DEG - Chapter 15
Chapter 15: We Are the Most Important Person to Each Other
It takes a long time to reach the destination by starship, and it's unskippable.
It wasn't as if no one had protested this, but the game company simply wouldn't change it, and many people even quit the game in a rage.
Three years after its launch, the game still lacked a one-click skip button for starship travel. Many people secretly speculated that it wasn't that the developers didn't want to change it, but that they couldn't.
Unfortunately, the game company's response was to update the players' Optical Brains with a few mini-games, allowing them to play games within the game.
What better way to kill time?
Jiang Xun sat in her seat, her thoughts lingering on Luo Nanqiu's words before she returned to the card.
It would be two weeks at most before she could see Nanqiu again.
Jiang Xun opened her Optical Brain, then closed it again.
The information revealed by the eighteen-year-old Nanqiu surfaced in her mind unbidden.
"She's the one who killed you."
"She hates herself, and she hates you."
Jiang Xun remembered clearly that she had died taking the Insect Mother down with her. What did that have to do with Nanqiu?
"She got married. She killed many people who looked a lot like you."
Hmm, those people were probably impersonating her to deceive her, given her high position.
After all, that was the Luo Family, which controlled the economic lifeline of more than half the galaxy.
Even the smallest bit that slipped through her fingers was enough for someone to live a life of ease.
That must be it.
The Eldest Miss wasn't a murderous person.
Jiang Xun quickly found an excuse for Luo Nanqiu's actions.
As for her being married...
The Eldest Miss was already thirty. It seemed perfectly normal for her to be married.
Even so, Jiang Xun couldn't help but purse her lips.
She couldn't imagine what kind of person Luo Nanqiu's partner would be.
This was a partner who would be with her for the rest of her life.
She had said she would never be like her father, constantly arranging marriages for the sake of the family's expansion.
She would find love on her own terms.
When did that happen?
At least, not while she was alive.
Nanqiu had even pretended to be her lover to avoid Qi Yi's harassment.
Before Jiang Xun had left for that mission, Nanqiu had smilingly asked her for a confession.
She had said angrily at the time that she wanted to tell everyone with ulterior motives that she, Luo Nanqiu, had a partner, and that they should stop harassing her!!
Jiang Xun couldn't help but smile, but her hands clenched into fists. She closed her eyes, a headache blooming.
She had been dead for six years. The Eldest Miss had been all alone. Wasn't it normal for someone to take advantage of that vulnerability?
It was just a shame she'd suddenly become an ex-girlfriend.
Even if she wasn't a real one.
Still, becoming an ex without any notice was a bit irritating.
But it wasn't the Eldest Miss's fault.
After all, she was the one who died.
That's right. She was dead. Dead for six years.
As someone who had opened her eyes and come back to life right after dying, Jiang Xun suddenly gained a more profound sense of her own death.
The unfamiliar Optical Brain interface.
Her childhood friend, who had formed a new intimate relationship.
So, she really had been dead for six years.
Jiang Xun took a nap on the starship.
The players who were accompanying her to find the Little Emperor logged off one by one to rest.
In the end, only Breaking Waves Riding Wind remained online for a long time.
The reason was simple.
Her friends and the many viewers in her stream chat were all urging her to go live.
They were desperate to know what would happen next with the two of them.
For the first time, the forums were in an uproar over a yuri couple.
There were all sorts of posts, from plot analyses to people purely shipping the couple.
【Screenshot of Jiang Xun's Treason Charge Before Her Death】
【True Rebirth or Memory Implantation?】
【A Deep Dive into Their Subtle Interactions in the Story-I Don't Care, These Two Are Pure Love, the Kind Where You Can Trust Someone with Your Back!!】
【The Regent Is Married?! AHH-!! My Ship That Just Sailed!!】
Breaking Waves Riding Wind had already seen the first post.
The poster was a viewer from her stream. She had posted the screenshot on the forums and explained how she had gotten the quest.
OP: Actually, the quest I was doing back then had nothing to do with Jiang Xun.
It was just a normal catch-a-thief quest. One of the suspects was an immigrant from another planet. Because of her eccentric personality, she never fit in with the locals, so everyone was suspicious of her family.
Their family's itinerary that day was particularly strange. They had no one in the military, yet they went to the martyrs' cemetery to pay their respects.
I went to get information out of their kid and learned they had gone to pay respects to someone named Jiang Xun. The child idolized her, calling her a great hero.
I couldn't find any information about this person when I searched the StarNet, so I suspected something was off and reported the intel.
Right after that, over something as minor as a lost item, the person in charge of the planet actually granted me an audience and specifically asked how much I knew about Jiang Xun.
God knows that was all I knew.
Then the official, who I think was a military officer, got a very complicated look on her face.
She even sneered and said something incredibly sarcastic, as if filled with resentment, "Some great hero. She was just a traitor."
She even showed me this newspaper.
Because it was a report from three or four years ago, a physical newspaper of a kind that was almost obsolete even on Blue Star, and because I'd been received by the planet's highest official and had already completed the quest without using this clue, I've remembered it all this time!
I thought at the time that this had to be a major questline about clearing someone's name, but I never expected to get the quest this way!!
The screenshot was of a crumpled newspaper. In an extremely pained tone, the media outlet criticized Jiang Xun for colluding with star pirates and bringing disaster to Qingfei Star, which led to the destruction of numerous buildings, caused immense losses for the Empire, and damaged the Empire's reputation, necessitating the news of her conviction for treason.
1L: Holy crap!
2L: Does any expert have more info?
...
57L: Hold on, I know an immigrant from Qingfei Star who left six years ago. I'll see if he knows anything.
...
103L (OP): Update: I went back to that family to ask about Jiang Xun, and they treated me like I was a thief.
I told them I wanted to clear Jiang Xun's name!! But they wouldn't say a single word.
...
The rest of the posts were just people waiting for updates.
Although the viewership in Breaking Waves Riding Wind's stream had dropped considerably, the number of people who stayed was still huge.
There was no new story content at the moment, but they were still waiting, chatting idly in the stream.
When Breaking Waves Riding Wind looked up from the forums, she saw that Jiang Xun was awake.
She seemed to be searching for something on her Optical Brain.
"Are you trying to contact your old friends?" Breaking Waves Riding Wind couldn't help but ask.
Jiang Xun shook her head.
There were only a few people she wanted to contact. She had sent friend requests to all of them, and as expected, none had been accepted.
"I'm curious why there are no reports about me on the StarNet."
She could understand why there might be none about Nanqiu, but she couldn't understand why there were none about herself.
It was only at times like this that Jiang Xun regretted not learning how to hack.
"I'd like to know that too," Breaking Waves Riding Wind said meekly.
When she faced Jiang Xun, she always felt the nervousness of a fan of a couple meeting one of the people involved.
After hesitating several times, she couldn't stop herself from saying, "Actually, I have some information that says you were censored by the Empire for treason."
Jiang Xun's hand, which had been tapping on her Optical Brain, paused. It seemed this was the first she was hearing of it.
"A report from how many years ago?"
Breaking Waves Riding Wind did a quick calculation.
"About six years ago."
Jiang Xun fell silent.
Breaking Waves Riding Wind took the opportunity to add her own speculation.
"Do you think it's because the Regent didn't want to hear people gossiping about you, so she had all news about you suppressed?"
Realization dawned on Jiang Xun.
"Oh, right. That must be it."
"By the way, who's the Emperor of the Empire now?"
"Qi Yun? Qi Du?"
Breaking Waves Riding Wind quickly checked her quest list.
"Qi Yi. His name is Qi Yi."
Jiang Xun: ?
Perhaps the confusion on her face was too obvious, as Breaking Waves Riding Wind quickly added, "I can tell the relationship between the Little Emperor and the Regent is bad. I heard there's a deep-seated hatred between them.
Even though the Little Emperor is the emperor, when he gave me the quest, he was mining in a quarry, drinking the foulest nutrient solution, and doing the hardest labor. I think he's on the verge of a breakdown, so he wants to kill you to provoke the Regent, hoping she'll just put him out of his misery."
Only then did Jiang Xun nod.
"Then he's probably the one who got me killed."
If her death had to have a culprit, then based on Luo Nanqiu's way of thinking, that person had to be Qi Yi.
So he must have known there was an Insect Mother there all along, probably even did something to it, then gave her the mission. After she died, he even went out of his way to brand her with treason.
Just perfect.
Jiang Xun closed her Optical Brain, deciding to give the Little Emperor another beating once she reached her destination.
The exchange ended so neatly that Breaking Waves Riding Wind never had a chance to expand on the topic.
It was only when Jiang Xun looked up and saw her hesitant expression again that she asked another question.
"Is there anything else you want to ask?"
In that moment, Jiang Xun felt like a Q&A NPC, there to answer the player's questions after a quest stage was complete.
Breaking Waves Riding Wind's eyes lit up. She decided to get straight to the point this time.
So, she asked somewhat bashfully, "Of course! I want to know about your relationship with Luo Nanqiu. Are you arch-rivals, like that researcher said?"
Jiang Xun blinked. It was, frankly, the first time she had ever been asked such a question.
She had thought the story was ridiculous when she first heard it, which was why she hadn't connected the Regent to Luo Nanqiu at all in the beginning.
After all, in her past life, anyone who saw her and Luo Nanqiu would comment on how close they were.
People said they were like sisters, or even closer than sisters.
"Do we seem like it?" she asked in return.
Breaking Waves Riding Wind shook her head vehemently.
"I feel like you two are very close!"
Only then did Jiang Xun break into a smile.
"Then your feeling is correct!"
"We grew up together."
"The most important person to each other?" Breaking Waves Riding Wind asked meekly.
Jiang Xun smiled and nodded. The sharp coldness in her expression faded, replaced by a gentle warmth. "Of course," she said.
Breaking Waves Riding Wind was applauding wildly in her head, and the viewers in her stream were spamming the chat in a frenzy.
【Streamer, you're doing great!!】
"We grew up together. We're the most important person to each other. Nothing can separate us-not death, and not marriage."
As she finished, her voice turned cold. Her gaze was fixed on something in the distance, and with the sharp line of her profile, she looked like a honed blade, her stare alone sharp enough to wound.
Breaking Waves Riding Wind was captivated for a moment, able to do nothing but stare blankly at Jiang Xun.
Then, in the next instant, Jiang Xun's expression brightened again. "I'm sure Nanqiu is commemorating me in all sorts of ways."
Her gray eyes watched her earnestly, as if waiting for her to agree.
Breaking Waves Riding Wind snapped back to reality, her heart pounding, and nodded frantically.
"It must be!"
After two days of travel, with multiple crew shifts and itinerary changes, the starship finally reached its destination.
It wasn't a mining planet, but an agricultural one.
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