Chapter 308 – Fluorescent Stone for Money
“Why did she suddenly tell us?” Tang Ying spread the paper flat and placed it on Ye Hongci’s desk. “Hasn’t she always kept her abilities hidden?”
Ye Hongci turned around, not answering directly, but instead asking an unrelated question: “What do you think her ability is?”
Tang Ying didn’t think much and answered, “She only encountered alien beasts on Planet 4344, and even then it was under the surveillance cameras. She made no deliberate moves, always killing the alien beasts, yet she managed to gather so much information. Her ability is most likely something like telepathy.”
Ye Hongci nodded in agreement and then asked, “If you had known about her abilities beforehand, what would you have done?”
“Watch out for her,” Tang Ying replied. After saying that, she began to understand Ye Hongci’s point.
Ye Hongci walked back to her desk, slowly sat down in her chair, and stared at the yellowed paper on the desk, her eyes filled with a barely perceptible pity. “She’s afraid that if we find out about these abilities, we won’t let her leave.”
Tang Ying countered, “We’re not that despicable.”
The most we would do is lock her up, not let anyone see her, and wait until we find the ‘door’ to send her back as soon as possible.
Ye Hongci sighed. “She’s been through too much of this. On a subconscious level, she doesn’t trust anyone. For her to leave us a letter like this, it’s already the greatest goodwill she can show to the Haenden.”
Tang Ying pursed her lips, speechless, yet in agreement. Having fought alien beasts for so many years, she knew very well what this letter meant for the Haenden star system.
*
Taking advantage of the night, Tu Ran made her way back to the old neighborhood where she once lived.
The dilapidated six-story apartment complex was shrouded in darkness, with every household already asleep.
Tu Ran looked up from below at the fourth-floor window of the apartment she had rented. It was pitch black, and even the curtains weren’t drawn.
The anti-theft door of the apartment building was slightly ajar. Tu Ran pushed the door open. This old complex didn’t have any surveillance cameras, and since it was already 2 AM, she didn’t encounter anyone as she climbed the stairs, floor by floor.
When she finally reached the door of her rented apartment, half of the “Fu” character, which had been pasted for the Spring Festival, had fallen off. The only half that remained now had a white piece of paper stuck on it.
On the paper were black, neatly written characters: This apartment is for sale at a low price, followed by the landlord’s contact number.
Tu Ran placed her hand on the door lock. With a soft “click,” the lock snapped open, and the door creaked ajar.
She slowly pushed the door open and stepped inside. Her belongings were all gone, and the room had been completely renovated, with a new set of furniture.
In the corner of a chair, Tu Ran caught sight of several yellow talismans.
That’s right. She was already dead. Dead in this rented room, and her body had probably not been discovered for some time.
The only person she could think of who might have claimed her body was the orphanage director, her only contact during her lifetime.
Tu Ran gave one last glance at the cold, empty apartment before leaving. Before she left, she activated the [Wheel of Time], restoring the door lock to its original condition.
The home she had longed for had now become a thing of the past.
After leaving the complex, Tu Ran found a secluded corner without anyone around and no cameras in sight. She took out a set of casual clothes from her spatial storage and changed.
Once she was dressed, Tu Ran headed to a nearby park, found a bench, and sat down.
She took out the phone she had snatched from the green-haired man, entered the password, and logged into a news app to check what had happened in the world during the months she had been gone.
Nothing unusual had occurred. The world was still the same, as ordinary as ever. Even the smallest, trivial matters were enough to keep the media talking for days.
As Tu Ran scrolled through the news, she came across a headline: “Young woman living alone dies suddenly at home, body discovered three days later by landlord.”
Curious, she clicked on it, and to her surprise, there was a photo of her, her face blurred with pixelation. The background was her own furry carpet.
The origin of everything she had experienced in the other world started with her lying on that very carpet, falling into a deep sleep.
At the time, she had thought it was just a normal nap, unaware that it would be the last peaceful sleep she would have before being separated from this world.
Seeing the news of her own death, Tu Ran couldn’t quite describe the feeling. It was a strange mix of novelty, oddness, and sadness, all tangled together. The emotions gnawed at her heart, and she found herself staring at the news repeatedly. Eventually, she lay sideways on the wooden bench, gazing blankly at the starry sky.
The next morning, as the first light of dawn broke, Tu Ran stood up and walked toward the orphanage.
She had planned to buy some fruit on the way. However, when she opened her mobile payment app, the balance displayed 3.6, and she was stunned.
What could she buy with so little? Tu Ran quickly gave up on the idea of buying fruit and turned a corner toward the antique market.
After rummaging through her spatial storage, Tu Ran selected the fluorescent stone she had picked up from the beach in the Threshold, a stone as large as a human head.
Putting on a mask and sunglasses, she carried the stone through the crowd and headed for a jade shop.
