A Blade from the Past

Qin An slowly opened his eyes. Under the dim glow of the incandescent light, everything before him was so familiar.

The ceiling had a hole. An old Panda-brand black-and-white TV from 1995 stood in the corner. A rickety dining table sat nearby.

After his sister died, he used to come here alone, cook two portions of food, and stare blankly for hours.

This had once been his home.

But the current situation was far from optimistic. A kitchen knife pressed firmly against his throat. The slight chill and the faint sensation on his skin told him this was real.

This scene had played out many years ago. It was because of this incident that Qin An had managed to stand out in Dover. This very thing had chilled him to the bone.

“Little An, come here and sign your name and put your fingerprint. Then Mom will put the knife away! You have to be good!”

Qin An sneered disdainfully. Did they really think he was a three-year-old?

If this were the past, he might have believed that a vicious beast wouldn’t eat its own cubs. Even without blood ties, they had lived together for six or seven years. Even though they were once human traffickers, surely they would have developed some semblance of family affection. But…

“Little An! Mom is doing this for your own good! Think about it—you’re just a thirteen-year-old brat, carrying such a huge sum of money. You could get robbed any time without even knowing. Mom will keep it safe for you, and later you can use it to find a wife!”

A wife! Did it take ten billion to find a wife?

Ten billion—such a tempting number. No wonder they had become so ruthless.

Qin An had no idea what his biological parents did for a living. His memories of them were fragmented. He had only heard news of their deaths, and they hadn’t even left behind a single photograph. Instead, they left a simple will:

“I leave everything to my poor child.”

Heh—he had no idea how those people had found his whereabouts. Even later, when he became an S-class killer in Dover, he never searched for clues about his biological parents, because it all seemed meaningless. Since they could let their two children wander outside for so long and only remember them before dying, they probably weren’t that important to them.

Thinking back on bits and pieces of his past life made Qin An feel sick.

His foster parents treated him poorly, barely providing enough to eat and wear. He never felt the warmth of family in this household. His sister Qin Yage, on the other hand, was pampered like a little princess. In essence, Qin An was the family servant, a cheap laborer bearing the title of ‘son’.

“Little An! I know how much you like Yage! If you obediently sign and put your fingerprint here, Mom promises she won’t lay a finger on her.”

The foster mother let out a disgusting laugh. She was beautiful, with time leaving no mark on her face, but her expression was as ugly as a witch’s. Qin An had taken many beatings and scoldings from her. He had started doing housework at the age of six, barely reaching the stove with a small stool. But what did a six-year-old know about chores?

If he accidentally broke a plate, he wouldn’t be allowed to sleep that night. He could only curl up like a kitten, silently licking his wounds. Of course, his sister Qin Yage didn’t know about this. She thought her brother did housework just to please their parents. She didn’t even know that after he turned ten, he slept in the living room every night. She believed she had grown up and could no longer sleep in the same room as her brother. But would the foster parents have prepared a separate room for Qin An? Absolutely not.

This house wasn’t large—only two stories. From the outside, it looked like a delicate little villa, but because of that, there were no spare rooms. The only extra room was a study, where the foster father worked, strictly off-limits to the children.

One day, when they were out, Qin An sneaked into the study and accidentally knocked over a folder. Panic struck him, but the contents of the file left him stunned—it listed children’s sale dates and prices.

Clearly, he and his sister Qin Yage were on that list, but their names had been crossed out in black ink. Probably the deal had failed.

Qin An couldn’t believe it. He didn’t have the courage to believe it.

Until one day, he eavesdropped outside the room while they were discussing.

“When are we going to sell Yage? She’ll definitely be a beauty when she grows up. She’ll fetch a good price. We’ve raised her for so long; at least we should get some reward! Besides, it’s been ten years since that incident. The heat should have died down.”

“Better not. She’s been with us for so many years.”

“You old devil, you haven’t taken a fancy to that little vixen, have you?”

“How could that be? I’ve never touched her all these years. Little An has been the one taking care of her. My favorite is you, dear!”

“I think Little An is a treasure! He takes care of people, cooks, never fights back, never talks back. He’s a perfect punching bag to vent all these years’ grievances. And now he’s brought us ten billion in assets.”

Qin An’s relationship with his sister had always seemed strained. Probably because after she grew up, she felt their parents didn’t love her enough—though in truth, they never did. She thought this considerate brother had stolen their parents’ affection, so she became distant toward him.

But when they were little, she had been good to him. Whatever she had, he didn’t. She would share candy with him, leave half her cake for him, and play with him together. Now, she had probably forgotten those trivial things, but Qin An still held them close to his heart—that little bit of warmth.

Qin An didn’t resist. With his current strength, he was no match for the two of them. Even though he knew many ways to kill them, without the ability to act, it was useless. And they held his weak spot, making it impossible to move.

With the knife at his neck, Qin An calmly signed and put his fingerprint. Any other child his age would have been scared out of their wits! He remembered that the first time he signed, he had wet his pants.

“Good boy.” The foster mother smiled hypocritically and patted his head. Qin An just rolled his eyes and said nothing.

He felt no attachment to them. They could go wherever they wanted!

“Honey, ten billion! That’s something we wouldn’t even dream of!”

“Yeah, you old devil. With this much money, we won’t have to work for the rest of our lives. We won’t have to do bad things anymore, and we won’t have to fear the police.”

“Honey, let’s travel!”

“Great! This is enough for several trips into space!”

“Hahaha—”

“Let me give you a warning.”

“Little An, what do you want to say? Don’t tell me you want to back out? It’s written in black and white. It’s useless to go back on your word!”

Qin An shook his head. “You’d better run away as fast as you can.”

“Why?”

“Because besides you, there are many, many others who want that ten billion.”

The foster mother suddenly seemed to realize. “You old devil, go pack your things.”

“But honey, you’re pregnant! It’s already seven months.”

“It’s okay. Money and life are more important.”

Seven months. He hadn’t expected she was with child. Back then, it would have been two lives lost. Qin An had always thought she had just gained a bit of weight, never realizing she was actually pregnant.

Qin An limped upstairs. Yesterday was the day he received the will. That very night, the foster mother had beaten him, leaving his leg swollen. A few days of rest would probably be enough for it to mostly heal. Such things were common; Qin An had long grown used to them.

It was precisely because of their abnormal treatment that he had sought the truth. Otherwise, in his eyes, they might have remained kind foster parents.

Gently pushing open the door, Qin Yage lay peacefully in bed. Her sweet sleeping face brought Qin An a sense of calm. She wore a milky white nightgown and looked as delicate as a doll. Her little feet had kicked off the blanket restlessly, revealing her crystal-clear toes and slender calves.

Qin An smiled and covered her with the blanket. Then his legs gave out, and he sat directly on the floor.

“Such small hands…” he murmured. These were clearly a child’s hands. And what just happened was undoubtedly the property-grabbing incident that occurred before the killers from Dover took him away.

He still remembered how Qin Yage trembled as she watched their foster parents being killed by the Dover assassins.

Starting at age twelve, he had watched various animals kill each other every day, indirectly learning the basics of being an assassin, various secret techniques, and how to assassinate ability users.

Survival of the fittest.

After that came competition among humans and between humans and beasts. He was never the most outstanding, and he had a burden to carry. Yet he survived in the end—a miracle.

“I really have become a child.” Qin An looked at his small, fair hands.

On the white wall hung a daily tear-off calendar: April 4, 2000—today was Qingming Festival.

The happiness of rebirth!

At this moment, he truly felt it. His sister’s even breathing still echoed in his ears and in his heart.