Naming Technique of the Night

Chapter 754: 442, one tael of gold and a secret

Qing Chen had been busy all night.

It was not until early morning that he changed his clothes and came to Third District Building.

Wearing a Bluetooth headset, he heard a voice say through the earpiece, “Isn’t charging 100,000 Gold from the Outer World for this project reasonable?”

It was uncertain when exactly Qing Yi had begun asking for money so humbly.

In fact, the value that Qing Yi displayed tonight could justify even asking for ten million Gold.

Making it impossible for corporations to trace a phone call was not something ordinary people could achieve.

Qing Chen thought for a moment and asked, “What have you been busy with recently? I haven’t heard from you in the Inner World.”

Qing Yi replied, “Didn’t I tell you before that my brother woke up? I went with him to… I can’t tell you.”

Qing Chen was stunned for a moment, sensing there seemed to be a secret involved.

And it might be a very important secret.

Although he did not yet know who Qing Yi’s brother really was, the man had lived for thousands of years and witnessed over a thousand years of history in the Federation in a completely virtual form.

The matters such a person dealt with were extremely critical.

For example, in the internet, hunting down all humans attempting immortality through neuron bridging technology almost single-handedly changed the form of human life.

Had it not been for his hunting those consciousnesses, the Inner World at this moment might be even more bizarre, and everyone might continue living in another form after death.

This action also impacted Mechanicus.

In other people’s science fiction novels and games, Mechanicus uploaded consciousness.

But in the Inner World, Mechanicus could only imagine doing so…

Curious, Qing Chen asked, “By the way, have you ever asked your brother why he wants to hunt those uploaded consciousnesses?”

Qing Yi said, “Because he feels that nobody can endure the ennui that comes with immortality. A few might manage, but when it happens on a large scale, on one hand, it compromises my safety, should tens of thousands of consciousnesses be maliciously amalgamated, troublesome incidents could occur; on the other hand, many humans might develop self-destructive tendencies in the network.”

Qing Chen understood, it was both to protect his sister and the world.

His brother was quite responsible then…

What would such a brother, suddenly awake, be doing now?

“So what is your brother doing now?” Qing Chen asked.

“Oh, he’s gone to perform magic on the streets,” Qing Yi said, “It’s his hobby.”

“Wait?! Magic tricks?” Qing Chen was taken aback. “Does he have his own body?”

Qing Yi did not answer, seemingly reluctant to elaborate.

Qing Chen thought for a moment. “I will transfer the Outer World’s money to you when I get back. Oh, and you charge Nan Gengchen too, right?”

“You shouldn’t worry about that,” Qing Yi said, “It’s not easy for me to save money in the Outer World!”

“Alright,” Qing Chen reflected. Others were exploiting Qing Yi, and Qing Yi was exploiting Nan Gengchen: where could one even begin to argue about this.

“Does your brother know about the Time Traveler?” Qing Chen asked. “What does he think about it?”

He wanted to solicit the opinion of this mysterious existence to try to understand the hidden details behind the time-travel event.

However, Qing Yi said, “He’s known about it for a long time; he doesn’t have any particular thoughts.”

“Hmm?” Qing Chen was momentarily startled. “Known for a long time?”

Suddenly, Qing Chen felt that “known for a long time” might not mean just the past few months, but perhaps much, much earlier.

Even before the time-travel event occurred?

“How long ago?” Qing Chen pressed.

But Qing Yi no longer responded to the question.

Qing Chen arrived at the Third District Building, where the room left to him by the Elderly Master of Li Clan was located.

122nd floor.

While taking the elevator, Qing Chen was anxious about possibly encountering Song Niannian again.

He knew Song Niannian had moved out of Utopia Building because a PCA Investigator had leaked case details, which let the media know the residence of this top female star.

So, from that moment, Qing Chen started worrying whether this female star might also have moved to the Third District…

Fortunately, she had not.

Qing Chen entered the passcode and opened the room door.

The room was not very large and lacked features like an armory or the like; it was like a mundane inheritance a senior would leave to a junior, nothing special.

The room was dusty, but three items caught Qing Chen’s attention.

There was a map spread out on a table, a gold coin that was neither too large nor too small, and a letter.

Curiously, Qing Chen picked up the map, blew on it, and dust wafted into the air.

It was a map of the Federation, on which someone had drawn several routes with a red pen. There were nodes between the routes, marked with precise dates and times.

Qing Chen knew this was something the old master intentionally left for him, but he hadn’t understood exactly what it was yet.

He picked up the gold coin again, and by holding it in his hand, he knew it weighed about fifty grams, the weight of one tael.

Initially, Qing Chen thought it was a taboo item, but he quickly realized it was not.

Finally, Qing Chen opened the letter.

“After having left, why leave a letter?” Qing Chen was somewhat resistant to opening the letter because it reminded him of that farewell under the morning sun.

In the letter was a farewell handwritten by the old master.

“Boy, by the time you read this letter, I should have already parted with you on the cliffs of the green mountains, and from now on, it will be difficult for us to meet again. You head towards the sunrise, and I turn into dust.”

“This map is the route and timetable of the taboo item ACE-012 steam train.”

“That gold coin has been with me since my youth.”

“The steam train makes a circuit around the Federation every 27 days; its journey and its passengers are unrelated. No matter who sits on it, it follows its own goal, chasing the wilderness wind, crossing the Raichu Plain, flipping over the Cloud Mist Marsh. It visits the furthest snow-capped mountains, the northern grasslands, and also goes to see the southern seas.”

“In my youth, I envied it, thinking it was truly free to go wherever it wanted.”

“So, back then, I prepared a gold coin to carry with me, thinking if someday I were to encounter it in the wilderness by chance, then I would use 27 days to travel around the Federation with it, becoming a romantic person like a knight. Let those chasing after me, wanting me to handle official business, fret and fume. Haha.”

“Pack your bags, prepare food and water needed for 27 days, and also a change of clothes, and take a spur-of-the-moment trip with the taboo item.”

“Perhaps during the journey, other people might get on and off the train. They might be a convict fleeing for his life, a rich young lady escaping a marriage, or someone like me, a traveler.”

“Perhaps during the journey, the breeze will blow through the train window, and I will watch the scenery slide past backwards. If a clan member were to make a satellite call to me, I would seriously tell them that I am conversing with the world and not to disturb me.”

“However, I don’t have the privilege to be so capricious.”

“So, I never had the chance to use this gold coin.”

“Now, I’m leaving it to you.”

The letter ended abruptly there.

At that moment, Qing Chen finally fully understood the true meaning of “If I could relive my youth, a tael of gold for a tael of wind.”

It turned out, the old master’s greatest wish in his youthful days was to ride the steam train and travel around the Federation once.

And this tael of gold was the young Li Xiurui’s ticket to freedom.

Qing Chen silently wiped the corner of his eye and, after committing the contents of the map to memory, burned it.

At that time, there was a knock on the door.

Qing Chen frowned, wondering who would come to see him at this time.

He glanced at the outside surveillance and was stunned to see the Shadow…

He had impersonated the other person several times overnight, and even after the other’s warning, he did it several times again.

It looked like the Shadow had come for retribution.

Qing Chen held his breath, pretending not to be home…

However, he was certain about one thing: the conditions for using the Door of Shadow were indeed that it must go to a place the host had been.

Then he heard the Shadow coldly laugh outside the door, “Open up, you had the nerve to keep impersonating me despite my warnings, and don’t have the guts to open the door? You better wait for me to open the door myself, you’ll be waiting for death.”

Qing Chen silently went to open the door, greeting with a smile, “Mr. Shadow, we just met a few hours ago, why are you here again?”

The Shadow brushed past him, looking at the dust in the room, “Hurry up and clean this up; it’s annoying to look at.”

In saying this, it seemed he was also referring to Qing Chen—seeing him now annoyed him.

Standing by the window, the Shadow said, “Did you know, aside from talking to you and Qing Wu, I have only met the other Time Travelers once. When Qing Ye issues missions, he has to carry my electronic beacon, which truly counts as ‘orders from the Shadow’?”

The Shadow continued, “After you impersonated me, each candidate felt something was off, but they dared not ask directly, making me deal with calls from their parents in the middle of the night, all beating around the bush asking what was going on.”

The candidates for Shadow were not fools; they sensed the doubts and, of course, tried everything to confirm the authenticity of the Shadow.

However, in this poorly crafted trick, what Qing Chen could truly rely upon was not his acting skills, nor his understanding of the Shadow’s way of speaking, but the Shadow himself.

The candidates, troubled by doubts, would seek out the Shadow for confirmation, and the Shadow would help patch things up for Qing Chen.

Curiously, Qing Chen asked, “What did you tell them?”

“What else could I say?” the Shadow replied irritably, “I countered, ‘What, are my words no longer effective?ʼ”

The Shadow said, “Isn’t Qing Yi your man? You even deceived him; are you still human?”

Qing Chen thought for a moment and asked, “So, why are you so good to me? I’ve always been puzzled about this. I am clearly a Time Traveler, a person from the Outer World, yet you have helped me a lot. Why?”

The Shadow, turned towards him from the window, asked, “How do you know for sure that you are a person from the Outer World?”

Qing Chen was stupefied on the spot.

The implication behind this question was shockingly profound.

…

There is another chapter at 11:00 PM tonight.