Chapter 150: Gu Wenyu's Mother, the Villains, and His Sister's Problem |
[Xia Pingzhou: They said the Leader is looking for someone in Lijing. So, who is the new Number 4?]
[Hacker: Su Ying. I heard she's an Exorcist. The Leader hasn't really introduced her to me; I just met her myself.]
"Hmm... Su Ying?"
Viewing through Host Body Two's perspective, Ji Minghuan raised an eyebrow. He stared at the name on the screen, finding it inexplicably familiar.
His lips moved as he muttered it again, "Su... Ying?"
A moment later, Ji Minghuan finally snapped back to reality. He looked at the name again, his heart surging with shock, as if he had just witnessed the Loch Ness Monster leaping out of a fish tank.
'Holy crap, isn't that Host Body One's mother who was accidentally killed by Rainbow Wing?'
'Could Hacker have already investigated my background, figured out my partnership with Black Cocoon, and purposely used this name to mess with me?'
At this thought, his fingers trembled slightly as they hovered over the keyboard.
[Xia Pingzhou: The new member is a woman?]
[Hacker: Sexist much?]
[Xia Pingzhou: What does she look like?]
[Hacker: You'll see when you meet her.]
[Xia Pingzhou: You mentioned she's an Exorcist. What is her Celestial Drive?]
[Hacker: Are you really that curious? You truly live up to your reputation as the Brigade's lady-killer. Men, women, young, or old, you spare no one—not even century-old women.]
'Please, what do you mean young or old? That's my mother...'
Ji Minghuan sighed inwardly. 'What exactly is going on right now? Does the new member just happen to share the same name as Host Body One's mother? But the Leader met her in Lijing. Could it really be his mother who died years ago? If she isn't dead, then what the hell has this family been up to?'
'Forget it. Even if this new Number 4 isn't my mother, it's highly likely she has some connection to her. When the next operation begins, I'll have to find a chance to look into her background.'
Putting away his chaotic thoughts, Ji Minghuan picked up a glass from the table and took a sip of orange juice with a blank expression.
Turning his head, he saw Ayase Origami with lowered eyelids, her gaze utterly hollow. Although her eyes were always vacant, having spent some time with her, he could now decipher the kimono-clad girl's mood through them. Right now, she seemed a bit sleepy.
"Shall we head back first?" Ji Minghuan asked as he sipped his orange juice through a straw.
Ayase Origami yawned, raising the back of her hand to cover her mouth. She smacked her lips softly, thought for a careless moment, and murmured,
"Clothes."
"The shop assistant already sent them to the hotel," Ji Minghuan replied, controlling Xia Pingzhou.
"Tomorrow... I want to wear my new clothes." Her voice was already growing fuzzy, her eyelids drooping and rising. She hadn't touched a single drop of alcohol, yet she was the only one in the private booth who was drowsy.
After all, the yakuza young mistress would normally be in bed by this time. However, she seemed aware that everyone was in a terrible mood over Lan Duo Duo's death, so she fought through her sleepiness to sit with them while they chatted. Even though she didn't say a word, her presence was a form of comfort.
"Want me to help you pick out an outfit?" Xia Pingzhou asked.
"I will pick it myself."
Ayase Origami's tone carried a hint of a little girl's stubbornness. She sounded like a strictly raised girl who had finally gone to college, finally possessed her own dorm room and a closet of her very own, free to fill it with whatever clothes she deemed pretty.
"Alright."
Xia Pingzhou glanced at her half-asleep state before withdrawing his gaze.
For some reason, he suddenly realized that the people around him all seemed to have mental ages far lower than their actual ages. For instance, Xize'er, Ayase Origami, and the Refrigerator Demon, whose mental age was practically three years old.
Perhaps he was exactly the same, which was why he attracted such people. After all, even though he was using a nineteen-year-old's body, his mental age was still twelve, albeit a bit more mature and knowledgeable than an average twelve-year-old.
Seeing that Ayase Origami could no longer stay awake, her eyelids on the verge of shutting completely, Xia Pingzhou roused her.
"Let's go."
He stood up from the sofa and turned to the others. "She and I are heading back first."
"How sweet." Andrew whistled, taking the lead. "Go on, off you go. I forced you two brats to stay out drinking with me this late... even if you were only drinking orange juice."
He let out a drunken hiccup as he finished speaking.
"You two aren't sleeping together already, are you? How innocent..." Blood Progenitor smiled gently, cupping her cheeks.
"Rookie, I advise you to watch your boundaries," Jack the Ripper remarked without looking up, toying with his phone.
Fortunately, between Xia Pingzhou and Ayase Origami, one wasn't truly human, and the other was more fake than a fake human. A combination of a robot and a doll would never blush from being teased. Remaining expressionless, they merely replied in unison,
"Shut up."
Leaving those indifferent words behind, the two walked out of the booth one after the other. Leaving the bar straight away, they soon arrived at their pre-booked hotel.
Just as Blood Progenitor had teased, they really had booked the same room, though it was a twin room. This was upon Ayase Origami's request; she felt it would be troublesome if anything happened to Xia Pingzhou, so it was best to keep an eye on him herself.
Xia Pingzhou did not mind at all. It felt just like they were still living in the loft of the cafe.
Back then, he slept on the floor while she took the bed. Both of them were very quiet sleepers, and more importantly, neither snored. When he slept, he was like a powered-down robot, and when the young lady slept, she resembled a doll with cut strings. Consequently, they got along in perfect harmony.
It was just that they could no longer return to that cafe. Oda Takikage was dead, and the Japanese yakuza was launching a massive manhunt for the members of the White Raven Brigade, thoroughly checking every street's surveillance monitors. As long as they scoured past footage, it was only a matter of time before they discovered the cafe situated near Tokyo Bay.
Tapping the room card against the sensor below the handle, the door beeped open. Entering the room, Ayase Origami scuffed her feet against the carpet a couple of times to kick off her geta, then walked straight toward the bed without looking back. Stumbling like a doll with its strings severed, she collapsed onto the mattress.
She lay face down against the pillow with her face turned to the side, her eyes downcast. Even though she was clearly exhausted and sleepy, she did not immediately close her eyes.
Xia Pingzhou took off his shoes, walked in carrying two shopping bags of clothes, and sat on the other bed.
"Back then..." she suddenly said. "If I hadn't been so impulsive, Lan Duo Duo might not have died."
The kimono girl's voice was very soft, so soft it could not drown out the croaking of frogs in the hotel courtyard.
Xia Pingzhou froze slightly. He realized Ayase Origami was blaming herself for Lan Duo Duo's death. Yet, deep down, he knew that if she hadn't acted impulsively, Lan Duo Duo might not have died... but Oda Takikage would have. It was exactly because Ayase Origami's actions had infuriated Zhou Jiuya that such a bloody scene had unfolded.
"But none of them... blamed me." Ayase Origami paused. "Why?"
Xia Pingzhou remained silent, thinking that it was true. No one at the gathering had blamed her. Even Andrew, who cared about Lan Duo Duo the most, hadn't done so.
Most likely, none of them genuinely believed she was at fault. This group of villains had their own principles, and one of them was the lives of their comrades. Therefore, even though more than half the Brigade had died, none of the survivors would point a finger at her.
"Why should they blame you?" he asked.
"I got Lan Duo Duo killed."
"I think that from the moment they joined the White Raven Brigade, everyone here was basically prepared to be buried at any time. We are just a bunch of hopeless outlaws," Xia Pingzhou said.
"But why do the people around me always get..." she said haltingly. "Always... one after another. Takikage, and my mother too."
Xia Pingzhou paused, suddenly recalling a time in the loft when he had asked Ayase Origami what it felt like to be a yakuza young mistress.
She had told him she was the only child in her family. Her mother had died in childbirth, and her father had taken his anger out on her, raising her like a mere tool. Since childhood, her father had instilled the concept of killing into her, dragging her along to watch his subordinates execute debtors.
She didn't even have the right to blink, for it would anger her father.
Because her father always claimed her mother's death was her fault, the young girl gradually accepted it as truth. It seemed that even after fleeing her family, the beliefs branded onto her by her father continued to relentlessly and subtly infect her mind, like an invisible birdcage or an indelible stigma.
After a moment of silence, Xia Pingzhou said, "Your mother's death wasn't your fault. Your father is a piece of scum, which is why he displaced his anger onto you."
"...And what about Takikage?"
"I think that from the moment he willingly followed you to join the Brigade, he must have already prepared himself to die." Xia Pingzhou paused. "Everyone here is prepared to die the moment they wake up, let alone a ninja."
"But he shouldn't have needed to prepare for that. He never needed to, from the very beginning."
Xia Pingzhou looked over, meeting her gaze. "He had his own mind, and you are just you. You can't control others, even if they are the people you care about most, or the people who care about you most."
He remained quiet for a long while before adding, "Besides, we are the bad guys. The only right a bad guy gets to enjoy is not having to be responsible for anyone. So wise up... don't carry the things that cause you pain on your shoulders. Just like how you escaped your family."
"Back then, didn't you think that even being despised by the world was better than being a doll dragged around by others for the rest of your life? But the moment you start caring about all this, you turn right back into that manipulated doll."
Xia Pingzhou took a breath. "We're already rotten to the core anyway. Instead of worrying about all this nonsense, wouldn't it be better to just proudly be the absolute worst, most carefree scumbags in the world together? It's far better than wearing a long face every day, don't you think?"
Ayase Origami fell completely silent for a long time before suddenly murmuring, "You are not a scumbag."
Xia Pingzhou was briefly taken aback.
"You are a scum-cat," Ayase Origami said flatly.
It took Xia Pingzhou a moment to realize that she had made another inappropriate joke. The kimono girl's train of thought was always so disjointed, yet her tone remained forever calm and indifferent, making it impossible to tell whether she was being serious or just kidding.
He let out a faint sigh, suddenly feeling like he was playing the lute to a cow. For a moment, he experienced the sheer absurdity of delivering a grand speech about the importance of world peace to a three-year-old, only for the three-year-old to respond with an imperialist salute.
"A kitten that lectures me about grand philosophies..." Ayase Origami paused for a while, then closed her eyes. "I don't hate it."
Even though she didn't curve her lips, a layer of amusement seemed to wash over her pale face. It wasn't long before she fell asleep. Beneath the dim yellow light, he could see the gentle rise and fall of her chest and hear her faint, almost imperceptible breathing.
Seeing that she had fallen asleep, Xia Pingzhou lay down on the other bed. He switched off the bedside lamp, and a serene darkness enveloped the two of them, accompanied only by the croaking of frogs outside.
Because of the time difference, it was still night in Venice, but daylight had already broken in Lijing and the Whalegarden. Thus, after closing his eyes, he synchronized his consciousness with Host Body One.
China Standard Time, 9:30 AM. Host Body One, Gu Wenyu, woke up. He got out of bed, staggered into the bathroom, washed his face, brushed his teeth, and then headed downstairs.
He sluggishly rolled his neck and immediately spotted Su Zimai sitting on the sofa, playing on her mobile phone.
"That's your breakfast," she said, pointing toward the kitchen dining table without even turning her head.
Following his sister's finger, Gu Wenyu saw a cup of black sesame soy milk, a sticky rice bun, and a lotus leaf wrapped sticky rice chicken sitting on the table. Big Brother must have bought them; he knew exactly what Gu Wenyu liked to eat.
He obediently finished his breakfast, washed his hands, and sat down in front of the television. Su Zimai was currently watching an old animated series, Shenbing Kids.
"Could you watch Kamen Rider with me instead?" Gu Wenyu asked tentatively.
"No... even watching Black Cat Detective is more interesting than that. What's so fun about guys in rubber suits? Plus, the head of that suit looks like a cockroach. I bet Black Cocoon's mask was modeled after Kamen Rider."
"Oh, right. Black Cocoon beat Tun Yin to a pulp last night. I saw the video as soon as I woke up."
"What kind of minnow is Tun Yin? It's not strange for him to get beaten up."
"I forbid you from insulting Tun Yin! I'm even wearing his fan T-shirt right now. Looking in my eyes! Answer me, why are you insulting Tun Yin? How on earth does he fall short compared to your lesbian teacher?"
"Could you not get so triggered?" Su Zimai asked disdainfully. "Is Tun Yin your mother or something?"
It suddenly dawned on Ji Minghuan: could the reason Su Zimai became an Exorcist be that she inherited their mother's genes? But was Number 4 of the Brigade really their mother? If not, could she be their mother's friend from the Exorcist world?
At this thought, Ji Minghuan shifted his butt a little closer on the sofa and asked, "Little Sister, tell me... do you think I have the potential to become an Exorcist?"
"Hah?" Su Zimai dragged the syllable out, lacing it with blatant mockery and ridicule.
She locked her mobile phone, turned to look at him, coughed twice, and bluntly told him with a serious face, "My teacher said you don't possess the embryo of a Celestial Drive in your body, so it is impossible for you to ever become an Exorcist in this lifetime. Do you understand?"
"Then where did the Celestial Drive embryo in your body come from?"
"I was born with it, of course."
"That's not quite right... You weren't just born with it, you inherited it from Mom."
Su Zimai was just about to ask why he was suddenly playing word games when she abruptly raised her eyebrows. It hit her: 'That's right... Since I am an Exorcist, my Exorcist genes were highly likely inherited from our parents!'
Why hadn't she thought of this before?
"Are you saying..." She paused. "Mom was an Exorcist too?"