Chapter 2
The surviving sub-beast named Zhe Yan tied the baby to his chest with a coarse strip of cloth; after all it'll be difficult to maneuver should his remaining pair of arm too be occupied.
Even if the enemies have departed in the opposite direction, there were still various dangers lurking in the jungle – and he, a mere a sub-beast with limited fighting power, can do little to protect the child if and when danger strikes.
From a very young age Zhe Yan had always wondered why he was born a sub-beast, why the omnipotent gods above sought it necessary to stratify people into echelons, why the 3-lettered prefix separating him from his compatriots actually stood for a gap as expansive as the one between heaven and earth.
But when he grew up, he learned to lower his head and accept fate.
In the end, one can't make a living off of complaining after all.
[]
Zhe Yan clumsily made his way through the jungle, stumbling and tripping along the way, occasionally glancing at baby in his embrace every once and then.
It is said that several children were born in the tribe this year, however it is unknown still to Zhe Yan which household this child belonged.
The fellow was so quiet in his arm, neither screaming nor crying, even his breathing soft.
He would only open his pitch black eyes to look at Zhe Yan when they paused for food or water, and they, being the only features with vitality on his purplish body, held a certain clarity unique to a newborn.
Zhe Yan suspects it is not because the baby's natural temperament was quiet, but that he is so ill even mustering the energy to cry, much less cause a ruckus of any sorts, was difficult.
It is unknown how far they have traveled but exhaustion hung wearily against his heavy spirit when at long last, Zhe Yan caught sight of a thin strip of road near the forest's outskirts.
He knows that it’s the road to the far north, but the place was long rumored to be habituated by gangs of feral wolves.
Every winter, the northern roads would be encroached completely by snow, and in its darkest hours, off limits to even the tiniest sliver of sunshine; chiefly because of this, no one other than the most formidable of warriors dared to venture up the land’s northernmost passage.
Suddenly Zhe Yan felt his legs buckling, and falling to the ground, his vision began fading black.
All night, he had eaten nothing other than a piece of fruit and bleeding profusely still, his body seemed to have reached its final limit, succumbing to the numbness starting in his chest.
It was at this moment the baby finally began to cry, his wailing akin to the whimperings of a small kitten.
Paralyzed on the ground, Zhe Yan struggled to stand up.
With quivering fingers numbed by frostbite, he held the baby awkwardly in his grip and swayed him softly and gently.
It did nothing to appease the baby's feeble cries, however; and his tears only continued to fall incessantly without stop. The child's little face was all crumpled up from crying and ugly wrinkles creased his forehead unsightly.
Zhe Yan felt a little helpless, thinking he must be hungry.
But in this rainy season, forest fruits were prone to fester and in the rare chance they are still edible, often tasted bland and unpalatable, unsuitable for a baby's sensitive taste buds.
Their home was no more;
and his useless self couldn't even catch them a hare for dinner.
Zhe Yan futilely rubbed away the tears sliding down the child's face.
"Don't cry anymore," he said, wetness pooling in his eyes despite his words.
“We all have to live, understand? Even if we are useless — who said those without use are without purpose as well?"
That night, Zhe Yan developed a fever — likely from the rain, his injuries, and excessive fatigue altogether.
He battled with the delirium while walking on the roadside.
Every step felt heavy and surreal as if he were stepping on cotton ground instead of cold, hard surface. There were insects and ants nibbling at his soles, and their bites were both itchy and painful. He felt perspiration drench his robes and whispered a few words to the baby clinging to his chest. He did not know what he rambled to the little fellow in his state of feverish intoxication, nor whether he was understood or not. But it doesn't matter anyway, it was most likely just nonsense.
Finally, on this lonely and tacit road, they chanced upon a horseback rider.
A sliver of hope kindled in Zhe Yan's dull eyes and he ran towards the figure, whom he suspected to be a messenger of sorts.
Chasing after the galloping horse, he yelled, “please wait a moment sir! We need your help! Please, don't go! Help us, please!”
But the haughty cavalryman didn't even turn his head to spare him a glance and disappeared into the horizon just like that.
Zhe Yan's eyes darkened.
Indeed.
Only those with nuts for brains would stop to help out a strange pair like them.
More likely than not, anyone chancing upon them would believe them tricksters aiming to lure and swindle unsuspecting beastmen; after all, in the uncivilized and poverty-stricken north, these types of pranksters were ubiquitous.
Alas when all hope seemed to be lost, a sudden gust of wind fluttered the branches before him and glancing back to the road, Zhe Yan noticed an oncoming caravan in the distance.
Huddled within the caravan were a pack of tribal sub-beasts and guarding them were a few transformed beasts cautiously opening up the road. The were probably merchants intending to trade with the tribes up north, for there were cargoes in the back which looked to be fur goods.
Zhe Yan was hesitant to ask them for help. He was too scared to do so. The leading beast looked so strong and vicious that he would probably beat him to death if he as much as looked at him in the wrong way.
Instead, Zhe Yan knelt humbly on the roadside like an animal, kowtowing in hopes that the travelers would take pity on his cowardly form and perhaps offer some food out of the kindness in their heart.
But of course, that too was another wishful thinking of his, because as if they had not seen him at all, they valiantly passed him by; the clacking hooves of the horses splashing mud upon their faces.
Zhe Yan reacted immediately by checking on the baby’s condition, and only after confirming that he had not been hurt the slightest, looked to the direction of the caravan's departure in bewilderment.
Because he had a fever, his vision was blurry and opaque, and soon they, just like the horseback rider before them, drifted out of view.
Such a world… was truly ugly and filthy.
[]
It was unknown to Zhe Yan that at this moment, a pair of small and sinister eyes had locked onto him and Chang An.
Atop the large tree behind them, a colorful serpent had surfaced to the top, baring its fangs at the two unsuspecting people in front. Towards the sight of a prey, its scales had turned purple with excitement and began to slithered slowly along the trunk until it reached an acceptable distance from Zhe Yan.
Eying the exposed neck hungrily, it finally propelled itself into action.
.
Even if he had no hunting ability, Zhe Yan's senses were still acute enough to perceive danger.
At the instant the serpent jumped, Zhe Yan had picked up on the foul odor from the creature's mouth and skidded out of the way.
He rushed to find a place to hide only to be implicated by a sudden loss of control in his lower limbs.
Collapsing onto the ground, Zhe Yan quickly held up his remaining arm to fend off the snake. He was still bitten nevertheless and the poison from the serpent’s mouth caused a wave of dizziness to reverberate through him.
Suddenly and completely out of the blue, an explosive roar exploded in his ears and then an orc-shaped beast pounced on them, biting the viper off in one mouthful and flunging it to the wayside where they continued their battle.
This beast was covered from head to toe in thick scales unpierceable to even the hardest of serpents' teeth and soon slayed venomous viper. He stood proudly beside his trophy and raised his head towards the morning sun, letting out a victorious roar in the first glimmer of dawn.
From the snake's venom, one can extract a special type of essence known to preserve a woman's youth, making it a much loved commodity in the spheres of nobility.
Immediately afterwards, the beast began shrinking back into his human form, that of an ordinary youth. He carried with him a simple pouch on his back and appeared no different from hunters elsewhere.
He nimbly cut off the serpent's poisonous sarcoma and threw it into his pouch.
Then as he stood up, he finally spared a glance at the person beside him.
“Huh, ” he murmured with an arch of his brows, as if he'd only just noticed their presence, "a cripple and a little thing?" – he whispered to himself.
Zhe Yan stared at him. After much difficulty, he thinned his lips and said;
“I'm begging you…” He pleaded, “please, help us…help us out….”
“Why, was there a tribal war nearby?” The young man asked casually. He proceeded to wipe dry the dagger he used to dissect the snake’s body with before continuing, “So you escaped from the forest behind you? I’ve heard of the tribe that exists within… so you guys are those savage northerners who live in the woods huh!”
“I'm begging you, kind sir, just offer us a little bit of food…”
“Okay alright then. But first, let me take a look at this little thing," he said, crouching down to unravel the rag on the baby's face. He scrutinized the features closely before moving on to the child's little hand, scanning it for signs of beast markings.
A flash of disappointment flitted by his face when he discovered there weren't any.
“He’s not a beast.”
“Please, I…”
The young man sighed and straightened himself.
Looking down at the muddy face of Zhe Yan, he started a bit regrettably, “Just forget it. This weak sub-beast will be of no use to you when it grows up anyway.
"In fact, he's quite sickly and probably won't live to adulthood. I don’t think your condition is any better than his so take my advice and stop struggling. Go back to wherever you came from and pray to the gods you believe in over there. If you please him well enough, perhaps in your next reincarnation, you'll be more fortunate."
Having said all there was to say, the hunter turned and walked away indifferently.
Zhe Yan reached for his robes but his strength was not much bigger than that of ant and in the end he couldn't prevent the other from leaving.
His hand dropped weakly by his side.
It wasn't that this hunter was particularly cruel, but that he had seen and experienced too much.
Food was so precious so how could he waste it on some dying sub-beast?
And…who doesn't want to live?
Just that whether you live or not also depends on fate.
The last glimmer of hope in Zhe Yan’s eyes finally dimmed.
He collapsed beside the carcass of the giant snake and stared blankly into space.
Only his mouth was still murmuring crazily, “save us please…”
A long time passed before finally on this lonely and desolate road, there surfaced a fourth traveler.
He looked still to be a teenager, despite being quite tall, his face carried a certain youthful tenderness which gave away his age. Usually once a little beast is about eight or nine years old, their height would've reached that of an adult sub-beast man.
The teenager was wearing an armor and a fine vine belt was fastened across his waist. The belt was personally weaved by his mother for today was his first journey out into the world.
His footsteps stopped beside Zhe Yan and the rare feather-shaped pattern on his wrist glittered in the rising rays of dawn.
“What did you just say?” The teenager squatted beside the fallen man frowningly. He inclined his ears to listen carefully but still found it difficult to make out any of his incomprehensible mumblings.
Suddenly thinking of an idea, he reached to pluck a leaf from one of the nearby trees, collected a bit of rainwater from the canopy, and offered it to the man, pressing it before his lips. It soon became apparent he have never tended to anyone before when half of the water from the leaf ended up trickling down Zhe Yan's face instead.
Nonetheless, stimulated by the cold water, Zhe Yan regained an ounce of sanity.
Using the trunk of the tree to prop himself, he exposed the baby in his embrace and delivered the water to the child mouth to mouth.
This little beast kid who ventured out for the first time today stared unblinkingly at the baby, for it was his first time seeing one so young it was a bit of a new experience for him.
He merely watched without expressing any opinion.
The baby closed its eyes and gave a weak hum.
Zhe Yan finally raised his head to look at the boy and pleaded hoarsely, “this young master, might you have any spare food? Please give alms to the poor and help us out.”
“Oh, let me search for it,” Without another word, the boy grabbed the bag behind him, and turned it over.
He rummaged for a long time only to fish out a pile of dried meat.
The teenager unexpectedly revealed an embarrassed expression and presented the handful of dried meat to Zhe Yan, saying awkwardly, "this is all I have left."
Zhe Yan abruptly snatched the food from his hands and shoved it down his mouth. He swallowed the meat raw almost without chewing, and when he found one that was particularly tender, he made sure to chew especially well before feeding it to the baby.
But even when chewed into mush, meat was still too difficult for a baby to consume and was immediately spat out.
“Eat up.” Zhe Yan berated, picking up the discarded piece of meat and forcefully stuffing it back into Chang An's mouth, “please, you have to eat to survive!”
The beast teenager watched stiffly by the side, secretly wondering about this scene in his heart and questioning whether the baby could truly survive or not.
In the end, he quietly got up, left behind the bag of dried meat, and ventured into the woods.
At first, Zhe Yan thought he had left, for it was already very nice of him to leave behind his food.
But then – 'putong!' – a loud crash, sounding like a heavyweight dropping onto concrete floor, made his heart thump and forced him to turn back and look.
Trepidation brimmed in his heart, anticipating the worst.
Unexpectedly, it was merely the silent beast child from before. He had returned; and brought with him a slaughtered adult antler.
Antler meat was a kind of delicacy in this world. It was extremely delicious whether consumed raw or roasted, and unlike other types of meat, has little to no putrid odor. But because antlers are so tough and fast, even powerful hunters had trouble catching them, making them a rarely consumed delicacy.
The teenage boy expressionlessly wiped the stains of blood off his cheeks with a hand.
Crouching on one knee, he loosened the dagger at his waist and slashed the antler into eight parts. Then he pushed it towards Zhe Yan and ordered quietly, “eat.”
Zhe Yan stared at him in a daze.
The other suddenly took out a bowl filled with blood from god-knows-where and gestured to the baby with a jerk of his chin, "give him this to drink. My father said that children who drink blood will grow up to become the most valiant of warriors."
Finally, undoing his bag, the teen dumped out the remaining pieces of dried meat and gave them all to Zhe Yan, “have it all. I’m going,” he said.
“Wait!” Zhe Yan suddenly called out, “Wait kid! If you give everything to me, then what about you? You can’t be on your way without food. Didn’t your father ever tell you…"
“Then I'll just kill again,” The teenager interrupted with a shrug. He sharpened his dagger on a sliced trunk and slung it back around his belt unconcernedly.
Zhe Yan opened his mouth but nothing came out and he could only stare at the youth for a length of time. Finally, he lowered his voice and asked, “What’s your name? I’ll repay you one day- even if I don’t live up to that time, when this child grows up, I’ll make sure he fulfills the promise.”
The teenager did not take his words seriously. After all, in the end, they were just a handicapped sub-beast and an infant smaller than even the length of his arm; what can they really do for him?
Nevertheless, he was not the type to step on someone's good intentions, so smiling innocently, he revealed two childish looking tiger teeth and responded;
“Hua Yi.”
He stomp on the dirt beneath his soles for good measure and then finally turned back to the road,
“I am leaving now. Take care.”
Our male lead makes his appearance *-*
did any of you think it was gonna be zhe yan
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
for clarification, the pairing is Chang An x Hua Yi in case anyone is still in the dark