Rebirth of the Musician

Li Ying sat upon his head, listening to the constant chirping of night birds outside his window, occasionally interrupted by the shouts and cheers of the drunk men at the bar.

As he had first entered the room, Li Ying saw his own reflection in the glass window panes. Although he was still young, still youthful, the face was not the same, nor was the body. It was as if his soul had been placed inside an empty physical shell, forming a new person, but not entirely.

From the notes upon the desk, Li Ying had deduced that his body's previous owner had been a single child, raised by his father at the bar. Due to his large amount of spare time, he had learnt to play the erhu and helped his father in the bar, despite the disapproval that his father would show when he did not play perfectly.

As he was still in thought, Li Ying heard footsteps approach his door before stopping and a knock sounded out.

"Li Ying! I need to talk to you about something."

It was the bar manager's voice. Although it was rough, there was evidently the underlying tone of care and parental possession.

'How curious, the previous body owner's name was the same as mine.' Li Ying thought.

"Yes father! Come in."

The door swung upon, revealing the bar manager and within his hand, was a crumpled scroll of some sort.

"Do you know how I've been telling you about the Cultivation Spirit recently?" the man sat down next to Li Ying.

Although Li Ying had no idea what the manager was talking about, he decided to play it out for now and nodded his head.

"Good! Today, we'll be testing what your Cultivation Spirit is."

Mouth agape, Li Ying hurriedly answered, "We're doing it now?"

Noticing his son's obvious concern, the bar manager smiled before continuing in a reassuring tone, "Don't worry. No matter what happens, father will always be by your side."

Slightly moved by the rough, yet caring father he had now, Li Ying felt moved before nodding.

The man spread out the crumpled parchment upon the floor, revealing what looked like a map of star constellations and the map of celestial objects. Without warning, the objects leapt out of the parchment, shining brightly in the air and creating a third dimensional representation of what seemed to be the universe.

"Step in!"

Following the instructions, Li Ying stepped into the projection of galactic images. Within an instant of arriving in the centre of everything, the projections glowed extreme colours before flashing dozens of times and emitting extremely bright light.

Looking over to the bar manager, Li Ying noticed his father's stricken face, mouth twitching due to unknown reasons. Ignoring the growing worry within his mind, Li Ying attempted to interact with the surround lights, however to his surprise, he was unable to at all. It was as if he was locked within a formation.

Before long, the lights dissipated and Li Ying stepped out of the projection circle. Upon turning around, he noticed the bar manager looking towards the floor, eyes cast with disappointment.

An ill feeling began to settle within Li Ying's stomach, "Father, what's wrong?"

The manager looked towards the roof in despair, "Take a look for yourself!"

Turning back to the parchment, Li Ying saw several large words imprinted upon the page.

[ Cultivation Spirit Determination Successful ]

[ Tested Cultivation Spirit has been determined to be the Music Spirit with a starting grade of F ]

Upon seeing the word 'music', Li Ying's heart leapt in excitement. Of course he knew the reason why. After all, he had devoted his entire life to music, barely caring about anything other.

Turning back to the manager, Li Ying stared worriedly, "Father..."

"Don't you father me, trash! Do you think I raised you to obtain such a trash Cultivation Spirit? I had high expectations for you. Not only was the spirit type trash, the grade was also complete trash!"

"You can scram out of my residence right now! I can't believe even the 56th one could not produce any good results. I, Li Song, am truly fated to live a dog's life!"

With that, the bar manager picked up Li Ying by the waist before treading quickly across the hallway and into the dining room. Contrary to Li Ying's thoughts, the customers from before were still present, still drinking, however now looking oddly at the father-son duo.

"You see these people? I was supposed to show off how excellent my son was today, yet you just had to do what you did! You must be tired of living!"

Li Ying cried within his mind, 'What the hell? What happened to always being on my side? I actually believed that you cared for me, but this is how it goes down?'

As the bar manager swung the child around, heading towards the door as he did so, the slightly drunk farmers stared in pity.

"What number is this one now?"

"Think he's the 40th."

"No, no. This has to already be the 50th."

"Isn't that quite exaggerated?"

Kicking the doors to the bar open, the manager stepped out onto the dusty floors outside and with a great swing, threw Li Ying out of the bar.

Gasping for breath that had been driven from his body during the impact, Li Ying writhed in pain upon the cold, sandy floor.

"Hmph! You're not welcome back here!"

The voice sounded for the last time before disappearing back into the bar, laughing off everything that had just happened.

Li Ying felt bitter. His childhood had been filled with parental love, making those times feel like the warm winds of spring. The day he lost his parents, the world had turned cold, saved only by the simple loving hands of music. Now, just as he had almost gotten that love he craved back into his life, he had been thrown away, rejected from the experience.

Tears came to his eyes. It was a pain that others would not feel. The pain of loss twice in succession, twice without pause, twice striking the heart. Li Ying felt his heart go cold, stone cold, 'Maybe it's better to just die...'

Only moments after Li Ying went silent, a figure from the forest leapt out of the bushes, shaking Li Ying's shoulder quickly, "Hey, are you there?"

Looking up to see the dull figure, Li Ying managed to cough out words from his broken voice, "W-who... are you?"

"I'm just like you. One of that bastard's previous children. Peh! That bastard doesn't deserve to be a father at all!" The figure spat distastefully at the floor.

The figure looked up into the moonlight, enlightening his face within the dark night.

Li Ying saw the face. Not old, not young, something of a twenty year old. Although the boy looked weak, there was a rebellious spirit that emanated from the man. Instinctively reaching out to the boy, Li Ying felt his hand being pulled, his whole body dragged into a standing position before a strong arm supported him.

"Don't worry, you're with us now!"