Family Cultivation: I Become a Mirror-Chapter 216 - 200: Ping Yi

Li Pingyi heard a bout of crying in his hazy consciousness. He took a few steps and saw a little boy sitting outside the door, tears wetting his eyelashes as he sobbed. The sunlight shone on the side of his face, making him seem quite adorable. Li Pingyi stepped forward and heard a childish voice come from his own mouth.

"Xiu'er…"

The boy lifted his lashes and turned his head to look at him. Li Pingyi heard himself declare with certainty,

"I would be sad if you died too."

…

"Hmm."

As his blurred vision gradually cleared, Li Pingyi finally woke up from the dream. He felt a terrible pain all over his body, his mouth bitter and astringent with the taste of blood; his chest bone was broken, and his leg was so sore it was numb, likely broken too.

Two flies were buzzing in front of him, chasing each other through the air. Li Pingyi wanted to swat them away, but nothing he raised in an attempt succeeded. He wriggled in bed and finally noticed someone sitting quietly by the bedside, his complexion dark as stone, simply sitting there, watching him.

"Father…"

Li Pingyi uttered the word, and Li Xiewen's expression remained unchanged, silently observing him with neither joy nor sorrow.

"My hand…"

Li Pingyi's mind was foggy, everything felt distant and muddled as he called out with a hoarse voice.

"Gone."

Li Xiewen finally moved his throat and quietly uttered two words.

Li Pingyi felt as though he had been slapped across the face. Stunned for a moment, all his memories finally came flooding back—the Treasure Bead, Thunder Fire, the collapsing house. Li Pingyi suddenly began to thrash violently, crying out,

"Young Master?!"

Li Xiewen's throat moved again, disgorging two more words.

"Gone."

Li Pingyi croaked twice like a chicken choked mid-crow, tears streaming down his cheeks in an outburst as he said,

"Gone."

Li Xiewen watched him somberly, witnessing Li Pingyi's silent tears escalating to loud sobbing, then to furious cursing, until he abruptly stopped.

Because Li Xiewen had slapped him across the face.

"Slap."

Li Xiewen backhanded his other cheek, dazing him, then placed his hand on Li Pingyi's neck. As he writhed on the bed, Li Pingyi cried out,

"Father, I still have unfinished business."

Li Xiewen looked at him with a cold gaze. Li Pingyi wriggled on the bed, looking around, and finally spotted the half-charred Wooden Slip by the head of the bed. He stopped his tears and said softly,

"The Young Master asked me to deliver this book to Yuanyun. Please, Father."

Li Xiewen appeared to freeze for a moment, then two drops of scorching tears fell. With a hoarse voice, he said,

"That Treasure Bead was your offering."

"It was, my child."

Li Pingyi forced out the three words through his clenched teeth, collapsing as if his spine had been removed. Tears streamed down Li Xiewen's face as he said hoarsely,

"You have always been the ease of my mind since you were little, clever and quick-witted, knowing when to advance and when to retreat. Except for lacking a Spirit Aperture, you are no less than the children of the Yuan generation."

"Your father, I was dull since I was a child. If I hadn't had a good relationship with brother Xuanxuan, and if my younger brothers weren't incompetent, the position of steward would have never come to me."

Li Xiewen couldn't stop his tears and continued,

"Then you were born, those black glistening eyes just staring at me. I thought, this child will surely be someone who gets things done in the future, better than me, definitely better than me." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Li Pingyi, lying on the bed, had his father's tears in his mouth, both bitter and astringent. He moved slightly, tears uncontrollably streaming down as he sobbed,

"Father… I am sorry."

Li Xiewen wiped away his tears, patted his eldest son, and gritted his teeth,

"But Xiu'er is dead... Li Yuanxiu is dead! That was Li Yuanxiu! The Li Family's Young Master! The legitimate eldest, the mission your grandfather handed over to me, and I, in turn, entrusted to you! Do you understand that?"

Li Pingyi closed his eyes and answered,

"Father, I understand."

Li Xiewen slowly stood up, placed the scorched Wooden Slip into his sleeve, stared at his eldest son's face for a while, then shook his sleeve and walked out of the room, quietly closing the door behind him.

Li Pingyi was dazzled by the glaring sunlight brought in by the opening of the door, his vision filled with sparkling brightness. As his father left and closed the door, the room once again plunged into deep darkness.

The dim light of the lamp on the desk flickered, but it was too far from Li Pingyi, preventing him from seeing the surroundings clearly. He wriggled on the bed like a worm, poking his head over the edge.

Squinting his eyes, it took him a while to realize his eyes had been injured by Thunder Fire, the left eye almost completely blind. Focusing with his right eye, he finally noticed a wooden bucket at his feet, made of mountain wood, its rim carefully bound with iron, tightly sealed without leaking a drop of water.

It was a bucket of bloody water, possibly left from when Li Xiewen had wiped down his body earlier, both fishy and foul-smelling, with a gray rag floating on the surface like a dead fish.

"Not bad."

Li Pingyi estimated the distance, shifted his angle slightly using his one unbroken leg, took a deep breath several times to ease the pain from the pressure on his broken bones caused by turning over, and then kicked hard.

"Splash!"

He plunged headfirst into the bucket, the blood just covering his chest. A large amount of blood poured into his mouth, and fearing he couldn't keep still, Li Pingyi used his only movable leg to firmly wedge himself against the corner of the bed.

His nose grew increasingly sweet. Li Pingyi started to cough violently, bubbling noises emerging in the water as he convulsed, inhaling the bloody water and then forcefully coughing it out again. His body stiffened and tensed up, the stress causing him to wet his trousers with urine.

Light appeared before Li Pingyi's eyes, and he faintly saw the faces of his father, Li Xiewen, his mother, and Li Yuanxiu, each flashing before him. A thought surfaced in his mind.

"To see them one last time before death, that's worth it."

-------------

Li Xiewen stood outside the door with his eyes closed, his hands clenched white, tears flowing uncontrollably, and he only stopped shaking after the gurgling sounds from inside ceased. He then made a few choked sounds and slowly collapsed to the ground.

He lay there for a while, unable to tell which side was the beam and which was the ground, moving slightly. When his vision cleared, he saw a pair of boots.

Li Xiewen looked up and saw a face that resembled Li Yuanxiu by seventy percent but with finer and more ferocious eyes, staring straight at him as a low voice said,

"Uncle Xiewen, where is Li Pingyi?"

Li Xiewen stood up and said softly,

"I have seen Young Master Yuanjiao. After witnessing the Young Master's death, Li Pingyi was so heartbroken, he has gone as well."

Without looking at Li Yuanjiao's shocked expression, he took out half of a scorched Wooden Slip from his chest, held it out with both hands, and said solemnly,

"This item was entrusted by the Young Master to be delivered to Young Master Yuanyun. Li Pingyi was only worried about this matter and has already passed it on to me!"