Chapter 102 Perfection Through Refinement (1)
After suspending classes for several days, Cornuños gave all teachers and students another short holiday as a buffer.
After several days of explosions at Pandora's Geyser, many people lost loved ones and friends.
The students of Cornunos are among the least affected.
Life will always get back on track. No matter what the loss, no matter who dies, time passes and we are busy, in the end, it will all become a symbol in our memories.
Unlike Chris and the others, Shu Ningmiao did not take advantage of the few days of holiday to go on a beach vacation or go abroad to shop in Jinchangrui.
With the amount of data at her disposal increasing and decreasing, she was like the second hand of a clock, constantly busy day and night.
After leaving the clinic, she went back to the Shu family home.
Su Ni's body was not found, but the police detected his DNA on the collected body parts, confirming his death.
Feeling that he had lost his support and hope, Shu's father now tries to get closer to her and talk about their father-daughter relationship. In his grief, he still tries to show her concern and care.
Amidst Su Jia's pale and devastating sobs, Shu Ningmiao sat gracefully at the dining table, finding him rather ridiculous.
For his daughter, who was used to being ignored and had no interest in him, his fatherly love came too late; and for a mother who had just lost her child, his sudden fatherly love seemed so untimely.
At this point, Shu's father would say a few kind words: "The things in the house were going to be yours sooner or later anyway, I never thought of giving them to others."
Su Jia stared at him coldly.
Shu Ningmiao had been waiting for him to say that. When she was helping Weston gain a foothold in the National Union Building, it was no longer her "personal investment".
Therefore, after she said "all," she was bound to gain control over all of the Shu family's businesses.
Shu Yijun was someone who lived off holding shares and was completely oblivious to the various aspects of the process. With the shares transferred in the will and his tacit approval, Shu Ningmiao gained control.
Taking power meant she couldn't just let things slide like her father did; it brought endless busyness.
The only thing to be thankful for is that Wei Sheng Qian Heng really did keep his word.
With the encouragement of the Church of Praise, all procedures were given the green light, and progress was made at a rapid pace.
She has now begun to believe in the church's doctrine of not lying.
Chris called her from her vacation island to check on her: "I can't believe what you're doing."
Her tone was sincere, not sarcastic, but genuinely puzzled. Most of them dreamed of living comfortably under their family trusts and funds, and didn't want to suffer at an age when they should be enjoying life.
Shu Ningmiao got up and walked to the window.
Hearing Chris yelling from the other end of the terminal, "Do you know what everyone's been talking about on the school forum these past few days?"
"What?"
"Weston!"
Chris sighed with heartache: "You should go out and attend the banquet. You don't even know about something this big... This is the most attention-grabbing news since the explosion. He should be able to choose any of the departments at the research center now."
After saying that, she sighed deeply again: "I don't know why, but I felt his charm when he wasn't teaching in Cornunos. It's such a pity that I didn't cherish the days when he was still here—he was the future director of the National Research Center lecturing to me!"
"..." Shu Ningmiao was speechless: "You wouldn't think like this when he was around."
This timing was perfect for Weston, as Pinheis needed other news to divert public attention.
The handling of this matter, and Weston's subsequent treatment, presents an opportunity to rebuild the government's credibility in the public eye.
Amidst the wave of admiration for those who practice it and the barrage of fresh reports, people will soon be able to continue living their lives in a state of blissful ignorance.
"Professor Yelü is on sick leave, and now Weston has left too. I wonder who our class's new tutor will be after the holiday... Hmm, I hope it's a good-natured person who's easy to approve leave requests."
Her purpose was far too obvious.
"Instead of this, we should prepare for the second test of our superpowers," Shu Ningmiao said calmly.
Because of the long holiday, the second superpower practice will be right after school resumes, leaving no extra preparation time.
Chris sighed heavily, "I'm not going to be able to eat dinner tonight."
The call on the terminal screen finally ended with a "beep," and Shu Ningmiao looked up.
The night breeze blew in through the half-open French windows, ruffling a few strands of her long hair.
She subconsciously clicked on the game icon in the terminal, which had turned completely black, as if it had become a muscle memory.
Even as the game's title screen became increasingly broken, it didn't affect her gameplay; she knew exactly where every button was even with her eyes closed.
The game system did not respond, nor did a new dialog box appear.
She simply clicked on the scene of her own death in the CG illustration, observed it quietly for a moment, and then gently raised her index finger to cover her bleeding chest.
It seems to be over.
Without Achini, none of this would have happened, and the Pigne government would not have bothered to target her.
Is it really that simple?
If she had to find a reason for all the problems, there were still too many things she hadn't figured out.
The folder she took from Edwina's office was still in her hand, along with a wad of paper wrapped in fire, which was about to burn her palm at any moment.
When she tried to recall what she had seen in the hallucination, the suffocating pain and the coldness in her chest kept churning in her mind.
A pair of sharp blue eyes flashed in her memory.
A flood of distracting thoughts suddenly made her feel agitated.
The anxiety and weariness made her cough softly twice. Weston had healed her external injuries, but there seemed to be some blood clots in her lungs, and she would cough them up from time to time these past two days.
If she reloads the save file, will she still be able to see the "overwritten past" from the previous playthrough?
She followed her memory to the save file, saved it, and then pressed the load button. A huge X appeared on the screen.
?
Shu Ningmiao refused to believe it and clicked a few more times. Intersecting lines kept popping up, covering the save file and stopping her actions.
She tapped the screen, and large black squares appeared on it, as if corroded by some ominous rust.
The screen flickered incessantly, lines twisted and overlapped, and a flimsy border appeared to emerge, making it look lifeless.
The dialog box that says "You can't load your save file" also says: "Have you forgotten what I told you? You'll pay the price for wasting your time."
"Let's not talk about this." Shu Ningmiao rubbed her temples. "You're lying to me, aren't you?"
The dialog box remained silent, unresponsive.
“I’ve been thinking about this for the past few days.” Shu Ningmiao looked deeply at the quiet terminal in her hand: “It’s a very strange thing.”
"The game's flowchart shows that after I die in Chapter 5, there are still more than a dozen chapters of story ahead."
Su Ni's destruction of the Shu family and her entanglement with Eric actually occurred after her death, a fact she seemed to have overlooked before.
She continued, "Since all of this actually happened, then the world didn't reset after I died. Instead, it remained completely calm for a long time."
"What happened in those dozen or so chapters? In other words, what happened during the gap between my death and rebirth?"
"What prompted me to stand here again after being dead for several months, or perhaps several years?"
Shu Ningmiao closed her eyes, feeling a little tired: "It shouldn't be your choice, right?"
The dialog box trembled slightly on the screen, its edges even appearing somewhat blurry.
"So, I'm wondering, is it because you really can't tell me the whole truth, or because you're unwilling to tell me?"
Shu Ningmiao's voice grew even calmer: "Don't bother with vague excuses like fate or world consciousness. Why does Achini know so much? Is there nothing to control him? Why is he so unrestrained?"
"Not an excuse"
After a long while, the game system could only utter this one sentence.
"You've seen my current state. The most crucial reason is something I can't explain to you—and neither can Achini. What I can tell you, the part you want to know, won't help your judgment at all."
After a long pause, it managed to utter a second sentence: "Don't dwell on looking back. If you actually reload your save file, you'll definitely regret it."
Because the past cannot be changed or undone, you can only move forward.
"The moment you try to correct things, to go back to the past, and stand still looking back, nothing will be left."
It flips through the text on the screen page by page.
You've seen the lessons of the past.
Shu Ningmiao felt that it might be referring to Achini, and she really didn't want to become like Achini.
But she didn't want to live a life of mediocrity as an ordinary citizen of Pinneapolis, just getting by, even if she died a violent death one day, she would only be able to accept her fate and lie under the ruts, being crushed as a speck of dust that no one cared about.
She rested her elbow on the windowsill, and gusts of cold wind swept across her face, instantly clearing her mind.
Having experienced the pain of having her chest pierced before, she knew very well that trying to see the past by reloading save files was a dangerous and foolish act.
"Fine, I won't reload." Shu Ningmiao let out a long sigh: "Tell me, why did you mislead me into thinking that Achini was the real killer who killed me?"
If the person who silenced her was Shu Changyan, could it be that she has some connection with Shu Changyan?
The dialog box hesitated for a moment before replying, "I didn't say it was Achini."
Shu Ningmiao was taken aback. After thinking about it carefully, she realized that it really hadn't said that.
She was even more annoyed: "I think you're acting strangely too. Achini is dead, so why do you look worse?"
Because I am resisting the erosion of fate.
Black seeps from the edges of the dialog box: "I will disappear the moment the present timeline overlaps with the past timeline, that is, the moment when the present completely covers the past."
Before this, I won't tell you anything trivial. For the first time, its words were so resolute and cold. "Everything is to tear apart our original destiny; I won't let you turn back."
"You..." Shu Ningmiao cursed it coldly, only to find that the screen flickered and then went silent, as if it were dead.
This piece of junk!
She opened Weston's chat window and asked him if he knew what a string was.
He must have been incredibly busy by now, yet he still had time to deal with her nonsensical questions.
The input status in the dialog box jumped instantly, and several documents were sent without a word: "Children's Science Reader: Unraveling the Mysteries of Strings," "The Invisible String," and "The Foundation of the World—Strings."
Shu Ning Miao drew it on.
"Can strings talk?" she asked.
"How old are you?" Weston asked casually. "Should we ask Santa when he's bringing you presents this year?"
He then sent her a message: "Even Arcia knows that a string is just a physical unit. Can the air in your house talk?"
As Shu Ningmiao calmed down, she became increasingly distrustful of the game. If the string couldn't possibly have consciousness, then who did the consciousness in the game system belong to?
She would find the answer even if it didn't say anything.
Shu Ningmiao turned off the terminal, put on her coat, and the driver was already waiting downstairs.
After so many days, this was the first time she had gone back to her own house.
Shu Changyan had her fingerprints on the door lock, so she could roughly guess who he was, and subconsciously avoided him—or even resisted facing him.
The small pendant hanging on the terminal swayed precariously, and the smiling puppy seemed to be mocking her. Shu Ningmiao turned her head away, looking out the car window indifferently, the moonlight coldly illuminating her long, black hair.
Affection is inherently fragile and fickle; even blood relatives are like this. In the end, she and Shu Changyan were nothing more than two strangers bound together by blood.
The tenderness between siblings is built on a castle of sand and gravel, and is not as strong as the bond of blood.
But it was Shu Changyan who couldn't accept even the slightest possibility of a hypothesis.
The honeysuckle outside the small building was even more lush. Shu Ningmiao's gaze swept over it and she remembered that during her first year in the army, Shu Changyan came back to visit her on leave and leisurely stood in front of this honeysuckle to water it.
At that time, Shu Changyan was fifteen years old, taller than most of his peers, with long arms and legs, and even appeared thin.
He turned his head to the side, his smile gentle, but his tone resolute.
He told her that he would become the one who carried it out.
She knew how boring the students at Cornunos were because she and Erice had been subjected to the same malicious, naked stares during their preparatory year.
The scandal of her father's illegitimate child was exposed, and the woman in the gossip circle took charge of the household. She was also a source of amusement for others, only not as blatantly so.
Shu Changyan rose to the center of power and achieved his goal of standing out from the crowd.
The small confinement at the doorstep could not hold her back, nor could it hold him back. The hot-headed and frenzied society adored him as a hero, making him the center of attention and the object of everyone's love.
At first, he stood in front of the honeysuckle and simply told her:
He wanted to be the one to carry it out, to be the brother she could be proud of.
Shu Ningmiao turned the doorknob and opened the door without turning on the light. Her superhuman vision was enough for her to see the outlines of her surroundings. There was no one else around, and the place was very clean.
She walked to the long table and saw an exquisite jewelry box on the empty surface.
After a moment of blankness, she reached out and turned the clasp on the box, slowly opening it. Two pure white pearl earrings lay quietly on the velvet lining, adorned with delicate gold floral patterns as fine as hair, exuding a subtle yet ostentatious charm, their exquisite craftsmanship clearly evident to the naked eye.
Wait... why earrings?
The coincidence was too much, and a bad feeling rose in her heart. She was stunned and subconsciously took a step back, her back bumping into a warm chest.
A gentle, crisp scent, carrying an almost imperceptible hint of rust, quickly enveloped her.
Shu Ningmiao stood still, her expression turning cold, but she didn't move.
He reached out from behind and gently wrapped his arms around her, tightening his grip. He silently rested his chin on her shoulder, his dark, shoulder-length hair entwining with her long, loose hair and falling into the crook of her neck.
Shu Ningmiao didn't want to give him any response, nor did she want to be the one to speak first; she treated him as if he were invisible.
After a while, she pressed the button on the terminal in her other hand and casually clicked on the first news pop-up.
The chest behind her rose and fell slightly with his breathing, and she could hear the gentle thumping of his heart. She was angry with Shu Changyan, but she also found it particularly noisy.
As luck would have it, the first news item that popped up was Weston's grumpy face, as if someone owed him millions of dollars.
Under the high-definition lens, his cold and aloof expression actually had a hint of smugness. Countless microphones were pointed at him, and the colors made his face look particularly unfamiliar.
Noticing the subtle pause in Shu Ningmiao's gaze, he tightened his grip on her arm, then slowly released his other hand to cover her wrist.
His warm palm enveloped her hand, his knuckles tightening slightly, and he guided her hand across the photograph of Weston.
Shu Changyan held her hand tightly, opened her contacts on her device, and pulled himself off the blacklist.
"Brother was wrong." Shu Changyan lowered his eyelashes, his face pressed against her temples, his voice as soft as the hazy moonlight outside the window: "I'm sorry."
His voice grew softer and softer, lowered and humbly, with an almost imperceptible coaxing quality, as he repeated himself over and over in a hoarse voice.
Just as he has done for so many years, he has protected her arrogant nature and never questioned right or wrong.
Whether he's arrogant and mean or disdainful of others, if he's wrong, it's always his fault.
Shu Ningmiao glanced back at him. Beneath his dazzling face, his blue eyes were indifferent and cold, like the sky, like a lake, like the frost in winter, like the sharp, cold light on the tip of a knife, so sharp that they could pierce through everyone's defenses.
Looking at those eyes alone, there was no trace of their usual gentle expression.
She opened her mouth slightly, her pale skin making her eyes appear even colder: "Shu Changyan, I've realized that I've never understood what you're thinking."
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Author's Note: Bro: I don't know where I went wrong, but I'll admit it first.
This part is for the brother.
This title was determined before the outline was even written; it reflects my fundamental personality.
Just by looking at the title, you can tell I couldn't possibly be harming Miao!
But regarding personality and actions... um.
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