Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 444 - 414 Mother or Daughter?

Chapter 444: 414 Mother or Daughter?

Little Bowl isn’t Zhu Jiuxing... not Zhu Shi?

I feel like my thought process has been put on pause, and for a moment, I don’t know how to keep it running.

The possibility that "Little Bowl isn’t Zhu Shi" isn’t something I never considered. Zhu Shi has also mentioned this possibility to my face. However, when this possibility manifested into reality right in front of me, it felt like plunging into a clueless lake because my previous thoughts were all based on the solid premise that Little Bowl is Zhu Shi. If Little Bowl isn’t Zhu Shi, then who could she be?

Slowly, I thought of a candidate.

In the current Zhu family, only one person has fallen into soul loss, and that is Zhu Jiu. Suppose the soul of a soul-loss patient traverses to the Doomsday Era, then Zhu Jiu’s soul should also be in the Doomsday Era. Is it possible that Little Bowl is Zhu Jiu, whose soul traveled to the Doomsday Era, underwent a series of mysterious changes, and eventually shrank into a ten-year-old girl, losing the memories of her adulthood?

But this reasoning has obvious flaws. First, young Zhu Jiu not only didn’t have the Right Positioning Heavenly Phenomena, but her talent as a demon hunter was never highly valued by Mr. Zhu. Second, when Little Bowl mentioned the vague memory of "mother storing the abandoned doll in the white box," it was clearly narrated from a daughter’s perspective. If Little Bowl were Zhu Jiu, she would have said "storing the daughter’s abandoned doll in the white box."

Just thinking doesn’t help, so I decided to take a chance and ask: "So, do you remember the name Zhu Jiu? She’s Zhu Shi’s mother... if I say you are actually Zhu Jiu, would you feel anything?"

"Zhu Jiu?..."

Little Bowl seemed to be racking her brains too; after a while, she said, "This name... does feel familiar, but I don’t think I’m this person called Zhu Jiu."

She’s not even Zhu Jiu... then who could she be?

Could she be Zhu Shi’s daughter? I recalled a previous hypothesis.

This possibility is not zero. If Little Bowl is Zhu Shi’s daughter, it’s reasonable for her to be familiar with the names Zhu Shi and Zhu Jiu. The only questionable point is why Little Bowl has memories of Zhu Shi’s childhood. It seems a bit far-fetched to say Little Bowl experienced the same events as young Zhu Shi long ago.

However, in the abnormal world, it’s not impossible for a demon hunter to inherit memories from their parents’ generation. Take Changan for example, even if he wasn’t chosen as Yinyue’s incarnation during their lifetime, his demonic lineage naturally grants him "inherited knowledge"; demon hunters might achieve a similar effect through mysticism, passing down life experiences from parents to descendants. Though, I still wonder why a daughter should remember her own abandoned doll incident from childhood.

Based on the Zhu family’s naming style for descendants, Zhu Shi’s daughter should be named...

"’Zhu Shiyi’... do you have any impression of this name?" I asked tentatively.

This time, Little Bowl shook her head quickly: "No impression at all."

Seems she’s not Zhu Shiyi either... I’m really getting more and more confused.

"Who is this ’Zhu Shiyi’ then?" Little Bowl sensitively asked, "From the way Mr. No.3 asked just now... could it be that you and that girl called Zhu Shi have even picked a name for your child in advance?"

I shared my thoughts and related information with Little Bowl.

After listening, she relaxed a bit and then thought seriously for a while, eventually saying, "... Objectively speaking, the possibility of me being ’Zhu Shi’s daughter’ still exists.

"Though I’m sure I’m not called Zhu Shiyi, according to you, Zhu Jiu once named her daughter ’Zhu Jiuxing’ with the hope she would stay away from battles, which wasn’t in the Zhu family’s naming style; so Zhu Shi might have also named her daughter something other than ’Zhu Shiyi’ to keep her away from mortal danger.

"Moreover, Zhu Shi’s daughter might not even have the surname Zhu. Mr. No.3, after all, you are a human god... In your terms, you are Impermanence. After you married Zhu Shi, it wouldn’t be you joining the Zhu family, and naturally, the daughter born would have your surname. So my real name might not be ’Zhu Some-name’ but ’Zhuang Some-name’."

"Makes sense. But... are you just going to accept the possibility that you might be my daughter?" I asked.

"Actually, my mind is still quite dull right now, but that doesn’t stop me from reasoning." Little Bowl seemed to say calmly.

"But even if you are Zhu Shi’s daughter, that doesn’t necessarily mean you are the daughter of Zhu Shi and me." I said, "If Mazao didn’t travel to my era, I wouldn’t have recognized Zhu Shi as a demon hunter, and she wouldn’t have realized I am a supernatural power user. Under that development, of course, there would be no marriage between her and me, leading to your birth."

"But if Sister Mazao traveling to Mr. No.3’s era is a destined event for both the past and future, and the Doomsday Era where I reside is based on the timeline where ’you and Sister Mazao met’?" Little Bowl asked, "Your meeting and marriage with Zhu Shi should have already altered Zhu Shi’s original future, and yet I, existing in the future, haven’t disappeared... isn’t this evidence that I am the daughter between Zhu Shi and you? Provided I am truly Zhu Shi’s daughter."

"If that’s the case, then there’s a straightforward way to confirm it." I said, "Little Bowl, since you have impressions of the possible mother Zhu Shi and the possible grandmother Zhu Jiu, do you have any special impression of the name ’Zhuang Cheng’?"

"No." Little Bowl shook her head.

"Then..."

Before I could continue, Little Bowl used a peculiar tone, saying: "But... this actually makes me feel even more that you might be my father..."

"Why is that?" I was puzzled.

Little Bowl looked at me for a few seconds and then continued in that peculiar tone: "Based on what Mr. No.3 previously told me... Zhu Shi’s father is called Ying Lingyun, and he was your main opponent some time ago.

"And this Ying Lingyun had a beloved named Yinyue, because he was preoccupied with Yinyue, he neglected his rightful wife, Zhu Jiu, who was often away from home, leading to Zhu Shi, his biological daughter, having little impression of him from childhood to adulthood."

"Hmm... that’s true?" I had an ominous feeling.

"Perhaps saying this offends Mr. No.3, and I also hope you can spend more time with Sister Mazao rather than that girl named Zhu Shi..." Little Bowl seemed to also lose grip on her tone, "But... Mr. No.3, aren’t you quite similar to that Ying Lingyun?

"Replacing ’Ying Lingyun’, ’Yinyue’, ’Zhu Jiu’ in my earlier description with ’Mr. No.3’, ’Sister Mazao’, ’Zhu Shi’, doesn’t seem out of place, right?"

Despite not sweating in the Void Realm, I felt like this little girl’s questioning was causing cold sweat to flow down my forehead.

"In reality... I vaguely remember having a mother, but I don’t have much impression of a dad. Hence, it’s evident my relationship with dad wasn’t very deep a long time ago." Little Bowl said seriously, "If my dad is someone like Mr. No.3, sailing two boats, then I indeed wouldn’t want to have a deep relationship with him, and after losing memory, I would likely have no reaction to his name."

It’s the first time I’ve suffered such a mental shock, leading to me involuntarily saying: "Then... do you prefer me spending more time with your Sister Mazao, or focus on being with your mom, Zhu Shi?"

"—Ah?" Little Bowl suddenly lost her composure, "I, I certainly hope that if I have a dad, he should focus more on being with mom!

"But, I hope Mr. No.3 can be close to Sister Mazao... but then it would become outright cheating... but being with Sister Mazao is my wish..."

The intelligent and bright her also seemed to have her brain burned by this chaotic relationship, muttering in panic, I could almost see steam coming out of her head.

Could Little Bowl actually be my daughter? I pondered repeatedly in my mind, while also realizing Lu Chan’s correctness, that there may indeed be some unconsidered aspects in my marriage with Zhu Shi.

For instance, if Zhu Shi and I indeed had children, and those children saw their father not living closely with their mother but instead cozying up with other women, it would undoubtedly have many negative impacts. Even if I don’t care about such issues, I’m sure Zhu Shi would have a headache.

However, speaking of this, if I indeed had a daughter full of thoughts of urging me to cheat, it seems like an ending I wouldn’t know how to handle either.

"In short... let’s set aside the two things about my true identity and Mr. No.3’s two-timing for now. There are too few clues at the moment, and discussion leads nowhere. Let’s talk about another issue instead." Little Bowl seemed to want to avoid this overly sordid matter.

I agreed with her reasoning and wanted to step out of this quagmire for the time being, so I said, "Okay. What do you want to talk about?"

Little Bowl took a deep breath, like she was reorganizing her mind and spirit, then said: "Mr. No.3, you previously mentioned you became Impermanence in the real world... is this the result of using the Divine Seal Fragment?"

"No. I became Impermanence by battling strong enemies according to your proposed plan. Although the opponent wasn’t Yinyue as initially planned, it was another person." I said, "Why do you ask like that?"

"Because you are currently in a very dangerous state." Little Bowl said seriously, "You and the Void Realm have become too deeply connected."