Ming Li thought of her senior brother Chen Zhou as a big tree.

And she wasn’t the only one who felt this way.

When they were young, she and her brother argued about who was their father’s biological child. As they argued, they suddenly thought of Chen Zhou, and both fell silent simultaneously. Turning from enemies to friends, they redirected their hostility toward Chen Zhou, who was quietly eating his meal, ignoring them.

Only when he could no longer hear their voices did Chen Zhou look up and ask, “Why did you stop arguing?”

Ming Li sat down reluctantly. Dong Yexun said resentfully, “You’re father’s real son!”

Chen Zhou found this amusing and tapped the edge of his bowl with his chopsticks, saying, “Not by birth, but might as well be. What, are you jealous?”

Dong Yexun snorted and sat down next to Ming Li. The two remained silent, just staring at Chen Zhou.

The more they stared, the more amused Chen Zhou became. “I already said I’m not his biological son.”

Dong Yexun asked, “Then why does he always take only you when he goes out?”

“Because you two are still young—one just entered the Perception Realm, and one hasn’t even reached it yet. He’s afraid it would be dangerous to take you out,” Chen Zhou said, then nodded toward Ming Li. “Especially your sister. If he took her out, who knows whether she’d hurt others or they’d hurt her.”

Ming Li said unhappily, “What’s wrong with not being in the Perception Realm? He still can’t beat me.”

Dong Yexun retorted, “You call that not being able to beat you? I was showing mercy!”

Ming Li snorted, “That sounds pretty.”

Dong Yexun challenged, “Get up!”

Ming Li refused, “Not getting up.”

Chen Zhou tapped his bowl again, “Enough, stop arguing. You two are always bickering. It gives me a headache. If Master didn’t ask me to go with him, I’d have to beg him to take me out.”

“I guarantee you’re both Master’s biological children, okay?”

The two children replied in unison, “Not okay.”

Chen Zhou sighed, “I saw it with my own eyes. The Mistress…” He paused and changed his words. “Anyway, I’m not. When Master found me, I was a beggar on the streets, digging through garbage for food.”

It was the first time the siblings had heard him talk about his past.

Chen Zhou continued eating as he spoke, “If it weren’t for my boldness, stealing from Master himself—I stole the snack he was bringing to the Mistress—”

Stealing from Dong Yeshou.

This was the proudest moment of Chen Zhou’s early life.

He ran through those filthy alleys, only concerned with finding enough to eat each day. From sunrise to sunset, his only thought was how to survive that day, outwitting those who chased and drove away beggars. His days were somehow fulfilling.

As a beggar, Chen Zhou didn’t think too much about the future or survival; he just instinctively kept living.

So when Dong Yeshou caught him, he wasn’t discouraged. He’d just lost one meal; he could find another.

Dong Yeshou looked at the beggar boy lying on the ground, panting and too exhausted to run anymore, while he stood casually to the side.

It was early winter that night, and the weather had turned cool. The street lanterns appeared and disappeared in the thin fog.

Dong Yeshou said, “These things will be cold by the time I deliver them.”

The beggar boy lay on the ground, laughing a few times, thinking to himself, “That’s your bad luck.”

He was prepared to be beaten.

But Dong Yeshou said, “Since you want them so badly, get up and finish them all.”

“…Really?”

“Really.”

The beggar immediately got up, opened the food box, and devoured the contents ravenously.

Dong Yeshou brushed the dust from his shoulders. The night wind grew stronger, blowing fallen leaves in a swirl toward their faces. The small one ate while the big one swept away fallen leaves.

The beggar didn’t care what tricks this man might be playing. He only wanted to fill his stomach. Even if the food was poisoned, it didn’t matter. If he had to die, he wanted to die with a full stomach.

After eating his fill, he lay down on the ground contentedly and began thinking about how to escape. But he saw the man bend down, collect the food box, pick it up, and walk away.

Without saying a single word to him.

The beggar was stunned. He sat up again and silently watched the man walk away.

Other beggars occasionally encountered kind-hearted people who would give them water to drink or a steamed bun or cake. But for some reason, the beggar boy had never met such people. He was rather unlucky, unlike the fortunate beggars who, even when caught stealing, might meet kind owners who would let them go without beating or scolding.

When he was caught, he was always beaten severely.

After all, he was a thief, and being beaten was deserved.

Meeting Dong Yeshou was the first time good fortune had smiled upon him.

From the incident with Dong Yeshou, the beggar vaguely realized that stealing from others was wrong. Occasionally, he would wonder if eating the contents of the food box that day had caused trouble for that man. Was it meant for his wife or daughter? Would they throw away even the food box because a beggar had eaten from it? All sorts of jumbled thoughts.

For some reason, after that time, he learned to think about things beyond mere survival.

He unconsciously restrained his impulse to steal and began searching through garbage heaps for food.

Two months later, they met again.

There was a lively fireworks festival in the city. The riverbanks were lined with visitors. The beggar, attracted by the smell of food, lay weakly on the ground, too hungry to move. Passersby avoided him.

His gaze quickly passed over these people. As he got up, he suddenly bumped into someone. Looking up, he saw that familiar yet strange face again.

“Hungry again?” Dong Yeshou said, taking a skewer of grilled meat from the colorfully dressed woman beside him. “Here, for you.”

The beggar hesitated for a moment, then reached out to take it.

His first thought was, surprisingly, that He still recognizes me.

The colorfully dressed woman looked at him and gave him all the remaining food in her hands.

Dong Yeshou asked her, “You’re not eating?”

The woman shook her head, her gaze drifting lightly to the fireworks blooming in the night sky in the distance.

This was still just a brief encounter.

The beggar, driven by some unknown psychology, quietly followed the two, watching them return to their resting place together. But that was all. After that day, he never went there again and even deliberately avoided going in that direction.

However, from that day forward, the lone wanderer learned how to make friends.

Inexplicably yet seemingly guided, he changed a lot. From someone who only needed to fill his stomach and live day by day, he became someone who would think, restrain himself, and help others.

Sometimes when the beggar looked back, he found it incredible and puzzling.

Until the spring of the following year, he met Dong Yeshou for the third time at the riverside where they had watched fireworks the year before.

This time, Dong Yeshou spoke to him first.

He handed over a stick of candied haws.

As the beggar reached out to take it, he asked, “Why don’t you despise me for being a dirty beggar like everyone else? Why do you actively approach me?”

“What beggar?” Dong Yeshou smiled. “Just a child.”

After that day, he became the disciple of the Bei Dou Gleaming Light Academy’s principal.

Dong Yeshou taught him many things. No one could imagine that the upright and noble senior brother of Bei Dou had once been a beggar. Many times, Chen Zhou almost forgot it himself, because his master always called him “child, child.”

Many years later, he returned to those filthy places. This time, the experience was even darker and more unbearable than his childhood.

*

Only Dong Yeshou knew about Chen Zhou’s childhood. Dong Yeshou had never told anyone else in Bei Dou.

On that occasion, Chen Zhou had taken the initiative to tell Ming Li and Dong Yexun to prove that he truly wasn’t Dong Yeshou’s biological child. The two children whispered among themselves and accepted it, but never mentioned these things to others.

Even Qing Ying and Fu Yuan didn’t know.

Ming Li was still reminiscing when she realized that Xiang An’ge had left at some point, leaving her alone in the room. A cold breeze blew in, and when she turned around, she discovered that the person sitting opposite her had changed to Zhou Zixi.

She blinked and asked, “Why didn’t you call out to me when you came in?”

Zhou Zixi looked at the papers with writing on the table and said casually, “You seemed to be having such a good conversation with Xiang An’ge. I didn’t dare disturb you.”

Ming Li replied, “Next time, remember to disturb me.”

Zhou Zixi pointed to one of the papers, “Looking for Chen Zhou?”

“Qing Ying says he’s in the west, likely related to Tai Yi,” Ming Li said. “Do you know anything about it?”

Zhou Zixi lightly tapped the table with his finger without answering immediately. His gaze lingered on the paper with “West” written on it, recalling what that woman had said before she died:

“I named you,” his mother had knelt in the lightless room, gently cupping his face. With each word, the blood seeping from the corner of her mouth grew darker. “Zhou is your father’s surname. I curse the entire Zhou Clan bloodline to die miserably, all descendants to perish.”

“And you…”

Her words remained unfinished as the door was opened. The light that streamed in allowed him to see the hatred frozen in his mother’s beautiful eyes.

Perhaps you, too, will die miserably, as in her curse.

That was the first time he saw a truly dead Earth Ghost.

Zhou Zixi lowered his eyelashes, his finger pointing at the paper as he said, “The west, perfect.”

Ming Li: “Hmm?”

Zhou Zixi bent his finger and ignited the paper, “I want Tai Yi’s Star-Shattering Slip. Senior sister, you want to find senior brother. This works out perfectly.”

Ming Li looked at him for a while and asked, “Unhappy?”

Zhou Zixi replied, “No.”

Ming Li thought for a moment, then said, “I remember when you, Qing Ying, and my brother went out and got into a conflict with the disciples of East Yang, injuring several of their disciples.”

Zhou Zixi said expressionlessly, “Senior sister.”

“My brother wasn’t a Bei Dou disciple, so he didn’t need to be punished. But you and Qing Ying were different. Every time you caused trouble and returned, you had to kneel in contemplation. It snowed heavily during those days, and East Yang wouldn’t let the matter drop. They kept demanding that Bei Dou hand over the disciples who had injured their people for them to deal with.”

She had seen Zhou Zixi kneeling in contemplation during a heavy snowfall. In the snow, the young man’s back was straight, fearless, and unafraid. Qing Ying sneezed several times in succession and secretly used her Physical Meridian. Zhou Zixi gave her a sidelong glance and said, “You’d better be careful not to let anyone discover that.”

Qing Ying tried to persuade him to cheat together, saying that even if they were punished again, at least they’d have each other for company.

Zhou Zixi said he wouldn’t accompany her to face another punishment, and if he ever listened to Dong Yexun and her nonsense to leave the mountain again, he would be a dog.

Chen Zhou, holding an umbrella, walked past the two. Both Qing Ying and Zhou Zixi called out, “Senior Brother!”

The implication was clear: save us.

Chen Zhou laughed coldly, “You deserve it. You dare to come back after causing such trouble?”

The two drooped their heads dejectedly.

*

Zhou Zixi said expressionlessly, “I know it was you, senior sister, who settled this matter.”

Ming Li shook her head and said, “It wasn’t me. It was a senior brother.”

Zhou Zixi looked up at her.

Ming Li explained, “He was just talking. Bei Dou was selecting a vice-head for the Disciplinary Hall at that time. Senior brother doesn’t like trouble, so he didn’t join the competition. But later, for the sake of his troublemaking junior brother and sister, he used underhanded tactics to eliminate senior brother Fu Yuan and the others from contention. He became the vice-head himself, went to negotiate with the people from East Yang, and returned after being thoroughly berated by their principal. He got you two released early.”

Chen Zhou always found a way to protect what he wanted to protect.

Although his position as vice-head of the Disciplinary Hall didn’t last long—he was soon removed from office after Fu Yuan and the others reported him for abuse of power.