1

    The Beginning

    "Experimental subject number zero, I have finally found you," a deep, hoarse voice sounded before a middle-aged man with a robust figure entered a square room with a white cage in the center of the room.

    Inside the cage, a woman sat motionless in the middle with an expressionless face. This woman was around fifty years old, yet her body and face remained that of a ten-year-old, just like the first day she was subjected to experiments. The experiments that turned her into a monster!

    "I'm quite surprised you let us capture you so easily."

    "Have you found it?"

    "..."

    "The method to kill me."

    She didn’t care what the other party wanted to say because there was only one reason that made her willing to stay in a cage like a beast..., death.

    Her cold gaze fell on the person in front of her whom she once called a friend. She entered this research institute with him. While he was raised to be an experimenter, she was experimented on, which is no different from an animal!

    She was injected with numerous experimental substances into her body. Every day and night, she endured severe pain, crying until her tears nearly turned to blood. The torment began and never ended. She had no idea what they were experimenting with and why it had to be her. All she could do was grit her teeth and endure the pain. She couldn’t escape, nor could she die... until finally, the day everyone at the research institute had been waiting for arrived.

    The new experimental substance had a 90 percent chance of success. Everyone said if this substance worked definitively, she would be free. A hope she never had finally emerged because of those words. The ten-year-old smiled joyfully, but that turned out to be her last smile!

    Because the new experimental substance was like hell!

    It turned her body as strong as steel. No weapon could harm or injure her. Her senses were sharp, her body cold as if she was not human. And not even poison or disease could do anything to her.

    The outcome for her was better than everyone at the research institute had anticipated. However beneficial it was for their experiments, it also posed a problem because they couldn't use her blood for further experimentation.

    Her body was too strong. Needles, knives, or any blade could not inflict wounds or cause her to bleed.

    From this point on, she was trained to become an assassin weapon, a commodity desired by many countries for both possession and destruction. Ultimately, she had to flee from being hunted, living a hidden life in the wilderness, far from people, always alone.

    The only hope in her life now was death, and she hoped it would come today.

    "We have a new experimental substance. Perhaps you could return to your original state."

    "No, I don't want that."

    "Are you sure, experimental subject number zero?"

    "Sure." The young woman in a child's body nodded coldly and expressionlessly.

    Return to her original state? She couldn't remember what that was like, how could she return to it?

    "Okay, I understand," the middle-aged man conceded, though he wished she could live on. But that was probably not what she wanted. All he could do was respect her wishes, to atone for what his family had done to the girl he once loved.

    "Thank you," a soft voice said, before he saw her smile for the last time, a smile he hadn't seen for a very long time.

    "Goodbye..."

    I love you.

    "Are you here yet? I've been waiting for you," an unfamiliar voice of an old woman sounded in her head before she felt a warmth enveloping her body.

    ...Is this death?

    "Open your eyes, Bai Xue."

    Even though the name called was not hers, since she never had a name, she still opened her eyes. And when she did, she saw a beautiful natural landscape that seemed like paradise. Even though she had lived in a lush forest before, this place was far more vibrant. It almost seemed as if the scene before her was not real but made from computer graphics.

    "..." She looked around until her gaze settled on an old woman sitting in front of her. Even though the woman appeared to be kind, something told her this was no ordinary person.

    "Am I dead?" she asked, for that was what she wanted to know most, more than being interested in who the woman in front of her was.

    "In that world, you are dead, Bai Xue."

    "I don't have a name."

    "It is your name."

    "What do you mean?"

    She didn't understand and looked at the old woman with a mix of complex and confused feelings.

    "Your name is Bai Xue. You have paid for all your karmic debts. Now is the time for you to be reborn."

    The old woman spoke softly as if that would comfort her bruised soul and make it strong again.

    "I don't want to be reborn," she shook her head in refusal; she didn't want a new life. She didn't want it.

    "But where you will be born, you are not a monster. And, importantly, you have a family waiting for you to return."

    The old woman smiled and said as if she knew the young woman in front of her well and knew what the thing she most desired was.

    'Family.'

    This word made the young woman known as Bai Xue stiffen, for such a thing she never thought she would have the opportunity to possess. What is a family like? Good or not? Warm or not? Happy or not? And will they love her? That was something she both wanted and didn't want to know because she didn't want to hope for it.

    "They love you very much. You are the most important person." as if the old woman's words were a sacred decree that made her heart flutter violently as never before.

    ...Family.

    Just this word alone made her heart, which had been numb for decades, feel something. She wanted to have a family, really wanted to know what it felt like to have a family and not to be alone and isolated.

    "I will ask again, do you want to be reborn, Bai Xue?"

    "I...want to have a family."

    That was what she had longed for, so long ago that she had forgotten she had ever longed for it. The young woman, in the body of a little girl, bowed her head. At least before she died, she wanted to try to possess what her heart once desired.

    "Good. Then remember, from now on, your name is Bai Xue, the granddaughter of Bai Ling, with an elder brother named Bai San, a sister-in-law named Jiu Ying, a nephew named Bai Tian, and a niece named Bai Lan. As for this place, I give it to you as a parting gift. Just focus your mind and think of this place, and you will be able to return."

    "And you..."

    "This place, I have given to you. I cannot return."

    "And if I want to see you?"

    "When you die again, you will meet me."

    "..."

    "Well, it's time to go, Bai Xue. I wish you good luck."

    "Thank you."

    Thud.