Chapter 128 - 17

Countdown 41:20:00.

Early in the morning, Qing Chen, Jiang Xue, and Li Tongyun set foot on the first bus returning to the city.

At this time, Jiang Xue had already quit her job as an art teacher, but Qing Chen and Li Tongyun still needed to go to school.

Jiang Xue was actually quite fond of her job, but the attribute she gained after becoming a time traveler was too conspicuous and hiding it by wearing gloves at all times easily attracted other people’s scrutiny.

It wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

Although her clinic in the Inner World had not yet opened for business, the investment from the Li Family was enough to allow her to live a comfortable life and exchange for some gold to bring back to the Outer World.

At present, Jiang Xue still didn’t have the capability to operate the clinic by herself. Replacing mechanical limbs was a profession with a high threshold of difficulty, it was simply impossible to learn within such a short amount of time.

Fortunately, the female tutor sent by the Li Family was very ‘competent’. Not only did she teach Jiang Xue both the theory and practical aspects, but whenever customers visited the clinic, she would also even help to receive their orders and replace their mechanical limbs.

The tutor’s salary was paid by the Li Family, and to tell the truth, business would still go on perfectly even without Jiang Xue managing the clinic…

But Jiang Xue herself was very eager to learn and never slacked off during her time in the Inner World.

She really wanted to master this craft so that she could become someone useful.

There were only three of them on the bus. Due to the kidnapping case, there weren’t many people in Laojun Mountain and even fewer so who took the earliest bus.

Qing Chen suddenly remembered something… He still had a lot of Japanese conversations to translate.

He opened a simultaneous translation app and recited what Kamidai Sorane said to him word by word, according to his memory.

Only then did he realize that Kamidai Sorane was bidding her goodbye and looking forward to the next time they met.

Afterward, Qing Chen also recalled Kamidai Josuke’s words from his memory: いつまで泣くんだ。お客さんが来ているんだぞ。せめて陳氏のエリートと結婚して欲しかった、神代空音の旦那は慶氏のゴミだ、こんな結果でも喜べ。

Written on the translation app: Stop crying, I need you to stand up and greet the guests. At least you’ll get married to an outstanding seedling from the younger generation of the Chen Family, Kamidai Sorane is going to be married off to a trash from the Qing Family. Your outcome is already very good.

For a while, Qing Chen was speechless. It turned out his teacher really understood Japanese and wasn’t merely pulling on his leg.

The more he thought about it, Li Shutong translating Kamidai Josuke’s “I’m going to silence all of you” as “He wants to die here” was actually not wrong at all…

His teacher’s translation was very honest.

Li Tongyun leaned over the back of Qing Chen’s chair and asked, “Brother Qing Chen, what are you mumbling about?”

“Nothing,” replied Qing Chen with a smile.

After arriving in Luo City, Qing Chen went straight to school and stepped into his classroom.

Unexpectedly, instead of greeting him, Nan Gengchen’s first reaction upon seeing Qing Chen was to cover his face.

“That’s enough,” Qing Chen huffed, “Stop making it such a big deal, nobody even knows aside from me, and it’s not like we’re outsiders. I won’t tell anyone else about your affairs.”

Nan Gengchen abashedly put down his hands and defensively spoke, “What affairs? Why don’t I get what you’re talking about?”

Qing Chen sighed, “I know you’re embarrassed, but there’s no need to be so oversensitive ya*1.”

“Duck?” Nan Gengchen raised his eyebrows, “What duck? I’m not a duck!*2“

Qing Chen, “…”

He stopped paying attention to this guy and opened his phone to look at the latest news.

There was a very interesting trend: the travel trajectory of this National Day holiday was completely different from the previous ones. The flow of traffic in the 19 cities which had been confirmed as ‘beta testing sites’ for time travelers had boomed explosively.

Another piece of news mentioned a man who had been spending his weekends going to adjoining ‘time-traveler cities’ since they first appeared. He didn’t have much money and would sleep in internet cafes after going to those cities, only returning to the city his job was located when it was time for him to start working again.

Apart from these people who could only come during their off days, there were of course those who directly moved to settle down in the 19 cities.

In the group chat of Qing Chen’s middle school classmates, someone said there were transfer students in practically every class of their school.

This was in line with Qing Chen’s expectations. The 19 cities which could produce ‘beta tester qualifications’ would become more and more bustling.

He went on to check other news.

Unlike usual, He Xiaoxiao didn’t post about any tips or strategies upon returning this time. He only sent out a short video saying that the data fortress was about to be completed and a communication platform for time travelers would be launched soon.

At that time, anyone who wished to join the platform would have to go through some verification. They would only be able to join once it was confirmed that they were indeed time travelers.

Qing Chen suddenly asked, “Hey, where’s Wang Yun and Bai Wan’er?”

Nan Gengchen lowered his voice and said, “You don’t know? It’s said that Wang Yun died. Bai Wan’er also transferred schools and moved away.”

Qing Chen pretended to be shocked, “She died!?”

“Yes, Zhang Tianzhen from the next class said Wang Yun was killed by a big figure in the Inner World,” said Nan Gengchen, “Someone also said the Wang Family wants to take revenge. Don’t worry, Brother Chen, I’ll never tell anyone it was you who broke her legs. I’ll take this secret to my grave, it’s more important than even my own secret!”

“Then why did Bai Wan’er transfer schools?” asked Qing Chen.

“You haven’t checked the group chat, right? She said goodbye to everyone in the group chat,” Nan Gengchen continued, “Maybe her best friend’s death affected her a lot, not only did she leave the group, she also deleted every single student from her friend list.”

Qing Chen thought to himself, after facing such a big accident, ordinary high school students really wouldn’t be able to pretend like nothing ever happened.

He was training very hard these days, so he hadn’t paid much attention to the happenings in the class.

But what made Qing Chen feel strange was even after checking the news for so long, he didn’t find anything related to Li Shutong’s disappearance from Prison 18.

Could it be that nobody had found out even up to this moment? Or was there someone who knew but didn’t dare to talk about it in order not to reveal their identity?

This time around, no one came forward to divulge anything. Hu Xiaoniu and Zhang Tianzhen were still in the hospital, and Bai Wan’er had just transferred and left, so the atmosphere was a little heavy.

During the first class break in the afternoon, Jiang Xue suddenly sent Qingchen a WeChat message: ‘Xiaochen, come back quickly, a housing agent came to bring someone to look at your unit, and this agent even has the key. I asked them and they said the house owner is putting it on sale. It seems like your father also came, but he’s gone now.’

Qing Chen was stunned for a moment. Counting the days, it was indeed time for Qing Guozhong to come out of detention.

He couldn’t care about the rest of his classes and immediately hurried home.