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墨書 Inktalez
The horse team had a younger sister named Ma Hua, who was eighteen years old and had a smile that revealed her beautiful teeth, making her particularly charming.
Her laughter coexisted with qualities like innocence, generosity, and kindness, which were the common praises everyone had for her.
Yet, life was often unfair; for every blessing given, something was taken away.
She loved to laugh, but she could not speak, nor could she hear any sounds from the world around her.
Her parents often wondered why fate would be so cruel to such a lovely daughter. However, she never complained about the world. Time flowed like a shuttle, and through the ups and downs of life, she grew with a radiant sunshine amidst the stumbling years.
She learned how to communicate and how to be a part of this world. All along, she believed she was no different from ordinary people. Kind-hearted individuals always faced others with sincerity and goodwill.
But while you treat the world like family, the world treats you like a stray dog.
There is truth in this saying. Flowers and wild grasses seek sunlight and grow towards it; birds and beasts chase after reproduction and settle down. Everything in the world is born with its pursuits; how much more so for humans.
She was no exception. Thus, in her eighteen years of growth, wanting to thrive like everyone else required more than just willpower; it also needed something called faith to support it, a faith that stemmed from each person's aspirations.
Ma Hua's brother did not know how the seed of music had fallen into his sister's heart, taking root and sprouting into a tangled tree.
She loved music but could not sing; she couldn't even hear others sing or any musical instruments at all.
This was also the source of her pain. Initially, she attended many schools but was rejected everywhere. No one was willing to teach a deaf-mute how to sing or play an instrument because it seemed utterly ridiculous.
Fortunately, she could still dance; however, her greatest love remained that cello that her brother had gifted her when she was ten.
It was a cello made of maple for the top, with the back, neck, and sides crafted from some other wood. The bridge was made of cow wood, the decorative edges were of linden, and the fingerboard, nut, tailpiece, tuning pegs, and endpin were constructed from ebony.
Although this somewhat worn and battered cello was a birthday gift that the cavalry had drunkenly purchased after a mission at a bar, it still brought immense joy to the girl.
This also laid the foundation for her dream of one day performing with an orchestra in the sacred hall of music, a belief she refused to abandon.
However, learning music is inherently difficult for an ordinary person; for a deaf-mute, it becomes an arduous task, if not utterly foolish.
Words like "crazy," "disabled," or "mentally challenged" thrown at her could not shake her unwavering conviction.
With no one to teach her, she had to rely on herself to explore and practice, again and again…
The cavalry spared no expense in seeking out teachers for guidance, but very few instructors were willing to stick around. For many of those teachers, it was simply an impossible task. Most who agreed to teach her were either in it for the money or were more interested in conducting academic research under the guise of teaching.
Fortunately, after years of perseverance, she had managed to master the cello well enough to rival many others. Yet she still found herself some distance away from meeting the threshold required to join an orchestra.
The cavalry was her brother and her only audience.
So every time he returned from a mission, he couldn't help but hum the sonata titled "Lark" that she had played for him. Each time he listened, it brought him peace and allowed him to cleanse himself in the tranquility of the long night. Although his sister could not hear it, her hands could transport him into a different world.
This is where the greatest charm of music lies—a spiritual paradise that many do not possess.
The cavalry's vehicle passed through the bustling city and along a long alley before arriving at an old-fashioned farm on the outskirts. The farm was only a few acres large and featured an old wooden house covered in vines, with lights glowing from its windows.
The horse-drawn carriage came to a gentle stop, and he stepped down, walking towards the cozy house. The soft sound of the cello floated through the air once more, and he found himself momentarily lost in thought at the doorstep.
The piece he heard was none other than "Anything Goes," a melody he had once enjoyed with his sister at a concert hall where they listened to the orchestra perform.
It was a somewhat melancholic and tranquil piece, filled with tenderness and sorrow, expressing a personal attitude towards life—unconcerned with others' opinions and perspectives. It spoke of solitude as it continued forward, both mournful yet resolute, lonely yet persistent.
This was the first impression that struck him, and it was also one of his sister's favorite pieces.
Inside the hall, his sister sat before the cello, her eyes closed as she poured her heart into the performance. Although there were moments where she struggled with the nuances of the interludes, it did not detract from her earnest attempt to connect with the essence and emotion of the piece. He found himself transported into that atmosphere by her music; at least she had succeeded in that.
When she finished playing, she paused, pouting slightly as she reflected on her control over the strings during the performance.
He pushed open the door with a smile and walked in, approaching his sister who was deep in thought and hadn’t noticed him. He took her hand and demonstrated several finger positions for the scales on the cello, even using sign language to emphasize that her playing had been too heavy-handed.
Only then did she come back to reality and realize it was her brother. Her face lit up with joy as she set aside her cello and rushed towards him. He embraced her briefly before affectionately ruffling her hair.
In a playful manner, she pushed him onto the dining table before heading to the kitchen to prepare a meal.
Watching his sister busy in the kitchen brought back memories of their mother. Despite losing both parents in a rebellion terrorist attack, she had passed on her beauty to her sister.
This house was their only inheritance from their parents and remained the home that they both cherished and protected.
Soon enough, his sister emerged from the kitchen carrying a fragrant bowl of tomato pasta. She leaned over the table, watching as he devoured his meal. The sound of him slurping up noodles filled her with warmth and reassurance. Gradually, exhaustion overcame her, and she fell asleep at the table.
After the horsemen finished eating, he carried the silly girl back to her room and tucked her in with a blanket. Then, he went alone to the back door, picked up a watering can, turned on the tap at the dragon head, filled it up, and walked to the backyard to water the two rows of begonia flowers swaying in the night breeze.
One row was white, and the other was pink.
The autumn wind was cool, and the fragrance of flowers filled the air.
Once he finished watering the flowers, he sat down on the grass, lit a cigarette, and watched as the begonia flowers bloomed beautifully in the early morning.
He took a deep drag of smoke and gazed at the pitch-black night sky, murmuring softly.
"Those begonias you planted are blooming again..."
---
The early morning sky was desolate, just like the hospital.
"The mission in the Fire Flame Island region was supposed to be a B-level task. Yuan Yuan went with Brother Jiu. We thought it would just involve taking down some Jing Yan Beasts. You know how easy they are to deal with; aside from their rock-hard bodies, if you have good aim, you could take down dozens of them without much trouble," Fu Qinqin said, waving her hands in an effort to downplay what happened during Brother Jiu's mission.
"Can you imagine a team led by a General running into problems on such a low-risk mission?" Fu Qinqin looked at Lu Fei Fan and continued before he could respond. "That cursed place has always had its share of legends. No one believed them; for years we mercenaries treated it as a joke. But that cursed place hides a Top Predator!"
"A Top Predator?!" Lu Fei Fan raised an eyebrow. In the Free Federation's classification of monsters, these ocean giants were categorized as minions, leaders, Top Predators, Ancients, and Abyssals...
"Yes," Fu Qinqin nodded. "So when the battle began, we knew how brutal it would be—almost like a one-sided slaughter or predation. Do you want to know what that thing looks like?"
Fu Qinqin paused, looking curiously at Lu Fei Fan with a hint of amusement, and continued, "It's a monster that stands about four to five meters tall, walking on two legs. Its head resembles a large mouth filled with jagged teeth like suction cups, with three snake-like crimson tongues and two massive claw-like hands capable of tearing a person apart and swallowing them whole."
As she spoke, Fu Qinqin mimicked the action of tearing something apart and stuffing it into its mouth.
Lu Fei Fan could easily imagine what that monster looked like.
"What happened next?" Lu Fei Fan asked.
"Well," Fu Qinqin smiled, "the girl named Yuan Yuan tried to cover for the injured during their retreat. She and the other combat personnel wanted to draw the monster away, even though those covering the retreat were prepared for mutual destruction... still..."
She left the sentence hanging; the outcome was clearly implied.
"Fortunately, the alarm was raised in time, and coincidentally, the Free Federation contacted a nearby war god who was on a special mission... but this war god still arrived a step too late.
Brother Jiu witnessed that girl named Yuan being torn in half and devoured by the monster. Of course, if she hadn't pushed Brother Jiu away, he would have been the one swept in half by its tongue." Fu Qinqin calmly glanced at Brother Jiu, who was asleep on the hospital bed.
"What was the relationship between that girl named Yuan Yuan and the shopkeeper's wife?" Lu Fei Fan focused on the key point.
"She is Su Niang's husband's sister," Fu Qinqin explained. "Her brother used to be part of the Special Operations Team, but he fell seriously ill in the radiation zone and had to retire. Now he’s only alive thanks to Radiation Antibiotics."
Lu Fei Fan looked at Jiu Ye and suddenly understood why this man faced those thugs alone.
"And you?" Fu Qinqin lifted her head to look at Lu Fei Fan and asked, "What medicine does your father need to get better?"
Lu Fei Fan fell silent for a moment before responding, “The Jinwu Holy Blood Pill!”
Fu Qinqin was momentarily taken aback.
“I’ve heard of it, but that item hasn’t appeared at the auction house in many years,” she recalled, a hint of concern creeping into her voice. “If it does show up now, given how scarce it is, the price will surely…”
Lu Fei Fan understood Fu Qinqin’s implication. The value of something rare is always inflated by demand. This item was worth ten billion, but after being absent for so long, he knew he wasn’t the only one eager to acquire it. Even if he managed to gather ten billion, the price would likely be driven up to an exorbitant level by others.
“The value of an item isn’t determined solely by what buyers are willing to pay; it also depends on the benefits it brings to its possessor!” Fu Qinqin suddenly declared.
“But people must live in hope, don’t they?” Lu Fei Fan countered.
Fu Qinqin looked at him, unsure whether to comfort or challenge him. Finally, she smiled and said, “Hope is the bread that the poor can never finish.”
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