Role-Playing a Dual Personality as a Background Character in a Manga
Chapter 129 : Chapter 129Chapter 129
Because he could not sleep, Ji Qing used the cover of night to accomplish something major.
Although he had failed to get even the minimum amount of sleep that night, his mood had become exceptionally bright because of it. At last, Ji Qing had uncovered the truth behind the fall of Licheng and gathered the full list of names of everyone who might have been involved.
No one was more suitable than Elder Miao to serve as the breakthrough point.
For an old man whose fate was already nearing its end, whose body was frail and riddled with illness, no better chance for revenge was ever going to come. His son had refused to avenge his brother, which meant the old man could only place his hopes in an outside force.
After years of repeated setbacks and fruitless struggle, the belated arrival of Li Yuan had become the last straw the old man could reach for.
Ji Qing could not even think of a reason why Elder Miao would refuse to cooperate.
The World Book really was useful. Ji Qing could not help sighing inwardly.
Although he had been thoroughly bewildered the first time he heard Emerald’s instructions, clues had soon appeared right in front of him. Ji Qing had been fortunate enough to run into Zhou Que, and Zhou Que’s childhood friendship with Miao Miaonian had led Miao Miaonian to voluntarily explain why his family had left Central City. Through that, Ji Qing had been able to grasp the full picture.
As for Xie Chang’an and Jiang Cuo... they had most likely been shoved in by Yuexia.
After all, the two of them had not played any substantive role.
If Xie Chang’an had not been the manga protagonist, Ji Qing felt there was a very high chance they would never even have run into the gopher attack later on. In other words, if Xie Chang’an had not been there, Ji Qing’s trip might very well have gone even more smoothly.
But on second thought, that view was a little one-sided.
If Xie Chang’an and the others had not suddenly appeared, Ji Qing would never have realized his own shortcomings, and the relationship between Xie Chang’an and Zhou Que would not have improved further either. Class S was, in the end, a single whole. The more harmonious the relationships among classmates became, the more it benefited the team.
Still...
Ji Qing’s eyes dimmed slightly.
He truly had never imagined that a Black Tide could be triggered by human hands. Even from the human side, that was horrifying enough to be called shocking. Ji Qing thought that You Xingluo and the others most likely did not know about it. The only unclear point was how many people in Central City were aware of it by now.
Ah, no—
Ji Qing quickly stopped his pointless speculation.
That matter could be considered later. What needed to be dealt with first were other things.
At 13:08 the following afternoon, inside a hotel in Ding’an City.
After gathering the opinions of his team members, Ji Qing took the initiative to seek out Miao Weiyong and discuss a compensation plan for the cargo loss. At that moment, Miao Weiyong was alone in his room doing the accounts. When he saw the four of them arrive together, he was visibly startled.
After understanding the general situation, Miao Weiyong could not help laughing.
“Hahaha, thank you very much for the thought, young brothers, but—”
“This was the client’s mistake. There is no need for you to make up for it.” Miao Weiyong’s attitude suddenly turned serious.
“And to be honest, this part is rather embarrassing...” He scratched his head awkwardly. “Even though the Aberrants that attacked were gophers, my son and I, as Earth Ability users, still did not manage to help much at all...”
“Oh, right.” Zhou Que suddenly looked enlightened.
“Now that you mention it... that actually does make sense...” Xie Chang’an also froze where he stood after hearing that.
At once, a chorus of chatter from the other three rose beside Ji Qing’s ear.
They were discussing whether things would have gone better against the gopher attack if their teammates had been Earth Ability users. But when the discussion grew increasingly loud and they even began directly questioning the ever more embarrassed Miao Weiyong, Ji Qing simply rapped each of them once on the head with his fist.
Against a background of “Ow, ow, ow,” Ji Qing said coldly, “The three of you should think about the situation properly. At the time, we were already in the middle of a gopher nest. If we hadn’t run immediately, were you expecting us to stand there and fight forty or fifty gophers head-on? Are you all that eager to get beaten to death?”
To be honest, fleeing as fast as possible had been the correct choice.
Mutated Gophers did not eat iron ore. They ate people. As the food, if they did not run, were they planning to fight to the bitter end instead? They were simply tired of living.
Seeing that, Miao Weiyong burst out laughing again.
“Hahaha...”
But halfway through laughing, he began nagging them like an elder.
“In any case, thank you for your concern, young brothers. You really do not need to worry about my losses. I still have quite a lot of savings on hand, and besides, asking you to voluntarily cut your pay would not be fair to you either...”
“There really isn’t anything fair or unfair about it,” Jiang Cuo muttered quietly after hearing that. “I’m just grateful that you were willing to let us take this commission, Uncle. I can finally advance to A-rank now.”
“So that’s how it is?!” Miao Weiyong looked shocked.
“Yeah, yeah. Uncle, didn’t you know?”
“Oh...” Miao Weiyong scratched his head awkwardly again. “I left all that to my son, so I wasn’t very clear on it. But congratulations to all of you. Back when I advanced to A-rank, the commission I took was terribly difficult. The client kept giving me attitude the entire time!”
“Hahaha, that sounds awful.”
“Yeah.” Miao Weiyong’s expression carried both nostalgia and regret. “That’s why I’ve chosen to remain a B-rank Hunter now. At my current stage of life, I really don’t have that much time to complete A-rank commissions.”
“Oh, right—”
Miao Weiyong’s gaze suddenly fell on Xie Chang’an, who was standing in the corner, and his expression abruptly turned serious.
“This young brother, I wanted to ask earlier. Is your Tang Saber some kind of Ability Item?”
Xie Chang’an, who had suddenly been singled out, froze.
He instinctively shook his head, then stopped himself and asked warily, “Why would you ask that, Uncle?”
The other three onlookers all turned their attention back toward Miao Weiyong.
“Isn’t it?” Miao Weiyong said in surprise. “Last night, when I checked the surveillance footage from the Armed Vehicle, I saw your figure fighting with the saber. How should I put it... it truly is an astonishingly sharp treasured blade. It could even pierce through a gopher’s hide...”
So Father Miao had not been idle last night either. Ji Qing immediately understood.
Miao Weiyong must have checked the vehicle footage while taking the driver from Vehicle 7 to the hospital last night. Compared with Abilities, which the wasteland broadly accepted as normal, Xie Chang’an’s Tang Saber combat style was clearly far more eye-catching.
The wariness on Xie Chang’an’s face eased a little.
He could already sense Miao Weiyong’s sincerity, and on top of that, with the other man being the father of his friend’s friend, Xie Chang’an found it hard to be suspicious of him.
Xie Chang’an said softly, “Actually... it wasn’t this sharp before. It only became like this after someone repaired it.”
“It could actually turn out like that?” Miao Weiyong stared in astonishment. “Then that craftsman must have been an incredibly skilled one. What a remarkable treasured blade... Um, if you don’t mind, young brother, could you let me take a look?”
“Of course.” Xie Chang’an obediently handed over the Tang Saber.
At once, Miao Weiyong drew the blade and began examining it with great reluctance to put it down. The other two also leaned in after hearing Xie Chang’an’s explanation. As he looked it over from side to side, Jiang Cuo muttered, “Come to think of it, I really did overlook this point...”
“Damn it, I completely overlooked how valuable the weapon itself was,” Jiang Cuo cursed.
Because Jiang Cuo himself did not use blades, it had been easy for him to overlook that. Miao Weiyong’s words had instead given him an unconventional perspective. Turning to Xie Chang’an, Jiang Cuo could not help blurting out, “Bro, I used to think you were from some fallen ancient martial arts family, and that this saber was your family heirloom or something.”
Xie Chang’an was speechless for a moment.
“How could that be?” he said. “It’s just an ordinary Tang Saber my master left behind. It broke by accident before, but a friend had someone repair it.”
Was that so?
Jiang Cuo lowered his head and examined it with hesitation.
From Xie Chang’an’s explanation alone, he could not find anything particularly special about the Tang Saber. But the instant Jiang Cuo personally saw the silver-white blade, his thoughts changed.
Even beneath the gentle warmth of the sunlight, this nameless blade, which its protagonist had never given a name, still gave off a keen and icy gleam.
A tiny white willow catkin drifted in from outside the window.
It landed lightly upon the edge of the blade, yet failed to cling to it. Instead, it slid down along the blade and fell to the gray ground below.
A good blade, Jiang Cuo judged inwardly.
Even someone like him, utterly unfamiliar with blades, could tell how sharp it was. To those who actually understood such things, its value would only be higher. Jiang Cuo could even sense that Miao Weiyong, standing right beside him, had practically gone rigid-eyed the moment he saw the willow catkin fall away.
“Bro, can you tell me who that craftsman was?” Jiang Cuo could not help asking. “I swear I won’t disturb them on my own. I just want one more useful connection.”
“Do you really think I would know?” Xie Chang’an replied.
Jiang Cuo instantly looked deflated. “Alright, fine. I figured you probably wouldn’t know either. Your friend really does have wide connections.”
“...Mm.”
Xie Chang’an let out a low, muffled response.
In truth, he did not understand Li Yuan’s intentions.
After leaving school, Xie Chang’an had run into many hardships and many ill-intentioned people. He had realized the abnormal sharpness of the Tang Saber long before everyone else, and he had also realized long ago that it was Li Yuan’s handiwork.
Because of that, the connection between him and Li Yuan had once again become blurred and difficult to define.
If it had only been a matter of using and being used, then why had Li Yuan gone out of his way to do such a thing? Craftsmen were extremely rare in the wasteland, yet the cold weapon industry still occupied a certain share of the market. Many Ability Users chose to have a personal weapon forged for themselves, even if it was not a Tang Saber.
Since the craftsman had been capable of such exquisite repair work, he must have been a famous master in his own right.
To help a child he was merely using, Li Yuan had specially mobilized his own connections? Was Li Yuan really that warmhearted a person? Back then, the more Xie Chang’an thought about it, the more confused he had become. But now, he could instead taste a different sort of feeling within it.
Perhaps Li Yuan had indeed put some sincerity into it as well.
Even if Li Yuan’s conduct was full of wicked amusement, and even if he delighted in making sharp-tongued remarks, he had still given him at least a tiny bit of sincerity, hadn’t he? Xie Chang’an did not need much. A tiny bit was enough.
As long as there was a tiny bit, he would be satisfied.
“Your connections are pretty wide.”
After staring at that plain-looking Tang Saber alongside the other two for quite a while, Zhou Que finally looked directly at Xie Chang’an and said that.
Compared with the sincere admiration of Jiang Cuo and Miao Weiyong, Zhou Que knew much more of the truth. He knew that this blade had once been broken in the Individual Competition duel against Lu Qingyin, and he also knew that it had been repaired before the Team Competition began.
Such formidable connections had already existed before Xie Chang’an even left school.
“I underestimated you,” Zhou Que muttered.
“It’s not really that serious...” Xie Chang’an scratched his head modestly.
If the Xie Chang’an who had just arrived at school had heard someone belittle him like that, he would have been furious beyond endurance. But the current Xie Chang’an had already shed his earlier immaturity. His bearing had grown steadier and calmer. Complaints and disdainful remarks like these could no longer shake his heart.
His wandering gaze suddenly shifted toward the one person present who had remained standing in place the whole time.
“Ji Qing, aren’t you curious?” he asked.
“What is there to be curious about?” Ji Qing replied with a fake smile. “I’m not familiar with blades, and I can’t tell whether one is good or bad anyway.”
Xie Chang’an grew awkward. “...That’s true.”
He really had been asking too much. Ji Qing did not need to think the same way as everyone else.
So Ji Qing continued standing quietly to one side, waiting for the others to finish admiring the blade.
And of course, there was one even more important reason—he himself was that “highly skilled” craftsman.
Thank you, System. Thank you, Popularity Value Shop. Thank you, Bureau. In such a subtle place, he had unexpectedly received such subtle praise. Li Yuan’s popularity was about to get another boost, and his Popularity Value would most likely soar once again.
Ji Qing thought carelessly:
Readers who wanted to pair people together could go right ahead. He had simply never imagined that anyone would end up pairing them here.
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