Chapter 768: Child of the Stars

Lu Xun was stunned.

He had anticipated that Chen Ling might ask for all sorts of things, but he never expected the "reward" the other party wanted would be such a question...

"This..." Lu Xun hesitated for a full ten seconds before he couldn't help but speak.

"Director Chen, this question... I... I really don't know how to answer it."

Seeing this, Chen Ling sighed helplessly.

Indeed... this question was too abstract for a normal person, like stopping someone and asking, "If you were to become the leader of Mars in your next life, what kind of ideal empire would you build using your expertise?"

Unless he could concretize the question like he did with Su Zhiwei last time, but now Chen Ling knew nothing about the Domain corresponding to Lu Xun, so he had no way to ask a specific question.

Chen Ling pondered for a moment and spoke again:

"Or... if you don't mind, I can take a look at a glimpse of your past."

Chen Ling's [Painting the Red Face] granted his eyes the ability to peer through the scripts of people's lives. Just as he had seen Yao Qing's past, he could see Lu Xun's past now if he wanted to.

Upon hearing this request, Lu Xun seemed hesitant, but ultimately nodded:

"Alright, no problem."

Chen Ling closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, two strokes of apricot red had bloomed at the corners of his eyes.

His pupils locked directly onto Lu Xun's eyes. The next moment, a mysterious flash of red passed by, and Lu Xun felt a pain in his mind, falling into a brief trance!

A fragmented "play" flooded into Chen Ling's mind through their gaze.

……

Boom—!

A bolt of lightning tore through the dim sky.

Chen Ling opened his eyes and found himself in a wild mountain forest. Rain poured down from the dark clouds, surging down the mountain path in wave after wave.

Chen Ling was startled, looking around in confusion. There were no buildings or houses in sight, only endless darkness, forest shadows, and heavy rain.

Snap!

A drenched boy stepped through a puddle and stumbled headlong into the dim forest shadows.

"...Hm?"

Chen Ling saw the boy's appearance clearly; it was a young Lu Xun. Although he didn't know what was happening here, he followed him quickly.

Chen Ling had no physical form now, moving through the forest like a ghost; even the rain passed right through him.

In the darkness, the boy seemed unable to see his surroundings clearly, falling heavily to the ground several times, only to stand up through sheer willpower and continue gritting his teeth to sprint forward.

He would look back from time to time, as if afraid of something. His pale face had no color, looking haggard instead.

"...Is this one of his most unforgettable memories?"

Chen Ling watched the boy running with the stubbornness of a cockroach, his confusion deepening. "What is he afraid of? What is... behind him?"

Chen Ling looked back, but could only see a misty blur. In Lu Xun's memory, that part had not been concretized.

He followed the young Lu Xun as he ran wildly downward, until the boy tripped over a stone in the dark, rolled rapidly down the wet mountain like a sandbag, and slammed into a giant boulder. He was knocked slightly off course and caught on a tree branch hanging over a cliff.

Scarlet blood trickled from the boy's forehead. His consciousness was already blurred, and he lay among the branches like a corpse, letting the rain slide across his cheeks and wash away the blood...

Chen Ling watched this scene quietly, his brow furrowing tighter and tighter.

Just then, a breeze swept across the land, and a corner of the thick dark clouds was pulled back. Dim starlight reflected in the boy's pupils like a faint veil. As Lu Xun's consciousness gradually faded, that corner of starlight from the scattered clouds seemed branded deep into his memory, brilliant as a dazzling gemstone.

Three seconds later, he passed out.

Almost simultaneously, beams of flashlight light emerged from the darkness. They seemed to be searching for something, and finally, someone saw Lu Xun hanging on the branch and exclaimed as they ran toward him!

"Over here!! Over here!"

"Is that the child who reported the crime?"

"It's him! He actually escaped from the human trafficker's stronghold alone? That place is a full ten kilometers away from here... And it's raining so hard in the mountains, how did he manage it?"

"This branch saved his life; otherwise, he would have fallen off the cliff by now."

"Quick, get him up..."

“……”

Noisy voices rang in everyone's ears, followed by chaotic figures beginning to retrieve the boy. At the same time, the scene before Chen Ling gradually shattered.

After a brief pause, a new scene appeared before Chen Ling.

……

"He is the only child who survived?"

"Yeah... those traffickers used boats to send the other children to Southeast Asia. Only this child escaped before boarding. After finding a chance to call the police, he ran over ten kilometers of mountain road in the rain before being found."

"No wonder..."

In front of the orphanage gate, two figures were whispering under the eaves. One of the old men looked back at the boy sitting alone in the room, his expression complex.

"The child's biological parents are still in prison, and the relatives he lived with before don't want him either. Now we can only send him to you."

"So many children were taken, and only he escaped... This child is very smart and has enough courage." The old director nodded slightly. "I like smart children; let him stay."

"Alright... then I'll be going."

After the other person said goodbye, he drove the car at the orphanage entrance and left alone.

After the old man watched him leave, he walked straight into the house. At this moment, the boy was still staring at a small mirror on the table, as if in a daze.

"What are you looking at?" the old man asked, walking to his side.

The boy didn't speak, just lifted a corner of his hair, exposing a scar with irregular edges that looked extremely hideous.

"A scar?"

"The shape of this scar looks like a star." The boy's eyes were like stars.

Seemingly not expecting the young Lu Xun to answer like that, the old man was stunned for a moment before laughing a few times:

"It does look like a star... After all, you are a child of the stars."

"Child of the stars?"

"Not just you." The old man pointed to the Big Dipper on the wall. "Do you know, the zinc in our blood comes from the dust ejected into the universe after two neutron stars collided; the trace amounts of copper in our bodies require witnessing the death of a white dwarf; even the most insignificant cobalt comes from a nebula billions of light-years away..."

"Earth cannot nurture humans; all of us... are children of the stars."

The young Lu Xun raised his head, looking at the pattern of the Big Dipper on the wall, lost in thought.