DEG - Chapter 40
Chapter 40: Extra 5
Luo Nanqiu was waiting for Jiang Xun to come back.
Overwhelmed by the joy in her heart, each day felt like a year.
Then, amidst her heart full of joy, she heard what could only be described as absurd, terrible news.
"Are you saying... Ah Xun... died tragically during her mission?" Luo Nanqiu uttered the words one by one, feeling the air being squeezed from her lungs. She was close to suffocating, her vision blurring.
In that instant, she seemed to feel the falseness and absurdity of the world.
Before this, no matter how much she had suffered, she had always felt like she was heaven's favorite child.
Because Jiang Xun was always by her side.
The Jiang Xun who had been with her since childhood.
The Jiang Xun who said she would always be by her side.
The Jiang Xun who said those dangers were nothing, that she would always return victorious.
Jiang Xun was dead.
At her moment of greatest joy, she hadn't even noticed that her Ability had lost its connection to Jiang Xun.
That familiar fluctuation of her Ability, which had accompanied her for sixteen years, had now fallen silent.
As if to confirm the words of the one who brought the bad news.
Jiang Xun was dead.
Luo Nanqiu felt the world spin. A metallic taste rose in her throat, and she dry-heaved uncontrollably.
She didn't want to go identify Jiang Xun's remains. It seemed that only by doing so could she deceive herself into believing that Jiang Xun wasn't dead yet.
But she had to go identify Jiang Xun's remains.
Otherwise, no one would claim Jiang Xun, and her soul wouldn't be able to find its way home.
Luo Nanqiu had thought that she was the only one in the world who could rightfully claim Jiang Xun.
But the arrival of Jiang Xun's mother shattered all of that.
Although Jiang Xun had grown up with her, Jiang Xun's household registration had been transferred to her mother's side long ago due to the divorce between Father Luo and Mother Jiang.
That woman, whom she hadn't seen in over a decade, had now come to claim Jiang Xun's remains, yet she didn't shed a single tear for her.
She looked indifferently at Jiang Xun's wound-covered body and sighed, "Take her away."
Luo Nanqiu was like a wild beast whose territory had been invaded. "You're going to take her?"
"What are you taking her for?"
At that moment, Luo Nanqiu had forgotten that she and Jiang Xun had no legal relationship. Even on the verge of an emotional breakdown, she wanted to take Jiang Xun away amicably.
Mother Jiang glanced at Luo Nanqiu, looking at her bloodshot eyes.
"It's Nanqiu."
"She is my daughter. I can arrange for her however I wish."
"But you haven't had any contact with Ah Xun for over a decade. You said before that you gave Ah Xun to me."
To this day, Luo Nanqiu still remembered the scene of Mother Jiang's departure.
Back then, Jiang Xun had still failed to manifest her Ability and was known by all as a good-for-nothing.
Mother Jiang had sighed at the time, "A good-for-nothing like you won't have a good future with me. Since Nanqiu likes you so much..."
"...then I'll give her to you." Mother Jiang's indifferent gaze fell upon Luo Nanqiu. She had disposed of her own daughter so casually, as if she were giving away an unwanted kitten or puppy.
Whenever Luo Nanqiu recalled this, a faint anger churned within her.
Back then, Mother Jiang had cast Jiang Xun aside like a worn-out shoe. Now that Jiang Xun was dead, why was she the first to arrive?
What value could the deceased Ah Xun possibly have?
Mother Jiang looked at her, a condescending pity and affection leaking from her eyes.
"Poor child." She wiped away the tear from the corner of Luo Nanqiu's eye and said indifferently.
"After all, in this world, only I have a legal relationship with Jiang Xun. Only I can rightfully claim her body."
Luo Nanqiu felt as if she had been struck by lightning.
A bad premonition grew stronger and stronger in her heart.
She wanted to lie to herself, to believe that Mother Jiang was only claiming the body but would surely return Jiang Xun to her.
It must be like that...
But how could that be possible?
Jiang Xun's mother was someone who would never do anything without a benefit.
She must have another purpose for taking Jiang Xun.
For example, Jiang Xun's Ability, which everyone coveted.
Why did she have no legal relationship with Jiang Xun? Why couldn't she rightfully claim her body?
Why didn't she have the power—the power to disregard everything, to break all the rules, the power to snatch Jiang Xun back?
Tears streamed wantonly down Luo Nanqiu's face. She tried countless times to grab Jiang Xun's hands, only to be stopped again and again by the security on site.
Why wouldn't they let her claim Jiang Xun's body?
She was clearly the one who loved her most in this world.
They were clearly the closest people in this world.
Clearly...
...
That's right. They had no legal relationship whatsoever.
Because she was too weak, without any power.
She watched helplessly as Mother Jiang took Jiang Xun's body from the Imperial Military.
Luo Nanqiu could imagine the fate of Jiang Xun's remains just by closing her eyes.
Sold by that money-grubbing woman, Mother Jiang, to the military, or sold to a laboratory, or perhaps half to the military and half to a laboratory.
No.
Gritting her teeth, Luo Nanqiu, who was desperately clinging to her sanity, finally thought of what she could do.
So many people wanted Jiang Xun's remains. Well, she wanted them the most, and she was the wealthiest.
She had lots and lots of money.
What she wanted, she had to get.
Luo Nanqiu spent a great deal of money on the dark web, placing the largest possible order to snatch Jiang Xun's remains back from Mother Jiang's hands.
She placed Jiang Xun in a cryo-coffin. Before she could even process the absurd, dream-like feeling of her situation, she received a marriage proposal from Qi Yi.
She found out about their subsequent plans for Jiang Xun.
The aftermath of Jiang Xun's death had not yet been fully investigated, but the crime of treason was about to be pinned on her.
There was definitely something fishy about this.
Definitely.
Luo Nanqiu forced her body, which was on the verge of collapse, to step onto the planet where the Insect Mother was dead but where the remaining insectoid forces still rampaged.
Extremely dangerous.
But she had to go.
She had to find out exactly why her Ah Xun...
Why she had left her.
Following the residual memories of her Ability, Luo Nanqiu found the coordinates of Jiang Xun's location before her death. She found one surveillance video after another and saw how Jiang Xun had, step by step, made her decision and ultimately walked to her death.
That final smile, that final sentence, was the last straw that broke Luo Nanqiu.
A birthday present.
A birthday present.
A birthday present.
A birthday present.
Luo Nanqiu let herself fall into Jiang Xun's cryo-coffin, letting the bloodstains and toxic slime corrode the hem of her magnificent, expensive dress.
She caressed Jiang Xun's heart.
Here was the birthday present Ah Xun had left for her.
Having seen the surveillance footage, she actually had a faint idea of what Ah Xun had left for her.
She also believed that people from the military would be following closely behind her and would see the final footage Ah Xun left behind.
They must know what a precious thing Ah Xun had left for her.
If they found out.
She wouldn't even be able to keep the last memento Ah Xun had left her.
A birthday present.
A birthday present.
Her birthday present.
How could it be this?
Luo Nanqiu couldn't stop her tears from falling, dripping onto Jiang Xun's cheeks.
She gently touched Jiang Xun's cold body, her warm fingers stopping at the spot over her heart, which was covered by Jiang Xun's own hand.
Jiang Xun's Divine Core was here.
Now, she had to unwrap the present herself and take it out.
And then-
Eat it.
Only by having this Divine Core inside her body could she prevent others from snatching it away.
Her birthday present.
Luo Nanqiu felt that she hated Jiang Xun a little.
How could she have said those words so calmly?
It was as if she had left her the best thing in the world, but in reality, she had given her the most profound curse.
Luo Nanqiu's fingertips were covered in blood. A sob caught in her throat, and the impact of the energy made it nearly impossible for her to stay conscious.
She heard the sound of many approaching footsteps.
She heard their heart-wrenching shouts, "It's too late, we're too late!"
But by now, Luo Nanqiu was like a wandering spirit. She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and used a scalpel to dig out Jiang Xun's heart.
She looked at the crowd that rushed in without a shred of understanding.
Luo Nanqiu felt a calm that came from the extremity of sorrow.
"Do you need something?" she asked, her hands covered in blood, holding that young heart.
The leading officer was startled and subconsciously took a few steps back.
She could see the madness, like a raging tempest, beneath Luo Nanqiu's calm exterior.
"You..."
"What did she leave you?" she asked tactfully after a moment of thought.
"What did she leave me?" Luo Nanqiu cradled the heart and, smiling, began to twirl.
The hem of her magnificent dress was tattered and torn, creating specks of light as it moved through the shadows.
"A heart," the owner of the dress murmured to herself as a tear fell from the corner of her eye.
"She was telling me that she loves me too, and that she's sorry she can't go public with me."
"My birthday present... is that she loves me too."
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