Chapter 15: The Protagonist Group Plays House
[Item [Aura Concealment] Countdown 06:12]
Li Li had no idea what the unconscious black-robed people were thinking.
She retracted the smile she had inadvertently shown, resuming her expressionless demeanor.
Yiming drew attention, while Li Li seized the opportunity to take down the Hu Zu ability user from behind—a perfectly executed coordination.
“Well done,” she praised. Yiming, receiving the compliment, chuckled.
He seemed encouraged, his steps even a bit lively as he walked over.
By now, they had reached the place where Tang was being held.
Qing Tong’s commercial housing was divided into pre-purchased and unpurchased units, similar to the place where Yiming had been confined, all with bronze doors.
Yiming placed his hand on the door, skillfully dismantling it entirely.
The light from inside gradually widened through the gap, illuminating their faces.
Li Li saw Tang, the little girl she had met briefly a few days ago.
She had black hair, smooth and falling to her waist.
Tang wore a loose-fitting T-shirt, with a black choker around her neck.
She sat on the only chair in the room, head lowered. Under the light, the shadow at her feet seemed to form the smallest circle.
Those emerald-green eyes seemed to be staring at her toes, or perhaps lost in a daze, utterly vacant.
This state was somewhat different from what Li Li had seen in the manga.
Before she arrived in this manga world, the manga had depicted Yiming and Tang’s interaction during their first escape attempt.
At that time, Yiming only said he was sent by her father to take her away.
Tang seemed reserved but immediately brightened upon hearing this, cooperating fully as Yiming led her away.
“Tang! I’m here to get you!” While Li Li was observing the room, Yiming had already jogged inside.
However, the girl didn’t look up.
A faint voice came from Tang’s mouth, her gaze still fixed on something unknown: “No need.”
The eager brown-haired youth froze.
“There’s no need anymore,” she repeated.
It seemed Yiming’s failure to fulfill his promise last time had caused Tang to lose faith in him.
As expected. Li Li had a feeling it wouldn’t be so smooth.
She leaned against the doorframe for now, arms crossed, and teased venomously: “Little Corgi, you’ve been rejected.”
Yiming’s head drooped, looking utterly pitiful.
“Last time was my fault,” Yiming said, unable to make excuses and unwilling to try, only mumbling, “But now Qing Yu Chen isn’t here, we can escape.”
Tang only said: “Liar.”
From start to finish, she hadn’t glanced at Yiming once.
Li Li, observing the two from behind, was thinking.
The Jiao Huang arc began with Yiming’s friend Yu Xiao receiving a letter, Yiming reading it, and now their arrival here to meet Tang—all centered around the goal of “rescuing Tang.”
It could be said that failing to bring Tang out of Qing Tong would mean this arc was a failure.
If this world were entirely viewed as a manga, then Tang’s change in attitude must have traceable reasons.
Moreover, this would definitely be drawn in the manga, so Li Li needed to do something.
Li Li mentally reviewed the manga’s contents again, organizing clues and thinking.
The letter from Tang’s father was something Yu Xiao claimed to have found in a pile of old items at the post office.
The recipient was listed as “Tide,” and for some reason, it was never sent.
The manga didn’t describe the letter’s specific contents, but the artist provided Yiming’s inner thoughts while reading it.
The letter was originally meant to reach an organization.
Tang’s father mentioned his name in it, assuming the recipient would know who he was.
About a third of the letter was Tang’s father’s apologies for betraying this organization.
Another third detailed his contributions, and the final third was about his daughter. In an almost humble tone, he pleaded with the organization to send someone to rescue his daughter from Qing Tong’s hands.
He vaguely mentioned at the end that he would pass his ability to his daughter.
The acquisition of abilities included bloodline inheritance.
Direct relatives or those within three generations could pass down abilities, even with no loss of the original rank, completely different from plundering.
In other words, if a parent was C-rank, and they passed their ability to their child, the child would also be C-rank.
This was why powerful noble families with abilities remained unshaken—noble heirs almost always gained A-rank or higher abilities upon taking power.
But this inheritance wasn’t without cost.
Plundering came with a heavy price, while bloodline inheritance required the original ability holder to voluntarily sacrifice a part of themselves.
For example, gathering the ability spread throughout their body into one eyeball, then using the close bloodline connection to transfer it to a relative.
But afterward, that eyeball would wither and become useless.
Both same-type plundering and bloodline inheritance involved a ritual-like process.
Li Li had also pondered whether natural awakening required something similar, but with too few clues, she couldn’t deduce anything.
However, in the letter, Tang’s father had already assumed his own death, so whatever he sacrificed didn’t affect the outcome.
While Li Li was lost in thought, less than a minute had passed in the outside world, and Yiming was still trying to convince Tang to change her mind.
“I promised your dad I’d get you out,” Yiming said, racking his brain, his eyes flickering as he spoke.
After all, he had never met Tang’s father, let alone made any promises.
He hadn’t told Tang that her father was already dead.
Yiming rarely lied, but it wasn’t something he’d never done.
As a low-rank ability user from the bottom rung, before meeting his foster father, he wasn’t exactly a good kid.
Many of his current behaviors stemmed from his foster father’s teachings about what he should or shouldn’t do, though he genuinely believed they were right.
Including hiding the truth about Tang’s father’s death.
When he met Tang, and she asked where her father was, he decided to keep that information from her.
“You and Dad are both liars,” Tang suddenly said.
The seven- or eight-year-old girl abruptly looked up, her emerald-green pupils seeming to be covered with a thin layer of mist.
“He said he’d take me to the floating city after work was done, take me to see the candy house there, and we pinky-swore,” she said softly. “Then he left me in this place and never showed up again.”
She looked at Yiming: “You said you’d take me out, and we pinky-swore. Then I ended up back here.”
“Liar,” Tang said finally.
“I…” Yiming didn’t know how to respond. Because of the truth he was hiding, he couldn’t even bring himself to say, “I didn’t lie to you.”
The scratch on his cheek from the C-rank ability user earlier left a streak of blood, and now Little Corgi looked utterly pitiful, like he’d been caught in a downpour.
It was as if his tail had quietly drooped, no longer wagging.
In this sudden silence, the black-haired youth who had been watching from the sidelines moved.
Li suddenly lowered his hands.
His face remained expressionless, but he approached the two who were at a standstill.
“He didn’t lie to you,” Li said, standing in front of Tang, speaking coldly. “He’s just dead, that’s all.”
“Li?” Yiming’s eyes widened.
Before he could say anything, the black-haired youth continued: “As the recipient of an ability inheritance, you should have some memory of the inheritance ritual.”
Yiming tugged at Li’s sleeve, seemingly trying to stop him from continuing.
Li merely glanced at him emotionlessly: “If we drag this out any longer, none of us will get out.”
“But…” Yiming thought for a moment, unable to come up with anything, and finally said weakly, “This isn’t right, bro.”
Li ignored him.
At that moment, Tang looked up, meeting Li’s gaze.
She said: “Ritual? Dead?”
It was as if something had broken through the surface of her mind.
Tang could never forget that day.
Her father said his work was finally done and came to take her away from that cramped rental apartment.
He said so many things, asking her where she wanted to go, saying anywhere was fine.
Tang, who often hid at home alone, didn’t know much about the outside world, so she said she wanted to go to the floating city.
A kid from the neighbor’s family had relatives there and brought back lots of candy.
That was the only new thing she’d ever encountered, so she said she wanted it.
Her father showed a strange expression, saying he’d definitely take her there, and they pinky-swore.
The moment their pinkies touched, she suddenly felt her head grow hot.
But her father, for some reason, shed tears, looking like he was in great pain, his face contorted.
He cried while saying, Tang, I’ll make sure you get to the floating city.
Tang was scared. She said she didn’t have to go, that she didn’t want her father to be like this.
But her father insisted, forcing a strained smile and saying: It’s a promise.
After that, she was brought to this place, and her father never appeared again.
And in this cage-like place, she continued living a life different from before.
There was no one here she knew, but she had nowhere else to go.
Wasn’t that a lie? Didn’t he say it was a promise?
“But he abandoned me!” Her emerald-green eyes seemed to clear of their mist, shimmering with tears as she looked stubbornly at Li. “He lied to me!”
She didn’t care where she went, which city, or what she did. She just wanted to live with her father, nothing more.
But she was left behind.
Left in this terrifying, cage-like place.
“Dying before fulfilling a promise isn’t lying,” Li said.
The black-haired youth met her gaze directly, unflinching: “He just didn’t have time.”
Tears welled in Tang’s eyes, her voice trembling: “Really?”
“Really,” Li said.
Yiming, caught in the middle, sensed something off about Li’s attitude. Compared to the warmth he showed Yiming, Li was noticeably colder toward Tang.
But he trusted Li.
The secret had already been spilled, so Yiming could only grit his teeth and hurriedly say everything he could, including that he had received a distress letter, and that Tang’s father hadn’t abandoned her but was simply unable to act.
“So I really will take you out, I’m not lying about that...” Yiming racked his brains to reassure her.
“To Floating City?” Tang suddenly asked.
She sniffled, glaring as if refusing to admit defeat to anyone.
Yiming was stunned for a moment: “Floating City? If you want to go, we can go.”
Then he saw the little girl, who had just been ignoring him, jump off the chair.
Her nose was red, and she looked up, saying, “I’ll go with you.”
She wanted to go to Floating City. She had to go.
Even if the father who used to cry messily was no longer by her side, even if he broke his promise forever.
She would go, just as they had agreed back then.
Yiming blinked, then said excitedly, “Great! Let’s hurry and go now!”
Convincing Tang had taken about four minutes in total, and now they needed to seize the moment to escape.
Yiming bent down, intending to pick Tang up as he had before, since it would be faster to run that way.
At that moment, the black-haired youth suddenly paused.
Li took a piece of candy from his trench coat pocket and placed it in Tang’s palm.
It was a candy wrapped in shimmering, multicolored paper, as beautiful as a rainbow.
After doing this, the black-haired youth acted as if nothing had happened, brushed past Yiming, and walked out.
The little girl looked at the candy in her palm, glowing under the light as if it were radiant.
Her emerald-green eyes seemed to sparkle with the candy’s wrapper.
She no longer remembered what the candy from the kid next door had been like. She had long forgotten.
“I told you Li isn’t a bad person...” Yiming said, extending a hand to Tang. “Tang, let’s go.”
The little girl carefully clutched the candy tightly and ran out.
Then she gently tugged at the hem of the youth’s trench coat.
She thought, a rainbow-like candy must be the best candy.
Yiming froze in place for a moment before chasing after them: “Wait for me!”
“Why do I feel so unnecessary?” he muttered.
...
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