The next day after Gao Yang left the Rune Cave at Cattle Farm Station, a funeral was held for Wan Sisi. A truck had been found after Wan Sisi’s ‘car accident’, but not the culprit. Therefore, her burial was put off by a few days.
Early morning saw a small drizzle shrouding the city in a melancholy gray. After the morning self-study session, Gao Yang and his classmates followed their homeroom teacher out of the school, riding a bus to the funeral home.
Qing Ling sat down next to Gao Yang as soon as she got on. Since their ‘relationship’ had become an open secret in class, there was no need for them to act distant.
There was a bandaid on Qing Ling’s cheek, and on her wrist was a faint blue bruise.
Gao Yang didn’t even need to think to figure out that she had gone through another night of hellish training with War Tiger.
“Did you level up?” asked Gao Yang.
That hit a nerve, and the cool look on Qing Ling’s face turned positively frosty. “No.”
“Is there a problem? Maybe you’re going about it the wrong way?” On one hand, Gao Yang was concerned about Qing Ling. On the other hand, he was curious about how one would level up their Talents. Sooner or later, he would have to go through the same process.
“There’s no special method,” Qing Ling said broodingly.
“What?” Gao Yang thought he heard wrong.
“Carry the Rune Circuit with you, and when the time is right, it will resonate with your Talent naturally. There is no evidence proving that training will accelerate level-ups.” Qing Ling gave the spiel at a deliberate pace. Then she added, “That was what War Tiger told me.”
Gao Yang was both surprised and amused. “Then you’ve been training for nothing?”
“Leveling up a Talent isn’t the only way to get stronger. Training improves my overall strength.”
Qing Ling then put on a pair of wireless noise-canceling earphones and a black sleep mask. It seemed that she was going to take a nap on the bus.
Gao Yang couldn’t help feeling a sense of respect for her. She would make the perfect protagonist for an underdog story. Actually, she would be the main character of a shonen manga were she a boy.
In comparison, Gao Yang had been increasing his overall strength through putting Luck points into his stats, making the process easier for him than for other awakeners.
Well, not exactly easy. It was too slow to accumulate points under normal circumstances. Most of his Luck points came from him risking his life and walking the high wire between life and death.
Gao Yang would’ve chosen to get stronger through training if he had a choice. It would be slower, but at least it would be safe.
“Wait, don’t sleep just yet.” Gao Yang quickly lifted Qing Ling’s mask.
Qing Ling opened her eyes with a frown, her gaze shooting daggers at him. “What?”
Gao Yang lowered his voice as much as possible. “Have you been carrying the Damage Rune Circuit with you the past few days?”
Qing Ling nodded.
“Even when we went to the Rune Cave at Cattle Farm Station?”
“Yes.”
“War Tiger told you to do it?”
“Yes.”
Gao Yang didn’t know what else to say. He gave her a secret thumbs-up in his heart.
She had balls of steel, figuratively speaking.
The bus made a sudden brake as soon as it set out. Caught off guard, Gao Yang shot forward and almost hit the back of the seat before him.
“Oww! What the heck?”
“What’s going on?”
“Who’s that?”
His classmates complained among themselves.
Click.
Then the front door of the bus opened, and a figure dove in, silencing the complaints by his mere presence.
“Gao Yang!”
Wang Zikai waved at Gao Yang with a grin from the front of the bus. Gao Yang felt a headache brewing. Why was the idiot here?
“What’s this, Wang Zikai?” Their homeroom teacher asked the question Gao Yang had been wondering.
“Although I’ve dropped out of school, Wan Sisi was a classmate and a good friend. How can I not attend her funeral?”
He was so loud that it sounded like he was making sure everyone in the car could hear him.
Gao Yang suppressed an eyeroll. Wan Sisi and you said less than a sentence to each other every semester. Good friend? In your past life?
“Up, Qing Ling. I wanna sit with Gao Yang!” Wang Zikai ordered loudly after coming up to Qing Ling’s seat.
She was still resting with her eyes closed. Without saying a word, she moved her right hand to her left waist, which was what she did before drawing her sword to kill someone.
Gao Yang quickly pushed her right hand back down. Wang Zikai thus didn’t see her warning move.
“Come on, let’s sit there.” Gao Yang stood up and dragged Wang Zikai to an empty row.
The moment they sat down, Wang Zikai shared with Gao Yang like he had been waiting for it, “My qilin arm has gained another ability, bro!”
“Really?” Gao Yang was shocked. He wasn’t sure if he should be happy or concerned.
“I’ll show you.” Wang Zikai tightened his right fist.
“Don’t...”
Gao Yang didn’t get to voice his disapproval fully before three sharp skeletal claws shot out of the back of Wang Zikai’s right hand with a swoosh. Each of them was about 20 centimeters long and the color of a muted dark gray. They looked sharp, enough to cut through iron like butter. It reminded Gao Yang of Caniverine from Y-Men[1].
“Put, put them back!” Gao Yang blanched.
And swish, the bone claws retracted back into Wang Zikai’s hand. Wang Zikai said while radiating excitement, “I tested them yesterday. I can cut through steel pipes like spring onions!”
“Wow, cool,” Gao Yang humored Wang Zikai while his heart pounded.
Wang Zikai had been tapping more and more into his potential as a monster. Fortunately, his intelligence—or the lack thereof—was unchanged. Gao Yang hoped that things would remain so going forward. He would hate to lose a friend and gain an enemy.
...
Inside the mourning hall of the funeral home, the light was dim, and the air thick with tension. Most attendees looked heartbroken and mournful.
Not even the best mortician would be able to restore a headless body. Therefore, the funeral was held with a coffin filled with white flowers in place of the deceased girl.
Before the coffin was a black-and-white picture of Wan Sisi. The girl smiled bashfully, her big, dark eyes gentle and shy. Alive, she had been too easy-going for her own good. She often blushed because of someone’s teasing, yet she never lost her temper with anyone.
Suddenly, Gao Yang’s mind was brought back to the fruit shop in his hometown.
Dressed in a pristine white short sleeve uniform and a dark blue checkered skirt, the petite girl in his memory leaned toward the shelf slightly with her hands behind her back, inspecting the fresh fruit on sale. Her soft, medium-length hair framed her fair face. There was an easy gentleness to her voice as she asked, ‘Are the cherries sweet, Mister?’
The beautiful moment of everyday life would forever be a snippet of memory.
Gao Yang felt another pang in his heart.
He turned to look at Wan Sisi’s mother. The middle-aged woman had a sunken, hollow face. The thin layer of makeup did nothing to cover the sharp, difficult impression she gave off.
She didn’t cry. The look on her face wasn’t so much sorrow, but numbness.
She bowed to the attendees politely but awkwardly. Gao Yang wondered what she was thinking.
After everyone had offered a flower to the dead and listened to the brief remark made by the family with their homeroom teacher, they departed from the funeral home one by one, gathering outside.
Gao Yang stepped out to find many girls’ eyes red with tears.
It was no surprise to him. Wan Sisi was popular for her kind and gentle temperament. No one would’ve expected her to die suddenly, least of all in a manner as terrible as getting her head crushed by a truck.
A girl who had been close to Wan Sisi walked up to Gao Yang and said seriously, “I know you’re with Qing Ling, Gao Yang, but there’s something I have to tell you.”
Gao Yang looked up at her.
“Wan Sisi had feelings for you, she always did. I just want you to know because she would never be able to say it herself now.”
Gao Yang tightened his fists until his knuckles were white and nodded with difficulty.
As soon as the girl left, Niu Xuan came up to him with his two sidekicks.
He had been resentful of Gao Yang since what happened at the karaoke. He remembered getting drunk that day. When he woke up, he was sore all over like he had been beat up thoroughly. He suspected that Gao Yang had done that while he was drunk, but he didn’t have any evidence.
When he first heard about Wan Sisi, Niu Xuan was shocked and rueful.
Thinking about her relationship with Gao Yang, however, he began to feel a vicious joy from Gao Yang’s suffering.
“Hey, isn’t this Young Master Yang?” Niu Xuan taunted.
Gao Yang turned to leave, already fed up.
“You sure are fated to be alone!” Niu Xuan quickly caught up to him, chasing him doggedly. “First there was Li Weiwei. Then it’s Wan Sisi. Both died so very young. Would Qing Ling be the next?”
“But that won’t be a problem for you, will it? Young Master Yang is so charismatic that women just flock to him. You can’t welcome the new if you don’t cast away the old.”
Gao Yang stopped walking, turning around to face Niu Xuan.
Niu Xuan’s mocking smile froze. Something about Gao Yang’s vicious stare gave him pause. He had never in his life felt such strong fear and felt it so keenly. It was as if he would die if he dared say another word.
It was absurd. Simply absurd!
Gao Yang wouldn’t dare kill a man in broad daylight no matter how emboldened he was. Why, then, was his instinct telling him that Gao Yang would not only kill him, but crush him like a fly?
Why was he terrified?
What was going on?
“Apologize,” Gao Yang enunciated every syllable.
Niu Xuan’s two sidekicks rushed up to him. “Gao Yang, what the fuck is that attitude...”
“Shut up!” Niu Xuan growled, shuddering all over and breaking into cold sweat. “I, I apologize.”
“Who are you apologizing to?”
“You, as well as Li Weiwei and Wan Sisi... I, I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have made a joke about them. I’ve made a terrible mistake. I’m truly sorry.”
Gao Yang’s gaze remained fixed on Niu Xuan. He only blinked away the killing intent in his eyes after three seconds.
“Get out of my sight.”
With a shudder, Niu Xuan staggered two steps back and broke out of his fear-induced stupor. He didn’t know what just happened. It felt like something other than him had taken over the body—another personality, or perhaps a different will.
Humiliated, Niu Xuan turned around and ran away, leaving his two sidekicks staring at each other awkwardly, at a loss of what to do.
Just when Gao Yang was going to make his departure as well, someone called out to him.
“Little Cousin!”
1. A reference to Wolverine from X-men. ?
The next day after Gao Yang left the Rune Cave at Cattle Farm Station, a funeral was held for Wan Sisi. A truck had been found after Wan Sisi’s ‘car accident’, but not the culprit. Therefore, her burial was put off by a few days.
Early morning saw a small drizzle shrouding the city in a melancholy gray. After the morning self-study session, Gao Yang and his classmates followed their homeroom teacher out of the school, riding a bus to the funeral home.
Qing Ling sat down next to Gao Yang as soon as she got on. Since their ‘relationship’ had become an open secret in class, there was no need for them to act distant.
There was a bandaid on Qing Ling’s cheek, and on her wrist was a faint blue bruise.
Gao Yang didn’t even need to think to figure out that she had gone through another night of hellish training with War Tiger.
“Did you level up?” asked Gao Yang.
That hit a nerve, and the cool look on Qing Ling’s face turned positively frosty. “No.”
“Is there a problem? Maybe you’re going about it the wrong way?” On one hand, Gao Yang was concerned about Qing Ling. On the other hand, he was curious about how one would level up their Talents. Sooner or later, he would have to go through the same process.
“There’s no special method,” Qing Ling said broodingly.
“What?” Gao Yang thought he heard wrong.
“Carry the Rune Circuit with you, and when the time is right, it will resonate with your Talent naturally. There is no evidence proving that training will accelerate level-ups.” Qing Ling gave the spiel at a deliberate pace. Then she added, “That was what War Tiger told me.”
Gao Yang was both surprised and amused. “Then you’ve been training for nothing?”
“Leveling up a Talent isn’t the only way to get stronger. Training improves my overall strength.”
Qing Ling then put on a pair of wireless noise-canceling earphones and a black sleep mask. It seemed that she was going to take a nap on the bus.
Gao Yang couldn’t help feeling a sense of respect for her. She would make the perfect protagonist for an underdog story. Actually, she would be the main character of a shonen manga were she a boy.
In comparison, Gao Yang had been increasing his overall strength through putting Luck points into his stats, making the process easier for him than for other awakeners.
Well, not exactly easy. It was too slow to accumulate points under normal circumstances. Most of his Luck points came from him risking his life and walking the high wire between life and death.
Gao Yang would’ve chosen to get stronger through training if he had a choice. It would be slower, but at least it would be safe.
“Wait, don’t sleep just yet.” Gao Yang quickly lifted Qing Ling’s mask.
Qing Ling opened her eyes with a frown, her gaze shooting daggers at him. “What?”
Gao Yang lowered his voice as much as possible. “Have you been carrying the Damage Rune Circuit with you the past few days?”
Qing Ling nodded.
“Even when we went to the Rune Cave at Cattle Farm Station?”
“Yes.”
“War Tiger told you to do it?”
“Yes.”
Gao Yang didn’t know what else to say. He gave her a secret thumbs-up in his heart.
She had balls of steel, figuratively speaking.
The bus made a sudden brake as soon as it set out. Caught off guard, Gao Yang shot forward and almost hit the back of the seat before him.
“Oww! What the heck?”
“What’s going on?”
“Who’s that?”
His classmates complained among themselves.
Click.
Then the front door of the bus opened, and a figure dove in, silencing the complaints by his mere presence.
“Gao Yang!”
Wang Zikai waved at Gao Yang with a grin from the front of the bus. Gao Yang felt a headache brewing. Why was the idiot here?
“What’s this, Wang Zikai?” Their homeroom teacher asked the question Gao Yang had been wondering.
“Although I’ve dropped out of school, Wan Sisi was a classmate and a good friend. How can I not attend her funeral?”
He was so loud that it sounded like he was making sure everyone in the car could hear him.
Gao Yang suppressed an eyeroll. Wan Sisi and you said less than a sentence to each other every semester. Good friend? In your past life?
“Up, Qing Ling. I wanna sit with Gao Yang!” Wang Zikai ordered loudly after coming up to Qing Ling’s seat.
She was still resting with her eyes closed. Without saying a word, she moved her right hand to her left waist, which was what she did before drawing her sword to kill someone.
Gao Yang quickly pushed her right hand back down. Wang Zikai thus didn’t see her warning move.
“Come on, let’s sit there.” Gao Yang stood up and dragged Wang Zikai to an empty row.
The moment they sat down, Wang Zikai shared with Gao Yang like he had been waiting for it, “My qilin arm has gained another ability, bro!”
“Really?” Gao Yang was shocked. He wasn’t sure if he should be happy or concerned.
“I’ll show you.” Wang Zikai tightened his right fist.
“Don’t...”
Gao Yang didn’t get to voice his disapproval fully before three sharp skeletal claws shot out of the back of Wang Zikai’s right hand with a swoosh. Each of them was about 20 centimeters long and the color of a muted dark gray. They looked sharp, enough to cut through iron like butter. It reminded Gao Yang of Caniverine from Y-Men[1].
“Put, put them back!” Gao Yang blanched.
And swish, the bone claws retracted back into Wang Zikai’s hand. Wang Zikai said while radiating excitement, “I tested them yesterday. I can cut through steel pipes like spring onions!”
“Wow, cool,” Gao Yang humored Wang Zikai while his heart pounded.
Wang Zikai had been tapping more and more into his potential as a monster. Fortunately, his intelligence—or the lack thereof—was unchanged. Gao Yang hoped that things would remain so going forward. He would hate to lose a friend and gain an enemy.
...
Inside the mourning hall of the funeral home, the light was dim, and the air thick with tension. Most attendees looked heartbroken and mournful.
Not even the best mortician would be able to restore a headless body. Therefore, the funeral was held with a coffin filled with white flowers in place of the deceased girl.
Before the coffin was a black-and-white picture of Wan Sisi. The girl smiled bashfully, her big, dark eyes gentle and shy. Alive, she had been too easy-going for her own good. She often blushed because of someone’s teasing, yet she never lost her temper with anyone.
Suddenly, Gao Yang’s mind was brought back to the fruit shop in his hometown.
Dressed in a pristine white short sleeve uniform and a dark blue checkered skirt, the petite girl in his memory leaned toward the shelf slightly with her hands behind her back, inspecting the fresh fruit on sale. Her soft, medium-length hair framed her fair face. There was an easy gentleness to her voice as she asked, ‘Are the cherries sweet, Mister?’
The beautiful moment of everyday life would forever be a snippet of memory.
Gao Yang felt another pang in his heart.
He turned to look at Wan Sisi’s mother. The middle-aged woman had a sunken, hollow face. The thin layer of makeup did nothing to cover the sharp, difficult impression she gave off.
She didn’t cry. The look on her face wasn’t so much sorrow, but numbness.
She bowed to the attendees politely but awkwardly. Gao Yang wondered what she was thinking.
After everyone had offered a flower to the dead and listened to the brief remark made by the family with their homeroom teacher, they departed from the funeral home one by one, gathering outside.
Gao Yang stepped out to find many girls’ eyes red with tears.
It was no surprise to him. Wan Sisi was popular for her kind and gentle temperament. No one would’ve expected her to die suddenly, least of all in a manner as terrible as getting her head crushed by a truck.
A girl who had been close to Wan Sisi walked up to Gao Yang and said seriously, “I know you’re with Qing Ling, Gao Yang, but there’s something I have to tell you.”
Gao Yang looked up at her.
“Wan Sisi had feelings for you, she always did. I just want you to know because she would never be able to say it herself now.”
Gao Yang tightened his fists until his knuckles were white and nodded with difficulty.
As soon as the girl left, Niu Xuan came up to him with his two sidekicks.
He had been resentful of Gao Yang since what happened at the karaoke. He remembered getting drunk that day. When he woke up, he was sore all over like he had been beat up thoroughly. He suspected that Gao Yang had done that while he was drunk, but he didn’t have any evidence.
When he first heard about Wan Sisi, Niu Xuan was shocked and rueful.
Thinking about her relationship with Gao Yang, however, he began to feel a vicious joy from Gao Yang’s suffering.
“Hey, isn’t this Young Master Yang?” Niu Xuan taunted.
Gao Yang turned to leave, already fed up.
“You sure are fated to be alone!” Niu Xuan quickly caught up to him, chasing him doggedly. “First there was Li Weiwei. Then it’s Wan Sisi. Both died so very young. Would Qing Ling be the next?”
“But that won’t be a problem for you, will it? Young Master Yang is so charismatic that women just flock to him. You can’t welcome the new if you don’t cast away the old.”
Gao Yang stopped walking, turning around to face Niu Xuan.
Niu Xuan’s mocking smile froze. Something about Gao Yang’s vicious stare gave him pause. He had never in his life felt such strong fear and felt it so keenly. It was as if he would die if he dared say another word.
It was absurd. Simply absurd!
Gao Yang wouldn’t dare kill a man in broad daylight no matter how emboldened he was. Why, then, was his instinct telling him that Gao Yang would not only kill him, but crush him like a fly?
Why was he terrified?
What was going on?
“Apologize,” Gao Yang enunciated every syllable.
Niu Xuan’s two sidekicks rushed up to him. “Gao Yang, what the fuck is that attitude...”
“Shut up!” Niu Xuan growled, shuddering all over and breaking into cold sweat. “I, I apologize.”
“Who are you apologizing to?”
“You, as well as Li Weiwei and Wan Sisi... I, I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have made a joke about them. I’ve made a terrible mistake. I’m truly sorry.”
Gao Yang’s gaze remained fixed on Niu Xuan. He only blinked away the killing intent in his eyes after three seconds.
“Get out of my sight.”
With a shudder, Niu Xuan staggered two steps back and broke out of his fear-induced stupor. He didn’t know what just happened. It felt like something other than him had taken over the body—another personality, or perhaps a different will.
Humiliated, Niu Xuan turned around and ran away, leaving his two sidekicks staring at each other awkwardly, at a loss of what to do.
Just when Gao Yang was going to make his departure as well, someone called out to him.
“Little Cousin!”
1. A reference to Wolverine from X-men. ?
