Chapter 111: The Curse of Fate

In a deck of fifty-four cards, the highest are the two Jokers—the Big Joker and the Small Joker, also known as the Big King and the Small King.

"The King? Is he the leader of the Service Agency?"

Old Tian laughed. "You have been to Homeland Island and the headquarters of the Service Agency. You saw the situation there. In reality, the Service Agency has no so-called leader or chief. The upper echelons consist of a committee of twelve people, all of whom hold the status of face cards; they make the vast majority of the agency's decisions. There is no such thing as a dictator."

"Then, what is the story behind the King in the poker deck within the Service Agency?"

"It is a symbol of status." Old Tian frowned as he said this, seemingly unwilling to continue, as if he did not want to speak of that man.

He lowered his head and thought for a moment. "I saw a heartbroken Mingyue in Paris. I could not bear to see her suffer such grievances, so I went to Homeland Island alone to confront that guy. We even fought—but unfortunately, I lost."

Chen Xiao said nothing, but he took a second look at Old Tian.

He lost?!

"You don't need to be surprised. Controlling time is an incredibly powerful ability, and its scope of application is extremely broad. Strictly speaking, it is an ability with almost the fewest weaknesses, whether used in combat or other fields." Old Tian gave a bitter smile. "I specialize in martial arts, but unfortunately, no matter how fast my sword was or how clever my moves were, under his time manipulation, I rarely had a chance to get close enough to inflict damage. You know... every single material thing in this world is bound by time!"

"I couldn't take the child off the island, so I went back to Mingyue. Then... I took her away from Paris and brought her back to our country." Old Tian's eyes grew even more sorrowful.

"Those were the days when I spent the most time alone with her, far more than when the three of us traveled through Europe. But she never loved me. She treated me as a very good friend. I accompanied her to help her cheer up, but I couldn't help her... She was a very intelligent woman; she knew I was hurting and would console me: 'Even if you could beat him, so what? Could you hold a sword to his throat and force him to come back and love me? Feelings cannot be coerced.'"

Old Tian shook his head. "Every time we talked about this, she would shed tears and start drinking. At those times, the only thing I could do was drink with her. We drank by the West Lake, traveled from the south to the north, from the east to the west. She would often just point in a direction on a whim, and we would walk that way until she grew tired of it, then we would choose another direction. In those days, she said so many things to me, yet she never once mentioned my feelings for her. Finally, one day..."

Chen Xiao’s eyebrows twitched. "What happened?"

"Finally, one day, I couldn't help but speak first." Old Tian sighed. "I couldn't help it; I am human, and humans have their own thoughts. Since she was unhappy and that guy had failed her, I thought... maybe there was a chance for her to be with me. I wanted that. If she were with me, I would never fail her, and I would make her happy. So, one day, I asked her, 'Mingyue, do you know that I love you very much?'... Heh! When I asked her that, she didn't seem surprised at all, as if she had expected me to ask for a long time. She told me she knew. Her expression was calm and indifferent, but I felt deeply disappointed because her eyes told me I had absolutely no hope."

"So, I asked her: 'Don't you want to say something to me?'"

"She looked into my eyes and said softly, 'Brother Tian, what can I say to you? Should I tell you to forget me, that you will meet a wonderful girl who will make you happy? But those words would be too hypocritical. I don't like saying hypocritical things, so I would rather say nothing. Because I know you understand what I mean.'"

"Hearing that, I felt truly heartbroken."

"I asked her what she wanted to do in the future. She told me she wanted to open a clock shop."

"When she was in Europe, she loved tinkering with clocks. Because... that guy’s ability was controlling time! So, she chose to open a clock shop!"

"For those years, she was a wounded woman. She had been abandoned by her husband, and her daughter had been snatched away. She was helpless, and I was helpless too. I could only do my best to try to make her happy. She liked clocks, so I found ways to collect rare and precious timepieces from all over the world, and I helped her open the shop, spending most of my time guarding her and protecting her."

"Unfortunately, later, she died."

Old Tian wiped away his tears. "I stayed with her for ten years. For those ten years, I watched her like a flower slowly wilting, growing haggard bit by bit. A woman who had once been brilliant and bright became silent, never to show a hint of joy or a smile again. You must know, she was only thirty years old when she died! During those ten years, I went to Homeland Island several times to find that bastard, and we fought several times, but I could never defeat him. However, the last time... when I returned to the island, I told that bastard that Mingyue was dying. That bastard finally showed some humanity and agreed to let me take their daughter off the island to see Mingyue. At that time, the girl was twelve. She looked remarkably like her mother, especially when she smiled; she was almost identical, just as beautiful."

"Later, after the girl went back with me to see Mingyue, we buried her. What I didn't expect was that after the burial, that bastard suddenly came from the island. Before Mingyue’s grave, I couldn't help but draw my sword against him, because in my view, he was the one who killed her!"

"That was the first time I injured him after all those years of fighting."

"I remember clearly; he appeared unannounced before the grave, just standing there in a daze. I could see a trace of regret and guilt in his eyes, but it was precisely that regret and guilt that made me hate him even more."

"When I attacked him that time, he unexpectedly didn't fight back at all, only blocking and dodging. Eventually, he seemed completely out of it and was pierced in the chest by my sword."

"I really wanted to strike again and kill that bastard right there! But looking at Mingyue’s tombstone, I knew that even in death, Mingyue was still thinking of him! I couldn't kill the man she loved in front of her!"

"Moreover... their daughter was present."

"I remember clearly. I stared at him and asked why he didn't fight back, why he didn't dodge."

"He was bleeding from his mouth, smiling wretchedly, telling me he had failed! That path was a dead end, and he had lost everything because of it. I didn't understand what he meant then, but years later, I finally understood!"

"That guy left in agony, and we never met again after that day. I returned to the Service Agency headquarters many times, but I never saw him again. I heard he moved off Homeland Island to live somewhere else. For all these years, until I left the Service Agency, I never crossed paths with him again."

"Their daughter told me she didn't want to go back to the island. She wanted to inherit her mother's clock shop. I naturally wouldn't refuse such a request; in my eyes, she shouldn't have been with that bastard in the first place. I only worried he might come back to forcibly take her away."

"However, after he left wounded that time, he never returned. I stayed with the little girl and helped her run the clock shop. Although she was only twelve, she was extremely intelligent. She understood everything and, possessing the inherited ability, she mastered all the powers of her parents, including that bastard's time manipulation!"

"For many years after, I cared for her like a daughter. By the time she grew up, she still called me Uncle. Eventually, she found her own lover, started a family, and had a child... Her husband was an ordinary person, but we were shocked to discover that her daughter had inherited the ability! The child was born with many powers! She was almost a living replica of her mother at that age!"

"That was when I realized something: the inherited ability could be passed down! This ability first appeared in Mingyue’s daughter, and then it would be inherited by her descendants! Mingyue’s daughter gave birth to another girl, whom we named Nianyue, to commemorate her grandmother—the woman I had once loved."

"But then a new problem arose!"

"Right after little Nianyue was born, her mother—Mingyue’s daughter—suddenly lost her ability! Although she didn't lose the knowledge in her mind, the time-manipulation ability she had copied from her father vanished completely!"

"It was as if all these abilities had been transferred to little Nianyue!"

"Except for the vast knowledge in her head, she had become an ordinary person."

"When little Nianyue was fourteen, the era of turmoil and war that lasted for over half a century began in our country. I had no choice but to take her family and leave, bringing them to North America."

"Unfortunately, a later accident resulted in the couple dying in a car crash while on a trip."

"I had to go back and take little Nianyue away from North America; she was too young, and I couldn't leave her alone. Coincidentally, I had business that required me to stay on Homeland Island for a while, so I brought her back there. And then... she met a man on the island, a man with the ability of shape-shifting."

"What followed was just like what had happened years ago. They met, fell in love... From start to finish, I watched over little Nianyue like a father. Actually... if you count my relationship with Mingyue, I could almost be considered her grandfather, and if you count my actual age, then..."

"Little Nianyue later had offspring, and this time it was a daughter. And just like when she was born years ago, the child was born and seemed to instantly take away little Nianyue’s time-manipulation ability, leaving Nianyue an ordinary person."

"But at the same time, because Nianyue’s husband had the shape-shifting ability, the child was born with two powers: time and shape-shifting!"

Old Tian looked exhausted.

"I stayed with little Nianyue’s daughter as she married and had children... but what happened later was not as happy or smooth as one might imagine."

Old Tian sighed. "And I finally understood why that bastard said it was a failure! The path he pursued was a dead end! Absolutely impassable!"

"Why?" Chen Xiao asked with concern.

Old Tian’s expression was gloomy. "Starting from Mingyue’s daughter! She died in an accident at thirty-seven! And later, little Nianyue only lived to be thirty-nine! Little Nianyue’s daughter only lived to be thirty-eight! If Mingyue’s daughter’s death was an accident, then little Nianyue and her daughter... they died of natural causes, but it was too early! None of them lived past forty! It is truly an irony! The so-called inheritance, while allowing humanity to directly inherit all knowledge from their predecessors through genetics, simultaneously causes the children to drain all the mother's abilities! At the same time, the mother’s lifespan is drastically shortened! As I said, while it saves a dozen years of study time, it shortens the lifespan even more!"

Chen Xiao felt a sudden jolt in his heart.

Not living past forty?

According to the story Old Tian told, Phoenix was almost certainly a descendant of Mingyue... Could it be that she also wouldn't live past... forty?

"Actually, I once tried to find that bastard for this very reason! Because I thought perhaps only he knew the truth. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to see him again; he seemed unwilling to meet me. However, I still had friends within the Service Agency... Shi Gaofei, you've met him. Years ago, Phoenix’s mother was with us. She was the owner of the clock shop, and I was very worried she wouldn't live past forty. But to my surprise, when she was in her thirties, her appearance was still as beautiful and delicate as a young girl's. There wasn't a hint of aging. Of course, this was under the condition that she remained single."

"After Shi Gaofei did a comprehensive check-up on her, he told me a hypothesis: perhaps this inheritance has some inherent flaw."

"It was originally a low-probability, accidental combination of two special genes that caused some kind of mutation we couldn't understand, creating a new ability. But while this ability is called an inheritance, it simultaneously causes the offspring to drain all the mother's abilities."

"Don't forget, that bastard... he was also a long-lived fellow! Although not as long as me, as an esper, his lifespan could reach about two hundred years. It made no sense that his children inherited the time-manipulation ability from him but did not inherit his longevity, instead failing to live past forty."

"So, Shi Gaofei’s hypothesis was that it has a lot to do with reproduction!"

"When a child is born, it drains all the mutated abilities from the mother! Consequently, the mother not only loses powers like time manipulation, shape-shifting, or mind-reading, but also has her longevity drained away!"

"It even causes damage to the mother's life force, leading to accelerated aging after the life force is drained, resulting in death from health issues before the age of forty."

"This inheritance carries a massive flaw!"

"Once an offspring is born, it means the mother’s life is nearing its end."

"Unfortunately, Phoenix’s mother eventually fell in love with a man. That man wasn't an esper, but he was the one who captured her heart. She was in her thirties, still looking like a young girl, and that man loved her to death. In the end, she fell in love."

"Although I warned her that if she married and had children, she might repeat the path of her mother and ancestors—losing her abilities and dying young—love is a powerful force."

"First, she loved that man so deeply that she became reckless. Even if it meant death, she wanted to be with him! I pleaded with her, saying that even if she wanted to be with him, she just shouldn't have children. But Phoenix’s mother refused to listen. She wanted to bear his offspring no matter what. Second, Shi Gaofei’s theory was just a hypothesis, not a certainty. Phoenix’s mother loved that man to the extreme. She retorted, 'If the hypothesis is wrong, what if I don't have children and still don't live past forty?' So, she was willing to risk her life to do it..."

Chen Xiao sighed.

There was no need to speak of what happened next.

Since Phoenix had been born, then... what more was there to say?

After meeting Phoenix, he had never heard her mention her mother... Presumably...

"Phoenix’s mother finally broke the lifespan limit of Mingyue’s descendants and lived past forty, but that was because she had the child late. I have calculated that once Mingyue’s descendants bear children, their lifespan will not exceed twenty years! Humph, that terrifying inheritance, while miraculous, seems to have become a shackle, cursing Mingyue’s descendants!"

Chen Xiao thought for a while and considered a possibility. "Since the infant drains the mother's abilities during the birthing process... then, what if Mingyue’s descendant is a male? As long as they aren't a woman and don't bear children, there wouldn't be a problem, right?"

"This seems to be a curse as well." Old Tian shook his head, his expression helpless. "After Mingyue, all her descendants for several generations have been female! Not a single male! I asked Shi Gaofei, and he explained that this seems to be caused by a genetic mutation! No matter whether the man Mingyue’s descendants marry is an ordinary person or an esper, all offspring born have been female! To this day, there has not been a single exception!"

These words, word by word, truly felt like a curse, hammering heavily against Chen Xiao’s heart!

A curse! That damned inherited ability! It really was like a curse!!!

Inheritance saved a dozen years of time, but cost a much greater price in lifespan! And it was irreversible...

It was as if an invisible hand of fate had gripped humanity by the throat, forbidding it from forging a new path!

And Mingyue’s descendants were the sacrificed offerings! The victims of fate showing its power!!

"So, Chen Xiao... if you truly love that girl Phoenix, if you two are ever together in the future, then for her own good, you must absolutely not let her bear you a child! Otherwise, you would be hurting her!"

Chen Xiao nodded silently, and after a long moment of silence, a thought suddenly crossed his mind.

"Oh! Right! Who is Phoenix’s father?"

Old Tian smiled, staring into Chen Xiao’s eyes. "It seems you have guessed quite a lot."

He shook his head and sighed. "I have to say, this is a new variable in an unexpected situation! Humph, Phoenix’s mother was very lucky; she met someone that year—it was... Yanhua! Unfortunately, even Yanhua’s prophecy could not stop a woman deep in love from bearing a child for the man she loved!"

"And when Phoenix’s mother was near death, she told me that Yanhua had actually predicted she wouldn't live long. So... she thought, since she wouldn't live long anyway, she might as well take a gamble and bear a child for her beloved!"

"Sadly, Yanhua couldn't save her! Because Yanhua can predict the future, but cannot change it."

"However, a new detail emerged in this matter:"

"Phoenix’s mother gave birth to twin daughters!"

As he spoke, Old Tian looked at Chen Xiao and smiled faintly. "That's right, you guessed it. Phoenix’s father’s surname is Xiao! And the girl at your school named Xiao Qing is Phoenix’s own sister."

After a pause, Old Tian smiled lightly. "Now you know why that girl Xiao Qing can practice such good martial arts at such a young age, right? Because it is the ability of inheritance! She inherited a great deal of martial arts knowledge from her father almost from the moment she was born. However, this time, the twins produced a new change! The abilities were not inherited equally by the two girls! There was a severe imbalance."

"What do you mean?" Chen Xiao’s heart suddenly tightened.

"In other words, according to my later investigation, it seems that Phoenix inherited almost all the abilities! Her mother, grandmother, and previous generations had accumulated several types of powers through constant intermarriage with other espers, all of which were inherited by Phoenix herself, making her a rare existence who, aside from you, possesses multiple abilities. But Xiao Qing seems to have inherited no abilities at all! She just appeared smarter than ordinary children from a young age and had a very strong talent for martial arts."

"This was just a coincidence, a coincidence with a very low probability for twins. Phoenix can be considered both lucky and unfortunate—she inherited all the abilities, including the curse of the lifespan! But Xiao Qing is almost no different from an ordinary girl."

"At the same time, beyond the abilities, the knowledge inheritance was weakened to a certain degree. Both girls inherited some, but neither was complete. Compared to the normal inheritance, which usually retains about ninety percent of the knowledge, it was far worse. The inherited knowledge reached only a very weak level, manifested in being very good at a specific field, like Xiao Qing’s martial arts. It was as if there was some disorder during the knowledge transfer."

"Moreover, Mingyue’s descendants in the past would inherit many of their mother's memories after birth. But this time, because they were twins, this aspect was also affected by unknown factors, and the memory loss was extremely severe!"

"Phoenix’s mother ran back to me alone to give birth!"

"But strangely, after the children were born, she immediately begged me to do one thing for her."

"What?"

"To send one of them back to the Xiao family! The one without abilities! And Phoenix, who had the abilities, was left with me." Old Tian sighed. "I didn't know why at the time, but before Phoenix’s mother died, she told me that this decision had something to do with Yanhua."

Yanhua! It really was Yanhua!

Old Tian continued, "And just a few days later, Phoenix was taken away as well. Even I don't know who took Phoenix, because Phoenix’s mother kept this matter a secret from me!"