CHAPTER 228: CHAPTER 149: GU WENYU’S MOTHER, THE VILLAINS, AND THE SISTER’S PROBLEM

Just from now on, they can no longer return to that café. Oda Takashige is already dead. The Japanese underworld is conducting a massive search for members of the White Crow Travel Brigade, and no street surveillance camera will be overlooked. As long as they rewind the surveillance footage, sooner or later, they’ll discover that café located near Tokyo Bay.

Using the room card to touch the sensor below the handle, she entered the room with a beep. Ayase Origami wiped her feet on the carpet once or twice, took off her clogs, and then walked toward the bed without looking back. Like a puppet with broken strings, she stumbled and fell onto the bed.

She lay sideways on the pillow, her eyes downcast. Clearly very sleepy and tired, yet she didn’t close her eyes immediately.

Xia Pingzhou took off his shoes, carried two bags of clothes, and walked in, sitting down on another bed.

"At that time..." she suddenly said, "If I hadn’t acted impulsively, Lan Duoduo might not have died."

The voice of the kimono-clad girl was very light, so light that it couldn’t drown out the frog sounds from the hotel courtyard.

Xia Pingzhou was slightly taken aback, realizing that Ayase Origami blamed Lan Duoduo’s death on herself. But he also knew that if Ayase Origami hadn’t acted impulsively back then, Lan Duoduo might not have died... the one who would most likely have died would be Oda Takashige.

It was precisely Ayase Origami’s actions at that time that angered Zhou Jiuya, leading to that bloody scene.

"But they... did not blame me." Ayase Origami paused, "Why?"

Xia Pingzhou remained silent, thinking indeed... at this gathering, no one blamed her, not even Andrew, who cared for Lan Duoduo the most.

Perhaps because they sincerely didn’t think there was any wrong in it, even this group of outlaws had their own principles, that being the lives of their companions. Hence, even though most of the brigade members died, those who survived probably wouldn’t blame her.

"Why would they blame you?" he asked.

"I caused Lan Duoduo’s death."

"I think since joining the White Crow Travel Brigade, everyone here has basically been prepared to be buried at any time. We’re just a bunch of hopeless fugitives," Xia Pingzhou said.

"But why do the people around me always..." She said intermittently, "Always... one after another, Takashige too, and my mother too."

Xia Pingzhou was stunned for a moment, suddenly recalling that he had asked Ayase Origami before in the attic what it felt like to be the daughter of a yakuza leader.

She said she was the only child in the family, her mother died in childbirth, her father took out his anger on her, raised her as a tool, and instilled in her from a young age the concept of killing, taking her along to watch his subordinates execute debtors.

She didn’t even have the right to blink because her father would get angry.

Because her father always said her mother’s death was her fault, she gradually got used to the idea as a child. It seemed that even though she escaped her family, the ideas engraved by her father on her as a child continued to relentlessly pursue and subtly influence her thoughts, like an invisible cage or an indelible brand.

After a moment of silence, Xia Pingzhou spoke: "Your mother’s death wasn’t your fault. Your father was scum, which is why he took out his anger on you."

"...And Takashige?"

"I think he was already prepared to die since he voluntarily joined the brigade with you," Xia Pingzhou paused, "Everyone here is prepared to wake up dead one day, let alone a ninja."

"But he didn’t need to be prepared, not from the beginning."

Xia Pingzhou met her gaze sideways: "He had his own ideas, and you are just you. You can’t control others, even the ones you care about the most or those who care about you the most."

He remained silent for a while: "Moreover, we’re bad people, and the only privilege bad people have is not having to take responsibility for anyone. So be smart... don’t shoulder what makes you suffer, just like when you escaped your family."

"At that time, didn’t you think that being someone despised by thousands would be better than being a puppet led by others for a lifetime? But when you start to care about these things, you become that puppet again."

Xia Pingzhou paused: "Anyway, we’re already rotten to this extent, instead of worrying about those trivial things, why not be the worst, most flamboyant scoundrels in the world, it’s better than walking around with a bitter face every day, isn’t it?"

Ayase Origami remained silent for a long time, suddenly speaking softly: "You’re not scum."

Xia Pingzhou was taken aback.

"You’re cat scum," Ayase Origami said blandly.

Xia Pingzhou came to realize that once again, she made an inappropriate joke. This kimono-clad girl’s thoughts are always so disconnected, but her tone is always so calm, making it hard to tell whether she’s serious or joking.

He sighed slightly, suddenly feeling like he’s talking to a three-year-old about the importance of world peace, and then the three-year-old made an imperialist gesture, absurd.

"Little cat talking big..." Ayase Origami paused for a moment, closed her eyes, "I don’t dislike."

She clearly did not lift her lips, yet her pale cheeks seemed to reflect a layer of laughter. Soon she fell asleep, her chest gently rising and falling under the dim light, her breathing barely audible.

Seeing her asleep, Xia Pingzhou also lay down on the other bed. He turned off the bedside lamp, and quiet darkness enveloped the two of them, still able to hear the frog sounds outside.

Different time zone, it’s still night in Venice, but it’s already daytime in Li Jing and the Whale Terrarium. So after closing his eyes, he synced his consciousness to Unit One.

China time, nine thirty in the morning, Unit One Gu Wenyu woke up, got up and walked out of the room, staggering to stand in the washroom, washed his face, brushed his teeth, then went downstairs.

He lazily twisted his head and immediately saw Su Zimai sitting on the sofa playing on her phone.

"That’s your breakfast." She pointed to the kitchen table without turning her head.

Following his sister’s fingertips, Gu Wenyu saw black sesame soy milk, glutinous rice dumpling, and a glutinous rice chicken on the dining table, probably bought by his brother, he knew what Gu Wenyu liked to eat.

He obediently finished breakfast, then washed his hands and sat in front of the TV. Su Zimai was watching an old cartoon, "Shen Bing Xiao Jiang."

"Can you watch Kamen Rider with me?" Gu Wenyu tentatively asked.

"No... watching Black Cat Sheriff would be more interesting than that. What’s fun about the suit-wearing people, plus the head of the suit looks like a cockroach, I suspect that Black Cocoon’s mask is modeled after Kamen Rider."

"By the way, last night Black Cocoon beat up Swallowing Silver, I just got up and saw the video stream."

"What kind of small fry is Swallowing Silver? It’s not surprising to get beaten up."

"You can’t insult Swallowing Silver, I’m still wearing his fan t-shirt, ’Looking in my eyes!’ Answer me, why insult Swallowing Silver? What’s Swallowing Silver lacking compared to your female teacher?"

"Can you not be so reactive?" Su Zimai asked contemptuously, "Is Swallowing Silver your mom?"

Ji Minghuan suddenly thought, could it be that Su Zimai became an Exorcist because she inherited her mom’s cells, but is the brigade’s number 4 really mom? If not, is there any chance she’s mom’s friend in the Exorcist Realm?

Thinking this, Ji Minghuan moved his butt a bit from the sofa, asking: "Sis, do you think... I have the potential to become an Exorcist?"

"Huh?" Su Zimai drew out this sound very long, filled with naked ridicule and mockery.

She turned off her phone, turning her head seriously to look at him, coughed twice, and frankly said: "My teacher said you don’t have the Celestial Driver prototype in you, so you can never be an Exorcist, understood?"

"Then where did the Celestial Driver prototype in you come from?"

"Of course it’s innate."

"No that’s wrong... it’s not innate, it’s mom-born."

Su Zimai was going to say why did you suddenly start playing word games, but then suddenly raised her eyebrows, thinking, right... since she’s an Exorcist, her Exorcist genes are likely inherited from her parents!

Why didn’t she think of this before?

"Are you saying..." She paused, "Mom is also an Exorcist?"