Chapter 267: Chapter 264: [Going Home]
Chapter 264: Homecoming
Chen Xiaoguo had indeed encountered a bit of trouble.
He didn’t make a fuss or rush to the hospital for a high-profile examination.
Chen Nuo was very clear about where his current problem lay.
After using the black and white rice grains to perform a Body Seizing again, Chen Nuo found that this Body Seizing was slightly different from the first time he was reborn last year:
He was paralyzed.
Chen Nuo believed the issue was with his Consciousness Space.
After the original Chen Nuo died, his Consciousness Space collapsed. After Chen Xiaoguo seized his body, the space was shattered and needed rebuilding.
Chen Nuo lay in the hospital bed for many days, repairing it bit by bit.
It was a lengthy process.
You could think of the Consciousness Space as a balloon.
Now, Chen Nuo’s "balloon" was one that leaked air from all sides.
He barely maintained its integrity with his spiritual power, which was far greater than that of an average person.
Thus, he lost control over this body.
Fortunately, Chen Nuo could still barely manage by relying on his abilities.
When he needed to eat, he could use telekinesis to control his muscles and complete the act of swallowing.
Occasionally, when his body needed to make some movements, he could also drive it with telekinesis.
But this was, after all, an external force.
Most importantly, after the Body Seizing, Chen Nuo’s strength had greatly diminished!
This setback almost reverted Chen Nuo’s power to its state when he had just been reborn—roughly equivalent to when he first went to South Korea to rescue Li Yingwan.
Chen Nuo had carefully pondered this problem and eventually came to a conclusion:
This has something to do with the black and white rice grains! It seems that the black and white rice grains can allow an ordinary person to perform Body Seizing... but compared to ordinary people, my own spiritual power is just too strong!
In this lifetime, before this incident, the peak of Chen Nuo’s strength was during his trip to Brazil.
In the great battle where the three giants joined forces against the Seed, Chen Nuo’s power had essentially reached the level of a Controller, and he could barely hold his own against the Star Sky Empress and the Son of the Sun.
Then he died.
After his death, such a powerful soul force seemed like something the treasures—the black and white rice grains—couldn’t bear.
The black and white rice grains were indeed capable of facilitating Body Seizing, but it was like a tricycle that could carry the soul of an ordinary person to another destination...
But the little tricycle suddenly had Godzilla sitting on it! It simply couldn’t move anymore!
So, after the Body Seizing, Chen Nuo discovered he had a serious problem.
After seizing the body, his reborn Consciousness Space leaked from all sides, and the speed of repair could only barely prevent it from collapsing.
Additionally, he was powerless to control this body.
It was like a high-spec computer that was, unfortunately, fitted with an old integrated graphics card. It couldn’t handle most games. It could only run some of the most basic small games. Well, playing Minesweeper or Spider Solitaire and such is still manageable. If you want to play Cyberpunk, you’re just waiting for a crash!
Chen Nuo vividly remembered something.
Back in the northwest, when he faced the Guo Clan’s ancestor, he heard that man mention this issue.
When that man performed a Body Seizing, he was weak for a long time, pretending to be ill and living in seclusion in the old house.
It seems... after a Body Seizing, similar issues arise. But, since the Guo Clan’s ancestor could recover later, I believe I can do it too!
Niveer had fallen asleep right next to Chen Nuo.
The girl with the peach-like derriere lay on the bed hugging Chen Nuo’s arm, tears still marking the corners of her eyes—she had cried herself to exhaustion and only managed to fall asleep in the latter half of the night.
Chen Nuo couldn’t be bothered to struggle.
Let her sleep. After all, my body is basically in a state of deep sleep right now. Harmless.
A few days ago, when Li Yingwan came by, he had thrown Firefly out to keep his secret and prevent her from discovering the true condition of his body.
Now that she had guessed, there was no need for such secrecy.
Within the Consciousness Space, Chen Nuo quietly examined the place.
The barrier of the Consciousness Space was very thin and fragile, far from matching its state before his trip to Brazil.
Chen Nuo had tried to reinforce it, but the spiritual power he injected quickly dissipated, unable to achieve any reinforcement.
The culprits for the dissipation were the fissures, large and small, within the Consciousness Space!
Large and small, there were a total of seventeen fissures!
Every minute and every second, the spiritual power that naturally formed within the Consciousness Space would slowly seep out through these fissures.
This continual "leakage" kept Chen Nuo’s reservoir of spiritual power constantly draining.
He couldn’t repair these fissures with his own power; he could only use telekinesis to barely plug them. However, this required constant expenditure and could not cease for a moment.
Constantly using telekinesis to plug the fissures was already a significant drain for Chen Nuo after the Body Seizing.
And after this expenditure, the amount of spiritual power Chen Nuo could regenerate on his own each day was limited.
He could only meagerly, bit by bit, inject it to repair the fissures, which greatly slowed down the speed.
I feel like an ant, working hard to transport grains of sand. Yet what needs to be constructed before me is a skyscraper.
Of course, it wasn’t entirely without gain.
Chen Nuo felt that his spiritual power had become more sensitive to everything around him, to his observation of the world.
This overly acute sensing power was something I was initially unaccustomed to—even at the peak of my strength in my previous life, I had never felt this way!
An Ability User strong in telekinesis also possessed keen awareness, able to notice many things in their surroundings immediately—even the heart rate and breathing rhythm of others.
And Chen Nuo realized he had gone a step further.
For instance, Niveer was lying beside him at that moment, and Chen Nuo could even sense the circulation of her spiritual power.
In her sleep, the operation of Niveer’s Consciousness Space, the flow of her spiritual power, its rate.
The old spiritual power was exhausted as new spiritual power was born; the frequency between this depletion and regeneration...
Sometimes active, sometimes silent.
Expanding his sensing power a bit, beyond this room, this yard.
It spread to the entire exclusive hot spring resort.
In the surrounding vacation villas, with men and women, old and young.
Even in the staff areas of the resort—logistics, the kitchen, the reception...
Every person, whether asleep or awake, every stream of spiritual power, every Consciousness Space, whether its spiritual power was strong or weak...
Before the Body Seizing, even as a Controller-level powerhouse, Chen Nuo would have had to proactively extend Spiritual Force Tentacles to probe and inspect a target’s Consciousness Space and spiritual power.
Ordinary people might not detect this act, but Ability Users would.
So in the Underground World, this behavior was considered hostile—no one liked to be spied upon.
However, now, Chen Nuo found he didn’t have to worry anymore.
As long as he wished, with just a thought, without deliberately releasing Spiritual Force Tentacles, it was as if he only needed to open his eyes to clearly "see" the existence of the spiritual power of every life form around him.
Their size, strength, even their flow rates! It’s as if, on the plane of spiritual power, I’ve acquired a pair of "Heavenly Eyes"!
What was even more peculiar was that these past few days, with nothing else to do, Chen Nuo would use this "new ability" to observe his surroundings.
And often, while watching...
I get this strange illusion... as if I just need to take one step further to interface freely with these different Consciousness Spaces! This feeling is unprecedented! It’s as if every one of these strange spiritual forces is right in front of me, within my reach!
Chen Nuo didn’t shy away from trying.
There were a couple of times when he made an attempt.
The targets of his probes were people around him.
One was Brother Lei. The other was the Gray Cat, Black.
During these attempts, Chen Nuo did not release Spiritual Force Tentacles. He carefully "watched" the other party’s spiritual power flow. Then, drawn by the feeling that connection was within reach—as if with just a thought, he could directly link to the other’s spiritual power—he made his move.
At that moment, Brother Lei was talking to him when he suddenly frowned and lightly patted his head.
"What’s wrong, Brother Lei?"
"Nothing much. It suddenly felt like someone tapped my head; I have a bit of a headache. It might be because I had the air conditioning on too high last night."
Well, it seems that "connection" really was an illusion.
The other attempt on the Gray Cat, Black, was even weirder.
The Gray Cat was sleeping at the time.
After observing carefully, Chen Nuo tried to establish a connection.
Suddenly, he "saw" the Gray Cat’s dream.
Spiritual power circulated in its Consciousness Space, conjuring various scenes.
A plump shorthaired cat lay amidst a mountain of cat food.
Beneath the mountain of food, a faint human figure seemed to be prostrate.
No matter how I look at it, that prostrate figure looks awfully familiar!
The Gray Cat’s paw gently patted the figure’s back.
"To be human, you have to accept your responsibilities! What kind of human doesn’t let a cat pet them, huh?!"
Chen Nuo, watching this scene: ".........."
And then he attempted to connect...
This time, Chen Nuo made some progress.
He felt as though he had merged into the cat’s dreamscape, and with just a thought...
The scene in the dreamscape suddenly changed!
The Gray Cat suddenly found that the cat food beneath it had turned into a pile of sand!
The prostrate figure suddenly rose, grabbed the Gray Cat, pressed it onto its lap, and began stroking it vigorously...
"To be a cat, you have to understand what it means to be a cat! What kind of cat doesn’t let people pet them, huh?!"
The Gray Cat shuddered, overcome with fear, and then instantly woke up from the dream!
That attempt at connection wasn’t exactly successful, but at least he made some progress.
Chen Nuo discovered that his kind of "connection" could be achieved under certain specific restrictions.
It didn’t work on ordinary people.
It seemed to be limited to Ability Users whose spiritual power exceeded that of ordinary people.
Moreover, it didn’t work when they were awake but could be achieved during their dreams.
This was because, in dreams, the spiritual consciousness seemed to be at its most relaxed, devoid of defense mechanisms or vigilance.
The ability to "enter dreams" is a novel discovery. But this discovery doesn’t seem to offer any help to my current predicament. Always teasing the Gray Cat in dreams, making the poor thing have nightmares every day—after a while, that game actually isn’t that fun either.
Niveer left in the morning.
Knowing Hummingbird’s temperament, she wouldn’t have wanted to leave. It seemed that learning about Chen Nuo’s paralysis had triggered her motherly instincts; she was almost determined to stay by Chen Nuo’s side and care for the poor guy...
And then she was impatiently thrown out of the yard by Chen Nuo.
In the morning, Chen Nuo practiced boxing in the yard.
The boxing techniques were those previously taught by Old Jiang.
Using telekinesis to control his body to perform the punches was like playing with a marionette—only this puppet was his own body.
He wasn’t practicing boxing for cultivation but purely to maintain his body’s health.
A person who is paralyzed for a long time can encounter various health issues. For instance, long periods of inactivity can lead to muscle atrophy, reduced metabolism, and a gradual decline in the functions of internal organs, among many other problems.
Therefore, Chen Nuo used telekinesis every day to manipulate his body to move.
After completing the boxing routine, sweat began to bead on his skin. Chen Nuo assessed that most of his muscle groups had been adequately activated.
Then, he controlled his body to enter the hot spring pool once again.
After soaking for about half an hour in the freshly refilled hot spring pool, his bodily functions felt revitalized.
Chen Nuo sighed, took a shower, dressed, and then returned to his wheelchair.
Today wasn’t a weekend, but Chen Nuo decided to skip class anyway.
Actually, since arriving in the international department’s preparatory class, this was the first time Chen Nuo had skipped class.
If the teachers from the main campus who once taught Chen Nuo knew about this, they would probably be moved to tears!
During his second year of senior high, especially in the second semester, many of his subject teachers hadn’t even seen him!
The reason for skipping class today was that there was a special matter he had to deal with personally.
Ou Xiuhua walked out of the prison gates around ten o’clock in the morning.
The sun was high in the sky.
This street was already quite remote, and there weren’t any decent residential communities nearby, nor would developers build complexes in the vicinity.
No one was willing to buy a house with the nearest neighbor being a prison.
The desolate street stretched for several hundred meters before reaching a bus stop.
In 2001, the area surrounding the prison was still wasteland; further out were a few factories.
Ou Xiuhua wore a somewhat dated short-sleeved shirt and held a canvas bag—this was what she had with her before going to prison; it contained some personal items confiscated at the time of her imprisonment.
A quartz watch, a wallet with her ID card inside, and one hundred twenty-six yuan.
Besides that, the bag held a few changes of clothes.
Apart from these, there was nothing else.
These were all the worldly possessions Ou Xiuhua had accumulated in her more than forty years of life.
Having spent several years in prison, standing under the sun now, Ou Xiuhua felt as if she were in a completely different world.
In fact, her sentence wasn’t even up yet.
But because she had consistently behaved well during her years in prison and due to her special family circumstances—she had an underage daughter—Ou Xiuhua was able to take advantage of some preferential policies and received a reduced sentence.
In truth, she was very nervous.
Although yesterday, Prison Guard Zhang had informed her that they had contacted her family—specifically, her son, Chen Nuo.
But Ou Xiuhua still felt anxious and conflicted inside.
She wasn’t sure if her son would still be able to accept her after her release.
She and Gu Kang had completely fallen out.
She had initially committed the crime, risking imprisonment, to help Gu Kang pay off his debts.
However, a few months into her incarceration, Ou Xiuhua was informed that her five-year-old daughter had been abused by Gu Kang’s family. After a series of interventions, her daughter was now temporarily living with her son, Chen Nuo.
Later, she heard that after Gu Kang was released from prison, he had harassed Chen Nuo, extorting money from him.
Heartbroken, Ou Xiuhua deeply regretted her blindness in choosing him.
The divorce procedures with Gu Kang were already underway, and the divorce agreement had been signed.
However, divorces involving incarcerated individuals were complicated, and the procedures took time to finalize.
Today, as Ou Xiuhua stepped out of prison and breathed the air of freedom, her greatest anxiety was the uncertainty of her future.
She had severed ties with the Gu family and naturally could not return to their home.
And her own home... was long gone.
Now, Ou Xiuhua found herself with no savings, no housing, and no job.
A state of having nothing.
In this city, she had no roof over her head nor a place to stand.
Actually, according to Ou Xiuhua’s calculations, she only had two paths to choose from.
Either she could seek refuge with her maiden family—but her family’s situation wasn’t good either.
Her parents had passed away. Although she had an older brother, his wife was not an easy person to get along with and had never been kind.
During her marriage to Chen Jianshe, debt collectors frequently came to their door, making life difficult. Consequently, her sister-in-law had ordered her brother to cut off all contact with her.
They were so estranged that they wouldn’t even call for holiday greetings.
Now, all alone and branded as a former inmate, she knew her sister-in-law would likely not welcome her if she went to her brother’s house.
And even if her brother took her in out of sibling affection, what would be the point?
It would surely cause conflict between her brother and his wife.
Ou Xiuhua was, at heart, a kind person and truly didn’t want to cause disharmony in her brother’s marriage.
Unable to turn to her family, she would have to find a place to live on her own.
Friends... not that she didn’t have any.
But contact had become sparse.
She had been unlucky in both her marriages, choosing less-than-honorable men.
Her marriage to Chen Jianshe had mired them in debt, with collectors at their door countless times.
Her marriage to Gu Kang was even worse; he was a compulsive gambler who squandered their family assets and even forced her to embezzle public funds to cover his debts.
The few friends she had had also lent her money. Ou Xiuhua was determined to find work after her release, earn money, and repay them.
With her debts still unpaid, how could she have the audacity to ask to stay with them?
Then... she would have to find a cheap motel to stay in temporarily.
She still had one hundred eighty-six yuan in her pocket.
This amount of money would have lasted for some time a few years ago. However, in the years around the turn of the millennium, the economy developed rapidly, and prices skyrocketed as well.
Ou Xiuhua, having been in prison, wasn’t very familiar with the outside world, but she had cautiously inquired a few days before her release.
This one hundred eighty-six yuan wouldn’t last more than a few days.
Go to my son’s place... I simply don’t have the face! After remarrying, I still provided for him for a while. Later, when Gu Kang’s gambling left us penniless, I could no longer afford to give my son any child support. All along, it was I who failed my son. Now, how old is this child? He also has to support his five-year-old sister. Though they have a house left by their grandmother to live in, life must be very tough. How can I go to him? I truly don’t have the face!
Actually, she had a plan in mind.
Find the cheapest motel, the very cheapest kind.
A motel in an urban-rural fringe area, a single bed, would cost only eight or ten yuan a day.
Renting for half a month might make it even cheaper.
Then she would have to quickly find a job.
In that era, there were some resettlement policies for released inmates.
Before being released from prison, she had also received a letter of introduction from the jail.
Some designated units were permitted by policy to accept former inmates.
But the jobs definitely wouldn’t be great. They were typically positions like factory workers or manual labor.
I studied accounting... but I was imprisoned for economic crimes. Which boss or leader would dare to use an accountant who had been convicted of misappropriating public funds to manage money for their company or factory? Despite how tough it might be, I still need to find a job to make ends meet. Being a factory worker isn’t bad. As long as I find something, I can live in a dormitory. With accommodation taken care of, that would solve more than half of my troubles.
Standing at the bus stop, Ou Xiuhua felt a bit dizzy from the sun. After waiting a while without seeing a bus, and just as she was thinking about moving into the shade for a bit...
A business van slowly pulled up in front of her.
The door opened, and inside sat a young man who gave Ou Xiuhua a gentle smile.
"You’ve been waiting a long time, haven’t you? I’m really sorry. There was a rear-end collision on the way that blocked traffic. We had to wait for a long time, and that’s why we’re late."
As he spoke, Chen Nuo waved to Ou Xiuhua, "Get in. We’re going home."
Ou Xiuhua stood there dumbfounded, unable to utter a word.
A bald man hopped out of the van. He walked up to Ou Xiuhua with a broad smile, cheerfully took the canvas bag from her hand, and tossed it casually into the vehicle.
"Sister Ou, get in."
"You... you..."
"I’m a friend of Chen Nuo. I heard you were getting out today and came specially to help," Brother Lei said with a smile.
Watching Ou Xiuhua’s nervous and flustered appearance, Chen Nuo let out a soft sigh and said, "Get in the car first; we can talk later. This isn’t the place for chatting."
The car was eventually boarded.
Ou Xiuhua sat inside feeling a bit nervous.
This Buick business van was clearly very new. Judging by its interior condition, it seemed it hadn’t been bought long ago.
Ou Xiuhua sat there, her hands politely placed on her knees, not daring to touch anything.
Firstly, it was a habit formed in prison.
Secondly, she was afraid of dirtying or damaging someone else’s car.
"You don’t have to worry," Chen Nuo said.
"The one driving is Brother Lei, my good friend. I asked him to help because I can’t drive.
In a little while, we’ll go home first. Home is still the old place, the house Grandma left; we’ll live there. Everything at home is arranged.
Usually, I have one room, and Ye Zi has another.
Ye Zi goes to kindergarten on weekdays, so her bedroom is empty. You can stay in that room. When she comes home on weekends, you can sleep with Ye Zi.
What do you think, is this arrangement okay?"
Okay? It was more than okay!!! Ou Xiuhua had no further desires for her own life! But if she could live with her son and daughter after getting out... share a life together... That was the happiest scenario she could imagine!
"Little... Little Nuo... you, you’re really willing..."
Ou Xiuhua said half a sentence before her eyes turned red.
Chen Nuo waved his hand, "Let’s talk when we get home, okay?"
Ou Xiuhua glanced at Brother Lei, who was driving in front.
Yes, this was better. After all, there are others around, and it would be embarrassing to cry and make a fuss... The most important thing was not to lose face for my son. Let’s talk when we get home... Home... such a beautiful word!
The van drove straight into the residential complex and parked by the entrance of Chen Nuo’s apartment building.
Ou Xiuhua was the first to jump out of the car, and then she heard Brother Lei suddenly speaking loudly, "Sister Ou, wait a moment, please!"
Brother Lei quickly jumped out and stopped Ou Xiuhua, then dashed into the building’s stairwell.
He retrieved a worn-out basin he had previously placed in a corner of the stairwell.
Inside were some yellow papers.
Brother Lei crouched down, lit them with a lighter, and placed the flaming basin in the middle of the path.
"Sister, step over this to ward off bad luck!
It’s the custom when one gets out.
Don’t bring bad luck into the house."
Ou Xiuhua didn’t care about customs.
But the thought of warding off bad luck, and especially not wanting to bring misfortune upon her son, made her take it very seriously.
Her movements were a bit clumsy, but with a very serious look on her face, she quickly jumped over the basin.
She even looked up at Brother Lei and asked, "Is this... okay?"
"All good, no problem," Brother Lei laughed heartily and moved the basin to the side of the road. "It’s just a symbolic gesture, nothing to fuss over, Sister."
With that, Brother Lei turned, went to the car, and took a folded wheelchair from the trunk, unfolding it on the ground.
Ou Xiuhua was stunned!
Then, Brother Lei went over and helped Chen Nuo out of the car.
"Can you make it upstairs yourself? I’ll handle the wheelchair," Brother Lei asked Chen Nuo.
Chen Nuo smiled and nodded.
He looked at Ou Xiuhua, who stood there dumbfounded with a questioning face, and whispered, "Let’s talk at home. First, let’s go upstairs."
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