Chapter 56: 056 Clue from Frost Moon_1
Wen Jiang took a fruit out of the hotel-provided refrigerator.
She wasn’t picky, rinsed it briefly, and began to eat.
After taking a bite, Wen Jiang looked toward the cupboard, a smirk playing on her lips, but her tone was dangerously threatening, "If you don’t come out, I’ll throw you back to where I rescued you from."
"..."
The girl probably knew that Wen Jiang was indeed not the person who had kidnapped her. After hearing these words, she pushed open the cupboard door with a trace of panic, looked at Wen Jiang, and only after a while managed to cautiously utter an awkward phrase in Yunxia Language, "Who are you?"
She wasn’t very fluent, probably because she wasn’t from Yunxia.
However, a closer look at her features suggested some traits of the Yunxia Empire. Since she could speak the Yunxia Language, was it likely she was of mixed blood?
That’s my question for you.
Wen Jiang flopped onto the sofa. "Why did those five people kidnap you? What’s your name?"
"Nian Jian," she blurted out, her voice laced with fear, but she didn’t answer the first question.
To think this girl also has such a Yunxia-style name.
The System observed Nian Jian’s data. "Hmm, she isn’t lying."
A search for the name Nian Jian yielded little information online.
Wen Jiang narrowed her eyes. She straightened up slightly, her gaze suffused with an almost suffocating pressure. "Why did those five people kidnap you? I don’t want to ask a third time."
Nian Jian’s pupils shrank. She seemed frightened, her body quivering as she spoke, "I don’t know, I really don’t know..." Her voice was as faint as a mosquito’s. "I was sitting in the car that day and then I passed out. When I woke up, I didn’t know where I was. I couldn’t understand much of what they were saying. I only know that they seemed to want to sell me."
Oddly enough, she spoke the Yunxia Language awkwardly even though she was clearly capable.
Her awkwardness seemed more like it stemmed from... not having spoken much for a long time.
Nian Jian’s eyes darted around uneasily. She was huddled in the cramped space of the tiny cupboard, devoid of any sense of security.
"Where are you from originally? Are you a citizen of the Yunxia Empire?"
"I’m from the Frost Moon Empire..." Nian Jian murmured in response. "But I don’t know where I originally come from. I’ve been confined since I was little; I haven’t seen much of the outside world."
Wen Jiang raised an eyebrow. "You don’t even know who your parents are?"
Nian Jian shook her head, her eyes brimming with tears. "I’ve never seen my parents."
As she spoke, a glimmer of sorrow flashed in her eyes.
Her pitiable and fragile appearance was enough to stir compassion in anyone.
Suddenly, Wen Jiang stood up and walked toward her.
Nian Jian trembled all over, fearfully watching Wen Jiang approach.
Wen Jiang’s grip, not entirely gentle, closed on her chin, forcing Nian Jian to lift her head.
Zero Egg felt its data streams go haywire at the sight. "Host, you’re so cruel! How could you not be gentler with such a beautiful face?"
Nian Jian’s lovely, lake-blue eyes welled with tears, and she trembled like a frightened little deer.
Whether Nian Jian was being overly dramatic or her skin was just incredibly delicate, Wen Jiang hadn’t used much force, yet two red marks were already clearly visible where she had pinched the girl’s face.
Wen Jiang looked down at her from her superior height, her gaze scrutinizing.
After a long moment, Wen Jiang released her face and turned away, flicking her fingertips as if to brush something off. "It seems I’ve brought trouble back with me."
It was unclear who she was addressing.
Zero Egg knew Wen Jiang was talking to it. "She’s been locked up since she was a child? That sounds quite tragic. And why would she have Spirit Cards we produce? That is indeed a question. And that host with her, who on earth could it be?"
"However, since she is from the Frost Moon Empire, that’s a lead. It suggests that the Heaven’s Mandate System is likely in the Frost Moon Empire. As I said before, the other party should be someone like her—either with Yunxia heritage or a pure-blooded Yunxia person."
The great judgment of the Heart of the World would not be wrong: Yunxia would reach its zenith, and the Heaven’s Mandate System would surely find the person destined to bring about this peak.
Some time passed, and the meal was brought in. Wen Jiang dined alone, with Nian Jian watching from a distance, not daring to approach.
She didn’t know who Wen Jiang was, and now, in a strange place, she was still very frightened.
A moment later, Wen Jiang suddenly asked, "Shall I take you to the police station?"
"No!"
Nian Jian tensed up abruptly. She had objected too quickly. Realizing her mistake, she hastily tried to recover, "Could I just stay here?"
Wen Jiang found this amusing and said with a chuckle, "Aren’t you afraid of me?"
Nian Jian stared at her for a long while before slowly shaking her head. "I’m afraid of unfamiliar places, but I don’t feel like you’re a bad person."
Wen Jiang scoffed lightly. "Then your intuition is mistaken."
Nian Jian was rendered speechless.
Zero Egg chimed in, "You’ve already rescued her, so don’t go scaring her now. We still need to find clues from her."
Wen Jiang brought up another matter. "You said my fate has been disrupted, but if I come across someone from my past story, there would still be some kind of feedback. Is there no feedback about this girl?"
Zero Egg replied, "None. She should be completely unrelated to you."
After all, if I hadn’t become a Spirit Card Master, I wouldn’t have been able to come to this place and rescue her.
Now, every step taken was completely outside the System’s predictions.
Wen Jiang still asked Nian Jian, "Don’t you have any old friends who might be looking for you?"
Nian Jian’s complexion turned deathly pale.
She looked at Wen Jiang, her lips trembling, as if wanting to say something, but then she heard Wen Jiang say, "If you don’t want to talk about it, then don’t."
Nian Jian remained silent.
Zero Egg was curious. "You keep questioning her. Do you really intend to send her back?"
Of course not.
Regardless of who this girl was, she was now connected to the Fiend Squad. Wen Jiang still didn’t know what information, if any, this girl might have left with the Fiends. Sending her back at this point would expose Wen Jiang, which would be a major problem for her.
She had brought the girl back because of an unpredictable aspect of the System.
Wen Jiang was a Cultivator.
Cultivators, after all, believe in things like fate.
Wen Jiang had saved Nian Jian not to confirm any connection with the Heaven’s Mandate System, but because the girl’s appearance there indicated she would be significantly entwined with Wen Jiang’s future. Saving her or not was Wen Jiang’s choice, and either action could change the girl’s destiny.
Ultimately, Wen Jiang chose to trust her intuition that this girl posed no danger to her, and that’s why she had rescued her.
This girl was clearly pampered; her background was definitely not simple. Wen Jiang searched various online forums related to Frost Moon but found no interesting or relevant gossip. However, she did discover a piece of information that might be connected to the Heaven’s Mandate System:
Someone had leaked information claiming that Miss Du—the S-Rank Spirit Card Master and genius of the Du Family, the largest immigrant family in the Frost Moon Empire—might revert to her Yunxia Country nationality on her 20th birthday to represent the Yunxia Empire in the World Card Competition. The authenticity of this claim was currently unknown.
What a coincidence, Wen Jiang thought. A clue related to Frost Moon has appeared just when I was thinking about it.