Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 337 - 314 Jiuxing

Chapter 337: 314 Jiuxing

Neat, clean, jet black medium-length hair, delicate and fair skin, an appearance that’s endearing... the little girl who was practicing her swordsmanship earnestly inside the villa’s room looked about the same age as Little Bowl in the Mind-Written Photos, both around ten years old, even their faces were indistinguishable from each other.

As for Little Bowl’s true identity, both Mazao and I have made our speculations. Little Bowl could be a relative of Zhu Shi, could be an illegitimate daughter Zhu Jiu had outside, could even be a daughter Zhu Shi gave birth to during the Doomsday Era, and Mazao even once doubted whether Little Bowl’s father could be me...

I have also pondered whether Little Bowl could actually be Zhu Shi herself. Although it doesn’t make sense for a Zhu Shi of the future to become a young girl and revert in age, considering everything I’ve seen defying common knowledge, it wouldn’t be strange for there to be one more incident. The Doomsday Era itself is a world where time-space order is chaotic, and since I possess the ability for rejuvenation, it is logical to imagine whether the same could happen to others.

But I never expected it to be this exact.

This degree of resemblance cannot be explained away simply as being relatives or a daughter. Even a biological daughter would at most look sevent, eight or nine-tenths similar, but not completely identical. Of course, there might indeed be people in this world who are indistinguishable from their mothers or female relatives, but I can’t just accept it as a mere coincidence and close the case with my inner astonishment.

"Do you have any other relatives in your family that look similar to Zhu Shi?" I asked tentatively.

"Relatives? No, I don’t know... I’ve never heard Grandpa and Grandma mention anything about relatives."

Little Chang’an first shook her head and then looked at the young Zhu Shi, who was practicing swordsmanship, with remorse in her eyes.

It was clear that young Zhu Shi was so tired and in pain that she wanted to give up, but under Mr. Zhu’s scolding, she forced her body to move while holding back tears.

"Jiuxing... No, Zhu Shi!"

Mr. Zhu called young Zhu Shi by her full name, his expression stern, and said with a sober voice: "There’s no hope left for that boy Chang’an, the future of the Zhu family can only rely on you now.

"In the past, since you were not the heir, I went along with Ah Jiu’s words and let you slack off, spending your days playing house with dolls. But from now on, you must pick up all the lessons you’ve missed and train even harder!"

Young Zhu Shi spoke breathlessly, "Grandpa... I’m really tired, my arm hurts so much, I can’t practice anymore..."

"The more you sweat in practice, the less you’ll bleed in battle! How many times do I have to repeat this for you to understand?" Mr. Zhu scolded, "Now you say you can’t continue, I can let you rest. But later, when those monsters and devils press their claws and teeth against your throat, are you going to tell them you can’t go on and beg them to spare your life?"

"But... but aren’t we demon hunters? Why are there so many... so many lethal moves in what Grandpa is teaching me to practice..." Zhu Shi said in pain.

"Because you’ll have to kill people in the future too," Mr. Zhu said coldly, "Among the enemies you’ll face in the future, not only there’ll be unnatural creatures, but also Fallen Demon Hunters. Sometimes the latter are even more dangerous than the non-human monsters. Only by learning how to kill can you avoid being killed by them."

"I... I don’t want to kill..." Young Zhu Shi shed tears.

Upon hearing this, Mr. Zhu showed a look of rage.

"I didn’t ask what you want. You don’t need to have your own thoughts, just do as I say! Do you understand? If you understand, continue training!"

Under the thunderous scolding, young Zhu Shi trembled, frightened to the point that her hands loosened, and the Yama Sword dropped to the ground. Mr. Zhu became even more furious upon seeing this, he stepped forward abruptly, raising his right hand as if to slap her. Terrified, Zhu Shi cried out and involuntarily fell backwards to the ground, curling up and holding her head.

Seeing this scene, Mr. Zhu, on the contrary, paused, and the hand raised in the air also stopped midway. A look of reminiscence flashed in his eyes, then his expression relaxed, and he slowly brought down his hand.

Seemingly realizing that the pain she had expected for a long time didn’t come, young Zhu Shi cautiously opened her arms, peeking at Mr. Zhu’s expression.

After a while, she timidly voiced out, "Grandpa?"

Mr. Zhu silently looked at young Zhu Shi, and after a long while, he finally said, "I’m sorry, Shi... Grandpa was wrong, I shouldn’t have yelled at you... can you forgive Grandpa?

"Let’s end today’s practice here. But... it’ll continue tomorrow, and you’ll need to keep practicing lethal techniques. There are many bad people in this world, learning how to deal with them is to save more good people, and to protect yourself..."

"Your brother is no longer capable, your mom and grandma aren’t strong enough to hold up this family, your dad... let’s not talk about him, and grandpa cannot always be your umbrella... You must become strong on your own."

Towards the end, his expression turned to one of dejection. Zhu Shi stared blankly, then said softly, "I... I understand, I will continue training... both swordsmanship and Spell, Grandpa don’t be sad..."

Watching Zhu Shi like this, I am reminded of the her I once saw on the battlefield, striking down enemies with agility, and also of the her who faced Fallen Demon Hunters whose fates were unknown, decapitating them with her sword without changing her expression to ensure their death...

She wasn’t born with the courage to join the fight, nor was she born with the heart to ruthlessly take the lives of others.

To become what she is now, how much blood, sweat, and tears had she shed?

Chang’an stood on the side as well, looking through the window at everything inside the room, and after a while, he said, "It should have been me training in swordsmanship there. Although Grandpa has always disliked me, he acknowledged that I was born to be a demon hunter. The blood of monsters flows in my veins, and with simple training, I can unleash extraordinary power... but...

"I’ve lost the talent to become a demon hunter and even forgot all the knowledge and skills I learned in the past..."

He wore a pained expression, and his hands, hanging by his sides, clenched into unwilling fists as he muttered lowly, "It’s all my fault that Jiuxing has to struggle so much..."

Chang’an, you’re actually a "fallen genius"... This thought inadvertently arises in my mind, and then I say, "The training you and Zhu Shi received should have been meant to deal with bizarre beings, including training in Spell, right?"

His reply was vague, "Yeah, it’s roughly like that..."

"But you previously mentioned that you’re unable to prove the existence of bizarre beings and demon hunters to others at school, nor can you seek them out? Even though you possess the elements of bizarre beings yourself?"

In order to make him realize that this is a false dream and thereby help him wake up, I intentionally pointed out the contradictions in his words.

Yet he nodded as if it were only natural, saying, "Yes, because I’ve forgotten those things... I’ve completely forgotten the training I went through, unaware that I am a descendant of monsters, unaware that I come from a demon hunter family, and not knowing who is shedding blood and sweat in my place..."

He seemed oblivious to his own contradictions, issuing a sigh that transcended the context of the dream without any self-awareness. At this point, I felt that logic and reason might not be enough to fully awaken him.

After speaking, he continued walking forward, and I followed behind him. The surrounding scenery changed imperceptibly, and we arrived inside the residence of the Zhu family. The spatiotemporal order of the dream was chaotic, which did not surprise me; I simply pondered the deeper meaning behind the changes.

Although the scene changed, Chang’an still walked ahead of me; it seemed the changes were happening around him as the center. Indeed, underneath the appearance of this Chang’an was the real Chang’an himself; this was his Spirit World.

I made my judgments while continuing to observe our surroundings. We were now walking along a corridor, and on one side there was a door ajar, giving a direct view into the room. It appeared to be Zhu Shi’s room, decorated with delicate and soft ornaments, and it was scattered with some stuffed toys.

And Zhu Shi herself was in this room at the moment, tears hanging at the corner of her eyes, silently picking up stuffed toys from around the room, holding them in her hands for a while as if cherishing them, and then putting them into a large, rough burlap sack; then picking up another toy, looking at it fondly for a while, and placing it into the large sack as well...

"Zhu Shi?" I called out.

It seemed she couldn’t hear me, as if there was a world separating us. She silently repeated her actions without a word. It seemed that aside from Chang’an, the other characters in this dream were merely "NPCs"—I could not interact with them normally.

Originally, I had thought about speaking with Zhu Shi and Mr. Zhu in the dream to find clues related to Little Bowl—As this thought crossed my mind, I felt an indescribable sense of dissonance.

Meanwhile, watching Zhu Shi’s actions, I suddenly made a connection to something else.

At the last meeting in the Void Realm, to help lock onto Little Bowl’s true identity in the real world, I asked Little Bowl for clues about her past, and she had mentioned a few things.

—"As a child, I seemed to have many dolls, but then something happened, and I decided to abandon them all..."

—"And then my mother picked up the dolls I had abandoned and carefully preserved them in a white box."

Could it be that what Little Bowl mentioned was precisely what Zhu Shi was doing right now?