Night's Nomenclature
Chapter 320: Reverse Brainwashing

The agreement with the old man on the Dragon Lake's broken bridge was a secret between Qing Chen and him.

This secret was so important that the old man unconsciously lowered his voice when he spoke.

Qing Chen carried the Dragon Fish and walked towards Autumn Leaf Manor, a wave of sadness inexplicably surged in his heart, because he knew the old man's time was truly running out.

In the first 17 years of his life, Qing Chen had never truly experienced family affection, making him exceptionally sensitive to all the kindness and malice in this world.

If Li Shutong was the first person in the Inner World to genuinely treat him well, then the old man should be the second.

But there are no permanent feasts in the world.

A feast always comes to an end; everyone must leave eventually.

This time was different from his Master Li Shutong's faked death, because there would be no return.

Back in Autumn Leaf Manor, Qing Chen put the Dragon Fish in the refrigerator, saving it for Li Ke to eat tomorrow.

He lay on the recliner, silently calculating how much longer it would take for him to infuse his whole body with Knight True Qi.

At this moment, Li Changqing ignored the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door and pushed it open.

As she entered Autumn Leaf Manor, she instructed Old Nine and Little Eagle outside the door, “Don't let anyone disturb us before dawn, understand?”

Old Nine and Little Eagle hurriedly replied, “Yes, yes.”

Although Qing Chen knew she was worried that others might discover the secret passage, he always felt something was slightly off about that statement.

He opened his eyes and found Li Changqing carrying a backpack.

The woman passed by the recliner, smiling, “Wait for me to change clothes before I leave, don't peek, okay?”

Qing Chen: “…”

This woman was really a bit strange. She was obviously quite timid herself, but she always had to win in words.

A moment later, Qing Chen heard a voice behind him, “How does it look? Do I look good?”

The boy turned around and saw that Li Changqing had changed into a punk-style leather jacket and put on a short black wig.

She even put on smoky eye makeup to match the outfit.

For some reason, Li Changqing, who already looked young, looked even younger now.

“Why did you dress like this?” Qing Chen was puzzled.

“When sneaking out to play, one needs disguise. Otherwise, if we are recognized in City 18, we'll be chased and killed,” Li Changqing said with a smile, “Want me to put some makeup on you too?”

“No, thank you,” Qing Chen said, his Face^[-] instantly transforming into zard's appearance, then changing back.

Li Changqing was stunned.

She knew that Forbidden Artifact 005 was in the hands of her seventh brother, Li Shutong, but she didn’t know its function, so she couldn’t connect Qing Chen with Li Shutong.

She was stunned because this was the first time Qing Chen had proactively revealed a shocking secret in front of her.

This meant that Qing Chen trusted her and was willing to share some of his secrets with her.

“We are friends now, right?” Li Changqing asked with a smile.

“Mm,” Qing Chen nodded.

“Great! On such a good day, we should have a drink,” Li Changqing laughed, “Let’s go!”

Qing Chen walked into the passage first, and Li Changqing whispered behind him, “Slow down, it's so dark in this passage, I’m afraid of ghosts.”

Qing Chen thought, if there were really ghosts in this passage, wouldn't your strength be enough to smash their brains out with one palm?

However, Li Changqing, behind Qing Chen, cautiously tugged at his clothes, and it didn't seem like she was pretending.

Recalling the meeting today, the old man pretending to faint, and Li Yunshou feigning ignorance and shouting at the medical staff, he felt that this family's acting skills were superb.

However, at this moment, Li Changqing suddenly shouted in the passage, “Ghost!”

As she spoke, she reached out to grab Qing Chen, but Li Changqing was astonished to find that the moment she spoke, Qing Chen had already darted out like an arrow.

She completely missed him.

Li Changqing stood in the passage with her hands on her hips, almost laughing in anger, “Was that necessary?”

“Come on, you don't have much time to move freely,” Qing Chen said.

“Where are you taking me?” Li Changqing suddenly asked.

“Nowhere in particular,” Qing Chen said as he walked through the long passage.

Li Changqing followed behind him, watching the boy's back disappear into the light and shadow.

She said, “I thought you had a plan, and you would use my fighting ability or identity to help you do something.”

Qing Chen thought for a moment, “That was my original intention, but I don’t want to do that now.”

Initially, he had planned to take Li Changqing to save Luo Wanya.

However, this woman was too kind to him, helping him get a set of Gene Medicine and personally putting the Wu Xin Copper Bell around his neck.

Because of that, he no longer wanted to use her.

Qing Chen was prepared to Face^[-] the world fiercely, but he wondered if being so ruthless would violate his original intentions?

That wasn’t something a Knight should do.

Li Changqing smiled, “That’s more like it.”

She jogged a few steps to catch up with Qing Chen, “Hey, what were you originally planning to do? We are friends now, I don’t mind you using me occasionally. I can help you fight, I'm pretty strong.”

“Really no need,” Qing Chen said with a smile, “I’ve assessed their strength, it should be fine.”

Even if there were problems, Liu Dezhu, Daybreak’s trump card at this stage, would be enough.

The two walked out of the passage, Li Changqing looked around the room like a curious child, “Old Master used to sneak out from here, right?”

“Is it okay to talk about your father like that?” Qing Chen said with an amused smile.

Li Changqing looked at him strangely, “What's wrong with that? Old Master had eleven wives in his lifetime, that's how Conglomerates are.”

Qing Chen was astonished. When the old man said on the Dragon Lake's broken bridge, “She’s still waiting for me down there,” he thought he was very devoted and loyal, and he admired him.

Now that he thinks about it, he should have said, “They’re still waiting for me down there!”

Qing Chen was puzzled, “Don’t Conglomerates have to abide by marriage laws?”

Li Changqing said, “Who dares to control Conglomerates? The law is meaningless in front of Conglomerates.”

That's the difference between the Inner World and Conglomerates.

Even though Conglomerates, through their influence, have used countless revised bills to make the law advantageous to themselves, they still refuse to abide by the law honestly.

At this moment, Li Changqing’s phone rang. She looked down and her mood suddenly fell.

“What’s wrong?” Qing Chen asked curiously.

Li Changqing said, “I have to go back.”

“Why?” Qing Chen asked again.

“There’s an emergency in City 18. Two Qing Family Shadow Candidates, Qing Wen and Qing Zhong, had a conflict in District 4, and there are multiple parties involved. It's going to be lively tonight,” Li Changqing looked at Qing Chen in the dim room and smiled, “When we have another chance, or one day I no longer have to work for the Li Clan, let me sneak out with you again. I can't be so reckless now.”

“Mm, then go back,” Qing Chen softly replied, “Stay safe.”

“Don’t worry, no one in City 18 can hurt me,” Li Changqing said confidently as she walked back into the passage.

Qing Chen suddenly thought, perhaps this was the helplessness of a Conglomerate.

Or rather, the helplessness of the times.

Qing Chen turned and walked towards the door. Luo Wanya was probably already impatient.

…

…

At this moment.

In a certain apartment in District 4.

Including Luo Wanya, fourteen people were crowded together in the living room.

A warden, with red eyes, said, “When I was a child, my father would always take me to the Lima Snack Street in City 7 and buy me delicious candied haws. You know that candied haws in the city are expensive. No one grows hawthorns in the production base; it’s all Wilderness Hunters who pick wild hawthorns from outside, and then coat them with cheap syrup to sell them at high prices. Back then, I didn’t know that a string of candied haws would add to the family’s burden. My father would always watch me eat. I asked him to eat, but he said he was afraid of sourness. Only after I grew up did I realize that he didn’t dare to eat them.”

Another warden said, “When I was a child, my family occasionally caught a fish, and my mother would only eat the meat from the fish tail and the fish eyes. I asked her why she didn’t eat the meat from the fish belly, and she always said she liked to eat the fish tail and fish eyes better. Now, thinking back, who doesn’t know that the fish belly meat is tastier?”

A side Luo Wanya cleared his throat and said in a low voice, “Home Families, children want to support their parents, but their parents are already gone; trees want to be still, but the wind keeps blowing…”

That low voice was like a funeral emcee, as mournful as it could be.

After a while, the room was filled with sobs.

At this time, Luo Wanya stood up and said, “Home Families, now everyone has shared their secrets; we are truly a family. Do you trust each other? Let's play a little game.”

He pulled over a table and stood on it, “I'll stand on this table, turn my back to the Home Families, and fall backward. I believe that the Home Families will definitely catch me; that's how much I trust the Home Families.”

After he finished speaking, Luo Wanya’s chubby body fell backward straight, and the thirteen ‘Home Families’ behind him worked together to catch him, preventing his head from hitting the ground.

Luo Wanya said excitedly, “See, that's the trust between Home Families. Family won't let your trust down. Home Families will always be each other's strongest support!”

The entire room erupted in cheers, as if they were happy to have found new family.

Even the wardens were no exception…

The situation was indeed getting out of control…

Luo Wanya, seeing this scene, thought to himself, if he had known that these wardens' psychological defenses were so easy to break, he would have been saved long ago.

However, before he could be happy, a warden’s satellite phone rang.

The man answered the phone, “Yes, yes, the Home Families are all doing well… No, those Time Travelers are still being held… Okay, we'll prepare to transfer them.”

In fact, short-term psychological suggestion and brainwashing ultimately could not withstand the cruelty of reality.

The upper echelons of the wardens' organization only needed a cold instruction to pull the wardens back to reality.

The ‘Home Families’, who had just been immersed in the atmosphere of joy and excitement, were like being splashed with a basin of ice water on a freezing day; they gradually returned to fear and sorrow.

Luo Wanya thought, if they had given him a few more days, he might have succeeded?

It was too late!

The wardens began to calmly check their firearms; the crisp and cold sounds of cocking guns filled the room.

One of them coldly said, “The game is over, we almost got fooled by you. Now, everyone put their hands behind their backs and come downstairs with us. Remember, the organization’s mission this time is to raise funds for the Outer World operation. Once you return to the Outer World, send all your money to the designated location, or you'll Face^[-] death.”

The wardens no longer pretended to be family, nor did they pretend to say that the organization needed ‘donations’. They abandoned the brainwashing plan and used their originally brutal appearance to directly issue personal threats.

When they found out they had almost been reverse brainwashed, they were furious.

However, Luo Wanya was still unwilling to give up, patiently saying, “Home Families…”

The leader of the seven wardens pressed the gun barrel against his head, “Home your mother! If you say another word, I’ll shoot you dead right now. Don’t blame us; we also have real families. If we accidentally let you escape, one person from each of our families will die.”

At this point, the wardens had regained their sanity. They knew clearly what their identities were and what they were supposed to do.

Luo Wanya began to despair. If he were transferred away, he didn’t know when he would be rescued.

But where was Daybreak’s Home Families? They said they would come to the rescue, but why hadn't they shown up yet?

All the Time Travelers were forced to put their hands behind their backs. The wardens used metal finger locks to clamp each person's thumb; this was more convenient than handcuffs and left no room for struggle.

The Time Travelers were escorted down the stairs through the emergency exit.

Luo Wanya still expected Daybreak’s rescue to begin during this transfer, but until they reached the underground parking lot, there was still no movement.

Now, Luo Wanya’s eyes lost their luster.

However, when the two vans full of people drove out of the underground garage and onto the road,

Luo Wanya saw blood suddenly erupt from the driver in front of him.

A bullet penetrated from the side of the warden, easily passing through the body and even piercing the car body.

Only after everyone reacted to what was happening did the two distant sniper shots slowly come.

“Sniper!” a warden roared, “Drive!”

But it was too late.

Within a second, the drivers of both vans were killed, and the cars, as if they had lost control, rushed straight towards the intersection.

When Luo Wanya heard the word sniper, an expression of ecstatic joy couldn’t help but appear on his Face^[-].

He followed the news about Outer World Time Travelers and naturally knew that Daybreak’s boss was a sniper.

Daybreak had come; Daybreak had come to save him!

At this time, besides Daybreak, Luo Wanya couldn’t think of anyone else who would come to save him!

No one saw, at this moment, at the intersection, a masked boy hiding in the shadows, wearing Bluetooth earphones, focused intently on the van: “Boss, positions 2 and 3 on the left side of the front car are the criminals. Positions 2, 4, and 7 in the rear car are criminals. Ready to shoot.”

Qing Chen, on the rooftop in the distance, fired shot after shot, like the master of the midnight.

Luo Wanya sat dumbfounded in the car, his Face^[-] covered in blood.

He didn’t dare to move, fearing that the extremely powerful sniper bullets would injure him.

However, Luo Wanya was overthinking.

He found that the sniper’s shooting was extremely rhythmic; the opponent waited for the vehicle to continue sliding forward, while the shooting angle of the target in the car kept changing.

Bullet after bullet, they pierced the bodies of the wardens with strange angles but only grazed the Time Travelers.

Luo Wanya felt like he was sitting in interwoven trajectories, the trajectories like intersecting lines, dense but not touching his body.

In just ten seconds, the sniper didn’t give the wardens any chance to fight back before killing all seven wardens in the car.

The Time Travelers in the car gasped in fright; the windows were covered with a layer of dark red blood.

It’s alright; none of the Time Travelers were hurt!

Everyone was shocked. What kind of marksmanship was this? And how did he, at such a distance, distinguish who were Time Travelers and who were wardens?

A moment later, a masked boy with Bluetooth earphones walked towards the vehicle, “Boss, all targets eliminated, Boss is awesome! Boss will live forever and rule the world!”

Qing Chen calmly said in the Bluetooth earphones, “No need for flattery, Liu Dezhu, quickly take these Time Travelers away. Little Bull, Tian Zhen, you two prepare to drive over to provide support. City 18 is dangerous tonight; hide and don’t show up unless necessary.”

In the Bluetooth earphones, Hu Xiaoniu and Zhang Tianzhen said in unison, “Understood.”

This was a collaborative operation of the Daybreak organization.

Even with Qing Chen’s sniper skills, it was impossible to distinguish the targets in the car in a short time.

At a distance of 1400 meters, the targets he saw were extremely blurry. Being able to hit the target was due to his absolute gun sense and calculation within 2600 meters, but it didn’t mean that his eyesight was superhuman.

Therefore, in this situation, if Qing Chen wanted to avoid injuring the Time Travelers, he needed someone to provide close-range relay guidance.

Liu Dezhu had been guarding this intersection; he only needed to do one thing: tell Qing Chen which positions in the car the wardens were sitting in.

The Time Travelers and wardens were easy to distinguish. The Time Travelers were forced to keep their hands behind their backs, while the wardens' eyes were like wolves, observing their surroundings.

No one was more suitable for this close-range precision guidance role than Liu Dezhu. Even if someone discovered Liu Dezhu's presence, his C-level strength would be enough to deal with most crises.

In the two cars, seven Time Travelers were terrified, sitting motionless in their seats, their hands and feet ice cold.

With a whoosh, the car door was pulled open, and the masked boy Liu Dezhu smiled, “Get out of the car, everyone. I'm here to save you.”

…