A blond boy
Cal also returned to the memory of the engagement. He looked at Jiang Wei's face again and read his superficial nature like a book.
«A weakling!» he rendered his verdict. Then he looked for Lu Fei in the crowd.
«That sly fox calculated you long ago, you naively believed you were playing your own game, but you're just doing the job of a pawn,» Cal summed up.
He quickly miscalculated the situation and figured out what was what. After all, having lived in the world so long, you can't help but learn to see through the deceitful schemes and the liars.
Cal immediately realized that Jiang Wei was nothing more than a naive simpleton, unable to protect himself, much less the people he loved. That's why he fell at full speed into the net.
The old man didn't originally want to take away his firm but planned to intermarry. Using Ling's life as leverage, he had achieved everything he wanted without any effort. Apparently, this fool wouldn't get out of the trap for the rest of his life. Cal suddenly had second thoughts about killing these people. Life would be a better punishment for them.
Walking through the plum grove, Cal really liked Meili's restaurant. He was sorry, along with Ling, for its loss and decided that he would definitely restore the place.
Ling didn't know it yet, but Cal and Teacher were obscenely rich immortals. If he wished, Cal could buy a dozen companies like Jiang Wei's for pocket money.
When he and the Teacher joked about sex in weightlessness, it was no joke.
Cal was especially attentive to the memories of the past few days. He saw Ling's first impression of himself and looked at himself from the outside.
He was extremely flattered by the high praise Ling gave him in his memoirs.
Slowly but surely in his soul, the certainty grew that Ling was born into this world for him alone and that all these occasional connections were mere weeds in his path.
What could you do, living that long, you can't help but get a narcissistic disorder.
Cal couldn't help himself and rewatched the kissing scene in the auditorium several times. Once again convinced that Ling had lusted for it before the Teacher had commanded it, he stepped out of the merger.
The young man lay on his bed, snoozing softly, and Cal cautiously lay down at his side. Ling was still oblivious, and the snow demon could have attacked him, so defenseless and beautiful, bitten his lips to blood, and enjoyed their sweetness, but now he knew all of Ling's feelings, fears and hopes.
As he had promised Ling, Cal was now the closest thing to him. Sincerely concerned for the young man, he could not act selfishly and rudely, so he stayed close and did not touch him.
He learned about the fusion technique while going through the papers in his office. Cal had inadvertently discovered and successfully tested the fusion in secret from the Teacher.
A side-effect of this technique would be that for a while he would be able to hear everything Ling was thinking and even talk to him without opening his mouth.
Ling woke up on the bed and mistook everything that had happened for a dream. He relaxed and laughed at his exuberant fantasy, but then he noticed a slightly disgruntled face in his side-view.
Just then a voice sounded in his head, «It wasn't a dream at all, I was panting to read your memories, and you wrote me down as Morpheus?»
«Did you succeed?» He asked the young man, also mentally.
«You're a quick study and a master of emotion,» he heard Cal's voice say, «of course, I saw it.»
«So you know all about the tattoo,» he said, his voice trembling slightly.
«More than you think you do. I'm sure Lu Fei originally planned to trap Wei in the wedding trap and let him believe whatever he wanted just until time.»
«No way,» Ling admitted that he thought so himself, but getting the confirmation still hurt him.
«You know I'm right, but I'm sorry it hurts you,» a beautiful palm touched Ling's cheek, and he experienced a blissful shock. It was as if a mark had been left on his cheek.
Ling rubbed his cheek and, clearing his throat, said aloud.
«I understand that you can't put your mark on it while I'm holding on to this tattoo, right?»
«Yeah,» Cal answered out loud, too.
«Don't you think it's a little hasty to put a tag on, whatever it means?»
Cal froze in surprise. Doesn't this man know about the sacred sacrament of the heart mark? But as he glanced at Ling, who was waiting for an answer, he knew he did.
«Since long ago...» he began, but Ling interrupted him.
«I'm sorry, I've got another question first. How old are you?»
«In three months I will be two hundred and two years old.»
«?!»
Ling sat down on the bed and thought with regret that Cal looked like a "common lunatic," too bad. But Cal didn't want to hear such derogatory thoughts about him and simply said:
«I'll show you, too.»
He explained to Ling how the fusion procedure takes place and taught him the basics of the unusual technique. At first, Ling had difficulty absorbing the information, and at times he thought it was all just a practical joke.
At last, Ling took control of his emotions, dancing like drunken devils, and did exactly the same procedure. Smoothly he sank into Cal's memories...
***
Three travelers were walking across the snow-covered plain. A woman held a newly-born baby in her arms and gently wrapped it in the warm fur of a fox.
Judging by their clothes the times were ancient indeed. The baby was crying restlessly, not wanting to be comforted, and his frowning father pulled his head harder into his shoulders.
There was something strange about the pair. Strands of black hair were falling out from under their warm fur hats. But their baby boy, born in the middle of winter, was completely white.
His hair was long from birth and had an icy silver glow. The woman fearfully shoved his naughty silver curls under her hat. The travelers had left their home village because of this strange hair.
The headman tried to drag the boy's mother to the central square and beat her with sticks for fornication. But the husband did not agree to this, and although he was completely unaware of the nature of such metamorphosis, he decided to flee to another settlement.
Once there, they began to tell everyone that the child's father had died at sea and that they were brother and sister now raising the orphan together. Kind people lived in that settlement and welcomed them into their circle, showing care and kindness.
So the boy grew up, and his blond hair did not embarrass anyone in particular. One day his father fell ill and, unable to call a healer, turned to a shaman.
The worthless old grandfather shook his bones in a sack for a long time and muttered strange words. After using up all his acting skills and not being able to help the dying man, he did what he always does in such situations: he found a scapegoat.
The shaman tossed bones from the bag, and one of them fell next to the white-haired child playing peacefully on the floor. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the shaman. With a shaking hand, he pointed at the boy and rolled his eyes theatrically.
«The spirits said, told me, it was him...he cursed his uncle and he is also to blame for his father's death,» shouted the lunatic old man and ran out of the house.
Neighbors and bystanders to the scene hissed and scattered. The mother, mad with grief and resentment, shouted after them that it was not true, that her son would never, never...
Ling felt his heart clench. He looked at little Cal and felt unspeakable tenderness for him. How could such a sweet child be accused of two deadly sins? But the cruel rumors multiplied like locusts. Barely had the family buried their breadwinner, another disaster befell them.
No one would agree to buy from Cal's mother such beautiful and previously beloved jewelry that she made. Her mother had worked night after night on these jewels and previously she had always been able to trade them for bread or cheese, but tonight was the first time they had gone to bed hungry.
Salty tears ran silently down the woman's face as she thought her son was sound asleep and could not see her suffering. Very soon she gave away everything of value in their shabby home for nothing.
They became paupers. Neighborhood children teased the unusual boy and often beat him behind the big mound, where no one could help or protect him.
He would return home at dusk, hiding his bruises and torn clothes, darning them secretly and wounding his delicate fingers to blood.
Ling sobbed like a madman as he watched this family's distress.
They had already starved for five days, and then for the first time, the mother came home with a man. She was a beautiful woman, still young and constantly receiving hints and offers from bachelors to become someone's mistress.
Need and desperation broke her pride and forced her to compromise her principles for the survival of her and her child.
She ordered Cal to play outside until she called for him. The boy obediently went to the sea. He often wandered there and picked up the small fish the fishermen threw away.
If he was lucky, he could get dinner for his mother and himself. Barely moving his legs, he reached the wharf and saw a crowd of bullied boys. Because of his hunger and weakness, he could not compete with them, so he turned to a haystack and hid in it.
As he warmed up, he did not notice how he fell asleep, exhausted. He slept through the sunset and continued to doze until the bright moon rolled out into the sky. Then the dogs howled, and Cal shuddered and woke up.
Slowly climbing out of the stack, he still walked hopefully along the shore, but the birds beat him to it. There weren't even any giblets left on the shore, the birds had cleaned it all up. Cal looked up at the moon and shuddered once more when he heard the dogs howling.
His mother hadn't called his name, but it was so late, maybe he just hadn't heard. The boy wandered home. There was an oppressive silence in the shack.
Normally his mother would be burning the ceiling lamp and making crafts in the middle of the night, but tonight the house was dark. Cal cautiously approached his mother, and it seemed to him that she was asleep.
Although there was a strange metallic smell in the air, the child did not know what it meant.
In the morning he woke up hungry and went looking for his mother.