Chapter 46 - Request (1/2)
With the two little spirit beasts convinced, the discussion inside the spiderweb house subsided - Hei would bring Ye with him while Lian would take Xing.
On hearing that he would be away from Xing, Hei also felt a bit awkward given that he usually did things alone or with both his little sisters. But it was his mother's decisions, so he stopped thinking about it and accepted it, as he had absolute faith in their mother and knew that she was indeed doing it for their own good.
Instead, he decided to talk about something else that had tugged his mind for some time and made him uneasy.
”Mother, can I ask you to stay at home this afternoon as well as in others when we go to class in the inner sect?”
Hei's request was a bolt from the blue. Never Bao Bei nor his daughters would have expected such a request from him. Among the three, Hei was undoubtedly the most attached and devoted to Bao Bei. It was hard to imagine that he had spoken these words even though they had listened to them just a moment ago.
Feeling that there was a good reason for his request, Bao Bei raised one of her legs to calm the little spider and the little snake and turned to Hei. Her eight eyes were concentrated on Hei's face, and he didn't look away. With such a gesture, he was indicating how serious he was about what he had asked.
'Why do you want me to stay home, my little one? Speak freely; tell me what you are thinking.'
The tone of Bao Bei was calm without a trace of anger, inducing him to relax the tension that he had begun to feel after saying those words. After all, it wasn't something he would usually have asked for.
”When we were in the Multicolor Leaf Forest, you started feeling more and more tired and falling asleep more and more. But from the day we had to leave, you always stayed awake to watch over us. I know that mother is tired and needs rest, that's why I want you to stay here to rest. The inner sect is controlled; there are the guards and the sect's elders. Nothing will happen to us, so I want you to rest as long as possible. Do it for me, please, mom.”
When he finished saying what he had kept hidden in his heart for some time, Hei kowtowed to the ground to beg his mother to listen to him. Just because he cared about his mother's health, he was doing all this.
Seeing her son beg her, Bao Bei felt a strange emotion. She didn't like that Hei was doing something like that, especially because she was the cause of the problem.
Indeed, with her vital force dropping, she needed as much rest as possible to contain the continued decrease in her strength. In the Multicolor Leaf Forest, when her children went to the village, she took long naps to recuperate her strength in case of need.
However, the incident with the bandits and the risk of having almost lost her children had caused her such anxiety that she could no longer cut loose and sleep again as she did before. Only at night could she calm down a little, but she would still wake up several times in the middle of the night to see if her treasures were there with her.
With the Green City incident and the training to plan for Hei, Lian, Ye, and Xing as well as the other activities that her son had put in place, she had further suppressed her tiredness to keep watch over them and not fall back again in the same error.
But that ended up having an unwanted effect - Hei had become more and more worried about her.
Initially, he hadn't taken much notice of it because he had many things to do, but as time went on, it had become increasingly evident to him, and in the end, he was no longer able to stop himself from talking.
He knew his mother was doing it for them, and it was just that reason he couldn't stand - he couldn't stand his weakness that was forcing his mother to tire so much for them.
Pleading with her mother was his way of declaring that there was no need for her to try so hard but also, that he would show her that he was capable of defending the family with his own strength and that Bao Bei could give herself a little bit of deserved rest without worry.
Sensing all the emotions inside her son, Bao Bei eventually decided to consent. They were growing, and she couldn't impose herself forever in their lives. Fortunately, the Flower Sect was well protected, and there would be no problems in giving them more freedom. Even if accidents had already occurred due to her absence, she nevertheless decided to trust her son's words and consent to his request.
'All right, that's fine. I will do as you asked, my little one.' Bao Bei said in a calm voice but, at the same time, a little melancholy. Although she wasn't entirely convinced within herself, she decided to suppress her concerns.
Listening to his mother's surrender, at last, Hei slowly raised his eyes to meet his mother's. In his expression, one could read gratitude and remorse as well as resoluteness for the promise he had made.
'This time it will be different, I have become stronger, and I will become even more so. I won't let mother each time consume her energy to help me. I'll take care of solving whatever situation comes up.' Hei thought to himself as he stood up.
Ye and Xing meanwhile approached their mother and squeezed one of her legs for a long time.
With all that had happened before, they had forgotten that fact. Yet as soon as Hei mentioned it, the worries they had buried in the corner of their minds came back more powerful than ever. They regretted not having noticed it before as well as cursing their weakness.
If it hadn't been for Hei, they would have continued not to notice who knows for how long. With a new determination within them, the two broke away from the embrace with their mother. They decided to put more effort into what they were already doing. They didn't want to be a burden to their mother or their big brother.
Noticing that it was getting late, Bao Bei ordered them all to hurry up and start going. She certainly didn't want them to be late since the first day, considering that everything was new to them.
With bitterness in their hearts, the three of them, together with Lian, left the spiderweb house to go to the inner sect. Even if they were feeling dejected, at the same time, they couldn't help but be excited about the new things that were waiting for them and accelerated their pace.
Bao Bei accompanied them out of the spiderweb house and stood in her place until she was no longer able to see them with her eyes. In the end, she sighed inwardly and returned to their home. Since she had decided to fulfill her son's request, she couldn't take back her word; all Bao Bei could do now was to recover as much strength as she could in order to stay with them for as long as possible.