Bai Fen’s brows unwittingly furrowed, showing some of the pain of that time. “I told you the other day about how I found out about the curse after I lost my daughter. Well, thanks to that, I knew what to expect when it came to Jing He’s life. Sooner or later, he would be in danger and it would be the kind that could threaten his life.

“Because of this, I didn’t dare to turn my back to him even once after he was born. I would hold him whenever possible, not daring to put him down. If I had to attend to anything else or needed some rest, I always made sure that he was with somebody I considered safe. At first, the only person that applied to was Qiang Yan.” She looked at her brother who smiled wryly.

He remembered that time. He naturally hadn’t minded taking care of his nephew. In fact, it was quite nice. He had never had a child of his own — not one that he knew of anyway — even though he had always wanted a family. But even by then, he hadn’t gotten over Huan Yin’s death so that family of his own was nowhere in sight. His sister and her child were the closest he had and his attachment to both of them was high.

At that time, he liked spending time with Jing He and watching this little nephew of his grow up. But he didn’t like the state his sister was in. Obviously, she was suffering. She had lost Fang Hai and in such a cruel way as well, not even being able to say goodbye. Then, before she even had the time to grieve, she found out that she was expecting another child.

To put it bluntly, she hadn’t been ready. While she certainly loved Jing He, she was overly cautious. Of course, considering the circumstances, that was only right. But it also meant that she was in constant fear of losing this child as well and that was not a state she could keep up for two millennia.

Seeing her like this and knowing what lay ahead of them, he had been worried. If they couldn’t protect Jing He, it would have been the end of her. He knew that. Bai Fen loved both her children and Fang Hai’s death had hit her hard. She wouldn’t have been able to take another blow like that. The only reason she was holding on at that time was for the sake of her newborn son. But that couldn’t sustain you if you were always on edge either. So he could only try to help where he could, giving her a few moments of rest every now and then.

Bai Fen naturally remembered her state at the time as well but she didn’t mention any of that. To Qiu Ling, it really wasn’t relevant and she didn’t want to dive into these matters more deeply than necessary either. Instead, it was better to focus on what would help him understand the person Jing He had finally become.

“I’m not ashamed to admit that it actually took years for me to trust my husband enough to leave Jing He alone with him. When he didn’t tell me about the curse when Fang Hai was born, he showed that his judgment was lacking. That kind of person definitely couldn’t be left in charge of a child not even old enough to speak. It just felt like that was asking for something to happen.”

Qiu Ling nodded slowly. He could understand her mood at the time. In a bad situation, you would often expect worse things to happen. He had always felt like that when he was young. No matter where he went, he thought he’d be exposed and hunted down because it felt like that was the crux of his parents’ death. For Bai Fen, her trauma was in the loss of her daughter so she expected something similar to happen in regard to her son. It made sense.

Bai Fen sighed. “I did everything I could and when nothing seemed to happen in the first year, I started to slightly relax. Especially so after he was old enough to speak and walk half a year after that. It’s just that … the curse is the curse after all. Even if it doesn’t actively harm him at the time, it is still there, just waiting for the next opportunity to strike.”

“It probably didn’t take long after you relaxed.”

Bai Fen nodded. “That is it, yes. I don’t know if it was my hyper-vigilance that kept the curse at bay at first or if it’s just that there are not many things that could happen to a newborn. But yes, as soon as I stopped simply carrying him around everywhere and let him explore a little on his own, bad things seemed more likely to happen.”

She thought back, feeling uncomfortable all over. “The first time it happened, he was walking right ahead of me. It was just two or three steps between the two of us so I felt that he was still within reach. He was … well, he was only about two years old I believe. His legs were so short and I always worried that he might fall so I didn’t dare to stay any further away.

“But even though I was still that careful, I watched as he took just another step, and somehow, the plank beneath his feet collapsed. I stretched out my hands but I didn’t manage to catch him and could only watch one leg sink in.” Bai Fen’s expression darkened further as she recalled that day and she had to clench her hands to stop them from trembling. “I will never forget the sound of his bones breaking or the way he cried. As a mother, there is no feeling worse than your child’s pain that you couldn’t prevent and fearing that you will lose them, too, just like their sibling before them. And at that moment, I felt that I would for sure. There just seemed no way around that curse on his bloodline.”