Chronicles of Crowns and Chaos

The woman whispered through her tears, "I'm afr…aid. What if he ha…tes us?"

Her voice broke as she cried, heart heavy with the weight of twelve years of silence.

The man pulled her into a gentle embrace. "Even if he does… we'll still do everything we can. Maybe… maybe one day, he'll forgive us."

She leaned into him, her sobs softening into the hush of twilight.

"Hm… yes. We'll do our best," she murmured, though uncertainty still lingered behind her eyes.

Before them, cloaked in distance and fading light, stood the outline of a quiet, humble planet—Verdant Hollow.

The place where their long-lost child now lived.

Back in the small wooden house…

Yun Shuyi looked up, his voice trembling. "M…my parents are h-here?"

He gulped, his chest tightening.

Vaelora Xianwu nodded, calm as ever. "Yes. They'll arrive in about three minutes."

Her voice was still, serene—yet her words thundered inside me. They confirmed everything I'd feared… and hoped for.

What if they don't like me?

What if they abandon me again?

My heartbeat thrashed in my chest. That happiness I'd felt—knowing I wasn't an orphan—began to twist into something cold and sharp. A creeping dread.

What if they saw me like this? Clad in rags, hair unkempt, trembling with fear?

Would they turn away?

The fear devoured everything else.

I clenched the jade pendant hanging at my chest—the only piece of the past I'd ever known. The only proof that maybe… I belonged somewhere.

I glanced at Big Sis Vaelora, my eyes pleading for something—anything—but no words came. Just a faint breath. A tightening in my throat.

She placed a hand on my head. Warm. Gentle. Steady.

Like sunlight parting storm clouds.

The chaos in my heart stilled—just a little.

"Thank you… Big Sis Vaelora."

She smiled, faintly but sincerely.

"Yun Shuyi… you don't have to worry. Your parents love you very, very much."

And just as those words reached me—

The door burst open.

Two figures rushed inside.

Before I could even blink—before I could breathe—I was pulled into an embrace.

Warm. Protective. Familiar… in a way I had never known, yet had always longed for.

I broke down. Sobbing. Trembling.

"Haa… haa… haaa…"

Time slipped by in that silence filled with tears and memory.

Eventually, I lifted my head.

I saw her face.

Tears streamed down her cheeks, but her eyes… they held a love so vast, so endless, I felt it wrap around me like light after a thousand nights of darkness.

Beside her stood a tall man—silent, dignified.

He looked like me.

His eyes shimmered with unshed tears, and though he spoke no words…

It was enough.

It was everything.

With a trembling voice—loud, raw, and filled with years of yearning—I spoke:

"Mother… Father."

 __________________________________________________________________

 In rags, he wept beneath the stars alone,

 Till love returned, and called him home.