Chapter 147 A Branch in the Nest Forest (10)
"It's me." Xiao Jiang smiled and winked at her. "Are you happy?"
Shu Ningmiao asked her, "Are you alone?"
Xiao Jiang was taken aback, sensing that Shu Ningmiao's expression wasn't as surprised as she had imagined.
“That’s right.” Xiao Jiang tilted her head back and rubbed the stubble on the back of her neck. “Does it really take several people to look after a student? That’s too much.”
She gestured for You An to sit down and not stand in the middle of the road blocking people from passing, then lowered her voice to Xiao Jiang: "Don't you need to go with Zhao?"
"You miss him? I haven't seen him for days." Xiao Jiang crossed her legs and said casually, "I don't go with him. We only need to team up for missions that require secrecy."
Shu Ningmiao stared at her silently. Zhao and Shu Changyan had both entered the confidential phase, and there were high-level missions within the system, but Xiao Jiang was here. This was a very dangerous sign, indicating that she had been excluded from the system.
Shu Ningmiao usually wouldn't easily utter a conclusion without empirical evidence. She remained silent for a moment, and Xiao Jiang's eyes and eyebrows drooped.
Sensing the awkward atmosphere, You An quickly spoke up, "Um, you're the one the council representative was talking about...?"
“Yes.” Xiao Jiang turned to look at him. She was very gentle with Shu Ningmiao, and her face was full of smiles, but she didn’t seem like a good-tempered person when she spoke. Her light voice contained an invisible sense of pressure: “I will be responsible for your safety from now on, so you’d better not cause me any trouble.”
You An could roughly tell that she was extraordinary, but he never expected that the person sitting with them on the train was one of the operators.
Even in previous years, there was no such security measure during field trips. It is because of concerns about the previous invasion by Prometheus that the security level has been raised significantly.
However, within the territory of Pinne, seeing so few students was no different from a holiday for Xiao Jiang, so she came to find Shu Ningmiao with great interest, only to be dampened by Shu Ningmiao's expressionless demeanor.
There were three seats in a row on the train, facing each other. The six seats were quickly filled, but because of Xiao Jiang, who clearly didn't look like a student, no one spoke on their side.
Several people secretly glanced at Shu Ningmiao and Xiao Jiang, who had cold expressions. They seemed to want to speak but dared not. You An looked at the moving scenery outside the window and quickly began to lighten the mood. He talked about his embarrassing experience of being cheated out of 800 cin when he first arrived in Pigne by car. Everyone laughed, and the atmosphere eased a little.
Shu Ningmiao wasn't oblivious to the subtle atmosphere; she no longer needed to benefit from participating in social interactions, so she didn't care about other people's emotions and attitudes.
But You An was the complete opposite of her. He always put others first in his actions and resolved awkward situations just to avoid embarrassing others. Most people don't dislike people with a strong altruistic personality. In just a few hours on the bus, You An became friends with everyone around him.
After changing trains and then taking a bumpy bus, she was worried about feeling nauseous and didn't eat much. By the third transfer, she was already feeling a bit listless.
Xiao Jiang sat with her and watched as she turned her head slightly, her dark satin hair falling over her face, making her face look almost bloodless. Xiao Jiang, who had been expressionless, uncomfortably loosened the strength in his hand and stuffed something soft into her hand.
Shu Ningmiao opened the outer wrapping paper and found a piece of dark brown bread.
Xiao Jiang was initially a little annoyed because Zhao seemed unhappy to see her after she asked her. However, after thinking about it, she calmed herself down and took the initiative to make up with her, saying, "I did it myself."
The bread was a bit dry, burnt, and mixed with small, coarse grains. Shu Ningmiao took a bite and asked her why she thought of bringing this, since free drinks and food were provided on the train.
Xiao Jiang put her hands behind her head: "The food they provide is not enough and I don't like it. I like this kind of food."
People live off the land and water. Xiao Jiang had mentioned to her before that there was a wheat field in front of her house, which should be a local specialty. People in Pinnea do not often eat this kind of coarse bread.
This time, the destination, Gab, is a typical coastal village. Lacking land resources and being on the front line of coastal defense, it is poorly developed and looks even poorer than Newland at first glance. Even the houses are old stone brick houses—a material that was eliminated by the capital a hundred or eighty years ago and can usually only be seen in museums. As soon as the students got off the bus and looked up, they immediately started complaining.
With her sleek, wavy hair and jewelry sparkling in the sun, Chris led the way, and after a moment's thought, finally managed to utter, "So primitive."
The school managed to find some vacant houses in the village to use as their accommodation. The houses were all old stone houses that were pretty much the same, which led to another round of complaints. Some people were already threatening to go back home.
The logistics department had those who wanted to go back sign a voluntary waiver form, while continuing to arrange rooms for the remaining people.
Having already endured a long journey, the instructors for each class simply gave them some instructions and then allowed them to rest freely. The formal practice began the next morning.
They were repeatedly instructed to respect local customs and not to get into conflicts with locals for no reason.
Gaber is located in the East Sea region, and its customs and habits are very different from those of the capital. Even the popular language is completely different. The acting mentor can only try his best to tell these teenagers to comment less on things they don't understand, so as not to cause any trouble.
Although the teachers told them to rest, they perked up again in the new environment. Every household in Gabor had dried fish hanging in front of their houses, which seemed very novel to these rich kids who had grown up in the capital.
Upon closer inspection, I discovered strange little statues carved from stone and bone in front of someone's house, and I started to feel uneasy again.
Xiao Jiang was called away by Cornunos's men, probably to coordinate the next task. You An was still standing next to her, holding his big backpack. Shu Ningmiao could guess with her eyes closed that the big cat was inside.
Sure enough, once everyone was gone, You An secretly unzipped his backpack a crack, and a brownish-pink nose peeked out from the gap.
"Wait, wait, come home first." You An slung her bag over her shoulder and hurriedly pushed her protruding mouth back in, calling out to the girl who was about to leave, "Um, do you want to come to my house for a while?"
Fearing his intentions would be too obvious, he turned to call out to his good friend Rennagi, who was in another class, and also invited Eric and Linlu, who hadn't gone far, to his house for dinner one by one, without any effort.
Rennagi reluctantly walked over to him.
Shu Ningmiao didn't answer. She caught a glimpse of a dark shadow rushing towards her like a wild boar in the distance. She dodged it slightly to the side.
The dark figure crashed solidly into You An and then grabbed You An's leg in a flash.
You An was startled, looked down and saw clearly, then exclaimed in disbelief, "You Guagua, how come you're so dark!"
The dark figure hugging him was a little boy, about eleven or twelve years old, barefoot, wearing a red vest, black shorts, and slippers that had come unglued and were making a clattering sound.
Beneath fiery red hair, his mouth was wide open, missing a front tooth, and his eyebrows were askew. His sun-darkened face had a pair of eyes that resembled You An's, larger than everyone else's, and his clever and quick-witted expression was very endearing.
Eric had initially thought the people here looked fierce and aloof, so he didn't dare go too far. But as they slowly strolled over, he was slightly surprised: "So your brother really is called Guagua."
The boy looked up at him and said, "Don't call me You Guagua, call me by my name, You Gua."
"You goat." Linlu clicked her tongue.
You Gua glanced at her warily, then clung tightly to You An's leg: "Gua!"
Linlu teased him, "Okay, stop babbling."
"Alright, alright." You An hugged her younger brother's neck and lifted him up. The little boy was dark and thin, like a half-wrapped chocolate. You An herself was much fairer than when she left her hometown. She couldn't help but laugh and said, "Come on, come on. The food they prepared for you is probably just the hairy fish that the village can't sell and is going to throw away. It's not good. Come to my house to eat."
Linlu rolled her eyes and nudged Eric's arm: "This guy makes it sound so righteous that his village is so ruthless and xenophobic."
Rennagi interjected, unfazed, "This is fine as it is."
You An chuckled dryly: "Quack quack, did you catch anything good to treat your older brother and sister?"
You Gua's eyes darted around, her pupils darting about as she seemed to be thinking: "Yes!"
“I caught a lot of grouper today, and I’ll eat them piece by piece.” After he finished speaking, he leaned close to his brother’s ear and whispered, “There are some really, really good things too! I’ll show them to you after they leave.”
You An smiled and playfully punched the child's head, then glanced at Shu Ningmiao beside him before lowering her head and pretending not to exist.
The special ability practice exam hadn't started yet, and Shu Ningmiao wanted to get a general idea from the locals, so she went with You An and the others.
The child didn't understand how acute his hearing was; even at such close range, she could hear him clearly even as he tried to keep his voice down.
Seeing her gaze sweep over, You Gua perched on her brother's shoulder, staring at her with wide, curious eyes. Her dark face feigned nonchalance, a slight blush creeping onto her cheeks.
The others also overheard You Gua's whispers, but didn't pay much attention, only finding the child adorably clever.
You An's house was not much different in style from the other houses in the village. They were all square stone houses with sloping roofs, narrow and small doors and windows, fish hanging at the door, and various sundries and fishing gear piled up under the stone walls.
Judging from the size of the courtyard and the number of inner rooms, You An's family should be considered a well-off family in the area. His parents probably had already heard that he was coming back and stayed inside the house without going out.
You An's parents had personalities and temperaments that were no different from his. They had bright eyes and a shy yet kind smile. Without even asking them, they warmly invited them to sit down. Before they could say a few words, they couldn't help but pull You An to look at him again and again, their hearts and eyes filled with this child who hadn't been home for so long.
Shu Ningmiao readily agreed and sat down. You Gua rushed over and poured her a bowl of water. At the bottom of the bowl were some bamboo leaves and sugarcane residue. Although she had never been to Gabo before, she knew that this was considered a pretty good drink in the area, so she tossed him a piece of candy.
The candy was bought by Weston for Arcia. It was an expensive candy brand that was popular in Pietès for a while. Arcia didn't eat it at all. There were pieces of it scattered all over Weston's desk. I guess one of them accidentally fell into her bag sometime during the day.
You Gua scratched his head, noticing that his parents and brother weren't looking at him, his eyes darting around. He pretended to push the food into her hand, saying, "Can I eat this? I've seen this before, it's so expensive! No, no! You should take it back!"
"Eat it." Shu Ningmiao raised her hand to block his myriad feints and gently flicked it back: "I don't like sweets."
You Gua quickly unwrapped the candy, popped it into his mouth, chewed it a couple of times, and muttered with a strange expression, "How can anyone not like candy?"
After eating her food, You Gua immediately accepted this "friend" and casually glanced at the person next to her. Following his gaze, she saw that Ai Ruiji was staring at the bowl on the table, as if he wanted to stare a hole through it.
She could clearly sense that the people next to her were so uneasy, not knowing where to put their hands and feet, and their whole bodies exuded discomfort—this kind of happy, simple, and unpretentious family seemed a little unreal.
You An blinked, finally extricating herself from her parents' concern, and said she would take them to see her pet.
He climbed over the wall and introduced them to a green peacock named "Wa Wa," a wild boar named "Hmph," an olive-green scaled tortoise named "Hulu," and a cockatiel named "Ji Ji."
Rennagi and Erigi squatted far outside, annoyed by the noise.
You An moved some stones over himself, hammered and chipped away to create a small room, put "Mimi" inside, and admired it with satisfaction: "This is perfect."
The serval poked its head out of the miniature stone house and stared at them. Shu Ningmiao gently nodded its head, signaling it to behave, but the serval pressed its paw down on it.
Linlu leaned over the wall and looked down. The animals had smooth fur and seemed to be in good spirits. You An liked to bring these strange and unusual things home. Surprisingly, his parents accepted them and took good care of them. Linlu didn't know whether to be incredulous or envious.
"Do other people have to buy tickets to enter your house?" Linlu opened her mouth, thought for a moment and then laughed: "The principal really picked a good place. You An could create a lot of people just by letting a pig out. How can we take the exam? It's not fair."
You An corrected her: "Although I don't have legal documents, I won't just let them out to bite people."
"Don't you think that's a bit strange? Remember when we had to gather information in the simulated city of Pingyi to unlock specific tasks for our first practical exam?" Ren Nagi frowned. "If this practical exam is taking place here, then You An's advantage is far too great."
Exploring information is a crucial part of the exam, and schools cannot possibly have overlooked this.
Shu Ningmiao pulled her fingers back from under Mimi's breasts and whispered, "Not here."
Not here?
“Gabo is not a polluted area, but rather the front line of Pines’ coastal defense, so it is unlikely that there would be any pollutants here.” Shu Ningmiao lowered her eyes: “If you go more than ten kilometers away from here, all you can see is the sea. This is the closest land.”
She carefully chose her words: "...Perhaps it's in the sea."
"Into the sea?" You An shook his head in horror. "Going out to sea is barely enough to survive, but running into the sea is suicide. Nobody here would abandon their boat and jump into the sea."
Lin Lu frowned: "That depends on what the school thinks. There are indeed a lot of pollutants in the sea, so this kind of assessment is not impossible... If we have to go into the water, we can use a water-controlling ability to solve the problem."
“It’s not a question of possibility!” You An paused: “—Do you think there weren’t any people with superpowers among those who died at sea?”
He pulled his coat over his head and walked outside: "The sea is more powerful than you can imagine. Superhumans are human, they are superhumans, but the sea... the sea is a god. A single wave can sweep away all life. Even superhumans cannot resist it."
Rennagi smoothed things over, saying, "It's just a guess."
As he spoke, he looked at Shu Ningmiao, who stood against the light, calmly playing a game of clapping her paws with the serval. The setting sun shone from behind her, but her face was hidden in the darkness, making it impossible to discern her expression.
You An's parents prepared fresh food. Freshly caught seafood is delicious no matter how it's cooked. Sliced thinly and wrapped with local shredded vegetables, it has a slightly pungent taste. Or it can be steamed and drizzled with a simple sauce, which is very delicious.
Thinking that there might be pollutants in the sea, they barely ate anything, and even You An, who usually had a good appetite, couldn't taste anything.
The next morning, the instructor announced that their exam would be postponed for another day.
As she expected, the location for the ability practice test was not the plains of Gaber, but the nearby high seas.
Due to communication issues between the school and Gabriel, Gabriel only learned in the morning that these students were going to the sea, and a fierce argument immediately broke out between the two sides.
The Cornunos school believes they were simply conducting underwater reconnaissance at a nearby dock, with reliable superpowered equipment and professional supervision, making the risk less than experiencing deep-sea diving as a tourist—at least they didn't have to worry about someone pulling out their air tank.
They didn't even mention the accompanying agents, because they felt the conditions were already secure enough.
The Gaber representative, speaking in broken Pinhian, succinctly concluded: "No sea sacrifice! No sea voyage!"
The school officials were completely bewildered: "What are you doing?"
Yu An helped explain that the sea sacrifice is a procedure that the coastal residents here must perform before going out to sea, probably to pray for the safety of those going out to sea.
After some discussion, the school decided to compromise, not wanting to complicate matters further.
Work had to stop today to prepare for the ceremony. The school wanted to help speed things up, but the locals were very wary and wouldn't let outsiders handle anything that was being prepared. So the teachers had no choice but to let them wander around.
Gabo is located by the sea, but it's not the kind of beautiful, jelly-like sea found in well-established tourist destinations, nor does it have golden sand beaches. The beach is only covered with small, scattered seashells and reefs, with huge waves crashing in, creating clumps of foam.
The seawater clashing created a terrifying black and white scene.
Chris couldn't wait to change into her swimsuit. The reef was deserted, and the sea breeze blowing in her face almost turned her into a fossil.
She sneezed so loudly it shook the heavens and earth, and finally quieted down.
In the chilly wind, Chris looked up unintentionally and saw Shu Ningmiao wearing a coat, sitting alone on the highest rock, quietly gazing at the sea.
The sea breeze ruffled her long hair, and Shu Ningmiao seemed oblivious to everything happening on the sea, even though all that was in the distance was a calm, dark expanse.
Chris withdrew her gaze, wrapped herself in a blanket, and hurried away from the freezing beach, eager to finish this damned second practical exam. Sleeping in a leaky, dilapidated stone house and eating rotten fish and shrimp, she had never suffered like this in her life.
She walked forward with her head down, passing locals carrying wooden stakes. One of the locals frowned and scolded her, "Don't dress like that!"
Chris made another mental note: once she finished her exams, she would definitely find a few seafood vendors to pressure them on their prices—no, she was going to report them right now for monopolizing the market, since the seafood here wasn't fresh and was several times more expensive than the market price!
She hadn't walked two steps when another tanned ugly doll followed her closely, begging for money and candy. It wouldn't leave until she got what it wanted, its shamelessness making her eyes hurt.
Chris clenched her fists.
Damn it, as expected, bad people come from poor and remote areas, may they all die!
At the beach, a can of iced mint tea rolled into her hand. Shu Ningmiao listened to the roar of the waves and couldn't even distinguish the breathing of the other people.
Xiao Jiang climbed up the reef with his bare hands, sat down cross-legged next to her, and held a beer in his hand.
Shu Ningmiao picked up the drink and asked her, "Where did you buy it?"
While everyone else was asleep in the morning, she took a walk around Gab. There was only a small shop selling groceries, and it wasn't even as big as You An's zoo.
Xiao Jiang opened the beer, and with a hiss, it immediately overflowed with foam: "Spending money, huh? As long as you spend more money, that's fine."
"How much?" she asked, shaking her mint tea.
“300 cin,” Xiao Jiang replied casually.
Shu Ningmiao chuckled: "Its price in the capital is 20 cin."
"Anyway, I won't spend much money in Pigne." Xiao Jiang lightly touched her face with his beer, giving her a slight chill: "What are you looking at?"
“The sea.” Shu Ningmiao gazed at the dark blue horizon in the distance. There were occasional white spots on the sea, which she couldn’t tell were reefs or islands. Further away, she could hear the sound of the tides lapping against the shore, but it was not very clear. “From here, it seems that we can see the territory of Intori.”
Xiao Jiang took a big gulp of beer: "Yeah, that ring over there looks like it was chewed by a dog."
Both of them have good eyesight. Shu Ningmiao had never been to Intoli, but Xiao Jiang had been and had seen the island from the air.
What is an Intori?
“That place…” Xiao Jiang thought for a moment, “To be honest, it’s quite similar to this place.”
“People usually divide cultures by land areas, but rarely by maritime areas. As both are sea dwellers, Gabo is closer to Intori than to Judah.” Shu Ningmiao had obviously done a thorough investigation of Gabo beforehand: “They belong to the same maritime cultural region, so it’s normal for them to be similar.”
“I don’t understand these things.” Xiao Jiang grinned and put his arm around her shoulder, leaning closer. “I don’t think it’s necessarily about culture; it’s probably because everyone is poor. Poor places are all the same.”
Shu Ningmiao rested her chin on her hand and suddenly laughed, a laugh devoid of any emotion.
Gab was poor because it had no plains and no resources, and could only rely on the sea for sustenance.
The reason why Torri is poor is that its abundant resources do not belong to Pinhea. It is sanctioned and divided, and the war never stops on the impoverished continent.
She was no longer curious about the islands on the other side. The sea breeze blew in her face, ruffling her hair. She looked down, and the silvery waves crashed against the rocks. "How far is Mengdan? Can you see your hometown from here?"
Xiao Jiang gazed into the distance. The sea, as black as velvet, was calm and serene, without a ripple. Yet, her eyes were unusually clear as she stared intently at a certain spot, as if it concealed an unseen world.
“I can’t see it,” she said, leaning on the rocks and looking up. “It’s too far.”
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