Chapter 17: 17 Chapter 16

◎Three Months After the Paramita Explosion◎

Xu Jinyao finally understood why he was so agitated.

Because the killer in the serial case couldn’t possibly have killed one person and abducted another within the same timeframe. Therefore, the murderer who killed was one, and the perpetrator responsible for Zhang Hao’s disappearance was another.

In that instant, she confirmed her previous suspicion: the perpetrators were indeed not of the same faction.

She quickly calmed herself, briefly explained what she had discovered on her end, then told Du Chang to contact the crime scene investigation unit and have the secret passage’s space fully mapped out before daybreak.

Hanging up, she turned to the two beside her: “Let’s go. We’ll talk more after we get out.”

Without figuring out the secrets of this place, it wasn’t safe to linger. No one could guarantee they wouldn’t accidentally trigger another mechanism and open some other bizarre passage.

Exiting followed the same order: Lin Zhiqing at the front, Xu Jinyao bringing up the rear. The three weren’t excited by the discovery of a secret exit; they maintained high vigilance.

They hadn’t gone far when Lin Zhiqing’s voice suddenly came from ahead: “Wait.”

“What’s wrong?” Xu Jinyao stopped.

“The door is gone.”

“What?”

“The door, the one we entered through just now, it’s this wall right here…” Lin Zhiqing felt and patted the wall surface a few times. “Seems like it closed on its own again.”

She turned her head to ask Xu Jinyao: “You came in last. Did you hear anything?”

Xu Jinyao shook her head: “No.”

This was strange.

Since it was a hidden passage that only opened by triggering a mechanism, how could it close automatically?

Xu Jinyao suddenly spoke: “Shh! Someone’s coming.”

All three simultaneously turned off their flashlights, held their breath, and focused, unanimously looking towards the direction of the exit.

Darkness concealed everything. Xu Jinyao couldn’t see what was over there, only hearing a rustling sound of footsteps drawing nearer from the distance.

Sound localization.

A basic skill for Syndicate members.

What’s identified isn’t just the enemy’s position, but also the rank gap between oneself and the enemy, pre-judging whether the situation allows for gaining the upper hand.

Xu Jinyao first encountered this skill three months after the Paramita explosion.

A group of women wearing black uniforms suddenly burst into the ward, flipping her over onto the floor, her body still wrapped in bandages.

The leader ordered her to get up immediately, pointing the dark muzzle of a gun at her. A cold, mechanical voice came from beneath the mask: “If you can’t get up, go and die.”

–

Xu Jinyao had considered she might one day die from an accident. What she hadn’t imagined was that the accident would be an explosion.

The day the Paramita exploded, many perished in the sea. She was no exception.

She couldn’t swim, and in her panic, failed to hold her breath in time. Her rhythm was shattered the moment she hit the water. Her mind filled with the terror of death, she sank deeper into the ocean.

It was clearly night, yet the sky blazed bright as day. Flames swept across the entire sea surface, illuminating the overlapping screams with stark clarity.

A person’s will to live can sometimes be truly powerful. In the very last moment before death, Xu Jinyao, who couldn’t swim, actually managed to surface.

She was like a drenched puppy, caught in the heart of a storm, forced to await death’s arrival.

Her breathing was short and rapid. Her hands clutched a splintered plank of wood. She trembled uncontrollably, as if wherever her gaze landed, it would be scalded, stung.

She was going to die.

But she didn’t want to die yet.

She wanted to live.

She wanted to reach the shore, wanted to ask Xiaxia with her own mouth, why she abandoned her and ran away.

She couldn’t understand.

Because if it were her, even if it meant death, she absolutely wouldn’t choose to flee alone. So she couldn’t understand.

She wanted to go home, wanted to leave this damn sea.

She imagined her mother must be terrified out of her wits right now, and her father might already be wiping away tears. Thinking and thinking, her own tears uncontrollably surged out.

Why…

She didn’t understand why it had to be her, why she was so unlucky to encounter this. But everything before her eyes also reminded her that being alive right now was already a stroke of luck amidst disaster.

Yet simultaneously, she knew that being alive was temporary. Relying on herself and one plank of wood, it was impossible to reach the shore safely.

Besides, she was wounded, still bleeding.

Under the water, blood continuously spurted from her wounds. The moment it left her body, it dispersed, like blooming red fireworks.

The thrill of survival and the pre-death adrenaline spike could no longer numb her pain. The warm seawater enveloped her body, and also enveloped the acute agony she belatedly registered.

Her blood dyed the surrounding water red. She looked around, her heart pounding violently in her chest.

The skywards flames reflected in her pupils. She even forgot to blink, feeling only that if hell truly existed in this world, it must look just like the scene before her.

Broken limbs and wreckage continuously surfaced from all directions, drifting and swaying towards her. She wanted to flee, but she couldn’t swim, only able to circle anxiously in place.

As those scattered corpse fragments drifted towards her, piercing screams also surged towards her. Finally, the corpses submerged her body, and the screams drowned out her cries for help.

BOOM!!!

A suddenly exploding fireball devoured everything. Fine sparks filled the sky. A mushroom-shaped fire cloud rose ponderously, soft, bright, transforming in an instant into thick smoke that filled the entire night sky.

When she opened her eyes again, Xu Jinyao found herself lying on a hospital bed, surrounded by various monitoring instruments.

This place… seemed like a hospital.

The first second, she thought she was saved.

The second second, she found she couldn’t move at all.

The third second, she felt like she was lying on a mountain of knives.

Pain.

So much pain.

Everywhere on her body, every part hurt. It felt as if her body had been torn into several pieces. She couldn’t help but suspect this place might not be a hospital, but one of the eighteen layers of hell. Otherwise, how could the pain on her body be explained?

The oxygen mask was strapped to her face. The moisture from her rapid breathing quickly coated it with a layer of white fog, vanishing in an instant, only to regroup.

It was also then that Xu Jinyao discovered a problem, a very serious one—she was clearly calling for someone, yet her ears couldn’t hear any sound.

Ignoring the pain wracking her body, she gritted her teeth and struggled, trying to get up. But after struggling for ages, the only thing moving was the tear slowly sliding from the corner of her eye.

Afterwards, a doctor came in, found her crying, and communicated with her using pen and paper, explaining the situation.

She had been too close to the blast point. Her body suffered severe shockwave impact, resulting in multiple bone fractures. Post-surgery, she needed a period of rest and couldn’t get out of bed for the time being.

Her sudden hearing loss was also due to blast injury.

Countless wounds covered her body, but they were all superficial injuries, nothing that damaged her foundation.

The doctor told her to relax, not to worry about what came after. If scars remained, they could be repaired through surgery.

Slightly calmer, she then asked: “Where’s my mom and the others?”

And Xiaxia?

I’m this badly hurt, why isn’t she here to see me?

The doctor stopped writing, a trace of sympathy appearing in their eyes.

That sliver of sympathy made her temporarily settled emotions boil over again. She asked over and over, asked again and again. Because she couldn’t hear her own voice, she couldn’t control her volume, only able to gauge from the doctor’s expression.

She didn’t know her voice had already turned hoarse, didn’t know how chilling the sounds escaping her throat were.

She only saw the doctor show a helpless expression and stand up. Her only knowledge was that every inch of her flesh and blood had started sending waves of sharp pain again. Then several figures in black rushed into the ward, injected her with a tranquilizer, and let her fall into a heavy sleep.

The first month, Xu Jinyao passed in this cycle of violent emotion and grogginess.

The second month, her hearing had recovered a little. As long as people spoke a bit louder, she could get the gist. Normal conversation wasn’t a problem now, but she still couldn’t get out of bed.

However, she learned to control her emotions, trying her best not to let herself get too agitated. She thus gained more time when she was lucid.

During the period she couldn’t get out of bed, a dedicated person took care of her.

It was a female student around her age. Because she wore a mask, Xu Jinyao never found out what this person looked like.

The woman said her name was Vesper, said people here didn’t have names, only codenames.

Xu Jinyao unilaterally gave her a name.

“Xiao Xi, can you get me a glass of water?”

“Xiao Xi, what are we eating today?”

“Xiao Xi, are you asleep?”

“Xiao Xi, Xiao Xi…”

“Xiao Xi, I want to go home.”

Vesper didn’t understand why this girl called her “Xiao Xi,” nor did she understand its meaning. But over time, she gradually got used to it.

In any case, whether Vesper or Xiao Xi, it was just a code to her.

Comparatively, she preferred the codename Xiao Xi.

Because this was more like a normal person’s name, a nickname only given with sufficient intimacy.

The third month, Xu Jinyao could get up and walk around.

She had lain in bed too long. Her weight had rapidly ballooned, increasing by almost twenty pounds in two short months. But thanks to the weight gain, her post-surgery recovery was fast, with no wound infections whatsoever.

However, moving around on the ground after so long still caught her off guard, and she fell.

This fall nearly jolted her internal organs out of place. She was in so much pain she couldn’t breathe, and tears came instantly.

Xiao Xi came over to help her up, but she shook her off, stubbornly determined to stand on her own.

But she just couldn’t stand up.

There was a split second where she felt her body was no longer her own. Merely maintaining a standing posture seemed to drain all her remaining strength.

Rehabilitation was too excruciating. Every second was torture.

During that time, she couldn’t sleep all night. Even if she accidentally fell asleep, turning over would wake her with pain. Once awake, the insomnia began, her mind filled with when she could go home.

Yet even with such pain, she couldn’t stop.

Because she clearly knew, if her legs couldn’t be used again, she truly would have no way of escaping. So even if it was painful, she gritted her teeth and endured, her heart reciting her mother and father, reciting Xiaxia, reciting every little bit of the past years, holding on day by day.

But she forgot.

She forgot that this year she was only eighteen, a high school graduate, a soon-to-be university student. In her past life, the greatest setback she ever experienced was failing the 800-meter physical test.

Her family had protected her so well. Growing up, she had never even bumped herself.

Yet for three whole months, every minute, every second, she lived in agony.

The physical pain was actually bearable; the pain in her heart left one breathless. The body’s wounds would heal themselves in time. The heart’s wounds would repeatedly fester, breed pus, and rot to the very core.

Love and hatred passed in a fleeting instant. The more she missed them, the more that accumulated day by day, month by month, turning into resentment.