Zou Yi called out a few more times still not willing to accept the present circumstances. When calling out didn't work, he decided to cautiously look around.
He took small measured steps, with his body angled at the best position for retreating, defense, or a counterattack. Whichever proved more suitable at the moment.
However, all that preparation proved to be for naught. There was nothing but chilly white mist around him. With no direction or landmarks to work with, Zou Yi decided to walk forward in a straight line. If he zig-zagged around he may find himself moving in circles without knowing.
Thirty minutes went by and he was still walking with no end in sight, and no change experienced. The same silent white mist kept him company.
Outwardly he seemed calm and composed, but inwardly he was a bundle of nerves in worry for himself and his sister.
'What I'm I supposed to do here? Just walk around? Am I missing something?' wondered Zou Yi.
There was nothing but silence and illusory mist. He couldn't glean any clues on how to proceed forward, so he just kept walking and with every step he took, he drowned in doubt, that grew to worry, that grew to impatience, which then turned into agitation.
At the two-hour mark, whatever sense of calmness he had at the beginning had been eroded away within the cold silence.
"Little Yi.."
As Zou Yi was debating on what to do next, he heard a faint whisper coming from the mist.
"Huh?" Zou Yi frantically looked around him with a guarded expression.
After having nothing but misty silence for company for the past two hours, that slight change triggered his agitation further.
He looked around with widened eyes ready to launch a fist, but the attack he expected to come, didn't.
'I must be losing it,' he inwardly thought as he chuckled bitterly.
'It's just the first part…' he couldn't help but worry. The fact that he knew this was a test, was the tether that helped him maintain whatever rationality he had left after the two hours went by.
He continued walking for another half an hour and assumed the voice he had heard was nothing but his nerves and delusions getting to him. However, the same voice sounded again, and this time it was a bit clearer.
"Little Yi, you have grown."
"Who's there?!" Zou Yi asked in agitation as he rapidly switched his view to his left and right.
Ten minutes went by with no reply. Zou Yi didn't so much as take a single step from where he was as he looked around warily.
At this point with how terrified and on edge he was, he very much preferred an attack than to be tortured endlessly by a voice that appeared and disappeared hours apart.
He wasn't sure how much of it he could take.
"Little Yi, how is your sister doing?"
Zou Yi who was prepared to make a dash for it and see if he could outrun the foggy mist, paused his steps as his pupils trembled. Immediately after, his whole body was shaking.
"Are you all eating well, taking care of yourself, I hope you're not bullying her."
This time the voice was more distinctive. Earlier it was shallow and androgynous, but this time Zou Yi could clearly tell the tone of the voice and even the gender.
"Mom…. is... is…is that you?" Zou Yi weakly asked with eyes welling up with tears. He still couldn't tell the direction of the voice, so he could only slowly look around as he asked this question.
His heart was wildly racing as he got flooded with a mix of emotions. He was afraid, excited, anxious, thrilled, panicked, in doubt, and hopeful.
That voice was something he had wished he could hear over the past three years. He had obsessed over it, dreamt about it, but sadly the voice existed only in his dreams. Every time he woke up, that voice wasn't there. It got too painful that he had to try and erase it in his mind.
It's been a few months since he dreamt of it, but now here it was, and as far as he could tell, he was awake.
Zou Yi pinched his left forearm to confirm he wasn't dreaming. The electric sensation traveling through his arm was the proof he needed to know that this wasn't a dream.
"I didn't think my son would be such a crybaby. What happened to the person who would brag endlessly that he would be the next clan patriarch and overshadow all my achievements?"
Another voice sounded immediately after. This one was masculine.
"Dad...."
The bedlam in Zou Yi's eyes broke when he uttered those words.
"Dad, Mom... Is that you?" asked Zou Yi as he looked around.
The fog that had no change in all the time Zou Yi was walking, finally had a ripple to it.
North of Zou Yi, there was a faint ripple that rapidly grew in intensity that caused the white fog to part in the middle. Zou Yi's gaze narrowed in that direction with anticipation and fear in his eyes.
He saw two silhouettes standing shoulder to shoulder looking in his direction.
Zou Yi squinted his eyes to confirm what he saw was real. Every time he reopened his eyes the silhouettes would get more and more distinct. In no time he could clearly see them, it was no longer a speculation of who the owners of those voices were. It belonged to the two people he had wished every day of his life he could see again, his parents.
His mother was just as he remembered her. She had long curvy black hair, an oval face with polish jade beauty, and amber-colored eyes. She had an unrestrained aura to her. In terms of personality, Zou Yi took after his mother. She would cause no small amount of headache for his father with her fiery personality.
As for his father, he had black hair tied in a Daoist topknot, held together by a hairpin that resembled an inscribing pen used in formation. He had a masculine beauty that didn't lose out to his mother and had a calm and silent aura to him. Zou Liqin took after him in terms of personality, however when it came to their face, they both resembled their father more.
"It's you," Zou Yi said with a quavering voice as his whole body trembled.
