Artifact Report

Chapter 124 Jin Xueli: Is this a collaboration with ulterior motives?
...No way, this can be guessed?
Didn’t I just receive one notification?
How come she suddenly lost all her information just because of a notification?

Jin Xueli raised her head, and Chai Si's face blocked her view like a dark cloud covering the moon.

The most difficult thing was that they were too close and she still couldn't see his expression clearly.

It was like driving on a night road without direction signs; when she couldn't guess her opponent's intentions, she could only get by ambiguously.

"I did get a few fakes," Jin Xueli decided to play dumb for now, "but I sold them all."

"Don't play dumb," Chase whispered. "This won't work for me."

She bit her lip and said nothing.

The drizzle kept hitting her plastic raincoat, making a hissing sound, which for a moment became the only sound between the two of them.

"When you were at the Central Police Station, you admitted that you had a 'saving measure'."

Chai Si seemed to be thinking as he spoke, his voice slow. "With it, you don't have to worry about your fingerprints being put into police files, or even about losing your personal belongings. I've always felt like you've acted like you have a regret pill."

……what?

"There are seven target artifacts in total. Aside from the last one, which is just a question mark, the others all have graphic or text descriptions," Chai Si said. "One of them is 'time.' Now think carefully, isn't your artifact that can save the situation related to time? Precisely because it's related to time, you're not afraid of anything the situation may turn out to be."

I really...I didn't expect that.

Jin Xueli bit her nails and thought to herself, Chai Si is a very sensitive and analytical guy, but he probably didn't expect that every step of his calculation process was correct, but in the end he got a wrong answer.

The target artifact in her hand is not "candle tears" but "old-fashioned radio".

However, Jin Xueli had never revealed any clues related to the radio before, and Chai Si was confused by the word "time" in the conscription notice, so it was reasonable for him to come to this conclusion.

In short, she couldn't admit it immediately, and she had to resist a little longer to make Chai Si more convinced.

Regardless of whether the ruling game is real or not, she wants to keep the "old-fashioned radio" as long as possible; even at the cost of "candle tears".

After all, the "candle tears" were brought by the "old-fashioned radio".

The radio may be able to provide her with more pseudo-image information in the future, but the "Candle Tears" cannot do this - it only has a function of "changing the past" and cannot shoot wherever it wants, so it is not very useful.

Judging from the content of the notice, the person who discovered that she had an "old-fashioned radio" would be the next contestant, not Chai Si - let's talk about it later when the next contestant appears, and pass this level first.

It's just the right time to say things like denial or refusal. You don't have to think about it. Just open your mouth and you can say as much as you want.

"No, I really don't. If I had the illusion of adjusting time, would I have earned that five thousand dollars from you? I could sell it for any price. I could be richer than you..."

Jin Xueli let her mouth speak freely while her mind worked rapidly.

...From the current situation, Chai Si seems to have completely believed in this "Nest Domination Competition" and thinks that if he gets seven artifacts, he can rule the nest.

You know what, such a smart person believed it so firmly after seeing just one notification; otherwise, the biggest liar is yourself.

No matter how smart a person is, he will be blinded by his own desires.

Since he thinks he has the target artifact on him, he must get it, right?
and many more.

This means that she can't let Chai Si snatch it away no matter what?

Even if the result is the same - the news that Chai Si took away the "Candle Tears" - the process is fundamentally different for her.

If Chai Si felt that she had to use tough measures, not only would she lose the "candle tears" in vain, she would also probably suffer a lot, and the cooperative relationship she had just reached would be wasted.

But if this situation is used to one's advantage...

"Even if I did," Jin Xueli thought about this and changed her tone slightly, "I would have sold it long ago."

"So, what you want is money?" Chai Si lowered his head and asked her.

Jin Xueli already knew what she should do.

"Who doesn't want money?" This was the truth in her heart. "If it weren't for money, would I be a fake hunter?"

Chai Si raised his hand, and Jin Xueli's body tensed.

But he only gently pulled down the hood of her raincoat - as if to see the expression on her face more clearly.

Raindrops fell on her hair and eyelashes, and Jin Xueli couldn't help but blink a few times. In the misty field of vision, Chai Si's gaze was fixed on her face.

His hand was still on the back of his neck; if he opened it, it would cover the entire back of his head.

If that hand exerts force, she will fall down.

She usually does a lot of physical training, and she is not afraid to fight with ordinary people; but in front of Chai Si, in terms of force, not to mention her, even a boxer might not have a chance of winning.

So no matter what, we must avoid becoming enemies with Chai Si...

Anyway, what was given to him was not the real target artifact.

"...What you want most, right? You're willing to give up everything else to get it, to make this life more bearable... For you, it's money?"

Let’s just say it is, right?
No, that's not right either.

"More accurately, it's what money can buy."

Jin Xueli felt that she spoke involuntarily.

"You must have grown up surrounded by money, so you don't have any feelings. Let me tell you, money doesn't just bring material things, superiority and comfort in life; it can change a person's species."

"Species?" Chai Si seemed genuinely confused for a moment.

"A small amount of money can't bring about a radical change. It requires an astronomical amount of money."

Jin Xueli thought for a moment and said, "For example, Wesley and I are two different species. Our perceptions and ways of thinking about other humans, our fate, and the Earth beneath our feet are completely different. Our bodies, our minds, our environments, our information... everything can be transformed by the wealthy. In other words, different creatures live in different worlds."

"The difference is as big as if one is a human and the other is a laboratory worm."

Chai Si said nothing; he didn't seem to have considered it that way. Rich young men and women generally didn't experience this—if this were a spectrum, Jin Xueli was on the left, Chai Si was closer to the center, and the small group represented by Wei Xilai was on the extreme right, meaning "another kind of creature."

"You asked me at the police station what I wanted most. I thought about it for a long time after I got home... If I only rely on money for enjoyment and material things, then the initial happiness will pass, fleeting."

Jin Xueli knew that she had to reveal her true feelings and expose the darkest side of herself in order to gain Chai Si's trust.

She had never lied from the beginning to the end, she had just added a layer of truth to his misunderstanding.

Although it was inappropriate, she actually felt a little grateful to Chai Si: if he hadn't pressed her, she might not have thought about it so deeply.

"So I think... what I want is not money itself, nor the things that money can buy. What I really want is the power that comes with money."

When she said this, she turned her head and pushed his hand away from behind her head.

"If I had the power to change everything, would I still be standing here and being mad at you?"

Chai Si looked at her for a while, then suddenly chuckled softly.

Even the laughter was dense and heavy, as if it could be used as a suffocating weapon.

"very good."

He took a half step back, and it was as if the air had suddenly started to flow again. "I like people with strong desires but simple ones. Easy to deal with."

...It's easy to control.

Jin Xueli didn't say anything, just raised her eyelids and glanced at him.

"You can't win this game on your own,"

Chai Si said calmly, "It's not that I look down on you, I'm just stating the facts. And if you can't win the game, you basically have no chance of making real money."

"You're not a very nice person, you know that."

"But what you want doesn't conflict with my goals. Rather, if you're willing to cooperate with me, the sooner I achieve my goal, the sooner you can fulfill your wish."

She thought blankly for a few seconds before asking, "What's your goal?"

"...If we win the game," Shibashi whispered, "the Kai family will rule the lair and, by extension, the human world."

"You...are all doing this for the Kai family?"

Chai Si turned his head and glanced at the path leading up the hillside, avoiding her gaze. "...Yeah."

"You could have used force to force the information out of me and then killed me," Jin Xueli asked thoughtfully, "Why didn't you do that?"

"You forgot," Chai Si chuckled softly, self-deprecatingly. "I don't have access. I need a hunter who can reach the lair. I have quite a few hunters under my command, but when it comes to ruling the game, the fewer people who know, the better. Besides, you've already been drafted. Rather than killing you and leaving the lair with a more difficult target, it's better to cooperate with you."

"...You seem to be looking down on me. Then I'll tell you what I know, and you'll tell me all your information, right?"

Chai Si pondered and nodded. "Okay."

Jin Xueli raised her hand again and stretched it out.

"In that case, let's work together again."

After denying it for so long, she needed to find a way out. After thinking for a moment, she said, "I don't know if what I have is a target artifact, but I do know of one that has something to do with time."

Chase released her hand and said, "'Know'? Not 'have'?"

"It's a long story, I'll tell you slowly."

Jin Xueli raised her head to look at the sky and said, "But we can't keep talking in the rain, right? It would be better to find a safe and private place to talk... Where is your home?"

Chai Si suddenly looked at her.

"Why are you so defensive? You can't come to my house. I've learned my lesson. Don't let men know where my house is."

"why?"

"Don't mention it. I got into trouble with a stalker a while ago. He seemed like a decent person..."

"Will your story take long?" Chai Si interrupted her.

"It took quite a while, and it has a lot to do with artifacts."

Jin Xueli thought for a moment and added, "It's also related to the 'Vulture' you want to know about. By the way, can you tell me why you're asking about the 'Vulture' now? What will become of the Central Police Station? Is Morando's move on you related to the game of domination? Is your tongue in your mouth? Do you have two tongues? How do you eat and talk? Ah, I have so many questions—"

Chai Si closed his eyes and finally said, "...Let's go. My car is over there. I know where to go."

"Speaking of Morando, those five thousand knives..."

"...Got it. Give me the Paypal account."

"It's an electronic transfer, great! You won't have to worry about money laundering. By the way, can I borrow Kai's tax accountant?"

“…If you’re worried about this, why don’t you just accept Bitcoin?”

Grayish-white raindrops drifted in the dark night, and the cemetery hillside was frozen in silence.

Under the cover of night, the hillside and the graves watched the two walk farther and farther away, and the sound of their conversation gradually disappeared at the end of the road.

　Why are titles getting longer and longer?
　　When writing about Chai Si and Jin Xueli, I discovered a very magical thing, which is that these two people never have to worry about running out of things to talk about.

　　It seems that they don't have so much to talk about with others.

　　By the way, I recently went back to the beginning and felt that the change of perspective every four chapters was a bit too fast. At the time, I wondered if the switching was a bit too frequent, but at that time, with only one update per day, this feeling was not obvious. But after reading it continuously, it became obvious.

　　Do I need to adjust it? But I’ve already sent it… Ugh…

　　
　
(End of this chapter)