3 The forlorn lad

Many years had passed since the incident and small Lin Yichen had grown a lot. He was now 12 years old and 4.9 ft tall. His turquoise colour eyes was beautiful yet so deep that many layers of oceans seemed to have hidden on it. His handsome brows was no less than two mighty calm mountains, his short silver hair looked incredibly good on his milky white skin.

He had indeed became a handsome lad.

Without a mother and a crazy father by his side, his life was pretty rough ever since that day.

Because Lin Zhang became mentally ill, he was dethroned from being the chief of the Lin clan, instead, his younger brother Lin Zhou became the new chief.

While the previous chief Lin Zhang was an early fourth level Immortal; the present chief Lin Zhou was only in the early second level Immortal realm. Despite being it; he was quite a proud, hard and arrogant one. He never cared for others or the welfare of the clan except for his son Lin Bo and his benefits.

Lin Bo was of the same age as Lin Yichen but the characters of the two were quite contradicting. While Lin Yichen was a diligent, hardworking and humble lad, Lin Bo was an arrogant, rude and proud one.

He never liked his cousin Yichen nor his crazy father.

The present head of the clan Lin Zhou was too pretty much the same and didn't take care of his brother's son. It was like a father like a son.

Because Yichen was a bit more handsome and more talented than his son; he was afraid that Yichen's cultivation might supersede his son. If it was the case then his son won't have the chance of becoming the future chief of the clan.

Fearing an unknown future, Lin Zhou banned Yichen to go into the cultivation classes of the clan in the name of nursing and taking care of his crazy father.

With no one to speak up for him, Yichen fulfilled his task all these years and grew up in a lonely and timid spirit.

As usual, he headed towards the herbs stall of the Lin clan. It was the place where the Lin clan could get all kinds of spirit stones, herbs, everything.

Upon seeing him; the shopkeeper, a big man in his late forties chided in frustration: "Aish! Yichen, you again?! Do you know that you are wasting such a good earth grade bluegrass on your crazy father?! He has been hit by the celestial level mind splashes! There's no way that he would ever recover from it!"

Yichen was left dumbstruck by such stinging words. His eyes widened as the words rang in his ears for a while.

His deep gloomy eyes looked straight into the man's eyes and inquired lifelessly: "How do you know that he is not going to be healed?"

"Tell me, how are you so sure?"

Troubled by his sick glare; the shopkeeper quickly turned away. He maintained his pretended composure and replied trickily: "Otherwise, why would he still be like that? It's been many years that you are feeding your father the earth tier bluegrass that we almost ran out of stock. But look, he is still the same!"

He managed to convince him that it was useless to use the herb on his father.

Yichen was left out of words with it. Everything the shopkeeper said was indeed true that it belittled him.

'It's been many years that I used the earth tier bluegrass onto my father yet, there is no improvement. My father is still the same as he was on the first day. Maybe he is right. The earth tier bluegrass is useless in my father's illness.'

He was left muddled-headed.

Not wanting to fight over it anymore, Yichen finally gave up on it. He turned and walked out from there feeling empty.

The shopkeeper stood still and sneered as he saw him leave the place quietly.

While on his way back, Yichen's fellow peers saw him walking all alone like a zombie.

"Look! Who do we have here?!"

"It's Yichen!"

"Tsk! What bad luck! It is said that his father is a crazy man!"

"Their family is in chaos. His father is crazy, his mother has eloped with another man and he is talentless. I am afraid that their bad luck will come to us. Quick let's go!"

They all glared at him with those despising eyes and promptly walked out from there.

Soon after escaping from him; Lin Heng, a 12 years old lad, 5.1ft tall with the build of a young swimmer turned to take a last look at Yichen and was immediately taken aback by his grim expression. His eyes widened in shock. It was as if he could see through the despair in Yichen.

'This guy looked pretty miserable'

He thought as he saw Yichen wearing this terrible forlorn expression in his eyes. It was as if he wanted to disappear quietly from the world.

There was no hint of life in his eyes.

'This Yichen, he doesn't even refute with those harsh words. He just ignore us like that as if he didn't want to be engaged. He was more like a heartless person who doesn't feel anything. What happened to him?'

Feeling compassion for him, he turned to the present Chief's son.

"Eh...Lin Bo, why don't you speak to your father so that Yichen can come to the cultivation class? He looks quite pitiful."

All of his peers couldn't believe their eyes that they glanced at him bewildered.

"Tch! Him...???!! Lin Heng, are you out of your mind?! You don't have any idea how bad his father's condition is do you?!", Lin Bo reacted in hostile.

He is 5 ft tall with black hair and small eyes quite similar to his father Lin Zhou. The lad even carries the same grumpy expression like his father.

"Don't mind him. He has to look after his crazy father. There's no way that he could come to class!"

"Oh common, Lin Heng! Do you want that bad luck to come to class?!"

"Who knows what might happen to us if we engage with him?!"

"Yeah...We might be influence by his bad luck!"

"Yeah..right"

Like that everyone denied his suggestion and the conversation went astray.

Though Lin Heng didn't quite believe them, he remained silent just for the sake of maintaining peace and no one spoke of it again.

To grow up all alone, in this harsh world, was quite overbearing for young Lin Yichen.

He was already dead inside with no purpose to continue his life. He could only see his distant future as dark and gloomy. He neither had a friend to rely on; a friend with whom he could share all of his worries nor did he have his parents to support him. He had to depend on his own, on his capability to survive in this world and it was crazy.

Without support, without one's encouraging word, it was too much for him to bear it all alone. Everyone saw him and his parents as bad luck. Those dirty remarks were nothing new to him; he had heard them ever since he knows. So, he just ignored them like it was normal. It was the best way to live a quiet life.

All that Yichen knew was that he had to rely on himself to survive in this cruel world. Only the strong and rich had support and had friends but for someone like him who's father is a lunatic and whose mother had been taken away by her tribe, he was nothing more than a loser and a disgrace to the Lin clan.