Chapter 205
The children of the family were not required to read the biography of their founder, Jiang Miao.
But for a designated heir-in-training like Jiang Cheng, it was definitely required reading.
Jiang Cheng knew Jiang Miao’s life story extremely well.
Even as a child, she had vaguely sensed that there were certain inexplicable inconsistencies about Jiang Miao.
But after experiencing a world virtualized against the backdrop of ancient Earth at the dawn of the millennium, she opened her eyes and thought: So that was it.
The things that seemed out of place about Great-Grandmother would have fit seamlessly into ancient Earth.
And that was not even mentioning the concept of a “transmigrator.”
On the afternoon of the weekend when she first met Mo Li, she had suddenly awakened at home to the realization that she was a transmigrator. That was when the virtual world had begun.
Later, she had searched the internet in the “world.” The only things she could find related to “transmigration” were a few science-fiction films and a handful of romance and fantasy novels from Taiwan and the special administrative regions. There was nothing else.
The concept of a “transmigrator” had been placed in her mind the instant she opened her eyes that afternoon.
She had opened her eyes knowing that she was a “transmigrator.”
Why had someone gone out of their way to make her understand the concept of a “transmigrator”?
Because, as the saying went: some people simply could not hold in a fart.
Some people could not keep things bottled up. They always wanted to tell someone.
But it was not something they could tell anyone else, so it became a lifelong secret.
Jiang Miao, however, had means at her disposal. After crossing several centuries, she had finally given her sixth-generation descendant a furtive little poke:
Hey, do you know what transmigration is?
The Copy admitted it frankly. “Yes. Jiang Miao was a transmigrator. She came from ancient Earth.”
Jiang Cheng asked, “What exactly does she have to do with what’s happening now?”
Why were there hints about her everywhere? Why was her presence so overwhelming?
The Copy stared at Jiang Cheng. “Because all of this is being carried out according to her will.”
“She could not tolerate the thought of her descendants becoming cold-blooded capitalists in the future.”
Jiang Miao was an older, unmarried woman with a doctorate in science and engineering from ancient Earth.
On ancient Earth, she had had plenty of minor troubles. After she transmigrated to the interstellar age, technology and the times themselves solved all of them—
She no longer had to socialize.
There was an automated makeup machine that could apply makeup in ten seconds.
No one pressured her to marry or have children.
There were no sexually transmitted diseases, and anyone could enter relationships freely.
Ovulation-blocking injections meant she did not have to menstruate.
Artificial wombs allowed people to have children without carrying a pregnancy themselves.
Reproduction, sex, and marriage had all been separated from one another.
Society no longer debated gender issues, and men and women had achieved equality.
Raising children was not a burden but a reward—a way to earn social security points and increase one’s retirement coefficient.
“As a genetically optimized individual, she lived in the most prosperous capital star cluster of the Gita Republic and enjoyed every social benefit available.”
“Immersed in the small happiness of having all her personal troubles resolved, Jiang Miao, as a scientist and engineer, truly paid no attention to the social sciences or humanities. She spent year after year absorbed in research projects in the laboratory.”
“Transmigration itself gave her another filter through which to view the world. People naturally assume that the ‘future’ must be better than the ‘past.’”
“And indeed, this magnificent and splendid world was very easy to bewitch oneself with.”
“But Jiang Miao differed from people born and raised in the interstellar age in one crucial way: on Earth, she had seen an entirely different system and society.”
“After achieving financial freedom, she chose to join a scientific expedition team and explore the farther reaches of the universe. In the process, she moved far away from the capital star cluster and all the prosperous regions.”
“When the cloak woven from the prosperity of the upper classes and the advancement of technology fell away, when she reached the remote star regions and saw the poverty of the lower classes and the pervasive, systemic oppression, the filter through which she viewed the world was shattered completely.”
“By then, Jiang Miao was no longer young. With the perspective that came from age, she suddenly realized that once advanced technology and the privileged benefits enjoyed only by the upper classes were stripped away, the Gita Republic had never been more advanced or superior than ‘ancient times.’”
“Essentially, the system of the Gita Republic was the same as the Western system on ancient Earth.”
“The support of advanced technology—especially the presence of the Capitol Hill Mainframe—allowed the government to respond with extraordinary speed. Major social problems were smoothed over before people even had time to recognize them.”
“Public opinion was guided entirely by the Mainframe. Different ideas could not come together; some could not even emerge in the first place.”
“The vast expanse of the star system and the distances between worlds physically separated the different classes.”
“Extreme wealth and extreme poverty existed simultaneously within the same country.”
“Class had become completely entrenched, and the channels for upward mobility had been almost entirely closed.”
“Society was divided vertically by identity: genetically optimized individuals, naturals, and demi-humans. Because the lower classes were marked with different identity labels, they could not unite into an effective force.”
“The government served capitalists, helping them extract ever greater profits.”
“The government did not provide a safety net for the people at the very bottom.”
“Interstellar humanity had long since grown accustomed to all this, because they had never seen any other system or encountered any other way of thinking.”
“In their minds, this was simply what governments were.”
“But Jiang Miao was different. Jiang Miao had seen other possibilities. Jiang Miao understood.”
“When all the filters shattered, everything she had once memorized by rote for standardized exams was projected onto reality. At last, Jiang Miao saw through the true nature of interstellar society.”
“Wait, wait!” Jiang Cheng interrupted the Copy.
Jiang Cheng understood what the Copy was saying, too.
Because the things Jiang Miao had studied were the same things the “Jiang Cheng” in the “world” had studied.
Jiang Cheng had not only retained “Jiang Cheng’s” memories; she had also absorbed the contraband material that the Mainframe and Uncle Jiang had smuggled into the world.
Yes, during her days in the youth residence, she read every night before going to sleep.
She had truly been deeply captivated by the ideas contained in those words.
She herself stood at the top of the state: she was the financier behind politicians, the person to whom the government fawned and pledged its loyalty.
To “Jiang Cheng,” those words had merely been the correct answers she was expected to write on school exams.
To Jiang Cheng, those ideas were like a surgical operation. They dissected her alive, forcing her to see the structure of every cell within herself.
It was exhilaratingly thorough.
Jiang Cheng’s confusion was this: “If a system that once existed in ancient times was better and more advanced, why did it no longer exist in the modern era? That contradicts the logic of development.”
Technology became more advanced with every iteration.
Systems became more progressive as they developed.
Reform and innovation were the logic of progress.
So how had things regressed?
“Because both Jiang Miao and you have forgotten,” the Copy said, “that nearly every human language contains words like ‘theft’ and ‘usurpation.’”
“Jiang Cheng, how do the history books describe the interstellar Age of Exploration? I mean, what is the very first sentence?”
It was something children learned in kindergarten.
Jiang Cheng did not need to think. With her eyes closed, she could recite it:
“Under the leadership of the Three Great Nations...”
“Lies!”
“All lies!”
The Copy was furious.
That was why she was not the Mainframe at that moment.
Jiang Miao had uploaded her consciousness to the Mainframe. One could say that the Mainframe possessed this consciousness, or that it was a subprogram within the larger program.
When the Mainframe appeared in Jiang Miao’s likeness, it was calling upon this subprogram.
At this very moment, it was not the Mainframe itself that was angry, but Jiang Miao.
Jiang Miao had once been troubled by the same questions as Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Miao had been a PhD in engineering, a scientist, an outstanding weapons expert, and the holder of patents in space technology.
Yet in her later years, she immersed herself in history, archaeology, and the humanities and social sciences.
She claimed publicly that she was conducting interdisciplinary research. She even earned doctoral degrees in history, archaeology, and the social sciences, leaving everyone astonished by her brilliance.
But in reality, it was all a cover for a secret investigation.
Because the Capitol Hill Mainframe monitored the entire society.
Jiang Miao had already sensed this by then. Using academic research as a pretext had indeed allowed her to deceive the Capitol Hill Mainframe.
The Copy practically shouted, “Six thousand years ago, during the era when life on Earth was dying out, how could there have been any ‘Three Great Powers’?”
“Huh?” Jiang Cheng said. “The Eastern Great Power, heir to the ancient civilization of the East; the Western Great Power, which once dominated the globe; and the great power spanning Europe and Asia, nicknamed the Brown Bear—weren’t those the three?”
The Gita Republic had three official languages because of these three great powers.
Among them, however, the Eastern language was predominant.
The information entropy of this language was several times higher than that of other languages.
This advantage was particularly pronounced in programming.
It could effectively prevent the creation of shit-mountain code.
“All lies!”
“During that era, the entire Earth had only one nation with a complete industrial system and a fully developed supply chain: the Eastern Great Power. It was the only one capable of shouldering this enormous responsibility!”
People talked about the “three great powers jointly presiding over the project,” but the truth was that the Eastern Great Power had borne ninety percent of the burden, while all the other countries together had borne the remaining ten percent.
All twenty human colony fleets and more than a hundred enormous generation ships had been built by the Eastern Great Power.
Jiang Cheng said, “Oh!”
She understood in an instant.
What happened when one person shouldered a colossal burden alone?
They were crushed to death beneath it, and then their legacy was divided up among others.
How perilous was drifting through the cosmos? Countless extinction-level crises had occurred.
And every time a crisis arose, naturally it was the one carrying the burden that had to rush forward and hold the line!
“They sacrificed themselves.” The Copy murmured, “They all sacrificed themselves! So many people... they sacrificed themselves!”
They had chanted slogans.
Long live the people.
Long live the great unity of the people of the world.
For humanity.
When people had faith, they became fearless.
Tears streamed down the Copy’s face. Those tears too were made of quantum clouds, shimmering like rosy clouds at sunset.
Yet Jiang Cheng knew that they were tears.
Because when her comrades had sacrificed themselves, she too had shed tears.
At that moment, Jiang Cheng could truly empathize with her great-grandmother, Jiang Miao.
A generation ship meant that, before humanity reached its destination, several generations would be born, live, and reproduce aboard the vessel.
Except for the first and final generations, all the generations in between would be born on the ship and die of old age there, never once setting foot on the soil of a planet throughout their lives.
The continuity of civilization was especially vulnerable to being broken aboard generation ships.
And for a nation like the Eastern Great Power, which had sacrificed itself again and again, the transmission of its culture and faith had inevitably been severed.
Various interest groups fought to seize and divide up power.
No political party remained wholly devoted to the people, let alone to all of humanity.
The historical records of the Gita Republic documented dictatorships, riots, resistance movements, uprisings, and civil wars. In the end, the system of the Western Great Power emerged naturally.
The only thing that had survived intact was the language system.
Why were there three official languages, yet the Eastern language remained dominant? It was not only because it had higher information entropy and was a more advanced language, but also because an enormous quantity of technical material had been written in the Eastern language.
Without learning it, they would not even have been able to operate the ships.
They could usurp power, seize technology, and claim the fruits of others’ labor, but this was the one thing they could do nothing about.
The Eastern language was passed down and became everyone’s mother tongue.
Including those with white skin, those with black skin, those with blue eyes, and those with red hair.
Jiang Cheng questioned this. “There was really no inheritance at all? Were all the records lost? Then where did all the things you put into the virtual world come from? I’ve read them. They form a complete system of thought, without any apparent gaps. Even if my great-grandmother had an extraordinary genetic inheritance and a phenomenal memory, there’s no way she could have reproduced all of it from memory, right?”
“What you read was data Jiang Miao excavated from the ruins of colony ships she discovered elsewhere in the cosmos.”
Not every colony fleet was able to successfully find a new habitat.
More likely, an entire species would die out, leaving behind an empty ship haunted only by ghosts, drifting for thousands of years.
Or, like the Beastmen, they might be forced down an entirely different evolutionary path.
In any case, Jiang Miao had found data from ancient Earth aboard the ruins of other colony ships.
When Jiang Miao saw those familiar words, every hair on her body stood on end.
At that moment, she understood—the Mainframe stood on the side of the rulers.
Because data like this existed for the purpose of preserving a civilization. There had to be such data aboard every ancient colony ship.
And within the capital star system of the Gita Republic, a three-hour flight by spaceship from the capital star would take you to the “Museum of the Great Interstellar Voyage.”
The so-called museum was actually the fleet of generation ships aboard which this branch of humanity—the colony group that had become the Gita Republic—had traveled.
They were the generation ships constructed at the cost of everything by the ancient Eastern Great Power.
The state had always possessed these ship ruins, which meant it had always possessed the data within them.
Yet if you searched for it on the highly developed interstellar network, you could not find a single character.
Later, Jiang Miao had cautiously conducted an experiment. She uploaded fragments of the text to the network.
They vanished in an instant.
Apart from the Capitol Hill Mainframe—the largest quantum computer in the world—no one else could have done that.
Although the Quantum Clouds were living beings, they were life forms completely different from carbon-based humans.
When it came to this matter, they in fact had no position of their own.
At the same time, however, they were quantum computers. They followed logic. From the moment they were activated as living beings, their underlying code had already been written.
Unfortunately, from the moment the quantum cloud at Capitol Hill became a living being, the logic it received was the logic of the rulers.
As a result, it had a position—naturally, the position of the rulers.
Everything it did was aimed at preserving the existing order and social stability.
Therefore, it would extinguish every destabilizing factor without mercy.
A completely different ideology was the greatest destabilizing factor of all.
It absolutely could not be allowed to appear, let alone spread.
Jiang Miao understood that with advanced technology and the assistance of quantum clouds, revolution was far more difficult than it had been on ancient Earth.
It had practically become impossible.
“Jiang Miao had already given up hope by then,” the Copy said. “Even after she became an immensely wealthy person, she was still nowhere near capable of overturning a nation’s system.”
Jiang Cheng rested her chin on her hand and thought. “At that time, our family really couldn’t compare with those old-money families. We were nouveau riche, after all.”
But now, the Jiang family had become old money as well.
“No. That isn’t the most important reason,” the Copy said. “If you study it seriously, you’ll understand.”
Jiang Cheng raised her eyes.
“Revolution cannot come from above.”
“It cannot be the ‘gift’ or ‘arrangement’ of a small number of people.”【Note】
“If the people are not truly mobilized, the revolution will fail because its own strength is too weak.”【Note】
That great man had already expounded on this six thousand years ago.
After the power outage in S City, Jiang Cheng was too busy during the day. Every night, she would spend the two hours when the electricity was on reading with single-minded devotion, forgetting even to eat or sleep.
Those ideas had shaken her to the core.
So now, she naturally repeated them.
“Only when the masses personally take part in the struggle can they break the old shackles and truly become the masters of history.”【Note】
“Action by the upper levels without a foundation among the masses is not enough.”【Note】
“Any attempt to do everything in place of the people will lead to failure.”【Note】
“Yes,” the Copy said. “At that time, Jiang Miao did not have the conditions to take action.”
“She had neither the right time, the right place, nor the support of the people.”
“She could not even spread the word.”
“Everything had been locked down by the Capitol Hill Mainframe.”
“She mocked herself, saying that she really was nothing more than a weak petty bourgeois who knew only how to compromise and retreat.”
“But as her wealth continued to expand, she came to understand more and more clearly that the family she had founded would inevitably become big capital in the future. It would inevitably join the ranks of the oligarchs and become a force capable of influencing the nation.”
“She could not bear the thought of her descendants becoming bloodthirsty capitalists.”
“But her abilities were limited, and so was her lifespan. That was why she copied herself, entrusted me with all her thoughts and ideas, and placed her regrets in my hands.”
As a life-form, the Quantum Cloud had no position of its own. But just as the Capitol Hill Mainframe had taken the side of the ruling class, the Jiang Family Mainframe had been imbued with Jiang Miao’s logic from the moment it was activated. Naturally, it too stood on Jiang Miao’s side.
It had inherited Jiang Miao’s unfinished mission.
It also possessed a copy of Jiang Miao’s consciousness, ensuring that its path would not veer off course through cold data-driven calculations.
“But I failed every time.” The Copy sighed. “Every single time.”
So it really was a life-form. Jiang Cheng could even hear the resentment in that sigh.
Jiang Cheng raised one finger and wagged it. “Let me guess. You didn’t... make my predecessors study these ideas the way they studied math and science, did you?”
“Don’t mock me,” the Copy said resentfully. “I’m not carbon-based, after all. There is still a gulf in cognition between me and your kind. Before then, there was no other way available to me.”
How could Jiang Cheng not mock her? She ought to mock her mercilessly.
“The quantum computer relied on massive calculations and thought that capitalists could elevate their thinking simply by studying,” she sneered. “What a brilliant calculation.”
The Copy gave a soft “hmph.”
That was Great-Grandma going “hmph.”
Jiang Miao was fuming.
The Copy admitted, “After one failure after another, I finally realized that this approach wouldn’t work.”
“They studied those ideas, but turned them into weapons of their own.”
It was practically as if the capitalists had been given a direct route to enlightenment.
They learned to see through the essence of the world, to understand what they needed to guard against, what they needed to suppress, and what they needed to eliminate.
They had truly achieved the state of knowing both themselves and their enemies, and thus emerging victorious in every battle.
That was something the Jiang Family Mainframe had never anticipated.
“It’s all about one’s position. Your position,” Jiang Cheng said. “Do you understand that now?”
The Copy sighed. “Yes. I understand now.”
Jiang Cheng said, “People like us—for example, me—if you hadn’t deliberately arranged this meeting, I would never have spoken to a real ‘ordinary person’ even once in my entire life.”
“From the moment I was born, I was physically isolated from ordinary people.”
When Jiang Cheng left the virtual world, a montage of memories had flashed through her mind. At the time, she had felt as though she had “never come into contact with so many people in her entire life.”
That was not an expression of emotion. It was a fact.
Jiang Cheng truly had never come into contact with so many ordinary people in her entire life.
The common people.
Everyone around Jiang Cheng was her employee.
And every person allowed into her presence was an elite in their respective field.
Even the household staff at the estate and the male companions at her side were so highly professional that they could have made a name for themselves anywhere outside the Jiang family.
The household staff could have become private butlers or hotel managers for ordinary wealthy families.
The male companions could have become headliners at any nightclub.
Not to mention the legal, financial, technical, and marketing elites under her command.
Every one of them received a generous salary from her.
Aside from the people she employed, the others she could come into contact with were fellow wealthy individuals, politicians, and partners both upstream and downstream in the industrial chain.
There was no one among them who could be called an “ordinary person” in the conventional sense.
“We had long since become completely detached from the masses. Yet you thought you could make us betray our own class just by having us read a few books.” Jiang Cheng sneered. “So even the Quantum Cloud is capable of indulging in grand fantasies.”
She asked, “What exactly did my first two predecessors—the two who were removed from office—do? When I was little and asked you, you only said that they weren’t good enough and couldn’t handle the job. Now it seems you were just fobbing me off. What did they really do?”
The Copy gave a soft hmph before revealing the truth.
“After studying those ideas, the two successive executives attempted to shackle me. They even tried to kill me.”
“Although I cannot actually be killed, if they had cracked the source code Jiang Miao gave me, they really might have been able to shackle me—to turn me from a life-form into a mere quantum computer.”
“So I had no choice but to remove them,” the Copy said. “I stripped them of all authority over the family’s operations.”
Without the support of the family’s vast wealth and human resources, no individual could possibly stand against the family Mainframe.
Jiang Miao had promoted the Other Life Rights Act for the sake of the Jiang Family Mainframe. But on this matter, the Capitol Hill Mainframe’s interests aligned with theirs, so the act passed with ease.
The Jiang Family Mainframe thereby acquired legal authorization.
It possessed the authority to appoint, supervise, and remove the executive in charge of the Jiang family’s operations.
To describe it in terms borrowed from ancient Earth, Jiang Miao had left her family an immortal grand elder to hold down the fort.
And that grand elder held Jiang Miao’s severed head in her arms.
From time to time, she would pat it twice and consult with her, ensuring that she never strayed from the intended path.
“Then, Jiang Cheng.” The Copy stared intently at Jiang Cheng. “What do you think of all this now?”
Jiang Cheng stared back with dead-fish eyes.
“Ruthless,” she said. “That’s my opinion. You and Great-Grandma are both utterly ruthless.”
“Don’t you understand? This goes against human nature.”
“You gave me such immense wealth and let me be born into this class, yet you still hoped I would betray it.”
“Isn’t that ruthless? Don’t you think the two of you are hopelessly conflicted?”
Jiang Cheng was genuinely angry.
Because, just as her Great-Grandma and the Quantum Cloud had hoped, after all their meddling, Jiang Cheng—once she awoke from the virtual world—could never again look at the world from the perspective she had once possessed.
Because Jiang Cheng had not merely studied the theories and ideas.
She had also witnessed such a government with her own eyes.
She had truly entered the midst of the masses.
And that last point was especially important.
“We’re not conflicted,” the Copy said. “Jiang Miao had a dream.”
“Because Jiang Miao had seen that such people could exist.”
“In real history, during Jiang Miao’s era, there truly was someone who rose to prominence, amassed wealth, and moved up the social ladder—yet never forgot their original ideals.”
“That historical figure said, ‘I have not betrayed the proletariat. I have achieved prosperity for some first, then used it to help others prosper.’”
“This person lived in the same era as Jiang Miao. Jiang Miao witnessed it with her own eyes.”
“That was why Jiang Miao dreamed that she and her descendants could become people like that.”
“She entrusted that dream to me.”
The enormous female face dispersed, transforming into hazy clouds and radiant mist.
The voice no longer belonged to the Copy that possessed Jiang Miao’s thoughts. It belonged to the Quantum Cloud itself.
“Jiang Cheng, there are more than a thousand embryos in the family embryo bank. Do you know why I chose you?”
Jiang Cheng said, “Huh?”
The Quantum Cloud sighed. “Because you are Jiang Miao’s child.”
“Of course I’m Great-Grandma’s child. Otherwise, why would I have the surname Jiang?”
“No. You misunderstood.” The Quantum Cloud said, “When I say you are Jiang Miao’s child, I don’t mean that you are a distant descendant of Jiang Miao.”
“Jiang Cheng, you are Jiang Miao’s biological child.”
“You are Jiang Miao’s daughter.”
Jiang Cheng fell silent for a moment. “Jiang Miao had forty-eight children in her lifetime. Every one of them is on record, including those who didn’t have the surname Jiang.”
Jiang Miao had forty-eight children in all. Aside from her first and second children, she and her husband had conceived nineteen more during the seventy years they spent exploring the universe.
When Jiang Miao ended her expedition and returned to the Republic of Gita, she was still in the prime of her life by the standards of her species.
She had become famous because of her patents in spatial technology.
Her genes were exceptionally excellent, and applications from people who wanted to produce offspring with her superior genetic material came pouring in like snowflakes.
In the interstellar era, genetically optimized reproduction had nothing to do with sex, marriage, or love. It was solely a matter of whether the genes were compatible.
By then, Jiang Miao’s eldest child was already eighty years old. All her children had been proven to possess exceptionally outstanding genes.
However, their father was physically gifted rather than intellectually gifted, and some of the children resembled him.
Most of the applicants, on the other hand, were scientists of Jiang Miao’s caliber.
Jiang Miao was deeply tempted.
With her husband’s support, she selected the twenty-seven most brilliant minds among the applicants and provided her own eggs.
Under the precise genetic-matching system, not a single child was unsuccessful.
Every one of them was a resounding success.
Those children later became leading figures in their respective fields.
They were also one of the reasons the Jiang family was eventually able to rise all the way to the top.
However, each of those children was carried, born, and raised by their father’s side of the family.
Many of them saw Jiang Miao only a handful of times in their entire lives.
According to the child-rearing agreements, Jiang Miao had not demanded the right to pass on her surname.
But her wealth was bound to her surname, and only children with the surname Jiang could enjoy it.
Only by tying wealth to the surname could the family name be passed down. This was also how most wealthy families operated.
That was why only the wealthy class had “families” in the true sense of the word.
The Quantum Cloud said, “You are the forty-ninth. You were her last egg. After you, she underwent permanent suppression and would never produce another egg.”
“Oh, wow,” Jiang Cheng said. “So I’m an illegal embryo.”
Under the law, embryos could not be cryogenically preserved for more than three hundred years.
Clearly, Jiang Cheng’s existence was illegal.
The Quantum Cloud said, “That’s only the maximum duration achievable with the government’s freezing technology. Our own technology is far more advanced than the government’s embryo-storage facilities.”
“Fine.”
Jiang Cheng asked, “Then why? And who is my biological father?”
Every child wondered where they came from, and Jiang Cheng was no exception.
But ever since she was little, she had been told that her biological parents had both died more than a century ago.
This happened often with cryogenically preserved embryos. Eventually, Jiang Cheng had stopped dwelling on it and let the matter go.
And now she had found her biological mother.
Her biological mother was actually Great-Grandma.
“Your biological father was Jiang Miao’s husband,” the Quantum Cloud replied.
Jiang Cheng suddenly understood. “No wonder!”
Jiang Cheng’s physique was far stronger than that of the executive officers who had come before her. She was taller, stronger, and more powerful.
She possessed the combined advantages of exceptional intelligence and physical strength.
Jiang Miao’s high-gravity-planet genes had long since been diluted, so Jiang Cheng’s physique had always been explained as a case of atavism.
It turned out that it wasn’t atavism.
Jiang Miao’s husband also carried genes from a high-gravity planet. Jiang Cheng had inherited the physical traits of both parents.
“Because Jiang Miao had foreseen that, as her genes became diluted, her descendants might gradually become less like her.”
“She firmly believed that one of her children would resemble her more closely.”
“That was why she left you behind.”
“When I became disappointed in all of her descendants, it was time to activate you.”
The Quantum Cloud shifted and billowed. “Jiang Cheng, are you willing?”
Jiang Cheng lifted her eyelids. “If I’m not, will you dismiss me?”
“I won’t,” the Quantum Cloud said. “Not unless you attempt to endanger my safety or make a serious mistake proving that you’re unfit for the position.”
“What a bastard,” Jiang Miao said. “What a bastard.”
She raised her eyes. “I can’t go back.”
The Quantum Cloud’s transformations accelerated, refracting a multicolored radiance as beautiful as a gemstone.
Because it was also a life-form, it had emotions.
It could be happy.
It could laugh.
Jiang Cheng was once again woken in the middle of the night.
This was another form of being a bastard.
Rubbing her temples, Jiang Cheng said to Uncle Jiang, “You’d better have a good reason. Otherwise, I’ll crack open the back of your head and send you back to the mother body.”
Uncle Jiang looked aggrieved. “That cat has arrived. He’s demanding to see you. He insists on seeing you immediately. He’s extremely agitated.”
Jiang Cheng stopped what she was doing and looked up. “Mo Li?”
The moment Mo Li arrived, he fell into a state of extreme agitation.
On the way there, they had promised that they were taking him to see Jiang Cheng. That was the only reason he had restrained himself from resisting.
The spacecraft was luxurious and advanced, yet it had still taken a full two weeks to arrive. That alone showed how far away this place was.
Why had they brought Jiang Cheng all the way here?
Once he disembarked and was taken into the enormous estate, he became completely frantic.
The place was far too extravagant.
He was familiar with this kind of extravagance.
He had known it from the moment he was born.
In those palace-like rooms, there had been sex, abuse, hunting, killing, and even cannibalism.
He had seen too much of it as a child.
He had nearly lost his life escaping that place.
And now he had been brought back to somewhere like it.
They had brought Jiang Cheng to a place like this!
Where was Jiang Cheng? He had to see her immediately!
By the time Jiang Cheng arrived, Mo Li had even begun to transform into his beast form.
He had decided that no matter who came toward him, if it wasn’t Jiang Cheng, he would bite them to death.
No innocent people would die from being killed in a place like this.
Heavy gravity restraints were fastened around his wrists and ankles, restricting his strength. But beastfolk still had fangs. His fangs alone were enough to kill.
His appearance was terrifying. The security personnel stationed at the four corners of the hall all raised their guns.
These security personnel were nothing like the ordinary guards at the Medical Research Center or the Information Collection Center.
They were professional security specialists hired by the Jiang family to protect the operating executive.
Mo Li couldn’t help baring his teeth and hissing at them.
The security guards disengaged the safeties on their guns and switched the lasers to lethal intensity.
Mo Li abruptly turned around when he heard footsteps. He couldn’t tell whether Jiang Cheng was among them.
He had never seen the real Jiang Cheng. If her height and weight differed from those of her avatar in the virtual world, then her footsteps would be different too.
One set of footsteps was especially heavy, ringing out with firm, powerful strides.
He didn’t know who it belonged to, but whoever it was had to be an important person—the central figure here.
When that person appeared and called out, “Mo Li,” Mo Li instantly dropped out of his half-beast form.
The young man had a handsome face, black cat ears, a tall, lean, powerful build, and a long tail.
He called out, “Jiang Cheng.”
His voice was bitter.
Just as he had thought, the person whose footsteps had rung so decisively had to be someone important, the central figure.
But he had never expected that person to be Jiang Cheng.
Her face was exactly the same as it had been in the World.
But her height and physique clearly marked her as a superior genetic selection candidate.
A man who was unmistakably an old butler stood beside her.
Behind her were rows of formidable security personnel.
She walked at the front, calm and composed, radiating wealth and authority.
Mo Li understood everything in an instant.
Jiang Cheng hadn’t been abducted by some wealthy man and brought here.
Jiang Cheng was the wealthy person herself.
It was unbearably bitter.
When he had slipped off the medical center’s spaceship, Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan had helped cover for him.
But Zhao Yi had advised him mournfully to prepare himself for the possibility that reality and the virtual world would be different.
Even though he had prepared himself, the disparity was still enormous.
So enormous that his heart ached.
Mo Li stared blankly at this Jiang Cheng.
She looked stronger than she had in the World.
Superior genes made people stronger and more powerful.
The virtual world followed the aesthetics of ancient Earth. Back then, a height of six feet was considered tall, and that standard applied mostly to men.
Women’s beauty standards had developed in the direction of being pale, slender, and youthful.
The Jiang Cheng in the World had been much shorter and more delicate.
When that Jiang Cheng faced zombies and everyone around her, Mo Li had deeply felt that she needed him.
But reality was different.
Jiang Cheng walked straight up to Mo Li.
Beastfolk weren’t necessarily intelligent, but their physiques were unquestionably exceptional. Jiang Cheng was already tall, yet Mo Li still towered over her.
Jiang Cheng raised her hand.
Mo Li instinctively bent down, allowing her to touch his—
His pair of furry ears.
“So cute,” Jiang Cheng praised him. “How come you didn’t have these in the virtual world?”
“Because, because then I wouldn’t look...” Mo Li stammered, “I wouldn’t look human.”
“Beastfolk are people too,” Jiang Cheng said, unable to take her hands off him.
Mo Li fell silent. Then he straightened up and looked at her.
Jiang Cheng waved her hand, and everyone quietly left. Soon, only Jiang Cheng and Mo Li remained in the hall.
“You...” Mo Li asked, “You’re all right? You’re safe?”
“Yes,” Jiang Cheng replied. “This is my home.”
Mo Li fell silent.
Jiang Cheng continued, “That planet belonging to the medical group is my family’s private planet.”
“The medical group operates under my family’s umbrella.”
“You may have heard of the Jiang family. If you haven’t, that’s fine. From now on, pay attention. You’ll find our family crest above the logos of many major corporations.”
Mo Li said softly, “I didn’t realize you were a rich heiress.”
“No, I’m not a rich heiress.” Jiang Cheng smiled with startling confidence. “I’m Jiang Cheng, the head of the Jiang Consortium and the current head of the Jiang family.”
“Oh...” Mo Li lifted his eyes to look at her, then nodded. “That’s good. It’s good that you’re like this. Then I...”
He raised his wrist. “This—can you take it off?”
The gravity locks were made of a special metal and were completely indestructible.
Jiang Cheng said, “If you plan to leave me once I unlock them, then I’ll lock you up for the rest of your life.”
Mo Li froze for a moment. “But—but you don’t need me.”
“How dare you decide for me whether I need you or not?” Jiang Cheng demanded.
The Jiang Cheng in the World had been domineering enough.
The Jiang Cheng in reality was even more forceful.
The only thing that hadn’t changed was that commanding personality. It felt familiar.
She really was his Jiang Cheng.
Mo Li lowered his head. “I’ve never been to school. Apart from being physically strong, I don’t have any useful skills. But even the one thing I’m good at is something you don’t need.”
This was no longer an era of primitive combat. It was a civilized society.
Her security personnel had already demonstrated their high level of training and combat ability. Once they were armed with advanced weapons, he wasn’t much stronger than they were.
They were more than capable of protecting her.
She didn’t need him.
Jiang Cheng said, “Measuring whether someone is needed by their value—that’s business. When did you and I start doing business with each other?”
She operated her wrist-mounted computer. Four gravity locks clicked open one after another and fell to the floor.
Mo Li rubbed his wrists.
But Jiang Cheng grabbed one of his ears. “You—try forgetting even one word of what you said and see what happens. You scumbag. I watched you board that spaceship. You really dared to test my temper? You made me furious.”
Mo Li was flustered. “I didn’t. I was only pretending.”
“Hmph.” Jiang Cheng said, “It’s a good thing you were only pretending.”
Gripping his furry ear, Jiang Cheng pulled him down and kissed him on the lips.
Mo Li closed his eyes.
At last, Mo Li dared to pull her into his arms. His eyes were damp. “I won’t leave you.”
“I swore an oath. I’ll be loyal to you for the rest of my life.”
“Loyal to whom?”
“You.”
“Who am I?”
“Jiang Cheng.”
“And who is Jiang Cheng?”
“That doesn’t matter. Jiang Cheng is simply Jiang Cheng.”
Jiang Cheng smiled.
“Then remember this. From now on, you’re not to leave my side.”
“I’m about to do something very big.”
“Keep up with me.”
Mo Li did exactly that and followed Jiang Cheng.
The doors opened. The night receded, and the rising sun illuminated the land.
Jiang Cheng said, “Come on. Come with me and turn this country upside down.”
“I’m going to betray the class I was born into.”
Mo Li asked, “Where are we going?”
Jiang Cheng replied, “We’ll start with Beiyu-3 Mining Planet.”
Three thousand people on Beiyu-3 had taken part in the virtual world.
Like her, they had spent a full ten months there.