During the heated discussion on Weibo, the subject of that discussion was currently in the kitchen.
Jiang Shuxuan sat in the living room, her phone in his hand as he unlocked it using her password with practised ease. The interface of WeChat appeared instantly, a dialog box displayed on it.
Er Qiao: Thanks.
Li Yu: No problem, looking forward to shooting again with you ?
At the end of this conversation, Jiang Shuxuan narrowed his eyes. He went through the chat logs, and finally ended up in Gu Xiqiao’s Weibo, which displayed the massive amount of fans and followers that she had.
“Oh oh oh, I’m f*cking shallow, that’s why I ship this cp Li and Gu! You guys can’t stop me!”
Jiang Shuxuan didn’t know what “cp[1]” meant, but from the below comments he could guess vaguely at the meaning of it. He pondered for a moment, then he picked up his own phone to register a Weibo account, then he went back to Gu Xiqiao’s phone and made them mutuals.
Jiang Shuxuan, who had always found any type of chat app bothersome and had never downloaded any of it before downloaded two apps that night, WeChat and Weibo.
After verifying his phone number, Jiang Shuxuan wasn’t aware that at that moment of verification, the app had sent out friend requests for him, to all the people in his contact list that had a WeChat account tied to their numbers in their own phone.
So, these good friends of his discovered a terrifying matter that night.
Master Jiang installed WeChat?!
Master Jiang actually installed WeChat!
Master Jiang not only installed WeChat, he even personally sent out friend requests!
The group of people accepted the friend request with trembling fingers, and replied with: “Is this… Master Jiang?”
Tang Qingqiu had also received the request, WeChat had already become popular at the beginning of the year, and he had been recommending it to Jiang Shuxuan for quite a while, but that noble and majestic person had coldly ignored him. Now what was going on here, he looked up to the sky and squinted his eyes, fully convinced that the sun wasn’t going to set in the east today.
Well then, what had inspired this change in the usually unmoveable Master Jiang?
Tang Qingqiu: Is this the actual person?
Jiang Shuxuan glanced at the sentence, and then slowly replied: How can I delete and block all of you?
Tang Qingqiu: …ha, haha!
Seeing that Tang Qingqiu was playing dead and not going to tell him how, Jiang Shuxuan didn’t bother to ask further. Since he had already added them, so be it then.
That night, countless high ranking officials from the Imperial Capital and in the ancient martial arts world all posted a similar screenshot: A memorable moment [JPEG]—additional context, Jiang Shuxuan requesting to add you as a friend.
Many people who didn’t understand the significance: Why, what’s happening, who was this Jiang Shuxuan? Is he some special person or something? Why are you all posting the same screenshots?
***
Gu Xiqiao who was in the kitchen was unaware of the fact that Jiang Shuxuan had already made them mutually follow each other.
Jiang Shuxuan couldn’t compare to her in terms of cooking. It would take him two hours to make a meal, while she just needed half an hour, one meat, two vegetables, one soup and some steamed rice.
“The matter about Sun Jiajia has some progress again, I’ll be going over tonight to take a look. Will you be going?” Jiang Shuxuan said suddenly as they were eating.
‘Can you not bring up such disgusting matters when we are eating?’
Gu Xiqiao raised her head to look at Jiang Shuxuan. “How will you explain this to the school?”
Sun Jiajia had vanished with no trail, and it was about time to placate the school, otherwise there would be an official investigation into the matter. If her parents came looking around it would also be difficult, and if the media got involved, who knew what kind of scandal would arise from it.
“Yi Bing has dealt with it,” Jiang Shuxuan replied. As to how it had been dealt with, he had no idea. He had already handed the entire matter over to the Special Defense Force, so those people would know how to handle themselves anyway.
“Yi Bing[2]?” The name sounded weird in Gu Xiqiao’s thoughts.
“Someone from the National Special Defense Force,” Jiang Shuxuan said without much thought. “Their organization specializes in safeguarding the peace of China. Anything that concerns the ancient martial arts world and other secular matters are under their jurisdiction.”
In certain perceptions, this agency had supreme authority, and the decisions they made couldn’t be interfered with even by the country’s leaders.
They had to be extremely cautious when recruiting people into this agency due to that. The previous leader of the Special Forces was someone who had his eyes set on Jiang Shuxuan at one glance, not only because he was strong and able to hold his own, but also because he had a righteous face and able to endure hardship, which was a far cry from those second gens who have been spoiled since young.
And that was how Jiang Shuxuan had been roped into the Special Defense Force.
Gu Xiqiao didn’t say anything yet, and Xixi kept flying around in circles at the side: Has Xixi heard something that Xixi is not supposed to? Will Xixi need to be silenced?
Smack!
Jiang Shuxuan flexed his fingers, his handsome face still stunning and calm, and his voice was slightly cool as he spoke, “Don’t fly around everywhere during a meal, your stray feathers will fall into the food.”
Xixi, pretending to be dead: I am the great, immortal, divine beast, The Vermillion Bird! Have you ever seen one that sheds its feathers! You’re obviously just finding a chance to get rid of me!
With Sun Jiajia involved, Gu Xiqiao felt that she should intervene in this matter, so she followed Jiang Shuxuan back to the national base after they finished their meal.
However, when she reached the door of a shop, her entire person felt that something was off.
“This… is the national base?” She heard her voice become slightly erratic. To be honest, she was slightly disappointed.
Jiang Shuxuan however, was calm and nodded his head. “It’s here, go on ahead.” Just as his voice came out, the old door let out a long creaking sound before opening on its own.
Gu Xiqiao was a person who had seen many unbelievable things before, so she recovered fairly quickly. It was the base of the National Special Defense Forces after all, hiding it in the city, it was actually quite ingenious to hide it in an old teahouse.
There were many people in the teahouse, and most of them were playing mahjong. There were people of all ages here, Gu Xiqiao even saw a five-year-old boy who was watching the game!
She couldn’t help but take another glance at him, staring blankly and looking at the adorable child.
A few old men were sitting near the child, teasing him, “Xiao Liu, you should start training from this age on, grow some muscles on those little bones, and you’ll have thousands of girls falling at your feet in the future.”
The boy named Xiao Liu seemed to think about it for a while, before looking up at them with an innocent face as he replied, “But I don’t want to grow chicken feathers, can I not grow them?”
“…” It was the old man’s loss.
Gu Xiqiao gave a low laugh at that, and followed Jiang Shuxuan upstairs. The space around them distorted a little, and those old men who were playing mahjong couldn’t see them anymore.
Xiao Liu looked towards the stairs, and scratched his head. “I must have seen wrongly, these eyes are getting blind.”
There wasn’t much difference between the downstairs and upstairs, and Jiang Shuxuan led her to the innermost room of the place.
Pushing open the door, they were greeted with a retro and luxurious type of decoration inside. In the centre of the room, there was an intricate drawing of a circle with a five-pointed star on it, and above it was another complex pattern that seemed quite ancient.
“Stand here.” Jiang Shuxuan said, guiding her to stand at one corner of the star, and two stood at different corners.
Gu Xiqiao didn’t know what exactly happened next, she only knew there was a flash of white light, and they were moved to an entirely different place.
She spread out her senses, but she couldn’t feel the outside atmosphere at all. “System, what is this place?”
The system spirit was also flabbergasted in the void space. [Beauty Qiao, this is completely beyond my cognition. The information in the database is incomplete, and I can’t find anything on it. Maybe I’ll only have access to it once I get upgraded.]
“This is a cyberspace, a space left behind by the ancient powers.” The star pattern underneath their feet was still visible, exactly the same as the one she had seen back in the teahouse. Jiang Shuxuan continued to explain, “The Forum has records that these cyberspaces are a world on its own. The stronger your mental power is, the larger the space. This is the space left behind by a powerful person for the Special Defense Forces, and it’s the one and only cyberspace in China.”
Gu Xiqiao was slightly appalled, the space was not actually that big. There was ground under her feet, and white clouds above her head. The only thing missing was the sun, and the huge glowing pearl in the sky seemed to be acting as it.
Jiang Shuxuan led her to the oval building in front of them.
“The space isn’t that big, just about five miles in radius, and there aren’t any special functions. For those with abilities that reach the sky, they can control the flow of time and space, transforming anything within their space, and it’s an endless sky for them.” Jiang Shuxuan knew that Gu Xiqiao didn’t understand these things, so he was explaining it slowly to her. “But those are just legends, if there existed the power to control time and space, they would surely receive heaven’s punishment.”
The existence of this cyberspace was already impossible, and if you add on the power to control time and space, it would be intolerable to the heavens.
At the end of his explanation, Gu Xiqiao paused in her steps suddenly. Wasn’t that the description of her virtual space?!
“What’s wrong? Why have you stopped walking?” Jiang Shuxuan said, glancing back at her.
Taking a deep breath, thinking that she would study it later, Gu Xiqiao shook her head. “It’s nothing.”
The two of them walked into the oval building.
“Boss, you’re here… ah.” A young man whose face lit up with joy when he saw Jiang Shuxuan startled when he saw a young girl standing beside him, who was this?
Jiang Shuxuan merely glanced at him. “Take us to Sun Jiajia.”
The young man still had a confused look on his face, but he turned to lead the two of them inside.
Sun Jiajia was locked in an iron covered room. She was still alive, but was already a little mad in the head. Suffering from a massive impact all of a sudden, and then being isolated immediately from the outside world, it was no wonder if she didn’t go a little bit insane from that.
Most of the people who saw her terrifying appearance and smell the stench on her body wouldn’t hesitate to retreat as soon as they could.
Gu Xiqiao stood in front of Sun Jiajia, her hands in her pocket with an indifferent expression on her face.
“Eh, Er Bing, who is that?” A group of people who had received word had gathered around, and one of them couldn’t help but ask that question to the young man that had led the two here.
Yi Bing shook his head. “I don’t know, Boss brought her in.”
“Yi Bing, the latest update,” Jiang Shuxuan glanced at Yi Bing, asking suddenly.
Feeling the chill in the air, Yi Bing restrained himself from shivering and internally waged war for a while, staring at Gu Xiqiao before looking back at Jiang Shuxuan. “Boss, we’ve found out who was the mastermind behind this. It’s someone from England who has been possessed by evil spirits. They like to collect faces of young girls, and put it onto their own faces. Until now, they have collected about nine faces in total.”
Jiang Shuxuan was silent for a while. “Can she still be saved?”
Yi Bing didn’t know why Jiang Shuxuan was asking this question. “I’ve already contacted the divine doctor, Doctor Rong. He was adamantly clear on the fact that there is no way she can be saved.”
“I’m not asking you.” Jiang Shuxuan said, sparing Yi Bing a glance.
‘If you’re not asking me then who else are you asking?’ thought Yi Bing, whose face was full of confusion and bewilderment.
And then a clear, melodious voice rang out. “It’s possible.”
The girl standing in front of Sun Jiajia turned, revealing a stunningly delicate face with elegant features. Yi Bing couldn’t think of any words to accurately describe her, so he could only say that she was beautiful. She was indeed stunning, but that beauty did nothing to hide her youth.
“But, the divine doctor, Doctor Rong said…” Yi Bing started to say, looking at the indifferent expression on the girl’s face in front of him. Even though he couldn’t bear to continue what he was saying, he didn’t want her to not be able to do what she said after this. Even the doctor that was known to be extraordinary and divine, the Doctor Rong, who could bring someone back from the dead said that there wasn’t any way to save that girl, what could this girl do to save her from that fate?
Gu Xiqiao raised her head, glancing at him for a moment. Without saying anything, she lifted her hand slightly, a thin layer of mist floated on her palm. And then, a huge wave of natural energy gradually spread throughout the place, with her at the center.
Yi Bing and the others could only watch as the black mangled flesh on the girl’s face that Doctor Rong had said there was no hope for, slowly started to grow new flesh over it.
[Beauty Qiao, in actuality, you could have saved Sun Jiajia from the beginning, right?] The system spirit guessed as it watched.
‘Little system, you’ve really read my mind.’ Gu Xiqiao replied.
The corner of the system spirit’s mouth twitched, so the reason for not saving Sun Jiajia earlier was because she was being petty? Die, give back to them their upright and adorable Beauty Qiao that used to be oh so righteous!
Gu Xiqiao remained indifferent. ‘Now she will know that not everything is things she should be concerned about!’
[Then why are you saving her at all?] The lines of Beauty Qiao’s thoughts were something that it couldn’t keep up with anymore.
‘The people of China can only be bullied by one of our own, I won’t stand for other countries bullying us.’ Gu Xiqiao retracted her hand, looking at Sun Jiajia who had reverted to her normal appearance. She let out a heavy sigh. Ah, it wasn’t easy for someone to have entered A University from a small urban town after all.
Yi Bing was in a trance from the beginning of the process, and even after Jiang Shuxuan and Gu Xiqiao left, he was still unaware of his surroundings. He looked towards the person in the iron room after he finally came back to himself. Just now, that person was a dark, faceless monster. And now, just a few minutes later, she grew back a new face?!
“Yi Bing, Doctor Rong is looking for you.” Yi Tiao walked in from outside, handing a piece of paper to Yi Bing. “He said he already has a plan to transfer this person to South Asia to try out something.”
“Yi Tiao, look at her.” Yi Bing said faintly, glancing at him.
Yi Tiao didn’t understand what he was talking about, but he turned his head to look at what Yi Bing was pointing out to him, and he startled badly. “That… this… she?!”
Yi Bing took a deep breath to calm himself, it had been an hour, it was more than enough time to have recovered himself. He used the five-star teleportation array to leave the cyberspace and into the teahouse, when his phone rang. He took it out to find that it was Doctor Rong.
“She’s been cured?!” On a beach in South Asia, Rong Feishuang, who was enjoying his sunbathing, suddenly jumped up from where he sat. “Will you guys stop treating me like a jackass? Two days ago you were begging for my help, and today she’s been cured?!”
“I’m not lying, Doctor Rong. It’s a girl, Sigh, I don’t even know who she is. Our boss is the one who brought her over.” Yi Bing replied honestly.
Rong Feishuang couldn’t help himself. “You wait, I’m heading back right now!”
Yi Bing, who had been hung up on: “…”
***
After returning home, Gu Xiqiao had planned to play for a while, but then she received a call from Luo Wenlang.
“There’s some movement from the Bai family, they’ve contacted a few other companies, and I’ve been observing for a long time,” Luo Wenlang paused for a while, before continuing, “Are they planning to overthrow Nine Heavens?”
“I’ll come into Nine Heavens tomorrow.” Gu Xiqiao placed down her virtual helmet as she said that. When they had initially started their discussion, Gu Xiqaio had already hacked into the surveillance cameras, so she knew exactly what was happening. “They had the plan to, initially. Let them make the trouble they want, we’ll let them know what it means to “draw water with a wicker basket” when the time comes.”
Completely and utterly futile.
Luo Wenlang hung up the phone, and was silent for a while before letting out a sigh. Well, she knew all about it then.
In the past few days, he had been paying close attention to the movements of the Bai family. They seemed to have hired an extremely senior financial and liquidation analyst from abroad, and had been desperately raising funds, selling tens of billions of shares at a low price to start a turmoil in the stock market. People may not be able to see what the Bai family was up to, but he knew that they wanted to take advantage of the turmoil in the stock market to get something from nothing, and swallow up Nine Heavens!
Luo Wenlang already had measures in place when he knew about it. Gu Xiqiao hadn’t been in the company for a few days, and from what he had heard from Yao Jiamu, she had found something new to play with. He called to inquire about it, and as expected…
She already knew everything.
Luo Wenlang glanced up at the sky. In this way, Boss Gu really stressed him out.
***
At the same time, in the Imperial Capital hospital, Bai Ting was looking at his daughter who was laying on the bed. She was dumb now, not even knowing how to laugh or talk. She was so different from the Bai daughter that he had treasured in his hands. “Xinran, don’t worry, once Dad has taken care of Nine Heavens, I will make sure that roommate of yours will pay the price for making you like this. After all that is done, I’ll bring you abroad to find a doctor who can cure you.”
Bai Xinran’s eyes widened in horror when she heard the words from Bai Ting’s mouth, and she tried her hardest to say something, but all that came out from her mouth were a string of garbled words, not a single clear word could be uttered.
Seeing his daughter’s miserable state, Bai Ting’s eyes flashed with hostility. “Don’t worry, Dad will come pick you up soon.”
Tears fell from Bai Xinran’s eyes, and she started to struggle even harder. Bai Ting’s figure soon disappeared from her sight, and she could only scream herself raw futilely inside her mind. ‘No! Don’t mess with her! No! Don’t!’
[1] CP means couple
[2] T/N: In Chinese, 一饼 means ‘one biscuit’ or ‘biscuit one’.