RIACMET chapter 192

 

Visiting hours had ended when the female teacher arrived right on time. Xiaoya was reluctant to leave. She looked like she wanted to say something but held back several times. Ultimately, she didn’t dare ask Jiang Nian if he would visit her again.

Jiang Nian spoke up first:

“If you manage to break through your superpower limit, please pass a message to the teacher. We hope that when we meet again, you’ll be doing even better.”

Xiaoya’s eyes lit up instantly, and she nodded firmly.

“Okay.”

Then, she waved at Cheng Jing and Chu Yi before leaving with the female teacher.

Chu Yi sighed as he watched her leave.

“Compared to the others, Xiaoya’s reaction and aura when facing Jiang Nian are really different. She seems more relaxed and not on guard.”

Cheng Jing nodded.

“Yeah, we noticed that too.”

Although Xiaoya was kind to Huang Qian and Li Shuhui, she clearly had a special connection with Jiang Nian.

After seeing Xiaoya off, Jiang Nian stepped forward and asked,

“Since we’re already here, Brother Chu, could you show us around the school?”

“Of course, let’s go.”

Chu Yi agreed right away and led them down the corridor from the visitor area to other parts of the facility:

Classrooms, superpower training rooms, psychological counseling rooms, the cafeteria, and the labor reform area.

The other places weren’t particularly notable, but the labor reform zone, guarded by soldiers, looked more like a massive waste-sorting center.

It was piled high with random items collected by the rescue team.

Most of the items had been brought back from Xihe City not long ago.

Specially recruited machinery workers acted as supervisors, leading students from the school to sort and reassemble the materials, then move them to the warehouse factory for future use. The workers supervised the sorting of everything from daily necessities to large industrial machines.

Stronger criminals were assigned to build the base walls, while weaker criminals, sick individuals, and minors were shackled and sorted goods in the reform area. All of this counted as volunteer labor.

Ordinary students could receive compensation for working here.

This is how the Nancheng base currently managed this “special group.”

Order was the prerequisite for freedom and the foundation of stability. In this respect, the Nancheng base outperformed other bases.

Chu Yi and Cheng Jing weren’t the chattiest people. During the tour, the supervisor mainly communicated with Jiang Nian, exchanging only nods with the others at the beginning.

“… ”

After visiting the labor reform zone, they left the school through the visitor corridor.

Back in the car, Chu Yi sat in the backseat and teased,

“Jiang Nian, with a personality like yours that charms everyone, you must get a lot of romantic opportunities.”

Jiang Nian glanced at the driver and smiled.

“Of course, I have plenty of admirers. But I only love Brother Cheng Jing. From first love to marriage, I’m a very loyal person.”

After speaking, he turned to confirm.

“Right, Brother Cheng Jing?”

Cheng Jing nodded. “Yeah.”

They both knew they easily attracted romantic attention, so when they first started dating, they promised each other that random flirtations would never affect their feelings.

Falling in love was meant to bring joy, not control. They were both adults. Accidents or misunderstandings were understandable every now and then, but constantly being stuck in ambiguous situations was just self-deception.

Chu Yi: “… ”

He had just said that casually to liven the mood. He hadn’t expected them to start showing affection right in front of him.

…

After dropping Chu Yi off at the lab building, it was almost lunchtime, so Cheng Jing and Jiang Nian went straight back to their parents’ house.

With their parents around, they would have fewer opportunities to slack off in the future.

After lunch, Jiang Nian volunteered to wash the dishes. They chatted briefly with their parents before returning to the dormitory.

Jiang Nian noticed that his boyfriend looked worried. As soon as they entered the room, Jiang Nian asked,

“Brother Jing, what’s wrong? You’ve been acting a bit off ever since we got back from detention school. Did I say something wrong to Xiaoya?”

It was the only thing he could think of.

Cheng Jing immediately shook his head in denial.

“No, from our perspective, your interaction with Xiaoya was fine. You handled it really well. It’s good for everyone that she doesn’t have a warped personality. I was thinking about something else.”

“Oh? What is it? Tell me.”

Jiang Nian turned on the fan, pulled out some snacks, sat on the sofa, and listened attentively.

“…”

Cheng Jing was already used to him eating while talking. He pulled up a chair and sat across from Jiang Nian. He took out the recorder and asked,

“What are you planning to do with the memory recording from Chen Yue’s past life? Should we destroy it?”

“You’re worried about that…”

Jiang Nian had clearly already thought this through and answered without hesitation.

“The safest thing would be to destroy it. But before I do, I want everyone to hear it.”

All of their teammates were smart and quick-witted. They supported his actions and were surely curious about the reasons behind them.

He couldn’t publicly reveal his rebirth, but he could use Chen Yue and the nightmares to reveal some “truth” to everyone.

Cheng Jing smiled.

“I thought the same. There are already tons of rumors about the apocalypse and dreams. Whether or not people believe them, it’s hard to debunk something so mysterious. It’s not a big deal.”

He used to worry about being found out, but not anymore. It wasn’t surprising that there were so many rumors. Just let it be.

The apocalypse had arrived. Superpowers and zombies were everywhere. The authorities didn’t have the capacity to address every claim.

“Yeah, everyone’s already bought into my story about having prophetic nightmares. It shouldn’t be too hard to accept that memories from a previous life have awakened. The whole thing revolves around Chen Yue’s story anyway. He asked how I knew the parts that weren’t recorded, and I wasn’t afraid to answer.”

Jiang Nian looked calm. Everyone’s fate had been rewritten in this life. They had lived and fought side by side, trusting each other. This was a good chance to open up.

Besides, those things weren’t going to happen again, and there was no evidence. At worst, it would just be dismissed as a story.

Cheng Jing nodded.

“All right, then. I’ll look for an opportunity to tell everyone this afternoon, and then we’ll destroy the recording. I’ll invite everyone over for a casual dinner at my parents’ house tonight so we can officially introduce each other.”

“Okay.”

Jiang Nian finished a bag of spicy noodles and broke off a piece of cold rabbit meat. He licked his lips and said,

“Settled, then. Brother Jing will handle the arrangements.”

Seeing that his hands were messy, Cheng Jing handed him a tissue and said,

“You don’t need to rush to help with chores at my parents’ place anymore. My mom thinks I bully you every day. She even secretly confronted me earlier while you were doing the dishes. I feel so wronged.”

While his mom praised him for training his partner to be well-behaved and obedient, she slapped his shoulder with the Nine Yin White Bone Claw[mfn]The Nine Yin White Bone Claw (九阴白骨爪, Jiǔ Yīn Bái Gǔ Zhǎo) is a fictional martial arts technique (kung fu move) from the famous Chinese wuxia (martial arts) novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes (射雕英雄传) by Jin Yong (金庸).[/mfn], which hurt like hell.

She used to pinch his ear, but now, afraid that Jiang Nian would notice, she had switched to a different method. His dad just gave him a cold look for no reason.

Faced with two people who didn’t believe him, he was speechless and wanted to roll his eyes.

“Ha…”

Seeing how aggrieved he looked, Jiang Nian chuckled and nodded.

“All right, next time you should be more proactive. We can’t just show up at my parents’ house for dinner and expect them to run around. That wouldn’t be right.”

He wasn’t pretending. He truly believed that was how things should be with family. Household chores shouldn’t fall on just one person. But when he was with Brother Jing, he tended to get pampered.

He used to wonder how someone who seemed so aloof could care so much about family. But after meeting his parents, he understood—it was just family tradition.

Cheng Jing agreed:

“All right, let’s do it together.”

He would definitely be more proactive from now on.

Then, someone still licking their fingers started getting demanding:

“Hey, Brother Jing, you better treat me nicer next time, or I’m going to complain.”

Cheng Jing: “…”

This just proves that some people really can’t be spoiled!