A Lifetime Promise

Chapter 7

To put the five days into simple words, they had so much fun together as they explored the whole forest and would happily walk in the streets and act mischievous whenever they could, although they had to put on masks to hide their identities.

It was risky as they could run into people like her father and his workers or from the royal family but it was worth it. To Lin Xinglan, it had been a long time since she has been this tired from playing around too much and to the young prince, Qiang Jingyi, it was his very first time he had so much fun playing with a friend. They cherished every moments they had together, especially the young prince.

Before they parted their ways again, they made a pinky promise; To never leave and forever remember.

Lin Xinglan stared at the view from the outside of the carriage, she was in a happy mood and was clearly satisfied with the trip. She hummed a song from her past life while dangling her legs that were still too short to touch the ground. Her father smiled at his happy daughter.

"Little Da, we have soon arrived to the village. I bet your mother is waiting for us to come home."

"Yes, father. Little Da is very excited! Mother promised to cook her special food for us." She grinned happily. Her father nodded in response, he too couldn't wait.

Stopping the carriage, Lin Xinglan quickly stepped out and ran to her mother to give her a hug. Her father only laughed at their silly loving daughter hugging her mother.

If people saw this scene they would immediately think it was a heartwarming family moment.

Lin Xinglan really lived a peaceful life in her second lifetime, everyday she would help her parents with work and at the moment she was helping her mother picking up the newly chicken eggs.

"Little Da, can you take the basket with eggs and go to Madam Weng? She must be waiting for the eggs now." Her mother handed over the basket with chicken eggs to her daughter.

"Alright, mother."

"Be careful on the road. If something happens, run back quickly and shout loudly for help. The people right outside the village should be able to hear you." Her mother warned her daughter before she continued picking up eggs.

"I know, mother!" She waved her hand and began to walk.

Madam Weng was an old lady living a little far away from the village. She was always kind to Lin Xinglan every time she went to visit her. Unfortunately, her husband was badly ill so her life was harsh which was why Lin Xinglan and her mother would always deliver Madam Weng a basket of chicken eggs and a small portion of rice enough for two people.

There wasn't much on the road way to Madam Weng's place from the village, it was pretty much a small empty road laying opposite of the main road where carriages and horses would come by. Thinking about the differences between her past and current lifetime made her sigh. It was just too different, it actually took her a long time to get used to it, especially getting called little Da.

She missed electricity, her computer and her phone, and all other modern things. She could only swallow down the things she missed from her past life because there was no way for her to go back, for she was already dead.

Arriving to her destination, she loudly knocked on the door while calling out Madam Weng's name. It only took a second before the door was opened with a familiar voice sounding through.

"Hello, little Da. I have been waiting for you. Do come in before you catch a cold."

"Hello, Madam Weng and thank you." Lin Xinglan greeted her back with a big cheerful smile and then walked inside.

That was the usual meeting they both had whenever Lin Xinglan came to visit. They were inside the small cozy house, talking about how their days were doing and after they finished their talk, Lin Xinglan would then go back to her village. This time was different because after talking for a short time, Madam Weng noticed black smoke coming at the direction of Zhuge Village.

Lin Xinglan stood up from the chair and quickly bid her goodbye to Madam Weng before she hurriedly ran towards the village. It couldn't possible be what she was thinking, there was no way something would happen to the peaceful village. She felt like her eyes was getting a bit watery. Heavy breath could be heard one after another, she was drenched in sweat from running.

To her dismay, her expectation came to reality, the whole village was full of flames, people was screaming in pain and agony.

She tried to hold back her scream with her shaky hands before she quickly hid behind a bush. Rough voices could be heard, she tilted her head to see the view, she could see a group of filthy men and according to their appearances, it seemed like they were some sort of bandits.

"Tsk, this village really sucks. They had nothing there, not even beautiful women." It belonged to the shortest one among the men. He looked to be in his forty with a big nasty mole plastered on his right chin.

"Really, this guy had to kill all the villagers. Burning the whole village too... How wasteful!"

"Yeah, yeah! Let's just go, there's nothing left for us. Little third lost the bet, he shall pay for the wine!"

"Hahaha!"

Laughter could be heard from the group of bandits, Lin Xinglan couldn't understand how they could laugh so freely just after burning and killing the people from the village. It was too barbaric and disgusting. After the sound of the bandits disappeared, she could finally let go of her hands that had been covering her mouth.

She tried to cry out all her stuffiness in her chest but she couldn't. She couldn't cry for the loss of the two people she thought of as parents, she couldn't cry for the death of the villagers, and she couldn't cry for herself as she wasn't even there when it happened. Tears couldn't come out from her eyes no matter what.

Lin Xinglan was feeling lost after she fell asleep, she didn't know what she would do now with her life. There were no parents left to depend on, there was no longer a village where she lived as a child, there was nothing left for her. Her home and things were gone in just a single day...

All left was the jade hairpin in her hair given by the prince. Suddenly, Lin Xinglan felt like she was missing the little prince, she wanted to see him badly and have his shoulder to cry on. However, she knew it was impossible now. If she had to go to the capital, she had to hope that a carriage would come and the people on it would let her hop on.

Even if she did arrive in the capital, she only had ten coppers on her. She needed to work to get paid, she didn't want to ask for the young prince's help and let him see the filthy state of her. It wouldn't be fair for him.

Lin Xinglan didn't know how the world worked, she didn't exactly pay much attention because all she did before was either being isolated in the village, helping her parents out or hanging with the young prince in the capital. If she had known the things which made her life turn into a 180 degree would happen, maybe she would had focused on studying the business side instead.

She only wanted to live a peaceful life with her parents but fate just wanted to be evil and disregard her wish. Being all alone in an unknown world was her biggest con for being transmigrated.