The Burning Chronicles Chapter 4

The next day, when the morning mist was still wet, Grace Qi, who had not slept all night, had already hurriedly got up to visit Piper Xiao. When she arrived at Piper Xiao's room, Grace Qi only saw Piper Xiao lying on the couch and sleeping as usual, with the window open, and the crabapple flowers from last night drifting in and falling all over the floor, but Luke Lu had disappeared without a trace.

The young man I had just met last night came and went like a dream.

Grandma Qi was afraid that Piper Xiao's condition would worsen if he was exposed to the wind, so she went to close the window. Then she saw Luke Lu walking towards them from the edge of the distant mountains, all wet with dew. He was holding a few crystal-clear objects in his hands.

Grandma Qi went downstairs to open the door. When Luke Lu came closer, she saw that what Luke Lu was holding in his hand were a few round, white pearls.

The old lady asked, "Young man, where did you go last night? There are many monsters in this mountain, you'd better not run around."

Seeing this, Luke Lu smiled slightly and replied, "Madam, I went downstairs last night and asked a friend to help me collect herbs. If it's fast, maybe it will deliver the herbs tonight."

When Grace Qi heard this, she was a little excited, "You, you said, Piper Xiao will come back to life, right?!"

"She will live in peace."

After hearing this, Grandma Qi burst into tears.

"However," Luke Lu changed the subject and added, "My friend has another favor to ask. As for how to do it, you will know after you accept these pearls." As he said that, Luke Lu did not give her a chance to refuse and stuffed the pearls into her hands.

The pearl carried Luke Lu's body temperature and felt delicate and warm to the touch. When Grace Qi was about to ask why, she felt that the pearl in her hand was different from ordinary pearls - the pearl was a container of memories.

Three pearls, carrying three memories. All of them were extracted by Luke Lu from the little monster's mind. No, from the memory, the little monster had a name. The monster used the name of its true form as its surname. Its surname was Hayden and its given name was Zane.

Zane. This name was given to it by a person in the world.

The moment her skin touched the pearls, the old woman felt dazed and felt a familiar warm current flowing into her mind. Scenes flashed through her mind, strange and familiar... The owner of that memory was not herself, but she felt extremely familiar with it, as if she had experienced it herself.

The first memory was a little girl muttering, "Brother Zane, I planted a crabapple sapling in the yard. After a few years, you can climb up the building along this tree to see me. Although you are a spirit, it would be very tiring for a spirit to climb up by its own strength. Brother Zane, do you like crabapples? If not, I can plant other trees, such as honey locust, camphor, albizzia, or magnolia?"

As the little girl's soft voice gradually became smaller and disappeared, a bamboo window covered with beige window paper appeared at the end of the field of vision.

There was a cool starlight all around. In addition to the starlight, there was another light source, which was like a faint light, sometimes green, sometimes blue, which was really beautiful. The owner of the memory was just outside the window, with the blue-green light beside him. He stretched out his hand and knocked on the window, "knock knock knock."

Knock knock knock.

This extremely familiar voice seems to coincide with a horrifying memory deep in my memory. It is obviously the same voice, so why does it feel so different now than it did then?

"Quinn Xiao, are you there?" The one who spoke was the owner of the memory. He sounded like a young man with a deep but very pleasant voice.

On the other side of the window, a girl immediately responded with a childish voice, "Is that Brother Zane?" Then, before the boy could answer, the window was opened with a crash. A little girl was standing barefoot in the room. She had two thin pigtails and was wearing a red jacket. She was only about seven or eight years old. Her big eyes were so bright that they almost dripped with water. Her skin was as white as a dough ball, but she was too thin, as if she was recuperating from an illness.

The young man jumped in with a lantern.

The dark room was immediately illuminated by light.

---Perhaps it was too long ago, and the memory has forgotten how they met. One was an elf from the mountains, and the other was a girl from the world who had been ill for a long time. I don't know what kind of fate made them know each other.

Grandma Qi only saw that in that memory, the little girl had been ill for a long time. Her face was always pale and she could only stay in her room for a long time. She often coughed, and when she coughed, her face turned a scary blue. Perhaps because she had been ill for a long time, she seemed very quiet. In front of her family, she was like a rag doll that could only blink.

However, when everyone was fast asleep, her only friend would visit her at that very moment, bringing a smile to the girl's face.

In the little girl's eyes, the night is not pitch black, but full of gorgeous colors.

The young man from the mountains would come to see her every time with a different lantern. He had a gentle voice, and his magic power was not deep, so he could not hurt anyone. He even had to avoid other people when meeting her. But he was so powerful. With just a pinch of his fingertips, thousands of lights would slowly bloom, like fireworks, but quieter than fireworks. The light felt cold when it fell on her body, like the dew in early spring, with a full smell of the mountains.

This memory of Zane is filled with smiling faces of girls.

His tribe lived far away from Qingshui Town, so he had to travel through mountains and rivers every day, his feet cut by the grass and his fur wet by dew, just to make the sick girl smile.

He sat with her on the windowsill and told her many things about the fox tribe. He said that the fox tribe loved to drink and held banquets at midnight. There were many colorful fruits and cakes at the banquets, as well as fruit wine in jade bottles. The fruit wine tasted mellow and fragrant, and ordinary people could not wake up after drinking it for three days and three nights. He also said that at the banquets, foxes would change into the appearance of ordinary people, wearing strange masks, gorgeous clothes, and dancing ordinary dances...

Finally, he said that although the fox tribe was kind, they did not like to interact with the world because the elders of the tribe said that the world was greedy and mean. They would only regard the spirits as demons and beasts and destroy them. Even if there were kind people among them, they would forget everything they had experienced because their lifespan was too short...

The feelings of the world are as short as a drunken fox's sleep for a night. They are charming, yet seem to be true and false.

Quinn Xiao listened to all that Zane had said, and suddenly she grabbed the corner of his clothes tightly with her lotus root-like little hands, "Brother Zane, I will never, ever, ever forget you! Even if I become an old woman with all my teeth falling out, I will never forget you. You are the best person to me. Mother said that people should never forget their gratitude. How could I forget Brother Zane?"

Zane touched Quinn Xiao's furry head and said with a smile, "Silly boy, when you grow up, you won't be able to see me anymore..."

When children gradually shed their childishness and innocence, their eyes will no longer be able to see this magical world. Because of their young age, they will also think that the people they have seen and the things they have experienced are just a dream.

Hearing Zane say this, Quinn Xiao suddenly got angry, and she bit Zane's arm as if in revenge!

"Quinn Xiao, what are you doing?!" Zane felt pain but did not take his hand back.

"Why can't I see you? As long as you don't leave me, how can I not see you?!" Quinn Xiao didn't open her mouth, but just mumbled vaguely. She was the one who hurt others first, but she cried so hard. "You don't want me to play with you because you think I will grow up, get old and ugly, otherwise how could I forget you!"

The child was crying sadly, Zane saw this and hurried to comfort her. He put his index finger on his lips and said, "Shh... Quinn Xiao, don't make trouble. Don't wake up your parents. If they find me, I won't be able to come and play with you."

This trick really worked. Quinn Xiao stopped crying immediately and stared at Zane with big eyes.

In her pupils, a young man's eyebrows, long black hair, perfectly contoured face, upturned phoenix eyes, and gentle smile were clearly reflected...

At the end of the memory, Zane stretched out his arms and hugged the girl into his arms, "Quinn Xiao, if you need me, even if I am at the ends of the earth, I will come back to find you..."

Even if I was already torn to pieces and beyond redemption by then.