2 The Expectations of the Dead (1/2)

”Immortality? Sect?” Yun Bei Fen's uncle knitted his brows and looked questioningly at Baili Chao. It wasn't that he had never heard of such things but … ”We're only simple people. I'm sure Xiao Fen won't be of much use there.”

Baili Chao looked at the boy and smiled. ”It's not about being of use. I just want to give him an opportunity to improve himself, to make more out of his life than he is able to right now.”

Yun Bei Fen's uncle still wasn't convinced. ”But won't he … make things difficult for you?”

Baili Chao didn't answer directly. Instead he looked around the room, his gaze seemingly penetrating the walls before it returned to the face of Yun Bei Fen's uncle. ”Is he making things difficult for you and your family?”

The man was stunned. Was this man really an immortal? How was he able to know … He hastily lowered his head to not show his emotions. ”Xiao Fen, why don't you go in and play with your brothers for a bit?”

Yun Bei Fen looked up and nodded before obediently hurrying away. His uncle sighed when the boy was out of earshot and only then did he look up again.

”It's not that I don't want to have him here. He's my brother's child. Naturally, I also want to take care of him now that he's alone. But we're poor people. We never had much. How am I supposed to suddenly care for another child? And Xiao Fen …” He sighed again and looked at the door through which Yun Bei Fen had just left. ”He's not a difficult child but he loved his parents very much. It's obvious he misses them and whatever we do we can't replace them.”

”Nobody expects you to do so. A child's parents … how could they be easily replaced?” Baili Chao also looked at that door.

He had already expected as much. If a small child like that stood at the door when a storm was approaching and nobody came to look for him, then something was amiss. One couldn't fault his uncle. He had done what he could but this wasn't his child and he didn't know what to do anymore.

”I know you feel guilty because you feel that you're not doing enough, that you have to make him happy since he's your brother's child. But sometimes nothing we do will ever be enough. Sometimes, fate just dictates otherwise. I believe it wasn't a coincidence that he stood at that door when I came by. Let him come with me.”

Baili Chao looked at the man in front of him whose face showed his struggle.

Yun Bei Fen's uncle knew that he couldn't care for the child as much as he wanted to. He knew that his nephew would probably never be as happy as he should in his house. But he felt like he had to continue trying.

Wouldn't he let his late brother down otherwise? It had only been a year since his brother and sister-in-law died. How could he give their child to a stranger now? Even if he was a cultivator, even if he could bring Xiao Fen to a place where a greater future awaited him … That had never been what his brother wanted, had it?