Chapter One: Born of the Same Root (Please save, vote monthly, recommend, and add to your bookshelf.)
“The child of sin is about to be born. General, I entrust you to ease my worries…”
“Your servant obeys!”
Outside, the wind and rain howled, thunder resounded, and pale lightning cast its glow upon the face of a woman, drained of color from agony.
“Ah—”
She clutched the bedsheets in a death grip, veins standing out on her wrists, and with each cry of torment, finally gave birth to two wailing infants.
But outside the window, a figure approached slowly through the rain—robed in blue, wearing a bamboo hat, face concealed by a black mask etched in dark patterns. Amidst the storm, his deep voice rang out, devoid of emotion:
“Palace maid Su Mei, poor and low-born, you schemed to seduce the emperor and taint the Li Tang bloodline. Your crime shall be punished by death.”
Inside, the midwife had just wrapped the newborn twins in swaddling cloth.
Still unable to open their eyes, one infant, in a haze, seemed to hear that familiar voice and was suddenly startled.
How could he not recognize that voice?
It was the General!
In his previous life, he’d followed “Painting Rivers and Lakes: The Unworthy” from its very first season—ten years in all!
And now, his identity…
Li Xinghe?
That unlucky substitute?
Old Li’s reserve blood bag?
The General wouldn’t even let Li Xingyun shed a drop of blood to unlock the Dragon Spring treasure. Truly, I could cry!
Born of the same root, why must we torment one another so?
First become him, then surpass him!
But under the manipulation of the Unworthy General, Li Xinghe became a laughable, pitiful figure. He always possessed that bloodline, only he had never known it.
A single line: “Boss, I did it, I did… well!”
Yuan Tiangang: “You did it, you did well, but from the beginning, you never had the right!”
Then, curtain falls!
He hadn’t even had his own name before dying.
Fake Li—ha!
Li Xinghe was only a nickname given by netizens.
Thinking of all this, the infant panicked, limbs flailing until he touched the other crying baby beside him.
“This is… another? My brother?”
But wait, in the original comic, Li Xinghe had no brother. Could my intrusion have caused another to appear? Are we twins now?
He suddenly realized something—it seemed he might not actually be that unlucky Li Xinghe, but the extra child brought about by his own crossing.
Yet this was an utterly catastrophic beginning!
Who was outside?
Yuan Tiangang, the Unworthy General!
The strongest in “Painting Rivers and Lakes: The Unworthy”!
And himself?
A newborn infant—what now?
Would he, like in the original, become Old Li’s backup blood bag, Yuan Tiangang’s pawn, used to ignite Li Xingyun’s so-called kingly ambition?
Waaah—
In desperation, he tried to speak, but only an infant’s cries escaped his lips, as if he could change nothing.
Was he doomed to accept his fate, to become a mere pawn?
As anxiety consumed him, a birthmark on his arm suddenly shone with light, and enveloped in its radiance, the infant vanished.
Only the midwife, Su Mei, and the twin brother remained behind.
The abrupt change stunned both Su Mei and the midwife, but there was no time to investigate. Su Mei looked weakly at the remaining child and instructed the midwife: “Take him… away.”
But at that moment, the door crashed open.
Thunder boomed, lightning illuminated Yuan Tiangang’s silhouette, standing amid the torrential rain.
He looked inside and saw only one infant. Instantly, his figure flashed, seizing the remaining baby and gripping the midwife’s throat, demanding, “Where is the other?”
“I… I don’t know!”
“Hmph!”
He snapped the midwife’s neck, then turned to Su Mei, reaching out his hand…
Yuan Tiangang carried the lone infant from the house. “The Empress wants you dead, but I promised you life!”
Inside, two bodies disguised as white-silk hangings swayed in the gloom.
—————
“Waaah—”
The infant landed on the ground, as if he’d struck something hard. For a delicate, newborn child, the pain was immense.
He had no idea where he was, unable to open his eyes, but there was no sound of wind or rain. Could he have escaped?
“Roar—”
Before he could relax, a tiger’s bellow rang out, followed by a wave of foul, animal stench.
A fat, white-browed tiger sniffed at the infant, then extended its tongue, about to lick him.
The child, oblivious to the danger, kept crying.
Yet, in his heart, he was frantic. That tiger’s roar was clear as day—he’d escaped the wolf’s den only to fall into the tiger’s lair.
He wondered if Yuan Tiangang, disgusted by his surplus existence, had fed him to the tiger.
Was this how he would die?
“Da Huang!”
“Back to your den!”
A shout rang out, and the tiger whimpered obediently, then trotted away.
The infant felt someone lift him up. The owner of that voice, clearly angry, said, “What heartless parents, to throw a child into the tiger enclosure!”
The speaker frowned as he examined the swaddling cloth—a dirty scrap, yet made of silk, long unwashed.
What enraged him further was that the infant’s body showed no warmth. Hearing the baby’s cries, he hurriedly carried him to the hospital.
With much effort, they left the scene.
In the hospital, the man smiled apologetically, listening to the doctor’s scolding: “How could you take a newborn child out like that?”
He spent his meager wages to buy formula and supplies, clumsily caring for the baby with the help of nurses.
“This child isn’t yours?”
The man shook his head, pitying the infant. What kind of heartless parents would abandon a child in the tiger enclosure?
Truly inhumane!
If not for him…
Had it been someone else, the child might not have been saved.
—————
Five or six days passed.
With formula feeding, the infant finally opened his eyes.
The first thing he saw was the man who had saved him.
He was not handsome, carried a timid air—someone who endured grievances without complaint, an honest man.
Yet his appearance evoked a sense of familiarity in the infant, as if he’d seen him somewhere before.