(BL) Qizi

Whoooo I finished the novel!

My favorite part was probably the story of MC and ML’s most recent reincarnation <3

For some context: The Tianxiu people are hardwired to be unable to go too far from their home planet (specifically, the Tree of Souls on their home planet). Fledglings in particular can barely travel at all. This restriction is what’s preventing them from conquering the galaxy.
The only exception to this restriction is a rare individual born every 500 years, called the 孤星 (lit. Lone Star, traditionally referring to a person who is an omen of disaster). This Lone Star can travel as far away from the home planet/Tree of Souls as they want. In addition, Lone Stars always lack emotion and empathy (sociopaths?). When they Awaken, they seek out the strongest opponent and invariably kill their partner during the Adult Ceremony. Overall, they’re perfectly loyal, cold-blooded killing machines. (Yep, once upon a time, all the current Tianxiu people were like this.)

And one final bit of context: the MC gets stuck jumping through time and witnesses all his previous reincarnations. He specifically plays a direct role helping out his most recent reincarnation...


Okay, so MC’s last reincarnation was named Ling Xing. Ling Xing’s generation of Fledglings were told the entire bloody truth about the Adult Ceremony, so a huge proportion of Fledglings that year of course held back on going through with the Ceremony. Unfortunately, their restraint made them a time bomb, resulting in an extremely violent chain reaction of Adult Ceremonies. Over half of the Fledglings that year died.

Ling Xing survived the slaughter but was traumatized. He refused to take part in the Adult Ceremony and sought refuge with the church, nurturing his faith. He remained a Fledgling working for the church for >70 years.

When he was >70 years old, one of the church leaders dropped by with the 2 year old Lone Star of their generation. The church leader suggested that Ling Xing take care of the Lone Star here at the church, in between the Lone Star’s military missions. As pacifists, Ling Xing and the church wished to teach the Lone Star to avoid endangering innocent lives.

That Lone Star was precisely ML’s last reincarnation, named Jing Yu.

Ling Xing basically adopts the Lone Star as a fellow Fledgling. They share a tiny room with a bunk bed. Ling Xing starts reading him a ton of children’s books, engaging him in lessons on humanity—starting out with stuff like “sharing is caring” lol. (Even though Jing Yu obviously has trouble with empathy, Ling Xing emphasizes his own feelings in each situation to try and instill this idea that “other people will probably feel this emotion in this specific situation”.) Jing Yu also brings plant seeds back from his military missions, and the two of them start planting a garden in the church. Jing Yu even learns drawing just to help Ling Xing make a botanist’s guide of their plants.
Overall, they just have a peaceful daily life together <3

Of course, no good things last forever.
After 7 years of this daily life, Jing Yu starts to Awaken (complete with a hilarious puberty scene). Ling Xing hides the evidence of Jing Yu’s awakening so he won’t be sent away to become a soldier full-time.

At the same time, there comes a new revelation: the Tree of Souls actually produced a seed!
All the warmongering military officers jump on this chance—if they send the Lone Star to plant a new Tree of Souls farther out into space, the Tianxiu people will no longer be restricted by the current Tree’s range and can start conquering the galaxy!

Jing Yu is given the task to plant the seed. As a pacifist, Ling Xing learns about this and is like “crap I can’t let this happen.” He convinces Jing Yu to stay an extra night at the church before leaving on the mission. At night, Ling Xing sneaks out of bed to steal the seed. Jing Yu catches him in the act, and Ling Xing calmly declares that he won’t let Jing Yu wreak this calamity. If Jing Yu wants to stop him, he can kill him right there.

Jing Yu lets him go steal the seed. Ling Xing actually gives the seed to the time-hopping MC, to take it to the future.

Of course, the theft is discovered. Ling Xing confesses he stole the seed entirely on his own accord, and refuses to disclose where he hid it. At the same time, the military discovers that Jing Yu has Awakened.

The warmongers in the military try to kill two birds with one stone: have Jing Yu do the Adult Ceremony with Ling Xing, so Jing Yu matures and Ling Xing dies. (Jing Yu agrees since if Ling Xing stays a Fledgling, his soul will scatter upon death.)

Miraculously, Ling Xing survives the Ceremony, and the two manage to carve out a loving relationship even in the middle of all this chaos. (There’s very cute and hilarious moments even in this situation. The only time Jing Yu ever shows emotion on his face is when he gets really mad at the idea he might have to share Ling Xing with other people lol)

Still, the military warmongers realize that because Ling Xing didn’t die in the Ceremony, the Lone Star can’t fully mature. They make Ling Xing sign a full confession of his theft/treason, and line him up for execution via lethal injection.
At the execution, Ling Xing whispers to Jing Yu something like “use what I give you to come find me.” Jing Yu is perfectly expressionless at seeing the scene of Ling Xing’s execution. But right when the injection hits, Jing Yu does the impossible: he uses Life Exchange to die in Ling Xing’s place.
Ling Xing sees this and immediately requests a second injection so he can die together with Jing Yu and reincarnate on the same day in their next life—as MC and ML.

——
Since his previous reincarnation was a Lone Star, ML still has trouble with emotions in this life too.
And guess what that seed of the Tree of Souls looked like? It looks like just any ordinary peach pit. MC placed it in ML’s energy capsule before both were born.
With all the history from their previous lives, now it’s understandable why ML was so intent on finding Ling Xing’s reincarnation in the present, and why ML is so overly protective of the peach pit <3


——

Overall Thoughts:
I really appreciated this novel’s world building, especially the reveals behind how the Tianxiu people came to be. And it was a pleasure to see the MC mature over time. I also liked how the various side characters represented various sides of the novel’s themes.

(I will say though that the writing often varied heavily in quality. Some parts felt like they were written pretty robotically. Oh the plot demands that this side character die... welp let’s just write it as “and then Side Character A died”.
In addition, some of the novel’s themes got a tiny bit confusing with the ending... I mean, the Tianxiu society is still kind of a dystopia by the end of the story, even though it’s getting better and all.
Overall, Qizi doesn’t quite live up to the science fiction classics (of course), but I appreciate that it tried to explore these cool ideas.) 

I have an additional question, please:

SpoilerDidn't Ping Zong plan to let Lan Sheng win in the Adult Ceremony? How did he end up as the Qizhu? 

Can anyone give a legit spoiler pls? Like a legit spoiler with no roundabout vague way of answering...

What happened to the side characters exactly? I'm asking coz it seems like a sad fate due to the comments. Why is the ML searching for his 'soulmate' in an obsessive way? Will it take dozens of chapters before they 'truly' get together? Does the MC suffer here because of the continuously cold ML?

Also, what exactly happened to Zhu Yue, I'm guessing the ML didn't believe that the blood was his? What happened after that? What's his ending fate?

I hope someone can answer, I'm asking because I want to know if this novel is worth MTL-ing. I'm the kind of reader where I want to want to know the general outline and ending first before reading a book. That's why I'm browsing the spoiler thread...  

To add from what I remember, the androids didn't have any emotions at first but their creators decided to play god and gave the android emotions because it seemed interesting or something. Then, because the androids had emotions they started dating each other and falling in love. The higher ups obviously didn't like that (lowly androids, how dare they try to play humans or something like that, plus the androids might become less efficient in combat) and so they modified the androids' programming so that the adult ceremony will be triggered when they fall in love, they will try to kill each other - the survivor will transform from a Nestling to an adult. Even before that, as way of selection, in order to weed out the weak (and probably because of the the original race's cruelty, they even had gladiator arenas where they watch nestlings kill each other), nestlings have to kill another nestling in order to mature into adults. So they just changed it so that, instead of killing any old Nestling they would kill their loved one - and the surviving nestling will then turn into a heartless and perfect fighting machine. 

What happened to the side characters??? 

Something that will break your heart. I don't wanna spoil more. Its best to read what happens rather than me spoiling it because the effect will be much more impactful. 

I'm curious how they get together  MC and ML are the strongest duo among their grade, right? I'm only MTLing after their visit to the Base before MTL fried my brain I will try more after resting (read: study grammar again) 

Owwwww, the Bikong's principal back story is so sadd, as you guys know, the principal who is crazy-strong is a Qizi. Everyone was like, who the hell beat him and become his Qizhu and why is he taking drugs and even admitted into CDC to treat mental illness??

Spoiler: All from MTL, i hope I wasn't misunderstood this translation, Chapter 31As ML and MC accidentally do the adult ceremony, Ying Feng plan to leave unconscious Ling Xiao behind. he didn't plan to do this ceremony with MC and he was shocked at what he did during the ceremony, he can't control himself and attack MC. and he did the blood contract with MC, he can't dissolve this contract, no one can, regardless whether he willing or unwilling.

Bikong principal saw him and ask him " are you leaving?"

But ML  reply "Where can I go?" to him,
"I don't know, but I think you will leave anyway" reply the headmaster and look at the signboard

then the principal starts to tell a story:

"There used to be a man who was arrogant. Regardless of the wishes of the other party, he wanted to get hold of the Qizi. He only wanted to be Qizhu one day, so he could control Qizi freely. So he waited until the other man was awakened and a perfect enclosed space was laid out (bridal chamber?). No one could escape from it and no one could break in from outside. This space would not be opened unless the man inside completed the ceremony of adulthood."

"That man was confident, conceited that he would win the battle, but the other man has concealed his strength for many years, in order to get rid of that man entanglement, thinking that this would not arouse the interest of that man."

The principal suddenly asked, "Can you guess the result of this battle?"

ML was silent for a moment before answering, "Are you talking about yourself?"

"Yes," admitted the principal calmly,
"I personally cornered myself. He wanted to go out from adult ceremony but only one way to go out is to complete it. I thought I would win, but in the end, I lost."

He wanted to win the other person heart-tip blood, but losing his blood, not only that, he eventually traps him and the other man into blood contract which for a lifetime, what he did is only self-inflicting.

ML: Then your... Where is he now?
Principal: went away. When I wake up, he no longer there. The last place he left went was Starport, and he never came back. You look like him, almost exactly the same. When I first saw you, I thought he was reincarnated. But I quickly denied myself, when a soul is reincarnated, the body is randomly distributed, how small is the probability that is can be exactly the same as past life?
More importantly, I believe he is still alive, somewhere in the universe. As a Qizi, I'm alive till now. How could he possibly die as a Qizhu?

The headmaster has not spoken to anyone for many years, and once he opens his mouth, there will be a steady stream.

[ Although I was the one who made the mistake at first, I was very resentful about his leaving at first.
You are Qizhu, so you can't feel the feeling of the abandoned Qizi, It feels like you stay at the same place, but your soul is not here, always wandering and never landing. Every night with no warmth and sense of security is long torture. Every day in the CDC, I think I can't go on with life.

During the years I spent, I gradually realized what unforgivable mistakes I had made in the past. I am grateful that I lost in the adult ceremony, because if I win, I will not realize my mistakes and make them again and again; I will be arrogant as I was, I will not recognize myself and think that I can dominate everything with ability; I will ignore the feelings of others and use the rights I have to make my beloved suffer.

Thank goodness I lost, I have known the difference between love and plunder; thank goodness I lost, such pain maybe pretty good for me. I regret what I have done, but he resolutely left, leaving me no chance to say sorry. I know that today's accident is not the result you want, and that you may not want to face the people who caused it. If you really want to go, no one can stop you

But when you leave, Ling Xiao will follow the path I have travelled and experience everything I have experienced. It is uncertain whether he will be sent to the CDC or not. Even if it comes out from CDC, he will only be like me, relying on drugs every day, bearing the pain of being abandoned; only those who have experienced it can feel.

At that time, I was proud and self-esteemed, and I had some words that I would never say anyway. But now, I give up a lot of useless things, if I can go back to that day, I will say a word to him before he leaves.

Ying Feng, you look like him. Sometimes it even gives me the illusion that when I saw you standing here looking at the sign of the interstellar harbour, I saw him many years ago. Once you took this step, you will never look back.

I know that the next request may be excessive, but may I ask you a wish, can you to pretend to be him, and listen to me finish this sentence?]

Ying Feng eyes flashed a few times, [ What's the sentence?]

The principal turned and looked into Ying Feng's eyes carefully.

"Please stay here."
Yeah, Im lazy to write it using my own words, that I literally translating this part (some of it, I left a bunch of other unrelated information, hahaha) and my translation is bad, but I really love the way author use his word to explain how much in pain the principal was.. for more than hundred years... SpoilerI hope his Qizhu come back for him.