No. 50 Echoes of Hope
My days fell into a routine: attending classes during the day, visiting Mom in the evening, then heading to the basement of the entertainment complex to train in the Pai family’s fighting style.
Mid-March arrived, and the weather gradually warmed.
More girls were wearing skirts on the streets, and ice cream shops were bustling with customers.
Upper Capital City, being in the south, experienced an early spring. However, in most northern cities, the weather remained relatively unchanged, with some areas still blanketed in snow.
A sense of foreboding lingered in the air, despite the warm spring sunshine.
“Left! Right! Horizontal slash!”
I parried Pai Ge’s attacks with two playing cards, sweat dripping from my face as I retreated under his relentless assault.
“Yi Yao, your movements are fluid. What you lack is confidence in your offense. Humans are inherently aggressive creatures. Every successful person’s path is paved with the bodies of those they’ve defeated. You don’t need to feel guilty.”
Two more blurs of motion, two cards colliding in mid-air. My cards were sliced in half with a crisp “snap.”
Exhaustion weighed heavily on my body. I stood in the middle of the empty living room, my breaths ragged, my heart pounding in my chest.
It’s okay, Yi Yao, you’ve been through this before. If you could do it then, you can do it now.
For your sister, you have to be strong.
I gritted my teeth, drew a new card from my pocket, and charged towards Pai Ge.
“Joker Slash!”
As I closed in, I swung both cards towards his neck in a crisscrossing motion.
He smiled, a hint of pride in his eyes, and swiftly retreated.
He countered with two cards, his movements fluid and precise. I couldn’t dodge in time. My attack landed—on his hat.
Two white lines appeared on the black fedora, sending it flying.
“Huff… huff…”
Exhausted, I dropped to one knee, sweat dripping from my face, forming patterns on the wooden floor.
“Excellent.”
Pai Ge retrieved his hat, clapping his hands. “It seems you’ve finally awakened.”
I looked up at him, wiping the sweat from my face.
“You know, a girl who works hard is always endearing. That’s why I didn’t teach you everything at once.” He crouched down beside me, his usual playful smirk replaced by a thoughtful expression. “Yi Yao, is there something you want to protect? Or someone you want to save?”
“No.”
I stood up, my breathing returning to normal.
The only thing I needed to protect was myself.
“That first card you used, it wasn’t an ordinary playing card, was it?”
I had been wanting to ask this for a while. Cutting a beer bottle with a playing card? Impossible!
“Ah, you noticed. I guess you could say I’m a bit of a magician.”
He chuckled sheepishly, pulling out a card from his pocket. It looked identical to an ordinary playing card.
“It’s made of a special material. It’s not quite nanotech, but it can definitely stop a bullet.”
He flicked the card towards me, and I caught it with one hand.
I turned and slashed at an empty soda bottle Ouyang Dati had left behind.
“Crack.”
The bottle split cleanly in two. The top half wobbled in the air before crashing to the floor. The bottom half remained standing.
How sharp was this card?
“Actually, Yi Yao, I don’t recommend using this type of weapon.”
He took the card back and glanced at the knives concealed in my shorts. “Your hands are too delicate. These cards require a firm grip. Stick to knives unless absolutely necessary.”
“Okay.”
I walked over to the water dispenser and poured myself a glass of water.
But I didn’t even know who my enemy was.
It seemed I had inherited the original Yi Yao’s tendency to wander blindly down unknown paths.
She had trained in Taekwondo for seven or eight years, unsure of its purpose.
And now, I had been practicing these strange hidden weapons for over a month, clueless about their true use.
“It’s strange. You haven’t asked me about my motives.”
Pai Ge said from behind me.
“What?”
“Aren’t you curious about my intentions? I’m a mysterious stranger, after all.”
“Your intentions?” I turned to face him. “Are you saying I should question a friend’s motives every time they invite me for dinner?”
I had investigated Pai Ge’s background.
He was a rich kid, a playboy, and he played the role well.
His real name was Luo Wei. He was born on August 6, 1990, 1.78 meters tall, and hailed from another city in Yixian Province. His only family was his uncle, who was involved in some shady business. Two years ago, they had offended a powerful figure and had been on the run ever since. His current net worth was estimated to be around fifty million yuan. He could easily open three more entertainment complexes like this one, but he chose to live a carefree life, pretending to be a delinquent, messing with other delinquents, and treating them to meals and internet cafe sessions.
His romantic exploits could fill a 100KB text file. I didn’t have the patience to read through them. All I knew was that he had money, he didn’t crave power, and he probably didn’t even care about restoring the Pai family’s glory. He was teaching me these fighting techniques simply because he found it amusing.
“Haha, that’s a very Yi Yao-like answer.”
He glanced at Xiaodie’s brightly lit room, then tucked his hands in his pockets. “So, how are you, a sixteen-year-old girl, planning to help her through this crisis?”
I looked down. “I don’t know.”
Losing both parents at fifteen… words couldn’t express the pain.
And she had to watch helplessly as her father was arrested, convicted, sentenced.
“She’s working hard.”
I had witnessed her transformation from a girl who could barely hold a gun to a skilled markswoman who could assemble and disassemble a large-caliber sniper rifle with ease.
Dedication could change a person, even their aura.
Since she didn’t have to attend school during this sensitive period, she spent her days practicing in her room, assembling and disassembling the sniper rifle hundreds of times.
Alone in an empty house, sitting on the bare floor, day after day.
Like me, she knew she might never have to use a gun, but she still trained diligently. Every time I saw Ouyang Dati, he would praise her dedication.
Pai Ge shrugged. “Do your classmates know about this?”
I shook my head. “They’re too busy with exams and their petty rivalries.”
Expecting a bunch of ninth-graders to pay attention to the news? Fat chance.
They probably only knew that something big had happened in their city in March, something that might appear on their high school entrance exam for Chinese composition or politics. If you asked them the mayor’s name or his daughter’s name, they wouldn’t have a clue.
They were more concerned about the rising temperatures, how many bottles of iced tea they needed to buy each day, and when the Education Bureau would inspect the school for illegal weekend classes.
“The online reaction is quite intense.”
After the corruption scandal broke, public opinion was overwhelmingly against the mayor, demanding severe punishment.
That was probably why Xiaodie avoided the internet…
“Sorry… we can’t help you.”
“It’s okay.”
I stood up and walked towards Xiaodie’s room.
Based on the information from the Queen Bee Hacker Alliance, those people were operating on a level I shouldn’t be involved in.
Politics was like a murky pond. Even the slightest ripple could create a chain reaction, spreading outwards.
All I could do was stay by Xiaodie’s side, support her through this difficult time, and prevent her from doing anything rash.
“Woof!”
As I opened the door, a large feline leaped onto me.
“Go play, Xiao Bai.”
I gently pushed the tiger cub, which Xiaodie had named Xiao Bai, aside and stared at the disassembled sniper rifle parts scattered across the floor. “Are you sure you can put this back together?”
“Of course.” She turned away from the window, where she had been aiming the rifle at a distant building, and smiled faintly. “Is training over?”
“Yes, Pai Ge said I’ve mastered the basics.” I sat down on her bed. “How are you doing? Are you used to living here?”
“It’s fine, except it gets lonely during the day.”
She lowered the rifle, which was longer than her, and stood up, her nightgown slipping down, revealing her bare shoulder.
“Yi Yao.”
“Hmm?”
“I want to go home.”
“Home? Where?”
“My old home.” She sat down beside me and leaned her head against my shoulder, like a lover. “Dad managed to get a morning off tomorrow. It might be the last time I see him.”
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