My Mother Has a System but Won't Use It

Not the time that people usually wake up. It was exactly hours before the actual sunrise, and the humid place was full of a wide variety of sounds. Everything was totally dark still, but a faint smell of blood permeated behind Han Li\'s backyard.

On the verdant, wet grass that had barely ever had the need to survive the winds, hot blood splattered and then mixed with the soil. Usually, anguished cries should have been echoing now, but Han Li held the chicken\'s mouth in an iron hold. Not to mention squeaking, it couldn\'t even move.

His eyes reflecting the crimson that briefly flashed, he looked at Liyue. She was there, holding the makeshift spear—but something was different. At the end of the sharp stick was no longer sharply carved wood. Instead, it was an iron-like Raven feather sharpened to the extremes.

But more than that.

The Feather was dripping with blood. Under the full moon\'s veil, it seemed like a horrifying weapon that had just slayed. And it was exactly that.

But Han Li was hardly interested in that. He looked at Liyue\'s face, pale like paper and filled with disgust, fear, and swirling emotions. She had killed.

"Brot…Brother Han…" She spoke till there, and her stomach spun, making her stumble and vomit. Silently, Han Li looked at her fearful self, groveling down and crying as her tears leaked down.

"Do you hate me?" he asked.

She didn\'t reply and just silently kept retching while her tears streaked down.

"This is how it is, Liyue. The world is no sweet honey and gentle kisses. It is no peaceful place."

Her hands trembled. Her own face had a lot of blood streaking through it. She really was struggling. \'Wouldn\'t big brother give me a hand?\' she sobbed.

Han Li looked at her and shook his head. "Liyue, I know what you\'re experiencing since I have been through it myself. This is nothing. Today, you killed that chicken, and I watched it coldly. I might have made you kill it, but that doesn\'t matter. In the end, it had died; only that matters."

She began to breathe heavily while feeling her whole body weaken.

"Tomorrow? It might be somebody else from some faraway land who orders to kill us while looking coldly like I looked at that chicken. Powerless things have no meaning to the world, Liyue. If you are dead, even if you were the Emperor or just a fly, it won\'t matter; you\'re dead. And the world is filled with people ready to kill you and me."

Liyue looked up at Han Li\'s crimson gaze. She was an Awakened; she could see well in the dark, even if the moonlight didn\'t brighten his cold face.

He had never been this cold and critical to her.

"Liyue, always keep in mind. The whole world would kill us if they so much as get a single reason. We have to be strong. One day, if with all your strength, someone comes to kill you, your mother, even me and my mother, what will you do?"

Liyue didn\'t have an answer; she was incapable of thinking at this moment.

"Your hands will tremble as you see a young-looking person right in front of you, ready to tear you apart and drink your blood. But his won\'t. Your body will hesitate to take your first blood, but Demons love the taste of blood. They won\'t hesitate.

"They won\'t hesitate to kill you, they won\'t hesitate to rape you. And they won\'t hesitate to kill me either. To them, everyone and everything is the same, mere tools usable for their own well-being. They wouldn\'t wait to see you harden your heart. You will be dead before you know it."

Liyue looked at him with a weak face. "But won\'t I have Big Brother…" she breathed heavily, "to protect me?"

Han Li looked at her. He would have rather kept her innocence intact and would have never let her touch blood. But there was no spear meant not to draw blood. He was not that naive either—the world was cruel when you least expect it to be.

"What if I am the one being about to be ambushed from the back, and you are the only one who could help me survive?" he asked.

She looked at him with a helpless look. "But… is the world really that cruel? It is so peaceful…"

Han Li squatted down to her level and, with a towel, began to rub the blood off her face.

"For ambition, men can even kill their own kids. If you don\'t eat, you will be eaten. I don\'t think I am that special, Liyue, you know what? I have already killed humans, many times, in fact. To protect, to just get rid of annoyances, to gain benefits more than anything. And just like that, they could kill me if they are better than me, too. I could kill, and I accept the fact that I could be killed for no reason, too. It is a natural process."

Liyue felt her heartbeat calming down but fear rising.

"There is no place for emotions like hatred at the core of the Cultivation world. If they killed you, they were just better than you. So what you do is to be always prepared. To always know your place, always to be stronger than the circumstances we put ourselves in."

Liyue looked at him. Her heart was calming down.

Han Li wiped the last bit of blood from her face and sighed. "Look, Liyue, if someone is snatching something that can save all of our lives, and we need it desperately, and they need it too, and even if they are righteous people, they would kill you if you were desperate enough. But we don\'t need to have revenge for that, that just meant you were weak, and they were strong. What we should do is be ready to be the victors at all times."

07:59

Han Li wiped the last bit of blood from her face and sighed. "Look, Liyue, if someone is snatching something that can save all of our lives, and we need it desperately, and they need it too, and even if they are righteous people, they would kill you if you were desperate enough. But we don\'t need to have revenge for that, that just meant you were weak, and they were strong. What we should do is be ready to be the victors at all times."

Liyue gulped. "I don\'t understand…"

Han Li pushed away a strand of hair sticking to her face because of the last remnant of blood and cleaned that part, too. "I am not telling you to go kill indiscriminately or something. I am telling you to have a sword while keeping it sheathed. When it is absolutely necessary, regret shouldn\'t be your only companion. When you need it, you must have the power of choice."

"So, will I have to kill humans someday, too?" she asked while holding his free hand.

"Yes, you might have to," Han Li threw aside the bloody towel and nodded. Huffing out a deep breath, Liyue nodded, and the spear in her hand was put down. Han Li helped her stand up, and then with a smile, he princess carried her towards the bathroom.

It was early, way early in the morning, to be killing chickens, but he had wanted to do this when Liyue had no one looking at her other than himself. It was true that he accepted her into his heart as one of his women and a weakness that he was willing to bear till death, but that didn\'t mean he was okay with keeping her as a weak vase.

She was her own individual. She was someone he was willing to let grow slowly. But he knew, for her own well, this was what should happen now. She will slowly figure out her own heart, and if she went through such things now, she wouldn\'t have to suffer nearly as much as he had to in the previous life.

He could see her pale face gradually regaining some color and soon becoming normal.

She could be a very tough woman even though she hardly ever seemed so. She had looked after her sick mother for years without uttering a single word after all.

"Big Brother, I had always known people held wicked intentions sometimes…" she murmured. "I had had dreams too, dreams about me or Mom being kidnapped or being coveted by some villains. Mom is quite a beautiful woman, you know, right?"

Han Li nodded.

"And I had always woke up startled as the villains were about to have their way. I never had a way to respond… that\'s why the spear was a great thing for me. From the first day you handed it to me, I loved it. But now am I finally seeing why I loved the spear in the first place."

Han Li smiled as they entered the bathroom. "Why was it?"

"I hated weakness quite a lot, in fact, far more than Mother Yue or my mom would ever understand. I just never knew one thing…" She paled once more. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"But today, I learned that Brother Han, I hate myself for having killed such an innocent creature. And I still have not entirely come to terms with everything you have told me. I feel like crying a lot… but…" her voice broke. "I also think that crying for something I\'ve killed is very hypocritical."

Han Li gently let her down and tightly hugged her. "I know one thing: the world is quite cold, but a family makes it worthy of being survived. It is warmer then."

Liyue looked at him and said. "Please never make me kill anything innocent that never harmed us."

Han Li nodded. He could feel that she was trembling all over.

But it was fine, hating herself for a while was also fine. It was something that she would have to go through. Better now than too late.

He helped her undress, and then gently laid her into a wooden bathtub filled with warm water. Then, he got naked himself and entered the bathtub beside her. Usually, he would have done something erotic after finally seeing her naked again after so long, but he didn\'t, she laid against his chest and then slowly went to sleep.

He kissed the top of her head and in the dark morning, drifted into his thoughts.

He really hoped she wouldn\'t change as a person after today. He hoped she would retain her original heart.

With a sigh, he looked at his hand with Life Vision. Today, he had exactly enough Minor Dao Crystals to transform his Skin completely. It was the culmination of months of effort from him, Yue Li, and Li Yao. But mostly him and Yue Li.

Li Yao was mostly goofing around, while occasionally they did have their nights, it was rarer in comparison to having them with his mom. Which was not too rare, atleast thrice a week.

"Big Brother," Liyue suddenly opened her eyes, "we should give the chicken a burial after we bathe."

Her mind had been too drifted to think of it earlier.

Han Li nodded.

She comfortably laid on his chest while once again closing her eyes as if in sleep. But deep down, she couldn\'t help but think.

\'Big Brother Han had killed humans before…\'

She didn\'t know how that changed her perception of her perfect Big Brother.