Final Chapter - My Name is Liang Qing
Chapter 39
Liang Qing's expression changed instantly as she finished her words. She thought she had the situation under control, but she didn't realize that the person who followed her had picked up a small person from the team.
The camera zoomed in, and she saw that the person being held by the woman was Liang Baobao...
How is that possible?
Sanya covered her mouth, a look of horror on her face: "How could it be the little prince! He is not!"
Lugus was about to rush out when Liang Qing grabbed him. Though her mind was in a state of panic, she maintained a basic level of composure. Before leaving, Liang Baobao had been left in the care of his teammates. They had pretended to explore the area and removed anyone with potential problems. The cave was, in fact, safe. There were only two possible explanations for Liang Baobao's presence: one, he had followed them out without warning and was discovered and captured; two, something had also gone wrong in the cave. This meant that Nie Yun and the others were likely in an even more dire situation.
Ma Xi seemed to have opened her eyes. She stepped forward, grabbed the struggling Liang Baobao, and turned him towards the cave entrance. "Since we've seen through it, we might as well stop pretending! Your prince is here! If you want to survive, hand over the other half of the jade seal."
The situation shifted in a flash. Before anyone could take action, Liang Baobao, who everyone thought was under control, suddenly struggled mightily, unleashing immense strength. With speed unimaginable, he suddenly raised his fat leg and kicked Masi in the face. Masi, in pain, let go, mumbling a curse. To everyone's astonishment, Liang Baobao leaped to the ground and turned and ran.
No one could figure out how a two or three-year-old child could have so much strength to turn the tide, especially after Marcy struggled to get up. The blood on her face and the broken nose showed that the child had kicked her without mercy, comparable to a professional fighter.
Marcy spat out a mouthful of blood, revealing several rotten teeth. Her nose was still bleeding, and her eyes were blurry. She stretched out her hands and grasped at the air randomly, shouting at the people around her: "Catch that little bastard and kill him!"
Liang Baobao's height and speed made him the most difficult to control. A guard's spear nearly struck him, but Liang Baobao dodged, leaving the man's pounce unnoticed and receiving a vicious kick in the shin. A barely perceptible crack of bone filled the air, and the man collapsed to the ground, clutching his shin in agony.
More people gathered around, and the initial shock and relaxation turned into a full-scale preparation to deal with Liang Baobao. Liang Baobao anxiously scanned the crowd, trying to lock onto Liang Qing, while desperately dodging the adults who rushed towards him.
The cave was in chaos, and no one was paying attention. Taking advantage of the confusion, Liang Qing turned back. She was followed by Lugus. They drew their crossbows and, while everyone's attention was distracted, shot down a guard with a single arrow. By the time everyone realized what was happening, seven or eight bodies were piled up at the entrance.
Liang Baobao was the first to see Liang Qing. He opened his arms and quickly threw himself into Liang Qing's arms. Liang Qing's eyes turned cold. She quickly bent down and picked up Liang Baobao, then kicked a man who was approaching. Lugus followed up with a punch, and the man fell on his back.
Marcy was frantic. She grabbed her hair and said, "Kill them! Don't let them get into the city!"
Liang Qing sneered. She and Lugus reached the cave entrance and suddenly activated her mind, using her previously acquired supernatural power. Instantly, the previously motionless trees and vines on the roadside entangled the cave at a visible speed. Within seconds, the exit was completely blocked for those behind.
Liang Qing nodded to Sang Ya who came over. Sang Ya excitedly took out the explosives they had prepared from his bag, lit the fuse, and threw it directly in.
Marcy was at her wit's end, seeing no way to turn the situation around, so she stretched out her pale hand and suddenly made a gesture. Liang Qing had already run a distance, but she frowned as if sensing something, and suddenly stopped.
Mixed with the muffled explosions in the cave, an ominous creaking sound came from overhead. It sounded like the fluttering of birds' wings, or like a thousand arrows piercing the air. Liang Qing instinctively covered his Liang Baobao and looked up. The few black birds circling in the sky suddenly transformed into slender arrows, plummeting down towards Liang Qing and the others.
The speed is so fast and the density is so high that it is impossible to hide.
Having just summoned vines to seal the cave entrance, Liang Qing was temporarily unable to use her supernatural powers again. She crouched down, attempting to block the incoming fire with her flesh and blood, but she heard Lugus's muffled groan overhead. He used his body to block several of the arrows for Liang Qing. The objects, upon impact, instantly transformed into feathers, piercing her flesh one by one. When they were pulled out, the barbs remained, leaving a bloody mess.
"Run!" Liang Qing pulled Lugus, but found that the thin arrows that continued to fall in the air turned and suddenly attacked Liang Qing again.
Several people were unable to dodge, and Liang Qing silently prayed that these things would last, while constantly enduring the pursuit of fine arrows. The deeper she hid in the dense forest, the more fine arrows hit the tree trunks, and many also landed on her body.
She had already pushed her dodging speed to its limit. They had to avoid the communicator's surveillance while scrambling to save their lives. After half an hour of this awkward struggle, everyone was panting when the attack array formed by the thin arrows suddenly stopped.
Lugus, carrying Sanya, who could no longer run, panted, "Is this... the end?"
Liang Qing scanned the surroundings in silence. Unknowingly, they had been driven deep into the unknown mountains and forests by these tiny arrows. The victims were all familiar with the White Tower's terrain. Lugus, somewhat startled, spoke, "This is... Hell Valley."
Hell Valley?
Sanya jumped off Lugus's shoulder with a start. He frowned, "Is Hell Valley the restricted area of the White Tower Nation that the old man mentioned earlier?"
Lugus nodded. He silently pulled out the remaining arrow from his body, the pain making him grimace and contort his face.
Liang Qing also had several arrows lodged in her back. She watched the blood and flesh splatter as Lugus pulled them out, then closed her eyes, choosing not to touch the wounds for now. Liang Baobao's large, watery eyes filled with tears. He seemed to realize the pain Liang Qing was inflicting while protecting him, and tears welled up in his eyes.
Liang Qing lowered her head, smiled, and wiped his face: "I'm fine." Then, she asked again: "Why did you run out? What about the cave? What about those people? Where are Nie Yun and the others?"
"That's all..." Liang Baobao doesn't talk much, his expression is limited. He pointed to the distance and frowned.
"What do you mean gone? There were more than a hundred people, big and small." Sang Ya couldn't help but ask.
Liang Baobao looked at Sangyaluges with strange eyes, then threw himself into Liang Qing's arms: "Mommy, hug me..." Liang Baobao's cute and chubby appearance was completely different from the one he had just kicked over an adult.
Liang Qing pondered what he meant by "gone". At this moment, the familiar sound of breaking air rang out again.
Liang Qing's fighting instincts were activated. She looked up again and saw a longer, darker arrow reappear in the sky where the thin arrow had vanished. The arrowhead flashed with a cold light and appeared out of thin air from a hundred meters away, heading straight for Liang Qing and Liang Baobao.
Compared to the thin arrows that were as long as fingers, this arrow was at least two meters long. It appeared in the air at a very fast speed, clearly transmitting power, a force that could penetrate the bodies of two people.
Liang Qing reacted quickly. Using plant communication again, she summoned the nearby tree. Its vines quickly spun into a web in the air, attempting to block the arrow's path, but were pierced one by one. The arrow's speed slowed slightly, but its direction remained unchanged. Like the thin arrows Marcy had summoned earlier, this time its targets were Liang Baobao and Liang Qing.
Lugus shouted, "Take the little prince away!" Liang Qing ran away again.
But the time left for them was too short. Liang Qing had only run two steps when she felt the pain of being pierced through her body. She turned her head and saw that Sanya and Lugus's bodies had blood holes. They looked at Liang Qing with the same surprised and desperate eyes.
Liang Qing subconsciously thought of something, and she immediately let go and tried to push Liang Baobao out, but she was still a step too late... Liang Baobao raised his head, and his face turned pale in an instant. Because of pain, his brows suddenly furrowed, and tears fell unconsciously.
Liang Qing saw her body and his, pierced by the arrow, tangled together. Her heart began to beat wildly, the pain of her heart tearing her apart more than anything she was experiencing.
"Mother...I will come to find you..."
"Liang Qing...we can start over..."
Before Liang Qing lost consciousness, she heard two different voices coming from her ears.
A tender one, full of attachment to her.
A maturity that is still unfamiliar, but certain, with a taste that brings peace of mind and comfort.
A flash of white light passed. The dense forests of White Pagoda Country, the entrance to Hell Valley, and the arrow-struck Sangyaluges all began to shatter before his eyes like pieces of a torn jigsaw puzzle.
Liang Qing raised her head, gazing further into the distance. Deep within the white light, like a replay of a movie, scenes flashed through her mind: a giant wolf hunting in the city at night, the path leading to a dark secret in Silver Spring Town, the giant tree on the sea that collapsed after the human-insect war... The final scene froze on Liang Baobao's small face...
Liang Qing felt her tears falling and tightened her grip on the child in her arms. She felt dizzy, white light encroached on her vision, and all kinds of familiar and unfamiliar sounds roared in her ears.
When she opened her eyes again, it felt like many seconds, yet only a moment. She tilted her head, locating the source of the roaring sound. She was slowly pushed out of the machine. The overhead light in the examination room cast a cold, cold light on her face. She moved her limbs, but they felt stiff and numb. The scars on her back ripped, causing her to grit her teeth.
"You kid! Don't move!" her mother's voice rang out from above her head. Liang Qing opened her eyes wide and saw her parents and the doctor standing beside her. Next to her was a large MRI machine.
"Doctor, is there anything wrong?" Liang Qing's father asked the doctor nervously.
"At the moment of the fall, apart from her body hitting the tools that the subway maintenance worker missed, there is no damage to her brain for the time being. But she lost a lot of blood at that time, so it is normal for her to be a little confused now. She needs to rest for a while, and once the injury on her back heals, she will be fine." The doctor hurriedly signed the report and handed it to Liang Qing's parents.
Liang Qing watched as two nurses carried her off the MRI machine and into a wheelchair. She looked at her hands with loss. Liang Baobao was gone, as were Lugusanya, Shi Xiaofeng, and Nie Yun.
"What's wrong?" Liang's mother asked with concern. She followed Liang Qing's gaze. The bandaged hand, bruised and bruised, smelled of medicine. But Liang Qing could no longer smell the milky scent of Liang Baobao.
She looked at her parents calmly and heard her own clear answer: "Nothing."
Liang Qing remained silent for several days. She watched the nurses change her dressings, her parents come to visit her, and the doctors give their conclusions during their rounds. Finally, she pieced together what had happened.
Late that night, on her way home, she fell in the subway station, tumbling down the stairs and hitting a tool left behind by a worker repairing the tiles in the lobby. The tool pierced her back, and because the night shift was sparse, it took quite a while for her to be discovered. After a day in a coma, Liang Qing regained consciousness and was already in the hospital.
Her parents only felt that Liang Qing's temperament had changed drastically since she was injured. She had been staring out the window, lost in thought, not knowing what she was thinking.
Only Liang Qing knew. She was convinced that everything she had experienced before was not a dream. She had truly raised a little boy, and had truly experienced many life and death situations with him. She couldn't tell the difference between reality and fantasy, and couldn't fathom what Liang Baobao meant when he said, "Mother, I'll come find you."
The weather was getting colder. One night before being discharged from the hospital, Liang Qing's mother was packing her things while nagging, and she went out to ask the nurse for a quilt.
Another patient entered the multi-patient ward. Behind the curtain, Liang Qing closed her eyes and rested. She didn't glance at the person. She only heard him pour her some water and exchange a few words with the nurse.
When Liang's mother came back, the man seemed to have aroused her interest, and Liang heard him talking with her mother.
"What's wrong with you, young man?"
"I got hurt a little bit, broke some ribs, had surgery."
"Broken ribs are a serious matter!" Liang's mother was surprised. "Are you staying in the hospital alone? Is it really okay? Where are your family members?"
"Mom..." Liang Qing interrupted Liang's mother impatiently, trying to stop her from inquiring about the privacy of strangers.
The moment she opened her eyes, she met a pair of gentle eyes. The man had a fair, clean-cut face and was tall, yet not frail. Even in his hospital gown, his posture was impeccable.
At that moment, Liang Qing's mind suddenly captured a few memories. She'd caught sight of a pair of eyes like this in the cracks of the school kitchen, in the utility room. And the man across from her looked... a near-fatal replica of Liang Baobao's appearance.
Her heart was pounding, and surprise froze in her eyes. Liang's mother muttered something, saved herself a way out, and went to the side to cut some fruit for Liang Qing.
The man seemed to know why Liang Qing was looking at him, and he didn't avoid looking away, just looking at Liang Qing.
"Liang Qing, we still have another chance."
These words rang in Liang Qing's ears. She locked her eyes with the person in front of her, and the fog seemed to slowly dissipate.
The night deepened. The city sky gradually blended into a deep purple and deep blue. The lights in the ward were bright. Liang Qing's restless heart and longing for Liang Baobao finally found a place to rest.
She knew that those unfinished stories were about to start their journey anew, and she also knew that Liang Baobao must still be waiting for her return somewhere.
This time, she will be better prepared.
Thinking of this, Liang Qing clutched the quilt tightly, gave the man who was looking at her gently an equally gentle smile, and slowly raised the corners of her mouth -
"Hello, nice to meet you. My name is Liang Qing."
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