the kindest thing anyone other than his mother had ever shown him.
And the man said to him:
"Your mom will be fine and live a long life," and Luo Binghe nearly collapsed where he stood, sobbing.
"How can I repay you?" asks Luo Binghe, trying to stop the endless tears that flow down his cheeks nonstop because he will give everything he has without regrets, even if it upsets his mom when she wakes up.
The man smiles again, this time sadly as he shakes his head.
"You don't owe me anything", answer him, and Luo Binghe can't believe it.
He crouches down on his knees in front of the child, who is as badly malnourished and cold as the unconscious woman on the bed; it breaks his heart. This is the poorest family he has visited today; this is probably why he wraps the crying child in his outer garment with talismans for warmth, the baby's sniffling nose is drowned in dark pink, and it strangely reminds him of his youngest students who were given uniforms that were out of place, but even more ridiculous looking.
Mu Qingfang chuckles at this image.
"If you really want to repay me", Mu Qingfang begins, gently taking the rough child's hands in his own, he runs his fingers over the boy's palms, healing small scratches, leaving behind smooth skin, "then promise me that you will one day help someone the same way I helped your mother, okay? " he smiles at this cute child whose eyes have such a serious glint in them for such a young life; Mu Qingfang can't help but smile at such persistence from the boy, whose hands won't let go when the child nods to him despite practically drowning in his robe and his eyes red from crying.
"I promise", and the boy's words strangely pass through him as if it was something important, but Mu Qingfang had never been one for figuring out fates and the threads that bound people together.
It makes him want to rub the kid's head, but he restrains himself; the boy already has a lot of misconceptions about people asking for something for help. He tells him what his mother will need in the early days, and the child listens with pointed attention, so he leaves them with a slightly lighter heart, explaining to his students that he accidentally tore his robe by snagging on branches. (He also asks the child not to make such suggestions to anyone ever again, and the child wrinkles his face as if he's already heard about it; hence, the boy's mother has already warned him; Mu Qingfang can only sympathize with a woman with such a desperately devoted son.) Lord Peak's upper robe is not something that can be so easily left somewhere, especially when so much energy has been poured into it for the talismans to work; he'll have to apologize to Shang-shixiong for needing a new one.
Mu Qingfang doesn't think he'll meet this child again; children's memories aren't as reliable.
Luo Binghe is the protagonist, even if he doesn't know it, and there is nothing he can't handle.
Luo Binghe is grateful, and his gratitude has no bounds in the way he hangs on to his words.
Luo Binghe studies taking care of his mom, and then helps the women down the street, and then listens to everything about curing illnesses from everyone in the village, and then keeps up with their witch doctor, who couldn't cure his mom, but could handle everything the other villagers were sick with.
He takes up the study of herbs, he learns to be polite and pleasant, he follows the footsteps of a woman who does not tolerate him, but does not chase him away with a cane as in the early days; he learns where babies come from a little with horror, but does not faint like the husband of the woman they came to help give birth to; he is not squeamish or afraid of dirt, or blood, or pus.
His mom sighs every time he comes home dirty, either in someone else's blood or urine or soil while he was looking for plants, after a couple years; she's healthy and rejuvenated, in that same red and equally beautiful top layer of clothing of the immortal master whose name he didn't ask, supporting him in everything.
Just for the sake of this, Luo Binghe tries twice as hard to come to Cang Qiong one day, embroidered on the cloth, and follow the words of that kind person.
And the tsunami caught up with them.
Shang Qinghua has been trying not to be nervous before the new set of disciples, but this year his main character son arrives and the fate of the entire sect is decided, so yes, he is nervous. It doesn't help that this time, both Liu Qingge, Shen Qingqiu, and Yue Qingyuan are present at the same time for the sake of the plot, making him sweetly remember last year when there was only Lord Peak Qing Jing and no sect leader. Ah, grace. He is as jealous as ever of Mu-shidi for never attending the first selections, for Qian Cao's disciples are selected at the second stage, after digging holes. If the children fail, they can leave the sect or become part of An Ding, to try again later; strangely enough, every one of those who have been on An Ding for only a year afterward passes Mu Qingfang's next exam successfully and without complaint. His shidi still thinks that Shang Qinghua is somehow contributing to the children studying hard; ah, shidi, you think too highly of An Ding's job.
Shang Qinghua almost misses the moment when Liu-shidi points her finger at some poor kid (because only Bai Zhan and their demands could be worse than An Ding in training), and declares like a toddler in a toy store:
"I'm taking him, he has potential", and Shang Qinghua strains his good eyesight, which he never had in his first life, to discern the boy. Even though he's more well-groomed and tidy than the Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky expected from a ragamuffin, it's definitely Luo Binghe. He would recognize this face anywhere. So accurate from his mental image, he's almost scared.
Then Shen Qingqiu interposed:
"No, I'm taking him away", and turns to zhangmen-shixiong, who couldn't refuse his Xiao Jiu anything; and everyone knows it; even so, Liu Qingge is still indignant, as if Yue Qingyuan was listening to him. Shen-shixiong casts an arrogant petty look at their shidi, being a drama queen, and gets up to take the baby. Luo Binghe raises his gaze to the man who approached him. "You're coming with me", and Shen Qingqiu covers his face with a fan, while his newfound disciple looks perplexed at the man in front of him.
The boy smiles, and Shang Qinghua already knows something is wrong. Something is terribly wrong. Because Shang Qinghua knows that smile, the polite and friendly smile; the one you can use for business, for the service industry, when you need to say no to a customer. It's not at all what you'd expect from a boy who had to spend years on the streets.
Luo Binghe stands up and folds his hands in front of him, bowing:
"I'm sorry, Immortal Master", and Shang Qinghua swears it's even a voice like a professional call center worker, "this lowly one has to refuse your offer", and then Shang Qinghua and probably all of them notice the ribbon on the kid's arm.
The peculiarity of being chosen for some peaks was to wear a ribbon of a certain color, saying that this pretender would then go to additional trials for a certain peak. There were a total of three peaks in Cang Qiong who chose their disciples this way: dark-green — for Zui Xian, orange — for Shu Fa, and pink-red — for Qian Cao.
On Luo Binghe's wrist was the last one.
"What are you—? " starts Shen Qingqiu, and Liu Qingge dares to openly sneer.
As his Shen-shixiong and Liu-shidi start another endless quarrel, Shang Qinghua can only gasp in a cough.
Just... how did this happen?
Mu Qingfang meets a kid he never thought he would see again; this kid has grown up and looks much better than when they first met; and, for some reason, this kid remembers him well enough to recognize him at a glance.
Mu Qingfang learns that this kid with big eyes is named Luo Binghe, and he is probably one of the most promising and sparkling talents he has met in all his twenty years as a Peak Lord.
Mu Qingfang takes Luo Binghe to his peak, dresses him in pink and red and entrusts him with his patients, and grows older every day as this boy gets into all sorts of trouble.
"Shizun! I can explain everything..." begins Luo Binghe every time he gets in trouble, or gets kidnapped by his Liu-shibo, again, or when his Shen-shibo tries to lure him to his peak with candy (what the hell, shixiong?) again, or when his Shang-shibo pretends to have walked in here completely by accident, going exactly the opposite direction from where he should have ended up, again.
So Mu Qingfang decides that it's in his goals to keep the kid close and outsource his obnoxious shibos to him, knowing full well that his apprentice will be anything but thorough in treating these grown men that act like children.
Strangely enough, Luo Binghe takes up the errand with enthusiasm.