Chapter Six: Goli

Li Le had a decent memory. Quickly retracing her steps along the flagstone path, she soon spotted the fifteen-year-old boy in the distance.

To call him a boy was somewhat misleading; he was more a youth on the edge of manhood.

At this moment, the youth stood beside a field ridge, lifting a stone nearly half his own size. His gaze was fixed intently on the ground at the edge of the ridge, much like a young beast stalking its prey.

—Whoosh.

He seemed to have discovered something. In an instant, his eyes sharpened. He hurled the stone down fiercely onto the flagstone path, making the stone pavement beneath him lift at one edge.

Li Le felt the ground tremble beneath her feet from the impact.

Now she understood why the old flagstone road was so uneven—it had all been battered into this state!

And besides… wasn’t this strength a bit unnatural?

What kind of child could so casually heft such a massive stone and slam it into the ground for fun?

Li Le froze for a moment, beginning to question whether her plan to wheedle information out of a child was a grave mistake:

Their physical capacities were worlds apart, and children’s emotions could shift unpredictably. If she wasn’t careful, a single accident could cost her dearly.

But just then, the youth turned his head and spotted Li Le. His eyes lit up, and a broad smile broke across his face.

A chill ran up Li Le’s spine, making her scalp tingle.

Yet she quickly recovered, drawing on her training in facial expression management from school. Li Le curved her eyes into a gentle smile and introduced herself boldly to the youth:

“Hello, my name is Li Le. Brother Bai brought me here. What’s your name?”

The first step in small talk was to close the distance, to reference people or things they both knew and quickly erase any sense of unfamiliarity.

Li Le’s smile softened further, her delicate features making her seem utterly harmless.

The youth’s eyes sparkled even brighter when he saw her smile. He abandoned the stone and walked over.

He stopped, holding himself back when he was still two or three steps away, but his eyes were still shining as he replied, “My name is Lie. Are you the one Big Brother brought back? I saw you standing next to him before!”

Li Le quickly realized the youth was talking about Bai Ye, so she smiled and nodded. “Yes, Bai Ye is my brother.”

Upon hearing this, the youth’s eyes widened in shock. “Brother?!”

Li Le felt his reaction was a bit off, so she asked, “Yes, is there something wrong with that?”

The youth looked conflicted, glancing at her as he said, “…But my father said Big Brother’s little sister hasn’t even been born… She died with their parents when he was very young…”

Brother Bai had a little sister before?

She passed away?

Li Le was startled. In a flash, she understood why Bai Ye treated her with such particular care.

Having realized this, she finally felt relieved. After all, Bai Ye didn’t seem the type to be especially charitable. If he’d taken her in because she reminded him of his long-lost sister, well… everything suddenly made sense.

Having gleaned this information from the youth, Li Le was happy to clear up his confusion in turn. With a gentle voice, she explained, “I’m not Bai Ye’s first little sister. I’m another one.”

The youth still looked puzzled, as if he couldn’t quite distinguish between “first” and “another,” but he still said, “I see.”

Li Le almost burst out laughing, but quickly coughed to stifle it, her eyes still brimming with mirth as she asked, “And how old are you this year?”

The youth’s expression turned proud. He replied loudly, “I’m thirteen! My father says I’m strong for my age, almost like those who go off to do the ‘Ge Rite!’”

Li Le’s interest was piqued, and she casually pressed further, “Oh? Lie is that impressive? But I’ve heard the Ge Rite is very dangerous…”

The youth’s eyebrows shot up, his face even more smug as he declared, “The Ge Rite is dangerous, of course, but that’s for ordinary people. I’m Lie of District Thirteen! Hunting a low-level ‘phantom’ deep in the Death Mist is child’s play for me!”

There were things in the depths of the Death Mist?!

The memory of wandering through that darkness on her way to Cloud City flashed through Li Le’s mind, and cold sweat broke out on her skin.

Compared to her own harrowing ten-day journey through the Death Mist—singing to herself for comfort—the idea of the Ge Rite, venturing into the mist to hunt unknown creatures, didn’t actually surprise her as much as she’d expected…

The youth, meanwhile, had no inkling of her thoughts. His eyes shone with anticipation as he looked at her, as if begging for praise.

Li Le let out a slow breath, flexing her cold fingers, about to say something when—

“You little rascal… hurry up and get home!”

A burly man in a coarse shirt appeared behind the youth, swinging a palm as broad as a fan to swat the back of his head, scolding loudly.

The man still held a hoe in his left hand, his clothes stained with earth—clearly just back from working the fields.

At the sight of him, Li Le’s lips twitched ever so slightly, and she quietly averted her gaze.

—She’d noticed by now: the people here didn’t hold back when it came to corporal punishment. The mere sound of that slap was enough to make her wince…

Lie’s reaction confirmed it—

“Ow!”

Just moments ago so full of swagger, the youth now clutched his head, his eyes brimming with tears of pain as he shouted, “Father! Do you have to hit me that hard every time? Am I really your own son?!”

“You little brat, getting cocky, are you…”

The man, exasperated, began to remove his straw sandal, clearly intent on giving the boy a proper thrashing.

Watching this sudden turn of events, Li Le’s eyes crinkled in amusement. She said nothing, shrinking her presence to quietly become a bystander.

Just then, the boy’s eyes lit up as he spotted her. He shouted, “Father! Father! You can’t hit me right now! Big Brother brought home a new little sister today, and she’s watching…”

“If you hit me, I’ll tell on you to Big Brother!”

The man froze at his son’s words, finally noticing the child he’d overlooked all this time.

Li Le silently grumbled about Lie’s lack of backbone, but her face wore the obedient, well-mannered smile parents loved most:

“Hello, Uncle. I’m Lele. Brother Bai saved me once, and when he saw I had nowhere to go, he brought me back…”

The man, hearing such politeness and remembering his own troublesome son, replied warmly, “…Lele, is it? Just call me Uncle Liu from now on. It’s our first time meeting, and I don’t have much to give as a greeting… How about you take some of my homegrown vegetables back with you?”

Li Le was startled and quickly protested, “Uncle Liu, that’s not necessary—”

He waved her off with a laugh. “Just take them. I watched Bai Ye grow up. Since you call me uncle, you won’t leave empty-handed…”

With that, he turned to Lie and barked, “You little rascal, what are you staring at? Get over to the field and pull up some vegetables for me!”