As the call ended, Lin Fang leaned back hard against the couch, the strength draining from his body as if someone had pulled a plug.

He stared at the ceiling, then closed his eyes, letting out a slow, exhausted breath that carried more weight than he wanted to admit.

Unbidden, memories surfaced of his elder sister and his mother.

It was the day their mother packed her bags after her wedding. There was no farewell or even a phone call. She left behind a simple letter, stating that she will be leaving with her new husband.

Just a few months ago, Lin Fang lost his father, and only 15 days ago, he returned home after rehabilitation. At the time when his mother abandoned him, his sister stayed by his side. She gripped his hand tightly and continued to hold that hand even after they were picked up by his maternal grandparents.

For the next four to five years, it was just the two of them in that old house.

His grandparents provided food, shelter, and rules, but affection was something rationed thinly, almost nonexistent.

His sister filled that void as best she could. She cooked when she learned how. She scolded him when he got into trouble. She sat beside him late at night when he cried as he missed his parents, pretending not to notice, so he wouldn’t feel embarrassed.

His grandparents lived on their pension. So, there was little they provided him. So, his sister, even while studying in high school, became a hunter to earn money so that she could provide him with everything he wished for.

But as he turned 14 and entered middle school, and she was nineteen back then, she received an offer from a top guild overseas, from Ospana of Zuania Continent.

Lin Fang still remembered how excited she was, pacing the room with her communicator pressed to her ear, eyes shining with a future that suddenly felt bigger than the walls of that house. She promised him it wouldn’t change anything.

At first, it didn’t.

Calls every day. Messages filled with questions. What should I eat? Should I take this mission? Do you think this is a good idea? She still was his big sis, even from another continent, and Lin Fang had felt strangely proud that she needed him to comfort her, actually, and be a listener to her troubles.

Then the calls became weekly.

Then monthly.

Lin Fang didn’t even know what happened, but the calls and messages, which only came once or twice a month, became even shorter and sharper as if she were talking for formality. And one day, the communication stopped entirely.

Lin Fang sent messages that were read but never answered. He checked time zones. Made excuses for her. He even made up various diseases or accidents so that she could return. In the end, as he entered the senior grade of middle school, he told himself she was busy, that this was normal, that this was just how adults drifted apart.

By the time he turned sixteen, he stopped trying.

He graduated three years later. He inherited his father’s small legacy. He struggled to keep the store alive. Life moved on, relentless and uncaring, and he learned to move with it.

His mother became someone he actively despised.

His sister… became a stranger.

Or at least, that was what he had told himself.

Now, lying there with Feng Xiu’s words echoing in his mind, that carefully built distance cracked.

“She’ll be there.”

Lin Fang opened his eyes slowly, staring at nothing.

The realization stirred something uncomfortable in his chest, a mix of resentment, longing, and something dangerously close to hope.

Inside his mind, Alpha spoke, his voice calmer than Lin Fang felt.

“Kiddo,” Alpha said, “I think you should go.”

Lin Fang didn’t respond immediately.

“This isn’t just about gains or power,” Alpha continued. “You’ve been carrying questions you never got answers to. This rift gives you a chance to end that uncertainty.”

Lin Fang’s fingers curled slightly.

“And think about it,” Alpha added. “That man sounded very sure when he said your mother wasn’t your mother. If that’s true, then it’s possible your so-called sister isn’t what you think either.”

Lin Fang exhaled sharply.

“Whatever the truth is,” Alpha finished, “you deserve to hear it from her directly.”

Silence returned.

Lin Fang sat up slowly, elbows resting on his knees, head lowered. The store outside continued to hum with life, oblivious to the quiet storm brewing inside him.

He snapped his eyes open and straightened, as if a decision had finally locked into place. He nodded once, firm and deliberate.

“You’re right,” he said quietly, more to himself than to Alpha. “What I need isn’t speculation. It’s an ending. A conclusion so that I can move on.”

He leaned back against the couch, staring at the ceiling as his thoughts unraveled themselves one by one, each possibility uglier than the last.

“If what Feng Xiu said is true, then there’s no logical reason to hide it from me,” Lin Fang continued. “Unless the truth itself is something they didn’t want me to touch.” His brows knitted together. “Maybe my father had an affair. Maybe he had another child with another woman. When my mother found out, she took that child and disappeared. Or maybe I was the one who didn’t belong, and I was left behind because of some agreement.”

His fingers tightened against the cushion.

“But none of it fits cleanly,” he muttered. “If she took her own daughter and left me behind, why would she later abandon that same daughter at my grandparents’ place, too? No… that doesn’t line up.”

The more he thought about it, the more the puzzle resisted every shape he tried to force it into.

Alpha’s voice entered calmly, cutting through the spiraling theories. “You’re chasing shadows, kiddo. Every assumption you make is built on missing pieces. You won’t solve this by thinking harder.”

Lin Fang exhaled through his nose.

“Yeah,” Alpha went on. “You already know what needs to be done. Stop circling the problem. Walk straight into it and ask.”

Lin Fang lowered his head, eyes half-lidded.

“I guess that’s better,” he said at last. “Even if I don’t like the answers.”

For a moment, he simply sat there, letting the weight of the decision settle. Then his expression hardened, resolve replacing uncertainty. Whatever waited for him in that rift, he would face it. Not as a boy who had been left behind, but as someone who could finally demand the truth.

*

At the same time, far from Huaxi City, beneath the sterile white lights of a university hospital in Peking City, a man lay motionless on a bed.

Then his eyes snapped open.

“Haaa…”

A sharp gasp tore from his throat as his body jerked violently, muscles seizing as if electricity had surged through him. The monitors beside the bed erupted into frantic beeping, heart rate spiking, readings climbing in ways that made no medical sense.

“Nurse!” someone shouted.

The man clawed weakly at the tubes and wires attached to him, breath coming in ragged pulls.

Within seconds, nurses flooded the room. One of them moved without hesitation, pulling out a syringe and driving it into the side of his neck. The struggle lasted only a moment before his body went slack, eyes rolling back as the sedative took hold.

Silence returned, broken only by the steady hum of machines.

A senior doctor arrived soon after, scanning the monitors with a frown that deepened by the second. The resident beside him swallowed hard, eyes wide as she read the data again and again, as if expecting it to correct itself.

“This… this is impossible,” the resident said softly. “His stem cells are converting into mana at a rapid rate.”

The senior doctor’s lips pressed into a thin line. He nodded once, grim and thoughtful, before turning away from the bed. Pulling out his communicator, he stepped into the corridor and initiated a call.

The line connected almost instantly.

“Hello,” a sweet, familiar voice answered.

“Ms. Myra,” the doctor said, lowering his voice. “Jiang Fei has woken up.”

There was a pause on the other end. Then, faint amusement colored her tone. “Good. My people will be there shortly to take him.”

The doctor hesitated. “You should proceed with caution. He’s not the same man who was sent here in a coma.”

“Oh?” Myra replied, curiosity sharpening her voice.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep