Farewell Night Talk

In the deep night, two old vans drove slowly into the "sleeping" urban village, one following the other, and stopped on an empty street.

Li Wei carried Li Cheng out of the van, then turned to glance back inside. "I'm going to pack up."

"Mm." Liang Qiushi's voice came from the darkness. "Go ahead."

Li Wei hugged Li Cheng tighter, turned around, and headed upstairs...

Back in the attic, she switched on the light and was just about to put Li Cheng on the bed when the little guy struggled. He was surprisingly strong.

Li Wei instinctively set him down. Only under the light did she see that the black blood vessels crisscrossing his thin cheeks had faded by a great deal.

"What happened to you?" Li Wei asked in pleasant surprise.

Li Cheng, however, remained calm. He walked two steps by himself, plopped down on the chair beside the folding dining table, and said, "An Old Grandpa came this afternoon and put his hand on my stomach. Then I felt warm all over and fell asleep without realizing it. I woke up in the van just now. My body feels much more relaxed."

"It's already working? Aunt Liang is so generous!" Li Wei scooped up the little adult-like Li Cheng and planted several loud kisses on his forehead.

"All right, all right. Hurry up and pack. They're still waiting!" Li Cheng wiped the saliva from his forehead in disgust and urged her on.

Li Wei wasn't annoyed. She only giggled foolishly, feeling as though a huge stone had finally fallen from her heart.

If the departed truly had spirits, she hoped they could see Li Cheng after he recovered.

As for her, she was about to begin striving to become stronger!

Li Wei patted her tender pink cheeks, then pulled a dark-purple suitcase caked in dust from beneath the bed, brimming with energy.

She first wiped its surface clean with a rag, then placed it on the bed and opened it.

She picked up the family portrait from the bedside table, wrapped it in two layers of bedsheet and pillowcase, and pressed it into the bottom of the suitcase.

"I'm putting the most important thing in here, okay? Don't lose it," Li Wei reminded him.

Since Li Wei couldn't bring any personal belongings this time, Li Cheng would carry all the sentimental items from their home.

There were many of them, all scattered odds and ends. Most were reminders left behind by their parents.

Li Wei hoped Li Cheng would preserve them well, so he wouldn't grow up and look back with regret.

"Yeah..." Li Cheng turned his head aside, putting on an indifferent expression.

"Tsundere, huh..." Li Wei muttered before continuing to pack.

In the wardrobe were their father's uniform and several of their mother's dresses.

Oh, and in the small drawer below was an iron box. Inside were their father's public security officer ID, their parents' Marriage Certificate, diplomas, and five photo albums of various sizes...

There was also their mother's identity card, which a female public security officer had applied to preserve through the bureau's leadership out of pity for the siblings when they had gone together to obtain their mother's death certificate years ago.

One item after another, Li Wei carefully placed them into the suitcase.

Every time she put something in, she reminded Li Cheng of it.

The little guy moved his chair to the window, braced both arms on the sill, and stared at the high-rises and neon lights beyond the urban village without saying a word.

Li Wei paid no attention to his attitude. As long as he could hear her, that was enough.

Twenty minutes later, she had searched every nook and cranny of the room several times. Only when the suitcase was nearly too full to close did she sit back down on the edge of the bed and let out a long breath.

Just then, Li Cheng turned his head and suddenly blurted out, "Where's your graduation photo?"

"Huh?" Li Wei was blank for a moment before remembering that her original body really did have such a thing.

She searched through her memories and finally recalled that the thing had been rolled up and tossed on top of the wardrobe by the original owner.

As for the reason, her high school years had left the original owner with anything but pleasant memories.

Li Wei could completely understand why she had treated the graduation photo that way.

She moved over a stool, climbed onto it, and groped around for a long while before finally taking down the roll of photos, which hadn't yet had time to gather dust.

When she opened it, the gloomy-looking yet still dazzlingly beautiful girl in the corner was the original owner.

A familiar boy was squeezed in beside her, grinning like an idiot. It was none other than Cheng Hao.

"So this is youth..."

A certain old man whose soul was nearly thirty let out a sigh exactly like Secretary Fan's.

"Stop being narcissistic," Li Cheng reminded her.

Li Wei chuckled, stuffed the photo into the suitcase, pressed it down, and fastened the clasps.

"Let's go." Her slender, tender arms lifted the heavy suitcase with ease, and Li Wei was about to leave.

Li Cheng, however, turned his head toward the window again without saying a word.

Li Wei had no choice but to set down the suitcase, walk to the window, pick him up, and sit down on the chair.

Following Li Cheng's gaze, she saw that several hundred meters away stood the brilliantly lit city CBD. Compared to the dim, silent urban village where they were, it looked like an entirely separate world.

"What are you thinking about?" Li Wei asked gently.

Li Cheng was silent for a while before saying, "What did you promise them?"

"Substitute Service. Have you heard of it?" Li Wei's tone was relaxed.

She then briefly explained what had happened.

The more the little guy listened, the tenser he became. When he spoke again, his voice carried a hint of tears. "Li Wei, why don't you go tell that auntie downstairs that we're not leaving? Can we?"

"Not leave? What will happen to your illness if we don't?" Li Wei pinched his cheek. To be honest, she was a little moved. "All right, don't overthink it. Let me tell you—even if you were perfectly healthy, I'd still have to go to the battlefield. To other people, the battlefield means nine deaths and one life. To me, hehe, it's just like going home."

Li Cheng's ears twitched. He immediately turned around, braced himself against Li Wei, and raised his upper body, kneeling on her thigh as his pair of dark, gleaming eyes fixed fiercely on hers.

"Repeat what you just said," Li Cheng ordered in a tone that brooked no refusal. He looked incredibly adorable.

Li Wei smiled faintly and stared into the little guy's eyes as she repeated, "I said that going to the battlefield is just like going home."

After listening to her, Li Cheng remained stunned for a long while, as though he had fallen into a severe crisis of self-doubt.

Li Wei giggled. "What's wrong?"

Li Cheng's face was covered in black lines. He drew a deep breath and said incredulously, "Why is it that rationally, I feel like you're talking nonsense and trying to comfort me, but my instincts are telling me that everything you said is true..."

"Because it really is true. Why would I lie to you? Remember when I asked you where Quasi-Martial Artists went to kill Abyssal Monsters? I was already planning to go to the battlefield then!" Li Wei told him frankly.

Li Cheng became even more bewildered. "I'm saying, even if you were an Immortal Emperor reborn, you still have to follow the basic rules, right? Shouldn't you cultivate first?"

Li Wei patted his head and gave him an inscrutable smile.

Cultivate? The power gained through cultivation was so unstable. How could it compare to the solid foundation of Stat Points?

During the stage when Quasi-Martial Artists nurtured their qi and blood, failing to take nutritional supplements or cultivate for even one day carried the risk of their qi and blood declining.

Li Wei's natural talent was actually pretty good. So why had her qi and blood been only 53 during the college entrance exam? Wasn't it because she couldn't cultivate on schedule and had no money to buy supplements?

Her qi and blood rose and fell, fell and rose, and in the end, she had only managed to get into Anhe Martial University.

But ever since she activated the system, two days had passed without her practicing the Guidance Technique even once. On top of that, she had been eating poorly, sleeping at irregular hours, and exhausting herself mentally.

She had committed every taboo one by one, and hadn't even retained the original owner's good habit of squeezing in cultivation whenever possible.

Yet had Li Wei's qi and blood fallen? Not only had they not declined, they had remained in peak condition!

Her entire person was practically being datafied.

Li Cheng, you simply don't understand the charm of Stat Points. Hehe...

Li Cheng stared at Li Wei's enigmatic smile and frowned. "Are you secretly mocking me?"

"Damn." The corner of Li Wei's eye twitched. "You really can read minds?"

"Hmph!" Li Cheng twisted his body, slid off her knee, and walked toward the door like a little adult.

"Hey, wait." Li Wei hurriedly picked up the suitcase, closed the window, switched off the light, and locked the door.

"Sis, you're too slow!"

"Huh? Did you just call me Sis?"

"...You heard wrong..."

"How could I have heard wrong? Come on, say it again."

"No! Ugly woman!"

"Ugly? Didn't you see how I made Cheng Hao cry?"

"Are you sure? Wasn't it that you destroyed your own image and shattered his filter for you all over the floor?"

"Huh? Is that what happened?"

Under the night sky, Li Cheng held onto the back seat, his body half-leaning against the suitcase. Through the rear window, he watched the slender figure beneath the dim streetlights grow farther and farther away.

Only after the vehicle turned a corner and his view was blocked did he turn around and sit properly, tears flowing silently down his face.

Amid the intertwined light and shadows of the streetlamps and night, his lips moved soundlessly.

You're not even my sister. Why are you so good to me...