Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Shen Juanjuan was playing marbles in the corner, wearing his tie and occasionally pulling out his pocket to sniff the sweet aroma of chocolate. He had already eaten one piece and was saving the rest to savor slowly.

Suddenly, he heard faint sobbing from outside. Curious, he stepped onto a stool to look out and saw a bald child squatting by the window, crying with their face buried in their knees.

The child was crying so hard that their shoulders were shaking. Shen Juanjuan watched for a moment before asking, "Why are you crying?"

The child jumped in surprise and turned around quickly. Shen Juanjuan recognized the panicked face as the little girl who had stood next to him that morning. She had been taken away because she had lice on her head.

"Where's your hair?" Shen Juanjuan asked in shock. "Did the lice eat it all?"

"No, it was cut off," the little girl said, lowering her head, tears hanging from her pointed chin.

Shen Juanjuan understood a bit: "You didn't want your hair cut?"

The little girl nodded slightly.

"I didn't want my hair cut either. The last time everyone was getting haircuts, I hid." Shen Juanjuan's tone became somewhat mysterious. "Do you know where I hid?"

The little girl moved her lips: "Where did you hide?"

Shen Juanjuan lowered his voice: "I hid in the backyard."

"There are ghosts in the backyard."

"I didn't see any ghosts. If there were any, I would catch them." Shen Juanjuan stretched out both hands through the window bars, pretending to grab something with his left hand and making a grabbing motion with his right toward the little girl. "If they bite, I'll put the lice from your head on theirs." Then he frowned at his left hand and shouted, "Are you still moving? You admit your mistakes faster than anyone, have the thickest skin, and aren't afraid of any punishment. Are you afraid of lice?"

The little girl laughed through her tears and then said, "Don't catch lice from me. I washed my head and shaved off my hair; I don't have lice anymore."

"Oh, then I'll just smash the ghost to death." Shen Juanjuan slammed his left hand to the ground.

The two children laughed through the window bars. The little girl introduced herself: "I'm Liu Sijin from Class One. What's your name?"

"My name is Shen Juanjuan."

"Which class are you in?"

"Class One."

Liu Sijin was surprised: "But I haven't seen you in class."

"Oh, then I'm not in Class One."

"Then are you in Class Two?"

Shen Juanjuan had never paid attention to which class he was in, so he scratched his face: "Um, Class Two."

"Liu Sijin, let's be friends." Liu Sijin hesitated after saying this, "But my sister doesn't want me to play with stinky boys."

Shen Juanjuan replied cheerfully: "Then we won't play with stinky boys. We'll play together."

"Okay."

Since Liu Sijin was now a new friend, Shen Juanjuan took off his hat: "I'll lend you my hat for two days, just two days."

This hat was a treasure he had found in the garbage dump, and he was the only one in the orphanage who had it.

Liu Sijin looked at the hat: "It's not pretty. I won't wear it."

Shen Juanjuan pulled the flaps down over his ears and then up to the top of his head. "How can it not be pretty? It can be tied under or over, covering your bald head."

Liu Sijin stared at him for two seconds: "Forget it, I'll just stay like this."

They chatted a bit more, and Liu Sijin's gaze fell on Shen Juanjuan's chest. She exclaimed, "Your scarf is so beautiful."

Shen Juanjuan looked down: "Is this cloth strip a scarf?" Then he puffed out his chest proudly: "I won't lend this to you. Someone gave it to me."

"Who gave it to you?"

Shen Juanjuan was about to say the older kids from Cloud Peak but paused.

"Big brother."

The word slipped out.

After saying it, he felt a bit nervous, but Liu Sijin asked, "Your big brother?"

He didn't answer immediately, looking down at his scarf. After a long silence, he finally nodded.

"Your big brother must be so nice."

Shen Juanjuan remained silent, but his breathing quickened, and his eyes gradually lit up.

Big brother, big brother...

He kept repeating the word in his mind, feeling that each repetition made it sound even better. A warm wave surged through him, making his nose tingle.

He suddenly raised his head and said emphatically to Liu Sijin, "My big brother is so nice. He gave it to me. He gives me scarves and food. Only my big brother gives me these things."

Though he was speaking to Liu Sijin, it seemed more like he was talking to himself. This realization made him continue without hesitation.

"My big brother is very tall, taller than the older kids in our orphanage. I have to look up like this to see him." Shen Juanjuan tilted his head back and bent his body backward until Liu Sijin reminded him, "You're going to fall."

Shen Juanjuan grabbed the window bars and straightened up. "He looks very handsome, more handsome than the older kids in our orphanage. His face... his face has no redness, it's very white, as white and smooth as the wall."

In the orphanage, children's faces often had dry, cracked skin and red cheeks during this season.

"No, his face is smoother than the wall." Shen Juanjuan stared at a small pit in the wall beside him.

Liu Sijin had a different understanding: "So flat, then does he not have a nose or eyes?"

"Yes, his nose and eyes are very good-looking." Shen Juanjuan extended a finger to poke his own cheek, "It's this part that's flat."

Liu Sijin caught on: "I see, it's the kind of flat that looks smooth."

"Right, exactly that kind."

"Then where is your brother?" Liu Sijin was very curious.

This time, Shen Juanjuan remained silent, instead directing his gaze toward the distance, looking at the empty road.

After a moment, he spoke: "My brother isn't here; he's a child of Cloud Peak, but he will come to see me." He nodded emphatically, "Yes, he will come to see me."

Chu Ya was already sitting in the car heading home. He didn't know that he had gained a new identity, becoming the older brother of a six-year-old boy at the Angel Orphanage in the Abyss Aisara Special Zone, only gazing out at the sky through the car window.

Although the sky in Cloud Peak was also gray, it differed from the murky heaviness of the Abyss, with a faint sense of sunlight, bringing some brightness and clarity.

The main structure of this floating city was metallic, shaped like a long shuttle, supported by giant levitation devices at both ends. Although its area was equal to that of a normal city, more than half the ground was dedicated to food production, leaving only a small portion for accommodating hundreds of thousands of people and other facilities, making every inch of land exceptionally precious.

The roads were not only narrow but also divided into three layers. The top two layers were single-lane roads for opposite directions, while the bottom street was for pedestrians. The buildings along the road stretched high into the sky, creating a strong sense of oppression.

Chu Ya's car was driving on the topmost layer of the road. Since the daylight was not very bright, the lights inside those buildings shone brightly.

Through the metal barriers along the road, he looked at the windows on the second floor of those buildings.

The doors of rooms less than ten square meters hung signs of several companies, with numerous salespeople crowded together, talking to their respective clients.

Hospital beds were bunk beds, with nurses lowering the upper bed to make it easier for patients with IV drips to lie down, then raising it again.

Cramped, oppressive, crowded...

He suddenly felt that Cloud Peak wasn't much better than the Abyss. Although the Abyss was cold, damp, desolate, and dependent on Cloud Peak, at least it wasn't so crowded.

That dirty little boy crying as he watched others' backs would be very disappointed if he came to his dreamt-of Cloud Peak.

As Chu Ya leaned against the backrest lost in thought, he suddenly heard a deafening explosion, as if something had exploded or a building had collapsed.

Amidst the screeching brakes from cars ahead and behind, the driver also slammed on the brakes, causing Chu Ya's body to lurch forward before being pulled back by the seatbelt.

"Master Chu, are you alright?" After stopping the car, the driver turned around to ask immediately.

Chu Ya held onto the door and shook his head: "I'm fine."

The cars moving forward all stopped. Chu Ya rolled down the window and heard panicked shouts from the bottom street, with pedestrians running everywhere.

He saw heads poking out of the car windows, just like him, full of confusion. People in the buildings on both sides of the road were also asking each other, clearly unaware of what had happened.

Helicopters soon roared overhead, and a loudspeaker blared: "A dangerous criminal has escaped from White Castle, carrying a handheld mortar, with extremely high combat capabilities and severe violent tendencies. He is currently on this street. Everyone, do not leave your rooms; those outside should find nearby hiding spots..."

The buildings were too close for the helicopters to descend, so they circled in the air. But before the sound from the loudspeaker faded, intense gunfire erupted ahead.

The gunfire quickly approached, with a bullet whizzing past the roof of Chu Ya's car, and several stray bullets hitting the road nearby, sending up splinters of stone.

The driver immediately became nervous, his face pale as he looked at Chu Ya.

Although Chu Ya was only twelve years old, he had been sent to military school since childhood and was now calmer than an adult.

People in other cars panicked and got out, running backward along the three-layered road, trying to find an exit. But Chu Ya noticed that the rear of the road was blocked by a steel gate, knowing that getting out now would not only prevent escape but also risk being hit by stray bullets.

"Stay in the car, don't get out," Chu Ya instructed the driver.

As he finished speaking, a figure appeared ahead, leaping and bounding across the car roofs at incredible speed, leaving the panicked people on the ground behind. This person was the focal point of the gunfire, with many bullet holes appearing in the areas he passed through.

"Ah!" Someone cried out in pain, clearly hit by a stray bullet.

The loudspeaker in the helicopter shouted: "Get down! Don't run! Get down!"

The figure on the car roof rapidly approached, and Chu Ya saw it was a man in his thirties. Lean, pale-faced, with a bleeding wound on his shoulder, staining his gray hospital-like shirt dark.

The man clearly realized the path ahead was blocked and suddenly jumped off the car roof, ran a few steps forward, and hid behind a metal lamppost beside the road.

The metal lamppost was right next to Chu Ya's car, less than two meters away. The driver froze in fear, and Chu Ya held his breath, slowly reaching for the leather bag on the seat and pulling out a defensive dagger.

The man leaned against the lamppost, panting heavily, still carrying a handheld mortar on his uninjured shoulder. Chu Ya stared at him and noticed several special forces soldiers sliding down ropes from the high walls of the buildings above.

The special forces soldiers moved swiftly, quickly reaching the fifth floor. The man did not seem to look up, but a black shadow beside him suddenly moved and leaped onto the wall, heading towards the position of the special forces soldiers.

Chu Ya had initially noticed the black shadow but assumed it was a reflection, not paying much attention. Now he realized it was actually three-dimensional, climbing the wall like a nimble monkey.

"Uncle, did you see that?" He immediately asked the driver in a low voice.

The driver, tense and stuttering, replied: "Saw, saw it."

"Did you see that black shadow too?"

"W-what?"

Chu Ya was stunned for a second before realizing he had seen a quantum beast!

During the differentiation period, sentinels or guides could occasionally see others' quantum beasts due to fluctuations in mental energy. However, the vision was unclear and brief.

He was secretly amazed, never expecting the man to be a sentinel or guide, and a heavy criminal locked in White Castle.

Gunfire and screams echoed from the walls of the buildings. The monkey-like shadow pounced left and right, causing the special forces soldiers to cover their eyes and be quickly pulled up to the roof by their ropes.

With the road ahead blocked and soldiers closing in from behind, bullets hit the lamppost the man was leaning against, sparking occasionally.

Chu Ya remained in the car, watching the man suddenly dash to the side of the road and climb the metal barrier. The monkey-like shadow shielded him from the bullets, with a faint smoke rising above its head.

He slapped the glass, which was as solid as a wall, and shouted at the panicked people inside, "Don't be afraid, I won't kill anyone. I just need to escape. Open the window and let me in."

No one in the building came to open the window; instead, they all fled toward the door in fear. The man gritted his teeth and yelled, "Then get out of here quickly! I'm going to fire." He then slid down the barrier, took a few steps back, and raised the mortar toward the front.

Before he could press the firing button, his body suddenly jolted, and his arms went limp, causing the mortar to fall to the ground and roll to Chu Ya's vehicle.

Chu Ya saw the monkey-like shadow standing protectively in front of the man, raising its claws as if facing a formidable enemy. A rope-like shadow flew past the car window and swiftly coiled around the monkey's body, constricting it like a snake with its prey.

Another quantum beast appeared!

The monkey and rope shadows wrestled on the ground, while the man seemed to suffer an invisible attack, clutching his chest and slowly kneeling, spitting out a mouthful of blood. The monkey shadow dissolved into a cloud of smoke and vanished into the air.

Several soldiers rushed over and pinned the man down, pressing their gun barrels against his head.

"Don't move! One more move and we'll shoot!"

The man did not resist, his cheek pressed against the cold ground, his gaze meeting Chu Ya's through the car window. Chu Ya saw tears streaming from the man's gray, despair-filled eyes.

"Take him back."

Hearing that familiar voice, Chu Ya turned his head and saw Gu Lin, who had parted ways with him outside Tuta half an hour ago, approaching.

Gu Lin did not notice Chu Ya, walking over to the man with a grim expression and suddenly kicking him. The kick landed squarely on the man's chest, eliciting a pained groan and another spurt of blood.

Breathing heavily, Gu Lin turned to speak to a tall, thin officer beside him, his words reaching Chu Ya's ears in fragments.

"...We didn't catch him earlier, letting him hide for a week, and now he's broken through... Once they break through, they're useless... Take him back to White Castle first."

Gu Lin turned and left, followed by the soldiers carrying the man. Chu Ya watched them go without a word. Thinking Chu Ya hadn't recognized the man, the driver reminded him, "Young Master Chu, that's Colonel Gu. Don't you want to say hello?"

After a few seconds of silence, Chu Ya replied, "No, we just parted ways. Let's go home now."