Chapter 199: 198 Problems and Re-testing

"Bajinsi... I... I truly regret it..."

That night, in a small hut in the rebel settlement, after drinking a cup of cheap wine with a dejected expression, the red-faced fat uncle hugged "Little Bajinsi's" neck and said with tears streaming down his face:

"If you hadn't gone to save me back then, maybe you would have suffered fewer injuries. After being discharged, you could have drunk less, and your family wouldn't be in this state now...

Sob sob sob... I... I really tried my best to scrape together money for you back then. Not just the house and my wife's jewelry, I even sold the reserved quota that would have kept me from being discharged by the military, but in the end, I couldn't even scrape together a tenth of it.

I... I didn't want to not give you money, I really didn't!

I really tried, I even went to the Relief Bureau and kowtowed to people... but your wife's illness really couldn't be saved. If I had given you all the money and let you throw it in, not only would your son have no one to raise him, you would have likely starved to death, and my wife would have too...

I... I failed my wife, I failed you, I failed your wife, I failed your son, I failed your whole family!

I... I in this life... I failed everyone!"

"..."

"I'm sorry... Owen mistook you for Old Bajinsi after drinking too much, making a fool of himself in front of you..."

Amidst the incoherent wailing of the drunk fat uncle, a gentle-looking woman wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and said to "Little Bajinsi" with a hint of pleading in her expression:

"I know it's not my place to say this... but... but can I please ask you not to blame your Uncle Owen? He really did his best back then... can you?"

"Hmm..."

Looking at the woman in front of him, who was probably not even forty but looked very aged, Li Ang couldn't help but nod and give a vague hum.

Having learned about the past of these two families through the fat uncle's fragmented drunken account, even though he hadn't experienced it like the real Little Bajinsi, his chest still felt tight, as if blocked by something, and his breathing was inexplicably difficult. He suddenly wanted to go out for some air.

"Little Bajinsi..."

Looking at Li Ang, who was hanging his head and saying nothing, the gentle woman sighed and said:

"Although you haven't been drinking, it's already quite late, and your home is on the other side of the valley. Why don't you stay tonight and sleep in Owen's room?"

"No."

Shaking his head to decline the woman's kindness, Li Ang said softly:

"Aunt Fenni, my place hasn't been tidied up yet, and... I want to go out and get some air."

"Alright... then button up your clothes, don't catch a cold."

"Hmm."

After pushing the door open and leaving amidst the woman's gentle instructions, Li Ang followed the pitch-black dirt road and walked quickly toward the other side of the valley.

As an undercover mission, this investigation was quite a failure.

Apart from being a qualified listener and hearing the fat uncle talk about many things from the past, he hadn't obtained much intelligence regarding the rebel upper echelons, and hadn't even figured out where his own residence was.

But... it didn't seem like a total loss.

At the very least, he had confirmed that most of these rebels were not ambitious people chasing power, but just ordinary people who wanted to live a stable life.

After finding a slightly higher spot to sit, Li Ang, in the night wind, observed the building layout of the entire valley while seriously pondering what he should actually do.

If viewed solely from the identity of a Cleaner from the Cleaning Bureau, he had already found the rebel settlement, figured out the identity of the rebel leader, and initially gained a foothold.

Next, he only needed to demonstrate his "anomaly," join those rebels who possessed anomalous objects, and he would be able to complete the mission, help the Princess regain her identity, and completely eradicate this organization.

But besides those eight or nine anomalous object holders, the entire rebel group had nearly a thousand people. Apart from those family members, many people even had warrants and bounties hanging over them.

They relied on the leader's strange "door ability" to avoid living in this valley, and if they returned to the capital, they would likely be arrested and thrown into prison immediately, and their families would once again lose the ability to maintain their livelihood.

Although all of this seemed to have nothing to do with him, as long as he controlled those anomalous object holders, the rest would no longer be within his scope of work, but...

Looking at the coat the gentle woman had specially draped over him before he left, and then at the tear stains on the lapel left by the fat uncle when he cried, Li Ang couldn't help but sigh deeply.

Replacing someone else's identity... didn't seem like an easy task either...

"Little Bajinsi?"

Just as Li Ang let out a long sigh, the middle-aged man with graying temples walked silently out of the nearby shadows, frowning as he asked:

"Why are you here?"

Finally willing to come out? This person's wariness is truly heavy...

Having already discovered his presence and intentionally come over to make contact, Li Ang had already equipped the Elite Performer Badge. Hearing the question, he shuddered, pretended to be surprised, turned his head, and said with a look of astonishment:

"Leader? Why are you here?"

"This place isn't far from where I live. I couldn't sleep, so I came out for a walk."

Not bothering with Li Ang's counter-question, the middle-aged man answered the question first, then said with flickering eyes:

"What about you? Why aren't you home so late?"

"Home..."

Li Ang fell silent for a moment upon hearing this, then shook his head and said in a low voice:

"Where do I still have a home?"???

Hearing "Little Bajinsi's" words, the middle-aged man couldn't help but frown. He pointed to a small hut in the distance that had no lights on and said:

"Little Bajinsi, what are you saying? Isn't that your home?"

Oh, so that's "my" home.

Gazing at the small hut with a lonely expression and noting its exact location, Li Ang shook his head with an indifferent expression and said in a voice that was extremely light yet extremely firm:

"That's not my home, it's just the house I live in."

"..."

Unaware that he had been baited, the middle-aged man's heart couldn't help but tremble slightly upon hearing "Little Bajinsi's" answer, and a sense of empty pain welled up.

For Little Bajinsi, that was no longer his home... and the current Wang Guo was no longer his Wang Guo either...

No matter how many changes and efforts he made, the things that were meant to happen had already concretely happened. No matter where this world's Wang Guo headed next, regardless of whether the result was good or bad, it no longer had anything to do with him.

His family was long gone, and his regrets were destined to be unfixable. So for him, who no longer had a "home," wasn't this Wang Guo just an empty house?

"That's true..."

After being poked with seventy or eighty bloody holes in his heart by Li Ang's sentence "That's not home," the middle-aged man couldn't help but sit down beside him, and together they silently blew in the night wind.

Shortly after, the "homeless youth" broke the silence first. Gazing at the lights in the valley, he asked faintly:

"Leader... in the end, can we really change this country and ensure that the tragedies suffered by everyone don't repeat themselves?"

"..."

"We can."

Although he didn't quite believe this statement himself, the middle-aged man, who still needed the rebels to exist, nodded nonetheless. With a serious expression, he bluffed:

"This country is beyond saving. As long as we continue to work hard, sooner or later we can sweep it into the trash heap, and then on the ruins..."

"Leader."

Interrupting the middle-aged man's words somewhat impolitely, Li Ang said with a confused tone:

"After being confirmed by you that I didn't have the qualifications, I thought about it seriously. I wanted to know, without that kind of magical ability, what I could do to change the Wang Guo.

But I discovered that I seemed unable to do anything, and even the group we are led by can't do anything either."

Amidst the middle-aged man's shocked expression, "Little Bajinsi" said with an even pace:

"Although I haven't read many books, looking at the situation in the Upper and Lower Academies, I feel that the politics in the mouths of those big shots is actually just making more people believe in you, agree with your judgment, be willing to listen to you, and thereby gather the strength sufficient to change the status quo.

But what we've done all these years is constantly making enemies everywhere... The nobles hate us, the business associations fear us, the royal family hunts us, and even ordinary people are distancing themselves from us. Only when driven to a dead end by pain do we become the last resort.

Leader, do you really think doing this can change this country? And even if you finally succeed, how can you guarantee that what appears on the ruins is the future you described, and not another new Wang Guo destined to rot from the moment of its birth?"

"..."

After hearing these questions that stabbed straight into his heart, the middle-aged man stood up with a start. He looked at the "Little Bajinsi" in front of him with suspicion and asked vigilantly:

"Who taught you this? Or... are you not Little Bajinsi?"

"?"

"Leader? What are you saying?"

Hearing his words, "Little Bajinsi" couldn't help but look up in astonishment and say with a confused expression:

"If I'm not Little Bajinsi, then who am I? And no one taught me these words, I thought of them all by myself."

When he said this, Li Ang sighed deeply, briefly told him about the past he had heard at the fat uncle's house, then looked at the middle-aged man with "eyes full of confusion" and asked with a look of longing:

"By the way, Leader, since you can be our leader, you must be the one who understands the most among us. I still have some things I want to ask you.

Uncle Owen and... and my father, they were right to fight for the country, and the Wang Guo gave quite generous compensation, so that can't be wrong either. My mother and I have done everything we could, so that shouldn't be wrong either. But why did it end up like this?

My mother had to die in the hospital, my father had to become a wretch, I had to live the life of being beaten every day, and Uncle Owen, who tried his best to help our family, has to live with guilt for the rest of his life... Can you tell me why?

Also, with us under your leadership, apart from being able to destroy things everywhere, we don't even dare to show our faces and can only stay in this small valley. Do we really have the ability to change all this?"

"..."

Little Bajinsi must be real... right?

Responding incoherently for a few sentences, the middle-aged man hurriedly fled the high rock. Having had his suspicions dispelled by a string of soul-searching questions, but with his brain also crashed, he walked back to his residence in the night.

Why did I go out to talk to him? Wouldn't it have been better to just leave? What were all these questions he asked? Why couldn't I answer a single one?

Also, just by testing and finding he didn't have the talent to become an anomaly, Little Bajinsi could think of so many things? I clearly experienced so much in my past life, but why couldn't I think of anything clearly? Is the gap between people really this big?

Carrying a belly full of messy questions, he stumbled to the outside of his residence. Just as he was about to push the door open, his expression suddenly turned sharp, and he looked at the big tree nearby.

"Who's there?"

"Leader, it's me..."

Under the middle-aged man's cold gaze, a man with a bloated figure, red cheeks, and reeking of alcohol walked out from behind the tree, smiling apologetically at him.

Old Owen?

Frowning slightly, the middle-aged man relaxed his vigilance a little and asked with some confusion:

"You're not resting so late and came to find me. Is there something urgent?"

"Actually... it's not something urgent... I just wanted to ask you to use that watch to test Little Bajinsi again."

Taking out a hair he had picked up from the wine table and holding it with both hands to the middle-aged man, the fat uncle, who had sobered up quite a bit, explained with a look of pleading:

"Leader, Little Bajinsi carried a large barrel of oil by himself during the day. He was already very tired at the time, and he hasn't slept much these past two days, plus he was beaten. His state might be a bit poor, which is why he didn't reach your standard, just missing it by a little bit.

That child didn't pass your test, and he hasn't said much all day. Even though he hates others drinking the most, he even took two sips himself tonight, and he's been absent-minded the whole time. I... I'm a bit worried about his situation.

Leader, look, if it's not too much trouble, could you test him one more time? What if that child passes this time?"

"..."

So that's why. You really do treat him like your own son...

Looking at the hair in the fat uncle's hand, the middle-aged man couldn't help but shake his head helplessly.

"Owen, this test isn't a physical test where indicators drop because you didn't sleep well or just exercised vigorously... hmm..."

When he said this, looking at the fat uncle's pleading eyes, the middle-aged man paused slightly, then remembered Little Bajinsi's strange questions, and a flash of hesitation crossed his eyes.

"Alright."

After pondering for a while, the middle-aged man nodded unexpectedly. He took the black hair from the fat uncle's hand and rubbed it gently against the outside of the wristwatch.

"Squeak~"

Under the middle-aged man's operation, the sound of gears biting sounded again. The wristwatch quickly opened its "mouth" to swallow the black hair and began to "chew" it forcefully again.

"Owen, although I'm willing to test him one more time, you still shouldn't hold out too much hope."

During the process of the wristwatch starting the test, the middle-aged man reminded him gently:

"This thing doesn't just test the body; a lot of it leans toward mental and willpower levels. Little Bajinsi is indeed not up to standard in these aspects, so even if we test him again, it's likely..."

"Click, click, click, click, click, click."

Watching the hands, which didn't even shake, directly dial to the far right and lock firmly amidst six crisp impact sounds, and even vaguely continue to try to push further to the right, the middle-aged man's eyes bulged instantly, and he gasped sharply.

"Ah???????" ===== CHAPTER 200 =====

Watching the pointer, which didn't even shake, move across in six crisp clicks until it hit the far right and jammed firmly—even faintly straining to push further right—the middle-aged man's eyes bulged instantly, and he gasped sharply.

"Ah????????"