RIACMET chapter 193

 

As soon as the decision was made, the issue of the recorder had to be dealt with. During the lunch break, Cheng Jing planned to speak with his teammates and take the necessary steps to officially add Jiang Nian to the team.

Since Jiang Nian was going to the hospital to visit Jiang Wenwen, they drove separately.

At lunchtime, Cheng Jing gathered all the team members—except Yang Kai—at a small warehouse under the pretense of organizing supplies.

Yang Kai joined them midway through, so, unlike the others, he was already aware of Jiang Nian’s “nightmare omens” from the beginning. There was no need to explain it again, and it wouldn’t have much of an impact.

But when everyone arrived at the warehouse, they saw their eldest teammate sitting casually in a chair with one leg crossed over the other. He was fanning himself with a battery-powered fan and calmly snacking. The warehouse was neat and didn’t need tidying up.

Seeing this, everyone thought the same thing:

Something had happened to the eldest, and it definitely wasn’t minor. Since Jiang Nian wasn’t there, the situation probably had something to do with him.

After reviewing recent events, they concluded that Jiang Nian had taken revenge on Chen Yue’s family.

The fact that their eldest was still in the mood for snacks meant that the situation was under control. Zhao Lei joked,

“Brother Cheng, you’re making us feel uneasy.”

“Don’t be nervous. It’s not a big deal.”

Cheng Jing waved his hand casually. Once everyone had found a place to sit, he got straight to the point.

“I called you here because I want to know what you really think about Jiang Nian’s revenge against the Chen family.”

Despite having laid a lot of groundwork beforehand, it turned out the others still didn’t know the full truth. The people Jiang Nian killed may have deserved to die, but from an outsider’s perspective, they were still his relatives.

Since he was involved in the matter, Liao Yu had the most to say, so he spoke up first:

“Even if we set aside how that family abused my godfather, they still deserved to die for what they did. They tried to kill me and Uncle Li, and they planned to kidnap my godfather to threaten you, Brother Cheng. If we hadn’t been prepared, we would have been dead by the seventh day.”

Objectively speaking, Xia Weiwei and Chen Shanmin had set that trap meticulously. If not for Chu Yi, we wouldn’t have escaped.

The team exchanged looks and nodded in agreement. Eventually, Huang Qian spoke up.

“We feel the same as Young Master. There’s nothing more to say. That family—and Xia Weiwei—wouldn’t come clean even if you dunked them in bleach.”

Everyone knew the whole story. They admired Jiang Nian even more for having the strength and resolve to strike back. They supported him without hesitation.

Never mind that Chen Shanmin was Jiang Nian’s biological father. If he was willing to scheme against Jiang Nian for the sake of Chen Yue, then he didn’t deserve the title of father in the first place.

Cheng Jing finally felt relieved.

“I was worried you’d think he was too coldhearted for turning against his own father.”

That was the main reason why Cheng Jing had wanted to handle the matter with the family and Xia Weiwei himself. He wouldn’t mind being criticized; he had the strength to bear it. But Jiang Nian wasn’t like that. He cared too much about the people around him.

Huang Qian, always thoughtful and meticulous, said meaningfully,

“Even a rabbit bites when it’s cornered. Jiang Nian must’ve had a reason to be that ruthless. All we need to do is respect and support him. Or are you going to share some secret intel so we can understand things more deeply?”

“There are indeed some hidden truths.”

Cheng Jing gave Sister Qian, who truly deserved to be his assistant, a thumbs-up and then changed the subject.

“They wanted to kidnap Jiang Nian because of the apocalyptic omens.”

“… ”

Everyone’s expressions shifted, and Jian Cheng spread his hands.

“Anyone who plots something so evil and knows such a massive secret deserves to die.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Zhou Rongbin frowned and asked,

“How did they find out? Did Brother Nian tell them?”

Cheng Jing answered directly.

“That’s also why I asked you all here today. Some things may sound mysterious, like Jiang Nian’s nightmare omens, but they’re real.”

Tang Yi chuckled.

“The sudden arrival of the apocalypse was bizarre enough. It’s only natural that there’d be stranger things. Quite a few people, like Brother Nian, had dreams before the catastrophe hit, but they didn’t believe in them like he did.”

Lu Ningzhou sighed softly.

“If I’d had a dream like that, I probably wouldn’t have believed it either.”

“…”

“Me neither.”

Huang Qian nodded, confident that most people wouldn’t take such dreams seriously. Then she looked at Cheng Jing and asked,

“So, Brother, why did you drag us here like this? Did you have a dream, too?”

“The truth is, Jiang Nian’s nightmares and his ability to fight zombies were never mentioned to the Chen family, but they all knew about them because Chen Yue awakened memories from Jiang Nian’s past life.”

As Cheng Jing finished speaking, he took out the recorder in front of his sincere, trusting, and now startled teammates.

“Chen Yue detailed everything about his past life in this recorder and explained why they tortured Jiang Nian. In Jiang Nian’s nightmares, his family tortured him to death, so he came to me and cut ties with them.”

After saying that, he hit play.

This reasoning was a bit far-fetched, and he didn’t expect everyone to fully believe it. Just listening to the recording would be enough to put their minds at ease.

As the recording played, the team’s expressions slowly shifted from casual to serious.

…

Meanwhile, Jiang Nian had planned to visit Jiang Wenwen at the hospital to discuss starting a farm with her, since people with water-based superpowers excel at agriculture. However, she called him instead.

She said she had been discharged and asked to meet elsewhere.

From a distance, at the entrance of the base, Jiang Nian spotted Jiang Wenwen, who had clearly lost a lot of weight. She was wearing neat, outdoor-ready clothes and standing next to a modified minivan.

Her hair had been cut short above her ears. Her gaze was much colder than before; it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she looked like a completely different person.

When she saw him, Jiang Wenwen greeted him warmly:

“Don’t move—let me hug my savior first.”

Then, her voice choked with sobs, she politely hugged Jiang Nian.

“Thank you, Jiang Nian.”

She had been chained up in Xia Weiwei’s basement like a dog. Without any friends or “siblings,” she had no idea if anyone would come for her.

Despairing, she had waited, expecting to be dragged back to S Base to become her father’s test subject.

Xia Weiwei had volunteered for the twisted crystal core transplant experiment proposed by the mad doctor.

Because Jiang Wenwen had resisted, her father decided to give her rare water-element crystal core to her younger sister instead.

So, when Chu Yi arrived and said Jiang Nian had sent him, Jiang Nian’s place in her heart rose above her own life.

“…”

Jiang Nian let her hold him for a moment before gently pulling away and asking,

“You’re going out dressed like this? Has your superpower fully recovered?”

Her short haircut made her look tougher and more decisive.

Jiang Wenwen nodded with a smile.

“I’ve completely recovered. Jiang Nian, I’m leaving Nancheng Base.”

Although part of her felt reluctant, it was a decision she had carefully considered.