Chapter 1022: Hard life

The frail woman fell straight down.

Li Qi was greatly alarmed!

What kind of beginning is this? Why not just let him be born in a vocational school toilet?

However, he could also feel that his mother did seem very weak because she was taking care of him.

She had given him life, and she had raised him.

Moreover, the surroundings were not an illusion; he could determine that this spacetime was definitely within the Reality Universe, and this was a 'neutral zone,' not constructed by the Demonic Dao.

Was it because the Heart Demon couldn't do it?

Perhaps so.

Putting that aside, after Li Qi saw his mom fall and faint, he immediately began to save himself.

Even if he were truly born in a vocational school toilet, he couldn't just wait for death, could he?

Besides, his mom looked to be about eighteen or nineteen years old.

Hmm… she didn't seem to have a high level of education, and she was an unmarried mother whose husband had died early.

Her life was a bit bitter.

No, now she was his mom, so now it was his life that was bitter.

On Li Qi's small face, a very adult-like, helpless bitter smile appeared.

He weighed his small arms and legs.

Standing up was out of the question; his muscles made even turning over difficult, and rolling around was a challenge now.

So, there was only one thing he could do.

That was—cry!

Li Qi settled his Qi into his Dantian, using his familiar breathing technique to vibrate sound waves and regulate their frequency.

The nature of sound waves is actually the vibration of particles around their equilibrium position along the direction of propagation, meaning that the propagation of sound waves is essentially the transfer of energy through a medium.

The greater the amplitude, the greater the loudness; the higher the frequency, the farther it travels. At the same time, sound waves also possess the effect of resonance.

In industrial society, most things are composed of specific Materials, which have high purity. Specific Materials have a certain inherent frequency. When a certain energy approaches their inherent frequency, these Materials will more easily release energy, leading to an amplification of the vibration effect.

Under resonant frequency and resonant wavelength, very small periodic vibrations can produce large vibrations because the Material itself stores kinetic energy.

If it's a composite material, like bone or soil, where many Materials are mixed, then it's not easy to resonate.

But correspondingly, if it's a high-purity Material, like a steel frame or glass, it's very easy to break due to resonance. Similarly, a water surface is also very easy to produce strong ripples due to resonance, because the purity of water can easily become very high.

Through a specific breathing technique, Li Qi adjusted the frequency of his crying.

Soon, the floor began to vibrate.

Then, Li Qi continued to adjust the frequency.

Before long, with a bang, the glass shattered too.

Immediately after, there was a pounding on the door from outside. Li Qi then reined in the sound waves and instead let out a normal baby's cry.

The baby's cry seemed to make the people outside more anxious, and the knocking stopped.

But soon, the administrator of this cheap apartment came and opened the door with a key.

After that, things naturally fell into place.

The young girl was rescued, but she wasn't sent to the hospital because she was woken up and thankfully nothing serious had happened; she had just fallen asleep due to weakness and exhaustion, but she had slept quite deeply.

However, after she woke up, she apologized profusely to everyone. After being scolded by the administrator, she was told to remember to fix the glass, and then he left.

As for how the glass broke, no one pursued it.

After everyone had left, the young girl, eighteen or nineteen years old, sat down wearily.

Her name was Xing Xue. She had just graduated and chose to work instead of continuing her studies.

She calculated the cost of repairing the window and couldn't help but sigh.

Thankfully, she wasn't sent to the hospital; if she had been, things would have been difficult, and she would definitely have fallen behind on next month's rent.

And now, she also had to quickly get herself some extra food and couldn't just eat those cheap sprouts anymore, or she might really have problems.

She calculated her savings and her current payday. She had three jobs, all part-time. The salary from one was for rent, another for living expenses, and the third for raising her child.

Child…

Yes, the child.

The young girl looked at her child.

The cute little infant lay on the bed, not distressed as usual, but staring at her with bright, watery eyes.

A few months ago, when she saw this little life, her heart was still full of joy, even though she was exhausted and disoriented when she gave birth, bleeding profusely and needing two blood transfusions, she was still filled with joy.

But now, she only felt pain.

Xing Xue felt completely drained of strength.

A few months ago, when she left the hospital, carrying her son, she had thought she would embrace a happy life. Even though she had left home, defying her father's warnings to marry her current husband, she had believed she wouldn't regret it then.

But her husband fell from a scaffolding a month later, and the compensation was taken by others. She tried to claim it but was almost killed. She was so worried that she entrusted the child to his grandparents and tried to save some money herself.

Those people broke into her home, threatened to burn her house down if she dared to come again, and spray-painted her door. For that entire month, every time she came home, she would see a few thugs squatting by her door.

So, during that time, she always kept her door tightly shut and even blocked it with boxes.

Every time she came home from work, it was like this. In those few months, as soon as she returned home, she began to suffer from terrible claustrophobia. She always felt that the surrounding walls were enclosing her, as if they were going to crush her, and she couldn't breathe.

She was extremely nervous and couldn't stay at home for long. Every time she was at home, she would instinctively run down the stairs, through the lobby, and out onto the street. At least there were no walls on the street; she simply couldn't stand being at home.

She was almost driven to madness, feeling as if the entire world was spinning.

Finally, she found a solution, which was to bring the child back from his grandparents.

After bringing him back, her illness suddenly disappeared.

She became much more stable.

Although the child constantly cried at night, throwing toys and bottles everywhere, and the entire apartment reeked of the child's spit-up, no matter how much Xing Xue cleaned, she couldn't get rid of it.

But she was miraculously able to calm down.

The electrical wiring in her apartment was too old, causing the air conditioning to work intermittently, so the heat and humidity in the house could never be removed.

The first thing she did every day when she opened the door was to pick up her child. She hugged him tightly, kissed him, completely disregarding the smell of his spit-up. At this time, the child would cry continuously and flail his arms. Although she felt guilty, she couldn't put him down; she had to do this to keep going.

However, other problems followed.

She had to earn money and go out to work, otherwise she couldn't support the child. So, she chose to send the child to his grandparents during the day and pick him up at night.

This arrangement made the grandparents extremely unhappy. They wanted the child to stay with them permanently, rather than being constantly picked up and dropped off, as it wasn't good for the child.

Xing Xue herself knew that constantly rushing around was not good, but she actually knew that the grandparents wanted the child but not her.

They even blamed the death of their son on Xing Xue, the woman. They loved their grandson very much but were unwilling to let Xing Xue stay there.

Xing Xue suspected that if she really didn't come to pick up the child for a few months, they would never let her see him again.

She absolutely could not accept this.

So she quit her job and switched to part-time work, which allowed her to take full custody of the child.

But…

After a few months, the pressure of three part-time jobs plus caring for the child had made her miserable and extremely weak.

A terrible thought now emerged in her mind—

She really wished the child would die.

A thought flashed through Xing Xue's mind: pick up the child, let him sleep on the table near the window, and then leave… she hoped he would suddenly fall out of the window and die.

She wouldn't do it, but just the emergence of such an impulse from her heart brought forth a surge of guilt, as if it were sending her to the guillotine.

Li Qi watched his dazed mother, two strings of tears slowly flowing from her eyes.

Hmm.

Would he be strangled?

However, it was also clear that his mother was under considerable pressure.

So, Li Qi suddenly let out a gurgling laugh.

He propped himself up and began to crawl, having learned to crawl before he could even roll over.

Under his mother's astonished gaze, he crawled over, then extended his chubby little hand, touched her nose, and called out: "Mama—"

His voice was very tender.

Xing Xue's heart full of resentment miraculously dissipated temporarily with that sound.

She held the child's small hand, tears streaming down her face. She truly couldn't distinguish what kind of tears these were—joy? pain? or something else?

But she certainly wouldn't put the child on the table near the window, nor would she hand him over to his grandparents.

Soon, it was his first birthday, and according to the custom of this world, it was time to name Li Qi.

Many relatives were invited for the naming ceremony, including his paternal grandparents, and even Li Qi's maternal grandmother came, though his maternal grandfather did not.

His maternal grandfather, Xing Xue's father, was still resentful about Xing Xue leaving home, so he refused to come see him.

When his paternal grandparents arrived, they had a big argument with Xing Xue. They wanted to take Li Qi, but Xing Xue absolutely refused, and it ended in an unpleasant parting.

However, even so, Xing Xue's mother came over.

She had come secretly, without Xing Xue's father knowing. She walked over to Xing Xue, who had just finished arguing.

"So young, and so bitter," her mother said, slipping two banknotes into her hand.

"Keep this for yourself, buy some new clothes, get your hair done nicely. Look, you've taken such good care of him, but you've let yourself go like this."

She said, folding the money and putting it into her wrinkled handbag, while her other hand held Li Qi.

Li Qi was clean and smelled sweet, but Xing Xue herself looked incredibly haggard.

What was this old woman thinking?

What would happen to Xing Xue in the future?

But all that was unknown. Xing Xue's life was shattered, and this old woman could only give her some money to buy new clothes and tidy her hair; she could do nothing else.

As for the naming, it went very smoothly, though there was a small hiccup.

Originally, Li Qi's new name was Xi Ri. Li Qi had no complaints about this, but he felt that keeping the name 'Li Qi' would help him maintain his self-cognition during the Reincarnation tribulation.

After all, this might not be just one cycle. Always being called Li Qi would allow Li Qi to solidify his self-awareness, even though Li Qi's self-awareness archetype was rather peculiar.

Thus, one-year-old Li Qi spoke up, saying he wanted to be called Li Qi.

This shocked everyone.

Who could have imagined that a one-year-old child could express his purpose so clearly, and even name himself?

It was a chaotic scene.

But ultimately, due to Li Qi's own insistence, his name was indeed called: Li Qi.

The ceremony ended.

Li Qi was held in Xing Xue's arms, being teased and having his astonishing performance of the day recounted. Though tired, she was happy.

However, Li Qi said: "Mom, don't worry, when I grow up, I will definitely protect you!"

Li Qi's words still carried an unavoidable childish lisp from his vocal cords, but the logic was coherent and the sentences firm, leaving Xing Xue momentarily at a loss.

Li Qi was still wearing a diaper, after all.

There was nothing to be done about this. Li Qi was indeed at an age where he couldn't control his bladder; his instincts still outweighed his consciousness. After everything had turned into a Mortal, willpower could actually do very little, especially when he was still a small child.

But speaking was enough.

However…

At one year old, Li Qi's body had already begun to develop. He had started learning to walk and use utensils, basically acquiring the fundamental abilities to move.

That was enough.

After his first birthday, Li Qi's breathing technique began to operate continuously for long periods.

Innate Qi, or as some might call it, 'the residual stem cell differentiation ability after birth,' infants possess powerful vitality, and all parts of their body can continue to develop because newborns have stem cell reserves. Storing umbilical cord blood is also for this reason, as it might be useful in the future.

And now, the residual Innate Qi within him was being utilized. Every day when he turned over and exercised, he consciously activated his muscles and bones, developing his skeleton.

At two years old, despite not eating particularly well, Li Qi was already a full circle sturdier than his peers.

At three years old, Li Qi was already able to run and jump, but his internal organs were still too delicate to withstand strengthening; they needed to grow a bit more.

By the time he was five, Li Qi effortlessly used his fifteen yuan allowance, starting with his mother's account, to multiply that money twenty thousand times in the financial System on the internet of this civilization.

Any more than that wouldn't work; any more would involve the dealers, and then calculation and intelligence wouldn't be effective.

When Li Qi gave his mother a few thousand yuan—

The weary Xing Xue suddenly realized something.

The child she had given birth to… seemed not to be an ordinary person.