RIACMET chapter 79

 

“A woman who thinks she can call the shots!”

After hearing everything Cheng Jing said, Jiang Nian nearly burst out laughing from sheer anger. A ball of rage flared in his chest, and, at the same time, scattered thoughts churned in his mind.

It seemed that his rebirth had truly changed fate. The butterfly effect it set off was shifting things in unexpected ways.

Chen Yue hadn’t been infected and killed by zombies. The family who should have ended up at Base Z was now going to be brought here by Xia Weiwei.

However, even without him, Chen Yue and the others should have had the same experience as in their past life.

Back then, they encountered a horde of zombies on the road to the main base. In the chaos, Chen Yue had been scratched, forcing them to change their plans. They abandoned the larger base they had intended to reach and took shelter at Base Z instead, even though it was in worse condition.

Xia Weiwei had been living in Tianhe City, preparing to start school. She had come from somewhere else to find Chen Yue so they could go together.

Because of her background, she received priority evacuation and government protection during the initial outbreak. She awakened her supernatural powers very early on.

One could say that it was all thanks to Xia Weiwei that Chen Yue’s family received so much preferential treatment.

In their previous life, after the extreme winter had ended, Xia Weiwei had planned to choose a base. She intended to head to Base S in Taipei eventually, but she couldn’t take Chen Yue, who had been infected, to the main settlement.

When she learned that purification abilities could suppress the zombie virus, she pulled strings to smuggle them into the central area of Base Z.

Now, upon further reflection, the reason Xia Weiwei had acted so arrogantly in Base Z was probably because Base S had been pulling the strings behind the scenes all along.

There must have been a hidden story behind her experiments and the subsequent evacuation.

“…”

“Niannian…”

“Niannian!”

Seeing him suddenly lower his head and zone out, with his expression shifting over and over, Cheng Jing reached out and patted his back.

“What’s wrong all of a sudden?”

“Huh?”

Jiang Nian snapped out of it and pulled his drifting thoughts back. When he saw Cheng Jing watching him with concern, he forced a smile.

“I’m fine, Brother Jing. I was just thinking about some things.”

Then, he patted his cheeks and told Cheng Jing everything he’d been thinking about.

“…”

Cheng Jing was silent for a moment after hearing it.

“Then, is it possible that they never encountered that zombie horde on the road this time?”

The moment Chen Yue was scratched by a zombie had been the pivot point that changed Jiang Nian’s fate. The butterfly effect went in both directions. In a more superstitious sense, perhaps Chen Yue wasn’t fated to die. Without Jiang Nian, nothing would have happened to him.

But Jiang Nian shook his head.

“If they had never encountered that horde and there hadn’t been an accident, why would they have come to Nancheng Base in the first place? Why not go to a base closer to Taipei and then head to Base S, like Xia Weiwei originally planned?”

“That really doesn’t make sense.”

Cheng Jing frowned. He studied Jiang Nian for a moment, then spoke again.

“Maybe Chen Yue wasn’t infected, but something else happened that changed the plan.”

“I think so too.”

Jiang Nian nodded, then asked,

“Could you ask Yang Kai to look into it? Why exactly did Xia Weiwei come to Nancheng Base? It can’t be only because of me.”

Setting aside whether Xia Weiwei had ever come to Nancheng in her previous life, in this life, none of them knew about Jiang Nian’s powers, and Chen Yue wasn’t injured. Coming all this way just for him didn’t make sense.

Cheng Jing smiled faintly and patted his shoulder.

“I already asked Yang Kai. Xia Weiwei’s background is similar to his. They grew up in the same military compound as kids, and their families have known each other for years.”

“But because of Yang Kai’s job, he and Xia Weiwei were never very close. Still, he said that this time, besides verifying your identity, Xia Weiwei came looking for her younger sister.”

“Younger sister?”

Jiang Nian was stunned.

“She has a sister?”

He remembered that Xia Weiwei was the same age as Chen Yue—nineteen this year—and that her stepmother had always insisted that she was an only child.

Cheng Jing nodded and explained,

“Yang Kai said that Xia Weiwei’s parents were both only children. After they married, they had two daughters. She took their father’s surname, Xia, and her sister took their mother’s surname, Jiang. When their parents divorced, her mother moved abroad and sent her sister to live with their grandmother in Qingyun City.

“After the apocalypse broke out, her sister was the only one left in her grandmother’s house. Apparently, she has awakened a water-based ability, so Xia Weiwei wants to bring her back to Base S.
“By the way, you know this person.”

“Jiang Wenwen!”

Jiang Nian blurted out before Cheng Jing could finish. In that same instant, all the doubts tangled in his chest seemed to fall into place, and a strange clarity washed over him.

“Yes—Jiang Wenwen.”

Cheng Jing let out a quiet sigh. Sometimes fate wove people’s lives together in delicate and inescapable ways.

“Heh…”

Jiang Nian slumped back on the sofa with a bitter smile.

“No wonder I always thought Jiang Wenwen looked familiar, but I couldn’t figure out why. Jiang Wenwen… Xia Weiwei. What the hell is this?”

Was he destined to have a short life? No matter how hard he tried to hide or change, the same rotten people and things always ended up around him.

He’d thought Jiang Wenwen could be a friend, someone he could rely on. But in the end, this is how it turned out.

Nevertheless, he had never heard Xia Weiwei mention Jiang Wenwen in his previous life. Otherwise, he definitely would have remembered the name.

What really happened back then?

“… ”

While he was lost in thought, Cheng Jing spoke up at just the right moment.

“Yang Kai said Xia Weiwei and Jiang Wenwen don’t have a good relationship. The two sisters haven’t spoken in years. From what I hear, Jiang Wenwen’s ties to her original family are about as cold as yours.”

That was partly why Cheng Jing had always been wary of Jiang Wenwen. He didn’t mind her working with Jiang Nian, but if she ever turned against him, he wouldn’t show any mercy.

“…I see.”

Jiang Nian slowly let out a breath.

“Let’s just wait and see what happens. If Jiang Wenwen chooses to leave with Xia Weiwei, our cooperation will end right there. No big loss. I’m just a little frustrated. I’m more worried about Chen Shanmin’s family.”

That was really all there was to it. Judging by what happened last time, Jiang Wenwen hadn’t gone to Base S with Xia Weiwei after all.

“Don’t worry. I’m here.”

Cheng Jing squeezed his shoulder. His voice was calm, but it carried an undertone of coldness.

“If they’re all coming this way on their own, even better. It saves me the trouble of hunting them down.”

Nancheng Base was far from Base Z, and given the zombie situation, it would take over a month to get there—maybe two if there were delays.

That was exactly why he was certain that his journey to Base Z in his previous life hadn’t been a coincidence. It must have been a deliberate trip to find Jiang Nian.

Jiang Nian was a little taken aback by that icy tone.

“Brother Jing?”

Cheng Jing looked him straight in the eye.

“I don’t plan on letting the people who hurt you last time walk away unpunished. Even if they haven’t hurt you in this life, and even if I never know exactly what happened before, it has nothing to do with me. You can’t do it yourself, so let me be the one to do it.”

In fact, part of him was glad those people were coming. It meant he could pay off the debt sooner and perhaps finally allow the person he loved to live without carrying that burden forever.