Chapter 296
The sound of rain was crisp.
Wood burning, emitting a crackling sound.
Chen An raised his hand and fed Eileen.
She obediently opened her small mouth, her thin lips looking rosy and alluring, perhaps due to the oily sheen.
Luo Cong’an, standing nearby, refused to be outdone. For every time Chen An fed Eileen, she would feed Chen An once.
The three of them together formed a somewhat strange combination.
However, since there were no outsiders, they were allowed to do as they pleased.
Rainwater dripped down the eaves, forming a thick curtain that seemed to split the entire world in half.
The rain outside grew heavier, showing no signs of stopping or lessening.
It poured down like a flood, as if scattering thousands of silver threads.
For some reason, Chen An’s unease grew more intense.
He looked up at the sky.
He saw the masses of gray clouds accumulating in the sky becoming increasingly solid and dense, darkening the entire sky.
The clouds felt like they were pressing down on people’s heads, making it difficult to breathe.
Perhaps sensing his strangeness, Eileen followed his gaze.
Her expression faltered, and a hint of doubt flashed in her eyes.
“It’s a bit… strange.”
Luo Cong’an, uncharacteristically, did not argue with her, but slowly frowned.
All three of them were not ordinary people.
Their spiritual senses were naturally more acute than those of most people in the world.
Chen An took a deep breath and said, “It’s nothing, continue eating.”
He had just picked up his chopsticks when he suddenly sensed something and looked up abruptly.
It was as if a streaking meteor had sliced across the sky.
Immediately after, their eyes met.
It was a pair of pupils that Chen An would never forget.
Full of frenzy and malevolence.
Yet, they were also the most strikingly clear azure blue.
Along with it came boundless malice.
That malice transformed into arrows, striking the young man’s forehead at an unimaginable speed.
A whisper echoed in his ears, like death gently murmuring.
“Little brother.”
“Found… you.”
The young man’s pupils dilated slightly.
That period of past events that he was unwilling to revisit…
In the end, it could not be avoided.
…
…
In the seventh year of Taiping in the Great Zhou dynasty, a severe drought was followed by a hundred-year snowfall.
The snow continued for three months without cease.
Coupled with constant warfare on the borders and the court’s inaction, everyone in the dynasty felt endangered.
The Great Zhou dynasty, established for three hundred years, was facing a storm.
As Chen An’s consciousness gradually awoke, the first thing he felt was the biting cold seeping through from beneath him.
He shivered instinctively and opened his eyes.
His eyelids felt heavy, as if fighting a battle, and he felt hunger pangs in his stomach.
A pair of small, fair hands appeared before Chen An’s eyes.
They were truly small hands, with delicate fingers, appearing pale and bloodless in the snow.
Chen An was momentarily stunned.
Because these small hands were his own…
Wait, this script is wrong, isn’t it?
Chen An couldn’t help but send a soul-questioning message to the system in his mind.
The system quickly responded, in a very righteous tone.
“Who says being raised isn’t being raised?”
… ?
Chen An slowly formed a question mark.
Before he could dwell on it, a noisy clamor could be heard from not far away.
The shouts were not loud, even weak, more like wails.
However, he could vaguely discern words like “Thank you, Master Wang” and “Thank you, Miss” mixed in.
Chen An snapped back to reality and looked in the direction of the sound.
He saw, in the vast expanse of white, a shed made of coarse cloth and bamboo poles.
Beneath the shed, a crowd of refugees, clad in ragged clothes and looking emaciated, were gathered.
They formed a long line, shivering like sieves in the biting wind and snow.
A visible wisp of heat rose from the shed and slowly ascended into the air.
It was not difficult to guess that it was likely a kind family distributing congee.
The faint aroma wafting over immediately captured Chen An’s incredibly hungry stomach.
He frowned and gritted his teeth, trying to stand up.
But he quickly failed.
His body was small, and his strength was pitifully weak. Coupled with hunger and cold, his physical condition was extremely poor.
Especially now, his small body was covered by a large patch of snow, with only his upper body barely exposed.
He looked around.
He was at a cold corner of the tall city walls, still some distance from the shed.
With the snow obstructing his view, even if he shouted with all his might, they probably wouldn’t hear him.
And even if they did hear, everyone was struggling to survive, so who would waste their energy to save a stranger?
It would be good if they didn’t consider him as a source of food.
Feeling the chilling air as he breathed, Chen An felt a bit dizzy and his chest felt tight.
After only a few minutes of consciousness, he felt as if he was about to die again.
His condition was undoubtedly the worst it could be.
He lowered his head and examined himself.
He was wearing a layer of old, coarse cloth that barely covered his small body. His exposed fingers were already blue and purple from the cold.
He probably looked only about six or seven years old…
Such a frail body, he had no ability to save himself.
So, was he just going to wait to die like this?
Chen An quickly dismissed the thought.
The system would definitely not leave him alone. It was only a matter of time.
Waiting was not the first time Chen An had done something like this.
But this time, it felt incredibly long.
It was even longer than waiting for ten years in his first life.
The invisible cold around him was madly eroding his body.
Through his nose, ears, and without any obstruction.
Even his internal organs felt as if they were freezing.
The sky grew darker, and Chen An’s eyelids became heavier.
The long line of people nearby gradually dispersed.
They held the thin congee in their hands, intending to gulp it down, but at the last moment, they gritted their teeth and ate it bit by bit.
The congee was very thin, but at this moment, it was everyone’s last lifeline.
After drinking the congee, they began to lick the bottom of the bowls, not willing to waste a single drop of the broth.
A few men who appeared “stronger” cast their eyes on other refugees after finishing their bowls.
They stared intently, their eyes filled with greedy desire.
However, after glancing at the heavily armed soldiers around the shed, they could only lick their lips, suppress their urges, and stumble back to their corners.
Such scenes played out daily outside the city.
The only difference was that the congee distributed from the shed became thinner and less.
No one knew whether the snow would stop first or if the shed would be blown down first.
In the deathly silence, only the howling of the wind and snow could be heard.
Chen An’s consciousness began to blur.
His breathing also became heavy and rough.
Occasionally, people passed by him, but they usually didn’t even look, and continued on their way to their own spots.
Until a fainter rustling sound was heard.
It was the sound of footsteps stepping on and sinking into the snow.
Immediately after, a small hand, not much larger than Chen An’s own, was extended in front of him.
The voice was hoarse and unpleasant.
“Get up.”
