Walking to the side of the girl lying in a pool of blood, Xu Xiaoyou crouched down to check her vitals, confirming that there were no signs of life. The girl's skin was a sickly, pathological white, and the dark greenish veins on the surface indicated that she had been dead for some time.
It was late autumn in Dragonfly Town, and the air was dry. Combined with the apartment being located in a remote district, she was likely the first person to witness this scene.
Xu Xiaoyou's mind calmed instantly as she scanned the surroundings; there were no signs of a struggle nearby, the doors and windows were intact, and the only footprints leading from the living room to the study were hers and Bai Youyou's. It was completely impossible to silently kill a grade 4 fixer.
The possibility of homicide could basically be ruled out.
It was a suicide, but why?
She thought back to the words of the little green leaf; Bai Youyou had come to the Mint Green Leaf Shop looking for her every day during this period. Was there some question she wanted to ask?
"Who am I?" Xu Xiaoyou murmured, looking at the words left on the wall.
She had imagined that the girl might be confused or even terrified after learning her true identity through various means, but she had never expected this. Based on her understanding of Bai Youyou's character, she would never have done something so impulsive.
A cold wind blew the thin curtains, drifting into the room from outside the window, and a chill rose from the back of Xu Xiaoyou's neck.
Her intuition told her that there was more to this matter than met the eye.
"Yuzu..."
Just then, a faint girl's voice came from behind her.
Xu Xiaoyou rose calmly and looked back. The red-haired girl was standing dazed by the doorframe, her gaze shifting back and forth between her and the black-haired girl in the pool of blood, looking somewhat at a loss.
"I... when I woke up and saw you weren't in the shop, I asked the people there and found out you had gone out. Based on the direction they pointed, I guessed who you were looking for... so I followed you."
Akabane Tsubaki's voice was slightly raspy, sounding as if she had just woken up not long ago.
"Keep this a secret for me," Xu Xiaoyou said as she stood up.
"Of course I won't say anything!" Akabane Tsubaki said urgently, trying to organize her thoughts. "It's just that this..."
"It wasn't me," Xu Xiaoyou sighed. "She committed suicide."
"Who told you to say such ambiguous things?" Akabane Tsubaki muttered. "This isn't her, right?"
"At least, it's not the Youyou you know."
"When I said to keep it a secret, I meant her."
"Sister You?"
"I'll notify the people from the Mountain Crow family to come here later. As for how to handle this, that's a matter for the association and the Five Great Chi Families." Xu Xiaoyou did not answer the question directly.
Watching Xu Xiaoyou walk past her, the voice rising in Akabane Tsubaki's heart blurted out.
"Don't you have anything you want to say?"
"What is there to say?" Xu Xiaoyou asked in return.
The two faced each other, the silence heavy.
"Don't worry, I know what you want to ask. I believe my emotions aren't as indifferent as my face looks. It's just that this happened so suddenly, I'm not sure what kind of mood I should use to face it."
Xu Xiaoyou shook her head and slightly raised her hand. The bunch of blood-red roses on the ground flew back into her hand.
"It might be abrupt to say this, but I feel it's better to speak clearly face-to-face. No one knows if this will be the last time they see someone they know. Don't always leave behind misunderstandings and regrets."
"Don't say such unlucky things."
Whether it was Angelina's sudden condition or what happened today, everything made Akabane Tsubaki very uneasy.
It was as if a haze shrouded her heart. She wanted to say more, but seeing Xu Xiaoyou's calm face, she subconsciously pursed her lips.
"Let's go back to the shop first."
Not long after the two girls left, near the pool of blood, the shattered curtain in the shadow under the table suddenly lit up, projecting an image. A floating cursor lingered on an unsent draft message page, which contained a single sentence.
'No matter who I am, please kill me.'
The space around it warped, and a figure slowly stepped out. She knelt down, pulled down the mask on her face, and a lock of long black hair fell from beside her ear.
She skillfully inserted a needle-like forbidden object into the girl's prefrontal lobe, extracting a multicolored substance. She then picked up the curtain from the pool of blood with her fingertips, maintaining communication with someone. Her voice was steady, devoid of any fluctuations.
After a long while, she put away the forbidden object containing the extracted memory essence and gazed in the direction the two girls had gone.
"Subject No. 70 recovery complete."
When the two girls returned to the Mint Green Leaf Shop, they found someone had been waiting for them for a long time.
The moment she saw the young man, Akabane Tsubaki's eyes widened, and she blurted out:
"Brother?"
A young man with maple-red short hair sat at the bar, his aura peaceful. He was dressed in a red military uniform, his appearance exceptionally handsome, with the Akabane family crest on his chest radiating a faint glow. Upon seeing the two, he stood up with a relaxed smile.
"A pleasure to meet you, Dark Gold Rose. I am the head of the Chi family, Chi Qiu."
"Brother, why are you here?" Akabane Tsubaki hurried to the young man's side, her speech accelerating.
"What, as an elder brother who is exhausted from handling accumulated political affairs daily, can't I even come to visit you?"
"That's not what I meant..." Akabane Tsubaki opened her mouth. "Didn't a Zerg riot happen over at Devil Tower City recently, with the front line in an emergency? I thought you'd be at the Devil Tower military district by now..."
"I just returned not long ago," Chi Qiu nodded.
"You're here for Yuzu, right? I'll go pour tea for you." Saying this, Akabane Tsubaki guiltily and quickly slipped away, vanishing from their sight in the blink of an eye.
"Dark Gold Rose."
Seeing Akabane Tsubaki was far enough away, Chi Qiu's expression became respectful and solemn.
"My sister is usually willful and lively. She has caused you a lot of trouble recently."
"Save the pleasantries," Xu Xiaoyou said. "It is not easy for you, the family head, to pull yourself away from your busy schedule. If you have something to say, speak plainly."
Chi Qiu lowered his eyes for a moment before speaking.
"The situation in Red Heaven is not optimistic. The signs of the Eight-Spider Hive Mother's revival are becoming more obvious. In recent years, the Zerg riots have reached their highest peak in a century. The four tower cities are in danger of falling at any moment. There is no more time for the Five Great Chi Families to slowly search for the remains of the Eight-Spider Hive Mother."
"We need to assemble all our forces and launch a general offensive on the four tower cities at any cost. The goal includes annihilating all high-level Zerg above the priest rank, destroying more than ninety percent of their large hatching nests and military factories, cutting off their communication network, and..."
"Completely destroying the remains and killing the Eight-Spider Hive Mother."
"This battle is urgent and vital. Even if we have to drain the blood of our generation, we must win. It concerns the life and death of hundreds of millions of people in all of Red Heaven."
"I know it's abrupt to suddenly approach you with this, but I know you are participating in the Visiting Battle by Overstepping Authority in Oasis, competing for that Sovereign Key alongside my sister."
Xu Xiaoyou sighed lightly. She knew it.
Why was everyone coming to her today to discuss things related to the Sovereign Key? Had she disturbed some nest of major powers? First, it was the Dawn Society, and now the Chi family, which held the vast majority of Universal Heavy Industries' military power. Was the Sovereign Key some delicious morsel everyone wanted a bite of?
As if guessing her thoughts, Chi Qiu continued, "Of course, I don't dare to hope for that Sovereign Key; that would be too rude to you."
"I only hope that after you obtain the Sovereign Key, you can use its power to establish a simulation war zone related to this battle within Oasis."
Xu Xiaoyou's heart stirred.
"A simulation war zone?"
Rate on N.U.
