But in the end, Leyu still had dinner with Qian Yuya.
Or rather, Leyu ate while Qian Yuya watched him eat. He went upstairs to grab the food and brought it down to the living room, clearing his plate under Qian Yuya's strange gaze.
"Good thing the embarrassment belonged to Qian Yuliu, and not Leyu."
To be fair, the standards of the Qian family's cooking were pretty decent—there was fish, there were vegetables. After all, Star Engraving County was located near the seaport, so seafood was cheap, but there weren't many seasonings, making the food taste rather bland.
After eating, he washed the dishes. Even though Leyu had never lived in this house for even a day, he still handled the chores with practiced ease, which proved that Qian Yuliu usually did the dishes.
"I've pretty much digested Qian Yuliu's memories now..." Leyu naturally understood what this meant, "it meant he was becoming more and more like Qian Yuliu."
"Leyu had also thought about a certain philosophical question: is a person's self-will actually just a collection of memories? If so, did that mean an amnesiac was someone whose 'old self' had already died?"
And now he was facing a problem nobody had ever encountered—he had digested someone else's memories.
"Barring any accidents—or perhaps, if lots of accidents happened—Qian Yuliu absolutely wouldn't be Leyu's first 'meal.' In the future, Leyu would inevitably have to reincarnate many more times and digest the memories of many people. When that happened, was he still Leyu, or was he just a collection of countless memories?"
"He felt like the Ship of Theseus—new body, extra memories, but was he still himself?"
"Thinking too much about problems like this only brought more trouble."
Leyu went to shower first. When he came out in pajamas, the living room lights were already off. The living room light was pretty bright, and Qian Yuya usually studied there. Once she finished studying, she went straight to bed.
It was 9:00 p.m. now. Qian Yuya got up at six, meaning she slept nine hours a night. Besides the lack of nighttime entertainment, the long hours were mainly because young people's spiritual power growth required more sleep.
Qian Yuya hadn't yet awakened her spiritual power, but once she did, she would need to sleep for fifteen to twenty-four hours straight; the longer she slept, the deeper her spiritual power. When Qian Yuliu awakened his spiritual power, he slept a full twenty hours.
Leyu walked into Qian Yuliu's room. The first impression was that it was barebones.
A desk, a chair, a bed. That was it.
There was a lamp by the window. Leyu turned it on, giving off a dull white glow. This lamp worked like a streetlamp, drawing solar power from the window during the day. But the Qian family's house faced the wrong direction—the bedroom window looked at the building next door, not the street, so there wasn't much sunlight even in daytime. Naturally, the lamp wasn't very bright.
The living room's lights were connected to the Luminous Stone panels on the Celestial Platform, so those were actually pretty bright, but they only lasted three hours at most, since civilian-grade energy panels didn't store much—public streetlights lasted longer because they had more Luminous Stones packed into the poles.
There was a book on the desk. Leyu flipped it open and saw the title, "A Detailed Account of the Brilliance of a Hundred Combat Techniques," with a bookmark stuck in the chapter "Traits and Weaknesses of the Sima Clan Wolf Eagle Fist."
This, then, was Qian Yuliu's life: go to work, get off work, practice Combat Technique, read books. He had no entertainment—not because he disliked it, but because he didn't see the point.
"Nothing's as fun as dueling with people."
Kui Zhao specialized in the Wolf Eagle Fist; Qian Yuliu had been studying the Wolf Eagle Fist. This wasn't a coincidence. As a spy, Qian Yuliu had been nothing if not diligent: not only was he undercover, but he also aimed to reach the upper echelons of the Statistical Department. If Qian Yuliu drove out Kui Zhao and became deputy director, hell, he probably even wanted to be director someday.
If this kept escalating, it'd probably end up with a conversation like this:
"Teacher, I'm deputy director now."
"Good, keep it up, we'll be able to liberate Star Engraving County soon!"
"Teacher, I'm director now."
"Good, we're just one step away from liberating Star Engraving County!"
"Teacher, I'm the governor now."
"Good, we... huh?"
Suddenly, Leyu turned up something in Qian Yuliu's memories. He turned and felt around under the desk, pulling out a sketchbook.
This was the secret stash every man had.
Leyu flipped a few pages, clicking his tongue in admiration, "Qian Yuliu's taste wasn't bad! Uniforms, big wavy hair, long hair, classrooms... No wonder this was Qian Yuliu's prized possession for so many years, the one and only—truly, pretty practical."
"Well, this was normal enough. Even though Qian Yuliu believed in asceticism, he was still young—there was always some hormone-fueled restlessness. Yet since he had zero interest in romance or marriage, he could only resort to this old-school solution."
Besides, the art style in the sketchbook wasn't half bad—kind of anime-inspired even. Leyu felt his own heart start to pound, hurriedly stashed the book, and made a mental note to throw it away someday. "Qian Yuliu, for the sake of your reputation, this is as much as I can do for you."
Leyu lay down on the bed and finally let himself relax.
"Maybe it was Qian Yuliu's influence, or maybe it really was just this quiet here, but Leyu almost felt like he'd made it back to a safe zone—like he could finally let his guard down."
"No one would suddenly burst in to kill him. No one would see through his identity as a spy."
"Today, he'd survived."
Leyu let out a long sigh.
"If this were Qian Yuliu, he'd have accepted the situation with a 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do' attitude. But not Leyu. He'd been just an average guy before crossing over. If it weren't for that 'Residual Blood Physique' granting him absolute cool-headedness and immunity to pain, he would've blown his cover in front of Blueflame Kui Zhao."
But Leyu still held onto a little hope.
"Die and be reborn, attribute panel... If things like transmigration, superpowers, and Attribute System could really exist, didn't that mean there was a chance Leyu could cross back?"
"This world was interesting, sure, but it wasn't his home."
"As things stood, though, Leyu didn't have enough information. All he could do was follow the Attribute System's prompts."
"Name: Leyu/Qian Yuliu"
"Number of deaths: 1"
"Available points: 0"
"Qian Yuliu's trial: Have dinner with Qian Yuya, maximum interval 120 hours. (Time left: 120 hours) (1/12)"
"Innate skills: Beginner Eight Sheaves Biting Battle Technique (+), Residual Blood Physique (+)"
"Eternal skill: Die and be reborn"
"Challenge (refundable): Survive fifteen days, difficulty: ☆.
Reward: Three available points and one Eternal Skill upgrade opportunity (upgrade any personal skill by one level and convert it into an Eternal Skill)."
Leyu noticed the trial information screen now had a (1/12) counter. He focused, and got more details: "After twelve trials, your spiritual power will be permanently increased. You have completed one."
"So if I eat with my sister eleven more times, I'll permanently boost my spiritual power? Am I just mooching off my little sister now..." Leyu couldn't help but laugh, then pulled out his phone.
This was the phone he'd recovered from his own corpse. It still worked, but there was no charger, so it would become a brick sooner or later.
No internet, not much you could do. Leyu turned off the phone, and suddenly a wave of sleepiness hit, his breathing slowing down and evening out.
He was exhausted today.
...
...
The next morning, when Leyu got dressed and went downstairs, he happened to see Qian Yuya unlatching the barrier as she left for school.
"Be careful on your way," Leyu said offhandedly. Qian Yuya froze for a second, then nodded and left.
Only after saying it did Leyu remember—Qian Yuliu barely spoke to his sister at all, rarely even exchanged greetings. The two were more like neighbors living under the same roof, and the kind that never talked, at that.
"Impressive—true siblings, all right. Leyu even felt a little nostalgic; in his previous life, he'd had a sister too, who'd pretty much ignored him since starting middle school—just like Qian Yuya."
But initiating greetings was Leyu's own habit. At home, in the dorm, whenever someone left, he'd say something like that. "Even if it wasn't very fitting for Qian Yuliu, Leyu didn't care anymore—he'd made up his mind: instead of forcing himself to put on an act for survival, he'd rather stay true to himself."
"Leyu had been forced into this world—he couldn't change it, but at least he didn't have to let the world change him."
After washing up, and eating the breakfast his sister had made, Leyu headed to the Statistical Department for work. Early morning in Star Engraving County was bustling—lots of people out and about. Passing by the market, Leyu actually felt a bit at home; "I guess aunties are loud, no matter what world you're in."
It took him half an hour to get to the Statistical Department, right on time. As soon as he walked into Team One's office, he bumped into Kui Zhao.
"Good morning, Deputy Director Kui."
Kui Zhao glanced at him, nodded, and turned to leave, "Work hard."
"For the glory of Brilliance." Leyu pressed his right hand to his chest in salute, slightly puzzled why Kui Zhao had shown up at Team One so early.
Inside the office, the team members were huddled together talking. Leyu asked curiously, "Why was the deputy director here?"
Chen Fu looked a little grim as he handed Leyu a document, "He was here to give us our orders. This is the detainment list. We're supposed to arrest these people today."
Leyu took the list.
Ou Liu, Star Engraving Military Academy, Class of '98.
Gou Huo, Star Engraving Military Academy, Class of '99.
Mu Feihong, lecturer, Star Engraving Military Academy.
Feng Chuanliu, lecturer, Star Engraving National High School.
...
All told, there were nineteen suspects on the list, with their physical descriptions, home addresses, and workplaces attached.
"Leyu quickly understood why Chen Fu was in such a bad mood: Half the people on this list were his and Qian Yuliu's classmates, teachers—even friends!"
"But there was no recusal policy in this world. In fact, it seemed like Kui Zhao had deliberately assigned them to arrest these people themselves!"
"Why are we arresting them?" Leyu asked.
"Old Lin... last night the search team found a ton of correspondences at Lin Jinyao's house. There's plenty of evidence linking these people to the Backlight Organization." Chen Fu let out a heavy sigh, "Director Lan said, when arresting these suspects, firearms restrictions are in effect. If they resist, we execute them on the spot."
Elili added venomously, "These Backlight Organization traitors are dangerous. We can't let a single one go!"
Leyu asked, "Elili, have your injuries gotten any better? Don't you need to take a leave and rest?"
"No need. I just got a scratch in the fight with Lin Jinyao last night, nothing serious." Elili clenched her fist, "I have to help the director. We'll purge these Backlight traitors from Star Engraving County!"
Leyu glanced at the list again, expressionless, and nodded.
"Let's move."