Chapter 1107: NO．12: A loving family, now with a rift!

NO．12: A loving family, now with a rift!

Gong Bi Ru Hua Lao Shi, whose real name is Xi, is one of the employees of Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals Limited, and once held the position of Diffusion Specialist in the armed operators classification.

At the same time, she is also a member of the Year Slice.

Ranked eleventh.

It is worth mentioning that, although she comes from an extraordinary background, compared to her physical fitness far surpassing that of ordinary people, even her family members, including her elder brother who willingly became human……

Miss Xi's physical fitness can only be described as tragic.

The most direct proof is the test arranged by Rhodes Island for the standard of normal armed operators, which nearly made Xi faint and even had to be halted midway.

It can be said to be very retro, fulfilling everyone's imagination of the physical fitness of spellcasters and shut-ins.

When Aomo saw that information, his first reaction was:

Fake! Definitely fake!

The Year Slice, an undeniably non-human existence, is something even Nian, who claims to have ten thousand degrees inside him, would believe; in reality, similar beings are not hard to find, and as a Year Slice it is still quite reasonable.

On the contrary, Xi's feeble physical strength is highly unreasonable!

That's how feeble she is—enough to find many posts discussing Xi's physical test in early forum records!

Can you hear me, Great Artist?

Seeing these posts, doesn't it make you explode with anger?

Although I don't know if it actually caused an explosion, from the fact that Aomo could retrieve those posts, and that they are concentrated only within a few days several years ago, it can be seen that this matter was probably handled by someone else.

Of course, this does not mean that provoking the Great Artist Xi is tantamount to provoking cotton.

On the contrary, searching for the keyword Xi itself yields many posts about her quarrels with Nian, which several times blew up into major controversies filled with complaints.

It is clear that this Great Artist also has a temper, but usually you don't even get a chance to see her, let alone provoke her.

——She spends all day shrinking herself in her room——in her paintings, even getting the Doctor to call her out takes considerable effort.

There is also the famous quote: "I won't go out. Don't call me out. I don't want to go out. The outside world, I don't keep in my heart. Am I not happy? Of course I am. Mountains and rivers, wind and moon, flowers, feathers, forests, abysses, peddlers and passersby, old and young, men and women—I cannot exhaust painting them, nor finish seeing them, nor stride past them, nor walk out. I am at ease."

In short, it's just slacking off.

Unable to finish seeing or walking out, she instead doesn't want to bother, wishing to stay in her own paintings until the end of time—and this is meant literally.

With her ability to make the illusory real, and to write ink with ink and then take ink again, she can truly achieve a perpetual motion–like cycle in this unimaginable way.

If nothing unexpected happened, she could indeed persist in the way of slacking off, but now that she can appear in the Holy Terra Federation, everyone can see that there are unexpected events, and not just a few.

Just as anyone who aspires to become a shut-in must face the great mountain called 'family interference,' Xi may have to face even more.

After all, she has eleven brothers and sisters (no younger sisters).

Although a few of them have died midway, they are not lacking in favor from the resurrection race.

Being alive is naturally good, but if they all come to torture themselves, it's absolutely not good—Xi the Great Artist's reason for specially fighting for a slot to come to this world of the Federation is, in a significant sense, to escape that sea of suffering.

After all, her brothers and sisters, although each has their own extraordinary abilities like hers, mostly bear their own responsibilities and obligations.

More directly put——they cannot come here.

Twelve Year Slices, fewer than half can nonchalantly head straight to another world.

Even if it's to avoid the most nagging one (Shu) and the one she doesn't get along with (Jie), her quota for Rhodes Island's exchange to another world is absolutely a must!

She indeed succeeded, after all, although she is unemployed, her ability to add the finishing touch and create something from nothing is truly effective.

Xi thus became part of the first batch of 'exchange personnel' resulting from the cooperation between Rhodes Island and the Holy Terra Federation, but there is also a sobering fact——Nian also followed.

Having avoided the most nagging and the most disagreeable, yet still accompanied by the one who raises blood pressure, plus the fact that she herself had to sign a work contract that must be fulfilled to come over——thus, in that first year, Xi's shut-in life was not exactly peaceful.

But precisely because of that, she was able to, besides the internet, come into contact with more of the local culture.

——horse racing culture.

Horse racing girls, who resemble the Kuluntas extremely but have an even more peculiar origin, possess an even more splendid stage, and pursue their own dreams on their legs.

Just as she said, "I cannot exhaust painting them, nor finish seeing them, nor stride past them, nor walk out," she has never grown tired of this world, merely escaping from its splendid variety.

She once had a dream, or rather, her habitual ability itself is a kind of longing.

After each Year Slice becomes aware of itself from obscurity, it will seek its own goals and pursuits—in other words, it is longing.

Their abilities also come to fruition precisely in the process of further clarifying 'who I am'.

However, at that time, they still face the risk of extinction.

Because the year will end and awaken, they will ultimately unite.

It is precisely while holding that uneasy, incessant anxiety that Xi becomes pessimistic and passive toward worldly affairs, gradually becoming the only one among the twelve Year Slices who dislikes moving about, a shut-in.

But obviously, she is also reluctant, wanting to record everything she has experienced, done, seen, and heard.

Not with words, but with pictures.

Gong Bi enters transformation, splashed ink flows freely, expressive intent surpasses form.

She wants to retain every minute detail of all that, to keep those proofs of the past, which is likewise proof that she has lived.

People die, but the paintings remain.

She dies, but the brush intent remains.

This is her resistance against that predetermined fate.

But just as many things encounter a turning point with the passage of time, under the scheming of the second eldest of the Sui family, Wang, the conclusion that 'the Year Slices will eventually perish' has acquired cracks.

And once a stable world channel is opened, allowing direct passage to another world, their connection with the 'Year' vessel becomes almost completely severed.

Freed——such ease is so vivid, such a feeling is so lacking in substance, on the contrary it leaves Xi's heart entirely empty.

After all, that had been a gloom pressing on her heart for hundreds of years, making her sleepless all night; once removed, she instead does not know how to react.

Moreover, she does not know how to start her future life, nor whether she should also reassess her relationship with this heaven and earth.

Then, during this period, she was forced by her work contract to go out, and together with others went on business trips, running errands everywhere in the Junction Gate area.

Inevitably, she frequently came into contact with horse racing girls culture.

Yuehuanshe: Sounds like what a labor reform prisoner, just out of jail, being led astray by an idol?

Having only heard the other side's brief final segment, Erchuang Yongbing gave a very calm comment.

Gongbi Ruhua: Don't go overboard! How did you end up as a labor reform prisoner?!

Yuehuanshe: Back then, being under so much pressure you didn't dare sleep— isn't that just being in prison?

Gongbi Ruhua: You!

Yuehuanshe: Moreover, you still haven't gotten to the point— how is this being blamed on me?

Coordination mistakes, insufficient schedule— can't that be blamed on me?

Gongbi Ruhua: Are you truly unaware or pretending not to know?

Yuehuanshe: I only know that your extreme collection has been exposed.

Gongbi Ruhua:...

The scene replayed, once again showing 'the other party is typing' repeatedly, but with no follow‑up, leaving Aomo wondering whether to reply to Zhong Yue with a couple of lines first, lest the connection be cut off.

Then I saw the other party reply:

Gongbi Ruhua: Year thought I liked you.

Erchuang Yongbing:?

Gongbi Ruhua: She posted this in the family group; I naturally had to clarify, saying we only had a work‑related intersection.

Erchuang Yongbing: And then?

Gongbi Ruhua: Then Shujie asked me about my work, Lingjie watched from the side laughing, and elder brother went through my books.

Erchuang Yongbing: Oh! This actually fits.

Gongbi Ruhua:?

Erchuang Yongbing: This fits my speculation about the current situation; there's no other meaning.

Gongbi Ruhua: Then can you guess the first one?

Erchuang Yongbing: What?

Gongbi Ruhua: Nothing much; just keep big brother steady for me. Shujie's fine— she doesn't often use her ability, but she's always patient.

Erchuang Yongbing: I feel like Shujie and Nianjie are teaming up to mess with Zhong Yue and you.

Gongbi Ruhua:...?

Erchuang Yongbing: I was just saying it casually; I actually don't know the exact situation, so please don't take it to heart.