Chapter 601: Questions and Re-testing

"Bajinsi... I... I really regret it..."

At night, in a small hut in the rebel settlement, after drinking a cup of inferior wine with a depressed expression, the fat uncle with a flushed face hugged "Xiao Bajinsi"'s neck and cried bitterly:

"If you hadn't gone to save me back then, maybe the injuries on your body would have been less, and you would have been able to drink less alcohol after being retired, and your family wouldn't be in the current situation..."

"Sob sob sob... I... I really tried my best to scrape money for you back then. Not only the house and my wife's jewelry, but even the retention quota that wasn't retired by the military was sold, but in the end, I couldn't even scrape together one-tenth."

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

"I really tried my best, even went to the relief bureau to kowtow to people... but your wife's illness really couldn't be saved. If I gave all the money to you and let you throw it in, not only would your son have no one to raise, you would probably starve to death, and my wife would also..."

"I... I'm sorry to my wife, I'm sorry to you, sorry to your wife, sorry to your son, I'm sorry to your family!"

"I... I in this life... I'm sorry to everyone!"

"..."

"Sorry... Owen is treating you as Old Bajinsi after drinking too much, let you see a joke..."

In the incoherent crying of the drunk fat uncle, a woman with a gentle appearance wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, and said to "Xiao Bajinsi" with a hint of pleading:

"I know it's not suitable for me to say these... but... but can you please not blame your Uncle Owen? He really tried his best back then... can you?"

"Hmm..."

Looking at the woman who was probably less than forty years old but looked very old, Li Ang couldn't help but nod and gave a vague hmm.

Through the fragmented narrative of the fat uncle after drinking, after learning about the past of these two families, even though he didn't experience it like the real Xiao Bajinsi, his heart was still a bit stuffy, as if blocked by something, and his breathing was inexplicably a bit difficult, and he suddenly wanted to go out for some air.

"Xiao Bajinsi..."

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

"Although you didn't drink, it's already a bit late. Your home is on the other side of the valley, why don't you stay today and sleep in Owen's room first?"

"No."

After shaking his head to refuse the woman's kindness, Li Ang said softly:

"Aunt Fenni, my home hasn't been cleaned up yet, and... I want to go out and blow some wind."

"Okay... then tie your clothes well, don't catch a cold."

"Hmm."

After leaving the room under the gentle instructions of the woman, Li Ang walked quickly along the dark dirt road toward the other side of the valley.

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

Except for being a qualified listener and listening to the fat uncle talk about many things from the past, he didn't get much information about the high-level of the rebel faction, and didn't even figure out where his residence was.

But... it seems it's not without harvest.

At the very least, he determined that most of these rebels are not ambitious people chasing power, but ordinary people who just want to live stably.

After finding a slightly higher position and sitting down, Li Ang in the night wind observed the distribution of buildings in the whole valley while seriously pondering what he should do.

If viewed only from the identity of a cleanup agent of the Cleanup Bureau, he had found the settlement of the rebels, figured out the identity of the rebel leader, and initially stood firm.

Next, as long as he shows his "anomalous" and joins those rebels who possess anomalous objects, he can complete the mission, help the Princess find her identity, and completely wipe out this organization.

But besides those eight or nine anomalous object holders, the whole rebel faction has nearly a thousand people. Besides those family members, many people even have wanted notices and rewards hanging on them.

They rely on the strange "door ability" of that leader to avoid living in this valley. If they return to the Capital, they will probably be caught and thrown into prison immediately, and their families will lose their ability to maintain life again.

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

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

Replacing someone else's identity... seems not to be an easy thing...

"Xiao Bajinsi?"

When Li Ang let out a long sigh, the middle-aged man with gray hair walked out of the nearby shadows silently, frowning and asking:

"Why are you here?"

Finally willing to come out? This person's vigilance is really heavy...

Having already discovered his existence and deliberately coming to contact him, Li Ang had already equipped the Performer badge. After hearing the question, he shook his whole body, pretended to be surprised and turned his head back, looking at him with surprise:

"Leader? Why are you here?"

"This is not far from where I live. I couldn't sleep and came out for a walk."

Not caring about Li Ang's counter-question, the middle-aged man said after answering the question, his eyes flickering:

"What about you? Why don't you go home so late?"

"Go home..."

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

"Where do I still have a home?"

???

After hearing "Xiao Bajinsi"'s words, the middle-aged man couldn't help but frown, pointed to a small hut without lights in the distance and said:

"Xiao Bajinsi, what are you talking about? Isn't that your home?"

Oh, so that's where "my" home is.

Looking at the small hut with a lonely expression, Li Ang remembered the specific location, shook his head with an indifferent expression, and said in a very light and extremely firm voice:

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

"..."

Not knowing that he was fished by Li Ang, after hearing "Xiao Bajinsi"'s answer, the middle-aged man's heart couldn't help but tremble slightly, and a hollow pain surged up.

For Xiao Bajinsi, that is no longer his home... and the current Kingdom is no longer his Kingdom...

No matter how much change and effort he made, the things that should happen have actually happened. No matter where the Kingdom goes in the future, regardless of whether the result is good or bad, it has nothing to do with him anymore. His family is long gone, his regrets are destined to be unable to be made up, so for him who has no "home", isn't this Kingdom just an empty house?

"That's true..."

After being poked seven 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 blow the night wind in silence.

After a while, the "homeless teenager" broke the silence first, staring at the lights in the valley, and asked faintly:

"Leader... in the end, can we really change this country and stop the tragedies suffered by everyone from repeating themselves?"

"..."

"Yes, we can."

Although he didn't believe this sentence either, the middle-aged man who still needed the rebel faction to exist nodded, and said seriously:

"This country is hopeless. 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."

After rudely interrupting the middle-aged man's words, Li Ang's voice was a bit confused:

"After being confirmed by you that I have no qualification, I thought about it seriously, wanting to know how I should do to change the Kingdom without that kind of magical ability."

"But I found that I seem to be able to do nothing, and even the group led by you seems to be able to do nothing."

Under the shocked expression of the middle-aged man, "Xiao Bajinsi" said with a flat speed:

"Although I haven't read many books, looking at the situation in the upper and lower houses, I think the politics in the mouths of those big shots is actually letting more people believe in you, recognize your judgment, and be willing to listen to you, thereby condensing enough power to change the status quo."

"But what we have done over the years is constantly making enemies everywhere... Nobles hate us, chambers of commerce fear us, the royal family catches us, and even ordinary people are distancing themselves from us. Only when they are forced into a dead end by pain will we become the last resort."

"Leader, do you really think that doing this can change this country? Also, even if you finally succeed, how can you guarantee that what appears on the ruins is the future you described, rather than another new Kingdom that is destined to rot from the moment of its birth?"

"..."

After listening to these questions that stabbed into his heart, the middle-aged man couldn't help but stand up, looked at "Xiao Bajinsi" in front of him with suspicion, and asked with vigilance:

"Who taught you these words? Or... you are not Xiao Bajinsi?"

"?"

"Leader? What are you talking about?"

After hearing his words, "Xiao Bajinsi" couldn't help but raise his head in astonishment, and said with confusion:

"Who else could I be if I'm not Xiao Bajinsi? And these words were not taught by others, they were all thought of by myself."

When saying this, Li Ang sighed deeply, briefly talked about the past he heard at the fat uncle's house, then looked at the middle-aged man with "full confusion", and asked with longing:

"By the way, Leader, you can be our leader, so naturally you are the one who knows the most among us. I still have some things I want to ask you."

"Uncle Owen and... my father, they fought for the country and were not wrong. The Kingdom also gave quite generous pensions, which cannot be counted as wrong. My mother and I have done everything, which should not be wrong either. But why is it like this in the end?"

"My mother had to die in the hospital, my father had to become a rotten person, I had to live the days of being beaten every day, and Uncle Owen, who tried his best to help our family, even has to feel guilty for a lifetime... Can you tell me why these are?"

"Also, under your leadership, we, besides being able to make trouble everywhere, 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?"

"..."

Xiao Bajinsi should be real... right?

After responding incoherently for a few sentences and hurriedly fleeing from the high rock, the middle-aged man, whose suspicion was dispelled by a series of soul questions but whose brain was also crashed, walked back to his residence in the night.

Why did I go out to talk to him? Wouldn't it be better to leave directly? What are these questions he asked? Why can't I answer any of them?

Also, just testing that there is no talent to become an anomalous, can Xiao Bajinsi think of so many things? I clearly experienced so much in my previous life, but why can't I understand anything? Is the gap between people really that big?

After walking staggeringly to the outside of his residence with a stomach full of messy questions, the middle-aged man was about to push the door in, but suddenly his expression tightened, and he looked at the big tree beside him.

"Who is there?"

"Leader, it's me..."

Under the cold gaze of the middle-aged man, a man with a bloated figure, flushed cheeks, and full of alcohol smell walked out from behind the tree, and smiled at him with embarrassment.

Old Owen?

After frowning slightly, the middle-aged man relaxed his vigilance slightly and asked with confusion:

"It's so late and you don't rest to come to me, is there anything important?"

"Actually... it's not anything important... I just want to ask you to use that watch to test Xiao Bajinsi again."

After taking out a hair he picked up from the wine table and handing it to the middle-aged man with both hands, the fat uncle who had sobered up a lot explained with a hint of pleading:

"Leader, Xiao Bajinsi carried a large bucket of oil by himself during the day. He was already very tired at that time, and he hasn't slept much these two days, so his state might be worse, so he didn't reach your standard, just a little bit off."

"That child didn't pass your test, and he didn't say much all day. Even though he hates drinking the most, he took the initiative to drink two sips tonight, and has been absent-minded. I... I am a bit worried about his situation."

"Leader, look, if it's not troublesome, can you test him again? What if that child passes this time?"

"..."

So... it's because of this, you really treat him as 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 is not a physical test where indicators will drop because you haven't slept well or just exercised vigorously... hmm..."

When saying this, looking at the pleading eyes of the fat uncle, the middle-aged man paused slightly, and then thought of the strange questions asked by Xiao Bajinsi, and a flash of hesitation flashed in his eyes.

"Okay."

After pondering for a while, the middle-aged man nodded inexplicably, picked up the black hair from the fat uncle's hand, and rubbed it gently on the outside of the watch.

"Zhi~"

Under the operation of the middle-aged man, the sound of gears biting sounded again, and the watch quickly opened its "mouth" and swallowed the black hair, and started to "chew" hard again.

"Owen, although I am willing to test again, you still don't hold too much hope."

During the process of the watch testing, the middle-aged man reminded gently:

"This thing doesn't just test the body, many are things that tend to be at the level of spirit and will, etc., and Xiao Bajinsi really doesn't meet the standards in these aspects, so even if you test it again, it will probably..."

"Da, da, da, da, da, da."

Looking at the hands that didn't even shake, directly dialed to the far right and stuck firmly in six crisp collision sounds, and even vaguely trying to continue to break to the right, the middle-aged man's eyes suddenly bulged, and he gasped violently.

"Ah????????"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 602 =====