Nanya Secondary School
"Lunchtime news: Xia Group and Xu Group issued a joint statement last night, promising to provide a 500,000 yuan subsidy to the urban village demolition project as additional compensation. Both parties are willing to strengthen economic cooperation to achieve a win-win situation. Another news item: Yesterday afternoon, an unknown man and woman appeared at the urban village demolition project, leaping and jumping around in the sky like Spider-Man. A caring citizen has sent in a high-definition video."
Wu Shi was most thankful that the noon news video had thoughtfully blurred both her and Xiao Qingqiu's faces, blurring them so thoroughly that even their own mother couldn't recognize them. However, despite all her calculations, she hadn't anticipated the power of the masses, akin to a human flesh search engine plus! Her small three-bedroom apartment was now the perfect example of being "besieged on all sides."
The windows? They were already covered with thick layers of newspaper and tape, making them airtight, like the mouth of a pickle jar. But even so, it couldn't block out the cries from outside, which were full of the atmosphere of "pilgrimage":
"Hero! Come out and fly!"
"Hero! Will you accept me as your disciple? Tuition is negotiable!"
"Big guy in there, are you looking for a leg accessory? The kind you need from a top 985 university?"
Wu Shi pressed himself against the cold wall, feeling like an expired star surrounded by fanatical fans, the kind that couldn't even show his face.
"System," Wu Shi roared in his head, "Are you sure the Xu and Wu families are gangsters? The kind that resort to violence? They bully people at school without blinking an eye, and fight to the death in the boxing gym without a frown, and now they actually allow me to mess up their coveted demolition project? Shouldn't they send a truck to bulldoze my house?"
The system's calm electronic voice carried a subtle hint of insight: "Host, they're real bastards, armed men. However, this system reasonably infers that their current assessment of you may have upgraded from 'a troublemaker in need of a lesson' to 'an unknown entity suspected of possessing supernatural powers.' In short, they probably... think you're superhuman."
"Huh?" Wu Shi nearly choked on his own saliva. "That's clearly Qinggong! Do you understand Qinggong? Have you read martial arts novels? If you were more powerful and created a shocking bug, allowing me to directly inherit the Wuhua World's magical power to move mountains and fill seas, do you believe I could go out and perform a soaring ascension on the spot and walk sideways in this world?"
System: "...Host, you've already walked sideways." There was a sense of helplessness in the voice, "Don't you have any idea?"
"What about the heroine's baby? Is there any new progress?" Wu Shi decided to change the topic to a lighter one.
"The heroine Shen Yuqing's current affection for Xiao Qingqiu: 0%."
"Core story progress: No progress."
"Friendly reminder: You are currently slacking off on payroll, be careful and be fined."
"Not bad, not bad," Wu Shi nodded with satisfaction, very happy with the result. "Keep it up!"
She just turned off the TV, trying to block out the noise pollution from the outside world. Just as the TV screen went completely dark, the world seemed to be plunging into a brief moment of silence.
"Ding dong! Ding dong ding dong ding dong!"
The doorbell rang without warning, as urgent as a death warrant! It penetrated the window covered with newspaper, drowned out the sporadic shouts of "heroes" outside, and pierced Wu Shi's eardrums.
Wu Shi jumped in fear, her heart nearly leaping out of her throat. "Damn! Not only are those people outside livestreaming and filming, but they actually dared to ring the doorbell? Are they trying to meet up in person?" She cursed inwardly, tiptoed to the door, and thrust her eyes into the peephole like a thief.
Upon seeing this, all the hairs on her body stood at attention.
The people standing outside the door were not fanatical fans holding up their phones to broadcast live, nor were they reporters carrying cameras looking for news, nor were they thugs holding baseball bats and looking murderous.
It was her biological parents, Ms. Xu Jiamian and Mr. Wu Xiang, who were wearing colorful beachwear with coconut trees printed on them, had a shiny tan, and had just returned from Sanya in an emergency by airdrop!
Ms. Xu was patting the door anxiously, and her voice came through the crack with urgent concern: "Shishi! Open the door, Shishi! It's mom! Open the door quickly! No matter how big the problem is, we must handle it together as a family, don't hide at home!" Dad Wu echoed from the side, holding a huge plastic bag with "Hainan Specialties" printed on it in his hand. The bag was bulging with what looked like mangoes and coconuts, and he looked like a standard posture of "parents bringing gifts to save their superman daughter."
Wu Shi froze behind the door, feeling a chill run from the soles of his feet straight up to his head. What could be more terrifying than being surrounded by rioters and being "worshipped" by fans?
It was the parents who came to the house wearing flowery shorts, carrying tropical fruits, and firmly believing that their daughter had encountered a "huge problem!"
It's over.
This is much more exciting than being "besieged on all sides".
This is simply the "judgment of family affection" that has landed right at your doorstep!
How should she explain it? That your daughter wasn't unemployed or heartbroken, but simply accidentally became a "city Spider-Man" and, incidentally, ruined the demolition plans of two powerful families, and is now being treated like a superhero?
Wu Shi's vision darkened, and he felt as if his life, "walking sideways," was about to face an epic crash in front of his mother's mangoes and his father's coconuts. Meanwhile, in the living room, Xiao Qingqiu seemed finally drawn in by the unusual movement. He tilted his head slightly, looking toward the entrance, and a slight, almost insignificant, smile curled up at the corner of his mouth. Was it a slight, almost insignificant, smile of excitement?
Wu Shi opened the door and beckoned her parents in, terrified that the onlookers outside would see her face. "Oh, my dear girl, you scared me to death!" Xu Jiamian hugged the still-dazed Wu Shi, examining her from head to toe, pinching her arms and legs. "Are you okay? Were you being cyberbullied? Or are you in debt to a loan shark? Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. Your parents are here!" She still carried the salty smell of the sea breeze and the coconut fragrance of sunscreen.
Wu Xiang threw the huge bag of "Hainan Specialties" onto the entrance cabinet, making a dull sound.
Wu Shi finally managed to free himself from his mother's "iron arms," feeling both amused and helpless. "Mom! Dad! I'm fine! I'm really fine! I haven't been cyberbullied and I'm not in debt! Who told you this nonsense?"
"You're still saying everything's fine?" Xu Jiamian pointed at the tightly papered window. "What's going on? What's going on with those people outside? And on the news..." She lowered her voice, as if sharing a shocking secret, "That girl flying in the sky like Spider-Man, is that you?"
Wu Shi's heart skipped a beat, and his eyes flickered for a moment: "Ah? What...what Spider-Man? Mom, you must have seen it wrong, I don't have that ability..."
"Shishi," Wu Xiang, who had been silent the entire time, suddenly spoke. His voice was low and carried an unprecedented solemnity. He took a step forward, his broad frame imbued with an invisible sense of oppression, his gaze fixed on his daughter. "Look into Daddy's eyes and speak."
Xu Jiamian sighed and took her husband's arm, as if she had made some kind of resolution. She pulled Wu Shi to sit on the sofa, and Wu Xiang also sat across from her. The huge bag of local specialties rested at his feet, forming an absurd contrast.
"Shishi," Xu Jiamian said, holding her daughter's slightly cold hand. Her voice was soft, but every word was clear. "There are some things your parents haven't told you because they didn't think it was necessary and wanted you to live a normal life. But now it seems... we can't hide it anymore."
Wu Shi's heartbeat began to erratically race, and a sense of foreboding gripped her. She looked at her mother, then at her father, her throat tightening. "Wha...what's going on? Don't scare me."
Xu Jiamian took a deep breath, as if uncovering a scar that had been buried for many years: "I, Xu Jiamian, am your grandfather Xu Zhenbang's...illegitimate daughter."
"..." Wu Shi's mouth instantly formed an O, her eyes widening as her mind went blank. The Xu family? The Xu family whose demolition project she had ruined? Her mother, always smiling, who loved knitting and square dancing... was the Xu family's old man's illegitimate daughter? This was even more outrageous than if she were Spider-Man!
However, this is just the beginning.
Wu Xiang then spoke, his voice low and calm, but it was like a bombshell exploding in Wu Shi's ears: "And I, Wu Xiang, am the illegitimate son of Xia Chengye, the old master of the Xia family."
"Puff - cough cough cough!" Wu Shi was choked by her own saliva and started coughing violently. Her face flushed red and she pointed at her father with trembling fingers, "Xia... Xia family? That... that Xia family? Dad, you... didn't you say that three generations of our ancestors were honest businessmen? They started out by selling... selling tea eggs?" She felt that her worldview was falling apart like shattered glass.
Wu Shi sank completely into the sofa with a plop, like a puddle of boneless mud. Her entire body appeared dazed, as if her soul had left her body. Her eyes were fixed on the ordinary ceiling lamp, as if she could see the ultimate mystery of the universe from the plastic lampshade.
"The union of an illegitimate son and daughter, system, they are kidding me. It's not in the script!" She frantically poked the system in her mind, each word trembling with disbelief.
The system's stony electronic voice seemed to carry a subtle hint of helplessness. "Host, the system database has indeed never mentioned your parents' identities or background information. This is due to force majeure, a hidden setting within the world's automatic completion logic." It paused, then added, "Similar to... an Easter egg?"
"Easter egg?!" Wu Shi almost screamed in her head, "I worked so hard to build my career, and in the end, it hurt my own relatives? I thought I was doing justice for the heavens, but it turned out that the flood washed away the Dragon King Temple and family members fought against each other?" She felt a sense of depression in her chest, neither rising nor falling, and she felt suffocated. "I finally know why no one has come to bother me! What Xu family and Xia family, they are just relatives? If I had known that the backers were so strong, would I have practiced light skills and ruined the demolition project, and made such a big trouble myself?!" She recalled the tragic feeling of "doing justice for the heavens" when she jumped up and down in the demolition area. Now she felt her face burning with shame and anger. Eradicate evil forces? Fight against school bullying? What a noble and naive goal! And the result? She herself is just a small branch derived from the huge root system of this "evil force"! "Ridiculous! It's ridiculous!"
She groaned in pain, raised a hand, and placed it feebly on her forehead, her fingers trembling slightly, as if she were genuinely trying to pick up the fragments of her world that had been shattered by her parents' two "identity bombs," piece by piece from the floor, and then piece them back together. Unfortunately, the edges of the fragments she picked up were sharp, pricking her head and causing her pain.
The living room fell into an eerie silence. Only the faint cries of "Hero, come out and talk!" from outside the window reminded them of the magic of reality.
At that moment, Ms. Xu Jiamian broke the silence. She rubbed her hands together, her face a mixture of excitement, anticipation, and a subtle uneasiness. She looked at her daughter, slumped on the sofa, and said, "Shishi, look, since it's come to this... tomorrow, Mom and Dad will take you to meet your grandpa, right?" She was referring to Xu Zhenbang.
Wu Shi suddenly jumped up from the sofa as if she had been electrocuted! The movement was so large that it almost knocked the pillow next to her off the ground. Her eyes widened, her pupils filled with fear and resistance, as if her parents had just said "go jump into the crater" instead of "see grandpa."
"Grandpa?!" Her voice suddenly rose, cracking. "Which grandpa?! The one from the Xu family... or the one from the Xia family?!" Her fingers subconsciously clutched the sofa cover, her knuckles turning white from the strain. A chill shot up her spine, causing her to shiver.
"Of course it's your grandfather from the Xu family," Xu Jiamian gave her a reproachful look, "As for the Xia family... the situation is more complicated, let's talk about it later." There was a hint of alienation towards the Xia family in her tone.
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