Dominion's End-Volume 4, Chapter 5: An Unexpected Encounter, Part One

Translator: Translator

“We’ll split up for the rescue. Gather them up here, but only bring the quiet ones. Abandon them if there’s the slightest resistance.”

Xiao Sha nodded. free𝒘ℯ𝗯𝙣𝗼ν𝑒𝗹.𝒄o𝒎

“The key point is don’t push yourself too hard. If there’s something amiss, prioritize your own safety first. If you really can’t get away, then call out my name, and I’ll figure something out. I mean it.”

I couldn’t resist giving out the order three times. I was worried that Xiao Sha didn’t want to implicate me, so much so that he wouldn’t even ask for help and end up sacrificing himself. If the sacrifice was worth it, then so be it. But I really didn’t want him to die in vain when I could have saved him, simply because of some pointless misgivings.

Xiao Sha readily agreed, without any sign of struggle or hesitation. He didn’t look like he would insist on not calling for help and taking on the burden alone.

Running out of time, I quickly instructed, “You’ll save the ones who were running to the left and right, lead them here and don’t go anywhere else. I’ll save the others.”

Only two people were running straight, the aberrants chasing after them were far greater in number, but a portion of the aberrants got distracted because the person climbing the house was unceasingly throwing stuff to lure away the aberrants, so that group of people hadn’t been captured yet. However, they were unlikely to last much longer.

The house-climbing guy seemed to be in the most danger. The aberrants who had chosen to climb up after him had quite the skills, but that guy was surprisingly strong. He could actually climb up one building after another, pulling himself up, then jumping up and over. He didn’t look particularly robust, and yet he had so much strength. He probably possessed a strengthened body related ability, or had already eaten evolution crystals… Someone is really gonna die if I keep wasting time thinking!

Xiao Sha had already jumped down, making a beeline for the two closest people. Seeing this, I followed him in jumping down, deciding to first save the two people who were running straight ahead. Their position was only about five meters away from death. If we don’t go now, then we won’t need to go at all.

Forming ice blades on the soles of my feet…

Translator: Ugh! Another fight scene. What a pain. Dialogue, descriptions, Sun speech… Anything’s better than a fight scene! Except maybe translating puns… But puns don’t go on for pages and pages!

Hm… I have a simple way out of this…

…

…

…

Time skip machine set to five minutes! That should be enough for Shuyu to finish fighting so I don’t have to translate it. Time for a quick second breakfast!

I suddenly felt the scene before me dissolve into darkness…

Translator: Weird, I don’t think the story goes like that. Shuyu’s supposed to win this fight. Did I not calibrate the time machine right?

The moment I opened my eyes, I was immediately aware of how weak my body felt, to the point where it was hard to even breathe.

Was I badly wounded? That said, I ought be grateful I was still alive in the first place, since the last thing I had seen before closing my eyes pretty much had me pegged as dead. I never imagined I’d still have a chance to open my eyes again.

I just hoped I wasn’t injured too badly. In times like these, being a cripple was no different from being dead. That said…

Some might say it’s better to be dead than alive.

At a sudden sound, I tried my hardest to twist my neck to look over. My vision was still very blurry, but I could just about make out the top of a woman’s head behind a stack of crates. She walked around the crates, holding a steaming bowl, and I could now see her clearly. She looked delicate and pretty, and was very familiar, but I obviously didn’t recognize her.

She stared at me with joyful tears in her eyes while saying, “You actually woke up!”

“Where am I…?”

I didn’t expect to hear such a hoarse, high voice. My voice is… a woman’s? What’s going on?

Despite her pretty looks, the woman in front of me clearly looked exhausted but also a little proud. She said, “Xia Zhengu left you for dead after those insect-like aberrants attacked you, but I could tell you were still barely alive. I convinced some of our older friends to bring you back, and together with the other women from the garden, we tried to nurse you back to health.”

At this point, she leaned over to support me and slowly began tipping the bowl toward my mouth. The warm liquid was very green and smelled strongly of medicinal herbs.

“We hid you in the greenhouse where we knew Xia Zhengu would never visit. It’s also easier to sneak herbs and food to you without anyone noticing.”

The more she spoke, the more I remembered. This woman is Xiao Qi, Xia Zhengu’s first mistress. But that means…

I’m Guan Weijun?

No, I’m Jiang Shuyu! But why am I here, then?

But regardless, I wasn’t in a position where I could move around freely. I should lie low for now while I tried to figure out what to do.

I have to return to my world! Dàgē, Shujun, wait for me!

Xiao Qi smiled as she saw me enthusiastically gulping the bitter medicinal drink. “I’ll get you some food and then try to use some healing ability on you.” She gently set me back down onto… Bags of leaves? Then she turned around to leave.

I heard the greenhouse door close. But right after that…

“I know you’re hiding Guan Weijun! Wasting valuable resources on a piece of trash like her!” Xia Zhengu’s furious roar came from outside the greenhouse.

As if you actually cared about having enough resources to take care of everyone!

I heard the greenhouse door fling open again and Xiao Qi’s scream. I pressed my face up against a gap between two of the crates and saw her desperately try to keep the door closed against his violent pounding. But as the medic, how could she have the strength to hold it closed for long? With a loud crash, both the door and Xiao Qi spilled onto the floor.

Xia Zhengu stepped in, his hand angrily raised against her. As he swung down, I struggled to stand and shouted hoarsely, “Stop! The one you want is me! Come finish off an invalid, you pathetic excuse of a human being!”

He turned to glare in my direction…

I suddenly felt the scene before me dissolve into darkness…

… And I was standing in a city street with several people around me.

I quickly looked down at my hands. The familiar silvery markings were on my arms.

I’m Jiang Shuyu again? And I seem to be perfectly fine now…

This still didn’t seem to be Lan City. I saw no sign of Xiao Sha or the civilians from earlier. This city also seemed to not have been touched by the Black Fog. It was filled with neon lights and the distant noise of thousands of humans bustling about.

However…

I can’t tell if these are aberrants or humans!

It looked like a team of four against one. But three of the four looked like they could be very human-like aberrants or humans with very strange special abilities, while one tall and skinny middle-aged man looked normal. What the f*** is with those bone-like spikes and plate armor the tattooed lady has coming out of her skin?

The one person encircled by the four others was clearly human, with unusual silver hair and a red shirt. He looked badly injured, with black blood dripping out of his left arm.

But both sides were all looking at me! They seemed to be warily watching my movements as they also eyed each other.

The human with the silver hair charged at the tall and skinny middle-aged man and threw a sluggish punch once he was close enough. That is the most pathetic punch I’ve ever seen. Even the middle-aged man didn’t bother dodging it, although he didn’t need to. The human with the silver hair completely froze in place inches before the punch was about to land.

The tall and skinny middle-aged man looked back and snapped at me, “Did the boss send you as reinforcement? If your ability is to teleport, then go deal with Solitary Butterfly over there! I already have my hands full here!” He gestured at a purple figure several meters away and then glared at the human with the silver hair as he said that.

What teleportation ability! I’m gonna be the next Ice Emperor! And with Dàgē as the future king, there’s no room for your boss’s orders!

Suddenly, the bone armor lady and two of the other weird-looking people went from looking at me warily to glaring at me with hostility.

Aw, sh*t. Don’t tell me my expression gave me away…

“He must be one of the heroes’ reinforcements! We don’t need to capture small fry like him! Kill him!” the bone armor lady yelled. The smooth plate armor transformed into long, deadly spikes.

I’m flattered you think I’m a hero, but if you’re fighting heroes, then that must mean you’re the bad guys!

I pulled out the ice dagger and was about to begin forming the ice blades on my feet again when a deafening roar came from nearby.

Sh*t! For a tier two like me to have their heartbeat racing like this, they must be pretty strong! I immediately began backing away from the direction of the sound.

The roaring got louder as a huge mountain of muscle came bursting onto the scene. I don’t think most aberrants still bother with wearing pants? Is he a human evolved for strength? But he scooped up the figure wearing purple, burst through the circle of four people, snatched up the silver-haired human, and ran off.

As the bad guys began to give chase, a shadowy figure darted out and created a red, misty-looking shield that blocked off all their attacks and covered the mountain of muscle’s escape. As soon as the mountain of muscle was out of sight, the shadowy figure fled the scene as well. He was extremely fast, with an odd way of moving, as though he were gliding across the ground.

Another group competing with the bad guys? Or a rescue mission? Either way, I don’t think it’s worth risking a fight with those two! I should leave while everyone’s distracted.

As I started to make my exit, one of the four weirdoes noticed and snarled, “If we can’t bring back a hero, we’ll have to settle for you!” He lunged at me, and as I was about to stab into his chest…

I suddenly felt the scene before me dissolve into darkness…

Blub blub blub… I’m drowning! Where’s the surface? It’s brighter that way… Argh, the salt is getting in my eyes! My lungs hurt…

Ugh! What did I just slam into? It’s going up! I still grabbed onto it.

Cough! Cough!

Breathing never felt so good. As soon as I broke the surface, I greedily gulped in air. But only a few moments later, the object I was holding onto sunk beneath the waves again and I swallowed a load of sea water instead.

As soon as it came back up again, I created a thin platform of ice to crawl onto, like a polar bear desperately clinging to its only hope of survival. The ice platform tilted back and forth crazily in the huge waves, but it didn’t capsize.

Oh… Was that what slammed into me earlier?

I was staring right at a giant sea serpent. Not only that, it was charging up a lightning attack on a screaming boatload of people!

While the lives lost would be tragic, that’s also probably my only ticket out of here! I don’t want to be a castaway!

I started making my ice platform into an ice path to get over to the sea serpent. But I couldn’t get over fast enough. It let loose its lightning but luckily just glanced off the side of the boat. There were already two figures in midair above, probably about to fight the beast. Tragically, the lightning bolt seemed to have hit one of its targets. One of the people in midair seemed to be charred black.

A spear of earth element suddenly shot toward the sea serpent, driving it back, and as the sea serpent tried to move closer, it would be blocked by walls of earth one after another. What a powerful earth ability!

I was close enough to grab onto the sea serpent again. I gathered up my ice ability around the ice dagger and stabbed down…

I suddenly felt the scene before me dissolve into darkness…

Oh, come on. As soon as I’m about to do anything useful, I get warped away?

Translator: Damn you! That was practically already half a fight scene you made me translate just now!

I was now standing in the middle of someone’s conference table, but it looked like it was being used for breakfast instead. Bowls of egg flower soup, meat floss, and white rice porridge were set out. Of course, I was still dripping wet and making a puddle on the table.

While everyone stopped talking and eating to stare at me, they then immediately turned their heads to look at one guy sitting at the head of the table. He seemed to be completely oblivious, with his face obscured by the bowl of food he was shoveling into his mouth.

“Prince?” A busty and beautiful pink-haired woman addressed the guy at the head of the table. “Is this one of your friends?” Everyone else’s expressions showed they seemed to be thinking the exact same question.

The guy stopped shoveling food into his mouth, rapidly chewed, and swallowed. Then he set the bowl down.

We definitely haven’t met before. I don’t recognize that face at all. And I wouldn’t forget if I’d ever seen him! He could give my face a run for its money!

The “prince” the busty lady was speaking to had silky white hair, ruby eyes, and refined features. He also had pointed ears. An elf…? What kind of world is this?

I could have sworn his eyes briefly turned into hearts when he looked at me, but they instantly disappeared as glanced at an unearthly, beautiful demon and a cool-looking dark elf also sitting around the conference table.

What’s with all the super beautiful people around here? A face like Jiang Shuyu’s almost seemed normal.

The prince then regally sat back in his chair, as though I hadn’t already seen him stuffing his face.

“No, we’ve never met before,” the prince said to the busty lady. He looked at me and directly asked, “Did you want to join Infinite City?”

“That’s… So what are the terms for joining ‘Infinite City?’” Of course I won’t join! My loyalty is with the Jiang family and the Jiang Dominion Troop. But if I say no outright, isn’t that just an excuse for them to kill me on sight?

A wolf-like man with thick gray fur suddenly stood up and clapped me on the shoulder. Even though I’m standing on the table, I’m not much taller than him! He looked a lot shorter sitting down.

He kindly said, “Before you two get into negotiations, we really should get you changed out of those clothes before you catch a cold. I’m sure my clothes won’t fit you, but you look close to Prince’s size. He has all those old outfits from photo shoots and the band tour, so there should be plenty to lend to you.” Instead of a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” is this guy actually a “sheep in wolves’ clothing?” He really seemed like a nice guy. If I didn’t have a higher tolerance for cold as an ice ability user, I would have probably been chilled to the bone wearing these wet clothes.

The busty lady’s eyes suddenly shone as she said, “Wolf-dàgē is right! It would be inconsiderate of us to keep you in such discomfort. We even have a whole bath house just around the corner that you can soak in and soothe all those aching muscles.~” Several of the guys around the table blanched when they heard that.

Why does it feel like it’s more likely that I’ll be eaten by the busty lady than the scary-looking Wolf-dàgē…?

Wolf-dàgē personally escorted me to the bath house and even said he would stand guard outside the bath house door while I was bathing “just in case.” The prince also said he would personally come by to drop off something for me to change into later. I didn’t know if they wanted to recruit me that badly or showed this hospitality to everyone.

Alone in the bath house, I finally had a moment to think. What is going on? How do I get back to Shujun and Dàgē? So much for going into Lan City just for training. As soon Xiao Sha tells Dàgē I’m missing again, Dàgē’s going to storm into Lan City with the entire troop to search for me! It’s a pity that Dàgē won’t be in a generous mood if that’s the case. Some of those people looked like promising recruits… Assuming they haven’t already died at the hands of the aberrants chasing them before I disappeared.

Although the warm water and steam were very soothing, I couldn’t help but feel tense. It was one thing to be separated from Shujun and Dàgē, but this time it didn’t seem like we were even in the same universe!

It was this moment that the bath house door opened, and I eyed it warily in case someone had gotten past Wolf-dàgē after all. But it was just the prince bringing his spare clothes as he had promised. Surprisingly, he came in with only a towel wrapped around his waist and slid into the water too, carefully positioning himself so that I wouldn’t be able to see anything. Are you some sort of shy maiden? What would I want to peek at you for? There’s no way you can compare to Dàgē!

But thinking about the heart eyes the prince had shown earlier… I subconsciously also shifted to cover myself up more. Jiang Shuyu’s looks can probably still compete with all the super beautiful people here. It’s hard to say that my face won’t bring me trouble. What if he asks me to join his harem of beautiful guys?

“Don’t worry. I chained Lolidragon up to a pillar before coming in here, so you can relax,” the prince said matter-of-factly.

“Um… Thank you, Your Highness.”

The white-haired elf looked a little uncomfortable at being addressed as “Your Highness” and said, “Just call me Prince.”

So his name is just “Prince?” It’s not a title?

Prince looked at me carefully, “Did you actually come to join Infinite City? It’s pretty strange to find someone who hasn’t heard of the Blood Elf, Prince, or Odd Squad and Infinite City.”

Busted… As I was scrambling to think of a reply, Prince laughed and said, “Or if you’re lost from another continent, we can send Sunshine with his magic carpet to send you back! It’s a much more comfortable ride than in a giant clam or even that super expensive five-thousand-crystal-coin boat ride.” Even with all the steam in the bath house, I could see a comically large sweatdrop on his forehead. “Yu Lian-dàs?o even forbid any merchants from selling me alcohol in the future just to prevent me from drunkenly ending up on another continent again…”

“Can you send me to Lan City on the continent of Meisia?” I asked, but didn’t hold any hope. I’m pretty sure magic carpets don’t exist in my universe. So unless this carpet is so magical it can tear a hole in the fabric of time and space, it won’t be able to take me home.

As expected, Prince frowned. “I thought there were just five continents: Central, Eastern, Southern, Western, and Northern. I’m going to PM Lolidragon.” Following that, he scrunched up his forehead and looked like he was deep in thought. “I forgot she was tied up to a pillar. She was swearing a lot, but I think she said there are only these five continents.”

It was just as I thought. I sighed. “Thanks for the offer. I’ll try to figure out another way home.”

“You warped into our dining—Ahem! Conference room. Why can’t you warp back out? By the way, White Bird and Nan Gong Zui want to know how you got in. Something about security concerns and how if you were an assassin, you could have cast an AoE in the middle of our conference.”

I shook my head. “I have no idea either. I’ve been warped to several places now but I disappear just as I’m about to help someone or fighting off someone who’s attacking me. I’m not even sure why this is happening.”

Translator: *nervously chuckles while fiddling with the time skip machine to get it to work properly*

Honestly, it’s probably just another example of the Jiang family’s unbelievably bad luck.

Prince scratched his face. “If that’s the case, I guess White Bird and Nan Gong Zui don’t need to worry about security breaches. Sounds like a simple accident.”

He then looked at me earnestly, his blood red eyes locked on mine. He actually looked like a leader—a real prince—now that he was being serious. “How badly do you want to go back to your Meisia? You don’t appear to be weak and I’m sure everyone would welcome you if you joined Infinite City. If not, we’ll do what we can to help you get back.”

I immediately responded, “Mèimei and Dàgē are everything to me! I have to see them again.”

Prince nodded regally. With the air of a monarch issuing a decree, he declared, “Then it’s settled! We’ll have a duel!”

“Eh?” Don’t tell me rejecting Infinite City offended him so badly he wants a death match?

“If you said getting into a fight is what makes you warp, then you’ll just have to keep getting into fights until you get back home!”

“… It sounds really simple when you say it that way.” Who knows how many universes there are out there? But what Prince was saying felt true. No matter how long it would take, I would fight my way across the universe to see Shujun and Dàgē again!

“Prince! I challenge you to a duel!”

As I said that, I felt such a surge of hope that some of the lazily coiling steam crystallized in the air and despite the warmth in the bath house, a thin layer of frost suddenly coated the floor.

Prince’s eyes gleamed and his handsome face broke out into a grin in anticipation of a fight. It looked like this pretty boy had truly earned the title “Blood Elf.”

“I accept your challenge!”

Despite itching to fight to get back home sooner, I waited for my sea-soaked clothes to get properly laundered. Prince really knows how to play up his sex appeal… Each of the outfits he brought for me to change into was skimpier than the last! I’d never hear the end of it if I showed up in front of the JDT wearing one of those.

Translator: You’re depriving the fanbase of a valuable source of artistic inspiration!

I nodded respectfully to Prince across the conference room table. “You’re right. Meat floss scrambled egg porridge really doesn’t taste too bad. Adding guazi also gives it a nice crunch.”

“Right, right? Here, try some of Meatbun’s barbecued meat with it too.”

“This is so good… I can feel the pieces of meat melting in my mouth… It’s so much better than the nearly inedible, sometimes toxic, aberrant flesh. The smell coming off the meat is sometimes so bad that I’d want to puke instead.”

“Too bad you aren’t staying longer. Some really nice restaurants have opened up around Infinite City. Your waist definitely won’t be so small after eating a few bowls of ramen with extra chashu and toppings, baked potatoes covered with hickory-smoked bacon bits, curry mee with lots of fried tofu, beef Wellington, or briyani rice and yogurt.”

“Hahaha. It’s a wonder that you manage to keep in shape with so many delicious foods around here.”

“It’s amazing what thirty minutes of running away from hordes of fangirls every day will do for your physique.”

As I was waiting for my clothes to be laundered, I decided to take advantage of my host’s hospitality a bit more and asked for a decent meal before we fought. It was all he could come up with on short notice, but as someone who survived the apocalypse, I wasn’t a picky eater.

“Mama! Fiery finished drying the clothes!”

A small round lump bounced up to Prince with my clothes neatly stacked on top of its head. After I took the clothes from the lump, I could clearly see… It was a meat bun? A meat bun with eyes?

Prince tenderly rubbed the meat bun on its head. “Thanks, Meatbun. We’ll go out to buy some buns later, O.K.?”

“Bun buns!” The meat bun happily shouted as it ran off.

Once I changed back into my actual clothes, Prince and I headed to a place where he said we could fight without destroying things and incurring the wrath of the Construction and Finance departments.

It was an arena with a simple sandy pit with empty seats circling around it. We took our stances on opposite sides.

“Ready for me to send you back to where you came from?” Prince cheerfully called out.

I rolled my eyes. Can you not make it sound like this is a duel to the death? But I positioned my feet in a

battle-ready stance and shouted back, “I’ll be moving first!”

I formed ice blades beneath my feet to glide quickly across the floor, and Prince charged forward to meet me as well. In an instant, we were right before each other. I swung out with my dagger…

I suddenly felt resistance against my dagger as it was parried by Prince’s Black Dao. Prince immediately counterattacked, making use of his dao’s longer reach to force me to retreat. I wish I could summon the ice spear!

Then I ducked low, trying to aim for his knee instead. Before the blow was about to land, he twisted slightly out of the way and shouted, “Buddha Mountain’s Phantom Leg!”

Already so low to the ground, I had to lean sharply backward to avoid Prince’s kick, his foot sweeping inches above my face, and twisted to the side as the Black Dao slammed down beside me.

Prince noticed me keeping an eye behind him just in time for him to look back and side step most of the blades of ice I had positioned behind his back. One still managed to nick the side of his face, crimson blood dripping down his previously flawless skin. His tongue reached out to catch a drop and then he launched himself forward.

“Dragon Whirlwind Strike!”

I felt the energy gathering around him and dodged while throwing up a barrier of ice. He didn’t make a direct hit, but I heard parts of the shield crack from the tearing whirlwind that surrounded him.

While Prince was regaining his footing after that dizzying attack, I dove in, aiming for his neck. He reflexively managed to deflect it with the hilt of the Black Dao but as he moved to counterattack again, I retreated behind the remains of the ice shield and used the time to place more ice blades in the air.

With a blast of icy air emanating from my body, I created a path of ice from me to Prince and trapped his feet in the ice. In the moments he was pulling his feet free, I dashed in. He still managed to reflexively parry this head on attack, but his fate was sealed as the ice blades flew toward him from all directions…

I don’t actually have to kill him to go home, do I?

But in that moment of hesitation, I heard Prince cry out, “Pure White Inferno Rhapsody!”

A white flash of searing heat emanated from the Black Dao, causing the ice blades headed toward him to evaporate into steam. My hand holding the dagger was forced aside and as the Black Dao swung down at me…

I finally felt the scene before me dissolve into darkness…

Thank you, Prince.

I was tumbling down past the side of a building. A clock tower chimed midnight in the distance. I could see the insides of darkened classrooms as I fell past and my hands scrabbled for purchase on the windowsills. My hands caught on the ledge of the largest window, and I used my momentum to crash through the window and swing inside…

“Slay! Eliminate!”

“No! Lu Yang, that’s not a—!”

I suddenly felt the scene before me dissolve into darkness…

I was suddenly in an antique-looking pub filled with bustling people.

I need to find someone who’s probably strong enough to probably beat me up and send me home!

My eyes scanned across the bar for someone strong looking. That guy in the eye-catching, black and silver scale armor with tights looks imposing, but I bet he’s a poser. He doesn’t have the physique of a fighter at all. In contrast, the brown-almost-blond guy drinking alone next to him is probably a pro!

There was no time better than the present. I ran up to punch the guy while shouting, “Fight me!” to get the message across as directly as possible. He easily caught the fist. Looks like I made a good choice!

He looked puzzled. “I have no quarrel with you but… You wish to duel?”

“Yes!” Honestly, I was kind of hoping the punch would be enough to get me to warp. This is kind of embarrassing. The whole bar is staring and the bartender looks like he’s really not looking forward to a bar fight.

“Alright. Let’s step outside to fight an honorable match. There’s no need to let bystanders get caught up in this mess.”

The black and silver guy seemed to roll his eyes at the brown-haired man’s words. He said matter-of-factly to the brown-haired man, “There isn’t anywhere to keep money on this outfit. You’ll pay before you leave right?”

The brown-haired man wordlessly passed several coins over to the bartender.

Once we were outside in a cobblestone street, he solemnly stated, “Draw your sword.”

I pulled out my ice dagger as he pulled out a gleaming longsword. He hesitated when he saw the dagger. “You brought a dagger to a swordfight?” He re-sheathed his weapon. “It wouldn’t be fair to fight you.”

Ah, no! I need this fight! Seeing the brown-haired swordsman was truly very reluctant to fight someone he perceived as at a disadvantage and running out of options, I recklessly charged him so that he would be forced to fight me off. As expected, he frowned and dodged out of the way.

With a look of pity in his eyes, he swung the pommel of his sword in a well-practiced motion toward my temple…

I suddenly felt the scene before me dissolve into darkness…

I internally heaved a sigh of relief.

It was a snowy yard, with a building in front of me that looked vaguely familiar although I couldn’t remember where I had seen it before. Behind me was a well-fortified wall.

The entire area was quiet and empty… Except for a single child standing in the snow. My heart stopped when he turned around and I saw his face.

Jiang Xiaotian.

“Dàgē!” I screamed and ran over to hug him. His small body stiffened in shock as I wrapped my arms around him. At first I was afraid to hold him too tightly, scared that he would shatter in my arms. But he was warm and soft and…

Does this mean this isn’t my world? After all, the Jiang Xiaotian of my world… He should already be…

It doesn’t matter! This is a second chance! All that matters is taking him home to see Mèimei!

Jiang Xiaotian began trying to wriggle out of my grasp, no doubt fed up from his Dìdi hugging him for so long. Before he could leave again, I grabbed on to his wrist. “I won’t let go of you until we see Shujun again! We’ll truly be a happy family!”

Jiang Xiaotian stared back at me with wide eyes. He didn’t seem to recognize me. “Mister, you know Gūgū?”

Gūgū?

Even if Jiang Xiaotian had lost his memories again, at the very least, he should be calling Junjun jiějie or even āyí… But Gūgū…

I looked at the kid more carefully again and my heart sank. While the kid was the spitting image of Dàgē, there were still some differences between him and Jiang Xiaotian. My grip on his wrist loosened as I limply sank to the ground.

“You’re… You’re Jiang Shutian’s kid, aren’t you?”

The kid nodded shyly, and my hope of a second chance was extinguished as soon as it came.

Still, I couldn’t believe Dàgē had a kid that Shujun hadn’t immediately thrown out. And this kid was so big already… Did that mean… Dàgē got married while I was away?

I swiftly looked back at my nephew. I couldn’t help asking in curiosity. “Who’s your mom?”

Suddenly, I felt a powerful wave of energy behind me and a cold female voice saying, “Get away from my son!”

I suddenly felt the scene before me dissolve into darkness…

No, no, no! I desperately twisted my head to look back. But it was too late and everything was enveloped by the dark.

I didn’t dare to immediately open my eyes. I was afraid I had found my world, even if it was several years in the future, only to lose it again.

But I heard what sounded like things being smashed against the ground and the taunts of someone from high up, with the roars of aberrants from below. Now isn’t the time to be standing around like a sitting duck!

I opened my eyes and found I was just back where I started, with Xiao Sha running off to the side to save another group of civilians and my group in danger of perishing. Someone is really gonna die if I don’t do anything!

I set aside my lingering confusion and sadness and moved forward.