Shen Tian double checked himself and found that nothing was wrong with his attire. He went down to the living room where his family would usually receive guests.
He examined the foreign yet familiar room in front of him, it was exactly the same as in his memories.
It was a standard living room, the entrance was usually closed by a pair of curtains during the night and open during the day. In the center of the room was a small rectangular table, two large wooden sofas to each side with a small table of the same height in the middle of the two sofas for the guest to place their tea cups on, two wooden chairs in the back and one small square table in between them.
The two chairs at the back were for the master of the house while the sofas were for relatives and guests. All of which were made with delicate engraving full of flowery patterns.
In the back of the room was a giant painting of beautiful scenery on the wall. It depicted a lush green mountain and tranquil rivers. There are tigers and beasts hiding in the mountain, fishes playing in the rivers and birds flying high in the sky.
Above the clouds, there was a phrase 'Feng Yu mountain'. And above the picture was a symbol of a whirlpool and lumps of clouds, on it was the word 'Shen'.
Shen Tian stared at the picture deeply while lost in thoughts. He took a look around the room, touched a porcelain vase on the small table between the two sofas, then sat on a sofa to the right and cared for the armrest gently.
'I stayed up all night to organize my memories and make plans for the future and yet I don't feel tired or sleepy at all, I felt like I could do this again three times more, what's the reason for this? Is it because of the Winter Spring butterfly? That Meng was very mysterious. Aside from the recipe and its supposed function, I know next to nothing about it... I'm too weak at the moment, I can't even research it even if I want to, let alone solve it.'
'Hm... Since there's no abnormalities so far, I'll leave it for now.'
Shen Tian raised his head and looked at the back of the room where the word 'Shen' was.
'Shen clan... How long has it been? Five hundred years, eight hundred? Probably a thousand and a few more...' As Shen Tian thought about his birthclan, then about his circumstances, he couldn't help, but let out a chuckle as he 'watched' a lifetime of hard work disappearing before his eyes.
In this 'new life', he has to start again from the very beginning with nothing to rely on but himself. His greatest treasures were not gold and gears, nor were the Meng and beasts he had tamed in the past, but his experience and wisdom he earned through a life of hardship and painful lessons paid in blood and tears.
'But so what? So what if I start again from zero? Even if I have to start again in a worse condition, even if one day I wake up in a new body, even if I become a cripple, I will do it again!'
Shen Tian grinned and squeezed the armrest tightly. Who could understand his excitement? The feeling of escaping from death's claws, the chance to go back and start again, countless mistakes that can be fixed, countless opportunities for him to grasp, all depend on a tiny butterfly that could die from an adult's squeeze, and the success rate was extremely low!
If he failed then all his achievements, all his ideas and ambition, all his precious memories and knowledge, they would disappear into the wind. Like a pile of shit on the ground that no one cares for. If he died, his life would be meaningless, it was an extremely risky gamble.
And he won that gamble!
He won a one in a hundred chance while betting with his life!
The excitement and joy was enough to make him laugh like a lunatic in the middle of the night with not a care in the world. Even if someone found him suspicious or weird, he didn't care, for his joy was too great to contain.
"Tian Tian, Tian Tian? Oh, there you are!"
A sound from outside brought him out from his stupor, he turned around and smiled warmly at the young girl who was walking cheerfully towards him.
"You look beautiful, Ai Ai."
Shen Ai stopped in her tracks and looked at Shen Tian in surprise. She wore a similar long sleeves row as Shen Tian with matching color scheme, the only difference was that the color of their outer and inner garments are reversed.
It was a simple attire that wasn't too over the top, just some silver accessories here and there. However, if one looks a bit closer, they will realize that these accessories were very delicately made and were not put on these clothes randomly.
Perhaps it was because she wore a short breasted shirt and long light skirt that she doesn't usually wear that made him fluster?
Normally, he would just look at her briefly and change the subject or rush her to go practice and the likes. At best he would just blush and nod at her then walk away to practice or do something else that kids their age wouldn't normally do such as cleaning their bedroom and organizing books.
The only times he complimented her was when they were playing together when his parents were alive and the other time was when she was dressed from top to bottom for the clan's thousand years anniversary ceremony. The first was out of politeness, the second was just a slip of tongue, neither of them was sincere honest compliments.
She thought it was quite cute that he was being shy, maybe one day he might be honest with himself and admit that she was beautiful, that he likes her or something.
"Was everyone ready?" Shen Tian stood up and asked Shen Ai.
Shen Ai knew he was talking about the servants, so she replied, "Y-yeah, they're ready."
"Then let us go."