Huo Yushen sat down in front of the middle-aged woman and nodded, saying, "Mother, good morning."
This woman was none other than Huo Yushen's mother, She Zhuyin.
She looked up and smiled at Huo Yushen, "Yushen, when did you get back?"
She Zhuyin was wearing a simple, understated, but well-fitting cyan pantsuit, with a plain-colored morning coat draped over it.
Her skin was as white as snow, her hair as black as a raven's wing, and her eyes were deep, as if they could see through people's hearts.
In the bright morning light, one could see a few wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, blooming as she smiled.
Her smile was beautiful, yet contained an unspeakable sense of vicissitudes.
Huo Yushen said, "After midnight, I came back from the Imperial City Palace Square."
She Zhuyin switched to a news page, and said as she read, "You slept for twelve hours, it's already noon. Order your meal."
Huo Yushen poured himself a glass of Unicorn Cattle milk, then said to the robot chef gliding over, "Bring me two servings of bacon, two servings of fresh shrimp rolls and sturgeon steaks from the Guzang Sea, and four Plain Girl Flour baked olive oil pancakes."
The robot emitted a stiff electronic synthesized voice: "Okay, Master. Unit A-A will prepare two servings of bacon, two servings of fresh shrimp rolls and sturgeon steaks from the Guzang Sea, and four Plain Girl Flour baked olive oil pancakes for you. Unit A-A kindly reminds you that this lunch has a caloric value of eight thousand calories. Please exercise to avoid calorie accumulation and conversion into fat."
Huo Yushen looked expressionlessly at She Zhuyin across from him: "Mother, did you add the calorie reminder at the end?"
She Zhuyin said seriously, "Recently, my weight has changed a lot. I found that I gained three hundred grams, which is a very dangerous tendency, so I added an instruction to the Housekeeping Robot program to remind me of calorie intake and consumption at all times."
Huo Yushen: "..."
His voice was slightly cold: "Three hundred grams? Could it be a scale error?"
"The error range of the scale should be around ten grams. If the error reaches three hundred grams, it is a defective product." She Zhuyin's voice was as calm and leisurely as ever.
Huo Yushen took a sip of Unicorn Cattle milk, giving up the intention to continue discussing this topic.
She Zhuyin finished reading all the news and also finished her lunch.
She had the Housekeeping Robot make her a hazelnut-flavored coffee, stirring it slowly with a small silver spoon, and suddenly asked, "...How long before I can see... her?"
She sat there upright, her elegant figure showing a trace of indescribable loneliness in the midday morning light.
Huo Yushen did not speak, his gaze turned to the green courtyard outside the entire glass wall of the restaurant.
The winter sun was as soft as silk, dancing on the tips of the tender green grass.
Seeing that Huo Yushen did not intend to respond, She Zhuyin pursed her lips and asked, "Did you find any clues on this trip to Guiyuan Star?"
Huo Yushen lowered his eyes, pulled up the virtual display screen, and showed She Zhuyin a picture.
It was a picture he had the mechanical intelligence draw using Xia Chujian's memories.
The girl was lying on the ground with her eyes closed, her forehead covered with heavy bangs that reached above her eyebrows.
Her delicate oval face gave people a feeling of weakness and innocence.
The clothes on her right shoulder were pulled open, revealing her snow-white skin.
On that skin, as white as fresh snow, was a hideous red mark, the imprint of a belt whipping.
The details of this picture were very well done, even the dense row of eyelashes, like eyeliner, were carefully depicted.
She Zhuyin's hand, which was adjusting the news page on the virtual display screen, suddenly froze.
She looked at the picture as if she were still, like a statue.
After a long while, she slowly asked, "...Is... this... her?"
Huo Yushen nodded: "According to the clues we have obtained, this is... sister."
She Zhuyin stretched out a snow-white hand and gently touched the virtual screen, as if she were really stroking the girl's soft cheeks.
She murmured, "...Who? Who beat her like this?"
Huo Yushen's voice was cold: "A trafficker, has been killed."
She Zhuyin "hmm"ed and asked calmly, "Does this trafficker have a family?"
Huo Yushen: "..."
He shook his head: "These human traffickers are all desperate people, either their whole families are dead, or they have long since broken off contact with their families. And..."
He paused, but still said, "But this human trafficker was beaten very badly, directly beaten into a human skin."
As he spoke, he also brought up the picture of the Remnant Species that had been beaten to death.
She Zhuyin watched intently for a while, and said calmly: "That's more like it. These disgusting things are getting more and more numerous..."
Huo Yushen knew she was referring to the scattered limbs of the Remnant Species in the photo.
He said in a low voice: "...Since that passage was opened, we can't be the only ones going over there to reap the benefits, and the other side won't infiltrate some things over here, right?"
She Zhuyin didn't care.
Her gaze fell on the unconscious girl again, and she said thoughtfully: "...Where did she go? You have to find her quickly and take good care of her."
Huo Yushen said: "We were one step late, she was rescued, and we are investigating who rescued her."
"Is it difficult to investigate?"
"The other party's actions are rigorous, and their methods are heaven-defying and ruthless, mercilessly wiping out everyone who has seen my sister, or who is related to the abduction. Even within the Special Security Bureau, there are people colluding with this mastermind behind the scenes, delaying the arrival of our people by ten minutes, missing the opportunity. And the person who delayed the time was immediately reported for corruption, and then this person quickly committed suicide, and even his family was buried in a sea of fire."
"Their actions were so swift that at first we didn't even know why this person committed suicide, and we were all investigating his corruption. - It wasn't until recently that we turned our focus back. It's been more than a month."
"The other party was able to calmly clear up all the aftermath, and now, we only have one last clue left."
"The last clue?"
"We speculate that the person should be from a noble background, but this empire has three thousand one hundred and eighty-four noble families, well, now there are only three thousand one hundred and eighty-three, too many."
She Zhuyin said calmly: "No matter how many there are, we have to investigate them one by one until we find her."
Huo Yushen said: "We don't need to investigate every family. I speculate that this person is most likely not from Guiyuan Star, and may have used a Private Starship to enter and exit Guiyuan Star. Then, we found the whereabouts of that Private Starship."
"Now we have arrested the people related to that Private Starship."
After Huo Yushen finished speaking, She Zhuyin suddenly tapped the photo on the virtual display screen with her finger and said, "...Where did this photo come from?"
"It was seen by the people who rescued her at the time, and then drawn using mechanical intelligent mapping."
"Is this person still alive?"
"Who?"
"...The person who let you use mechanical intelligent mapping."
Huo Yushen nodded: "Yes, she is still alive."
"Then why wasn't she silenced?" She Zhuyin asked sharply, "Could this person also be an important clue?"
Huo Yushen's heart stirred, as if he had remembered something, and his dark pupils narrowed almost imperceptibly.
But he still said with a cold face: "She is a low-level member of the Dark Night Hunter Association, not a Gene Evolver, and has no Mental Strength. She has encountered danger before, and someone did want her life, but it has nothing to do with this case."
"Also, only I know what my sister looks like. This drawing is not archived in the Special Security Bureau. No one knows about it except you and me. Therefore, I speculate that the other party probably doesn't know that this person has mastered important clues."
"If they knew, she would have been dead long ago. With the other party's methods and power, it is impossible not to do everything possible to kill her."
"She is a fish that slipped through the net. The other party's estimate of her importance is insufficient, so even if they once tried to silence her, they should not have succeeded. Later, it may be that the cost of silencing a Hunter is a bit high, so they did not continue, or they are still preparing."
She Zhuyin: "...You know a lot about the situation, why didn't you tell me before?"
Huo Yushen still looked cold and said lightly: "She doesn't know my sister's whereabouts, so it's useless to say it."
She Zhuyin nodded and said, "Then what about now? Is it because the other party is afraid of the Dark Night Hunter Association that they didn't attack her? Who is this person?" She Zhuyin was thoughtful.
Huo Yushen didn't speak and directly turned off the virtual display screen.
She Zhuyin got up and returned to her room.
There was an easel in the corner of the room, on which was painted a lithe girl, but the girl's face was blank.
She Zhuyin walked over, picked up a paintbrush in the midday sun, and began to carefully depict the girl's features.
After finishing the painting, she looked at the new painting and murmured: "...So, this is what you look like..."
The voice was like waiting for millions of years, finally coming to an end.
...
The first day of the new year arrived in Mulan City, Guiyuan Star, after New Year's Eve.
Xia Chujian didn't wake up until almost ten o'clock. While eating breakfast, she contacted Zhu Yingying and asked Aunt Chen to pick her and Xia Yuanfang up, saying she wanted to visit Aunt Chen and Yingying.
Aunt Chen was naturally very happy.
She hoped that Zhu Yingying could spend more time with girls her age and live like a normal person.
Aunt Chen was extremely grateful that Xia Chujian maintained a friendship with Zhu Yingying.
She immediately used her stealth skill to quickly arrive at Xia Chujian's building from the Exotic Beast Forest outside the city.
She had already sold her apartment there, but she was still very familiar with the place.
On New Year's Day morning, she suddenly appeared in the narrow alley between the two buildings.
Then, she calmly walked out of the alley, entered the building, took the elevator, arrived at Xia Chujian's door, and rang the doorbell.
This time, she noticed something different.
The apartment across from the Xia Family, which had been under renovation, was now occupied.
It seemed like they had a very powerful dog, but as soon as Aunt Chen's aura appeared in the hallway, the previously unruly dog immediately tucked its tail between its legs and hid.
Aunt Chen remained calm and waited at Xia Chujian's door.
Xia Chujian opened the door and happily welcomed Aunt Chen inside.
"Aunt Chen, Happy New Year!" she said cheerfully, offering New Year's greetings to Aunt Chen.
Aunt Chen took out a red envelope and placed it in her hand, saying, "Happy New Year! Chujian is another year older..."
Xia Chujian was delighted. "Yes, I'm an adult now! Thank you for the red envelope, Aunt Chen!"
Xia Yuanfang, already dressed, walked out of the bedroom and said, "Sister Chen, Happy New Year. I'm really troubling you."
"No trouble at all!" Aunt Chen waved her hand happily. "Shall we leave now?"
Xia Yuanfang nodded. "If it's convenient for you."
The three of them walked out of the apartment and took the elevator downstairs.
Aunt Chen said, "Did our building get another elevator?"
Xia Chujian said with a smile, "Yes, it's that renovation company from before. I don't know why, but they suddenly had a burst of generosity, not only installing a free elevator for us but also renovating the exterior of the building. Now, the property prices in our area have increased the most!"
Aunt Chen said with a smile, "It's just increased from fifty thousand to sixty thousand, which isn't even a fraction of the price in the neighboring district."
Xia Chujian said, "Aunt Chen, that's not how you calculate it, but you're right. I do want to buy an apartment in the neighboring district."
Xia Yuanfang glanced at Xia Chujian.
Buying an apartment was such a big deal, and this child hadn't even discussed it with her before deciding on her own.
She planned to discuss this matter with Xia Chujian after returning from the Exotic Beast Forest.
Moreover, she had certain plans for her future that she needed to make clear to Xia Chujian.
The three of them arrived downstairs and walked into the narrow alley between the two buildings.
Someone had put up a black rain cloth canopy over a section of the alley.
As they stood under the canopy and disappeared, no one outside saw what happened.
Aunt Chen's stealth speed was very fast.
After about ten minutes, she said, "You can open your eyes now, we're here."
Xia Yuanfang opened her eyes and saw a snow-covered pine forest.
Actually, it wasn't all pine trees, but all the trees were bent over by the heavy snow, looking like individual pine trees.
The weather was extremely cold. Although Xia Yuanfang was wearing a very warm moon-white coat, a hat made of exotic beast fur, a self-heating mask, and boots made of exotic beast fur, she still felt cold.
Each breath seemed to bring the cold into her lungs, allowing the icy chill to spread from the inside out.
She wrapped her coat tighter around herself.
She had made this for Xia Chujian, but Xia Chujian said she could wear the coat issued by the Dark Night Hunter Association, and she thought the moon-white coat her aunt made was warmer, so she let her wear it.
Because of a serious illness lasting three years, and being poisoned with a potent toxin, Xia Yuanfang's body was greatly damaged, even though she had been detoxified.
To fully recover was not something that could be achieved overnight.
Fortunately, Xia Chujian managed to get some Advanced Nutrient Solution for Gene Evolvers to nourish her body, otherwise, even if she had been detoxified, she would not be able to get up and walk freely now.
Moreover, the cold here in the Exotic Beast Forest was something she had never experienced before.
Even a self-heating mask could not resist the pervasive chill in the air.
This is a big chapter, including the second bonus chapter for our Alliance Leader, Wu Ai Tang.
The second update will be at 1 p.m.
-----------
This high quality machine translation is powered by: https:// randomtranslator.com/
To read the full translation, as well as more than 444+ fanfic and original translations or request new translations, check out: https:// randomtranslator.com/
You can also join the RandomTranslator community on Discord to connect with other readers: https:// discord.gg/NSWvfN7vua
-----------