Chapter 237 - 4.63

After some more preparations, Xu Jiaqi was finally able to get permission from Tang Yizhou to arrange a meeting with that piece of shit trauma inducing monster.

Tang Yizhou was of course, baffled once again at the woman's sudden requests, but understood that there must be some type of goal she wanted to achieve if she was specifically asking for things like this.

Xu Jiaqi enjoyed having Tang Yizhou take care of the preparations for her. If she was on her own, she wouldn't have been able to pull the necessary strings to hunt the person down. However, with Tang Yizhou's help, the piece of shit's location and what he was doing could be detected right away in a short span of time.

Since Xu Jiaqi wanted to rush and flatten everything together before securing her victory with a bang, she immediately requested for a meeting and finally got in touch with the man in less than two days.

The man who scarred her for life. Made her not able to play her most beloved musical instrument anymore. Made her plunge into the depths of darkness even though she used to be the world's most beloved music prodigy before her fall.

The man was right in front of her.

"Hi?" Xu Jiaqi greeted casually.

"....Why have you come here? To kill me? If that's what you want, then this old man will end his life right now. I have lots of regrets, even if I don't kill myself, I already live every single day like I'm already dead."

"That can't do. I'll be troubled if you die. After all, you won't get to suffer as much. How does it feel? The other prisoners, they must've done a ton of things to you. I hope you were in pain every single day?"

The man laughed boisterously.

"Ha! Indeed I was... the prison never looks fondly upon.. people who committed a crime in the same field as mine. I even got beaten up with another one who shared the same fate as me more than thrice before I was released from that place."

"...Won't you tell me what you did that day, and how you ended up living from that day onwards?"

"What? Why do you want to hear that? There's nothing to know that you would like. Maybe you're trying to gather evidence from our conversation to use it against me or anything silly like that, but let me just tell you. I'm an old sack of bones now, nothing that you threaten me with will scare me now.

The perpetrator had truly gotten old now. There didn't seem to be any sparks of life within his eyes. All that remained were a pair of dead eyes, ones that seemed to be disappointed at everything.

'This isn't going to be fun, is it? It's going to kill me to keep going.'

Xu Jiaqi thought that way not only because the man was obviously not on board with this meeting. The other reason was her exploding internal state right now.

It was the remnants of the original soul's feelings. It carried through after she possessed the body, and now that she was directly meeting the source of her trauma, it suddenly triggered a heaven-breaking change inside her.

As she was speaking, she was actually doing her absolute best in trying to keep her tone straight and stop her body from trembling.

"There's no use in talking to me, young girl. There's nothing I can do to you. If you want me to apologize, I can even spend the rest of my lifetime apologizing to you. Will it change anything, though?"

Xu Jiaqi shook her head, but she insisted on the storytelling. The man ended up complying and spilling everything that led up to that incident, and how he was beginning to keep with the collapse of everything. 

....

______

Xu Jiaqi was laying in the bed as she kept crying, burying her head into a soft pillow to muffle her endless tears.

It wasn't that she was sad, it was her body's natural response to the barrage of feelings she got in return for completing her side quest. Constant cries. Never once did her tears stop flowing in the three hours that she had been stuck to the bed for.

The System accompanied her, being the prime target of her bullying as she kept herself sane with the emotions of the original soul continuing to mix itself with her own without permission.

She got the quest done, but at what cost?

Alas, all that matters now is that the other two quests were things that could already be considered complete, only needing to be polished a little it more before everything could end in this world.

She had to say, the story this time was rather beautiful. In fact, all four stories she had been through had been quite interesting to say the least. They were all memorable and special.

In this world, trauma played a huge part in the original Host's reasoning.

Perhaps the soul wanted to get some closure in order to fully face her past and let go of all the grievances that she suffered under. The fact that the world just couldn't stand with her when she needed them, the fact that they had to wrong her. It was a bleak fate that a child had to suffer under, and it was by no means a good development point for the little Xu Jiaqi.

She was distraught over the fact that she was suddenly alone, and also instinctively knowing that the 'guardians' who said that they cared for her and wanted to take her in under their wing had lots of malicious intent coming out of them. A child was sensitive towards emotional spikes and internal thoughts. They would observe your attitude, atmosphere, and expression at any given second.

Knowing that the Zhao family also wanted to hurt her, and that she didn't have an escape out of all of this, who could imagine what Xu Jiaqi felt like under all of the pressure and pain? How did she live through her years, not attaining her peace?

This side quest did not even ask much. She just wanted to mourn for her lost state. She wanted to look back one last time before finally going forward and staying in peace in the afterlife. This was the soul's lingering attachments speaking to the world.

It wasn't hard to let go and forget about a crime as big as this, ones that ruined and overturned your life in an instant without caring about the consequences that it would bring forever.

However, for the little Xu Jiaqi, who was left just too hurt from everything, it was enough.

"...Haa. This is really driving me nuts. If I had known that this would happen, I wouldn't have done the side quest. We could've just said that it was an error, right?"

[..Yes. But then, you wouldn't get the perfect grade you desire so much in that case. Are you willing to let go of that achievement?]

"No, obviously. That's why I looked for the quest in all directions, right? To think that instead of a reward, I'm getting this kind of emotional pain.. It's too vexing, I can't even bear to suppress these feelings. It's just genuine.. wails. I can't bring myself to describe it, but it's painful.."

Xu Jiaqi lamented. That child must already be somewhere in the afterlife, but it still bothered her a lot. This influx of emotions, it wouldn't have been possible unless the original soul really did have a strong longing for this kind of resolution.

Being exposed to something like this, it was no wonder that Xu Jiaqi, who wasn't used to it, immediately fell into a deep hole that she couldn't get out of. It was like she was drowning in a sickening whirlpool of emotions. Not being able to escape.

"I hate this so much... When is this going to end, I wonder?"

[Probably not soon, Host. You might not get how normal people work, but they usually grieve for long periods of time, you know? It's just you that's weird.]

"..Hey, that's rude. How can you say that to me?"

[Host, do you know who the rudest person in this room is?]

"Yeah, of course I know. It's you, my sweet little baby System. To this day I still wonder why I keep you by my side constantly even though you're such a big villain. How is this pitiful damsel in distress keeping herself intact under your tyranny, I wonder? Ah, I know, it must be one of my innate talents to do so." Xu Jiaqi ramble on and on, spouting nonsense that sat on top of her head.

[...]

Host, you really are an expert at making someone mad. Do you want to get hit for once, so that perhaps some common sense would finally return to you?

Evil lady, you deserve to be subjugated!

_____

Unknown man: Who wants to subjugate my darling? I'll chop you into small pieces. Come here.

System: Puck you! Who called you here? Get away from my Host right now!! This isn't where you're meant to be!!

Unknown man: My place is beside my darling <3