Demon King – Chapter 479 – A Story of Bitter Rivals

With no small amount of regret, not long after that, the girl left this world forever due to organ failure and other causes. Even until the very end, the doctors were never able to determine the cause of her illness.

This was also the first time the children at the orphanage had ever faced the concept of death. Even though they did not really understand what it meant, they all knew that the girl who always quietly watched everyone play would never appear again.

Living in this fairly decent orphanage, the children had always received proper guidance from the adults. There was no favoritism or coddling, so compared to kids their age, they were naturally a bit more mature. And after witnessing someone close to them leave, they seemed to grow up overnight.

Especially Officer Li back then. Only after experiencing loss did he learn to cherish the people and things around him. He completely shed his former mischievous and bullying ways and became much more sensible as a whole.

Perhaps out of guilt for having bullied that girl before, he went from a troublemaking brat to an older brother figure who knew how to help the adults take care of the other children.

And maybe because of Ning Xin’s silver hair, he was afraid that she too might leave like that girl did. Not only did he stop picking fights or bullying her, he could even be said to be especially attentive toward her.

But Ning Xin was different. She had already been excluded by the other children, and with her only friend gone, she became even more guarded and wary of everyone. A sense of unease clung to her all day long, making her act like a constantly startled kitten.

With her fierce personality, she often needed to rely on fighting and confrontation to pump herself up and steel her nerves. If she went a few days without fighting someone, she would genuinely feel uncomfortable all over. And with her only friend gone, that sense of unease only intensified this mindset.

But Xuan Hai, the one she fought with the most, suddenly seemed like a completely different person, which made Ning Xin extremely uncomfortable. Having gotten used to clashing with him, she desperately wanted to have a proper fight with him again. But no matter how much she provoked him in secret or gave him dirty looks, he kept tolerating and yielding, refusing to fight her at all.

‘Fine. If you will not fight me, I will find someone else to fight.’

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Xuan Hai’s reaction only made Ning Xin feel worse. Desperate to vent her emotions, she started thinking about fighting those kids who had bullied her before.

But every time she was just about to stir something up, Xuan Hai, now the big brother among the children, would catch on early. Under his intervention and restraint, she ended up failing to start a single fight.

“Are you even a man? Come fight me. Are you looking down on me? What the hell have you been up to lately?”

Completely fed up, Ning Xin finally found a chance to be alone with him and laid it all out.

“There is nothing to fight about. We all live under the same roof, right? We are friends, yeah? There is no need to be fighting all the time…”

“Who the hell is friends with you? I still remember how you bullied us before. Come fight me. Stop pretending. Come talk with your fists.”

Ning Xin refused to accept what Xuan Hai was saying. She already had no friends. The person in front of her was, at best, her favorite punching partner.

“But… she would not want us to fight either, right? She wanted us to get along properly…”

When he said this, Xuan Hai’s tone carried a hint of dejection.

“Tch…”

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Mentioning her only friend, Ning Xin clicked her tongue. Of course, she had not forgotten the things that girl had said to them.

And Ning Xin was not some unreasonable violence maniac either. She only fought back against people who bullied her or deliberately provoked her. Xuan Hai’s current honest and simple attitude made it impossible for her to throw a punch at him, even with a belly full of anger. It felt like punching cotton, completely powerless.

“Want some biscuits? I still have a pack here…”

Looking at the girl gnashing her teeth, Xuan Hai suddenly produced a small pack of biscuits like a magic trick.

This was something he had learned from the adults. If a girl was angry, you should try using some things to coax her and divert her attention.

“What do you mean? Trying to buy me off? You think our score can be settled with one pack of biscuits?”

Faced with his gesture of goodwill, Ning Xin showed nothing but disdain.

“You do not want them? Then forget it…”

Seeing her reaction, Xuan Hai thought she did not want to eat them and immediately moved to put the biscuits back into his pocket.

“Who said I do not want them? Hand them over. I am taking everything you have.”

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After throwing out that harsh line, Ning Xin snatched the biscuits from his hand, tore open the packaging, and started chewing, venting all her frustration through her appetite.

Xuan Hai just stood quietly beside her, smiling as he watched her eat the biscuits. With his first stirrings of affection, he felt that the girl in front of him looked cute no matter how he looked at her.

“Can you stop staring at me like that? If you want some, you can just say it.”

Noticing his gaze fixed on her, Ning Xin thought he was just feeling greedy too.

Having vented some of her anger by chewing on biscuits, Ning Xin slowly recalled some of the ways Xuan Hai had been good to her, like taking the blame after fights so she would not get implicated, or chasing off other boys who wanted to bully her.

A favor is a favor, a grudge is a grudge. She could not eat all of this anyway, so giving him some was no big deal. With that thought, Ning Xin handed over half the biscuits in her hand.

The two children sat in the yard sharing a single pack of biscuits. Looking at how harmoniously they got along, who would have thought they used to be sworn enemies?

Maintaining a subtle relationship where they mixed together yet still resisted each other, the two stayed like this for a long time, until one day Xuan Hai came up with the idea of applying to a police academy.

When she suddenly learned that he was going to leave, a certain little girl who was usually fearless could not help but panic.

After years of being together, even though she would never admit it out loud, Ning Xin had indeed come to see Xuan Hai, this rival she could never quite stand, as an important presence in her life.

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But constrained by pride and her usual attitude, Ning Xin could not bring herself to ask him to stay. She could only watch as Xuan Hai applied to the police academy. Even on the day he left for his new school, she only hid in the shadows, staring as she watched him leave.

“How are things on your end? Nobody bullying you, right? You are so simple-minded. Without me backing you up, you will not make it.”

Avoiding any mention of how much she missed him, Ning Xin could not help but call Xuan Hai, spending the whole call mocking him.

“Relax, I am doing great here. You would not be missing me, would you? Calling me on your own initiative? That is not like you. Did you not say you wanted to be a strong person who does not rely on others? And now this…”

“Who the hell misses you? You little brat. I don’t need you at all. When you come back, I will have become someone you cannot even reach. Go crawl wherever you want. I don’t need you.”

Provoked by that jab, Ning Xin angrily hung up the phone and buried herself in studying.

She swore that she would rely on her own abilities to become someone who would make Xuan Hai marvel, someone successful enough to shut him up for good.

What she did not know back then was that on the other side, Xuan Hai had also made a vow of his own. Before the day he confessed arrived, he would become a man who could protect her, a man worthy of her.