Afterlife Department

Chapter 336 - Cinderella

"'Grim Reapers' Mental and Emotional Stability Monitoring Device'…" Hai Ba muttered as he looked at the group of words in the screen. His expression looked thoughtful.

"En." Sha Jiu nodded. "I made the program when I was bored. So, this is unreliable." He explained. "I'll find a way on how to improve it." He said.

"Why make one?" Hai Ba asked.

Sha Jiu stared at him and knew that the other is just purely curious. "I… want to help our colleagues.." He said as he lowered his gaze. "You know… my inventions… I am so slow… so, at least in this area…" his voice faded until it abruptly stopped.

Hai Ba suddenly reached out a hand and patted his head. "I know you are under a great pressure, as the leader of the R&D." he said. "But, if there is something that is really needed, everyone would speak up. So, I hope you won't stress yourself that much. Don't overthink things." He told him before he took out a candy from his pocket and placed it on Sha Jiu's working table. "I don't want to see you again lying on the hospital bed as my patient." He added before he walked towards the door and left.

Sha Jiu stood staring at the door for a long time before he suddenly recovered his senses. He looked at the candy on top of the table – which is the only one that stood out because it doesn't complement with the other things on top of the table. He opened his mouth before he closed it. He doesn't know when, but his feet already moved back towards his working table, and his hand raised to pick up the candy.

Mn. It tastes sweet.

Normal World.

Huo Ling's father is a prince while his mother is a Chinese. His father and mother met when they were in college, when his mother became an exchange student. His father saved her from the thugs, and the two of them fell in love. But, since his father is hiding his identity as a prince, Huo Ling's mother didn't know her lover's real identity, until they graduated and she was abducted on her way back home to her motherland.

It was then that she found out from her abductors that her lover is actually a prince, and they wanted to kill him. She got angry, but then she heard from them that she was very important to him even though she is just an orphan with no family to support her.

Huo Ling's father went insane when he heard that she was kidnapped. When they finally saved her, she fainted from the stress and fright that she received… and because she was pregnant. Huo Ling's father loves her so much, and added to the fact that they have now a child, they immediately got married after she finished recuperating. She felt like she is Cinderella, and that she's just dreaming.

But, she soon accepted it was reality after Huo Ling was born. Huo Ling, as the first child to be born, became everyone's darling. The royal family felt they are very fortunate, and their fortune kept going after Jason Baurne was born.

Huo Ling, because he isn't a pure-blooded prince, was disqualified for the throne even though his father, the eldest among them siblings, is the king. But, his father didn't feel regret, since he loves Huo Ling's mother so much. Huo Ling didn't feel disappointment, either, since he is asexual, so he can't have heirs. It was Jason Baurne who was actually the one that was disappointed the most. He already regarded himself as the right-hand after Huo Ling ascends to the throne and become the king. So, Jason Baurne always went to Huo Ling tearfully because Huo Ling's father and his own father are scolding him left and right while they train him to become the next king.

Huo Ling felt very helpless towards this. To avoid being pestered by Jason Baurne, he moved out from the palace and rented an apartment and applied to be a kindergarten teacher after Jason Baurne's son, Justin, was born. He felt fond towards children. Maybe because it is the regret he feels after he found out he is asexual… or so he thought he is, until he met Yi Bing.

Thinking until here, Huo Ling glanced at Yi Bing who is kneeling beside him as they paid their respects to his maternal grandparents. It's not as if Huo Ling's father, or the royal family, tried to investigate the background of Huo Ling's mother. It just took a very long time, because Huo Ling's mother was picked up by an orphanage, and no one knew or have seen any people in the place where they found her.

But, because of Jonathan's, and his lover Lu Si's, hard work, they finally found Huo Ling's maternal grandparents. However, it was too late. Huo Ling's mother was actually kidnapped and was trafficked. Maybe she was very fortunate, but the trafficker panicked when he heard the police sirens afar and thought the police was coming for him, so he left the child on the street. It was found out that there was a crime that occurred in the area. But, in the end, Huo Ling's mother was saved and later luckily picked up by a worker in the orphanage.

On the other side, Huo Ling's maternal grandparents are already old. They had Huo Ling's mother very late. Not to mention that Huo Ling's maternal grandmother suffered a depression after she gave birth and then fell ill, Huo Ling's maternal grandfather's illness when he was young recurred. So, after they found out that their child was kidnapped, both of them fell into depression and their neighbors found them dead in their house after they have been robbed.

Jonathan and Lu Si found them because of the news and their neighbors' testimonies. It was their neighbors who raised a fund for their funeral.

Huo Ling retracted his gaze and then looked at his maternal grandparents' epitaph. Huo Ling's mother, after she found out about her biological parents, fell into a depression. Huo Ling's father brought her out to relieve her depression. If he had known that she will get abducted and later killed, he wouldn't have taken her out. But, there is no cure for regret. Huo Ling's father also felt guilty towards Huo Ling, since he blames himself for his wife's death. His disappointment towards Huo Ling's sexual orientation disappeared. But, he was already very old, and Huo Ling already became matured. The father and son became estranged to each other.

Huo Ling uttered a prayer before he rose from the ground. Yi Bing saw him and he followed.

"Let's go." Huo Ling spoke and walked away.

Yi Bing looked at Huo Ling's back before he turned to the graves of Huo Ling's maternal grandparents. He slightly bowed at them before he followed Huo Ling.

"Death…" Huo Ling spoke as they walk down the street.

The leaves of the trees rained down on them before they were blown away by the wind. The surrounding is tranquil.

"It gives us sadness and regret." Huo Ling said.

Yi Bing didn't speak and just silently listened.

"Birth can be chosen, but death can't." Huo Ling spoke as he kicked a pebble on the ground. "And because no one knows when they will die, they feel regret because they haven't bid them goodbye. They feel sadness because they can never see them again." He said.

Yi Bing wanted to say that death isn't just sadness and regret. It can also be relief. For those who have sinned, or those who are eternally suffering, death is relief for them. But, he doesn't want to tell Huo Ling that. Thus, he continued to remain silent.

Huo Ling sadly smiled when he didn't hear Yi Bing speak. He stopped, then slowly turned back to Yi Bing. He is about to ask Yi Bing if he will be sad if he died, but before he could speak, he felt his hand was grabbed and pulled, and he fell into an embrace. Before he could react, he felt something swept past the back of his hair and hit the cemented wall.

His eyes widened and his pupils constricted. Assassins! He thought. But, before he could speak, he felt Yi Bing wrapped his arm around his waist and felt his body left the ground. He stared, wide-eyed, at the ground that was moving away from him… no. It is him moving away from the ground!

Yi Bing, carrying Huo Ling in his arm, jumped and kicked the wall to propel themselves upwards. Just as they left the ground, the wall was riddled with bullets. He immediately jumped down and entered the cemetery.

"Y-Yi Bing!" Huo Ling called when he finally found his voice after he was shocked. Recently, his days spent with Yi Bing is very peaceful, so he has forgotten the reason he came to China – to hide.