ITF Chapter44

Bai Heting had always believed that tears were meaningless.

Unlike mothers in ordinary families, Luo Wanyin never reacted to her son’s tears. From a very young age, Bai Heting realized that the act of crying only wasted his physical energy for nothing, making him thirstier and hungrier without yielding a single benefit.

Thus, unlike children in ordinary families, Bai Heting usually neither cried nor made a fuss; his personality was cold, and he disliked talking. To outsiders, the child always seemed cold and unapproachable, his expression discouraging anyone from getting too close, while his temperament was notoriously difficult to understand.

In Bai Heting’s memory, the last time he shed tears could be traced back to when he was five years old. The reason for those tears was a little bird named “Bread.”

The name “Bread” was given by him personally.

His brief fate with Bread began in a foul-smelling, dirty, and chaotic alley.

A small bird lay still at the foot of the wall, appearing lifeless.

Bai Heting walked over to it, squatted down, and poked the soft feathers on its belly with a finger.

The bird actually struggled and flapped its wings twice.

Bai Heting brought it home. He fed it a little water, then took out the dark bread he had half-eaten the night before and shared some crumbs with it.

It didn’t eat.

Bai Heting didn’t force it either.

Next, this nameless five-year-old child gave this half-dead little bird a name.

His vocabulary was limited; he racked his brain and chose a wonderful word from his own knowledge.

Bai Heting called it: “Bread.”

The name suited the little bird not at all. It was entirely gray, scrawny and undersized, its feathers caked with damp mud. It was neither attractive nor edible, possessed no apparent value, and seemed like a creature the world had no particular need for.

But its body temperature was higher than a human’s.

Bai Heting’s palms felt warm when holding it in his hands.

His chest grew warm along with them.

Despite Bai Heting’s attentive care, Bread survived for only three days on water and failed to see the fourth. When Bai Heting woke early that morning, the little bird’s body had already gone cold.

Luo Wanyin’s mood seemed decent lately; he hadn’t lost his temper at Bai Heting for several days, merely treating him like a clump of invisible air, or a ghost.

But this morning, Luo Wanyin actually spoke to him.

“In the future, don’t give names to things like this.” It was one of the rare occasions when he spoke in a normal tone, so calm that it made Bai Heting uncomfortable. “That way, when they die, it won’t hurt as much.”

Bai Heting, who had been crying breathlessly, suddenly fell silent upon hearing this. He stared at Luo Wanyin with his round, wide eyes.

He had heard many vicious curses from his mother’s beautiful mouth. Luo Wanyin cursed his birth, cursed his health, cursed him to die an early death, and occasionally cursed his father, who had never once appeared.

He had long since grown used to these harsh words, able to easily let them go in one ear and out the other.

But at this moment, his tiny heart was torn apart by a single, flatly spoken piece of advice.

A year later, which was also the fourth year after the start of the Ximo Secession War, countless strange faces displaced by the conflict wandered the chaotic alleys. Like many unfortunate Omegas left without protection, Luo Wanyin met a tragic end on an otherwise ordinary day, killed by an Alpha who had lost control.

The room was in an utter mess.

Bai Heting felt that he must have struggled, but his struggle probably only aroused the other party’s sadistic desires, leading to an even more tragic end.

At this moment, Bai Heting agreed with Luo Wanyin’s words.

Perhaps precisely because he had never formally addressed Luo Wanyin, he didn’t feel particularly sad. The naked, disemboweled corpse before his eyes made him sick to his stomach, but the grief it brought him was not even as much as that caused by that cold and stiff little bird.

Another five years passed, and Bai Heting was brought back to the capital by a troop of royal cavalry, who led him into a magnificent mansion.

This was the fourth year after Bai Yi’s coronation. The young king was in exceptionally high spirits. His gaze lingered on the eleven-year-old boy’s youthful yet finely featured face, sweeping over it several times before he asked, “Is your name Ah Ye?”

The people in the slums did indeed call Bai Heting that.

But he told a lie.

“I don’t have a name. Because I didn’t have a home, that’s just what they called me.”

Standing before the king of a nation, he was neither deferential nor overbearing, his expression remaining cool and impassive. Just as Bai Yi’s intelligence reports had indicated, he was an unusual child; eccentric in temperament yet possessed of remarkable courage.

“In the future, this will be your home.” Bai Yi said, getting straight to the point.

Bai Heting was dazed for a moment.

Then, the calmness on his face gradually fractured. His pupils trembled, his expression grew dazed, and his shock was laced with a hint of helplessness.

He was still an eleven-year-old child after all. Bai Yi smiled.

“Listen well,” his king told him warmly. “Bai Heting. That is your name.”

*

At this hour, the domestic servants had long since gone to bed; there was no reason for it to be so noisy outside. Luo Congye stopped his polishing work, stood up, walked to the door, and pushed it open to glance outside.

This single glance left him dumbfounded.

With all eyes upon him, Bai Heting strode ahead without slowing, while a flustered Qiu Chen hurried after him in pursuit.

The general held a noble status, and bursting into the servants’ quarters at night was truly undignified. Qiu Chen grabbed a Beta who was equally dumbfounded and spoke in a rushed pace, “Go call Mister Su.” Then he raised his voice and shouted to the crowd, “What are you looking at? Everyone back to your rooms!” After a second thought, he lowered his voice and changed his mind, “Don’t go back, everyone come out.”

Luo Congye did not return to his room, but he didn’t go out either. He remained frozen in place, unable to figure out the situation.

When he left the general’s bedroom tonight, the general was clearly already asleep. Yet now, he was dressed immaculately from head to toe, looking as though he had just returned from some formal occasion.

Before he could sort out his thoughts, Bai Heting was already standing right in front of him.

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