Zhou Zixi remembered what the beautiful woman had told him—don’t look back—so he kept running forward.

His shadow told him to avoid crowded places, to run toward the forests, and not to go to towns.

Zhou Zixi asked what “towns” meant and what “forests” meant.

He received no answer, only a force guiding him to avoid those places.

Zhou Zixi didn’t know that his running speed was much faster than children his age, but he couldn’t control it yet. He ran unsteadily, often tripping.

Once, when climbing over a hillside, he lost his footing and tumbled down the slope, startling someone who had come up the mountain to collect herbs. The person hurried over, shouting: “Are you alright?”

The herb collectors were a father and son. The father had a gruff voice and the face of a mountain bandit chief, yet his gaze conveyed kindness.

The mountain man lifted Zhou Zixi from the pile of fallen leaves. Zhou Zixi, not understanding the situation, didn’t dare move.

The mountain man placed him on the ground and frowned at the scratches on his face and arms from the branches: “That was quite a fall.”

Zhou Zixi allowed these two people to examine him, feeling both curious and nervous, not daring to speak.

The mountain man asked him, “Did you hurt your hands or feet? Does it hurt? Can you still move?”

No matter what he asked, he received no answer.

Zhou Zixi couldn’t understand; he didn’t know how to respond.

So the mountain man demonstrated himself, “Raise your hands, can you lift them?”

Zhou Zixi hesitantly followed the instruction.

He raised both hands, his sleeves sliding down to reveal bruises from the fall.

The mountain man put down his basket and told his son to watch the boy while he took out herbs he had collected earlier and ground them up.

The mountain man’s son, A’sheng, waved his hand in front of Zhou Zixi’s face: “Why don’t you speak? Are you mute?”

“A’sheng, don’t talk nonsense,” the mountain man looked back at Zhou Zixi’s tense face and applied the crushed herbal juice to his face. “It might sting a bit, but it won’t harm you. It will relieve the pain after a while.”

Zhou Zixi allowed him to apply it, only furrowing his brow when it hurt, without making a sound.

A’sheng was a year older than Zhou Zixi and slightly taller. He looked around and said, “Father, he doesn’t have shoes.”

The mountain man: “Did they fall off somewhere when he tumbled down? Look around.”

A’sheng searched through the grass and turned back: “I don’t see them.”

“Child, what’s your name? Where’s your home?” the mountain man asked.

He remembered his name, so he said in a tiny voice: “Zhou Zixi.”

So far in this world, only the beautiful woman, the young master of Zhou, and the old nanny knew his name. To the latter two, his name was also “ghost.”

Beyond his name, he knew nothing.

The mountain man was at a loss, but his conscience wouldn’t allow him to ignore the situation, so he took both children down the mountain toward home.

*

Not far from the mountain was a village and a small town. The mountain man’s home faced a flower field full of colorful blooms, with flowering vines twining around the yard’s fence.

Women were weeding and chatting in the flower field, their laughter audible from afar.

“Cuicui!” the mountain man called to a woman wearing a floral headscarf.

The woman named Cuicui stood up from the flower field and looked back, somewhat surprised: “Why are you back so early?”

“I found a child in the mountains. He fell down the slope. He doesn’t know anything when asked. Ask everyone around to see if any child from the neighboring villages is missing.”

As the mountain man spoke, he unloaded his basket. The women in the flower field stood up one after another to look at Zhou Zixi.

“Whose child is this, so handsome!”

“What’s the child’s name?”

“His surname is Zhou, called Zhou Zixi.”

“I don’t think there’s anyone with the surname Zhou in our village.”

“Let’s ask other villages. How did he come out of the mountains?”

“Did he run away after quarreling with his family?”

Everyone speculated, talking over each other. Zhou Zixi stood frozen, not daring to speak. A’sheng patted his shoulder and said: “Don’t be afraid. Write down your name, and we’ll help you find your parents.”

Zhou Zixi shook his head.

A’sheng: “You don’t want to go home?”

Zhou Zixi didn’t respond.

The people in the mountain man’s village all helped look for Zhou Zixi’s home, but after asking several nearby villages, no family had lost a child.

During this time, Zhou Zixi stayed at the mountain man’s home, temporarily ending his days of drinking rainwater and eating roots.

In the past, he hadn’t eaten poorly in the tower. Now, even eating plain steamed buns, he wouldn’t be picky.

The mountain man said to Zhou Zixi, “Until we find your family, stay here for now. It’s too dangerous for a small child in the mountains; many fierce beasts could eat you.”

Zhou Zixi was bewildered and asked: “What does ‘eat’ mean?”

A’sheng pointed at him and said, “It means you! They’ll go ‘rawr’ and eat you in one bite!”

Zhou Zixi wasn’t scared at all.

A’sheng said irritably: “I’m not talking to you anymore. Father, I suspect there’s something wrong with his brain. I don’t know if he was always like this or if the fall damaged his brain.”

Cuicui, coming out of the kitchen, knocked A’sheng on the head: “How can you talk like that?”

“Mother, why are you hitting me? It’s true! He can’t even write his name or count,” A’sheng grumbled as he left the table. “I’m going to the academy now. When I get back, I’ll teach you how to count.”

Cuicui laughed with mild exasperation: “Such a little know-it-all. You haven’t even learned properly yourself, and you want to teach others.”

*

Soon, the mountain man and Cuicui discovered that Zhou Zixi truly knew nothing.

He didn’t even know his birthday or age.

Having been confined in the tower since childhood, he had no concept of time.

Fortunately, this couple had already raised a seven-year-old son, so they were experienced in teaching children and gradually taught Zhou Zixi new knowledge through everyday matters.

The mountain man and Cuicui weren’t highly educated and didn’t know many characters, but they understood a lot about daily life.

During the day, A’sheng went to the martial academy in town, returning only at sunset. When he came back, he would grab Zhou Zixi to teach him counting, enjoying the pleasure of being a teacher.

This little teacher would occasionally also take his student out to play truant.

Among the village children, only A’sheng had sensed the star power and awakened his star meridian power. Although he had only awakened three meridians, it was enough to make him the leader among the children.

With a wave of his arm, A’sheng would have a group of followers accompanying him as he ran wild from one end of the village to the other.

That evening, A’sheng returned home panting, drenched in sweat. His hair clung to his face, making him look disheveled and messy.

Standing beside him, Zhou Zixi was clean and dry, crouching down to play with a cat using a foxtail grass he had plucked from the roadside.

“Where did you go to get so tired from running?” Cuicui asked the two, poking her head out from the kitchen.

“Mother!” A’sheng gasped, hands on his knees. “Zixi is a monster! He runs faster than I! Not just faster, he doesn’t even get tired!”

Cuicui: “If you had suffered as much as Zixi from childhood, you’d run that fast too.”

A’sheng cried in frustration: “That’s different, Mother! I have three meridians awakened, he, he—”

He lowered his head to ask Zhou Zixi: “How many meridians have you awakened?”

Zhou Zixi honestly answered: “I don’t know.”

“I knew you wouldn’t know. Hey, why don’t you come study at the martial academy with me?” A’sheng turned to call out to Cuicui, “Mother—”

Cuicui smiled with narrowed eyes: “Are you going to pay Zixi’s tuition?”

A’sheng turned back sheepishly and crouched at the doorway with Zhou Zixi to play with the cat.

His family kept two cats, one black and one white. The black cat was always lazily curled up on the windowsill, sleeping. No matter how you poked or scratched it, it wouldn’t respond if it didn’t want to.

It was already an old cat.

Its pure black fur had sprouted scattered white hairs.

The white cat was younger than the black one and more lively. It jumped up and down chasing the foxtail grass in the children’s hands, making them laugh heartily.

The mountain man, returning from work outside, saw this scene and couldn’t help but laugh along.

Initially, he had worried that keeping Zhou Zixi might cause resentment in his son, but now he saw that the two children got along very well.

Zhou Zixi enjoyed playing with the white cat. He found it fascinating. Unlike the aggressive wild animals he had encountered in the forests, it was warm and fluffy, and would rub against the back of his hand.

Every day after dinner, if there was nothing to do, he liked to sit with the white cat on the flat ground outside the yard, gazing up at the stars in a daze.

Although the white cat was lively and active, it didn’t meow much. If Zhou Zixi wasn’t teasing it with something, it would squat beside him, keeping him company as he daydreamed.

While gazing at the stars, finding them beautiful and mysterious, Zhou Zixi would sometimes have strange sensations, as if something was surging within him.

He closed his eyes and heard the sound of star power, indescribably beautiful.

Though formless, it was omnipresent.

In the darkness of his vision, a strand of star line glowing with purple light moved about.

It started raining at night, but Zhou Zixi, with his eyes closed, listening to the sound of star power, didn’t notice. The white cat beside him ran toward the house.

The rain was quite heavy. The white cat, after entering the house, ran out again, meowing as it ran toward Zhou Zixi.

Zhou Zixi opened his eyes when he heard the cat’s call and saw the white cat rubbing against his leg before meowing and running back to the house, standing at the door looking at him.

As if saying, “It’s raining, why are you still standing there? Come back quickly.”

This family was so kind that even their cat cared for others.

*

Summer passed in the blink of an eye, and when autumn came, the mountain maple leaves turned red in an instant.

Perhaps due to abnormal weather, pear blossoms that should bloom in spring sprouted a few flowers on the branches, and as days passed, more and more bloomed.

The flowers in the field joined in the festivity. Cuicui was busy tending to her flower field these days, picking petals to make dyed fabrics.

Zhou Zixi not only ran fast but was also strong, so he began to follow the mountain man out to work, helping him carry things.

He carried a medicine basket with the mountain man to sell herbs to the medicine shop in town. Coming out, the mountain man counted the money and said: “Zixi, would you like to study at the martial academy like A’sheng?”

Zhou Zixi curiously surveyed the street and said, “I’m already learning.”

The mountain man smiled, shook his head, and pointed in the direction of the martial academy: “We can only teach you some common life knowledge, but at the martial academy, you can learn much more, like more characters, and you can also become a cultivator.”

Learning more characters—Zhou Zixi was tempted.

“Can I go?” he looked up and asked the mountain man.

“Of course you can,” the mountain man rubbed his nose and said. “After we save up money for a while longer. Raising children isn’t easy.”

Zhou Zixi remembered these words: save money.

The previously confused child finally found a goal to strive for: to work hard, save lots of money to study with A’sheng at the martial academy, and also save money to buy good shoes for the mountain man and a beautiful headscarf for Cuicui.