Artifact Report

Chapter 24 Jin Xueli: Changed History

The wound on her neck no longer hurts much. Her tenacity and recovery ability are beyond her expectations.

But Jin Xueli's irritability grew stronger and stronger, as if her heart was full of weeds that could not be removed.

History is surprisingly resilient. Changing a small detail couldn't reverse its trajectory. Don't people often say that sometimes a single wrong turn can change your fate? What a lie!

A harasser who acts like he's the one and only, destined to be with you. It's painful to think about it.

Jin Xueli glanced at the dead body.

This was the first time she had killed the legendary unkillable resident, and she had done so by tricking it with words. She couldn't help but feel a little uneasy, fearing that it would stagger to its feet again from the floor in the blink of an eye, so she had to check on it every once in a while.

But she was too worried. Death had already soaked into the corpse like cold water, completely solidifying it.

After observing the corpse for a while, she felt relieved and opened the fire trough again.

Let’s try again; this time, Jin Xueli plans to block the possibility of the two meeting from the root.

She melted the candles from the same time period and watched the transparent wax drip down into the air, turning into a lake again.

In the candlelight that looked like a lake, a little Jin Xueli and a little Amber got out of a mini taxi together, chatting and laughing as they walked into the bar. Jin Xueli watched them enter the main entrance of the bar, then turned her gaze back and patrolled the street.

That night, she clearly remembered that when the harasser Anthony approached her, he said, "You must have been at the bar before me. Otherwise, there's no reason why I wouldn't notice when a girl like you walked in the door."

Although one cannot take the pick-up lines seriously, but thinking about it afterwards, it seems that Anthony did arrive a step later than oneself.

Jin Xueli suppressed her annoyance and stared at the front door of the bar without even looking away.

There were many people going to the bar that day. In just twenty or thirty minutes, four or five waves of strangers got out of several cars one after another. She had never seen so many miniature living people, and they were gathered in twos and threes, walking in the night and under the lights, making it even harder to distinguish them. She stared until her eyes were almost dazzled, and finally saw Anthony coming out from behind the corner of the street.

Judging from the introduction, it seems that "committing suicide" through candle wax is possible; but it does not say whether it is possible to kill others.

Jin Xueli plans to give it a try.

Is there any way to put an end to it once and for all than to just turn him into a dead person?
She had always been reluctant to kill. In fact, although she had seen many deaths since she became a hunter, not a single one had actually died at her hands.

But tonight, it was as if a shell had broken out of her heart, and something different was about to come out.

Come to think of it, she even killed herself; so trying to kill someone from her past, a harasser, would be no big deal?

If you can't kill it, think of other ways - no matter what the result is, at least you will have a better understanding of the function of "Candle Tears".

Jin Xueli's fingers hovered above Anthony's head, like a giant celestial body that was about to fall to the earth and crush the dinosaurs.

He was still unconscious, with his hands in his pockets. He looked tall and free, like a good man.

...Crush him to death and then wash your hands of it.

Jin Xueli bent her joints and slammed hard on the head with a carefully styled hair.

She had thought the feeling would be similar to crushing a large insect, but unexpectedly it was like crushing a sliding ball; the harasser stumbled, but was only pushed back half a step by her powerful blow. He quickly regained his footing and was not only still alive, but he didn't even seem to feel any pain.

Anthony looked down, cursed, and kicked a stone away.

...Couldn't I just reach in and kill them? The only person I could kill is myself?

That's really funny.

Although she was resentful, the results of her next two attempts seemed to confirm this speculation: she tried to push the little man Anthony onto the road, but the oncoming car avoided it in time and he was only scolded by the driver; she finally pulled out a sign light and calculated the timing, but it bent in the air and hit the ground right beside Anthony's nose.

The harasser was indeed not an ordinary person. He narrowly escaped danger several times, but he acted as if nothing had happened and still entered the bar.

What is "one of the most powerful illusions"? The broadcast is too watered down. People cannot be killed and encounters cannot be prevented. Even if this broken candle contains the past, what is the meaning?
In the end, isn't everything the same as before and nothing has changed?

Holding back her resentment, Jin Xueli stirred the candle wax, searching for herself.

She already had quite a bit of experience in how to operate the candle wax, and she quickly found the moment when the two would meet: little Anthony pushed open the dark red back door, saw little Jin Xueli, walked up to her, and started talking to her.

"I didn't have the courage to ask you for your number, and I'm not the type to chat up girls," Anthony said with emotion. "But you know what? On my way here, a sign suddenly fell in front of me, so close... If I had taken a step faster, I would have been dead. When I think about how life is full of surprises, I dare not miss it..."

I actually helped him upgrade his lines?

When Jin Xueli was a child, she played a computer game called The Sims. When she saw the scene of the two people talking in the candlelight, she felt a sense of vague familiarity and was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

However, this is not a computer game.

Jin Xueli looked at the little, ignorant self who had indeed exchanged numbers with Anthony. She could only sigh in frustration and turn off the fire - she had to let the candle wax cool and solidify first, let the history of their meeting "fix", and then melt it again to change history.

Little Jin Xueli pushed open the back door for the umpteenth time, walked out of the room filled with music and the turbid smell of alcohol, and stood outside the door to get some fresh air.

A fleet of pitch-black Mercedes-Benz SUVs emerged silently from the night; each car, equipped with anti-terrorism and bulletproof equipment, kept an equal distance from each other as they drove past the back door of the bar one after another.

As the last car was about to pass, Jin Xueli reached out and pushed it towards the back door. The SUV, which was only the size of a matchbox, was lifted up by the force, and its head twisted involuntarily and crashed off the road. Amid the sharp scream of the tires, it slammed its nose into the back door of the bar with a bang.

The bar's back door, originally open, was dented by the car, its hinges twisted, and it hung askew, clearly unable to close. Little Jin Xueli stared at the SUV two steps away, her face pale.

Oh, I forgot to protect my past self... Never mind, as long as I wasn’t hit by a car and didn’t die, that’s fine.

If she hadn't insisted on being intimate with a harasser, why would she have to suffer so much now? She deserved to be frightened.

Jin Xueli looked at her smaller self with a kind of indifference tinged with faint annoyance as she hurriedly took a few steps back, shouting to someone, "Help! There's been a car accident!"

If the bar were to temporarily close for this reason, perhaps it would disrupt their encounter.

Before Jin Xueli could finish her thought, the driver's door of the SUV was pushed open. A man in a black suit staggered out of the car, quickly walked around to the wide-open door, and half-crouched down. There was a gash on his left temple, and blood, curly hair, and the ear-hook walkie-talkie were all tangled together.

But the most eye-catching thing is the 9mm pistol between his hands.

Little Jin Xueli, who was standing by, pursed her lips immediately as her eyes fell on the black pistol.

After his car was attacked and unable to move, he immediately jumped out to avoid being trapped; he hid behind the car door to use it as a cover to prevent potential snipers; even though he looked like he had suffered a lot of damage, he still held the 9mm rifle firmly in a position ready to strike back at any time, and his slightly bent elbow did not tremble...

Whether Jin Xueli was inside or outside the candle tears, she could see that this was a highly professionally trained private bodyguard.

Then the other cars——

Jin Xueli turned around immediately and found that the convoy had already dispersed without wasting a moment: the remaining four SUVs had changed lanes and directions in the blink of an eye, accelerated, and drove into the depths of night and lights in all directions.

This professional standard is very high... she thought.

At the same time that the rear car was attacked and lost control, the convoy immediately abandoned it, disbanded the formation, turned in different directions, and rapidly increased the distance between each other... This was obviously a crisis plan that had been prepared long ago.

This kind of plan generally has only one purpose, which is to protect a car in the convoy that carries an important person, so that potential enemies don't know which car the important person is sitting in.

"...No, we're currently unable to determine what happened to the vehicle. Yes, it hasn't been attacked yet."

The man in the black suit half-crouched behind the car door and whispered into the headset, "Although the car's problem is strange, I haven't noticed any signs of artifacts being used around here... Yes, there's a bar here, and there are witnesses nearby. They should have called the police."

Artifacts? Did he just say artifacts?

Jin Xueli immediately became interested and moved closer - fortunately, the man in the black suit was just a small character in the candlelight, and he couldn't see the huge human ear floating between heaven and earth, covering the sky above the car, and heard every word he said.

"...Understood," the man in the black suit replied in a low voice after a few seconds: "I will not mention Mr. Wei's name in the subsequent negotiations and handling."

Mr. Wei?
Jin Xueli was stunned.

Another important person, and his surname is Wei... Could it be that the person that the convoy is closely protecting is Wei Xilai, who is the richest and most powerful person in Blackmore City?

Vesile was indeed a prominent figure, but he was not the head of government after all; the tight security around him was obviously because he knew he was in danger...

Could it be that his death shortly afterwards was not due to natural causes but man-made?
Did he realize that someone was planning to assassinate him several months ago, so he used such strict and cautious security measures?
Although she was curious, Jin Xueli had not forgotten her original purpose and looked back at the back door.

The car crash attracted all the drinkers. Some were watching the excitement, some were making phone calls, and some were taking pictures and posting them on Twitter. The man in the black suit was very sensitive to the situation. In order to avoid causing chaos, he had already put the 9mm gun back into the holster under his coat - but he had one hand under his coat so he could still draw his gun at any time.

Among the crowd, little Jin Xueli and Amber were talking in low voices; a few steps away from them, little Anthony was looking at them one by one.

After a few seconds, he walked up and greeted little Jin Xueli with a smile.

What the hell, is there no way to avoid meeting Anthony?

Jin Xueli cursed in her heart, but after weighing the pros and cons, she decided to put the matter of the harasser aside for the time being.

The fact that Wesley appeared in her own Candle Tears history meant that there must be some connection between him and her destiny... This is where the fun begins: what connection could there be between the dying richest man in Blackmore City and her?
She threw little Jin Xueli and the harasser aside, and followed the clues back to the time when the Vesile team appeared. After estimating the approximate location, she lit a new fire trough.

If she could keep an eye on Vesile's history, she would surely be able to unearth a lot of information...

The longer you wait for something, the slower it will become.

Jin Xueli touched the melted candle and adjusted the flame, feeling impatient and anxious, her mind in a mess; she looked around, but it was not until a long time later that she suddenly realized two things.

First, the candle tears that caused him and Anthony to meet because of a car accident were solidified again and became the latest version of history.

Second, the dead body on the exhibition hall floor disappeared at some point.

　I finally felt a bit better today! However, when I looked at the date, it was already the 5th. I closed my eyes, opened them again, and closed them again, and I was going to Shanghai again...

　　Following the seven Calabash Brothers a while ago, I don’t know how many Minions I owe you guys now. Let me see…

　　OK, I'm back after reading it. I owe you too much, and I can't write enough. I'll open a separate chapter in the evening. I'll thank you verbally first (.

　　Thank you all for your enthusiasm. I have bought a house in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of Shenzhen Second People's Hospital. I will live there permanently in the future. Everyone is welcome to visit me with cakes and gifts.

　　Why is it always Shenzhen Second People's Hospital? Because I was born there, and we emphasize consistency.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)