I Bound Myself to a Destructive Witch

"Hit him! Beat him to death!"

"Damn it, daring to scrounge food from my turf, sick of living, aren't you?"

"Boss, it looks like we really killed him?"

"He's dead just like that?"

In the dimly-lit alleyway, five little beggars in tattered clothes stopped their group beating and stepped back from the boy they were surrounding, each holding iron rods and wooden sticks.

They all appeared to be under ten years old, but their dirt-stained faces were filled with viciousness as they cornered a boy against the wall.

The tallest of the beggars gave the boy another kick and spat.

"Looking for death, let's go."

The five little beggars picked up the hard bread from the ground and quickly disappeared at the end of the alley.

The alley returned to silence, a gray-skinned rat scurried past an overturned trash can, looking up at the sky—a veil of gray haze—as a drizzle began to fall.

Seeing this, it squeaked and scurried back to a small hole in the corner of the wall, vanishing from sight.

At the same time, the boy groaned, struggling to lift his eyelids, the cold raindrops hitting his bloodstained little face, and a cold wind brushed his cheeks with a bone-chilling coldness.

He gritted his teeth, trying to push himself up, but accidentally pulled at a wound on his leg, causing him to gasp for air in pain.

Finally, he had to lean back against the moldy wall and slide down into a seated position. The tender face of an eight-year-old was covered in mud and blood, his only clear pair of black pupils lifelessly staring towards the dim end of the alley.

Xia Feng felt somewhat bewildered at this moment; he realized he seemed to be this... little boy?

But he couldn't control the movements of the body he was in, only able to observe the world through the boy's perspective and five senses.

It was also because of these scenes before him that flashbacks of memories hidden deep within the "Memory Sea" surfaced—fragments of memories that had been sealed.

Xia Feng soon remembered that he had actually transmigrated to this world very early, it could even be considered as transmigration at conception.

However, a child's brain only starts to develop fully around the age of ten, and so his memories from his previous life had been sealed away, never awakened.

As a result, as a child, he was no different from any ordinary orphan, often bullied.

Yes, this life of Xia Feng's also started in an orphanage; tossed into an orphanage at birth, he remained there until he was 7... The orphanage, having adopted too many orphans and unable to sustain them, had no choice but to cast out those over 7 who hadn't been adopted, leaving them to fend for themselves.

And so, at the age of 7, he began his wandering life as a beggar near the garbage dump on the north side of the city.

Sadly, as a child, he was sickly and short, weaker and smaller than his peers, like a delicate young boy, everyone could bully him.

Once he was almost dragged into an alley to be eaten by a female bully, but fortunately at that time, he was following a ten-year-old "big brother."

That big brother had gallantly rescued him.

He asked the big brother what it meant to "eat chicken," and the big brother didn't quite understand either, only guessing that it probably meant they wanted to cut off his private parts to sell on the black market. After all, many wealthy families could get heart transplants, so naturally, the private parts could be transplanted too.

The seven-year-old Little Xiafeng felt the darkness of the world once again; he didn't want to spend his life unable to pee, so in the following days, he became even more cautious.

Sadly, half a year later, the big brother died in a clash between two gangs of beggars.

Without the smart and powerful big brother's protection, his life became even harder.

Every day was a struggle to survive, at times even contemplating selling his private parts to the female bully, maybe getting a few good meals before death.

But it was just a thought.

Then... and then he struggled through a few more months like this, until today, when he went to the northwest part of the garbage dump to scavenge for food as usual and by a stroke of luck, found a piece of bread in a trash can.

Although it was a bit hard and stale, it was a delicacy for him, who could only eat "fern noodles."

"Fern noodles" was the food periodically distributed to the slums by the orphanage, with a disgusting fishy odor, extremely unpalatable but filling and barely sufficient in nutrients.

But today, the lucky find of the hard bread was a treasure to Little Xiafeng.

Unfortunately, a group of five happened to be scavenging nearby and upon seeing him, initiated a deadly chase.

Little Xiafeng was chased into the dead-end alleyway and, in the end, naturally couldn't escape the beating.

But luckily, he had been through this kind of situation countless times before, curling up to "Protect" his vital parts to minimize injury, and playing dead was second nature.

It was just that such sunless days had indeed numbed him.

Bewildered.

He had fantasized countless times about being born into a happy family, one with a dad, a mom...

"Drip—drip—"

The gentle sound of footsteps approached, and Little Xiafeng looked up.

The alley was serene and quiet; when, the girl with the red paper umbrella appeared amid the pattering rain curtain was unknown.

She wore a floral dress, her wet umbrella slightly tilted forward, revealing only a glimpse of her shoulder-length black hair and a delicate, graceful jawline of understated beauty.

With slender fingers lightly grasping the umbrella handle, the girl with the red paper umbrella slowly walked up to Little Xiafeng.

Little Xiafeng looked up in confusion, and at that moment, the umbrella was tilted back, revealing a young and refined face. She appeared to be a girl of about 12 years old, but her fox-like eyes were softly curved, exuding a gentle temperament that gave a sense of comfort.

Under Little Xiafeng's quizzical gaze, she bent over with a smile, "Little brother, my name is Gong Changyi, what's your name?"

Little Xiafeng was stunned; this was the first time he had seen such a beautiful sister, her clothes also very pretty, clearly from a wealthy family, which made him a bit nervous.

Seeing the boy in a daze and not speaking, Gong Changyi was not in a hurry but simply smiled at him, patiently waiting.

Little Xiafeng suddenly came back to his senses, and replied timidly, "I... my name is Xia Feng."

After a pause, he lifted his dirty face and earnestly added with a childlike voice, "Xia as in summer, Feng as in maple."

"Xia Feng... that's a pretty nice name," the girl said with a gentle smile.

"Thank... thank you..."

Xia Feng was a bit overwhelmed, this being the first time anyone had complimented his name.

He couldn't read, and his original name was Hei Dan. One day, after a strange dream, he inexplicably learned to understand some characters and then gave himself a family name and chose a personal name.

"Xia Feng, would you like to come home with your sister?"

"Huh?"

Little Xiafeng was still somewhat dazed, "Home?"

The girl holding the umbrella didn't say anything, only extended her palm towards him with a smile.

As he looked at her clean, pretty little hand and the girl's gentle, bright smile, Little Xiafeng's heart was torn between wariness and confusion; he couldn't fathom what the girl's intentions were...

For instance, was she like that female bully, wanting to sell his body parts on the black market for money?

But this sister didn't look like someone who lacked money...

Dazed in his thoughts.

Yet, at this very moment, he didn't want to be wary of the girl's purposes anymore.

Indeed, he didn't want to think any more about it! A hopeful look hid in his eyes; his small hand slowly lifted, but just as it neared the girl's fair and slender hand, it froze.

His hand was too dirty.

But the next moment, the girl's large hand clasped his filthy little one, and she said with a gentle smile, "Little Feng, from now on, I'll be your sister, okay~ Call me Sister Yi~"

His dark pupils were fixed, and he pursed his lips before quietly calling out, "Sister... Sister Yi."

"Such a good boy~"

"Let's go, we're going home."

The girl bandaged his wounds simply.

Then, still bewildered, he followed the girl into a luxurious sports car, driving out of the slum reeking of death.

However, as the sports car passed by a hearse... he inadvertently saw a gruesome mountain of bloodied corpses inside the half-open van, along with five extremely conspicuous bloody human heads.

They belonged to the five young beggars who had beaten him earlier; now their heads were messily scattered among the mound of corpses, their twisted faces in despair suggesting they had endured inhumane torment before death.

Not a single head was intact, the bloody eyes staring blankly ahead, as if making eye contact with Little Xiafeng inside the sports car.

The hearse flashed by, going in the opposite direction of the sports car, growing further and further away.

Little Xiafeng's face gradually turned pale.

"What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" the girl beside him asked gently.

"It's... it's nothing...."