‘Baby sis… Wait, no! My baby sis can’t be this young! She also wouldn’t have this kind of… cynical and arrogant look.’
He heard the young woman’s voice ring out. “Nice to meet you, Uncle. I am Gu Nan, Cheng Su’s daughter.”
“Nice to meet you, Uncle. I am Gu Nan, Cheng Su’s daughter.” Those words seemed like they had been set on repeat in Cheng Song’s mind as he stared dumbly at Shi Sheng. ‘She called me Uncle. She’s… my baby sister’s kid???’
Cheng Song found that he couldn’t say anything. Though there were a lot of questions on his mind, they wouldn’t come out of his mouth.
‘With those features… she’s definitely my baby sis’ kid. She looks like my baby sis did when she was a kid.’
“You… really are Xiaosu’s daughter?” Cheng Song finally managed to get a question out after what seemed like ages. His voice was trembling as his gaze fixed itself to her.
Shi Sheng shrugged. “Nothing I can do if you don’t believe me.” ‘I don’t have any keepsakes on me and we can’t exactly go for DNA testing right now, so whether he believes me or not is up to him.’
Cheng Song, “…” ‘Weren’t you the one who came to recognise relatives? How come you have such an indifferent expression?!’
Cheng Song didn’t have any evidence but if she really was his little sister’s kid then he couldn’t just leave it be. And he did believe she was his little sister’s child. Sometimes, blood relations can be a mysterious thing; it can allow two complete strangers to feel familiarity with each other.
“Your name is Gu Nan?” Cheng Song felt like this name was familiar but he couldn’t recall where he had heard it. ‘Xiaosu actually got married and had a kid… Then doesn’t that mean…’
Cheng Song felt extremely excited; his gaze at Shi Sheng had turned more ardent as well.
“En.” Shi Sheng nodded casually. “I believe my famous name and appearance are currently hanging outside of this base.”
Cheng Song immediately recalled where he had heard her name after getting her reminder. ‘Wasn’t that dangerous person B City mentioned named… Gu Nan?’
The safety of the base was governed by the military so although he had some information, he hadn’t gotten time to look at it yet. He had heard this name from his subordinates. Cheng Song couldn’t understand why such a young girl was being classified as a dangerous person.
“I never knew Xiaosu had a kid…” Cheng Song seemed to be muttering to himself. He took a deep breath before looking at Shi Sheng and asking in a trembling voice, “Since you’re Xiaosu’s kid, then you must know where she is, right?”
Shi Sheng frowned slightly. ‘The Cheng Family doesn’t know where Cheng Su went either?’
And, as expected, Cheng Song didn’t know Cheng Su’s whereabouts either. 17 years ago, she had sent them one final letter before all contact broke off. The Cheng Family had been looking for her all these years but hadn’t gotten any leads.
“Can I see the letter?”
Cheng Song hesitated a bit before walking to the other side of the study and opening a secret compartment. He took out a letter and handed it over to Shi Sheng. The letter had been preserved well. One could see how much the Cheng Family cared about Cheng Su.
There wasn’t anything special about the letter. It seemed like a normal letter to home. It reassured them she was safe. But two locations were mentioned. D County and Mt. Jinfeng1. Wasn’t it strange that a letter to home would mention that the scenery in these two places were rather pleasant?
“Where is Mt. Jinfeng?” Shi Sheng returned the letter to Cheng Song.
“A mountain close to B City.” Cheng Song laughed bitterly. “I also noticed something special about these two places being mentioned. But the people I sent didn’t discover anything at all.”
Shi Sheng and Cheng Song went into a long discussion. She also took out that diary and showed it to Cheng Song.
From Cheng Song, she learned that Cheng Su was a gene researcher. From the dates in the diary, they were able to figure out that she had come back to the country with the Cheng Family unaware of it. Since letters would be sent back at set intervals from overseas, the Cheng Family didn’t know Cheng Su had returned to the country at all. The Cheng Family was also completely in the dark about the man mentioned in Cheng Su’s diary.
The Cheng Family had received an anonymous letter that informed them the apocalypse was about to arrive. At first, they had thought it was someone’s prank but the signs stated in the letter all came to be. And so, the Cheng Family started using all their available assets to collect resources, just in case it was true.
And the other families all had their own methods of getting this information. The Cheng Family’s actions verified the authenticity of the information and soon, all of them began a large scale gathering of resources.
Shi Sheng rejected Cheng Song’s offer to stay, bringing Qian Li away with her.
After Shi Sheng left, Cheng Song stared at the last letter from Cheng Su for a long while. In the end, he exhaled a muddy breath and picked up the phone on the desk, dialling a number. “Investigate everything on Mt. Jinfeng. Time period? The earlier the better… En, hand it to me as soon as possible.”
……
Shi Sheng didn’t leave the capital base immediately, instead choosing to linger for a while. Qian Li didn’t understand what she was doing, so he would often ask her a lot of questions to quench his curiosity. Shi Sheng would sometimes answer them patiently but would more often than not take out her sword and threaten him to shut up.
The capital base’s network was easy to hack into. Shi Sheng downloaded a copy of all the research materials on the system, regardless of their usefulness. She then found a place to sift through them.
There were a lot of materials. Shi Sheng pretty much sifted through them for a few days straight before managing to find something of use. It was a password protected folder from a government-affiliated research facility. It had been mixed in with the normal reports. Perhaps it hadn’t been discovered or it had been put there on purpose.
There were a lot of photographs in the folder. They depicted the site where that strange crystal coffin was unearthed. The coffin was erected in the ground and one could vaguely see the outline of a human inside.
Shi Sheng looked back at Qian Li. ‘It couldn’t be this guy, could it?’
Other than those photographs, there were all sorts of reports concerning the crystal coffin. The one Shi Sheng looked through in most detail was a genetic report. Not only did it mention Cheng Su, it also mentioned that strange corpse in Cheng Su’s diary.
[An elf in peaceful slumber, beautiful and pure, forever and immortal, angelic year by year.
The elf will then awaken, bringer and destroyer. The New World, he brings hope. The Old World, he shall fold.
And soon, we all shall welcome our New World’s creator.]
The phrases “elf”, “New World” and “Old World” were mentioned most often. Shi Sheng read through it carefully a few times before finally managing to pick out some useful information. Cheng Su had mentioned that the cells of the corpse contained very special genes; they could prevent aging. Although the corpse showed no signs of life, the cells did.
So, a research team had been formed for the sake of researching these cells. But there were some people who had the crazy idea of reviving the corpse. In the end, the experiment had been forced to stop and all information about it had been sealed away.
[If anyone is reading this, it proves that the change from the Old World to the New World has already begun. Humans will evolve into a higher being. The humans who failed in evolving will be abandoned by the New World.
Are you ready?]
This message was written at the tail end of the report. Shi Sheng read through it a few times.
Shi Sheng turned to look at Qian Li. He was currently fiddling around with a PSP, appearing rather happy. ‘What’s the boss’ setting this time? A millennium-old ruler of the dead? An alien from another world? System, this side quest’s difficulty is a bit too high ah! I(bbb)can’t handle this!’