Chapter 269: This Life—The Beginning (X)

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Chapter 269: This Life—The Beginning (X)

“He went abroad?” Wei Xun stared coldly at the person on the video call. “If he went abroad, why are you still here?”

“I’m sorry, Master Xun. Mr. Shang secretly booked two tickets. During the transfer, he boarded another flight while I wasn’t looking.”

“Where did he go?”

“Country F.”

Wei Xun finished attending the business conference and booked a flight to Country F that very night. Yet Shang Ke was nowhere to be found at the hotel indicated by the trail. The clues ended there, and even by the time Wei Xun returned home, there was still no news at all.

At first, Wei Xun was absolutely certain Shang Ke would never abandon his own research and disappear. But when he discovered that Qi Chen had vanished at almost the same time, doubt crept in. Wei Xun had never restricted Shang Ke’s freedom, yet Shang Ke alone should not have been able to disappear so completely. Qi Chen, on the other hand, had both the means and more than enough reason to send him away.

“Evan, I don’t care what methods you use. Find him as quickly as possible.”

While Wei Xun followed false leads through several developed countries searching for Shang Ke, he had no idea that his own family had dumped Shang Ke in an obscure, remote town on the other side of the ocean.

There was no proper police force here. Illegal operations were hidden everywhere, good and bad people mixed together, the signal was terrible, and only one battered bus entered and left the town each day.

Shang Ke rolled around in a rubbish heap several times until he looked like a wandering street punk. He spent an entire day weaving through streets and alleys, memorizing the terrain and surroundings while “borrowing” a little money from several pickpockets along the way.

After two days of adapting, Shang Ke bought some basic supplies and boarded the bus for G City. Before leaving, he used a small knife to carve a robot symbol into the wall of the alley where he had awakened, then added an arrow pointing toward G City.

【I arrived with nothing and leave with empty sleeves—2020.07.02】

Shang Ke was in no hurry to contact friends or family back home, nor did he intend to return immediately. The Wei family had acted so ruthlessly that going back now would only invite more trouble.

G City was a county-level district under a third-tier city in Country T, with a population of only a little over three hundred thousand. Its standard of living was roughly comparable to China in the 1980s or 1990s. Shang Ke stayed there for more than a week, mainly to obtain identification documents. The documents were fake, of course, but he could use hacking techniques to make them functionally real. They would not survive a deep investigation, but they were good enough for buying tickets, passing inspections, routine ID checks, taking odd jobs, and other everyday needs.

While waiting for the documents, Shang Ke could not legally find work, so he followed an elderly scavenger around collecting recyclables and used the opportunity to learn about local customs.

Shang Ke did not find scavenging particularly humiliating and paid no attention to other people’s ridicule or contempt. Every day he left early and returned late with the old man, collecting bottles and cans and living on one or two pieces of dry bread. The old man loved to talk, and Shang Ke enjoyed listening to his exaggerated tales and strange anecdotes. Every now and then they encountered a few local thugs, but Shang Ke dealt with them easily.

Country T did not prohibit firearms and also had a complicated web of ethnic tensions. Public security was especially poor in impoverished areas. Because of that, Shang Ke kept an extremely low profile and never went outside after sunset, lest he attract unnecessary trouble—or get shot for no reason at all.

More than ten days passed without incident. Once Shang Ke received his documents, he said goodbye to the elderly scavenger and boarded a bus for the next city. Before leaving, he once again left a message somewhere behind.

Stopping here and there along the way, he unknowingly passed through dozens of towns and cities. During that time, he waited tables, handed out flyers, ran street stalls, and occasionally volunteered. In the end, he settled on his main occupation: wandering street performer. Carrying a secondhand guitar, he played and sang wherever crowds gathered. The income was small, but the lifestyle suited him.

In his spare time, he did not forget to keep up with news from home. The first thing that startled him was Old Master Wei suddenly suffering a stroke and being hospitalized, while the upper political circles entered a turbulent period of leadership transition. The Wei family, however, had deep foundations. Despite some instability, the overall situation remained under control.

From scattered entertainment and society reports, Shang Ke learned that Wei Xun was still overseeing construction of the technology park back home—and, incidentally, meeting a certain female pianist for dates and tea.

Shang Ke sat in an internet café, biting into a hamburger while glaring at the enlarged photograph on the webpage. Damn bastard. Shang Ke was abroad chewing grass while Wei Xun was back home enjoying fragrant company.

“You’re finished. Do you know that?” Shang Ke pointed viciously at the man in the photograph.

He demolished the hamburger in a few bites, took several swallows of his drink, wiped his hands, and then set his fingers moving across the keyboard.

Country Z, inside a laboratory.

A group of technicians were analyzing Unit One’s program code. Yet after one or two months, they still had not produced any significant results. More accurately, what they had managed to produce was nothing like what they had expected. Programs recompiled from the code did not possess anything close to Unit One’s intelligence; they were only slightly more advanced than robots already on the market, nowhere near enough to make their products stand out.

In the end, they arrived at two possibilities. Either Unit One’s intelligence had been exaggerated, or the true core code was not stored inside Unit One at all.

What they did not know was that Shang Ke’s robots could identify their owner. No one other than the owner could alter the core program. The moment tampering triggered an alarm, Unit One’s main program would immediately escape through the network into a safe house Shang Ke had prepared online.

When Shang Ke opened that safe house, Unit One immediately followed the data stream to locate him, slipped into the computer, scanned his face through the camera, and then verified his identity by voice.

【Keke, long time no see.】 Unit One’s emotionless voice came through the headset.

“Long time no see, Unit One.”

【Keke, bad people have taken over my body. You have to help me get it back.】

“No problem. Once I return, I’ll help you teach those bad guys a lesson.”

【When is Keke coming back?】

Shang Ke thought for a moment and replied, “When he finds me.”

“Evan, still no news about Keke?” Wei Xun stared darkly out at the brightly lit night skyline beyond the window.

“I’m sorry, Master Xun. We still haven’t found him.” Evan paused, then added, “But we found Qi Chen.”

Wei Xun’s gaze sharpened. “Where is he?”

“He boarded a flight to Country T two hours ago.”

“Country T?” Country T and Country F were separated by an enormous distance, in almost the exact opposite direction from the route indicated by their intelligence.

“Mr. Qi asked me to pass a message to you.”

“What message?”

“‘If I’d known this would happen, I would have risked my life before ever letting him stay by your side.’”

Wei Xun frowned. What did that mean? Hadn’t Qi Chen been the one hiding Keke? Was there something else behind this?

“Evan, go back through every clue connected to Keke’s disappearance. Reinvestigate every single person who had contact with him.” As something occurred to him, Wei Xun’s expression grew increasingly ugly. “Also, book me a flight to Country T immediately. I expect new information before I land.”

Shang Ke slung his guitar over his back and headed toward the riverbank, ready to begin another day of street performing.

The weather was gradually turning colder. His fingers had been reddened by the chill, but his eyes remained bright.

He sat on a bench and softly played and sang pleasant songs, driving away a little of the cold and fatigue for the people passing by.

Just then, someone slowly approached. The familiar presence made Shang Ke’s heart leap. He looked up in delighted surprise, only to see… Qi Chen?

Why was it Qi Chen? Why Qi Chen? Why Qi Chen… The question looped endlessly through his mind.

Shang Ke stared at him blankly.

“I came to take you home.” Qi Chen held out a hand. In the center of his palm was a small black mole that had never been there before.

Confusion filled Shang Ke’s face. In his memory, Qi Chen had never had a mole on his palm. Why had one suddenly appeared? And the aura around him had changed as well, becoming impossibly familiar. If Shang Ke ignored his face, he could almost believe the man standing before him was Wei Xun in disguise.

“Keke.” Qi Chen sat beside him and gently drew him into his arms. “I’m sorry. I came too late.”

Shang Ke’s body stiffened. His right eyelid twitched nonstop, and his thoughts were a mess. He allowed Qi Chen to bundle him into a taxi and take him all the way back to a hotel.

“Rest here for a few days. Once your documents are ready, I’ll take you home.” Qi Chen shut the door and looked at Shang Ke’s straight back, his red, swollen fingers, and the frost dusting his clothes. A surge of heartache overcame him, and he stepped forward to hold Shang Ke tightly.

“Qi Chen?”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry…” Qi Chen buried his face against the side of Shang Ke’s neck.

Heat slowly gathered in Shang Ke’s body. The person embracing him felt like his lover—and yet he was clearly Qi Chen…

While Shang Ke was distracted, warmth suddenly pressed against his lips. Qi Chen kissed him without hesitation.

Shang Ke hesitated for two seconds. Then a sharp pain suddenly stabbed through his brain. His mind snapped clear, and he shoved Qi Chen away.

“I’m tired. I’m going to take a shower.” Shang Ke quickly entered the bathroom, leaving Qi Chen behind with a dark, contemplative expression.

Leaning against the door, Shang Ke tipped his head back and stared at the ceiling. Understanding flashed through his eyes.

In that instant just now, he had finally confirmed it.

Qi Chen was not his lover.

He was… Wu Du.

The culprit who had sent Chen Xiao and Shou Mo into the cursed cycle of reincarnation. The familiar aura around him should belong to the fragment of Chen Xiao’s soul that had remained inside the Reincarnation Lamp.

No wonder the System had never warned Shang Ke. The awakened Wu Du had taken control of it.

No wonder the Reincarnation Lamp had activated in this lifetime. Wu Du had also reincarnated into this world. As the Lamp’s original user, he had lost most of the curse’s power, but his recovered memories were enough for him to regain control over the Reincarnation Lamp.

Against Wu Du, who now possessed both his memories and the System, neither Shang Ke nor Wei Xun was likely to be his match. Wu Du might no longer possess spiritual power, but the System itself was the greatest golden finger imaginable.

Shang Ke clenched his fists. Only the final lifetime of the reincarnation curse remained. Was everything really going to fail at the last step? Had all those times he had gone looking for death been for nothing?

Looking for death…

Shang Ke’s eyes lit up as he suddenly caught hold of the key point.

What had the mission of the reincarnation cycle actually been? To make him die heroically in different worlds.

“Dying” was the curse.

But “heroically” was the opportunity.

The reason he had been able to obtain Return Keys was because he had accumulated heroic points. In other words, “heroism” itself was the key to breaking the curse.

After so many lifetimes, Wu Du’s control over the Reincarnation Lamp had already weakened enormously. As long as Shang Ke completed one final heroic mission, he should be able to shatter the remaining restriction completely and free himself from Wu Du’s curse.

So in the end, he still had to die heroically one more time.

Shang Ke looked at himself in the mirror. His vision gradually blurred, his heart filled with both the joy of approaching freedom and the sorrow of another farewell…

Two hours later, Wei Xun boarded a plane with two trusted subordinates.

After dozens of hours in transit, Wei Xun had barely left the airport when Evan’s report arrived. Although he had already braced himself, the truth still cut deeply. He had never once suspected his family. He had thought he had concealed everything well, only to discover they had laid their trap long ago. They had threatened the bodyguard through his family, used him to win Keke’s trust, waited until Keke finished the research they wanted, and then discarded him like rubbish.

Thinking back on how calm and unconcerned his parents had acted—repeatedly using his grandfather’s illness to keep him occupied, forcing him into blind dates, and planting false trails to confuse the search—Wei Xun’s anger only deepened. From beginning to end, he had never suspected them. He had been far too focused on the imagined affair between Shang Ke and Qi Chen.

“Where is he now?” Wei Xun asked in an icy voice.

“I’ve only been able to identify the original drop-off point: Silu Town.”

Dead-End Town?

“Fuck!” What bastard had named the place that? He had never even heard of it.

Wei Xun had his bodyguard rent a vehicle, then they raced toward the destination.

On the road, Wei Xun quickly learned the basics about Silu Town. Put simply, it was an impoverished place with chaotic law enforcement and rampant prostitution, gambling, drugs, and violence.

Wei Xun could hardly bear to imagine what Shang Ke might have suffered after being abandoned somewhere like that.

“Faster!” Wei Xun slammed a fist against the car window. “Drive faster!”

They drove for three straight days before finally reaching Silu Town.

Wei Xun first located the local gang leader, showed him Shang Ke’s photograph, and paid him to help search. At the same time, he contacted his own people and ordered them to get there as quickly as possible.

Shang Ke was a foreigner. Even though he had disguised himself, it did not take long before they found someone who remembered him.

“This is the place?” Wei Xun stared at the dark, damp alley in front of him, his expression terrifyingly grim.

“Yes. I saw him come out from here back then,” a local said nervously.

Wei Xun pressed his lips together and stepped into the alley. A foul smell immediately struck him. Trash lay scattered everywhere, and oily black sewage pooled across the ground.

His tall body made the already narrow alley feel even more cramped.

Keke had been dumped in a filthy place like this? Alone, penniless, without anyone to rely on. Did he even speak the language of Country T? How had he eaten with no money? Where had he slept? Had anyone hurt him?

Wei Xun suddenly drove a fist into the wall, his eyes full of fury and regret. Then, from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a mark scratched into the surface.

【I arrived with nothing and leave with empty sleeves—2020.07.02】

→ G City.

Darling, come find me.

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