Volume 5, Chapter 103 – On a Previous Life, Not Failing the Present (2-in-1)

Bai Zhuqing stood guard outside the courtyard where Li Wenyu and her group were staying for quite a while. When Bai Xiang never showed up, she finally realized that Bai Xiang had probably already come by.

Then Big Sis definitely knows I’ve been waiting here too, right?

No. More accurately, it was because she knew I was here, and saw through what I was planning, that she came quietly without letting me know…

Her feelings somewhat complicated, Bai Zhuqing realized there was no point continuing to wait here. No matter what calculations she was making in secret, if she could not ultimately get Bai Xiang’s approval, then it was doomed never to happen.

So she tidied herself up, took a walk around Zhennan Base City first, and planned to check on the construction progress of the Demonic Aura Observation Tower.

The Demonic Aura Observation Tower, formerly known as the Echo Tower, was a major local engineering project led by the newly established Heaven-Monitoring Directorate and overseen by Director Yu Daoyong.

The thing required no small amount of manpower and materials. The Heaven-Monitoring Directorate alone did not have enough authority or resources to pull it off. By now, the departments and work units Yu Daoyong had dragged into it numbered more than ten, so the significance of the project had gradually become weightier and weightier. Failure was no longer something anyone could accept.

By the time Bai Zhuqing arrived, the construction site was in full swing.

This was the military-zone camp by the northwestern city gate. The Heaven-Monitoring Directorate had seized a plot of land here, fenced it off, and started building immediately. Scaffolding and green construction mesh had already been put up around the site. At a glance, it did not look much different from an ordinary construction site.

Bai Zhuqing was simply too easy to recognize here in her red dress. People kept stepping forward to greet her along the way, and she took the opportunity to ask them which departments they came from and what kind of work they were doing. The answers she got were all over the place.

“Reporting to the Overseer, my name is Guo Da. I’m a mountain gate disciple,” one burly, dark-skinned man said. After saying that, he did not forget to point at a whole group working nearby. “Them too. We all came down from the mountain.”

Shenming disciples?

Bai Zhuqing froze for a moment.

She did know that Yu Daoyong had been crying poverty, which led to all the departments in the Zhennan region coordinating together: those with money contributed money, those with manpower contributed manpower. Even the dojo’s mountain gate had sent over a batch of disciples to help out.

But this was the kind of work they meant?

Carrying bricks, mixing cement, pulling measuring lines, and even driving excavators?

“The one driving the excavator isn’t one of ours.” Guo Da revealed an honest, simple smile. “We’re agile. For places that high, we can jump right up, so there’s no need for us to use machines. The machines are left for the ones who can’t manage.”

Bai Zhuqing had just been about to say something when she saw two workers in uniforms and hard hats dash up to the second floor carrying an enormous steel I-beam. They even had time to laugh and chat on the way, though who knew what they were talking about.

“Well, fair enough.” She rolled the scene around in her mind, nodded, and decided this counted as a rather unique form of cultivation.

After parting with Guo Da, Bai Zhuqing continued touring the site and finally found Yu Daoyong in a temporary structure that looked more or less like a security booth.

The young Daoist was dressed in a daoist robe with a reflective safety vest over it and a bright yellow hard hat on his head. The whole outfit was absurdly mismatched. He was sitting inside the booth playing on a computer, and the screen appeared to be showing some kind of shooter game.

“Ahem… Overseer Bai is here.”

Noticing Bai Zhuqing making an inspection round, Yu Daoyong reined himself in slightly. He switched the game window to the background, revealing Eight-Suit Spider Solitaire on the desktop.

“You seem awfully relaxed here.” Bai Zhuqing narrowed her eyes and snarked at him. “I invested so many people and so much money into supporting your project, and you’re sitting here playing games.”

“Well, what else am I supposed to do?” Yu Daoyong simply gave up pretending and turned his chair around, spreading both hands at her. “I already drew up all the blueprints. As long as they build according to those, that’s it. There’s nothing here that needs me worrying over it.”

“After all, I’m a professional,” he added. “…I’m not going to randomly order someone to move the scaffolding five meters to the left.”

“Spare me the nonsense.” Bai Zhuqing’s face darkened. “Give me an update on the current progress.”

She could hear reports from her own side too, but in the end, she still needed to hear Yu Daoyong explain it in person.

Yu Daoyong seemed to have been prepared for this. He slapped the jade token in his hand, and a scroll appeared.

He tossed the scroll into the air, and it unfurled on its own, circling once around the narrow security booth. It was filled with diagrams and written explanations.

“As you can see, three Demonic Aura Observation Towers are currently under construction at the same time.” Yu Daoyong pointed to the contents and gave her a detailed explanation. “The one we’re at now is the Northwestern Observation Tower. There’s also the Southwestern Observation Tower and the Eastern Observation Tower. They should all be finished in a little over a week.”

Bai Zhuqing frowned. “Isn’t that too fast?”

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A major project like this would normally take about a month. Yet from the time Yu Daoyong launched the project to the completion date he was talking about, it would only total half a month at most. She was worried there might be quality issues.

“It’s already very slow,” Yu Daoyong said, shaking his head. “If this were the Former Yu, it should already be finished by now.”

Great Xia had made progress compared to the Former Yu, but in the end, the effects of the Void Tribulation had altered some physical laws and rendered some industrial technologies obsolete.

“The key problem is electricity.” Seizing the chance, he immediately began complaining to Bai Zhuqing. “There isn’t enough power. Even if the towers are built, their performance will still be affected.”

Yu Daoyong was not stupid. Ever since the passage between the Void Realm and the main world had been reopened, and the Demon Court gained the ability to obtain information from the present world, he had been researching these new technologies.

Among them, electricity, nuclear energy, and networks were his favorites. Electricity in particular fascinated him. More than once, he had marveled that ordinary mortals could master efficient energy through such a method.

“Isn’t this tower supposed to be for echolocation? What does that have to do with electricity?” Bai Zhuqing asked, puzzled.

“The internal structure, that whole circuit, needs electricity to operate,” Yu Daoyong said. “You’d better give me authorization to connect to the power plant.”

Bai Zhuqing’s face darkened even further. “I don’t recall that requirement being on your original blueprints.”

Yu Daoyong did not back down. “That’s because I thought nuclear power generation still worked.”

By the time she left, Bai Zhuqing had still agreed to give Yu Daoyong the authorization.

Although building these three towers would place a heavy burden on the base city’s power supply, once the three-tower network was complete, the energy consumed by defense projects would also be reduced. With one side added and the other subtracted, it was still worth it, so there was no reason to penny-pinch here.

“Her younger sister really is capable.”

Yu Daoyong looked in the direction she had left, then sat back down and brought up the game window again. Enduring his teammates’ furious cursing, he began operating at a level no ordinary person could ever achieve, cutting through obstacle after obstacle, planting the bomb, and then, BOOM, blowing up the mission target.

[Sabotage of the Xinwa Nuclear Power Plant Complete]

“Not bad.”

Looking at the victory message that appeared on the screen, Yu Daoyong nodded in satisfaction.

“Electricity really is good stuff.”

“I heard Li Huiran say that on the Path of Qi, you can awaken qi-force traits that include all sorts of Five Phases attributes.”

“I wonder if there’s any way for me to awaken an electricity-controlling trait.”

Meanwhile, Bai Zhuqing returned to the mountain gate dojo. By the rules, she should have visited her parents first and her grandfather second, but after feeling her way around all the way in, it seemed none of the three were home.

The only direct blood relative in charge at the dojo was her second uncle, Bai Lianzhou. Even Shen Xuelan was absent. Supposedly, the Silver Sea Merchant Guild’s logistics in New Chilong Base City had dropped the ball, forcing her to go over there and throw herself into the line of fire.

“Grandfather went to Liangzhou.”

That was what Bai Lianzhou told Bai Zhuqing.

“He also said Liangzhou is your third uncle’s second hometown. Since he was making a rare trip so far away, he brought your third uncle and Chen Yu along too.”

Bai Zhuqing widened her eyes. “I can understand my dad going off to do business, but what about my mom?”

“Your mom is in Chilong Circuit keeping an eye on Anmin and Zhennan.” Bai Lianzhou raised a brow. “She says that if their foundations aren’t laid properly, and they can’t get into a good school, then their lives are basically ruined.”

During Bai Xiang’s absence, the main line of the Bai family had gained new additions. Bai Zhuqing now had two younger brothers, while Bai Lianzhou and Shen Xuelan had added three more younger sisters to the Bai family’s third generation.

The two younger brothers were called Bai Anmin and Bai Zhennan, both names chosen by Grandfather Bai Shengju. It could only be said that his naming style was very consistent. Both boys were six years old and currently attended primary school in New Chilong Base City. The reason they were not studying in Zhennan Base City was so they could experience the process by which the Bai family had built itself up.

“…”

Bai Zhuqing truly did not understand what there was to be ruined or not ruined in the life of a six-year-old child.

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She wanted to criticize her mother, to say she was making a fuss over nothing and forcing seedlings to grow before their time, but the moment she thought of herself, she felt guilty.

Right?

All these years, she had governed in the Imperial Court, and the family, understanding how hard she worked, had not subjected her to the marriage-and-childbearing pressure they ought to have.

But every time her mother Zhu Ying looked at her, something about her gaze felt off. There was always a sense of regret there, as if saying, the sprout I raised has gone to waste.

Oh. So helping the kids with school was only the pretext. Was the real reason Mom ran off to Chilong Circuit because she was afraid Anmin and Zhennan would grow crooked?

Like me and my sister, for instance. Mm…

Bai Zhuqing decided not to think about all that nonsense.

She still believed this was not her fault.

She had held up the family for so many years. Even if she had no merit, she had certainly worked hard. How could it possibly be her fault?

This was obviously all Bai Leying’s fault. It was precisely because twenty-six-year-old Bai Leying spent all day refusing to behave, still had not gotten married or had children, and instead ran off to become a music teacher at Zhennan University, spending her free time messing around with her fox-and-hound friends making some kind of immortal-cultivation rock, that Zhu Ying had become utterly hopeless about the future and decided the two new seedlings absolutely had to be watched closely.

Mom really did have it hard all day long.

Walking back toward Listening-to-Rain Tower, Bai Zhuqing reflected on herself as well.

Good thing qi methods extended everyone’s lifespan. If I don’t give her grandchildren, she can just have more kids herself, fixing the system bug where the previous generation couldn’t enjoy the happiness of children and grandchildren.

Oh, Bai Zhuqing, Bai Zhuqing, listen to yourself. Is that even something a human should say…?

After thinking all kinds of random thoughts, she lifted her head while climbing the steps, and just happened to see a tall figure standing before the tower entrance, looking up at the plaque above it.

Under normal circumstances, Bai Zhuqing would definitely have called out “Big Sis” on reflex, then scampered over happily like a little puppy wagging itself silly at her side.

But now, perhaps because of what she had just been thinking about, the moment she saw Bai Xiang, Bai Zhuqing subconsciously linked the person before her to the topic of having children, and an image uncontrollably surfaced in her mind… Bai Xiang sitting by the bedside with a swollen belly.

Whoa, that was a little too stimulating…

Shaking her head, Bai Zhuqing quickly walked over and tried to size up Bai Xiang from the side.

She kept feeling that there was something off about Bai Xiang today.

Or rather, she felt that Bai Xiang should be a little off today.

After all, she had just gone to meet her biological mother…

Whether she acknowledged that woman’s identity or not, that kind of encounter could not possibly have felt good for her sister.

Bai Zhuqing could not help recalling the everyday moments she had shared with Bai Xiang in childhood. She realized that from the very beginning, Bai Xiang had already seemed calm and mature. Not only had she never relied on the adults in the family, she had often taken on the adults’ role when they were absent, bringing warmth to both her and Leying.

And yet clearly, Big Sis was the one who most needed a mother’s love…

She was always so steady, so quiet. From childhood to adulthood, she had been a source of support for Bai Zhuqing more times than she could count. Any problem that reached her seemed to dissolve on its own.

So would she feel hurt?

She had never shown that kind of emotion, but as long as she was still one of the sapient, still a sapient being capable of thought, then such emotions were bound to be unavoidable, weren’t they?

Thinking that way, Bai Zhuqing began to feel guilty.

And once she put herself in that position, some of the imaginings she had just had felt even more like an offense.

“What are you looking at?”

Bai Xiang kept her head tilted upward, but her golden pupils slanted over toward Bai Zhuqing.

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Since they were not merged, she could not sense the little girl’s emotional fluctuations, but judging from those darting, restless eyes alone, she could tell the other woman was definitely thinking something rude.

“Nothing!” Bai Zhuqing blurted out on reflex. “…I was just thinking that I could let… uh… I mean, I could, could give Big Sis a child… ugh, cough cough cough…”

By the time she got to the end, she realized what she had said herself and abruptly covered her mouth, coughing violently.

?

Now it was Bai Xiang’s turn to be stunned.

She discovered that ever since Bai Zhuqing had broken free of the Illusory God’s control, she had become even more of an extraordinary specimen. The number of times she managed to shock Bai Xiang had risen with startling frequency. In just these past few days, the number of times her younger sister had startled her exceeded the total from both her lives combined. That in itself was practically a miracle.

“I just got back from the back mountain… what exactly stimulated you this time? Why are you suddenly saying this kind of thing to me?”

Bai Xiang really had just returned from the back mountain.

The laboratory there had now been expanded, and all kinds of research facilities were in place. She had simply handed the half-section of bone and the sand samples excavated from the clay figure over to Hannah, then returned first herself.

And the moment she got back, her sister hit her with this.

Though Bai Xiang knew that, with current biomedicine, things like extracting stem cells and cultivating an embryo were technically feasible if ethics were thrown out the window, hearing such words come out of Bai Zhuqing’s mouth still gave her an unreal feeling.

Given the little brat’s usual habits, shouldn’t she be trying to tactfully coax me into having one myself?

With that thought, Bai Xiang suddenly understood. This probably had something to do with where she had gone today.

She had secretly gone to see Li Wenyu. Bai Zhuqing had probably guessed as much.

So this was her way of feeling sorry for me.

She thinks I’d be upset, that I’d be hurt, so she’s deliberately saying something like this to try to make me feel better.

Bai Xiang shook her head inwardly. Her younger sister was overthinking things.

Upset? What was there to be upset about?

It was hard to cling too tightly to something one had never possessed in the first place.

Compared with the hardships she had encountered during those ten years of paralysis, this sort of disappointment was nothing. It had long since lost the power to stir even the slightest ripple in her heart-lake. She did not feel sad at all.

If Li Wenyu submitted, that would be best. If she did not, then kill her.

What nonsense about how later generations would judge it. Did Li Shimin care about that sort of thing back then?

The court historians had wanted to doctor the record to cover for him, yet he refused them and demanded they write the truth as it was, because he simply disdained hiding such things.

That was what a true powerhouse was. That was genuine strength of mind.

Bai Xiang’s thoughts wound through dozens of turns, drifting to anecdotes from history in her previous life. By the time she came back to herself, she realized Bai Zhuqing had already wrapped her in an embrace.

“What is it?”

The two of them were now the same height. Bai Xiang frowned slightly, reached out to steady her sister’s waist, and murmured by her ear, “We haven’t even gone inside yet, so why are you…”

“Big Sis was abandoned in her previous life too, wasn’t she?”

Wh—

Bai Xiang fell silent, her thoughts going blank for a moment.

“I’d actually suspected it for a long time.”

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Bai Zhuqing hugged her tighter and spoke in a low voice. “From the moment Big Sis admitted your ‘composition,’ I started wondering what kind of experiences could shape someone into the person you are.”

“You pierced the mystery of the womb and unprecedentedly awakened memories of your previous life.”

“Your previous life… it must have been very hard, right?”

“…”

Bai Xiang opened her mouth, but for a moment did not know what to say.

She wanted to say: it wasn’t hard.

No matter how outsiders or the world might view that period of her life, she had gained benefits like soul-abilities from it.

Success turned past suffering into treasure. With the strength of her heart, saying it was not hard would simply have been the honest truth.

But if she really said that aloud, it would feel different to other people. The tone of the moment would shift.

So after thinking for a bit, she merely gave her younger sister’s waist a light squeeze and said, “Maybe.”

Bai Zhuqing did not know what she understood from that, but with tears glistening in her eyes as she leaned on Bai Xiang’s shoulder, she asked, “Then… were there a lot of people who disliked Big Sis in your previous life?”

“Disliked me? Mm… yes, there were.”

Bai Xiang admitted it.

Being abandoned was a form of being disliked.

And at the orphanage, being rejected for adoption by so many people because of her eye color was another.

Not to mention the first few years after she fell ill. At that time, her soul-abilities had not yet truly begun to take effect. She herself had been dispirited for a while, and her personal appearance had also become somewhat sloppy, no longer as neat and refined as before.

Once the news spread, judging by the average moral level of society at the time, being disliked was perfectly normal.

Bai Xiang felt the atmosphere had become a little too heavy, so she joked, “It’s precisely because of experiences like that that I treasure everything I’ve obtained.”

“For example, you.”

“In the past, no one liked my legs and feet, much less said things like that to me… mm?”

She was forced to stop halfway through.

Because Bai Zhuqing no longer wanted to hear any more. The guilt and tenderness in her heart turned into burning heat, prompting her to tilt her head back toward Bai Xiang’s face, cup Bai Xiang’s cheeks with both hands, slide past the bridge of her nose, and press her lips against hers.

So… this means that in her heart, I’m usually too serious. That impression has already hardened, and I’m just not suited to saying lighthearted things.

When Bai Xiang came back to herself, her gaze deepened further. She shifted from passive defense at the start to striking back, and the hand wrapped around her younger sister’s waist tightened more and more.

How should she put it… she truly did not need anyone’s pity.

But when someone could sincerely think of her from that angle, feel indignant on her behalf, and even, out of cherishing her, offer up this kind of devotion—

Then yes, she could be moved.

In any case, let the past all remain in the past.

What I have.

What stands before my eyes.

That is everything I possess.