My Master's Legacy

[The blurb is from the top’s perspective. The main story includes both the top’s and the bottom’s perspectives, but is mostly from the bottom’s, so I’ve chosen the bottom’s perspective.]

Before his master passed away, Xue Rang was left three bequests.

First, a cultivation manual.

Second, his master’s personal sword.

Third, a person... the little Daoist companion his master had cherished above all else, and Xue Rang’s nominal little shiniang.

Xue Rang gladly accepted the first two.

But he didn’t want to take responsibility for the last bequest.

His little shiniang was frail and sickly, needing to lean on the wall just to walk. He would cough up blood at the slightest provocation, couldn’t bear even a breath of wind or the slightest chill, and was as delicate as an orchid grown in a greenhouse.

He was also born blind and deaf.

When he used to follow his master around, he was like a timid little cat, never leaving his master’s side.

Xue Rang remembered their first meeting. His little shiniang had clung tightly to his master’s sleeve, shrinking timidly behind him. His eyes, as pale as those of a dead fish, were filled with nervousness and fear.

Xue Rang disliked him from the first glance. Apart from being somewhat attractive, the man was unworthy of his master in every way. He must have used some trick to win his master’s pity.

After taking care of his master’s affairs, Xue Rang slung his own sword and his master’s personal sword over his back, tucked the cultivation manual into his robe, and took one last look at the thatched cottage where he had once studied.

As for his little shiniang, he was blind and deaf, and still sat foolishly by the bed, waiting for his master to return.

Xue Rang had no intention of caring whether he lived or died. His little shiniang was a rabbit spirit, after all. He wouldn’t die as long as he had some grass to eat.

But just as he turned to leave, a timid voice drifted from behind him: “Qin Huai, where... where are you? I’m so hungry...”

Qin Huai was his master’s name.

Xue Rang thought to himself, Master died in the Silent Valley while looking for medicine to cure you. You jinx!

Xue Rang snorted and slammed the door behind him.

Half a month later, he couldn’t put his little shiniang out of his mind after all. When he returned, he found him turned back into a rabbit, curled up in a pile of his master’s clothes, with a noticeably round belly.

For the sake of his master’s posthumous child, Xue Rang had no choice but to take his little shiniang with him.

Later, he learned the cultivation manual his master had left behind, refined his master’s personal sword for his own use, and pretended to be his master so he could claim his little shiniang for himself. He willingly became his master’s substitute, and even the rabbit babies he fathered called him Dad.

He thought he could live happily ever after with his little shiniang, until one day his master returned alive...

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