Chapter 5

“Sister Mu,” Liangzi turned slightly, lowering his voice to consult with Mu Xue, “Yan family’s eldest miss is coming tonight. Jin family’s second son, Lian family’s third branch girls too. Good for business, you know how it is. They asked to spend some time relaxing in Room 3, everything was arranged and reported ahead of time. Do me a solid, yeah? Let’s just pick another kid, I’ll owe you one.”
Liangzi had softened his tone, swapping formality for sincerity, no longer just paying lip service, but genuinely asking a favor. Of course, he name-dropped the big families too, just to remind Mu Xue what she was up against.
What he mentioned were all the infamous rich second-generation heirs of Fuwang City. The families backing them were powerful and deeply entangled in influence. None of them were people Mu Xue could afford to provoke.
Mu Xue lived alone in Fuwang City. She had no family to rely on, and her sect had long since fallen. Most days she immersed herself in artifact refinement and never liked meddling in other people’s affairs.
Logically speaking, with Liangzi lowering his stance and offering her a way out like this, she should have taken the hint and stepped down.
“I’ve got a few rare pieces privately stashed away. How about we go take a look?” Liangzi quickly added.
Ruan Honglian shot Mu Xue a meaningful look: That’s enough already.
Mu Xue looked at the boy but said nothing.
She truly didn’t like making trouble for herself, especially not over a stranger, an overly clever child at that.
The little puppet’s slender arms loosened from the bald man’s wrist and snapped back with a whirring sound that was far from pleasant.
The boy almost immediately understood Mu Xue’s decision.
After a moment of silence, he slowly stood up. The confusion, helplessness, and pitiful vulnerability on his face peeled away in an instant, leaving behind only a cold, weary expression, one that seemed to despise everything.
From the very beginning, in the chaos, he had accurately guessed Mu Xue’s identity and needs. He had seized the moment to demonstrate his value. When Ruan Honglian murmured something earlier, he immediately realized he had revealed too much, and quickly switched to a frightened, panicked act to win sympathy.
Now, hearing Liangzi’s words, he must have realized his goal was impossible to achieve. Too lazy to keep pretending, he simply stopped.
The hand that had been clutching Mu Xue’s robe trembled slightly before its tense fingers loosened on their own.
Without looking at Mu Xue again, he stood up calmly and allowed the bald man to drag him away without saying a word.
The hand that had let go was thin, pale, and covered in scars.
Mu Xue suddenly recognized it.
She remembered those pale fingers that had slipped through the iron bars toward her, clutching a Xiumu Butterfly wing. She remembered the voice, cold and weary in a way that didn’t belong to someone so young.
So it was that child?
“Hey, wait a moment,” Mu Xue called.
The boy being dragged away, Xiao Shan, turned his head. The dimmed light in his eyes instantly flared back to life with urgent hope.
Mu Xue turned to Liangzi. “I only want this child. Brother Liang, help me work something out.”
Liangzi frowned deeply. He hadn’t expected Mu Xue to be so persistent.
“Master Mu, you’re making things difficult for me.”
“If it’s someone I’ve set my eyes on, I will buy him,” Mu Xue said with rare firmness, leaving no room for negotiation. “If you don’t want to do this deal with me, then I won’t take any more work from the Lei family in the future.”
In terms of raw strength and influence, Liangzi wasn’t afraid of Mu Xue. But everyone in the circle knew she was the best artifact refiner in Fuwang City. Who didn’t need powerful magical artifacts for protection?
After thinking for a moment, Liangzi finally nodded and gave Mu Xue this favor.
After leaving the slave market street, Mu Xue and Ruan Honglian walked side by side, casually buying the materials they needed as they went. Cen Xiaoshan, who had just signed his bond contract, followed slowly behind them.
Ruan Honglian teased her. “So capable just now, huh? Master Mu.”
Mu Xue replied, “Stop laughing. You were the one who encouraged me to buy someone.”
“That’s quite the blame to dump on me.”
While they were talking, Xiaoshan behind them stumbled a few steps before quickly steadying himself and quietly catching up again.
But Ruan Honglian, whose spiritual sense was sharp, noticed it. She turned back and studied him. “Look at his leg. Do you think something’s wrong with it?”
Mu Xue stopped and turned around as well.
Cen Xiaoshan avoided their gaze. “It’s just a small injury. It’ll heal soon. It doesn’t affect my movement.”
Mu Xue pressed him down onto a stone block by the roadside, lifted his right leg, and pulled off his shoe.
When the tattered short boot came off, it revealed layers of cloth strips tightly wrapped around his ankle.
The filthy bandages were slowly dripping blood.
Mu Xue held the shoe in one hand and his leg in the other.
Thin skin stretched tightly over protruding bones, unnaturally slender. Yet beneath the bandages, his ankle was swollen to several times its normal size, purple and bloated.
Mu Xue glanced back. On the muddy road they had just walked along, faint red footprints were scattered among the sludge, trailing into the distance.
With a leg like that, he had still run so fast earlier and silently walked such a long distance afterward.
“And you call that a small injury?” Ruan Honglian said coldly. “This leg is basically ruined. The Lei family isn’t exactly honest, hiding an injury like this before selling him to you. We haven’t gone far yet, let’s go back and return him.”
From the moment Mu Xue started removing his shoe, Xiao Shan had remained silent.
He neither defended himself nor begged.
Head lowered, he stared at the ground without saying a word.
The blood dripping steadily from his shoe might as well not have come from his own body.
Mu Xue tossed the ruined shoe aside, stood up, and lifted him into her arms.
For someone at the Golden Core stage, carrying a skinny child like this took no effort at all. She settled him securely on one arm, while the other hand still carried the various goods she had bought.
The little boy, who had been remarkably composed all the way until now, suddenly grew stiff.
He sat rigidly in the crook of Mu Xue’s arm, his whole body tense. Occasionally, those beautiful eyes would turn slightly, sneaking a glance at her.
After all, it was still the body of a child not even ten years old, scarred and worn down from suffering. Now that he had finally quieted down and was being carried along in someone’s warm embrace, sleepiness quickly overtook his exhausted body.
Several times the small boy nearly closed his eyes, only to jerk his head and force himself upright again. He tried to remind himself he must not fall asleep, yet his body’s instinct was impossible to resist.
Little by little, his eyes finally closed as they walked. His body tilted weakly against Mu Xue’s shoulder.
His hair was messy, his small chin delicate. His slightly parted lips released faint white breaths in the cold air. Even in sleep, his brows remained tightly furrowed, his long eyelashes trembling uneasily from time to time.
As sleep finally softened Xiao Shan’s features, the wary lines of hardship faded, leaving the gentle vulnerability a child his age ought to have.
“You know, up close, he’s actually pretty cute.” Ruan Honglian leaned over to get a better look at the boy nestled on Mu Xue’s shoulder. “You really like this little guy, don’t you? Honestly, you’re nothing like your usual self today.”
“He’s that child.”
“Which one?”
“The one I told you about, the kid who helped me catch that Xiumu Butterfly.”
“Oh, that was him? So all this is because of that? Still, you’re overthinking it, who’s to say his ‘help’ was even genuine? With a kid this sharp, you never know what’s really going on in his head.” Ruan Honglian paused, her tone cooling. “Seriously, how many times have we seen it? All soft and innocent on the outside, but peek inside and it’s rotten to the core. Remember how many of our fellow apprentices ended up dying at the hands of those types?”
“A-Lian, you might not know this,” Mu Xue looked up at her old friend, the one who’d trained alongside her since their apprentice days, “but the powder from a Xiumu butterfly’s wings is strangely special.”
“Oh? Special how?”
“It can sense hearts, reveal a person’s truest, most secret feelings, all the things buried deepest inside. That boy once caught the butterfly by its wings, and I saw what happened.” Mu Xue glanced down at the youth still resting on her shoulder. “The butterfly’s light turned impossibly pure and beautiful.”
“For real? No wonder you’re soft on him. Couldn't leave him behind after that.”
“I’m like you, you know, I’m not a fan of clever, calculating types. They always remind me too much of my younger self. But sometimes the world just grinds you down. If the world weren’t so ruthless, what child would ever turn themselves into a miniature mastermind just to survive?”
Ruan Honglian went quiet, lost in memories of the brutal childhood she and Mu Xue had endured together.
But soon she frowned. “Wait, if the Xiumu butterfly’s powder was really that powerful, wouldn’t everyone want it? Prices would’ve gone crazy. How could I not know?”
Mu Xue laughed. “Oh, I forgot to mention, its effects work only on ordinary mortals. That’s why nobody really cares. But I did read somewhere: with training and careful breeding, those butterflies might develop even subtler abilities.”
Mu Xue trailed off, distracted by a sudden, inexplicable emptiness.
She couldn’t shake the feeling she was missing something important.
“Xiao Xue? Why are you spacing out? Earth to Mu Xue!” Ruan Honglian stopped in her tracks, glancing back at Mu Xue, who was standing there, dazed.
“A-Lian.” Strangely, Mu Xue felt a pinch of sourness rise in her heart. “If I die one day, would you still remember me?”
Ruan Honglian snorted. “What’s with the drama? Silly, I’m aiming to become a Demon Lord, thousands, tens of thousands of years alive! Who’s got time to mourn a sweet little airhead like you?”
“Yeah? Honestly, I have no idea why that popped into my head.”
“Whatever. We’ve known each other this long, I’ll at least dig you a nice grave if it comes to that.”
Just like that, Mu Xue shrugged off the random wave of melancholy. “Deal. Whoever goes first, the other one handles the burial.”
In Fuwang City, death was an everyday thing. No one bothered with superstitions or taboos.
With groceries in hand and a drowsy Xiao Shan in her arms, Mu Xue matched banter with her best friend as they strolled home on foot, deliberately skipping all the magical transit, taking their sweet, unhurried time.
The familiar, gentle rhythms of an ordinary walk home soothed Mu Xue’s heart, erasing tension and leaving only calm.