"Are you all right?" Qing Chen asked, his gaze falling on the woman standing in front of his door.
This was, in fact, the first time he saw her up close. Even though Qing Chen was only a high schooler, the two had constantly passed each other in a rush because the woman unconsciously wished to avoid other males because of her husband.
It was probably due to the trauma from the abuse.
Now that the woman's arm had turned into mechanical limbs, Qing Chen found that the parts on her arm seemed much more delicate than most of the prisoners in Prison 18.
If it weren't for the long-sleeved shirt covering most of her arm, her arm would have looked even better.
The woman's appearance, much to Qing Chen's amazement, lived up to her reputation. Although she had some subtle creases at the corners of her eyes, they just added to her demeanor.
"I must have caused you problems again," the woman muttered, her face flushed with guilt as she stared at Qing Chen.
"No, it wasn’t a problem." said Qing Chen, "I was just about to make some fried rice for Li Tongyun. I like her very much."
The woman nodded and said to Li Tongyun: "Let's go, Xiao Yun1小雲, Li Tongyun's (李彤雲) informal nickname. Xiao Yun also means little cloud. Come home with mommy."
Li Tongyun said pitifully, "I'm still hungry. You broke apart the house already, and there's nothing there to eat."
The woman became a little frustrated when she heard this, "Come on, don't be so obnoxious! We must return home."
Qing Chen intervened, "I heard from Xiaoyun that you haven't eaten yet. Why don’t you both come over to my place and we can have dinner together?”
The woman and Li Tongyun both froze. Although Qing Chen had helped them before, he had never shown such enthusiasm.
He had always seemed to be careful not to get into other people’s business.
"So… what should I call you?" Qing Chen explained, "I'm also really interested in transmigration."
"My name is Jiang Xue," the woman said.
"Well, I just want to ask Aunt Jiang Xue about the Inner World," said Qing Chen, "Do you think you could tell me a little?"
To be honest, Jiang Xue was only twelve years older than Qing Chen and it made him feel weird to call her aunt, which gave the impression that she was far older. But since he met Li Tongyun first, Qing Chen decided to go with “Aunt” for the most respect.2In Chinese culture, one would often call people of similar age brothers or sisters to show a sense of welcome and closeness while calling people a generation elder, aunts or uncles, and grandpa or grandma for the elderly. As a common rule, a middle-aged woman would rather be called sister instead of aunt because it makes them sound younger.
"You may ask me about it whenever you want," Jiang Xue continued, "but for now, I think it's best if I go home."
"Mom, please let us eat at Brother Qing's house," Li Tongyun begged.
Jiang Xue looked at Xiaoyun's pleading expression and sighed, "Fine, then I'm afraid that we must trouble you for a little longer."
From beginning to end, this woman always looked shy, and Qing Chen could feel a sincere sense of guilt from her.
Did she really survive the Inner World with that character?
Qing Chen suppressed his curiosity as he prepared the fried rice. After he was done and placed the rice on the table, he finally felt that it was appropriate to ask, "I saw the police come to your house, what did they say?"
"The neighbors helped me explain the situation. The police wanted to take me to the station for further questioning, but since I have Xiaoyun to take care of and it was obviously a legitimate defense, I was allowed to stay. They will call me over if they need information from me."
After starting the conversation, Qing Chen finally asked the question he wanted to ask the most, "Hey, I saw two people who went up a little later. What are they here for?"
"I'm not very sure either," Jiang Xue shook her head, "They came to ask something from the police and asked me to fill out a form. They also took photos of my ID and left."
Qing Chen was stunned, "That's it?"
"Oh, and they said they might contact me later, so they told me not to leave Luo City for now, but they didn't specify what they would want to contact me for," answered Jiang Xue.
"The police didn't care about them?" asked Qing Chen, curiously.
"They appear to have shown some special ID to the cops," Jiang Xue remarked, "but I have no idea what it is."
Qing Chen now had a decent sense of who these individuals were.
First and foremost, he realized the organization’s purpose was not to abduct or harm transmigrators in any way.
Next, the police were aware of and acknowledged the organization's existence.
At the very least, the mystery men who were following him did not appear to be as menacing as they had been. This helped Qing Chen relax.
Suddenly, Qing Chen asked, "Aunt Jiang Xue, what role do you serve in the Inner World?"
The term Inner World quickly became the mainstream term for the world that people transmigrated into.
By now, almost everyone was referring to the world by that name.
Jiang Xue said, "I apparently own a mechanical repair clinic in City 18, which is just a place that helps others to install and maintain mechanical parts, but after I got there, I knew nothing about mechanical limbs, so when people came to purchase items, I just told them that there weren't any supplies left."
Qing Chen nodded, learning mechanics sure wasn't a task that could be learned in a day or two.
"Then your arms…" he asked.
"It appeared as I got there, and I returned with it," said Jiang Xue.
Qing Chen asked again, "I saw that Prison 18 is mentioned on that transmigrator's video. Where is that place?“
”It's on the edge of City 18," said Jiang Xue, "And it is quite famous. It seems to be a place dedicated to detaining high-threat criminals. The most secure prison in the federal government."
"A federal government?" Qing Chen hesitated, "What else do you know, Aunt Jiang Xue?"
"Not much else. I have only been there for two days and couldn't figure anything out," said Jiang Xue as she shook her head.
Suddenly, Li Tongyun, who had been sitting beside them quietly, interrupted and asked, "Mommy, what's the name of your clinic?"
"It's called Jiang Xue Mechanical Limb Clinic," said Jiang Xue, "What do you want to know that for?"
"Nothing, I'm just curious," said Li Tongyun while scooping more rice into her bowl.
Qing Chen remembered the name, but he still wasn't sure how to help the woman in the other world right now.
If he wanted to help, it would have to be through Lu Guangyi or Li Shutong, but how could he justify the need to help Jiang Xue?
He still didn't know how the people in the Inner World would treat the transmigrators. If Jiang Xue's identity were exposed, it might also affect him greatly.
He should wait as Jiang Xue did not appear to be in immediate danger.
"Why are you so interested in things in the Inner World?" Jiang Xue asked Qingchen.
"I'm really hoping to be able to transmigrate one day and visit that mysterious world," said Qing Chen with a smile, "I am quite envious of you transmigrators."
Jiang Xue responded with a shake of her head, "That world is very dangerous. Apart from members of the Li, Chen, Qing, Kana, and Kashima Families, practically everyone else is living in an impossibly bad state."
Qing Chen thought to himself, I'm one of the members of the Qing Family, but I don't seem to be living well off…
He asked, "What are your next plans?"
"I want to take Xiaoyun to live with her grandma in Zheng City. We will leave tomorrow, and after everything is settled, I'll divorce Xiaoyun's dad." Jiang Xue said.
Qing Chen suddenly thought of something, and then remembered, "Then you should hurry up and buy the tickets. There's been a lot of people traveling to Zheng City recently, so it's quite hard to get tickets at the last minute."
Qing Chen had made an excellent point, so Jiang Xue got out her phone and bought a ticket to Zheng City. The payment was accepted; however, an error appeared on the digital ticket screen a short time later. The transaction did not go through!
He was right.
Qing Chen fell into deep thought. When he heard the mysterious group tell Jiang Xue she wasn't permitted to leave Luo City but didn't do anything about it, he assumed the group had other plans to keep her in the city.
Perhaps that was why they took pictures of Jiang Xue's ID card: she had been restricted from traveling.
1小雲, Li Tongyun's (李彤雲) informal nickname. Xiao Yun also means little cloud2In Chinese culture, one would often call people of similar age brothers or sisters to show a sense of welcome and closeness while calling people a generation elder, aunts or uncles, and grandpa or grandma for the elderly. As a common rule, a middle-aged woman would rather be called sister instead of aunt because it makes them sound younger.
