Chapter 162 Painted Body Swallowing Charcoal (11)
Pene, new land.
You An pulled his cloak tighter around himself. Walking through the alleys of the new land made him feel particularly uncomfortable. There was a lingering stench in the air, and the ground was covered in water stains and piles of garbage that made it almost impossible to step on.
Two children stood at the entrance of the alley, their faces sallow and thin, their clothes too short, exposing their wrists and ankles, staring intently at him.
Gab has sunshine and huts embraced by the sea breeze; it is poor yet rich. Both are impoverished regions, but New Land has a filth and malice that Gab lacks, making him extremely uncomfortable on his first visit.
Eric was in the spot Shu Ningmiao had given him, standing in the yard hanging clothes for the children. When he saw him, he froze, his lips twitching as if he wanted to say something, but before he could utter a word, tears welled up in his eyes and he started to cry.
The two stared at each other for a long time. Eric locked the gate of the orphanage and took him to Prometheus's underground base. The abandoned underground factory looked rather crowded with people around it.
“We’ve taken in some Manra patients.” She told him that not all of them were members of Prometheus.
The number of people infected with Manla disease has surged in New Territories recently, and the church district is overwhelmed with relief efforts. As a result, churches of all sizes have closed down one after another, ignoring the situation.
The Yangsong Church, which has been closed to the public since the last turmoil, has gradually reopened to some patients. However, the Yangsong Church is currently without leadership, and relying on the monks' spontaneous treatment is far from sufficient.
Many of the previous members of Prometheus had been patients with Manra and had some experience in caring for them. Eric and Liang Siyan took it upon themselves to treat some patients, at least allowing them to die with dignity.
Rennagi, on the other hand, was responsible for recruiting new members and rarely came back.
Yu An was experiencing the impact of Manla disease for the first time, and his eyes were somewhat unfocused: "This disease is so serious, doesn't Phineas care?"
“The new area is still under one-way lockdown.” Liang Siyan coughed twice, stepped out from the crowd, and looked at You An’s ferocious face, feeling a mix of emotions.
She looked away: "These patients are not contagious, they can't leave the new place, and in the end they can't escape death, so what's the point of taking care of them?"
Liang Siyan was already very weak and could only do some work at the base occasionally as a logistics worker. She slowly sat down on the ground and said, "Sometimes I think Pinhes's idea is not without reason. There is no possibility of curing Manla disease. Letting the suffering people end their lives early may be a relief. But even if living is already excruciatingly painful, people still have to struggle to live. It's so contradictory."
You An squatted down with her, his hood hanging down, revealing half of his stiff profile. He couldn't understand why the world had so many unsolvable problems.
After a long silence, Eric broke the suffocating silence, his eyes red as he tried to encourage everyone: "We can start with the new land, and then change Pine! One at a time!"
The people around her, half-standing and half-lying, responded to her words in a sparse manner.
Only You An kept his head down, his eyes brimming with a mix of emotions.
He whispered in a voice only he could hear, "It will definitely... change."
Pinheis, Representative Office at Union Building.
Shu Ningmiao leaned against the door, seemingly unfazed, when the bald man glared at her fiercely.
Once she was officially transferred to the representative's side, she had to stay by his side every step of the way, and even her rest was in a special security room.
The wielder's certificate allows her to carry weapons anywhere, a feeling she has never experienced so openly and legitimately before.
His other bodyguards were all equipped with the Dian series guns, but she was the only one who hadn't applied for a gun; for her, the gun was currently just a toy.
She doesn't need the wielder to be equipped with a weapon; she carries the same longsword that Shu Changyan used to carry. As a weapon of Xi Jin, she won't be assigned one of higher quality. The only drawback is that it's somewhat conspicuous.
Lucico's life was far more exciting than her job. She had meetings in the morning, played golf at noon, went fishing in the afternoon, attended banquets in the evening, and then dealt with official business until the early hours of the morning after a round of drinks.
The guards had been replaced, but he was still in high spirits.
After taking on this job, she discovered that she had to watch out for bullets flying down from the sky while walking. Few people could be hated to this extent. Lucico probably had to be careful not to turn on the bathtub while taking a bath.
The little girl with pigtails who always followed Lucico was called Sisi. Everyone around him called her Sisi. After observing for a few days, Shu Ningmiao found that Lucico took her with him wherever he went.
He would have the girl sit in the conference room playing on the terminal during meetings, and he would also have someone accompany Sisi to pass the time at banquets. If she was a bodyguard, she was too young. She was not sure about their relationship, but because the two were inseparable, Sisi was also a high-risk person to protect.
The assassins wanted as many weaknesses as possible in Lucicolay. Since he always had a child with him, everyone naturally assumed that the child was his daughter.
Inside the office suite, Lucicole was meeting with Kim Chang-seo's ambassador for cooperation; the door was tightly closed.
The bald man constantly found fault with her, saying things like, "Can't you stand up a little better?"
Shu Ningmiao raised her eyelids to look at him. Her posture was perfect. Etiquette classes from childhood had instilled in her a habit of keeping her head, neck, and waist in a straight line. No one had ever criticized her for being improper.
"Head up, chest out, chin tucked in," the monk instructed her. "Keep your legs straight, tuck in your stomach and buttocks. If I had encountered someone like you in the army, I would have kicked them long ago."
Shu Ningmiao changed her posture, but it didn't suit his wishes. She crossed her arms and said, "If you're so capable, why don't you go to war?"
The monk snorted: "I've been retired from the army for eight years, otherwise I would have been on the front lines too. Do you think everyone is like your generation, cowardly and lacking any sense of collective honor? I could have smashed the head of an Intoli man with one punch back then..."
The door behind them opened a crack, and Sisi popped out: "Didn't you say last time that you had been discharged from the army for six years?"
The monk, holding his breath, said, "I misremembered."
"Oh," Sisi said, "He said he wants you to tell Old Fu that we'll be entertaining guests in the North Hall today."
The man got up and left, and the girl deftly squeezed into the spot where the monk had been standing, looking up at him.
The girl had bright, expressive eyes and a distinct, stubborn air about her; she looked like a child, both in appearance and in personality.
Shu Ningmiao was silent for a moment: "Don't you go to school?"
She pondered that while it wasn't illegal for Lucico to adopt a child, preventing the child from attending school would be a scandal.
“I can’t keep up with the school’s pace.” Sisi puffed out her chest and called out by her full name: “Lucy hired a tutor for me.”
Shu Ningmiao chuckled: "How old are you?"
"Fifteen, you'll be sixteen soon." Sisi's eyes darted around. "You're not that much older than me, don't treat me like a child."
Shu Ningmiao did the math. The youngest age to awaken superpowers during the Fire Seed period was fifteen. Xixi looked a few years younger, so she followed Lucicolai as soon as she awakened her superpowers. It had only been a little over half a year since then, which was about the same time as when Lucicolai took office.
Thinking about this, Shu Ningmiao understood why Xixi had an almost stubborn wildness that didn't fit her surroundings.
It's rare for someone her age to fall behind in school. She was probably adopted by Lucico from an orphanage in New Land, where few children receive a normal education. She was adopted partly for her superpowers and partly to transfer the risk.
Because someone might actually kidnap the girl as if she were their daughter to get revenge, only to find out that the person they went through so much trouble to kidnap was just a smokescreen.
Very Lucico.
The monk's voice came through the walkie-talkie: "The heart stone detector is fluctuating. It looks like a rat climbed up from the first-floor ventilation system. I'll have someone come and relieve you. Go and deal with it."
The walkie-talkie channel was universal, and Sisi heard what the monk said, her eyes instantly lighting up with excitement.
"Where is the fresh air duct again?" Sisi pulled a small, exquisite pair of binoculars from her pocket. "Let me see."
Shu Ningmiao pointed to a circular mesh opening about the size of a palm in the corner of the wall. Xixi immediately squatted down and set up her binoculars in front of the fresh air vent, seemingly observing something. Even real mice couldn't crawl into the fresh air system of the United Building, so anyone who could break through from here must be extraordinary.
"So, is the telescope useful?" Shu Ningmiao wasn't in a hurry at all.
"I'm a little dizzy." Sisi couldn't squat down anymore. She stood up dizzily and rushed to the window, taking a few deep breaths of fresh air. After a while, she said, "This isn't my area of expertise."
The girl shook the binoculars in her hand, seemingly unwilling, and then propped them up on the windowsill to look around: "If only we were outside, I could control everything I could see."
That's why you need a telescope.
Shu Ningmiao looked thoughtful, then squatted down in front of the new air vent and twisted the edge of the shield.
It's completely still and fixed in place. The metal protective mesh on the outside of the fresh air inlet has holes that are much finer than a window screen. If a person wanted to pass through it, their body would probably have to shrink to the size of a mosquito or fly.
So the intruder's superpower is shrinking?
She considered whether to go back and ask the monk for a Heart Stone Detector. To be honest, she didn't want to go through all that trouble for Luciquette. Just then, she heard Sisisi calling her from behind: "Where did you go, Shu Ningmiao?!"
She replied helplessly, "Here."
Sisi called her name a few more times.
Shu Ningmiao snapped out of her reverie and realized something was wrong. The girl's voice sounded unusually distant and loud, as if she were speaking through a giant megaphone.
She suddenly looked up, and her perspective changed strangely. The small air hood that was originally the size of her palm suddenly magnified in her eyes, turning into a giant iron net that seemed to reach the sky and the earth. Her body was shrinking rapidly at an incredible speed.
An enormous hand reached out.
Then, Shu Ningmiao saw Xixi's face. That familiar face was now larger than she could have imagined. She could clearly see the tiny spots on her face, her wide-open eyes were like huge glass balls, and the air currents she created when she walked were incredibly noticeable.
She was flung into the air by the swirling airflow, turned around, grabbed the wire of the new air vent shield, and jumped into the vent through the gap. She suspected that with her size and weight, she would be accidentally trampled to death before attracting Sisi's attention.
The protective shield of the fresh air vent blocked most of the airflow for her. She hid behind the metal wire and began to recall every action she had just taken, realizing that she had been tricked from the very beginning—she shouldn't have touched the fresh air vent.
Dust floated in the air like clumps of willow catkins, feeling as if it could hit her at any moment. Shu Ningmiao leaned against the protective net, covered her mouth and nose, and took a gentle breath.
However, it doesn't seem to be entirely a bad thing.
At least it won't be so troublesome anymore.
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