Chapter 1073: Good News and Bad News
Gao Xinxin placed the canvas in the back and slid into the passenger seat, clicking her seatbelt into place. “Where’s my brother?”
“Walled City of Ten Dragons.” Wang Zikai gave her a cryptic look. “I’ve got good news for you.”
Gao Xinxin blinked. “What is it?”
“Vermilion Bird woke up.”
“Really?!” Gao Xinxin straightened in her seat. “When?”
“This morning. Your brother brought her back.”
“How?”
Wang Zikai shifted in his seat. “It’s, uh, confidential information. Can't tell you.” In truth, he didn't know either.
“Let’s go. I wanna meet her.”
“Not today,” Wang Zikai said. “With her waking up, they have a lot to do. You don’t have to visit her now.”
“True.” Gao Xinxin nodded. “Then take me home.”
“Yeah.” Wang Zikai reached for the gear shift, then paused. He pulled a photo from his pocket. “What you asked for. Here.”
Gao Xinxin took it; it was the group photo Gao Yang, Fresh Snow, and the two of them had taken on the Lunar New Year’s Eve.
She snorted at it. “No matter how many times I look at it, it’s still so ugly! I don’t even know how he took the picture.”
“Then why print it?”
“It’s a good memento exactly because everyone’s ugly, haha.” Gao Xinxin looked at Fresh Snow in the photo. “Well, except for Fresh Snow. The girl’s always pretty no matter what. I envy her.”
Wang Zikai’s smile stilled. He fell silent.
“What?” Gao Xinxin realized that something was wrong.
“Nothing.” Wang Zikai started the car.
“It’s written on your face that something is wrong.” Gao Xinxin rolled her eyes at him. “Speak, or I’ll jump out of the car!”
“Gao Xinxin.” Wang Zikai looked ahead, looking a little sad. “In addition to the good news, I have bad news for you.”
Gao Xinxin’s heart clenched. She had a guess, but she didn’t want to think about it.
“Fresh Snow…” Wang Zikai’s hands tightened around the steering wheel. “Fresh Snow, she—”
“She what?” Gao Xinxin burst out.
“I think, it’s just what I think…”
“Just talk!!”
“Fresh Snow…may be gone.” Wang Zikai finally said it.
Silence filled the car. Finally, Gao Xinxin whispered, “What made you think so?”
“Don’t know.”Wang Zikai's eyes narrowed, his voice uncharacteristically mature. “Call it a hunch.”
“Don’t make me laugh,” Gao Xinxin said reflexively. “Your hunch’s never right.”
Wang Zikai sighed. “Gao Yang said that White Dew had taken Fresh Snow to travel around the world, that Fresh Snow calls him instead of writing him letters now. White Dew doesn’t trust anyone else, so Fresh Snow is only allowed to call Gao Yang.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Well, I accidentally—and I do mean accidentally,” Wang Zikai paused, “I saw in his call history that there wasn’t any from Fresh Snow, and the last time he was in contact with White Dew was before the Lunar New Year.”
Gao Xinxin fell silent.
“And haven’t you noticed? Gao Yang never talks about Fresh Snow with us now. When we bring her up, he immediately changes the subject.”
Tears welled in Gao Xinxin's eyes. She had noticed, but she hadn't let herself follow that thought.
Wang Zikai let out another sigh. “Last night, I played games with Gao Yang until he fell asleep on the sofa at midnight. He was crying, he cried and called out to Fresh Snow—”
“Stop it…” Gao Xinxin covered her face, her shoulders shaking as tears slipped between her fingers.
Wang Zikai was restless too. He pushed the accelerator further and turned on the radio, drowning out everything music. The car sped up steadily. Streetlight danced on their faces; it seemed like they were traveling through time.
The moment that jumped into their minds when they thought of Fresh Snow differed; Wang Zikai remembered playing games with her, while Gao Xinxin remembered the meal they shared on New Year’s Eve.
Finally, their trip through the memory lane stopped at the same destination: the smile she had on her face when they took the picture together.
In it, the silver-haired girl looked at the camera with pursed lips, her smile expectant, happy, shy, and a little nervous. As if she was standing in line waiting for happiness, afraid she might miss her turn.
…
Wang Zikai drove along the river until Gao Xinxin settled down. He asked quietly, “Hungry? Wanna grab a bite?”
“No, I want to go home and sleep.” Gao Xinxin shook her head and sniffed, her eyes red.
“You have to play dumb, Gao Xinxin.”
“Yeah.”
“We have to be happy so that your brother won’t worry. Hear me?” For once, Wang Zikai acted like an older brother.
“Yeah.”
“Your brother’s birthday is tomorrow. We’ll celebrate together like we planned, the three of us.”
“Yeah.”
“Your gift?”
“I’m buying one tomorrow afternoon. Pick me up in the evening.”
“Alright,” Wang Zikai said. “Have you thought of what you’re giving him?”
“Not yet.” Gao Xinxin asked, “You?”
“I’ve prepared something,” Wang Zikai said, sounding pleased with himself.
“What is it?”
“I’m not telling you!” Wang Zikai played up the secrecy. “You’ll know tomorrow. Your brother’s gonna love it!”
“I don’t trust your taste,” Gao Xinxin retorted, forcing a lighter tone. “I’ll call it a win if my brother doesn’t criticize it in person.”
“No way! Noooo waaaaay!” Wang Zikai countered. “Wanna bet? Whose gifts your brother’s gonna like more?”
“You’re on!” Gao Xinxin scoffed. “The loser is paying for the birthday cake!”
“Get your money ready!”
“Ha, only in your dream!”
…
Nine o’clock the next morning.
First-floor meeting room, former Black Tortoise branch, Walled City of Ten Dragons.
A meeting commenced under Gao Yang and Vermilion Bird’s initiative, joined by War Tiger, Qing Ling, Nine Frost, Chen Ying, Heavenly Dog, Zhang Wei, Dr. Jia, One Stone, Raven Shark, Ke Yo, and Gregor.
These were all the awakeners currently in Li City, outside of Lovely Lamb and Wang Weiyan.
The briefing took less than an hour.
“So,” War Tiger sat at the far end of the long table and rested his feet on it, legs crossed. With a cigarette in his mouth, he was about to fish for his lighter when he stopped at Vermilion Bird’s death glare. He twirled the cigarette in his hand instead. “We figure out where the blood mist came from, and that will lead us to a way out. That it?”
“That’s the hypothesis Vermilion Bird and I came to,” Gao Yang said.
“Based on nothing but a damn poem?” Gregor barked. He was annoyed for having his writing session interrupted and dragged here to have this damn meeting.
“It’s not just any poem, but one heard from a lightbringer,” Vermilion Bird responded.
Nine Frost shared the view. “Based on what we know, Yun must know many secrets. She was the one who helped Lin Yue the life monster hide the fact that Captain was the Divine Scion”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Zhang Wei said impatiently. “Let’s go!”
The past two months had yielded nothing but dead ends. No Gates, no Godbearer Cult, no mysterious ruins—just the steady approach of the world's end. Some had begun to wonder if Qilin was right, that the Mist World truly offered no escape. Now, finally, they had a lead. Hope stirred in the room.
“Anything to contribute, Dr. Jia?” Gao Yang asked.
Dr. Jia was acting quite unlike his usual self. He hadn't looked up from his tablet since Gao Yang shared his interpretation of the poem, fingers moving rapidly across the screen.
“Me?” Dr. Jia continued with whatever he was working on. “You talk too much. Better to just check it out.”
“Easier said than done.” War Tiger snorted. “Who knew where the blood mist originated?”
“What do you think I’ve been doing?” Dr. Jia shot back coolly.
“Holy shit!” Zhang Wei shouted. “Dr. Jia, have you…”
“I’ve narrowed it down.” Dr. Jia tapped on the tablet once and slid it to the center of the table. Everyone leaned in to look at the screen.
He said proudly, “I’ve had the idea of tracing the blood mist to the Gates of Closure since Qilin said that the Gates was where it originated. Although the blood mist spread across the isolated islands unnaturally fast, it did come from a specific direction first. That means there must be a source.”
“By collecting data on when and where the mist first appeared on each island, I created a model. The results pointed to Li City.”
“Why didn’t you bring this up, Old Jia?!” War Tiger raised his voice. “This is important info!”
“Is it?” Dr. Jia said dismissively. “I have many important studies. Besides, the Li City has been combed wholly through. No one ever found a doorway. I thought I might have made the calculation wrong, or perhaps the Gates were hidden in a subspace only Qilin could access. I had many other projects to work on then, so I put this aside.”
“Now that Qilin admitted that the Gates were his invention, yet the blood mist exists for real, I agree that we should get to the bottom of it—well, the source of it.”
He pointed at a red spot on the map. “I’ve done the calculation again and narrowed it down further. The source of the mist should be in this area.”
Everyone looked at the little red dot; then all of them fell silent with varying expressions.
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