Chapter 79: Chapter 79 – Why did it have to be me?
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Ren Ying…”
Ren Qingqing was visibly perturbed as she looked at the girl that appeared on the screen.
Her roommate tapped her on the shoulder and said, “You can be honest with me, were you a child celebrity last time? The female character looks exactly like a younger you…”
It was currently Friday afternoon and “Over My Dead Body” had been updated to episode 25. The year in the series was now 214 CE.
Ren Nu, the second-generation head of the Ren family passed away in the summer of the year 211 and was succeeded by the third-generation Ren Ying who was…10 years old.
Ren Ying was the daughter of Ren Nu and the Earth Elf of Qing Qiu when they performed spiritual exchange in the year 204. Although it was unclear why the position of the head of the family could not be passed on to the other adults of the second generation but instead to the underage Ren Ying, the people of Xuan Nation quickly figured a reason for that: the successor of the head of the family had to be a direct descendant of the bloodline.
It was a similar concept to the inheritance of the throne. If the prince had yet to reach adulthood after the death of the emperor, was it not logical for the throne to be passed on to an adult prince or the emperor’s siblings? However, ever since the former dynasties of Xuan Nation switched to the Fengjian (feudal) system, most conflicts of succession arose between the older generation and the younger crown prince, and there were very few examples of agnatic seniority. Two such instances were recorded in history: during the Yuan Dynasty when the ethnic minorities were in power, and during the Song Dynasty when Empress Dowager Du convinced Emperor Taizu of Song to pass down the throne to his brother instead.
On the contrary, it was common for a young crown prince to ascend the throne with hundreds of officials assisting him.
Although the Ren family was not a ruling royal family, becoming the head of the family was equivalent to gaining control of an extraordinary force in the world, and so handing down the position to a direct descendant was not illogical.
Furthermore, for some unknown reason, when the eldest son took over the position, his natural abilities would be far stronger than the rest of his generation. In addition, the heads of the family across generations also had “inherited abilities” which became stronger as it was passed down generations. In that way, the eldest son who took over the position of his father would essentially be the strongest Practitioner when he reached adulthood.
It seemed logical, too, for the strongest Practitioner in the future to be the next head of the family.
There were already many forum discussions about “Over My Dead Body” online, some of which compared the strength of the abilities of the different members of the Ren family. For example, there were forums titled “Is Ren Woxing or Ren Nu stronger?” that compared the abilities between father and son; and there were countless intense discussions about the family tree that resulted from the peculiar curse of the Ren family bloodline.
There were also discussions about the history of Reiki rejuvenation, and how that made the famous historical figures of the Period of the Three Kingdoms Practitioners.
In the drama series, Zhao Yun charged into Cao Cao’s army seven times, just like he did in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms; Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu actually could predict the weather; the elite warriors were able to fight one to a hundred; the advisors were all engaged in a cycle of schemes and traps, thinking that “I know what you are plotting”, “I know that you know what I am plotting”, “I know that you know that I know what you are plotting”…
Many people thought that “Over My Dead Body” was the best drama series remake of the original Romance of the Three Kingdoms using the Ren family of Practitioners as a theme that brings the plot together with the history of the Three Kingdoms. The idea of eliminating monsters was also seen as a way to oppose the wars of the monarchical reign, highlight the woes of the commoners due to the war, rejoice in the pricelessness of peace and harmony…
Regardless, Over My Dead Body was simply an extremely enjoyable drama series to watch in Ren Qingqing’s eyes.
It was when Ren Ying in the drama series gradually grew older that Ren Qingqing realized that she was almost…exactly like her.
She had already known that one of the characters in the drama series was similar to her, given that the character appeared in the opening theme. But it was only when Ren Ying emerged in the drama series that Ren Qingqing realized that the character already looked similar to her when she was young, and not only when she grew up.
Nonetheless, Ren Qingqing was not extremely perturbed and merely remarked, “Who knew that I actually have the look of a celebrity… Indeed, you should never judge a book by its cover.”
Her roommate raised her eyebrows and said, “I don’t think that idiom is used to describe yourself, huh?”
Ring~ Ring~
Ren Qingqing’s mobile phone that was on the table suddenly rang. She picked up her phone and answered the call, but ended it just two “Yes” replies later. Her roommate asked, “A scam call?”
Ren Qingqing replied, “It was a call for blood donation. The school blood donation station, the Luoyang Central Hospital, and Number 150 Hospital all called me these two days, asking me if I wanted to donate blood… It seems like they found out that my blood type is rarer?”
Her roommate asked, “Rh-negative blood?”
“I don’t know. They called to ask me to attend a detailed checkup, but I went mountain climbing last week. My activeness was still in CD mode, so I was too lazy to go out,” Ren Qingqing said.
“Wow, in CD mode… Will it be able to level up to Lv 2 for you to be satisfied in life?” her roommate joked.
By the time they finished watching episode 25, it was the afternoon break time. Ren Qingqing was about to take a nap when she received another text message: [Express Delivery No. 03456464878 has been placed in delivery box no. 2 at Block 16 of Qilin District. Collection code: 0316.]
“Express delivery?” Ren Qingqing muttered as she blinked in confusion. She did not recall shopping online recently.
But it could also be that someone sent her a present, or that her parents mailed some nice food to her. Ren Qingqing walked down the hostel building, intending to collect the mail before she slept.
It was in the afternoon and the sun blazed mercilessly on the ground. Most of the students had either returned to the dormitory or were studying in the library. Ren Qingqing walked to the delivery boxes barely meeting anyone along the way. At this moment, a black-colored car drove towards her, forcing her to stop to allow the car to pass in front.
However, the black car started to slow down as if wanting to stop. When it passed Ren Qingqing, the door of the car suddenly opened even though it was still moving.
Before Ren Qingqing could react, a man quickly covered her mouth with a towel, dragged her into the car and closed the door in the blink of an eye.
The idling car immediately sped away, out of the school.
“They really did it.”
Another black-colored car was parked a short distance away. A man and a woman looked at the direction the other car was heading towards as the woman in the passenger seat pressed the microphone attached to her collar, saying, “The car-plate number is Lian A-WSSD79, it has exited from the West gate towards Lianhu Road. Intercept them.”
“Roger.”
The woman turned off her microphone and took out her mobile phone. She called another number and said, “Team Han, you may proceed to catch them. Arrest all the medical personnel of the school donation center, Luoyang Central Hospital, and Number 150 Hospital who are involved in this incident for endangering national safety.”
“Understood, commander.”
After the woman finished issuing the numerous orders, the man at the driver seat finally said calmly, “Rest assured, you won’t be able to catch them.”
The woman was stunned momentarily. She asked, “What do you mean?”
“The one who bribed the medical personnel could already have left Xuan Nation; the people in the car just now may well just be gangsters from the street who have also been bribed. I suppose they would have come up with an excuse like ‘a rich student is attracted to a university girl’ to employ them to kidnap Ren Qingqing,” the man said.
“It is all thanks to online novels and gossip news that such excuses are so easy to believe.”
The man continued, “It was long expected that Ren Qingqing would be noticed by people. But even if we react fast and increase the security classification of the documents of the Ren family, there are too many interception points. If other countries put a little more effort into it, they would still be able to find out all the information about the Ren family.”
“Furthermore, there have been researchers and academics who have researched about the Ren family of Luoyang before. Even if all of those researchers and academics have been protected, their previous theses would have been published a long time ago, and it is even searchable on Google. It is actually not that difficult to find a member of the Ren family.”
“But the problem is that they did not bother finding other people, but instead focused all their attention on Ren Qingqing… I believe you know what I am trying to say, Director.”
The woman closed her eyes in thought until a report was made through the receiver in her ear: “… A total of three people are involved in the kidnapping. They are all Luoyang citizens between 17~26 years old and do not have jobs… Ren Qingqing is safe and physically unharmed. She fainted after inhaling diethyl ether from a towel and has been sent to the hospital for review.”
Upon hearing the report, the woman said, “Qiu Changqing, finish what you wanted to say.”
Qiu Changqing shrugged and said, “This is just a test.”
“They must have known that Ren Qingqing looked very similar to Ren Ying in ‘Over My Dead Body’, but what did that mean? Nothing, because there are many people who look alike in the world.”
“They are just trying to test what we are capable of.”
Qiu Changqing took out his mobile phone, launched an APP and found the video “Over My Dead Body”.
“This is a drama series about the cultivation of immortality revolving around the ancient period of Xuan Nation. It is a drama series that aired at the same time around the world, and one that was published by ‘Naisser_Ren’. Because of the two videos he had posted prior to this, no country would ignore this group of people that may seem like hackers but actually possess next-generation technologies.”
“But it would be a chore for foreigners to just understand ‘Over My Dead Body’ and an even more challenging task for them to confirm that what was depicted in the drama series are true. Perhaps academics in Fanying Nation just across the sea are able to do that, but…only information that has been confirmed to be true from their own sources is reliable.”
“Notwithstanding foreigners, even ordinary people from Xuan Nation would not think of the drama series as ‘real’. It is, after all, a historical drama series. How could it be real? The people are all dead, how could they film a drama out of it?”
“But what have we been doing?” Qiu Changqing said as he shrugged and raised his outstretched hands. He continued, “Archaeologists that research about the Han dynasty, Jin dynasty, the Three Kingdoms, and other related information were all gathered in secret in recent days.”
“That couldn’t have possibly remained an absolute secret due to its extremely large scope. Too many people were involved, and it was easy to find out that all of them had disappeared if just a few of them were targeted and watched. In that case, they would naturally find out that: Xuan Nation is investigating ‘Over My Dead Body’.”
“But what were the results of the investigation? They did not know, and so they started watching Ren Qingqing. Her looks and age are too similar to the ‘Ren family bloodline’, so they took the chance to make a move before the drama series reached the part when ‘Ren Ying’ grew up.”
“And that was why they employed people to perform their test,” Qiu Changqing said. He stretched out two of his fingers and explained, “Firstly, if we did not protect Ren Qingqing when they abducted her in their ‘test’, they could then interrogate her and find out what they wanted; on the contrary, if we protected Ren Qingqing, they would know that she is valuable to Xuan Nation and can easily figure out that Xuan Nation had verified the authenticity of ‘Over My Dead Body’. Otherwise, there was no way to explain why we would be paying attention to an ordinary university girl.”
“But of course, this is just my guess, Commander. Before they make their next move, it is not possible for us to find out what these foreign spies would do,” Qiu Changqing said.
The commander immediately asked, “Based on your guess, what do you think they would do next?”
Qiu Changqing replied calmly, “They would obtain a sample of blood from a member of the Ren family, and get their hands on a member who is less than 24 years old. Even if they cannot get one of them alive, they would figure out a way to bring the dead body away with them!”
The commander immediately made a call.
But she soon ended the call with a face of fascination.
“All members and branches of the Ren family have been granted special protection. Ren Qingqing, who has Practitioner talent, would immediately become part of the first batch of students at the Tianjing Headquarters and be taught personally by Teacher,” she said.
Teacher?
Qiu Changqing remained silent for a moment but quickly reacted, saying, “Oh right, the person at Tianjing is the one that is the most interested in this incident. The rest of the Ren tribe is essentially the last of his tribe, and they are also…the key to his survival.”
“He must want to know why his bloodline was the only one to be Awakened in this age of Reiki rejuvenation, and why…the other diverged bloodlines remain unscathed?”
…
…
In an underground research laboratory somewhere in Tianjing, a thin and weak teenager sat almost lifelessly in a wheelchair. He was looking at an LCD screen that was showing a drama at 4K resolution.
He watched the drama very seriously and intensely in its entirety, not skipping the opening or closing theme. When he finished watching the latest episode, he turned himself around in the wheelchair and looked at another display screen.
On the display screen were the file details of a 46-year-old man named ‘Ren Weiguo’. He spent three seconds on that page and continued scrolling.
When he reached the end, there were three files that were color-coded red, especially listed as notable targets.
Ren Qingqing.
Ren Jiajie.
Ren Suo.
The first two were found to have Practitioner talent in the ‘Nationwide Practitioner Talent Testing”, and the last one was a member of the Countermeasure Division who was transferred there after having found to have Practitioner talent in the civil servant health examination.
The blood samples of the three of them had been sent for analysis using the latest equipment at the research center, and their base talents could even be known. Among the three of them, Ren Qingqing’s talent score was the best, followed by Ren Jiajie, and finally Ren Suo.
But even Ren Qingqing’s talent score was far lower than his own. The difference was larger than day and night.
Soon, he would be able to meet Ren Qingqing and Ren Jiajie, and he would then have all the time to observe in detail how their breathing currents transformed and matured…
As for Ren Suo, his breathing current had already matured. His talent score is mediocre, and his bloodline had been disrupted before. His family ancestral history is lacking, and there was no purposeful use in observing his progress.
However, he was extremely envious of all three of them, regardless if they were male or female, handsome, pretty, or ugly.
That was because, they were able to Practice, but not be affected by the curse of the bloodline.
“Why…did it have to be me?”