Arcadia Chronicles: The Story Of Lien Hua - Chapter 3

A few minutes passed from the time when the woman fled past the arch to escape the mountain, and behold, a figure descended from the long staircase.

A young man, he must have been no more than 25 years old, slowly descended the steps one by one. He stood out from the mountain’s dark rocks from his manner of dress, a long white tunic with its color as white as snow, wrapped in a white belt decorated with gold embroidery, with very long sleeves that hid his hands. A golden lotus flower stood out on his chest. He was a disciple of the Flowing Lotus Sect.

He observed with curiosity the little bundle made of rags, and he noticed that it had moved. Pulling aside the flaps of the bundle’s fabrics, he shook. Never would he have expected that there was a child; it had never happened before. And he saw that it was a girl. He then covered her with his clothes and took her in his arms, and he turned and went up the stairs from whence he had come.

As the young man moved step by step on the long staircase, Lien Hua awoke from her sleep, noticing movements around her. She looked up, and peering through the folds of the fabrics in which she was wrapped, she realized that there was the face of a man where she thought there would be her mother’s beautiful face.

She tried to close and open her eyes, thinking that she was dreaming, but that face with masculine yet delicate features, surmounted by long pitch-black hair and eyes of an intense blue, was ever present.

She was caught up in a mixture of emotions. Just being born, losing sight of her mother, being in the arms of a stranger, all this made her want to burst into tears.

But was the instinct to scream from despair alone? Or was it a mixture of that and something else? Perhaps, but the rumbling of her little stomach was a clear sign that she only needed one thing at the time: food. And so, across that entire side of the twin mountains, the cry of despair from that tiny creature echoed.

Was there any shame in demonstrating one’s needs with such an archaic and childish gesture of unremitted crying? Absolutely not! Otherwise, thought Lien Hua, how else could she communicate with others having been a human being for a few hours?

The young man was astonished to hear the girl crying; he had not foreseen such a thing. Actually, he never had to think about babies before. Accelerating his pace, he tried to calm her down by cradling her and gently passing a finger across her face.

Lien Hua appreciated that the stranger had mobilized as soon as he heard her crying, but understood that he had no idea what to do. ‘It will be a very long day…’ she thought to herself.

Seeing that the infant’s crying did not diminish, the young man sensed that they were probably tears of appetite. He called himself stupid for having not guessed this possibility sooner.

But without discouragement, he rubbed his right ring finger on which he carried a black ring.

Satisfied, he brought out a small pill somehow from within the ring, although Lien Hua didn’t notice him opening a compartment, and it looked from the colour of the pill to be a chocolate candy, although the scent was much more intense and inviting. “Here it comes! With this, your hunger will go away. It is more nutritious than breast milk.” And he stretched his fingers out toward her.

Lien Hua did not understand what he told her, not yet able to comprehend the language, but the scent emanating from that little candy attracted her.

Without much thought, she opened her small mouth, and as soon as the pill came into contact with her tongue, the pill melted instantly, went down to her stomach and in a few moments, she felt full and content.

The little one was surprised by the power of that tiny pill. She thought about her old life, how many times hunger had caught her, but there was never anything that had satisfied her so quickly.

As she lost herself in these thoughts, she was seized by another sensation, the logical consequence to the fulfilment of her hunger. When she began to notice how sleepy she was, she closed her eyes and fell asleep almost immediately.

Seeing that the baby had stopped crying and seeing her head dangling in a serene sleep, the man smiled, satisfied. If Lien Hua had not fallen asleep, she would have noticed that the staircase he was taking her up had come to an end.

The young man arrived at his destination, a large building with an architecture similar to the ancient Chinese gates. The great gate on the first two mountains’ valley was open just enough to let a person pass.

Approaching the entrance, the two tall and statuesque guards on its sides bowed very deeply. “Welcome back, Grand Martial Brother!”

With a slight nod of his head, the man returned the greeting. Beyond the door, the surroundings were wrapped by a very different environment than that of the outside. There was warmth, a good smell in the air, and a unique sense of purity to breathe in fully into the lungs. The light that filtered from the sect’s various points made one capable of noticing some strange blue filaments. These were materialized spiritual energy.

Once alone, the two guards outside looked at each other in a questioning way. They had both well seen in the arms of the grand martial brother, that there was a baby.

Although they bore elegant and shimmering armour, and had deadly weapons in hand, even men as stoic as these guards were horrified to see such gestures as that of abandoning a newborn to their fate.

It wasn’t the first time someone from the sect had found an orphan and brought it in; it just hadn’t happened in a long time. But every time it happened, it was a trauma for them to think that there was no mercy in the world, even for someone as helpless as a newborn child. But once they had cast out that thought, the guards recovered and returned to their task.

After passing through the gate, the young man carrying the infant went along a path towards another internal building in a valley situated in the centre of all 6 mountains, with many other buildings of different sizes placed around it and scattered throughout one could see many other disciples going about their business. It was a real city.

Once entering the building he had marked as his destination, the young man found himself in front of two counters where multiple disciples were sitting, intent on doing some work. Arriving at the left counter, he saw that the disciple in front of him had a tunic similar to his own: also white, but the embroidery was blue. This denoted the different rank between them.

Being of lesser rank, the disciple at the counter sprang up and bowed forward. “This disciple salutes the grand martial brother!”

Nodding, the young man replied that the disciple could sit down, and then added, “I wanted to announce that I found a newborn at the entrance to our area and that I brought her here.”

The disciple understood the situation, looking down at the umpteenth act of abandonment which their community had witnessed, and he looked through the various paperwork in front of him. Finding what he was looking for, he handed the young man a tablet with the words “Room 137” written on it and a note with a newborn custody permit.

Passing to the other counter and exchanging the usual greetings with the disciple standing there, the young man delivered the tablet and ticket, then headed towards the exit of the building, turning then to the right and going further and further ahead. Once outside of the city full of disciples, he came across a red wooden arch with an inscription on it: “Outer Sect Houses”.

Going up another staircase, the young man reached an area formed by several identical houses, embellished by rows of trees, at the foot of the first mountain on the right. He walked in front of every house until he came to the one with the number 137.

He opened the door and entered into the only room present. On the right side of the room was the bed, in the middle of the room a cultivation carpet, and on the left side, a desk with a chair. At the bottom, a door which resembled a French door overlooked a small courtyard, just like all the other houses in the area.

The boy’s task came to an end as soon as he put the child on the bed, turning and leaving the house. In fact, a caretaker would arrive, as requested by the note received earlier at the counter, who would then take care of the child as long as necessary to teach her the most important things as she grew up.

And so, the river of time made its regular course, and soon five years passed. Find authorized novels in Wuxiaworld, faster updates, better experience, Please click <a href=”https:///book/arcadia-chronicles-the-story-of-lien-hua_18823968806328605/the-mysterious-boy_50568311536154185″>/book/arcadia-chronicles-the-story-of-lien-hua_18823968806328605/the-mysterious-boy_50568311536154185</a> for visiting.