Chapter 156: Qin Hai Side Story

“That gang from the East District is stealing our business. We haven’t made a cent in three days.”

“Little Brother called in. They’re heading to Dingsheng Internet Cafe tonight to play games.”

“We’ll stake out the entrance. I don’t believe they won’t come out!”

…

The first time Qin Hai saw Su Fengxiu, she was plotting with a few thugs to ambush someone with clubs. He had no interest in such things; he was simply lying under a pedestrian bridge, staring blankly into space.

The year was 2975, his nineteenth year on Shuilan Star. He was born into a declining cultivation family on the Xiuyuan Continent. The family had many children, and from birth, he was never valued. When he was fifteen, his father gave him away to an elder of a cultivation sect to serve as a human cauldron just to curry favor.

His mother died saving him. In the years that followed, he worked as a servant and a medicinal boy, eventually becoming a disciple of a mid-tier sect through a stroke of luck. Before he could even settle in, the sect decided to use him as a medicinal primer for their cultivation. He escaped the sect by the skin of his teeth, harboring only one thought: to become the strongest being on the Xiuyuan Continent.

The Xiuyuan Continent was a place where the strong preyed on the weak, but it was also filled with opportunities. Fighting fierce beasts, bidding for spirit herbs, forging dharma treasures… over the next three thousand years, he continuously increased his strength. He eventually rose from a mere family scion to become the revered Venerable Xiu Hai.

By then, he knew the world consisted of three thousand Great Planes and millions of Small Planes; the Xiuyuan Continent was but a fraction of the vast multiverse. By chance, he obtained a supreme dharma treasure capable of deceiving the Heavenly Secrets, and using it, he stepped through the void.

He traveled through thousands of planes. He visited the Dwarf Plane and saw the Steel Plane filled with towering mechs. Everywhere he went, he collected the rare artifacts of those worlds. Over time, these grew into a staggering collection.

After an unknown number of ages, cracks appeared in the supreme dharma treasure, and the Laws of the Planes manifested. To evade these laws, he needed to find a plane to undergo his tribulation.

Shuilan Star was his chosen tribulation planet.

As Qin Hai was lost in these scattered thoughts, a crisp voice sounded beside him: “Hey!”

It was a lean girl of about sixteen. She had an oval face with two freckles on the bridge of her nose, and she was glaring at him fiercely. “How much did you just hear?”

“Hear what?”

“Our conversation!”

“Dingsheng Internet Cafe?”

Qin Hai wasn’t in the habit of eavesdropping, but their voices had been so loud it was hard not to hear.

Qin Hai had no interest in their affairs and simply stood up to leave.

“Did you hear me or not!” the girl shouted behind him.

One of the thugs received a call. “The East District gang has arrived.”

The girl ignored Qin Hai and led her group straight toward Dingsheng.

The girl’s name was Su Fengxiu. She and her associates, including Old Three, ran a scrap yard in the West District of Rong County. Starting last month, the amount of scrap they collected had been dwindling. After some investigation, they found that the East District scrap yard was maliciously intercepting their suppliers. Today, they were out to reclaim their territory.

At nine in the evening, the group staked out a spot opposite Dingsheng. They planned to seize the leader of the East District gang and then negotiate territory.

Time ticked by. At 11:20, Old Three suddenly said, “They’re out!”

Everyone looked toward the internet cafe. A bald man with a cigarette in his mouth swayed as he turned into a nearby alley.

“Go!”

The group immediately followed him into the alley.

The alley was pitch black. Before the group could react, footsteps echoed from both sides. Then, the East District leader emerged from the shadows. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

Su Fengxiu and her crew realized they had been counter-ambushed.

“The West District scrap is our responsibility,” Su Fengxiu said.

“If people want to sell to us, what’s it to you?” the East District leader replied.

“You’re blatantly stealing!”

In today’s rule-of-law society, they didn’t exactly mark out territory like kings, but the East District scrap yard used foul tactics to threaten the West District suppliers, turning the Rong County scrap market into a chaotic mess.

“Just a bunch of brats,” the East District leader ordered his men to attack.

There were seven from the West District and twelve from the East. The West District side was losing ground rapidly.

Seeing the situation turn dire, Su Fengxiu grabbed a brick to strike. But before she could swing, she was restrained by the bald leader. “You little brat!”

The bald leader was about to teach Su Fengxiu a lesson when light footsteps sounded at the alley entrance. It was a young man of about nineteen. The youth seemed stunned to see the confrontation and immediately turned to leave.

The bald leader snarled, “Scram!”

The youth didn’t look back and continued walking away.

Ten seconds later, the brawl resumed in the alley. Su Fengxiu felt a wave of despair. The youth was the one she had met under the bridge. Now that he had left and the location was so secluded, they were definitely going to get thrashed…

Just as Su Fengxiu was ready to give up, five police officers suddenly appeared. “Hands on your heads! Don’t move!”

Half an hour later, all nineteen people were taken to the police station.

The ordeal didn’t end until four in the morning. Because the East District gang had prior records, they were detained for fifteen days. The West District group was allowed to leave after their records were filed.

“Thank you, Officer,” Su Fengxiu said gratefully as they left.

The officer was a young man in his twenties. He said, “Don’t thank me. Someone called it in. You kids just turned eighteen, right? Watch fewer Hong Kong action movies in the future.”

As the officer continued his lecture, Su Fengxiu asked, “Who reported it?”

“A young man in grey clothes… Never mind who reported it. Just make sure there’s no more fighting, you understand?”

“Understood!”

Su Fengxiu and the others hurried away.

After this incident, the territory dispute between the East and West Districts quieted down. Su Fengxiu kept thinking about the young man in grey. She knew the one who called the police was the youth who had overheard them.

Over the next month, Su Fengxiu looked for the young man in grey, both intentionally and unintentionally. Despite Rong County being small, she couldn’t find him anywhere.

Just as Su Fengxiu was about to give up, she suddenly ran into the youth at a construction site in the South District.

At the time, the young man was shirtless, hauling bags of cement with a group of workers.

She watched him for a long while, then stepped forward when he took a break. “Thank you for what happened last time.”

The young man glanced at her. “Oh.”

Su Fengxiu had imagined many scenarios of them meeting again, but she never expected it to be so indifferent.

Over the next three months, she frequently visited the construction site in the southern part of the city. The young man performed backbreaking labor, yet his movements were lazy and casual, as if he weren’t looking for a livelihood, but simply experiencing life.

The turning point came one day, three months later.

That day, she arrived at the site again, but before she could find the young man, she was cornered by the gang from the eastern part of the city.

“You got us detained for fifteen days last time. Feeling pretty smug, aren’t you?” the bald leader growled menacingly.

Five men were surrounding her, and Su Fengxiu felt the situation was dire. Just then, the young man walked by with a towel in his hand. Their eyes met, and she instinctively wanted to call for help, but she forced the words back down.

These people were after her; there was no need to involve anyone else.

She was dragged into a nearby empty room. Because she was dressed lightly, the group began to harbor sinister intentions.

She had never been as terrified as she was today. She secretly gripped a steel nail, prepared to go down fighting, when the door to the room swung open.

A man who looked like a foreman entered. “What are you doing in here? If you want to cause trouble, take it outside!”

The gang from the east were nothing but bullies who preyed on the weak. Hearing this, they muttered some excuses and left.

Su Fengxiu’s grip on the steel nail loosened. She felt as though she had just walked back from the gates of hell.

Then, a shadow appeared before her. Qin Hai frowned and said, “I’m leaving Rong County tomorrow. Don’t come looking for me again.”

Su Fengxiu had been running to the construction site every day for three months; it was impossible to ignore someone so prominent.

Su Fengxiu asked, “Where are you going tomorrow?”

“I don’t know.”

He truly didn’t know where he was going. In his eyes, Shuilan Star was merely a small plane devoid of Qi. He only needed to endure sixty years here.

Early the next morning, Qin Hai arrived at the Rong County bus station. He had been on the bus for less than five minutes when a slender figure appeared at the door.

Su Fengxiu, carrying a backpack, sat down next to him without hesitation. “We meet again!”

Qin Hai frowned and asked, “Where are you going?”

“I’m going wherever you go.”

…

Qin Hai felt as though Su Fengxiu’s brain had rusted shut. When he traveled from Rong County to Liaohe and Su Fengxiu followed him off the bus, he finally realized she was serious.

“I heard the people at the site say your name is Qin Hai? My name is Su Fengxiu…” Su Fengxiu chattered on.

“Aren’t you going home?” Qin Hai stopped in his tracks.

“I don’t have a home. I was just renting a place before…”

Su Fengxiu was born in the mountains of Yun Province. At seven, she was sold by her parents to a border town. Her foster parents beat and scolded her constantly. She ran away at twelve and eventually ended up at a scrap yard in Rong County.

The scrap business was struggling lately, so a few days ago, she sold the yard to an internet cafe owner. That owner had some influence in Rong County, and her former associates were now working there as network administrators and cashiers, living a much easier life than fighting over scrap territory.

After Su Fengxiu finished her rambling explanation, Qin Hai asked, “How old are you?”

“Three months shy of nineteen.”

Qin Hai looked at her frame. Su Fengxiu was very thin; he had previously assumed she was a minor.

Qin Hai hated trouble, but since Su Fengxiu wouldn’t go back and their backgrounds were somewhat similar, he eventually gave his silent consent for her to follow him.

This following lasted for seven years.

The two of them traveled from the southern tip of the country to the northern coast. During that time, they pushed snack carts and worked on construction sites. When they worked at the sites, Qin Hai would usually do the labor while Su Fengxiu sold rice porridge and hot dishes at the entrance. Riding the wave of Longxia’s reforms, they didn’t become fabulously wealthy, but they lived a decent life.

An episode occurred during this period: one day on the way home from work, they spotted the bald leader from the east.

The bald man was drunk, urinating against a wall.

With perfect unspoken coordination, the two of them threw a sack over his head and gave him a thorough beating. The blows weren’t fatal, but they were incredibly painful, leaving bruises that wouldn’t fade for a long time.

That was an exceptionally happy day for Su Fengxiu. As they lay together on a rooftop under a starlit sky, Su Fengxiu suddenly asked, “Brother Qin, do you want to marry me?”

Over the years, Su Fengxiu had made such jokes before, but she had never been this serious.

Qin Hai was stunned.

In all the ages he had lived, he had never considered marriage or children. He suddenly realized that while seven years was but a blink of an eye to him, it was a significant portion of Su Fengxiu’s life.

As Qin Hai considered how to refuse, a sharp pain shot through his chest. Although he was undergoing a tribulation, he was still tracked by the laws of the plane every few years. Whenever this happened, he could only grit his teeth and hide until the tracking period passed.

The pain in his chest intensified, and fine beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.

“Don’t scare me!” Su Fengxiu cried out in alarm, preparing to go down and call for help.

Qin Hai grabbed her arm. “No need to find anyone.”

After saying that, he passed out.

Su Fengxiu was caught in a dilemma. She felt Qin Hai’s forehead; it was as hot as a branding iron.

Gritting her teeth, she called emergency services anyway.

Early the next morning, when Qin Hai woke up, he saw Su Fengxiu sitting by the bed with red eyes. There were finger-shaped bruises on her arm where he had gripped her.

Seeing him wake, Su Fengxiu hurriedly called for the doctor, then sobbed, “If you don’t want to marry me, then don’t. You didn’t have to react that strongly.”

The scene from the previous day had been too terrifying. She had spent the whole night thinking, assuming Qin Hai had developed a high fever from the shock of her proposal.

“I know I’m not pretty, and I have a bad temper…” Su Fengxiu began listing her flaws.

Qin Hai looked at her.

Su Fengxiu wasn’t classically beautiful, but she was delicate and graceful, much like her name. After watching her for a long moment, he said, “It’s not that I don’t want to marry you.”

Qin Hai chose his words carefully. “I can marry you, but I’m not sure if I like you.” Qin Hai felt the word “like” was very awkward. Aside from the treasures within his supreme artifacts, he had never liked any other living being.

If it were anyone else, they would surely feel that Qin Hai was being irresponsible, but Su Fengxiu was overjoyed after hearing his words. “You’ll marry me?”

Qin Hai nodded. “If you’re willing.”

Three months later, the two returned to Gaojia Ridge. His foster parents on Shuilan Star had already passed away, leaving him an old house. The two cleaned the residence and held a wedding according to local customs.

On the wedding night, Qin Hai asked, “If I were an alien, would you be afraid?”

Currently, a movie titled “From Outer Space” was in theaters. It was the world’s first phenomenal blockbuster, with newspapers both at home and abroad reporting on it.

After Qin Hai spoke, Su Fengxiu said seriously, “I know.”

Qin Hai was stunned.

“I found out the night you had a fever.”

Back then, when Qin Hai had a fever, a layer of golden light like the one in the movie appeared on his body. She thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, but after thinking it over a few days later, she realized the golden light was definitely not normal. She worried the light was bad for Qin Hai’s health, but as for him being an alien… she wasn’t afraid at all.

“Is the golden light harmful to your body?” Su Fengxiu asked.

“It is protective golden light,” Qin Hai replied.

Su Fengxiu did not press further, and the “alien” issue was simply put behind them.

This was the first time Qin Hai had lived intimately with another person. He originally thought he wouldn’t get used to it, but life together was more stable and happy than he had imagined.

In the second year after their marriage, they gave birth to an only son, Qin Anshun.

When Qin Hai was fifty-two, his son had a grandson, Qin Yun. When Qin Yun was three years old, his son and daughter-in-law died in a car accident.

Qin Hai understood that his son and daughter-in-law were the punishment of the laws of the plane.

“Anshun is gone, but we still have Xiao Yun. We just need to raise Xiao Yun,” Su Fengxiu comforted him through her tears.

Qin Hai looked at Qin Yun. As his Tribulation Transcendence period drew near, the punishments around him would increase. This was the penalty the laws of the plane imposed on those traveling through different worlds.

Qin Hai stayed in his son’s room for three days and nights. When he finally emerged, he held a longevity lock in his hand. Qin Yun was three years old at the time; Qin Hai hung the lock around the boy’s neck, and it merged into Qin Yun’s body.

When he was sixty, Su Fengxiu contracted an incurable disease. He possessed countless rare and exotic magical treasures, but during his Tribulation Transcendence period, these treasures could not evade the laws of the plane. Even if used, they would rapidly decay. As Su Fengxiu’s health worsened, Qin Hai asked, “Do you have any wishes left?”

Su Fengxiu thought for a moment. She wanted to see the world fifty years into the future. Everyone has fantasies about the future; she wanted to know if there would be flying cars, hundred-story skyscrapers, and immersive movies…

Qin Hai searched through his supreme treasures and found a Dream Stone.

The Dream Stone could evade the laws and evolve the secrets of heaven within a three-hundred-year span. He took Su Fengxiu into a dream world fifty years in the future. They had expected a world full of wonders, but instead, plants were withered, oceans were dried up, and skeletons were scattered everywhere in ruined cities…

Fifty years later, the Shuilan Star was left with only a few saprophytic animals. Not a single human remained.

Humanity was extinct.

The two searched through the Dream Stone’s revelations only to find that it all originated from a torrential acid rain.

“Is there any possibility of recovery?” Su Fengxiu asked.

“I don’t know,” Qin Hai said as he performed his calculations.

The rise and fall of a plane follows certain laws. After countless calculations, the vitality of Shuilan Star remained at zero.

Su Fengxiu felt deep heartache. “What a pity for the persimmon tree on the mountain.”

When Anshun was born, they had planted a persimmon tree on the mountain. Now the tree was thirty-two years old, but fifty years later, it would be gone.

As Su Fengxiu’s body grew weaker, she looked at Qin Hai and asked, “Do you know when I first liked you?”

“At the Dingsheng Internet Cafe?”

Su Fengxiu shook her head. “No, it was that afternoon when I saw you while riding my bike over the pedestrian bridge…”

She had been riding past the bridge when she saw Qin Hai lying there lazily. She felt her heart race violently. That evening, when everyone was discussing the scrap station matter, she had impulsively suggested the bridge as the meeting spot. When the group arrived and her eyes met Qin Hai’s, she felt as if her heart was about to take flight.

She liked Qin Hai; she had liked him from the very first glance.

“In all these years, have you ever liked me?” Su Fengxiu asked.

Qin Hai remained silent for a long while. Just as he was about to answer, Su Fengxiu spoke again. “You have.”

She wasn’t just comforting herself; she truly felt that Qin Hai liked her. Qin Hai had a strange temperament. If he didn’t like her, he never would have married her. His temperament was so peculiar that he hadn’t even noticed it himself.

“My life has been very happy,” Su Fengxiu said with great satisfaction.

Qin Hai took her right hand. “Mine too.” Then he answered her first question. “I liked you before, and I like you now.”

Su Fengxiu passed away peacefully.

After handling Su Fengxiu’s funeral, Qin Hai looked at the seven-year-old Qin Yun, who was holding Su Fengxiu’s portrait with red, swollen eyes.

Qin Hai asked, “If the Shuilan Star were gone, would you be unhappy?”

“Wah!”

Qin Yun burst into loud sobs. “If Shuilan Star is gone, will Xiao Huang, Xiao Ju, and Xiao Lü be gone too?”

Xiao Huang, Xiao Ju, and Xiao Lü were the flowers he had planted by the door. Now that Grandma was gone, the flowers might be gone too. The more he thought about it, the sadder he became, crying until he could hardly catch his breath.

“Don’t cry,” Qin Hai comforted him, rubbing the boy’s head.

Shuilan Star was not perfect, but it held a warmth he hadn’t felt in tens of thousands of years. Every life here had its own color; they shouldn’t all disappear without any chance of salvation…

Over the next five years, Qin Hai calculated incessantly and finally found a Seed of Hope. The Seed of Hope was a God-grade treasure that could give a plane a second lease on life, but it required the plane’s power of hope as nourishment. This was the only chance to remedy the crisis.

He sealed the Seed of Hope into Qin Yun’s longevity lock.

The longevity lock was a System treasure refined from a supreme treasure. It could provide rewards through tasks. The reward process belonged to the realm of “Karma” and was not restricted by the laws of the plane. This was also the auxiliary treasure for the Aqua Blue Crisis.

After completing all of this, he felt his end drawing near. Since the Supreme Treasure had left his side, he had spent these years constantly battling the laws of the plane. Having experienced both profound sorrow and immense joy, he had gradually come to understand the workings of these natural laws.

When the laws of the plane manifested once again, Qin Hai stepped through the void.

He intended to undergo his tribulation under the very rules of the plane’s laws. If he succeeded, he could continue his travels; if he failed, he would dissipate into the heavens and earth.

Regardless of success or failure, he no longer harbored any great regrets.