Chapter 87
by Need_More_SleepChapter 87: Never Suffered Such Humiliation Since Childhood
“Xiaoliu, cover your eyes,” Yiwen instructed.
Sitting on the sofa watching TV, Mi Xiaoliu obediently complied.
Seizing the opportunity, Yiwen quickly gathered her combat suit and undergarments from her room and carried them to the bathroom for washing.
As for feminine clothing—she had thrown out all her dresses after switching to masculine attire.
The few smaller-sized women’s clothes still in the house were either secretly bought by her younger brother or kept by her mother just in case.
What to do in the future? Whether she would keep dressing like a boy forever? She hadn’t thought about it.
One step at a time. Maybe when her chest grew as big as her mother’s and her features matured, she’d return to dressing like a normal girl. By then, no one would recognize her as “Silence” anyway.
But by that time, she would have already wasted her youth—the prime years for romance.
Wasted or not, it didn’t matter. There weren’t any handsome guys at school she liked anyway.
“Okay, you can uncover them now.”
If Yiwen hadn’t said so, Mi Xiaoliu wouldn’t have moved his (her) hands. Yiwen knew that much about him (her).
“Hey, wanna play games later?” Toby, holding no grudges, extended an invitation to Mi Xiaoliu.
Since Mom had specifically told him to take care of this kid, did that mean he could use it as an excuse to game openly?
Mi Xiaoliu glanced at the clock and shook her head. “Study.”
She returned to her room. Heli had assigned her self-study sessions from 8:00 to 11:30 AM and 3:00 to 6:00 PM on weekends.
Once Heli returned, she would check her progress. As long as Mi Xiaoliu finished her assignments, she could doodle all over the illustrations if she wanted.
“Heaven has its paths, yet you choose the sea of learning’s bitter boat,” Toby muttered, grabbing the remote.
When he first sat down, he noticed Mi Xiaoliu had been watching “Sheep Boy and Wheat Wolf”. Though it seems childish, since she wasn’t family, he hadn’t dared snatch the remote.
Now, he switched to “Park Babies” and watched with relish.
Only to get smacked on the head again.
“Why’d you chase him away?” Yiwen snapped. She had wanted to watch dramas with Mi Xiaoliu—watching alone meant no one to discuss the plot with.
“He left on his own!” Toby protested, aggrieved.
Who’s your real sibling here?
“Give it.” Yiwen snatched the remote, switched back to “Sheep Boy and Wheat Wolf”, and cranked up the volume.
But Mi Xiaoliu didn’t return.
…Pretty disciplined.
After dinner, Mi Xiaoliu and Circle (Quanquan) sprawled on the table, staring at Newton’s cradle—the only personal item she’d brought aside from spare clothes and homework.
She opened her system and tapped the “single draw” button. Before leaving, Heli had left her plenty of pocket money.
[Memory:]
“Xiao Mi, see this? This is the city you’ll go to someday. After escaping, you’ll live like a normal child—attend school, make friends, grow up.”
A white-haired woman sat gently beside Mi Xiaoliu, softly stroking her hair.
She pointed at the tablet on the table, its map displaying the very city Mi Xiaoliu now lived in—Fanzui City.
Even as the girl beside her remained unresponsive, her eyes vacant, the woman continued, “This is where the organization’s presence is weakest. But you must still be careful. An Easter branch exists even here…”
She zoomed in on the map for Mi Xiaoliu.
The automatic door behind them slid open. Her pupils flickered, but she didn’t react.
“What are you doing?” A woman in a lab coat asked. Not the one who looked identical to Heli, but a middle-aged woman with a popular short hairstyle.
“Showing her the other branches. She’ll have to visit them eventually,” the white-haired woman replied smoothly.
“Pointless. She’s just a tool without consciousness.” The middle-aged woman patted Mi Xiaoliu’s cheek.
No reaction. The same empty gaze.
[Memory End.]
“……”
I really want to know who she was.
m”Sasha, can the branch help find her?”
“Master, you won’t find her.” Not anywhere.
Mi Xiaoliu gazed at the darkened sky outside.
Sasha hesitated. “But… Easter’s branch databases are interconnected. You might find Black Element data in their systems. We’ve seen them operate before—I could probably figure some of it out.”
Though the school doctor was already searching, when facing a terminal illness, no one wanted to pin all hope on a single thread. If it snapped, despair would follow.
“Mmm.”
Mi Xiaoliu opened the window and stepped out, heading toward the place from her memories.
Some time after she left, Yiwen peeked through her own window, confirming Mi Xiaoliu’s room was dark before donning her combat suit and leaping into the night.
Two people, separated by a single wall, each hiding their nocturnal activities.
Neighbors: “6…”
————————
“Seven bodies found at East Street Gas Station. Ages 16 to 20. ‘Flame Dragon’ claims they were attacked during a Tian Xing Dao gathering—only three escaped out of ten.”
“Based on descriptions, they encountered the Night Demon.”
“Why would that guy bother attacking kids?” Officer Chen rubbed his temples.
This was bad. He could already imagine the deceased members’ parents storming the station tomorrow with media in tow, clutching black-and-white photos, wailing and cursing at them.
“Flame Dragon also mentioned one missing—that spider-human hybrid thing he could never explain.”
“Hunting an experiment subject?” Given the Night Demon’s ties to Easter, it made sense.
“Don’t tell White Whale. Assign her a different mission—as far from East Street as possible,” Officer Chen decided.
“I know. I already gave her another task.”
“Which one?”
“Her favorite—the Man in Black (Girl in Black).”
“New update dropped. Man in Black (Girl in Black) severely overturned this patch. White Whale can’t handle her,” Officer Chen said flatly.
That giant windmill lodged upside-down in the ground—are you blind? Adapt to the meta.
“But the Man in Black (Girl in Black) never tried to kill White Whale.”
“Hmm. True.”
In that regard, the little Man in Black (Girl in Black) seemed more reasonable than your average Tian Xing Dao member.
————————
Backstage of a bar.
Seeing the “No Minors Allowed” sign, Mi Xiaoliu nearly turned away—until Sasha reminded her that in this outfit, she was a bad kid. Rules didn’t apply.
“Where’s Easter?”
Grabbing a burly man by the collar, Mi Xiaoliu mimicked Wei Shi’s interrogation method—“slap! slap!”—landing two sharp strikes across his face.
Three muscular men in black already lay on the ground, shattered test tubes beneath them, their spilled contents worth hundreds of thousands per liter.
If expensive medicine wasn’t for healing, it was definitely illegal.
“I don’t know! What Easter?” The man clutched his reddened cheek, utterly wronged.
What’s your damn problem? He was just a regular, innocent gang leader! Who had he offended?
“Master, this approach might alert them… You don’t have to hide from Easter, but must you be so… direct?” Sasha sighed.
An organization that had remained hidden for who-knows-how-long wouldn’t just reveal itself because some random thug got slapped twice.
Mi Xiaoliu lowered her head silently.
“Master, Easter branches usually exist in parallel subspaces. Try opening your system storage?”
Mi Xiaoliu obeyed.
Nothing happened.
“As I thought… Master, head to the rooftop first.”
Mi Xiaoliu released the gang leader, kicked open a window, and began scaling the building barehanded.
Her fists carved indentations into the walls—a straight climb was faster than stairs or elevators.
The moment she left, the gang leader scrambled up, fuming.
“Goddamn stupid Man in Black (Girl in Black)—”
“Man in Black (Girl in Black)?” Yiwen materialized behind him.
“Holy sh—!” He lunged for his gun.
Yiwen yanked him back by the collar—“slap! slap!”—and demanded, “Where’s the Man in Black (Girl in Black)?”
The gang leader clutched his face again.
Never in his life had he suffered such humiliation.