Chapter 470: Chapter 284: Death, Out of Control, Promise
The fingers casually tapped on the table, making a snapping sound, while Ji Minghuan was lost in thought, waiting for his mentor to speak.
The silvery confinement room was eerily silent, like a deserted solitary lake.
"Kong Youling, a few days ago when we were helping her develop her abilities..." The mentor paused, "She accidentally killed a few experimenters." The sudden words were like a rainstorm, creating ripples upon ripples on the lake surface.
Ji Minghuan was startled, then slowly lifted his head and stared at the mentor without moving.
"Does she know herself?" he asked softly.
"She fainted at the time, so she likely doesn’t know what she did, and I’m trying to keep it from her as much as possible."
"You don’t need to hide it from her; just don’t do it from the start."
The mentor shook his head, "Our people merely got close to her and liberated her superpower, and instantly all fell into a state of brain death, though their bodies maintained basic life signs."
"Why did it happen?"
"Because her ability is evolving," the mentor said softly, "And there’s another reason. By using the collar to suppress her superpower over these days, we actually prevented her spiritual power from naturally leaking out, so once it was suddenly released, this overwhelming spiritual power became unstoppable and gushed outward."
"Oh, isn’t that your fault then?"
"You want her to be an ordinary person, but with her aptitude, it’s impossible to be ordinary; if not for Salvation Society, her potential would be discovered by the state sooner or later," the mentor said, "Only we can offer you a stable life, if we find the key, it can surely be done."
Ji Minghuan remained silent.
He drank the milk in one go, pushed the empty bottle aside, and looked up at his mentor.
"Are you all insane?" he said.
"Honestly, we never expected such a situation to occur," the mentor said, "Previously, through research, I understood the cause of Kong Youling’s deafness, and gradually helped her regain her hearing over these days; so I’m thinking, could it be that her inability to speak is also due to the impact of her spiritual superpower, thus..."
"Stop pretending, what exactly do you want to do?" Ji Minghuan asked, enunciating each word, "You don’t really intend to use her abilities to hypnotize those Lake Hunting people, do you?"
The mentor remained silent, shaking his head.
"Remember to keep it from her." Ji Minghuan said in a low voice, "Don’t let her know she accidentally killed your people, or I’ll wipe all of you out."
"I know."
"Okay, I want to see her."
"She’s on her way," the mentor said, "Just wait."
The words faded, and a brief silence enveloped the two of them.
The confinement room was so quiet that a pin drop could be heard, terrifying in its stillness, Ji Minghuan propped his chin up and lightly tapped the table with his fingers; the mentor took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, lit them with a lighter, inhaled deeply, and then exhaled a puff of blue smoke.
The mentor lowered his head and whispered, "Julius’s death was a great pity."
"Do you have a good relationship with the officer uncle?" Ji Minghuan raised his head to tentatively ask, "He died, is it worth your grief?"
The mentor remained silent but raised his hand to take a puff of cigarette. Smoke enveloped his fingertips.
After a moment, he exhaled a breath of smoke and began to speak:
"Yes, we’ve known each other for quite a while. Julius is among the oldest batch of people in Salvation Society, which was founded centuries ago, and Julius was already one hundred and fifty years old. During the Verdun battle a hundred years ago, he was severely wounded by a passing restrictor 1001. The Salvation Society found Julius on the battlefield and rescued him, so he naturally joined us."
The mentor paused and sighed, "In this hundred years, the people of Salvation Society have changed several times, and Julius is the only one from the older generation still alive."
"Oh, so you must be really angry that the White Crow Travel Brigade killed him?" Ji Minghuan asked curiously.
"No, I’m just blaming myself." The mentor shook his head, "At that time I proposed sending reinforcements, but Julius thought it was unnecessary. If back then I insisted on stationing personnel for support in New Leaf Village prison, Julius wouldn’t have ended up in this situation; at the very least, he could have retreated from the prison."
"That wasn’t his problem?" Ji Minghuan said, "A self-righteous fool."
"He was actually a very good person, though a bit hot-tempered, but very kind to his subordinates. When I first joined Salvation Society, I was assigned to work under Julius."
At this point, the mentor paused, "He appeared stern, but he was really tender-hearted; whenever we went out on missions, Julius would take on all dangerous tasks whenever possible, once he said to me, ’I’m so old, I’ll surely enter the grave before you, if you have time bring two bottles of red wine to visit me later,’ never thought... it really has come true."
He lowered his voice, "A man once called the ’King of War,’ ended up dying at the hands of some bandits, he must have felt aggrieved inside, right? When I first met him, he was so proud, not realizing he had aged and had things beyond his capability."
Near the end, the mentor chuckled softly, raised his hand, and took another drag of the cigarette.
Ji Minghuan shrugged, too lazy to respond, only leaned his back against the chair, extended his right index finger and lightly tapped the table.
He thought, it doesn’t matter, I’ll send you to meet him in a month.
After being silent for a while, he suddenly asked, "By the way, can I see my brother and that Zeus guy now?"
"No, wait a little longer," the mentor said, "Don’t worry, you’ll be able to meet them."
"Actually, I’m just purely curious, I don’t really want to meet them, especially my brother."
"You two will still have to meet." The mentor affirmed.
"Alright, alright, actually I have no interest in listening to your complaints here, about some corporal punishment on children, yet a cold-hearted but kind officer old man, or some Light-Eating Bee, or some travel brigade, all of it has nothing to do with me, these are matters between you adults."
"Sorry for bringing the negative emotions to you."
"Don’t apologize, I want to see Kong Youling." Ji Minghuan looked up at him, "Weren’t you saying she’s on her way? It’s been so long, why haven’t I seen her?"
"She... seems to have said she’s not coming." The mentor glanced at the tablet in his hand.
"Why?" Ji Minghuan furrowed his brows.
"It’s not clear yet, but I’ll take you to find her." With that, the Mentor extinguished his cigarette, casually stuffing the butt into the pocket of his white coat, then got up and left the confinement room.
Ji Minghuan silently followed behind. As usual, the area outside the confinement room was suffused with blinding light.
After a while, the two passed through a maze-like winding corridor, and then the Mentor stopped.
The Mentor watched as Ji Minghuan walked into the confinement room. Ji Minghuan tilted his head, watching the metal door slowly closing. The man’s somber face vanished in the gap, maintaining a sorrowful and weary expression in the last second.
Quite the old fox, acting the full set, Ji Minghuan sneered silently in his mind, then turned back.
He blinked, curiously looking at the silver-white bedroom in front of him.
By comparison, Kong Youling’s room had many more things, like some small penguin plush toys and little fox plush toys on the bed, along with beautiful patterned sheets and a bookshelf.
The bookshelf was filled with many cartoon books. The television was broadcasting "Doraemon," with Nobita and Doraemon being chased by a dinosaur. The noisy commotion sounded from the TV screen, otherwise, the confinement room was silent, like a deep sea.
Looking around, Ji Minghuan finally spotted a figure in the corner of the room. A white-haired girl in a hospital gown was curled in the corner, covered entirely by a quilt.
Scattered on the ground were pages torn from a notebook, covered in chaotic black lines, circles piled upon circles, meaningless strokes.
Her head drooped, hugging her knees without moving, like a broken little robot.
Ji Minghuan walked over, looked at the drawings on the ground, and softly asked, "What’s wrong?"
Only then did Kong Youling lift her gaze from her knees, eyes shrouded in mist under her white bangs.
"I... did something bad." Writing.
"What did you do?"
Kong Youling wanted to write but couldn’t pick up the pen. Suddenly, she clutched her head, frightened, her hair falling across her face.
Ji Minghuan paused for a moment, then sat beside her, leaning against the wall.
"It’s okay, if you don’t want to talk, that’s fine." He thought for a moment, then traced his finger on the ground, keeping it in her line of sight.
After finishing, he turned his head, quietly and attentively looking into her eyes.
After a long time, Kong Youling picked up the pencil and slowly started writing. She erased again and again, her tears silently falling, blurring her crooked writing on the notebook.
She lowered her hands, put down the notebook. Her lips slightly moved, mouthing silently:
"Am I a bad person?"
"Don’t be afraid, they are the ones who are bad, it’s their fault, they had ill intentions, that’s why they’re dead." Ji Minghuan lowered his head, his fringe covering his eyes.
He held her head tighter, "So what if you’re a bad person? Then I’ll be the worse one... It’s okay, don’t hate yourself, anyway...I will sooner or later slaughter them all without leaving anyone behind."
A moment later, until he confirmed the white-haired girl was nestled in his arms, sound asleep, Ji Minghuan moved his gaze away from her face. He slowly lifted his head, his dark and hollow eyes staring at the monitor.
He mouthed something silently, unheard by anyone.
.....
.....
Japan time, August 9th, 7:30 a.m., Xia Pingzhou woke up on the attic roof.
He opened his eyes, glanced at his phone’s time, then slowly sat up, gazing from afar at the gray horizon and dazing at the sunrise along the sea’s edge.
After a moment, he summoned the main task panel to check the situation after the jailbreak mission ended.
[Main Task One (Stage Five): Auto unlock after reaching a certain time point.]
[Main Task Two (Stage Two): Lie in wait within the White Crow Travel Brigade, and find an opportunity to kill member No. 2 - "Jack the Ripper." (Countdown until mission deadline "September 1st" - 21 days remaining)]
[Tip: If unable to complete Main Task Two before the deadline ends, the body will be automatically destroyed.]
Xia Pingzhou glanced at the deadline date, closed the panel, dropped from the roof’s edge into the attic, stepped off the windowsill onto the floor below, then casually picked up a book "Rashomon" from the shelf, raised it high, and let go.
The book landed with a thud on the floor, waking Ayase Origami on the bed, who opened her eyes.
"It scared me." She said.
Xia Pingzhou, while checking phone messages, said, "At this point, you should be awake; sleeping in messes up the biological clock. I’m going to make food; someone will come over later."
Then, he walked into the washroom to quickly freshen up, casually prepared the toothbrush and toothpaste for Ayase Origami, and then stepped down the wooden stairs, creaking downwards, reaching the door, and pulled up the shutter.
Sunlight shone through the glass door, the wind chime rang lightly, he looked up and saw two figures standing outside the glass door waiting.
One was a black-haired, long-straight haired student in uniform, holding a dark red scabbard; the other was a long-haired man in a white shirt, wearing frameless glasses, who smiled at Xia Pingzhou.
Ryukawa Chiba said, "Pleasure to meet you."
Jack the Ripper said, "Open the door."
Xia Pingzhou looked at the two, then silently pushed open the glass door, turned his back and walked into the kitchen, brewing coffee while glancing at the situation outside.
Suddenly, Jack the Ripper, midway, summoned Celestial Driver, gripped the Demon Blade in his right hand, and then, plunged a knife into Ryukawa Chiba’s chest!