Chapter 71
Chapter 71
Before long, Wei Sen’s and Xu You’s phones rang at the same time.
“It’s a video call from Xiaoxue,” Xu You said.
“You answer it. I’ll hang up on my end,” Wei Sen said.
“OK.”
Xu You accepted the video call and deliberately aimed the camera at Wei Sen.
“Oh my god!” Lin Xiaoxue leaned close to the camera, astonished. “Sister You, Sister Sen, you two already met up!”
Xu You flipped the camera back around and looked at Lin Xiaoxue. “We’re just waiting for you now.”
Lin Xiaoxue raised the Invitation in her hand. “I just got my Invitation. I’m on my way to you right now.”
Xu You looked at the background behind Lin Xiaoxue in confusion. “Are you… in a car?”
“High-speed rail.” Lin Xiaoxue panned her phone around. She was sitting in a business-class seat, with her driver and bodyguard, Kevin, seated beside her.
“Young Miss, you’re actually traveling by high-speed rail?” Xu You teased, imitating Kevin’s tone.
Lin Xiaoxue sighed. “I still haven’t gotten over the trauma from that flight. I don’t dare take a plane for now.”
Wei Sen caught sight of the bouquet of white carnations in Lin Xiaoxue’s arms on the screen and immediately realized something. She asked, “Xiaoxue, what’s with the flowers?”
At that, Lin Xiaoxue lowered her eyes to the flowers in her arms. “I’ll be passing through Yangcheng on the way over. These flowers are for… ‘Mom.'”
Of course Wei Sen had not forgotten. In the Infinite Flight Instance, Xiaoxue’s first identity had been as Wei Sen’s younger sister. Back then, she had obtained a diary, and written inside it was:
Mom loves white carnations the most. After I go home, I have to give her the gift she loves most.
“That was a character in the Instance, Xiaoxue. You need to distinguish reality from fiction,” Wei Sen said gravely.
Lin Xiaoxue abruptly lifted her eyes to the screen. “No, Sister Sen! Mom really existed!”
Wei Sen and Xu You were both shocked to hear that.
“Or rather, she really did exist…” Lin Xiaoxue bit her lip, her voice trembling slightly. “The first thing I did after waking up was search online for information about the flight to Yangcheng on March 28, 2022. Even though a full eighty years have passed, it was major news at the time, so there are still a lot of reports left…”
Disbelief still filled Lin Xiaoxue’s eyes as she continued, “Eighty years ago, at 14:38 on March 28, 2022, a plane bound for Yangcheng… crashed straight down not long after takeoff. They found the black box back then, but the exact cause of the crash was never made public. Even now, it’s still a mystery.”
A chill ran down Wei Sen’s spine.
14:38… That was the exact moment she had pushed the control yoke and caused the plane to plunge vertically!
Why did the information Xiaoxue found online match exactly what Wei Sen had done in the Instance World?!
“Could it be… that we caused the chain of events that led to that plane crash?” Xu You ventured boldly.
Lin Xiaoxue shook her head. “I really can’t figure it out. Was that world actually the past? Did we…” She lowered her voice and tentatively said, “time travel?”
Wei Sen held her forehead. This was getting more and more absurd.
And yet, it also seemed to make a certain kind of sense.
Otherwise, how could she explain the fact that everything she had done in the Eerie World actually aligned with events that had happened in the Real World in the past?
No!
That wasn’t right. There was one thing that didn’t line up!
This world had no Ether Group and no AI. But in the Instance World of Infinite Flight, after arriving in Yangcheng, the crew had been on their way to attend Ether Group’s AI product launch!
“Sister Sen, please don’t blame yourself. Even if it hadn’t been you, according to the Instance timeline, in another ten minutes a bird would have been sucked into the engine, causing the flight control systems to fail and the plane to crash. The ending was doomed from the start,” Lin Xiaoxue comforted her.
In truth, the moment she had found that information online, she had wanted to tell them. But considering the connection between the plane crash and Wei Sen, she had held it in until now.
“Hm?” A trace of suspicion flashed through Wei Sen’s eyes.
Blame herself?
Why would she blame herself?
Lin Xiaoxue was right. From the moment the thirteen Order Keepers appeared on that plane as Doom Beasts, the passengers’ fates had already been sealed.
“Let’s gather at the location listed on the Invitation later. We can talk in detail when we meet,” Wei Sen said.
Lin Xiaoxue nodded. “Okay, Sister Sen.”
After hanging up, Chen Lin happened to ask about everyone in the group chat as well.
When she learned that they had all cleared the Instance smoothly, Chen Lin congratulated them too.
While they were there, Xiaoxue asked Chen Lin in the group whether she wanted to join them for the next Instance, but Chen Lin refused again.
No one said anything. After all, the Eerie World was dangerous at every turn. Since she could choose not to participate, no one would force her.
In an urban village, inside a rented room.
Chen Lin put down her phone, a hint of envy appearing on her face.
She truly envied their courage, and admired their intelligence.
But as for herself…
She looked at the shabby one-bedroom apartment in front of her. Her life was just like this place… rotten.
Even though she had bought all kinds of rental apartment makeover gadgets, even though she had put up wallpaper and changed the curtains, none of it could change how dilapidated it was at its core.
The phone in her hand began to vibrate. Chen Lin instinctively thought it was her company calling, but then she suddenly remembered it was the weekend.
Sure enough, when she saw the caller ID, helplessness flashed through her eyes. After hesitating for a long while, she still answered in resignation.
“Why’d it take you so long to pick up!” The voice on the other end belonged to a middle-aged man, his tone extremely impatient.
“I just woke up,” Chen Lin said.
“Every time I look for you, there’s always some excuse! Aren’t you getting paid today? Where’s the money?”
“Dad, it’s the weekend. Wages are only paid on workdays.” Chen Lin’s voice was full of helplessness as she slumped weakly into the sofa.
“What’s that supposed to mean? If they’re supposed to pay you and they don’t, go ask your boss for it! Your brother is only short a few tens of thousands for his down payment. I told you to borrow some from your coworkers first, but you don’t dare. Are you getting paid and secretly keeping it from the family, huh?”
Chen Lin lowered her head. Her lips moved for a long time before she finally took a deep breath and swallowed those words back down.
“They haven’t paid me. Once they do, I’ll transfer it to you right away.”
“What’s the point of raising a daughter, honestly? You’re not even married yet and you already don’t want to care about your family. Once you marry out, I bet you won’t remember a single good thing your mother and I did for you!”
Before Chen Lin could explain anything else, the person on the other end had already hung up. Only the beeping tone echoed through the silent, dim room.
That was right. What was the point of raising a daughter like her?
Chen Lin buried her head even lower. Her gaze slowly shifted to the Black Watch on her wrist. The helplessness in her eyes gradually faded, replaced by an incomparably solemn look, as though she had made some important decision in her heart.
She could change all of this. Heaven had clearly given her a chance to change it…
She was afraid of death, yes, but she was even more afraid of spending her entire life stuck in the mud!