cnatrainingtips Chapter 413 - 398: After All, It Was Stolen
Chapter 413 - 398: After All, It Was Stolen
Gu Xi didn’t move quickly, apparently not the least bit worried that the person she was looking for would get away.
She had to admit, Ye Xin had certainly given her a surprise today.
She had originally planned to find the Chen sisters through Zhou Jing, but unexpectedly, Ye Xin had done her a huge favor ahead of schedule.
Qi Xiang walked beside Gu Xi. Although Gu Xi wasn’t moving fast, her path was clear and direct. Qi Xiang’s eyes flickered. It was strange; ever since Gu Xi had gotten up, the voice from that unknown location hadn’t been heard again.
’It’s as if someone in there realized something.’
That silent understanding... it left Qi Xiang feeling a little defeated.
Half an hour later, Gu Xi stopped before a black metal door.
’Here?’
Qi Xiang frowned slightly. She couldn’t shake the feeling that the metal door in front of them looked familiar.
A moment later, the black door slid open without a sound, revealing an unfamiliar middle-aged man standing inside.
’Why is he the only one here?’
Qi Xiang frowned, instinctively glancing at Gu Xi beside her. ’Something feels wrong.’
Gu Xi, however, looked perfectly calm, as if this was exactly what she had expected.
The middle-aged man turned to look at Gu Xi outside the door, a gentle smile on his face. "Xiaoxi, it’s been a while."
’That voice...’ It was definitely the man’s voice they had heard at the start. The feeling that something was wrong, which had just surfaced in Qi Xiang’s heart, intensified.
But she said nothing, merely standing by Gu Xi’s side and silently playing her part as backup.
"It has been a while." Gu Xi calmly regarded the man before her. After a moment, her gaze settled on his face, and she let out a soft sigh. "But I have to say, seeing you like this... I’m not quite used to it."
"Chen."
"Is that so? Then how about this?" The middle-aged man chuckled good-naturedly.
Immediately after, the man’s face began to slowly contort...
Two minutes later, Qi Xiang stared at the familiar old woman before her and gasped.
’So it really is Chen.’
Qi Xiang raised an eyebrow. ’How did I not know that Chen, the former director of the Abnormal Ability Research Institute, has a Transformation Ability?’
Not a single rumor about this had ever come out of the Institute over all these years.
’Strange.’
For some reason, Qi Xiang suddenly recalled the person with the Transformation Ability Dr. Qi had taken her to see several years ago. That person... who later vanished without a trace, taken somewhere unknown by those people. That person with the Transformation Ability!
Whatever she had just remembered, goosebumps erupted all over Qi Xiang’s skin. A bone-chilling cold enveloped her.
She instinctively took a step back, moving behind Gu Xi.
Just then, the old woman’s gaze fell upon Qi Xiang, a gentle smile playing on her lips. "What is it, Xiaoxiang? Did I frighten you?"
’A little, yes.’
But this was not the time to show weakness. ’Even if you’re losing, you can’t lose your nerve.’ As Gu Xi’s staunchest ally, how could Qi Xiang possibly admit it?
She secretly tightened her grip on the corner of Gu Xi’s clothing behind her back. She then put on her usual public face—a bright, flamboyant, and bewitchingly unrestrained smile. Her fiery red lips parted as she murmured, "Not at all. However..."
She paused deliberately, lightly covering her mouth and glancing at Gu Xi before continuing, "Chen, the face you were making while you transformed... was truly hideous."
On anyone else, such a pose might have seemed coy or affected, but from Qi Xiang, it was utterly natural.
’That must be what they call a beauty’s privilege,’ Gu Xi thought.
Chen’s cunning and self-control were far too deep to be broken by a single remark from a young woman like Qi Xiang.
She gave Qi Xiang a good-natured look, one that, for a fleeting moment, seemed to hold all the resigned tolerance of an elder.
This time, Qi Xiang didn’t just get goosebumps; she felt as if a venomous snake had fixed its eyes on her, making her scalp tingle.
Fortunately, the moment Gu Xi spoke, that strange, terrifying sensation vanished.
Gu Xi sighed softly. "Why must you go to such lengths?"
’Go to what lengths?’
Qi Xiang froze for a second. Then she saw Chen look up, her tone gentle. "Xiaoxiang, I’d like to speak with Gu Xi alone for a moment. Could you wait outside?"
Qi Xiang instinctively looked to Gu Xi, who nodded.
’It really wouldn’t be right to involve Qi Xiang in some things.’
Qi Xiang shot Chen one last glance before turning to leave.
Once she was out of their line of sight, she eagerly opened her personal terminal, wanting to share what happened with her friends in the Farming Team group chat. To her surprise, she discovered there was no signal in the underground space.
Qi Xiang thought of the black metal door that had seemed so familiar. She pressed her lips together. After a long moment, she turned and headed back, only to find the door was already closed.
Inside, Gu Xi leaned calmly against the heavy metal door, a small vine trembling as it dangled from her fingertip.
Her gaze fell upon the old woman opposite her, her expression unreadable in the dim light of the underground room.
Chen, however, was as she always was, wearing a gentle smile. She pulled out a chair behind her and sat down, looking up at Gu Xi by the door. "Xiaoxi, ever since that child, Zhou Jing, disappeared, we haven’t spoken in a very long time..."
Hearing her bring up the missing Zhou Jing on her own, Gu Xi raised an eyebrow slightly but remained silent.
Chen didn’t find this strange. In her memory, Gu Xi had always been a very quiet girl who didn’t say much. Even if her disposition had changed upon her return, some habits, accumulated over many years, were ingrained to the bone and not so easily altered.
After speaking for a while and getting no reaction from Gu Xi, Chen let out a faint sigh and changed the subject. "Xiaoxi, I heard you’ve looked into the Gu Family? If so, you should understand by now that everything I told you before was the truth..."
Just then, Gu Xi spoke.
"You were the one who originally proposed the G01 plan, weren’t you?"
Chen nodded. Too many people knew about that for her to deny it. "Back then, I was only following orders," she said, her narrowed eyes fixed on Gu Xi, trying to read something from her expression.
Ye Xin had left only a short while ago, and now Gu Xi was here. It made her wonder, ’Did that woman Ye Xin set me up again?’
’Furthermore, that previous conversation... As the one who led the research back then, she knew better than anyone just how terrifying Gu Xi’s spiritual power was.’
Still, she wasn’t worried.
After all, some things could never be hidden forever. The truth was bound to come out eventually. And she had already prepared more than enough escape plans for that day.
"It seems you know everything. The truth is, the real G01 plan was..." Just as she was about to lay the core of the G01 plan bare, she heard Gu Xi let out a soft sigh.
For some reason, a terrible premonition suddenly washed over her.
Just then, Gu Xi spoke:
"Chen, devouring the abilities of others for your own use... that feeling is wonderful, isn’t it?"
"So wonderful... that you even forgot that this power of yours was actually stolen by sucking the lifeblood from others?"
She lifted her hand and prodded the small green sprout twirling around her fingertip, then slowly raised her gaze to the woman opposite her. In a voice devoid of all emotion, she said:
"But a stolen thing is still, in the end, stolen."
’And now, it’s time to return it to its rightful owner.’