After equipping it, one would gain Cecilia's skills, knowledge, and things like that.
Now it looked like there was more to it than just that.
There were even memories, and if one pushed it further, Cecilia's personality would also become one of the acquired things.
Although for the moment, the dominant one was still himself.
Yet following these hypotheses and the speculation regarding those things for extreme cat-abusers.
Right now, then...
"Kiana..." At this moment, Li Pu truly resembled the real Cecilia, her speech filled with boundless love, self-reproach, and just a tiny trace of relief.
"My daughter, please forgive me..."
"Forgive this incompetent mother of yours."
As a mother, it had been far too long since she was able to stay by her daughter's side. Unable to watch over her, cherish her, and teach her to grow into an adult.
As the single most important person in a child's life, with no exceptions, yet unable to accompany the child's growth.
This alone was enough for her to blame herself, and now that she was right beside her, she had no way to speak of it.
She could only pray like this that Kiana would forgive her.
Even though she did not dare hope for this forgiveness.
"I won't forgive you at all!"
What a heartbreaking sentence this was, and what a sentence woven of love and hate! Yet what a sentence it also was, filled with yearning and expectation.
This was cried out through tears!
It was Kiana!
Yes, it was her!
That person whose face was almost growing hazy! That person who was the gentlest, loved her the most, yet so ruthlessly abandoned her and vanished into the vast sea of humanity.
Mother!
My mother!
The person who vanished from her side fourteen years ago without even a word of greeting.
That person she had longed for for fourteen years.
Had truly returned.
"You left back then without saying a word about anything." Kiana cried out in grievance: "As for forgiveness and whatnot, do you know how I got through these past fourteen years?"
"Do you know how much I missed you?!"
"You left without saying a word, and you never even thought of coming to find me!"
"You know... You know... You know..."
Kiana's voice grew lower and lower, so faint she could barely speak. She was so choked up she could not make a sound at all.
"Do you know how much I missed you?!" Kiana wept accusingly: "How desperately I yearned and prayed for this day to arrive."
"Yet clearly you've already come, right by my side."
"Why must you still conjure up a fake identity to deceive me?"
Why? Mei could not understand. Nor was she willing to understand! That kind of fake identity—she felt something was wrong with it, as everything seemed far too coincidental.
Deliberately drawing Mei's attention, deliberately making herself look miserable to sneak into the school.
Why couldn't she just come straight to find her!
Why did she have to use that strange, wretched technology to disguise herself as the appearance of some weird fellow.
"I won't forgive you at all!" Kiana wept accusingly: "Even if you hug me, accompany me through my birthday, and buy me gifts, I still won't forgive you."
"Besides, you didn't do a thing, and you still used that fake identity to deceive me."
"What on earth gives you the right to make me forgive you!"
That's right! What on earth does?!
No, that really isn't a fake identity, my good grandma.
Li Pu always felt his head was twice as big as usual.
Clearly, when he ran off, he hadn't felt anyone following behind; clearly, before doing the Transformation Dance, he'd confirmed no one had followed, that there was nobody here, and not even any security cameras.
How on earth did she follow him here? How on earth did she catch up?
What on earth was he supposed to do about this?
What was he supposed to say?
It was all over! According to the system, a character with such a low 'understanding' value had a very short equipment duration! Only ten minutes.
More than half of it had already passed, damn it.
There were five minutes left before he would change back.
How was he going to explain this to Kiana when that time came?
No...
What if this system was thoroughly unreliable, and in reality the character wouldn't be equipped for such a short time...
No...
This system was thoroughly unreliable!
And it liked to hide important information!
No, none of that was the important matter!
The important matter was what on earth he was supposed to do?
How was he supposed to face Kiana?!
Chapter Thirty: Probably Going to Die a Miserable Death
It's all over.
I'm going to die a miserable death, aren't I?
What is this? Are you kidding me? Is there any way to talk like this?
Would you call this dying a miserable death!
This right here is called dying without a burial site!
Dismemberment by five horses, slow slicing, being cut in half at the waist, having one's tendons pulled and skin peeled—all of it could be taken in turns!
I! Li Pu! Genghis Khan! Covered in sweat! Sweating profusely! Sweat pouring like rain!
He could completely imagine how deep a person's love was, and how deep her hatred would be once she discovered everything was a fake! Therefore, he would definitely die without a burial site!
He had completely not anticipated that such a thing would happen.
Kiana had caught up, and even found his hiding spot.
Although Li Pu had already considered that there might be some extra trouble after this affair, as long as he pretended not to know anything, acted mysterious and said nothing about anything, the cold treatment would be just about enough.
He might face Kiana's relentless pestering.
Yet as long as she didn't actually see through all of this, many things would still havetable explanations, and he could spout a whole bunch of nonsense.
Yet looking at it now like this...
How on earth was this supposed to make him explain?!
Li Pu felt as though he were simply like an ant on a hot pan, completely clueless about what his next step should be. It felt like whichever path he walked was a dead end!
Whether or not to acknowledge Kiana here was not a simple matter of familial bloodlines and the like.
It also had nothing to do with confidentiality principles or any messy correct options.
Internally, now that he realized this emotion, love, and so on seemed to also fall into the category of 'understanding', how was he to face this emotion?
From his own perspective, this would directly affect his 'understanding' and 'performance' of the character.
Yet Li Pu swore that not for a single second had he ever thought about being a mother to someone else!
Externally, how should he handle the relationship between himself and Kiana? If Kiana discovered her feelings had been toyed with, he might as well dig his own grave in advance and buy a fine coffin.
Just lie down inside it when the time came and he wouldn't have to suffer any punishment!
No! I've decided! A long pain is worse than a short one! Li Pu hardened his heart and thought: Drag it out a few more minutes until the equipment state is lifted.
Then I don't know either! Once the equipment time ends, I'll just spout a mouthful of nonsense!
Anyway, there was no other way right now. A long pain was worse than a short one, and over-explaining was worse than spouting nonsense. The ultimate right of explanation rested with her right now; as long as he didn't let Kiana touch him and realize this body was the genuine article, it would be fine.
"You are Kiana's mother?!"
Suddenly, a figure stood beside Li Pu. She too was dumbfounded and said with utter disbelief, "You... How could you..."
"Is it Appearance Mimicry and Camouflage Technology?" that young lady said. "You..."
"Mei..."
Li Pu...
Despaired!
This was truly out of this world!
Mei knew this matter had gone far beyond ordinary affairs! The identity of that boy named Li Pu was definitely more complex than some 'swordsman' expert who hid his true strength just to sneak in and earn a living!
Right, it was just that simple.
Before this, Mei hadn't thought much about it at all, nor had she pondered it deeply. She had merely figured Li Pu should be some kind of swordsman expert.
It was just that he didn't quite want to make a living by swordsmanship, and in the first round he had merely happened to be forced into a counterattack by her.
The second round was completely a matter of showing a flaw and intentionally losing to her.
In reality, though, it was hard to say whether it was easy or hard for swordsmanship masters to get by these days. Still, in reality, a young boy so young yet possessing extraordinary swordsmanship who wanted to take an unusual path ought to exist.
Anyway, she, Mei, had seen similar plots in books.
Yet now it seemed everything was not as simple as she had imagined.
Although she didn't know the exact details, because she hadn't completely followed the same path as Kiana, she had seen the humanoid figure in the woods wrapped in fluorescence and the long-haired older girl who appeared after the fluorescence dissipated.
And that pink outfit.
The upper body was the school work uniform, and the lower body was sweatpants.
Whether it was the style, color, or matching method, it was no different from that Li Pu just now.
This matter could be completely figured out.
He had definitely utilized the latest camouflage mimicry technology!
As for this kind of technology...
Mei had seen it before; the technology developed by her own father possessed this kind of special tech. Utilizing holographic projection and nanotechnology, it was entirely possible to disguise one person as another.
It was just that this sort of technology currently had rather large limitations and wasn't quite mature yet.
Furthermore, after watching for a few minutes and hearing the self-reproaching words of the silver-long-haired older girl as well as Kiana's crying, although she felt the whole affair was bizarre to the point of absurdity.
Yet reality didn't reason with anyone.
Everything had happened just like that, so absurdly!
Upon seeing everything return to calm once more, Mei suddenly felt it was time for her to make her entrance.
As a close friend, she naturally knew the situation of her own household.
Her father supported the family alone, and her mother had vanished when she was a little over a year, nearing two years old. Her father hadn't said what her mother went off to do, only saying that her mother had gone to a very, very distant place.
Mei knew what this 'very, very distant place' was, and she also knew the meaning behind it.
Yet Kiana merely thought her mother had run away from home, because Kiana had never seen her mother's spirit tablet, nor had she ever visited the front of her mother's gravestone.
Therefore, Kiana did not feel that her mother having gone to a 'very, very distant place' meant that.
Before you continue