Gu Xi sighed as she watched Qi Xiang leave. The door then slowly swung shut before her eyes, but the scene outside remained clearly visible to her.
Qi Xiang walked two steps forward with her back straight, then suddenly slamd a hand against the hallway wall. Her normally well-manicured nails dug fiercely into the surface, leaving behind two deep scratches.
Two veins bulged on the back of her fair hand, looking jarringly twisted. Her stunningly beautiful face was expressionless, but she was breaking out in a cold sweat.
—’These are the side effects of fusing with the genes of another species. It’s easy for them to flare up whenever her emotions are unstable.’
’If she can’t push through it, her body might even break down completely.’
’...To gain power, one must pay the price.’
’There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world. After all, if sothing falls from the sky, it’s more likely to kill you.’
Qi Xiang was undoubtedly in imnse pain right now.
But Gu Xi didn’t intervene. She just silently "watched" everything unfold outside her door.
She knew Qi Xiang was a smart girl, and a ntally strong one at that.
She would definitely pull through—not just the physical pain, but also the ntal... influence that Dr. Qi had subtly exerted on her over the years.
After a long while, Qi Xiang finally forced herself to stand up again.
The girl took out a tissue and carefully wiped the cold sweat from her face. A radiant, flamboyant smile returned, as if nothing had happened.
She straightened her clothes and glanced back.
The door behind her was shut tight, not a crack in sight.
But she knew Gu Xi must have seen everything that just happened.
But she hadn’t co out.
Qi Xiang breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t want anyone to see her at her worst, most pathetic mont—not even... her most trusted friend.
Because... she was a proud woman, after all.
Of course, more importantly, Qi Xiang had realized sothing long ago: she loved her team. Her teammates were all incredible, each one so powerful. If she didn’t want to be left behind, just riding on soone else’s coattails wouldn’t be enough.
Even if Gu Xi was willing to carry her.
She had to beco stronger herself. Only then could she keep up with her teammates!
Qi Xiang didn’t want to be a burden to the Farming Team.
She wanted to beco even stronger!
After Qi Xiang left, Gu Xi lowered her gaze.
Perhaps the scene had stirred sothing in her, because childhood mories she thought long forgotten began to surface uncontrollably—
The training ground reeked of blood. Swarms of mutated beasts and a tide of foul-slling zombies lunged, fangs bared and claws out, at the small girl...
The little girl, covered in blood, lay on a cold machine. The initial feelings of cold, loneliness, and fear gave way to a pain, despair, emptiness, and numbness that far exceeded what a child her age could endure...
Her senses had been worn down by the daily slaughter until she could no longer feel pain, nor any emotion... Her vision blurred. Though she felt nothing, tears stread instinctively from her eyes.
Gu Xi closed her eyes and calmly, even ruthlessly, forced these mories she had thought were fading back out of her mind.
Just then.
—"BEEP! BEEP!"
Her personal terminal suddenly rang.
Gu Xi’s eyes snapped open. As she looked down and saw the familiar number, the last trace of killing intent in her eyes instantly vanished.
The video call connected, and the light screen quickly lit up.
Li Ming’s gaze fell on Gu Xi’s face on the other side of the screen, and his brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.
Even though Gu Xi was hiding it well and her face showed no sign of anything unusual, Li Ming’s sharp perception still picked up on sothing.
Li Ming sighed. "Xiaoxi."
Gu Xi humd a quiet response, not wanting her voice to betray the emotions she hadn’t fully processed.
Li Ming’s hands, resting on the armrests of his wheelchair, tightened slightly. He stared intently at Gu Xi for a mont before suddenly speaking. "You want to go to Gu Garden?"
Gu Xi wasn’t surprised that Li Ming knew.
Even though he was at the Central Base, very little that happened in City A could likely be hidden from him. Besides, Yang Chi had always been one of Li Ming’s biggest admirers.
She idly toyed with the small green sprout twined around her finger. Once she had completely processed the emotions welling up inside her, Gu Xi finally spoke slowly. "I’ve been thinking about it, but it’s not a good ti right now."
She looked up at Li Ming on the screen, her voice slow but firm. "Ming, I suspect the ’Gu’ in my na is no coincidence."
It might have sounded cryptic, but Li Ming understood her aning instantly.
In fact, how could Li Ming not have thought of sothing that even Gu Xi had figured out?
He had harbored the sa suspicion for many years.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had such a strong reaction when Gu Yumin ca looking for her all those years ago.
But he didn’t want to trouble his sister’s heart with such ssy affairs. She was already going through enough back then. So, for all those years, Li Ming had said nothing, only secretly preventing anyone from the Gu Family from getting near Gu Xi.
But now that Gu Xi had figured it out on her own, Li Ming no longer planned to hide it.
...’His little sister was all grown up. In the end, there were so things she had to decide for herself.’
Neither of the siblings brought up the past, instead simply exchanging a few thoughts on the current situation.
Li Ming pulled the blanket draped over his legs up a little higher as it started to slip, then said suddenly, "Xiaoxi, I can confirm without a doubt that your mother is dead."
After all, he was the one who had personally taken Gu Xi from the side of the woman’s corpse and bitten through the umbilical cord that still connected them.
So, Li Ming was absolutely certain that Gu Xi’s birth mother was dead.
"But... as for your biological father..." Li Ming looked at the young woman on the screen, his hand clutching a corner of the blanket. "I’ve been investigating this for years, but I’ve never been able to find any information about him."
The Gu Family is a major clan that has stood for hundreds of years, its branches sprawling. Between the direct and collateral lines, there are dozens of young masters still alive and of the right age, to say nothing of all those who disappeared at the start of the apocalypse.
And with the world descending into chaos after the apocalypse began, a lot of information is simply gone for good.
Gu Xi didn’t actually care much who her biological father was. She was indifferent to whether he was alive or dead.
She just wanted to find out the truth of what happened back then.
...’As the person at the center of it all,’ she thought, ’I should have the right to know, shouldn’t I?’
"That man, Yan Xun, probably knows sothing," Gu Xi said.
Yan Xun’s identity back then had been a fake.
But to win her trust, he had told her many things. Setting aside whether his other words were true or false, one thing was likely real: she probably had an uncle.
Gu Xi speculated that the Gu Family probably never acknowledged her parents’ union.
And before she was born, her mother must have realized this. That’s why, as the world first descended into chaos and she was about to give birth, she didn’t seek out her husband, but her own brother instead.
But the apocalypse broke out suddenly. The world changed too quickly, and no one knows what happened in the interim. The final result, however, was that she was born amidst the chaos and eventually found by Li Ming.
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