The Awakening Child

Lin Mo smiled as he opened the door, casually turning on the light.

The young girl slipped inside straight away, like a gust of wind.

Neat, clean, and uncluttered.

This was Xie Yuling's first impression of Lin Mo's room; even the blanket on the bed was neatly folded.

Fortunately, the movie Detective Chinatown 1 didn't exist here, otherwise that line about a perfectly tidy and odorless room meaning the guy was either a crossdresser or a creep might come to mind.

When Xie Yuling saw the bookcase crammed with novels and manga, she finally felt that the Lin Mo before her had a bit of the down-to-earth vibe of someone his age.

"You actually read these?" She picked up a manga with a cool cover, looking somewhat surprised.

"Bought them in the past. I rarely read them now," Lin Mo said as he walked in carrying a cup of warm water and handed it to her.

Xie Yuling took it naturally, but her eyes darted mischievously between him and the cup. She deliberately lowered her voice, "You didn't put anything weird in here, did you? Like something that would make me fall into a deep sleep..."

Before she could finish, Lin Mo flicked his finger lightly against her smooth forehead.

A crisp smack echoed.

"Hiss... that hurts!" Xie Yuling covered her forehead, glaring at him accusingly. "Why did you have to get physical!"

Lin Mo ignored her antics. Instead, his gaze turned somewhat dangerous as he stared at her. "Speaking of which, what exactly have you been looking at on my computer lately?"

Xie Yuling's cheeks instantly flushed bright red. Her eyes darted away as she stammered.

Suddenly, as if realizing something, she jerked her head up, pointing at Lin Mo with sparkling eyes.

"Oh! You understood it instantly! You're just as bad!"

System: [Let me summarize: you two are both bad, and that includes all of you in front of the screen.]

Just then, Lin Mo raised a brow, sensing a faint fluctuation of divine sense sweeping around the room like a curious radar, not even sparing the space under the bed.

He looked helplessly at the young girl who was pretending to admire the scenery. "What are you looking for with your divine sense?"

"Love letters, of course!" Xie Yuling said righteously. "I'm checking to see if you've ever received any, or if you wrote some but didn't dare to send them out!"

Lin Mo couldn't help but laugh. "What serious person still writes love letters nowadays? They just turn into dark history later on."

He didn't have any dark history.

Probably.

At this moment, Lin Mo's mind suddenly stirred.

A faint yet exceptionally clear energy fluctuation was coming from the direction of his parents' room.

It was a palpitation like a butterfly breaking out of its cocoon.

Xie Yuling also stopped in her tracks, turning her ear to listen. Her small face soon showed a hint of surprise. "Lin Mo, did you feel that? Something is moving over there."

She paused, a trace of imperceptible nervousness flashing in her eyes. "That power is very unfamiliar. It's quite strong."

After cultivating her divine sense, Xie Yuling had become quite sensitive to all of this.

Lin Mo reached out and patted Xie Yuling's shoulder casually. "It's fine. It looks like someone is breaking out of their shell today."

A faint smile played at the corners of his mouth. "Since you're here, let's go take a look."

He led Xie Yuling to the door of his parents' room, but instead of pushing the door open, they just stood side by side outside.

"Why are we still standing at the door? Aren't we going in?" Xie Yuling looked around, then at Lin Mo, her tone laced with confusion.

"Wait a bit longer. It's at a critical moment, we can't go in just yet."

As soon as he spoke, the energy fluctuations inside the room abruptly intensified, faintly showing signs of materializing. Even the door seemed to tremble slightly.

Xie Yuling nervously gripped the hem of her clothes, her breathing growing shallow.

A moment later, that violent energy rapidly receded like the tide, eventually dissipating completely. Silence returned to the inside and outside of the room.

Normally, this kind of awakening would produce a massive disturbance, but because Lin Mo had directly set up a formation array in the house, no fluctuations would leak out of the building.

Inside the room, Ning Qingcheng slowly opened her eyes.

What met her eyes was not the familiar ceiling of her own home, which instantly put her on high alert.

The Ning family was a prominent and respectable clan in Pengcheng.

Therefore, there were always many scoundrels keeping an eye on them. However, as a member of the Yanhuang Awakening, the Ning family was never afraid of such things.

Still, every member of the Ning family had to learn how to handle and respond to these kinds of situations.

Her head was still a bit groggy. Her memories stopped at the celebration banquet her family had held for her impending ability awakening, and then she had fainted because of the awakening itself.

It wasn't as if no one in the Ning family had ever fainted from an awakening; several of her older cousins had experienced the same thing.

Logically speaking, she should have woken up in her large bed at home.

So, where was she now?

Ning Qingcheng held her breath, carefully observing her surroundings.

The room was pitch black; she couldn't even see her own fingers in front of her face. She tried to move a bit and found that her body seemed fine.

"What a pain," she muttered softly. She raised her wrist and lightly tapped her fingertip against the air.

A soft light instantly bloomed at her fingertip, spreading out like a drop of ink in clear water, dispelling the darkness.

This light scattered like starlight, illuminating the entire room.

By this light, she made out the room's furnishings: a slightly worn dressing table, a plain-looking wardrobe, and a yellowing wedding photo hanging on the wall, featuring a couple with simple, honest smiles.

No matter how she looked at it, this decor didn't resemble the Ning family's style at all.

Ning Qingcheng sat up from the bed and stretched her stiff body.

She extended her hands, intertwining her fingers, and tried to instinctively perceive the surrounding space, adapting to her new ability.

In the Ning family, one-third of the bloodline could awaken abilities.

Those who didn't awaken had to study hard to become the public face of the Ning family.

Meanwhile, those who awakened abilities were the true pillars of the Ning family, serving as its inner core.

However, an invisible force, like a heavy cotton quilt, firmly suppressed her perception. It allowed her only a vague awareness of the room's existence, preventing any deep investigation.

"Strange... my ability... seems to be restricted?" She frowned, doubts multiplying in her heart.

Where on earth was this place?

"Once you've composed yourself, come on out."

The voice was young but completely unfamiliar; it wasn't anyone from her memory.

She paused her movements, a massive question mark surfacing in her mind.

This was not her father's voice.

Where was her father?

She slipped silently off the bed. Her bare feet stepped onto the cold tiles, and though the chill crept up from the soles of her feet, she seemed oblivious to it.

In the room, a few faint points of starlight circled her like fireflies, flickering in time with her breathing.

She walked to the door, glanced back at the lights that belonged to her, and simply waved her hand casually.

In an instant, all the starlight faded away, and the room returned to darkness.

Only after doing all this did she grasp the cold doorknob and, with an incredibly gentle motion, pull the door open just a crack.

The door opened.

A little girl, looking somewhat timid, stepped out from the darkness.