A protagonist with innocence and grace
Seven year old Xue Yang is a mess, and he can completely understand why adult Xue Chongmei is full of hatred, surrounded by the likes of the unfeeling Lord Chang CiAn, the terrified villagers and the simply negligible city. It takes a city to raise a child as people say, yet these people don't seem to care about any of the orphans. The young child is covered in bruises, some still open and infected wounds and as he knows very clearly, the left hand needing medical attention. As a Daoist cultivator he knows some medical knowledge but not specialised enough to try and restore a crushed pinky finger, so Xingchen calls round for a doctor to come round that can heal broken bones.
Despite hating adult Xue , he falls in love with the child. Washed, wounds bandaged and clothed in new boys pants and short robe from the market, he looks innocent and tired of the world. His cheeks are flushed with fever and his body shakes with a chill, but he isn't killing yet and his fingers have all been bound and his pinkie finger bound extra tightly after he has cast a bone mending enchantment on it. The damage can still be reversed, to the small child sleeping off a high fever in his bed, while he makes congee for them both in absence of lunch. Hopefully the child could eat and get better, Xue Yang's bones stick out too much right now and that won't help broken fingers or wounds heal, plus solve any trauma about lack of food in the future. Although he does not know if Xue Yang had food shortage issues, he was blind back then so he never saw him eating, Xiao Xingchen is a thorough man who covers all problems that could arise from the situation.
If Song Lan could see and join them now, maybe they could be a happy family, even without having A-Qing there, although he misses her before, now he has still innocent Xue Yang to look after he could do with company while the child sleeps.
Xue Yang wakes up with yawn, expecting to see the stray dogs and other orphans sharing the small amount of food they have managed to find, because that's what he usually wakes to if he can find a quiet place to sleep. However this moment is different. When he tries to stretch his left fingers out, they don't stretch, like they are bound together to something hard, and he panics, did he permanently loose movement in his fingers from the cart wheel? How will he survive as a street rat fight for life without a hand, he panics and bolts up in a strangely soft and silky surface, is this what people call beds, he thinks curiously. A cultivator in white and black robes walks up to him holding a bowl of congee, and he doesn't know why he is not resisting, but the man smiles and starts feeding him the sweet congee, which is like heaven to his empty stomach.
"Sorry, I haven't introduced myself to you yet. I'm Xiao Xingchen, a disciple from the heavenly mountain, and I picked you up from the road. I mean no harm, just want to adopt you temporarily to heal your fingers, then you can do whatever you want to do.", Xiao Xingchen says. Xue Yang blinks, likes he can't believe what he's seeing and feeling, "You don't think I'm a Yueyang rat? I've never met someone who cared as much as to feed me, thank you master.", he bows his head.
Xingchen felt a streak of affection, and he doesn't know how he has forgiven the adult Xue Chongmei just because he saw his childhood, but he wants to have a harmonious relationship with this young, hopefully not a delinquent. "Call me Daozhang, master sounds too aloof. How eat this congee and tell me about what else you've done, not just getting a street rat?", he replies kindly.