The rare fireworks

"Happy birthday, mom!" Fu Jie beamed.

He took the blindfold off and showed her the present he had prepared for her. Her eyes lit up as she looked at the beautiful night sky filled with bursting turquoise-colored firecrackers.

"It's... beautiful." Tears could be seen forming in her eyes as she stared without blinking at the beautiful scenery.

Fu Jie, "It's your favorite color. I had a really hard time finding a teal-colored chrysanthemum firecracker, so I just adjusted for a turquoise colored one. But they look pretty alike to each other."

"I love it." She sobbed

"If you love it, why are you crying?"

"Your father once did the same thing for me."

"...."

"He proposed to me with a really pretty emerald ring saying the color was not teal, but it was close. I laughed at him and said 'yes'. The next thing I knew, bam... hundreds of firecrackers bursting, all teal in color filling up the sky. He hugged me, thanked me, and told me, 'at least I got you your favorite colored fireworks."

Fu Jie seemed glad as he spoke, "It seems like he really did love you."

"Did he?" his mother asked, looking back at him.

"Probably"

She smiled and asked, "Ah Jie, do you know why teal is my favorite color?"

"Don't know."

"You still remember that story of Bai Ling I used to tell you?"

"Of course I do. His clothes were teal colored."

"He always adorned light teal tinted garments with a pure white flute in hand. I really liked his appearance. His personality however was... hehe..." Fu Jie already knew his mother's adoration for Bai Ling hence, whenever she had anything to say about him, he would usually just let her pour her heart out and listen to her without a word, but he had to say something this time.

"You still believe he's real, mom?"

"..."

"Anyone who hears his stories would be able to tell that he's just a fictional character."

His mother just smiled and looked at the beautiful fireworks lighting up the sky.

".... Sorry, mom." Fu Jie didn't know why, but he felt as if he had just said something insensitive and thought he should apologize for it.

"I do. I do believe he's real. More real than me or you." She chuckled, her eyes containing within them a sense of sadness.

"What are you saying now?" Fu Jie chuckled along with her.

"You'll know what I'm talking about when you get older." Lies, but Fu Jie just decided to go along with it.

To Fu Jie, his mother was like an angel. She might lie, she might tell the truth, but no matter what she said, he would believe her every word without having the heart to question her. This was just the tip of the amount of love and respect he had for her. He would believe and remember everything she said, but he had forgotten the story; the story of Bai Ling that his mother used to believe in and recited to him as a child.

"Happy... B-birthday." It was the familiar voice of his father. Both the mother and son turned instinctively towards the voice. His father was panting, his forehead drenched in sweat, probably from running all the way over here. Clutched in his hands was a pretty bouquet of teal-colored flowers.

"A-am I late?" he asked, still out of breath.

"Just in time." His mother answered. The tears that were once stopped, poured out once again like a beautiful waterfall.

Ah...

Maybe he really did love her after all.

Why did Fu Jie never remember the ending of that day?

Boom...

Fu Jie was jolted awake from his daydream by a huge commotion just outside his cell. At first, he wanted to move closer and see what it was all about, but a voice rang out warning him, "Move aside!"

Heeding the warning, Fu Jie used all his energy to drag his body towards the opposite side of the door, unknowingly bumping into one of his prison mates, but contrary to his expectations, the other man did not even flinch. This lack of response piqued Fu Jie's interest as he squinted and tried to get a closer look at the man.

At the same moment, one of the walls of the cell fell down and crumbled, the light from the outside peeking through, seemed to blind Fu Jie's eyes for a moment, but he still saw it very clearly. The cellmate he bumped into just seconds ago wasn't a person anymore. He really had been living in there with a corpse.

"Aaaaah!!" he screamed instinctively, scrambling backward as far as possible till his back hit something else. He looked up hesitantly, meeting the eyes of the man who had possibly caused the wall to crumble down. The two stared at each other, one guessing the other's identity and the other in awe of how handsome the man who saved him was.

"It stinks." The unknown newcomer spoke without breaking eye contact. His voice deep and smooth, somehow enticing Fu Jie.

"Ah? Y-yes! I know! It stinks. It really does stink. Who would have known that the prisoners here had already started rotting?" Fu Jie responded awkwardly, his cheeks flushing red from the embarrassment.

"I wasn't talking about the corpse."

"..."

Fu Jie remained speechless, his mind thinking: was this man indirectly telling me that the smell is coming from me?

Never in his life had he felt so embarrassed and offended, and never had anyone dared to talk to him like that.

"Step aside." The man ordered and Fu Jie's body moved on his own.

"You certainly took your time coming here..." a hoarse, parched voice spoke. It was the cellmate who had previously told Fu Jie to shut up when he newly entered this prison.

Suddenly, there were a lot of new discoveries for Fu Jie.

One: He had been living here with one alive person and two corpses.

Two: The handsome man who had come to save him had actually come to save his cellmate.

Three: His only alive cellmate was an approximately 50-year-old man with an unshaved beard and an overall unhygienic, messy appearance, but maybe this was because of the conditions of the prison.

Four: The most important point was that he was now a free man.

Five: He needed to run away from here as soon as possible.

But his body didn't want to move and so, instead of running away, he simply sat there like a log of wood and stared at the pair of men who seemed to be telepathically conversing with each other.

"Ah! It was so dark that I didn't recognize you." His cellmate spoke up as he saw Fu Jie, "are you not the son of that Liu guy?"

"..." Fu Jie was speechless. He looked around. He was certainly still inside the game so how come this man knew his identity? Was he an important character in the story arc?

The handsome savior, "Uncle, you know this man?"

"This is the son of that sect traitor who saved your father."

Fu Jie didn't know why, but when the middle-aged man said this, the handsome savior's eyes seemed to look at Fu Jie with a sense of hostility. But how could this be? Didn't the man just say that Fu Jie's supposed father saved this young man's father, and if that was the case, shouldn't this guy be thankful to him at this moment? So why was he looking at him with hostility? Or was it just Fu Jie's misunderstanding?

As Fu Jie pondered over this, the man continued, "I don't seem to recall his name. It was Fu something, Fu.... Liu?"

"Liu Fu Jie, sir." Fu Jie spoke up. Since the man got Liu and Fu right, Fu Jie was now sure that he was supposed to use his real name in this game and so he sadly said goodbye to his cool nickname 'Thegreatmo' in his mind.

Before he was done grieving about the name, the handsome youth spoke up, questioning, "Fu(rich)*..... Jie(sister)*?"

"Yes, Fu Jie, Liu Fu Jie." Fu Jie replied happily and the middle-aged man laughed at his enthusiastic response.

*Fu also means rich and Jie is usually used to address one's sister so the man misunderstood the meaning of the name, but Fu Jie did not notice it as the pronunciation is somewhat the same, however, the middle-aged man seemed to telepathically understand the meaning of what the handsome youth was saying.

"What's your name?" Fu Jie asked eagerly. This young savior in front of him was really a bit too handsome. Fu Jie was sure that this man would have a long list of girls swooning over him and a somewhat equally long list of men envying him.

The youth didn't say a word and straight out ignored Fu Jie's question as he looked at the middle-aged man and spoke, "We don't have much time. Let's go."

The man laughed as he heard this and immediately turned his head to look at Liu Fu Jie as he answered the question that had been ignored by this savior who seemed to have an even worse personality than Fu Jie's.

"You probably know him boy."

Fu Jie looked at the man with curious eyes that seemed to speak more clearly than his mouth.

"Xiao Jingyi."

Liu Fu Jie hadn't been in this world much nor did he know anything about it so it was only natural that he didn't recognize the man's name.

Xiao Jingyi had a face that always seemed to have a frown on it so when he heard this man giving away his name just like that, the frown on his face deepened as he spoke, "Let's go before the guards come."

The middle-aged man stood up and dusted his clothes as he laughed, "It was nice meeting you, boy. You should scram before the guards come."

Fu Jie suddenly felt like laughing as he heard this. It wasn't because he didn't want to run. He was sitting here helplessly like a log of wood because his feet refused to move. His whole body had tensed up and he didn't have any energy to pick himself up.

Xiao Jingyi threw one last glance at Fu Jie before turning on his heels and walking away. The middle-aged man didn't follow him like Fu Jie had expected he would, instead, he walked away in a different direction.

When Fu Jie heard the sound of rushing footsteps. he knew that he shouldn't stay here for too long. Without thinking much, he decided to follow one out of the two and the one he ended up following was Xiao Jingyi.

He couldn't stand up so he decided to crawl after the man. It was the first time Fu Jie had ever crawled on the ground. He wasn't ashamed to admit that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Even as a baby, he had never crawled in the dirt like this, but at this moment, he didn't seem to mind it.

It was a dire situation and if he wanted to keep his life, he needed to crawl.

He saw the man stop at a turn and a few men rushed up to him. Fu Jie also stopped and hid behind a bush as he looked at the situation.

The people who had run up to Xiao Jingyi were all wearing white-colored robes that Fu Jie found familiar. These people were dressed the same as the guards who had arrested Fu Jie.

They were the guards whom they were running from so why were they reporting to this man whom they were supposed to chase?!

Fu Jie didn't know much about this world, but he knew that the guards were never supposed to report to the man who had just broken people out of jail.

What the hell was this situation?!

He suddenly felt like this man wasn't as simple as he thought. Just who was he tricking?

Was he tricking the guards or was he tricking the middle-aged man whom he had helped break out of prison?

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