New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live-Chapter 1088: Crashing Into The Party

Standing back on his feet with some help from Alexander, he and the latter turned to stare at Gu Fang’s doppelgänger.

"What now?" Alex asked, his face scrunching into an unconvinced grimace.

The Fox opened his mouth to talk, but before placing a word, his head snapped up toward the sky, where a cloud as dark as the ocean’s depths had formed.

Streaking within that cloud were flashes of light, some white, some blue, and before long, a single bolt of lightning crashed to the ground not far from Alexander’s group, kicking up a cloud of dust and dirt as a person came tumbling out of it.

Tumbling a bit before stopping on a rock with an "Oof!" audible to everyone present, a dirt-covered Liu Yan rose to his feet, dusting his clothes and looking at Alexander with a wry smile.

"What an entrance, right?" he joked with a nervous chuckle.

***

Two hours before this, at the foot of the mountain, Liu Yan had reached the foot of the Huashan mountain, only to find the waiting area completely empty, Alexander and his team nowhere to be seen.

"Shit... I got here too late. They are already gone," he mumbled to himself, his face turning downtrodden.

It was already close to noon, and Alex had told him they would be here in the morning. He wanted to make excuses about how the customs had held him for hours on end, triple and even quadruple-checking his credentials, but even if they had been here, it felt pointless.

But he didn’t know how to feel now that he made it here, and no one was here to hear him.

It had taken him the entire trip to pick words to express his deep-seated mistrust of people, and he felt like a fool with no one to hear them.

"I finally get myself to try to trust someone, and I get there too late... Good job, Yan. Yet again, you prove yourself right that people aren’t worth fighting for," he muttered.

Sitting down on a bench, he sighed as he grabbed the sides of his head in his hands, trying to figure out his next move.

He wanted to be part of this guild, but further than that, he wanted to be part of their group. What he saw in his few days of travelling with him was something he hadn’t experienced in years.

The feeling of a family bond so tightly knit, people were ready to get hurt, or worse, to protect each other.

Ever since his parents had died when he was a child, Yan had lived with his grandparents, and he didn’t know why; he always felt resentment coming from them. For whatever reason, in their minds, he was never good enough for them, and they never hesitated to tell him.

Moving out on his own to the States for a year had been the drop that made the vase overflow, and when he came back, his grandparents basically treated him like a stranger.

He had felt more appreciated in a few days with them than in the last ten years with his own blood.

Liu Yan didn’t want to admit this, but even though he liked putting up a facade of indifference, he still yearned for something like a family. What person wouldn’t?

He felt the bench under him shake a little as a pair of feet appeared in his peripheral vision.

"Excuse me, but could I be left alone for a bit, please?" he politely asked in Chinese.

"So you came here to lament? That feels like a pointless waste of time," a woman’s voice replied, a slight tone of mocking to it.

Liu Yan frowned, raising his head from his hands, and staring with a confused look at the woman.

An old lady withstood his gaze, a smile on her lips that made his skin crawl. But it wasn’t just the smile that made him suddenly wary.

He could feel a haze of mana surrounding her.

"Who are you, and what do you want from me?" he asked, sliding further away on the bench, getting defensive.

"Relax, young man. I mean you no harm. I just couldn’t help but notice your lament and felt compelled to intervene. What is troubling you? Tell Aunty Yīng," she replied in Chinese. freeweɓnøvel~com

Liu Yan looked at her with reluctance, something inside him telling him to leave while another part was egging him on to talk to this old woman.

Not wanting to waste the effort he had put into building the courage to show trust in Alexander and his friends, he sighed heavily and slumped back forward.

"It’s a complicated matter, Aunty. I wouldn’t want to waste your time with a young man’s inner quarrels," he said, asking the woman indirectly if it was okay to spend her time like this.

The woman waved her hand dismissively.

"I spent a lifetime complaining to others. The least I can do is listen to the younger generation and help guide them. Tell me all about it, young man."

Seeing as she wasn’t budging on listening to him, he shrugged and turned to look at her.

"Let me start by asking a question. In your years of wisdom, have you ever felt like people were not worthy of your trust? That they should all be kept at arm’s length to keep yourself safe from betrayal and heartache?"

The woman looked at him with her unwavering smile and turned to look forward.

"That is a complicated feeling for someone so young to have. I cannot fathom what caused a fine young man like yourself to come to that conclusion. But I shall answer your question, nonetheless.

"While it may be true that sometimes in my long life, I have pushed people away to protect my maiden heart, people are inherently social beings. You cannot go your entire life without experiencing heartache or betrayal.

"Such is the way of life. But that strife and pain is what makes people grow strong. I wouldn’t have made it to my age if I had locked myself away in a room after getting my heart broken the first time or when my friends betrayed me the first time.

"When it happens, you fall, wallow, and hurt. But you pick yourself up and laugh in the face of the betrayers and heart-breakers as you keep living your life stronger from their actions and uncaring of the misfortune they shall bring to themselves."

Liu Yan looked at her with a frown.

"It’s not that easy..."