Chapter 37
Chapter 37
Qin Lan raised an eyebrow at the student file in his hands.
“Tang Qingqing?”
“Another F-rank Talent?”
Fatty Wu leaned closer. Recognition dawned when he saw the photograph.
“Oh, it’s her.”
“Like you, she attends school on an education subsidy from the United Government… She started late, though, so her Talent has already awakened.”
“Her parents abandoned her and ran off. She lives with her grandmother, who’s partially paralyzed and relies entirely on her care.”
“She even saves more than half of her subsidized cafeteria meal to bring home to her grandmother.”
Qin Lan nodded slightly. That explained why the girl was so thin.
But the description in the file moved him.
“This Talent… is certainly unusual.”
[What Joy in Life? (F-rank): Select one target and share your life with them. When your vitality is exhausted, both parties will die simultaneously.]
There was no further explanation.
This Talent possessed only one simple function–sharing life.
Put plainly, Tang Qingqing was a mobile health pack.
As long as she selected someone as her target, even a person clinging to their final breath could regain their vitality.
Fatty Wu’s expression became complicated.
“Tang Qingqing… I offended quite a few people to keep her safe.”
“Even now, people inside the Safe Zone are watching her. The moment she leaves the school, she might disappear.”
Qin Lan naturally understood what Fatty Wu meant.
Who knew how many wealthy and powerful people coveted the ability to share life?
Those people stood at death’s door and would exhaust everything they possessed for the chance to extend their lives.
Certain substances capable of prolonging life could be extracted from anomaly corpses, but the yield was low. Demand always exceeded supply, and any stock was snapped up the instant it appeared.
Tang Qingqing was a cheap substitute.
All someone had to do was imprison her and force her to extend their life.
In the slums, it was common for someone healthy and lively one day to be stripped down to an empty husk the next, then discarded to rot at a garbage dump.
A higher-quality and more direct health pack would be even more tempting.
Qin Lan looked at Fatty Wu in surprise.
“Why did you protect her?”
“There shouldn’t be anything in it for you.”
Fatty Wu snorted.
“Nonsense.”
“She’s my student, and I…”
“I’m a teacher!”
At that moment, Fatty Wu was somehow bathed in a trace of sacred radiance.
Whether it was Qin Lan or Tang Qingqing, Fatty Wu truly treated his students equally. He neither discriminated against nor abandoned them because of their backgrounds.
As long as someone was his student, he would protect them beneath his wings without hesitation.
“It’s hard to imagine a man with this much responsibility hiding in his office and playing Japanese and Korean adult videos through the speakers…” Qin Lan could not resist remarking.
Fatty Wu’s face darkened.
“I told you! I was studying foreign languages! Foreign languages!”
“Besides, everyone else knocks! It isn’t illegal for me to watch them in private!”
…
After the orientation lecture ended, Tang Qingqing left with the crowd.
As usual, she first collected a cheap subsidized meal from the cafeteria, then carried the slightly rusted lunchbox toward the dormitories.
After she enrolled, the school administrators held a brief discussion and cleared out a storeroom beside the student dormitory.
It now contained a table, chairs, and a bed, and Tang Qingqing’s grandmother lived there.
The arrangement was also intended to keep Tang Qingqing safe.
“Grandma, I’m back from class…”
Tang Qingqing pushed open the door, intending to tell her grandmother about the lecture. Then her expression abruptly changed.
Someone who should not have been there was sitting inside.
“You’re… Senior Qin?”
“I saw you at the lecture.”
After recognizing Qin Lan, Tang Qingqing’s limbs stiffened and her voice turned cold.
She instinctively wanted to flee but did not dare move.
It was not only because Qin Lan radiated an aura she could not oppose, but also because the most important member of her family was inside the room.
“Just as I thought.”
Qin Lan did not answer her. Instead, he continued speaking to himself.
“Your Talent, [What Joy in Life?], has already been bound to a target.”
Qin Lan looked toward the elderly woman lying on the bed. Her eyes were closed and her face covered in wrinkles, though her features were kind.
Calluses from a lifetime of frequent labor marked her hands.
She lay peacefully on the bed, seemingly unresponsive to every sound around her.
From another perspective, the threads of death surrounding the old woman intertwined strangely with Tang Qingqing’s, coiling and tangling together.
Tang Qingqing’s throat tightened, but she remained calm.
“Senior Qin, aren’t you an Anomaly Hunter?”
“An Anomaly Hunter’s duty is to fight anomalies and protect the people…”
“Are you planning to hurt me?”
Qin Lan stared in surprise, then laughed.
“Don’t be so nervous. I have no interest in your Talent.”
His gaze settled meaningfully on Tang Qingqing’s face.
“Rather, I’m interested in you.”
Tang Qingqing froze. Surprise flickered across her delicate face before she quickly suppressed it.
She bit her lip and closed her eyes. As though reaching a decision, she began lowering the zipper of her school uniform.
“Then please finish as quickly as possible…”
“Once you’re done, don’t interfere with my life again…”
Qin Lan nearly leaped from his seat in fright.
“Whoa! No! Hey, don’t take that off!”
“Wait!”
Qin Lan moved like lightning, grabbing Tang Qingqing’s hand before she could continue.
“Please don’t get me in trouble!”
“If this goes any further, both of us are going to end up in serious trouble. Do you understand?”
“What were you thinking? Why would you assume I’d… Uh…”
Qin Lan hesitated.
“That I’d… ask for something like that?”
His speed startled Tang Qingqing. One moment he had been seated, and the next he had appeared in front of her.
His flustered words left her confused.
“Huh?”
“Didn’t you say you were interested in me?”
She frowned slightly.
“You came directly to my room after the lecture. That means you noticed me earlier and wanted to discuss something that couldn’t be said in public. Otherwise, you could have approached me in the auditorium instead of waiting until now.”
“Other than my Talent, what about me could possibly interest you?”
Tang Qingqing lowered her head, her voice soft.
“The only explanation I could think of was that you happened to want my body and intended to pressure or entice me into satisfying your curiosity…”
“You’re an Anomaly Hunter. I have no ability to resist you. Obeying was the only way to avoid being hurt.”
Put that way, Qin Lan realized just how easily his words could have been misunderstood.
Embarrassed, he said, “That really isn’t what I meant…”
“You… sit down first. No, zip that back up first…”
Qin Lan wiped away cold sweat.
“What I want to discuss isn’t your Talent. But actually… it is your Talent.”
He composed himself and stared into Tang Qingqing’s eyes, enunciating each word.
“The Talent recorded for you in the database is incomplete, isn’t it?”
“Or… do you possess another Talent?”
Tang Qingqing was shocked.
Qin Lan had exposed the secret she had hidden for so long with a single sentence.
Her thoughts descended into chaos.
She searched for a response and tried to deny it, but no words emerged.
Her reaction told Qin Lan that his guess was correct.
Originally, Qin Lan had only wanted to verify whether Tang Qingqing had used her Talent to bind herself to a family member.
Otherwise, he could not explain why someone so young carried such dense traces of death.
But when Tang Qingqing entered the room, Qin Lan realized the truth was far more complicated.
If this were only life sharing, the threads of death surrounding her grandmother would simply connect with Tang Qingqing’s.
In Qin Lan’s vision, however, their threads did more than intertwine.
They were transporting something.
Something flowed from her grandmother into Tang Qingqing.
As Qin Lan understood it, they were “transferring death.”
He therefore concluded that Tang Qingqing’s Talent had another secret effect.
“Don’t be nervous,” Qin Lan said calmly. “Remember what I mentioned during the lecture? My Talent was originally classified as F-rank too.”
“But I can also tell you that my actual Talent differs from the version recorded in the database.”
When Tang Qingqing looked at him in shock, Qin Lan softened his voice.
“I’m sharing my secret so you’ll understand that we’re speaking as equals. I’m not forcing you to answer an interrogation.”
His gaze sharpened.
“If you’re willing to tell me the truth about your Talent, I may be able to help change your current situation.”
Tang Qingqing paused. “My current situation?”
Qin Lan nodded and looked toward the old woman on the bed.
“Your grandmother doesn’t have much time left, does she? That’s why you’re sharing your life with her and extending hers.”
“But doing so won’t cure her illness.”
After a brief pause, Qin Lan pointed to the badge on his chest and smiled.
“As an Anomaly Hunter, I’ve seen rare treasures that ordinary people could never encounter in their lifetimes.”
“It so happens that I know of a medicine capable of curing your grandmother’s illness.”
Tang Qingqing’s eyes reddened instantly, and her breathing quickened.
A cure.
She had tried many approaches, but every source she consulted told her that nothing could be done.
Tang Qingqing had even contacted some of the powerful people who wanted to use her as a health pack. She offered to share her life with them if they would cure her grandmother.
Every one of them refused.
Her first reaction to Qin Lan’s claim was that it had to be a scam.
But…
The title of 2-Star Anomaly Hunter carried genuine weight.
“Are you willing to try trusting me?” Qin Lan asked with a smile, waiting for her reply.
He had not lied.
Medicines of that kind genuinely existed on the exchange lists available only to Anomaly Hunters.
Their ingredients came from various instances in the Fallen Zone or were extracted from specific anomalies, making them extremely expensive.
Their existence was never disclosed to ordinary citizens.
“I…”
Tang Qingqing struggled.
But after a dozen seconds, she steadied her breathing and reached a decision.
“I believe you, Senior Qin.”
Her eyes shone as she spoke.
“I possess twin Talents.”
“[What Joy in Life?] and [What Sorrow in Death?].”