Chapter 71 Divergence "Okay, I'm not sad."
Shu Qing had already anticipated this question, so she smiled casually and said, "That's a rather harsh way of putting it. Like those men in ancient times who demanded their wives never leave the house—that's feudal. We're monsters; we don't follow human customs and traditions, huh?"
Jiu Su showed no intention of laughing along with her. He remained silent, waiting for a positive answer from her.
"Alright." Having failed to liven up the atmosphere, Shu Qing could only say, "Given the situation at the time... you were so weak, no matter what you said, I had to agree to let you rest properly. But it wasn't entirely a delaying tactic; I did consider staying out of it and not getting involved."
"Now, have you changed your mind?"
“…Didn’t you hear that too?” Shu Qing sighed silently. “It’s not a question of whether I change my mind or not; things have already come knocking on my door. I can’t just hide at home forever, can I? Even if I could hide at home, people would still look for me online. I’m not like other people who can just unplug the internet and everyone’s happy. How long can I hide?”
“When we uncover the truth behind everything and solve all the problems,” Jiu Su asked softly, “don’t you trust me?”
"How could that be? Besides, what does this have to do with whether I believe you or not?" Shu Qing was helpless. She casually found a place to sit down and tried to reason with him. "Like you said, the key now is to find out the truth behind the scenes. Does that mean that if I join, we can't find out the truth behind the scenes? I'm not so bad as to be a burden to you guys."
Jiu Su immediately said, "That's not what I meant. I'm worried..."
Shu Qing waited for a long time, but didn't hear anything more, so she had to press for an answer, "What are you worried about?"
"If, until the very end, they still can't find out who's behind it all," Jiu Su said softly and slowly, "when monster out-of-control incidents keep happening, and people's hatred for monsters grows stronger, what will you choose?"
"..."
Shu Qing knew that this was the problem that Jiu Su had always been most concerned about. For a moment, she thought about just lying to him, but she also knew that lying and avoiding each other were both like drinking poison to quench thirst.
"If things really come to that point, you know what I'll choose," she said frankly. "But things haven't reached that point yet, so why make an assumption and force me to say it out loud, only to have us both heartbroken?"
"If you hadn't shown up, you could have simply not chosen!"
"That doesn't mean I can choose not to. That just means 'no one is forcing me to choose'—but if the situation isn't resolved, I'll still have to choose in the end. Are I supposed to stand by and watch when the out-of-control monster has already come to my side and the lives of my family and friends are threatened?"
“I won’t let that happen,” Jiu Su said, her voice growing faster. “I will protect your family and friends, you know I will!”
“Xiao Hong,” Shu Qing said expressionlessly, “are you planning to draw a safe zone for me, so that I can hide inside with all my relatives and friends, not listen or see, and pretend to be deaf and dumb, is that it?”
Jiu Su's voice was almost trembling, "I—"
“Or rather,” Shu Qing interrupted him relentlessly, adding, “you want to isolate me from the world, hide me in a place you can control, and cut off my relationships with other people in order to preserve our relationship—is that right?”
There was silence on the other end of the receiver, with only the sound of spiritual energy flowing through it. Jiu Su did not speak.
Shu Qing paused, realizing that her words had been spoken too hastily and were perhaps too harsh and hurtful. She bit her lip in annoyance.
"...And," she softened her tone, trying to gently smooth things over, "I have so many relatives and friends. I don't want anything to happen to any of them. How can you protect them all? Besides, my relatives and friends also have their own relatives and friends. If you want to protect them all, it will be even more difficult. You probably couldn't do it even if you were completely drained. And besides, I wouldn't be willing to drain you completely."
"It would be simpler if we went together to find out the truth behind the monster's out-of-control behavior, so just tell me, what exactly is that waveform, okay?"
It was so quiet on the other side that you couldn't even hear breathing. After a long while, Jiu Su suddenly chuckled very softly.
The laughter was so soft it was almost as faint as a falling leaf; Shu Qing wasn't even sure if she was hallucinating.
“It’s nothing,” Jiu Su said calmly. “In ancient times, the Kunlun Immortal Capital called it ‘Dao’; in terms you are more familiar with, it can be called ‘natural law’ or ‘rules’.”
His tone sounded as calm as a stagnant pool, with a hint of despair, which gave Shu Qing an almost ominous feeling.
However, at this crucial moment, the information he conveyed was more important than his tone of voice. Shu Qing pondered his two sentences and vaguely discerned their meaning.
“Let’s call it ‘rules’ for now,” Jiu Su continued. “Rules are above energy. Take the fire at Beijing Capital International Airport, for example. The ‘fire’ that destroyed the airport is energy, while the rule is the premise that ‘Beijing Capital International Airport can be destroyed.’ Do you understand what I mean?”
He wasn't very good at explaining these things, and the examples he gave were a bit abstract, but Shu Qing understood: "It's like when I'm fighting monsters in a game. The damage I deal is energy; is it a monster that I can fight, or an NPC that I can't fight, which is the rule?"
Jiu Su hummed in agreement.
"It sounds like something very high-end," Shu Qing asked thoughtfully. "Why would it appear at the scene of a monster going out of control? And why did Director Yang mention you?"
Jiu Su said calmly, "I don't know. As for why Yang Zheng mentioned me, I think it's because naturally born spiritual beings grasp a part of the rules, and he felt that the traces here were somewhat similar to my demonic power."
"..."
Shu Qing was greatly frightened – luckily Director Yang had crossed out that line; if it had been written into the draft of the external report, they would have been in deep trouble!
She immediately pressed further: "Are only naturally born spiritual beings able to grasp the rules?"
“No,” Jiu Su was almost like a soulless search engine at this moment, answering every question, “When Kunlun Immortal Capital was still there, there were also a very few ‘ancient immortals’ who could do it, for example, the Kunlun Immortal Lords of all generations.”
Shu Qing scratched her head, feeling extremely troubled: Since they were all called "ancient immortals," it naturally meant that they did not exist in the present day. Could it be that one of the ancient immortals had been resurrected? Or were there any other naturally born spiritual beings besides Jiu Su that had been revived?
After listening to her question, Jiu Su denied it, saying, "I have never heard of any ancient immortal or other naturally born spiritual beings being revived."
Shu Qing said "Oh," and thought to herself: Since the studio is closed now, she might as well come to the archives tomorrow and check the relevant records again.
Having asked the important questions, Shu Qing hesitated for a moment before softening her voice and calling him, "Xiao Hong..."
"Is there anything else you want to ask?"
“No, no,” Shu Qing laughed, “I just wanted to…”
Jiu Su interrupted her, saying softly, "I want to go back to sleep for a while longer."
The words of comfort that Shu Qing wanted to say suddenly got stuck in her throat.
After a long pause, she finally said dryly, "I know you're scared... but things might not turn out the way they were before. Don't be sad, okay?"
Jiu Su laughed again. From the moment he answered her question, she could sense the despair he was trying so hard to suppress, and the self-mockery and despair in his laughter could no longer be concealed; it was as if he had lost all hope.
“Okay, I’m not sad.” The words he said were completely at odds with his tone of voice. “I want to sleep for a while.”
Shu Qing had no choice. Even though she knew that the conversation hadn't been fully discussed yet, there was no reason not to let a seriously wounded soldier sleep. So she reluctantly said, "Alright... you can sleep."
The receiver fell completely silent; even the sound of flowing spiritual energy ceased. Shu Qing looked down and saw that the 49-hour voice call had ended. Soon, even the voice interface disappeared, leaving only the communication window, coldly and blankly displayed on her phone screen.
Shu Qing sat for a while, lost in thought, her gaze fixed on Jiu Su's profile picture—a picture she had casually drawn of his profile before she had even seen his face, based on her own imagination. Later, Jiu Su found this picture and used it as the profile picture for all her communication apps.
The boy in the portrait has a cool and aloof expression, gazing into the distance as if he were looking at an unknowable destiny.
She didn't look away until her phone screen automatically turned off. Not only did she not want to go to the archives, she didn't even want to eat dinner. She drove straight home, casually told her parents that she had already eaten, and went to bed early.
She lay there with her eyes open in the dark, and after a few hours, she glanced at her phone.
This is her usual bedtime. When Jiu Su isn't by her side, he would send her a message to say goodnight every day at this time. However, he was asleep yesterday and didn't say anything, and he didn't today either.
I don't know if he forgot, did it on purpose, or is still asleep?
Shu Qing tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep. Even though neither of them had said anything harsh to each other, and Jiu Su hadn't uttered a single hurtful word, she felt as if they had had a huge fight—it would have been better if they had had a fight, at least she could have vented her emotions, unlike now where all her emotions were suppressed inside, causing a dull ache in her heart.
The next morning, she checked her phone, but there were still no messages. After a moment's hesitation, she opened Jiu Su's chat window, edited and rewrote a message several times, and finally sent the simplest sentence: "Are you feeling better?"
After a while, Jiu Su replied with a curt "Mm".
"How much longer are you going to stay in the treatment room?"
"I'm already traveling with the team."
"Oh... then be careful not to get hurt again."
The few words were dry and polite, like those exchanged nodding acquaintances. Shu Qing put down her phone and rubbed her face in frustration.
She told herself, "Right now, the most urgent thing is to go to the data room of the Supermarket Management Bureau and solve the objective problems first!"
For the next two days, Shu Qing spent almost all her time in the archives, searching everywhere for information about the "rules" and noting down several names, but unfortunately none of them could serve as a useful clue. She also tried to recall her memories of her past life, but they were all fragmented recollections of her daily cultivation, with very limited information.
Jiu Su never took the initiative to contact her, but when she asked him questions or inquired about his recent situation, he still answered, only his words were concise and conveyed a sense of fatigue and estrangement.
She wanted to bring up the topic from last time again, but every time she mentioned it, Jiu Su would either say "we need to take action" or "I want to rest," and in short, she would never discuss the issue with her again, so she never had the chance to continue the conversation.
The only good news is that no large-scale disasters caused by monsters going out of control have occurred in the past two days—they have all been forcibly suppressed by the Super Management Bureau, and the strange regular waveform has been found on site.
This proved that her thinking was correct. Shu Qing cheered up and went to the Supermarket Management Bureau again early on the third day.
As soon as she opened the door, she found a package at the entrance. The recipient's name was hers, but the sender's name was not left. Instead, it was listed as the Supermarket Management Bureau of City A.
"City A?" Shu Qing's eyes lit up, and she immediately carried the express box into the house. She knew that Jiu Su was currently in City A.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
