Relatives' Visit

The training began without warning.

Right there in the fitness area, Ye Wan took out an insulated lunch box.

The lunch box even had an LED display showing the temperature inside, along with options for heating, humidifying, air frying, cooking rice, and more.

Qing Chen thought to himself, Isn't this just a rice cooker that doesn't need to be plugged in? Looks like there's a Cloud Flow Tower near the prison too.

Ye Wan opened the lunch box. Inside were neatly arranged slices of beef.

"Eat," Ye Wan said.

"Aren't we training? Wouldn't eating now be bad for my stomach?" Qing Chen asked.

"We'll be training with the Breathing Technique. If you don't eat, your body will break down from the excessive consumption," Ye Wan explained.

Feeling the wonder of the Breathing Technique, Qing Chen suddenly asked, "Wait. When I use the Breathing Technique, I can clearly sense some inexplicable presence moving through my body. It doesn't seem to do my body any good, nor does it have any substance, but I seem to be able to control it."

Ye Wan shook his head. "I don't know about that. You can ask the boss."

"All right." Qing Chen did not ask further.

The next morning, the countdown read 20:20:00.

Lin Xiaoxiao sat at the table and asked Ye Wan, "How did it go last night? Ordinary people definitely can't handle high-intensity training when they first start. How long did he last?"

Ye Wan glanced at him. "Full load. He trained from eleven until three in the morning."

"Wait, he looks like he's never trained before. He could keep going until three?" Lin Xiaoxiao froze for a moment. "Mother Ye, don't train him to death!"

"Why worry when he has the Breathing Technique?" Ye Wan shook his head. "Before training, I had him eat an entire box of beef. He burned all of it off during training. The boss specifically instructed me to do this. Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

If an ordinary person began high-intensity training on the first day and trained this way, they would probably have collapsed long ago. They might even develop rhabdomyolysis.

"Even with the Breathing Technique, he'd still get tired," Lin Xiaoxiao muttered.

Ye Wan shook his head again. "It's as if he can separate his body from his mind. He only pursues the training goal and doesn't care about physical exhaustion. I've never seen anything like it. If he weren't a Time Walker who had crossed over, then with that kind of willpower, he would have awakened as a superhuman long ago."

"That's a good thing. If he'd awakened already, he wouldn't be an ordinary person, and he wouldn't be able to follow the boss's path," Lin Xiaoxiao said.

By then, it was already breakfast time at Prison No. 18. The alloy gates opened one after another, and the prisoners lined up and headed downstairs.

Qing Chen stood obediently in line, still looking like someone with no special privileges whatsoever.

Lin Xiaoxiao glanced in Qing Chen's direction and was startled to find him looking completely refreshed. Even the aftereffects of four days of fasting had vanished.

He turned to Li Shutong and asked, "Boss, is the Breathing Technique really that amazing? How about letting me try again tonight? I feel like I can still be saved."

Li Shutong stared at the chessboard without looking up. "When I told you to try again back then, you didn't dare. Now it's too late. You're too old."

"I'm only twenty-seven..." Lin Xiaoxiao said.

"The longer one lives, the more bitterness one carries in one's heart," Li Shutong said. "After twenty, you suffer more and more from the hardships of the world. You won't be able to pass Heart's Inquiry when using the Breathing Technique. We used to think our teenage years were hard enough, but only after becoming adults do we understand that the two kinds of suffering are different."

When Qing Chen finally came downstairs with the line, he still sat far away from Li Shutong. Li Shutong was a little melancholy. "Though I was the one who told him to pretend he was being excluded, now no one will play through the unfinished chess game with me."

Just as he spoke, an announcement suddenly rang through Prison No. 18. "Inmate number 010101, inmate number 002199, inmate number... You have family visitors. Please follow Mechanical Prison Guard No. 03 to the visitation rooms."

010101 was Qing Chen's number.

He froze. Since arriving in the Inner World, this was the first time anyone had come to visit him.

So much so that he had forgotten prisons even had family visitation.

Lu Guangyi said from across the table, "Boss, today's visiting day. Qing Yan must be here."

"Mm." Qing Chen nodded and stood up.

He followed more than eighty inmates as they formed a line, then passed through a massive alloy gate and walked down a long corridor.

The corridor walls were also made of metal, and two white light strips ran along the ceiling. It felt as though they were walking through a tunnel of time and space.

On the way, one prisoner egged another on. "Han Linshan, your little sister came to see you again, didn't she? Ask her for a photo. Lend it to me tonight!"

The prisoner ahead named Han Linshan cursed angrily. If it were not visiting time, the two would definitely have started fighting.

The prisoners were noisy and rowdy. As long as everyone remained in line, the mechanical prison guards would not interfere.

Qing Chen was the only one in the group who stayed quiet.

No prisoner dared joke with him. Even the prisoners behind him deliberately kept their distance.

When he arrived at an individual visitation room, Qing Chen pushed open the door and saw a young man sitting inside.

The man looked about twenty-five or twenty-six. He had a short black crew cut and an exceptionally capable air about him.

This should be Qing Yan. He wore a gray suit, and only his hands were mechanical prosthetics.

However, these were probably the most exquisite mechanical prosthetics Qing Chen had ever seen. The surface of every finger looked as if it had been painstakingly polished, with golden patterns set along both sides. Elegant ginkgo leaf patterns decorated the backs of his hands, making them resemble a mafia scepter.

Ginkgo leaves were the Qing family's symbol.

Qing Chen sat down across from him. Qing Yan looked at him coldly and said, "The Second Branch and Fourth Branch have already submitted documents to the family tribunal accusing you of provoking Li Shutong for no reason and causing him to dislike you. The Qing family isn't afraid of Li Shutong, but we have no intention of making enemies of the Knights or Heng Society. I hope you'll behave yourself in Prison No. 18 and stop causing trouble."

Qing Chen paused. Before this, whenever Lu Guangyi mentioned Qing Yan, Qing Chen had assumed he was an ally.

But apparently, that was not the case.

He thought for a moment and asked, "Anything else?"

Qing Yan said coldly, "Have you considered your own situation? Every other candidate has people helping them. You're the only one without anyone. What makes you think you can compete with the others? This time, the Second Branch and Fourth Branch are both determined to win. Don't become someone else's cannon fodder. Take my advice and marry Kamishiro Kono from the Kamishiro Family properly. The Qing family will still have a place for you."

Qing Chen looked at him expressionlessly, but his thoughts spun rapidly.

What kind of ridiculous development is this? I actually have an engagement in the Inner World?! And judging by the name, she doesn't sound ethnically Chinese at all.

Kamishiro... that was one of The Five Great Companies, wasn't it?

Qing Chen thought for a moment and said, "I still plan to give it another try."

Qing Yan seemed not to have expected Qing Chen to answer that way again. He straightened his collar and said leisurely, "Do as you wish. But I should tell you this: although the tribunal has not issued a punishment for you, the family will not help you any further. The family never intended for you to participate in the Shadow Struggle. You insisted on joining and even took the Third Branch's slot, so don't expect any more support. It would be best if you can complete the mission. If not, then remain in Prison No. 18 until your sentence ends."

"All right." Qing Chen calmly rose and left without saying anything more to this impeccably dressed Qing family member.

Qing Yan looked somewhat angered. "Did you hear a word I said?"

Qing Chen said to the mechanical prison guard outside the door, "Hello, I'm done here."

"Wait!" Qing Yan softened his tone. "Kamishiro Kono came with me to visit you this time. You should at least meet her once. Otherwise, neither family can be answered to."

Qing Chen said, "...All right."

Qing Yan left. Five minutes later, someone else entered.

It was a girl of seventeen or eighteen. She was not stunningly beautiful, but for some reason, she gave off a fresh and pleasant feeling.

She wore formal attire on top and a formal skirt that reached just above her knees below, as though this were a very official meeting.

But she did not seem accustomed to wearing such clothes, making her appear somewhat restless.

Qing Chen studied the girl. There was a small mole beside the bridge of her nose, and her skin bore no trace of makeup.

After sitting down, the girl did not meet Qing Chen's eyes. She only stole an occasional glance at him and said nothing.

The two of them remained silent like that...

Until the announcement declared that visiting time was over.

Only then did the girl mutter softly, "It might be nice to sit quietly like this, but this boy's silence is truly beautiful."

"What?" Qing Chen asked, puzzled.

The girl smiled. "Nothing."

The mechanical prison guard led Qing Chen away. On the way back, Qing Chen pondered.

Lu Guangyi had previously said that Qing Chen himself had named him to come to Prison No. 18 and help. Lu Guangyi probably did not know the truth either.

No wonder that, for something as important as the Shadow Struggle, the Qing family had only sent him a retirement-home thug for assistance.

So the family had abandoned him in the Inner World too.

But what was this engagement that had appeared out of nowhere?

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