Chen Xiao swallowed hard: "So, what exactly is the ability that Mingyue and K's child possesses...?"
"Copy!" Old Tian uttered these two short words.
He glanced at Chen Xiao again: "A complete copy! A perfect copy!! Copy all the abilities, knowledge, and wisdom that your parents possess! Copy them directly! From the moment of birth, they will have strong knowledge and abilities!"
Old Tian said in a low voice, "That child was a girl. I saw her later; she was only two years old at the time. She could recite many Tang poems—she had never learned them; she was born with them because Mingyue had memorized them when she was young! She hardly needed to study; she naturally inherited most of Mingyue's and K's knowledge!! She also inherited K's ability without reservation... time manipulation! You could say that at the time, she was like an adult in a child's body, except that she was a bit immature in terms of emotions and emotional intelligence, but in terms of IQ, she had already reached the level of an adult." As he spoke, he gave a bitter laugh, "It's like copying content from one computer to another!"
Chen Xiao's eyes widened!
Amazing! This is absolutely amazing!
But……
Why……
Chen Xiao then began to frown. This seemingly miraculous thing sounded wonderful, but why did he feel a sense of dread?
Old Tian closed his eyes.
He couldn't help but recall that day a hundred years ago, when he angrily ran back to his home island, found K in the laboratory, and angrily confronted him...
At that moment, the man's face was cold and resolute. Facing his own accusations, he coldly said to himself:
"This is a groundbreaking discovery! If I succeed, it will completely change the future of humanity! Humanity will no longer need to spend decades learning the culture and knowledge left by our ancestors! Instead, we can directly inherit it! We can dedicate more time and energy to exploration! To explore, to pursue those unknown new things! This will greatly accelerate the progress of human civilization!!"
"And what about Mingyue? What about your feelings? What about her feelings?"
"I don't have time!" K replied coldly. "For my mission, I'm willing to give up a woman. I'm even willing to give up everything! My feelings, my life, everything!!"
At that moment, Lao Tian pointed to the young girl in the laboratory and said, "Where is she? She's your daughter! Not a test subject!"
"I'm not even my own anymore! Let alone my daughter!" He looked at the bag, seemingly trying to find another cigarette, but couldn't. Frustrated, he scratched his hair, then looked up at Chen Xiao: "Do you know what happened to that K?"
“I think he has failed.” Chen Xiao frowned. “After all, his so-called inheritance has been over for a hundred years, but it has not been realized yet.”
"Hmph." Old Tian chuckled noncommittally: "So, do you know what happened to that K afterwards?"
"?" Chen Xiao looked at Lao Tian.
"He's still alive." Old Tian sighed.
Chen Xiao frowned: "Like you... or like Zhu Rong and the others?"
"He's still alive, and... his current identity is..." Old Tian's smile was bitter: "His identity at the service center is—the King in a deck of cards!!"
Chapter 111 [The Curse of Fate]
In a deck of 54 playing cards, the highest card is the Joker, which is divided into two cards: the Big Joker and the Little Joker, also known as the King and Queen respectively.
"Wang? Is he the leader of the service company?"
Old Tian laughed: "You've been to Home Island and the Service Agency's headquarters. You've seen what it's like there. Actually, the Service Agency doesn't have any so-called leader or head. The Service Agency's top leadership is a committee composed of twelve people whose identities are represented by flower cards. This committee makes the vast majority of the Service Agency's decisions. The Service Agency doesn't have any so-called dictator."
"Then, what's the deal with the King in playing cards at the service center?"
“That was a symbol of status.” Old Tian frowned as he said this, seemingly unwilling to say more, as if he didn’t want to talk about that man anymore.
He lowered his head and thought for a while: "I saw the heartbroken Mingyue in Paris. I couldn't bear to see her suffer, so I went to Home Island alone to confront that guy. We even had a fight—but unfortunately, I lost."
Chen Xiao didn't say anything, but he glanced at Lao Tian again.
We lost?!
“Don’t be surprised. Time manipulation is a very powerful ability, and it has a very wide range of applications. Strictly speaking, it’s almost the ability with the fewest weaknesses! Whether used in combat or other fields.” Old Tian smiled wryly. “I’m good at martial arts, but unfortunately, no matter how fast my sword is or how ingenious my moves are, under his time manipulation, it’s very difficult to get close enough to his body to hurt him. You know… everything in this world is subject to the limitations of time!”
“I couldn’t take the child from the island. I could only go back to see Mingyue. Then… I took her away from Paris and brought her back to China.” Old Tian’s eyes grew increasingly sorrowful.
“Those days were the time I spent alone with her the most, even more than when the three of us traveled through Europe together. But she never loved me. She treated me as a good friend. I kept her company, but I couldn’t help her… She was a very smart woman and knew how I was hurting. She comforted me: ‘Even if you could beat him, so what? Can you hold a sword to his neck and force him to come back and love me? Feelings cannot be forced.’”
Old Tian shook his head: "Every time she talked about these things, she would shed tears and start drinking. At that time, the only thing I could do was drink with her. We drank on West Lake, walking from south to north, from east to west. She was often just following her whim. She would point in any direction, and we would walk in that direction. Then one day she would get tired of it, and we would change directions and walk in other places. During those days, she said many, many things to me, but she never mentioned my feelings for her. Finally, one day..."
Chen Xiao's eyebrows twitched slightly: "What?"
"Finally, one day, I couldn't help but speak first." Old Tian sighed. "I can't help it, I'm only human, and humans have their own thoughts. Since she's unhappy. Since that guy betrayed her. Then I thought, maybe... could she be with me? I also thought, if she were with me, I would never betray her, and I would definitely make her happy. So, one day, I asked her, Mingyue, 'Do you know how much I love you?'... Hehe! When I asked her that, she didn't seem surprised at all, as if she had expected me to ask that, and then told me that she knew. Her expression was very calm and composed, but I felt very disappointed, because her eyes told me that I had absolutely no hope."
So I asked her: Don't you want to say something to me?
She looked into my eyes, her voice soft: "Brother Tian, what can I say to you? Should I tell you to forget me, that you'll meet a wonderful girl who'll bring you happiness...? But those words are too hypocritical. I don't like saying such hypocritical things, so I'd rather say nothing. Because I know you'll understand what I mean."
When I heard that, I felt very sad, really very sad.
I asked her what she wanted to do in the future, and she told me that she wanted to open a watch shop.
Back in Europe, she loved tinkering with clocks. Because… that guy's ability was to manipulate time! So, she decided to open a watch shop!
In those years, she was a heartbroken woman. Abandoned by her husband and having her daughter taken from her, she was powerless, and so was I. All I could do was try my best to make her happy. She loved watches, so I found ways to collect all sorts of expensive watches from around the world for her. Then, we opened a watch shop together, and I spent most of my time watching over and protecting her. Sadly, she died later.
Old Tian wiped away his tears: "I stayed with her for ten years. In those ten years, I watched her slowly wither away like a flower, gradually fading away. A woman who was once bright and cheerful became silent, devoid of any joy or smile. You know, she was only thirty years old when she died!! During those ten years, I went to Home Island several times to find that bastard. I fought him several times, but I could never defeat him. But on the last time... when I returned to the island, I told that bastard that Mingyue was dying. That bastard still had some humanity left and agreed to let me take their daughter off the island to see Mingyue. At that time, the girl was already twelve years old. She looked very much like her mother, especially when she smiled. She was almost identical to her mother, just as beautiful."
"Later, after the girl came back with me to see Mingyue, we buried Mingyue. What I didn't expect was that after the burial, that bastard suddenly came from the island. In front of Mingyue's grave, I couldn't help but draw my sword against him, because in my opinion, he was the one who killed Mingyue!!"
That was the first time I hurt him after we had competed many times over the past ten years!
I remember it clearly. That day, he suddenly appeared without warning in front of the grave and just stood there quietly, lost in thought. I could see a hint of regret and guilt in his eyes, but it was precisely this regret and guilt that made me hate this guy even more.
That time, when I attacked him, he unexpectedly didn't retaliate at all, only defending and dodging. Finally, he seemed completely out of sorts, and I stabbed him in the chest with my sword.
I really wanted to go up and finish that bastard off with one last blow! But looking at Mingyue's tombstone, I knew that even in death, Mingyue was still thinking of him! I couldn't kill the man she loved in front of her!