·72｜Exclusive to Jinjiang·72 (Bonus Chapter Combined)
Power from the higher latitudes.
"The Underworld..."
who?
Lai Chuan Huang Quan struggled to move his eyeballs, his eyelids feeling as heavy as a thousand pounds. He felt dizzy and his body was limp.
"The Underworld..."
Who exactly is it?
The soft sound of water droplets hitting the ground echoed in Lai Chuan Huang Quan's ears, followed by a second drop, and then a third.
The scene before me gradually came into focus, revealing a chilly room. Three rows of fluorescent tubes overhead cast a cool white light, and neatly arranged, square metal cabinet doors stood against the walls. In the center of the room were several single beds with wheels.
It's a morgue.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan lay on the narrow single bed, her body drained of color, covered by a white sheet with stitches all over it—the mortician had gone to great lengths to put Lai Chuan Huang Quan's broken bones back in place, making her look more dignified.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan froze, looking down at her own body. Her outstretched palm was translucent, shimmering with a faint fluorescent light. Cold white light shone down from above, passing through her translucent arms and casting a chilling glow on the blue-green ceramic tiles beneath her feet.
"Out-of-body experience...?"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan suddenly remembered the wind that tugged at her clothes when she stepped over the balcony railing. Could it be Matsuda Jinpei desperately trying to stop her from behind? She wondered if Hagiwara Kenji had also felt his eyes turn red with rage as she cut her veins, looking at the crimson blood on the ground.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan was staring blankly at his palm when a familiar yet weathered voice rang out again: "Huang Quan, my precious Huang Quan."
She looked up and found that there was a person standing next to her corpse.
Mr. Lai Chuan knelt by the bed, tightly holding the cold, white fingers of the lifeless Lai Chuan Huang Quan. His hair had turned completely white overnight, and his once upright spine had collapsed, making him look like a hunchbacked old man whose bones had been bent by the weight of time. Mr. Lai Chuan's back was hunched, his shoulders trembling, and large tears streamed from his no-longer-clear eyes, gathering at his chin and falling to the ground.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan froze, staring blankly at the man whose eyes were red but who stubbornly refused to utter a sound: "...You old bastard?"
In Lai Chuan Huang Quan's memory, her stubborn and domineering father was a complete tyrant. Sometimes she would even secretly think that having a boss like her father must be the worst luck an employee could ever have.
But a tyrant should be arrogant and never bow his head.
There is no tyrant who kneels on both knees, bends his back, bows his head and weeps.
Snot dripped down his philtrum, dampening Mr. Lai Chuan's neatly trimmed mustache. He furrowed his brow, and several crisscrossing veins bulged on his forehead.
"Mr. Raikawa".
The sound of the door opening was accompanied by a familiar male voice, and the morgue door was pushed open from the outside.
Yomi Lai turned her head and stared in surprise. She recognized the man; when Kenji Hagiwara was still in police academy, he had introduced her to some of his friends, and this man was one of them. After Kenji Hagiwara's death in the line of duty, Jinpei Matsuda had also met him a few times.
It's down to zero.
Why does Furuya Rei know her father?
Rei Furuya stepped into the morgue and closed the door behind him, but he did not go any further, leaving enough space and dignity for Mr. Raikawa.
"Mr. Lai Chuan, our informant has sent back the latest intelligence: they've already begun to make their move."
Mr. Raikawa sighed softly, hastily wiping away the tears streaming down his face with a tissue, and blinked hard, tilting his head back. He stood up, forcing himself to straighten his back, and turned to look at Rei Furuya by the door: "Yeah, let's go."
Having said that, Mr. Lai Chuan strode toward the two closed iron gates. His gaze was firm, yet his entire being seemed to have just crawled out of the icy, bone-chilling River of Oblivion, exuding an intense, suffocating aura of sorrow.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan frowned and tried to catch up, but was shocked to find that her feet seemed to be stuck to the tiles. No matter how hard she twisted her body, her feet remained firmly in place and did not move at all.
"Want to know the truth?"
A strange voice exploded in his mind, making Lai Chuan Huang Quan's scalp tighten. Lai Chuan Huang Quan couldn't describe the voice; it had the faint electric current of an intelligent machine speaking in a science fiction movie, yet the ending of each word trembled and echoed, as if whispering into a mountain valley or cave. Lai Chuan Huang Quan couldn't even tell the gender of the voice.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan looked around; the empty, cold morgue was empty except for her: "Who are you?"
The strange voice didn't answer Yomi Lai, but instead asked her, "Yomi Lai, do you want to know the truth?"
"What truth?"
"The past and the future, about Mr. Raikawa."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan lowered her head, unable to describe her feelings. Time ticked by, and she looked up at the blinding white light, slowly saying, "I'm not interested."
The other party seemed to have anticipated Lai Chuan Huang Quan's response, and said indifferently, "Do you really think your father is the vice president of a foreign trade company?"
“That’s what I thought before,” Yomi Laichuan said, disliking talking about her father. She turned her head away unhappily. “But judging from Rei Furuya’s attitude towards him, he’s probably a public security officer.”
The other person remained silent, and the empty room returned to stillness. Lai Chuan Huang Quan stood frozen, staring at her own lifeless body. A few wet tears still clung to the tiles beside the bed wheels. Lai Chuan Huang Quan lowered her gaze, her heart filled with confusion. She couldn't understand why her father had become like this.
So fragile, so vulnerable, like a samurai sword covered in rust. Yet, when we last parted, it was a gleaming, cold-sharp blade, drawn from its sheath.
Speaking of which, the last time we met...
When was it?
Running her fingers through her long hair, Lai Chuan Huang Quan rubbed her head and began to recall earnestly. Ever since her stinky father rejected her marriage proposal to Hagiwara Kenji, she had run away from home and moved into Kenji's apartment, and hadn't seen that guy since. Thinking back, it had been four and a half years since they last met. Had her stinky father really gotten that old?
Lai Chuan Huang Quan pursed his lips tightly, swallowed the saliva that had accumulated on his tongue, and said in a hoarse voice, "If you were still here, I would like to know the truth."
As soon as the words were spoken, a feeling of weightlessness washed over me. Before my eyes were vibrant, multicolored beams of light, as if I had traveled through time and space.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan frowned and gritted her teeth, forcefully covering her head in an attempt to alleviate the sudden dizziness. The next moment, she landed abruptly on a white and blue ceramic tile stained with large patches of blood.
"Whoosh—whoosh—"
It was the sound of a man breathing heavily.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan looked up and was so shocked that his pupils widened.
A meter away from her sat a gurney. Mr. Lai Chuan, his shirt half-undone, revealing his muscular chest, sat on the edge of the gurney. There was a hole in his shoulder, and streams of blood gushed from the gruesome wound. Whether from weakness or pain, cold sweat covered his forehead, wetting his long, dark hair.
Two men in white coats stood around Mr. Lai Chuan, each holding a scalpel, tweezers, and hemostat respectively, attempting to remove the bullet from him.
Just then, Mr. Lai Chuan's cell phone, which was placed inside his coat, suddenly started vibrating.
Mr. Lai Chuan gasped for breath, his face contorted in pain as he looked at the man holding his coat: "Who is it?"
The man appeared to be Mr. Lai Chuan's subordinate. He took out his phone, glanced at it, and said respectfully, "Mr. Lai Chuan, this is your daughter. Shall we answer it?"
Mr. Lai Chuan lowered his gaze and shook his head. The call was forcibly disconnected due to lack of answer, but only two seconds later, the phone rang again. This repeated three times before Mr. Lai Chuan finally frowned and said, "Give me the phone."
Mr. Lai Chuan gestured for the two doctors to pause the treatment, took a few deep breaths, and then pressed the answer button: "Huang Quan, didn't I tell you that Dad is very busy with work and can't keep calling?"
He suppressed the physical pain and tried to slow his breathing as much as possible, afraid that Lai Chuan Huang Quan would notice something was wrong.
"dad!"
A slightly childish, still somewhat immature female voice came from the other end of the phone, choked with sobs: "Something terrible has happened! Mom is sick!"
A bead of cold sweat dripped from Mr. Lai Chuan's forehead; the wound really hurt: "Don't cry, talk slowly."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan sobbed, recounting what had happened in fits and starts: "Mom said her stomach hurt half an hour ago and wanted to go to sleep for a while, so I asked her not to disturb her. But Kimi just ran into the room, and when I went in to hug him, I found Mom had vomited all over the bed and was unconscious!"
Kimi is an orange-white guinea pig that Mr. Raikawa bought for Huang Quan two months ago.
Mr. Lai Chuan calmly asked, "Did you call an ambulance? — Hmm!"
Seeing the gunshot wound begin to bleed again, the doctor knew he couldn't wait any longer and had already grabbed his equipment to continue treating the wound. Mr. Lai Chuan almost cried out from the intense pain, but he clenched his teeth and forced back the gasp that had only just begun to escape his lips.
"I hit him, but Dad, I'm so scared."
At this time, Lai Chuan Huang Quan was just thirteen years old, neither too old nor too young. Her mother held extraordinary significance in Lai Chuan Huang Quan's heart at this age, almost like a faith. She was completely terrified by her mother's terrible condition. After tearfully making a call for an ambulance, she instinctively called her father, seeking some comfort.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan wiped away the tears that were blurring his vision with the back of his hand and sniffed hard: "Dad, come back soon, Mom and I need you."
Mr. Lai Chuan was heartbroken to hear Huang Quan's sobbing. He glanced at the doctor who was standing around him with a furrowed brow, and could only close his eyes and sigh with a pained expression: "I'm sorry, Huang Quan, I still have some work to do here, and I may not be able to go home for another two or three days. I'm entrusting my mother to you during this time."
Little Lai Chuan Huang Quan was unwilling to give up; her father was the only person she could rely on now: "But Dad, didn't you say you would take the last flight home today?"
The more blood flowed, the more anxious the doctor beside him became, whispering, "Mr. Lai Chuan!"
Mr. Lai Chuan lowered his gaze, his heavy voice filled with exhaustion: "I'm sorry, Huang Quan, I'm entrusting Mom to you. I know you're very strong, and you'll definitely be able to take good care of Mom, right?"
His consciousness began to waver, and Mr. Lai Chuan squinted, his brows furrowing. Then, ignoring Lai Chuan Huang Quan's cries on the other end of the phone, he seemingly resolutely hung up.
Helped by the doctor to lie down slowly, Mr. Lai Chuan stared at the gradually blurring ceiling and whispered, "I'm sorry. I wish I could be by your side right now, but I really can't help you."
...
Lai Chuan Huang Quan was shown many things.
On the day Mr. Raikawa agreed to the marriage, Asahagihara bowed and said, "I entrust my daughter to you"; he secretly wiped away tears outside her hospital room; he ran downstairs countless times to gaze at her room in a daze; he kept asking Matsuda Jinpei about her...
Scene after scene, chapter after chapter.
At the parent-teacher meeting he missed, Mr. Lai Chuan was nearly run over by a car and broke his bones; on his fifteenth birthday, which he missed, Mr. Lai Chuan sat in his office planning a raid on drug dealers... He wanted to keep the appointment, but he was powerless to do so.
"Mr. Raikawa".
There was a knock on the office door.
Mr. Lai Chuan turned his chair and looked at the visitor: "How are the photos I asked you to take?"
"The photos have been taken and developed."
The other party respectfully handed a stack of photos to Mr. Lai Chuan.
Mr. Lai Chuan took the photos and flipped through them one by one, his brow gradually relaxing. Today was the day of the Tokyo University Affiliated High School's school festival, and he couldn't show up. He could only ask his subordinates to arrange for someone to sneak in and help take pictures of Lai Chuan Huang Quan's performance.
“Mr. Lai Chuan, your daughter is really outstanding and very popular at school.”
“Of course,” the usually stern man raised an eyebrow, his face beaming with pride. “This is my daughter.”
This photograph is still kept in the safe in Mr. Lai Chuan's office.
The feeling of weightlessness returned, and this time, the sight of Raikawa Yomi lying on the cold ground with her limbs twisted was breathtaking, blood spreading in all directions. The crowd of onlookers was cordoned off, and the Metropolitan Police Department officers carefully lifted her onto a stretcher and into a vehicle.
Outside the crowd, a black car parked by the roadside slowly started its engine. Mr. Lai Chuan sat in the back seat, shivering like someone walking in the biting wind wearing only a thin shirt. His clenched fingers gripped his thighs tightly, making the well-tailored suit trousers crumpled at the palm of his hand.
"You brat."
Tears blurred his dark suit trousers, Mr. Lai Chuan's voice choked, tears streaming down his wrinkled face. His once hawk-like eyes lost their light, gradually becoming cloudy and distorted in extreme pain.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan was stunned: "Dad..."
Regret was like ivy climbing the wall, overwhelming and tightly binding and enveloping Lai Chuan Huang Quan. She knelt down in front of Mr. Lai Chuan, trying to wipe away his tears, but her fingers ran through his face instead.
"It's no use; it's a fait accompli that has already happened."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan remained silent, then forced a smile and asked, "What is your purpose?"
The other party did not answer, but instead directly sent Raikawa Yomi to the next location.
After the dizziness subsided, Yomi Lai saw the person she had been longing for—Kenji Hagiwara. He was squatting by the wall, smoking a cigarette and answering a phone call, with a bomb in front of him whose LCD screen had already gone out.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan froze, his eyes widening in horror. Could this be...?
The pitch-black screen suddenly lit up, and Kenji Hagiwara, who had been chatting and laughing casually, froze. He turned to his subordinates and shouted, "Run!"
The red numbers kept flashing, and Lai Chuan Huang Quan gripped his hair tightly with his fingers as if he wanted to tear his scalp off: "Stop! Stop it now! I don't want to see!!" But even with his eyes closed, the beeping of the countdown clearly reached his eardrums, churning in Lai Chuan Huang Quan's chest as if trying to crush his heart.
As the explosion rang out, Yomi Lai watched helplessly as flames engulfed Kenji Hagiwara and tore him to pieces.
"don't want!!"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan lunged forward, trying to hug Hagiwara Kenji, but missed. As she fell to the ground, what came into view was a pair of gleaming leather shoes. She looked up along the long legs encased in black suit trousers, her eyes filled with tears as she looked at Matsuda Jinpei. And once again, she witnessed him being blown to pieces.
As Matsuda Jinpei disintegrated into fragments, the surrounding world plunged into darkness. Yomi Yorikawa knelt on the ground, her fingers clenching tightly around her scalp. She whimpered, letting out a wild, mournful cry.
Let me introduce myself.
The guy who had been silently forcing Lai Chuanhuang to confront her deepest fears finally spoke up: "I come from a higher dimension. You can call me the Time and Space Administration."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan's eyes widened, her unfocused vision lingering on a blank void. Tears streamed down her face as she looked up, her expression blank, and murmured to herself, "Why did you show me this? Why is it so cruel?"
The other party did not answer Lai Chuanhuangquan, but changed the subject: "I can give you three chances to make a wish. Make a wish, work for us, and we will grant your wish."
"Including rescuing them from the explosion."
The word "resurrection" stung Lai Chuan Huang Quan's delicate and sensitive nerves. She caught her breath and widened her eyes to their limit. Lai Chuan Huang Quan bit her lip, swallowing back the promise that almost slipped out, and asked her in return, "Why should I believe you?"
"With our technology, there are a thousand ways to force you. But I choose to talk to you and give you the opportunity to choose."
Whether it was this guy from a higher plane or Yomi Yomi, they both knew that Yomi Yomi had no choice. They would cling to a drowning person even if it was just a straw, let alone the fantastical idea of resurrecting the dead, which was practically a miracle.
The people of the original world of the Bureau of Time and Space are different from humans. They lack compassion, are overly rational, yet can accurately grasp the weaknesses of human emotions. Fortunately, they do value fairness and justice, exchanging effort and labor for reward, rather than outright plunder. When effort and reward are equated, everyone will strive desperately for what they want. This is probably why the Bureau of Time and Space has become the most technologically advanced world among countless others.
"What would happen if I refused?"
"We will leave. And your soul, like that of any other ordinary person, will completely dissipate over time, within three to ten days after death."
"Have my fellow graduate students... come to see me?"
The other party did not reply.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan closed his eyes and took deep breaths to calm himself down before slowly saying in a trembling voice, "Why did you come to me? I'm definitely not the only one who longs for a miracle."
"Only those whose souls are highly compatible with each world can become employees of the Bureau. To use an example from your human world, a world is like a body. People with a certain blood type can only receive blood of that blood type, but type O blood can be transfused to all blood types except rare blood types in certain situations. Each world will have a rejection reaction to outsiders, but there are also souls that are highly compatible with each world and can freely enter and exit multiple worlds. You are exactly the highly compatible soul we are looking for."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan lowered his gaze and remained silent.
The other party was very patient, waiting for about ten minutes before speaking again: "What's your decision?"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan slowly stood up, tears still glistening in the corners of his eyes, but his gaze was firm: "What does it take to become an employee?"
"Have you read any system novels or quick transmigration novels? What you need to do is similar to those. We will assign you to various worlds to carry out missions based on your abilities until you pay a price sufficient to fulfill your wishes."
"Okay, I accept."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan didn't even ask if there was still any danger to his life.
"Great. Now, tell me your wish. By the way, the more specific the wish, the better. Wishes that are too general, such as 'saving the world,' 'becoming a heartthrob,' or 'becoming rich overnight,' will be rejected. It must be a detailed and precise wish, such as 'making a few specific people fall in love with me' or 'legally obtaining a billion dollars in three days.'"
Do you need a day to think about it?
“No,” Raikawa Yomi clenched his fists, his reddened eyes unwavering, burning with a fierce fire, “I can make a wish right now.”
"My first wish is to save Kenji Hagiwara and Jinpei Matsuda. I want them to live peacefully until they are fifty... no, I want them to live peacefully until they are at least seventy years old."
"The first wish has been received."
“My second wish,” Raikawa Yomi lowered her gaze with a look of shame, let out a soft breath, and continued, “I wish my father could have a well-behaved and obedient daughter, instead of a rebellious… me.”
"The second wish has been received."
"The third wish..."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan closed her eyes and kept adjusting her breathing. Her voice was hoarse, filled with a damp and cold breath, like a wet and sticky pebble that had been left on the edge of a pond for many years and covered with moss: "I want to see Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei again. I want to eat barbecue with them and play around with them."
I want to be with him.
"Don't you want to see your father?"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan remained silent, frowned, and slowly shook his head: "No, I... have no face to see him."
When overwhelmed by guilt and shame, most people subconsciously choose to escape, their brains forcibly activating a special protective mechanism. Overwhelmed by shame, how could Lai Chuan Huang Quan dare to appear before Mr. Lai Chuan?
"Understood, your wish has been received."
The world's timeline was rewound to the day Mr. Lai Chuan got divorced. Lai Chuan Huang Quan, who was crying for his mother, had his soul extracted at this crucial juncture, becoming an empty shell that relied on data implanted by the Time and Space Administration to function.
It can laugh, get angry, and feel fear. It can think like a human, just like a real person. However, when data is processed, "Mr. Raikawa's words" will be given the highest priority. This is the origin of the red-haired Yomi.
A tiny butterfly flutters its wings. Red-haired Yomi, following her father's wishes, enrolls in the law department of Tokyo University, only to brush past a future ace of the Special Duties Unit under the shade of a tree. Those who should have been lovers become strangers.
But this could not change the fact that the ace of the mobile unit died in the line of duty.
The Time and Space Administration extracted Yomi's DNA from her remains and created a body suitable for time travel. They decided that Yomi herself would fulfill her wish.
But this is on the premise that she has already completed enough tasks to fulfill her wish.
Time and space jumps, day after day traversing other worlds, Lai Chuan Huang Quan herself couldn't remember how long she had been working for the Time and Space Administration. She became numb, obsessive, and filled with hatred. She absolutely could not fail; she wanted them back.
The spoiled brat who used to burst into tears and run into Kenji Hagiwara's arms after her arm was scalded red by hot soup has unknowingly grown up to be able to trek across the scorching and vast desert, pick up a chipped scimitar and cleanly chop off the heads of zombies, and lead the desperate crowd to carve a bloody path through the desolate city.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan has changed; he is stronger, more resilient, and more indifferent.
But if they were still alive, how could they bear to see Yorikawa Yomi turn into this?
They will let her remain a cute and carefree spoiled brat forever.
Just like after she lost her memory.
May you always be happy.
[Author's Note]
Surprisingly, this chapter isn't a sweet slice-of-life story either.
Love you all, muah!
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