Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“The stove has been shut off and the backyard’s door has been locked from the inside, too. Be rest assured, mommy!”

“Alright; good to know!”

The woman felt slightly better after this.

“Mommy, are you still in the hospital?”

“Yes.”

Her boy reassured her gently, “Since grandfather’s condition has settled, you don’t have to overwork yourself. Please have an early rest.”

“Alright.”

After hanging up the call, she continued to clench the phone tightly until her breathing eased.

Her brother walked over and passed a cup of coffee to her. She looked somewhat dazed as she received it.

“Sis, what happened? You looked restless.”

She responded quietly, “The recent unrest has caused me to be flustered.”

The man was quiet for a while, and thinking that his sister might still be feeling shaken over the sight of the burned actress, he said, “Something unfortunate is always happening in this world every day. There are countless accidents that happen every minute and second. A life may be strong yet fragile at the same time. We can lose our lives in a split second, so we live not to be fearful of our last days but to welcome a better tomorrow.”

In war-torn areas, many refugees had to live with trepidation as they were surrounded by constant fighting. This was especially true in African nations.

When he was young, he followed his father’s troops to Uganda. In the span of twenty-odd years, the rebel group, ‘Holy Resistance Army’, had been unceasingly exchanging fire with the incumbent government as they tried to overthrow the latter’s regime.

He had once witnessed a little girl crawling on a pile of corpses to look for food, only to die in a grenade attack.

He had also seen refugees who had lost their land, slumped on the ground as they tried to swallow pieces of mud they dug from the ground as food.

This world had never been fair from the day one was born.

All over the world, the strong would wallop the weak, so instead of being fearful of the dark side, one might as well learn to be stronger and strive to live better.

One could only protect those they wanted to protect when they were sufficiently good and exceptional.

“Xiao Jie, I didn’t expect to hear such profound musings from you.”

His sister burst into peals of laughter.

The man muttered grudgingly, “You are always treating me like a kid.”

“Well, the image of your naughty, young self is too deeply entrenched in my memory to ignore.”

The two of them smiled at each other, but both had their issues to reckon with.

Gong Jie believed that his sister refused to share her thoughts with him because she had been regarding him as a kid or that she did not understand the implication of his status and background. She did not know that the Gongs were powerful, as well as ruthless, but this was also the very reason he did not want to introduce their paternal family to her.

He observed her without a word and narrowed his eyes at her worried look.

“Sis, you haven’t changed one bit.”

“Hm?”

The man leaned back. “Do you remember how you used to run home after being bullied when you were young? Each time, you would wipe away the tears completely before you entered the house. No matter how upset or depressed you felt, you would never tell me about it.”

Yun Shishi pursed her lips momentarily. “You were so impulsive when you were young. If I were to tell you about it, you would beat my bully to a pulp, right?”

The man was not affected by her words in the least, however. “What’s wrong with that? The more you bear with the misery, the more others will bully you, for they think you are weak; isn’t it so? In those days, nobody dared to bully me because they knew that it’d lead to consequences they could not bear. This was why they would think twice before trifling with me.”