A Missing Century

"Her name is Ning Xiu, a very beautiful name."

"Later, I started writing her cheesy love letters, copying paragraphs from here and there online," Shadow said with a smile. "I was so busy during that time. During the day, I had to move things at the construction site, and at night I would sneak into her dressing room, write love letters on the table, and leave them on her table before dawn."

"During that time, I didn't even dare to see her. I would wait until she got off work and went home before sneaking into the dressing room, because I was afraid she would reject me. I didn't understand when I was a child, but I realized later that personality and status are not the same. Although I was in a higher position than her, her personality was more noble than mine, and it was precisely because of this that I didn't dare to look her in the eye. I was afraid that she would be disappointed in me after seeing the love letter, and then I wouldn't even be able to be friends with her anymore."

"We wrote love letters for three months, and during those three months, we didn't see each other once. Finally, one night, I sneaked into the dressing room and found her waiting for me in the dark. She only turned on the light when she saw me. I was terrified. What if she couldn't take it anymore and wanted to reject me? I felt like a child who had done something wrong. She asked me with a stern face why I was avoiding her. It turns out that even when she was angry, she was so beautiful."

Shadow laughed and said, "At that moment, she asked me how much money I had saved. I panicked because I had only saved eight hundred yuan. You have no idea how outrageous this world is. It's all exploited from the conglomerates down the chain. I barely made enough to eat after a month as a porter. If I hadn't lived in the locker room to save on rent, I probably wouldn't have been able to save even eight hundred yuan. I thought she would think it was too little, but she said that I used to be a playboy, and being able to save some money meant that I had really changed."

"And then?" Yang Yang pressed on.

Shadow said, "Then she actually dragged me to get our marriage certificate, used my 800 yuan to take wedding photos, and then treated a few of my coworkers to a meal. That was it, we were married. She gave up her job, sold her house, and moved to a small apartment in the District 5, and started An Xin at home to live with me. Later, she found a low-paying clerical job, and we scrimped and saved together. She seemed different from other women. While others bought the most vibrant flowers, she bought whole pots of sunflowers. She said sunflowers are flowers too, and you can pick the seeds and eat them when you're bored. I said I'd buy her flowers, but she said not to waste money, that we still needed to save for our baby, and that sunflowers were beautiful too, that she loved sunflowers the most... We spent half a year together, which was the most ordinary yet most beautiful time of my life. The Shadow Struggle began."

Qing Chen's mind sharpened.

He knew how brutal the Shadow Struggle was for every candidate, and that Qing Zhun, as the son of the family head, would be the target of everyone's attacks.

Once you get involved, life can no longer be so peaceful.

Qing Zhun's life was destined to be extraordinary from the moment he was born. He was the most dazzling person in the Federation, and the dust on the construction site could not bury his brilliance.

The Shadow said, "I was one of the candidates. On the second day of the Shadow Struggle, she started vomiting, falling into a coma, and becoming sluggish. I took her to the hospital for a checkup, and the doctor said that her body was infected with hundreds of neurotoxins, and there was no hope. This is one of the most vicious toxins used for decapitation assassinations. If you don't know what these hundreds of neurotoxins are, even missing just one of them won't save her. But there's no time left; she only has one hour left."

The shadow said calmly, "That day I awakened, and awakening meant becoming an S-rank."

The shadow's voice was calm, but Qing Chen could sense the surging killing intent beneath the calm sea.

When he said that, it was as if he were talking about something trivial.

Qing Chen also understood that it was because the shadow needed time to stop for his lover that it awakened the ability to control time.

Shadow: "I see time stand still before me, and the world is conquered by me. I see that the ocean will not turn into mulberry fields, and the world will no longer change."

"I began investigating all the neurotoxin experts within the Federation while time stood still, going door-to-door to them one by one. At first, I thought these people were dedicated to assassination and infiltration for the corporation, and that they all deserved to die. So, over the long years, I dragged them out one by one from the shadows, searching for every clue."

"If it is proven that they were not involved in this poisoning incident, but were involved in other poisoning cases, I will kill them one by one and bury them in this tea garden."

Judging from Yingzi's tone, Qing Chen knew that his brother had been in a bloodthirsty frenzy and was on the verge of emotional collapse because he was about to lose his lover.

The shadow continued, "It took me 39 years to find 371 neurotoxin experts and practitioners, and then I discovered... a very famous neurotoxin expert had disappeared. At that moment, I understood that the neurotoxin in her body must have been developed by this person, and he had likely been murdered to silence him."

"I spent another eight years searching for this neurotoxin expert, but to no avail. It seemed that no one in the world knew where he had gone. At that moment, I was desperate, but I remembered what she had told me: even if no one in the world is willing to help you, you must live a clean life on your own. So, I began to study neurotoxins on my own."

Shadow: "I spent another 40 years learning neurotoxins from scratch, because I'm the only one who can travel freely through time, so I had to learn on my own. But when I reached the end of my studies, I suddenly realized something: even if I became an expert in neurotoxins, even if I became the top talent in this field, if I didn't know what those hundreds of neurotoxins were, I couldn't possibly save her. Those neurotoxins intertwined to form the most terrifying and potent poison in the world; even if I were the one poisoned, I would surely die."

"So, I spent the last 13 years with her. I sat by her bedside, watching her face age every second. But I knew that the moment of parting would eventually come. No matter how slowly I slowed down time, even if my year was equal to her minute, she would still die eventually."

"From the time she was poisoned, I spent a full hundred years watching the calamities of fate mercilessly crush us, yet I was powerless to stop it."

The shadow endured a century of despair.

Others didn't even feel that time had stood still.

Time seemed to surge and flow only through him.

The shadow floats and sinks in the sea of time, yet even as a demigod who controls time, he is powerless to save his beloved.

He finally watched his beloved die.

Yang Yang squatted on the ground, crying her heart out. Xiao Mengqian, who had already finished picking the Jingshan Tea, kept handing her tissues.

At this moment, Zard was holding a plate of sunflowers that he had just picked from somewhere, and he was picking the seeds out of them.

Listen to the story while eating sunflower seeds.

Qing Chen was about to stop him, but Yingzi laughed and said, "It's okay. She said that sunflowers are just for eating seeds. Every time Qing Ye and Qing Qu come, I let them pick a plate to take away. I think this is probably her wish. She's very kind and won't blame this lunatic."

The shadow looked at Qing Chen and said, "Actually, if it weren't for waiting for you, I might have already started a massacre."

Qing Chen said in a low voice, "Why are you so good to me? Even if I am your own brother, we haven't seen each other for more than ten years. I have never really believed in family ties and blood relations because the family relationships I have experienced are not trustworthy. My father stole my money, and after my mother's place exploded, she didn't even go to see her once."

The shadow said, "That's why I feel like I owe you this. When I was little, someone asked me who my hero was, and I would say my father. Like all children, everyone has a hero in their heart, and he is most likely your father. He watched you grow up, became your role model, taught you how to get along with this world, and sheltered you from the wind and rain."

Shadow: "But Xiao Chen, you don't have the opportunity or the right, and that's what I regret the most."

Qing Chen lowered his head and gently wiped his eyes. "Actually, it's pretty good. Now I have no worries and no need to look back."

Shadow chuckled and said, "You were quite cute when you were little, but you're not so cute now. You're stubborn and as hard as a rock. Even a master as resilient Kamiyo Yunhe was killed by you. Back then you were a crystal, now you're more like a gallstone."

Qing Chen was stunned. Why tell such a lame joke at such a heavy time!

Qing Chen asked, "Do you know who poisoned it?"

"I don't know," Shadow shook his head. "We can't find out. The other party did it extremely discreetly. What I blame myself for the most is that the neurotoxin was probably meant for me, but she died in my place."

"But they're still people from the Qing family," Qing Chen said. "The families behind the other candidates will all benefit from this event, won't they?"

"It's not that simple," Shadow laughed. "Letting the Qing family fight amongst themselves also serves the interests of other conglomerates. So blind speculation is useless. I can't possibly kill everyone in the world. There were people I regretted killing all the neurotoxin experts back then, and I blamed myself for it for a long time. Xiao Chen, I'm not a good person, but I'm not a bad person either."

Qing Chen nodded. "Understood."

Looking at the delicate tombstone in the sunflower field, Shadow said gently, "I should go and keep her company, but I need to send some people down with me; that would be more fun."

At midnight, Qing Chen had Zard prepare all the plants to be transplanted.

This time travel taught him too many secrets, and also some hatred.

If given the chance, and if he were to find the culprit in this poisoning case, he would make them pay the price.

Time resets to zero.

Return.

The world was plunged into darkness.