Fate Trading System – Chapter 231

Plan A

Mist Map 4

Markings

That kind of taste was simply out of this world, hard to describe.

Liao Qingjie had never known someone could make noodles taste so awful. She didn’t know what strange seasonings had been added; all in all, it was a bit sour, very salty, had lots of chili powder, and was fiercely spicy.

“Is it really bad?”

Su Xin was a little apprehensive. She admitted she hadn’t had the chance—or rather, the courage—to try it yet, so she’d let Liao Qingjie be the first.

Su Xin felt her noodles looked pretty decent, surely they couldn’t be that bad?

Su Xin picked up her chopsticks, tentatively picked up some noodles, took a bite, and then rushed into the kitchen.

She must have entered a fake kitchen; these noodles definitely weren’t cooked by her. Su Xin once again gained an incredibly profound understanding of her own cooking skills.

Liao Qingjie forced down that mouthful of noodles, her expression unsightly. Seeing Su Xin’s reaction, she chuckled for a moment.

“What do we do now?”

Liao Qingjie hugged her arms.

Su Xin carried both bowls of noodles into the kitchen, dumped them in the trash can, wiped her lips with a tissue, her face full of helplessness.

“What else can we do? Let’s eat out. I’m still not suited for the kitchen. A museum suits me better.”

Su Xin glanced at the kitchen. She wouldn’t go so far as to blow it up¹, but her skills hadn’t improved one bit; she really couldn’t compliment them.

“Alright. But given that we’ll be living together for a while, I think it’s better if I do the cooking from now on.”

“You can cook?”

“What? Don’t I look like I can?”

“A little bit, no.”

Who could imagine a retired special forces soldier knowing how to cook? Probably just enough to make edible food.

“Let’s go. We’ll just make do outside tonight.”

Outside the residential complex was a snack street with lots of things to eat. Whether main courses or snacks—skewers, fried chicken, tofu pudding²—it had everything imaginable³.

Su Xin knew someone was watching her, likely the same police officers from before.

Liao Qingjie also noticed someone following them. She glanced sensitively in that direction; the plainclothes officer made a hand signal, and she continued walking forward.

“Let’s go to the supermarket after dinner. Buy some groceries for tomorrow.”

“Let’s buy them tomorrow. It’s hot, they spoil easily. Putting them in the fridge always makes them feel less fresh.”

“Okay.”

Though they had known each other for less than half an hour, their conversation already felt remarkably familiar.

“Go back now, or walk around some more?”

“Let’s walk. If that killer is constantly watching me, then they’ll definitely act based on my movements. Unless they’ve planted some little gadget⁴ on me, they won’t know where I’ve gone.”

As Su Xin said this, she paused abruptly, looking down at the watch she wore and the phone in her hand.

She hadn’t thought of this aspect before.

Lord Fourteen, help me scan my phone and watch, including the mobile devices at home.

【Okay.】

Previously, Su Xin had asked Lord Fourteen to check if there were any surveillance devices in this room. She had only relaxed after confirming there were none.

【Host, both the phone and the watch have them.】

Su Xin took a sharp breath inwardly. This was something the original host had completely failed to notice. Perhaps after checking the phone, the watch would be overlooked.

Can you counter-surveil?

【Afraid not.】

Then there’s no point in keeping them.

“Help me send these for inspection.”

Su Xin handed her phone to Liao Qingjie and also took off the watch from her wrist.

“Okay.”

Liao Qingjie nodded and made a call to her Captain.

The two chatted as they strolled.

“You don’t seem very scared.”

“Because I’ve realized something.”

“Tell me?”

“The more scared I am, the happier that person will be, right? So I refuse to be scared. Besides, I need to figure out what exactly is going on.”

“Your level of awareness… is quite high.”

Liao Qingjie was somewhat astonished.

Faced with the threat of death, few people wouldn’t be afraid. The unknown is the most terrifying because you never know when the Sword of Damocles⁵ hanging over your head will fall.

For this person to think this way truly showed exceptional mental fortitude.

Su Xin wasn’t as exaggeratedly brave as Liao Qingjie thought. She was someone accustomed to hovering between life and death; for her, dealing death and facing death were common occurrences⁶.

“Since ancient times, who among men has escaped death?”⁷ Die early or die late, everyone has to die eventually.

Su Xin was very philosophical about it, but that didn’t mean she was willing to kick the bucket anytime soon, which was why she had to complete missions to survive.

By now, the sky had completely darkened. The streetlights were all lit, and small insects flew up and down around the warm glow of the lamps.

There was a moment of silence between the two before Liao Qingjie initiated conversation again.

“Are you willing to tell me about what happened six years ago?”

“Sure, but I don’t remember it very clearly. I can only tell you some of the things I told them.”

“Okay.”

“Since I was little, I loved exploring and ancient artifacts, but I never had the chance to go out because my parents watched me very closely. Six years ago, I was eighteen, finished with my college entrance exams, and had a long vacation. That time, my parents allowed me to travel freely outside.”

“I saw an activity posted in a local friends group⁸—it was an expedition to explore the deep mountains. Curious, I signed up. On the day of the activity, including me, there were 11 people in total. After chatting, I found out they weren’t just from our city; there were people from other cities too.”

Su Xin spoke as she walked, her pace neither fast nor slow.

“Young lady, that was a bit dangerous of you.”

“Maybe I was still young then, acted very impulsively, felt like I feared nothing⁹, and didn’t consider the consequences too much. Without telling my parents what I was going to do, I just grabbed a backpack and left home.”

Su Xin also felt the original host’s actions were truly too dangerous. Never mind that she was a young woman as beautiful as a flower¹⁰; even girls who weren’t considered attractive were targets for human trafficking nowadays. Going into the deep mountains to explore with a group of strangers—you could be sold off without even knowing it.

“At the time, we didn’t really discover anything meaningful or valuable. We basically just wandered around the deep mountains and old forests. Besides dealing with some mosquitoes, bugs, snakes, and the like, forget ancient artifacts, we didn’t see anything at all.”

“But you didn’t give up then, did you? You went back again, searched again.”

Liao Qingjie had already heard this part from her Captain.

“Yes. Actually, all of us were ready to leave then, but the person who organized the activity suggested we go back in for another look. Maybe we’d find something else? We were persuaded and felt a bit tempted, so we went back in to look again.”

“Do you still have any impression of that person?”

“Not much of an impression anymore. I only remember she seemed to be a girl a bit older than me, quite talkative, very lively. I don’t remember if she was from this city or not. Although I saw the activity in the local friends group, there were people from other cities too, so I’m not sure if she was from our city. I remember asking at the time, but I don’t recall what she said.”

The memories from six years ago were already a blur, like something pixelated and then crumpled together with strong glue.

The original host, Bai Yan, actually had a decent memory; after all, she could vaguely recall the events of that year and could recognize people from photos. For an ordinary person with a poorer memory, forget six years ago, they might not even remember what happened six days ago.

“I see. Okay, please continue.”

Six years ago, the internet wasn’t as developed as it is now, but it could already connect people thousands of miles apart. Searching now was extremely troublesome, almost impossible to trace.

Bai Yan had quit that group long ago, several years back. It was unknown if the group still existed or had been disbanded.

A search would bring up many groups, but almost none matched the timeframe.

“After going back in, we searched carefully again, and this time, there really was a different discovery. We reached the entrance of a cave we had previously overlooked. Everyone was very excited, thinking there might be some unusual discovery inside, so our group went in. We didn’t find anything valuable, but we did discover the scene of an ongoing blood sacrifice.”

“So you intervened?”

“Yes. Because most people in the group at that time were young and hot-blooded¹¹, how could we tolerate such a scene? We all worked together and drove away those strange people holding torches.”

“Do you remember any characteristics of those torch-holding people?”

“They were like a strange tribe, speaking their own unique language that we couldn’t understand. Their faces were painted with weird patterns, drawn with blood. And on the ground, there was a person whose heart had been cut out.”

“Like cannibals?”

“Possibly.”

“What happened to the young man who was on the sacrificial altar and was rescued by you all?”

“I’m not sure either. At the time, that young man was also covered in a lot of blood, flowing from his body. After we woke him up and treated his wounds, he seemed unable to speak, just stared at us quietly. We asked him where his home was, but he didn’t answer us, just ran off into the distance.”

“And that’s how those events concluded. Because besides that cave, just like the first time, we found nothing else. There was nothing valuable or worth investigating inside the cave either, only a few scattered marking-like things…”

As Su Xin spoke, she suddenly stopped, tightly closing her eyes.

Markings!

Su Xin frantically searched her brain for past memories, trying hard to recall what those few markings looked like.

Strange symbols of unknown meaning, probably the language of those people’s own tribe, but different from any existing historical records, impossible to verify.

The original host must have seen those symbols more than once but had forgotten them. When Su Xin first took over this body, she had carefully sorted through its memories, so she wouldn’t forget. She felt those symbols were somewhat familiar.

She must have seen them somewhere!

A distorted…

“I remember! I remember where else I saw them! Let’s go home, quickly!”

The Mist Map!

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