Chapter 473: NO.56: Sunday Hard to Find Peace

NO. 56: Sunday Hard to Find Peace

Melancholy.

She glanced at her phone, which vibrated slightly in silent mode; if the screen didn't show that cute black‑haired horse girl avatar, she couldn't be bothered to respond.

She also wasn't in the mood to deal with it.

After all, she had just been rejected by such a horse girl.

No, you couldn't really call it a rejection.

After all, the connection wasn't broken; it just needed slight adjustment so the other could run better on the track.

The track…

Chazuo was finally about to step onto the stage in earnest, though she often lacked a real sense of it.

After all… that plain, calm girl, whose love for running itself falls short of her befriending countless souls, has always valued not the running but those souls she cares about.

That includes herself.

'Friend'.

She calls herself that, which also stems from her own deliberate guidance.

Zhouri Ningjing doesn't want Chazuo to notice that she is her biological sister; this is also a situation the whole family is deliberately maintaining.

The elder sister, who retired from the Saichang in Peace Beauty District but was doing poorly, had once been drawn into the gray zone of Peace Beauty District.

Back then, that headstrong horse girl of the year, amidst a complex gray, instead emerged from the gloom, earning the moniker of Black Sunday and becoming a standout among adult horse girls.

So what was the cost?

It was estrangement from the family.

Your wind‑calling and rain‑summoning in that world can't bring the family any recognition or pride; instead it brings them actual trouble, even threats.

Even the Qianming representative she loathed, who once clung like gum on her shoe and couldn't be shaken off, couldn't truly be called an enemy.

Among those investigating her, they were the least threatening.

Such people won't target your family, nor see your relatives as your weakness.

No matter how much they know or how much dirt they've seen, they ultimately remain people standing in the sunlight.

Such people make up the majority, yet they don't hinder that tiny minority capable of bringing you the gravest danger.

Thus Zhouri Ningjing became Chazuo's 'friend'.

With the ample funds unique to a renowned horse girl, plus favors earned galloping in the gray zone, she purchased a service ordinary people could hardly imagine.

——A galaxy‑wide alteration of perception.

All to make even blood relatives forget your existence.

Even if the feeling that outlasts memory lingers, it will be unconsciously turned toward other conclusions.

With such a service package, plus the tampering and encryption of records after internal communication with the Association… Zhouri Ningjing could thus vanish from public memory.

Even a demon‑like horse girl who had been a D‑type since childhood, upon hearing her name, would find it unfamiliar.

Admittedly, this perception change alters only perception.

It amounts to no permanent brainwashing.

So if someone gathered countless evidence and laid reality before those people, even if they couldn't awaken memory, it would be just as troublesome.

In the nearly ten years since she left Peace Beauty District, such dangerous individuals have appeared only once.

They not only recognized the abnormality of her identity but also gathered many discordant records from her over a decade of activity, nearly uncovering the truth and almost tracking down her family——

——Although they didn't reach the final step before she shattered them, they still left her with a profoundly deep impression.

After that, Zhouri Ningjing no longer even appeared before her parents.

She became a 'friend' visible only to Chazuo.

After all, isn't she just returning from Peace Beauty District to Boundary Gate District for that girl?

A horse girl discovered by the URA Association since childhood was assigned to Tresen in Peace Beauty District to seek her soul's 'mandate'.

Regardless of whether the fate of the horse girl's soul prevails.

A Zhouri Ningjing who left the district to study abroad since childhood, nearly becoming a native local horse girl, is destined to have little contact with her parents.

Not to mention feelings; not affecting them can only be said to be out of filial duty.

And in this situation, what could truly move her, even cause her to once give everything……

She pulled from her pocket a physical wallet exceedingly rare in this age.

Inside its transparent compartment lay an even rarer physical photograph.

In the photo, a horse girl with a youthful face wore a violent, dangerous smile.

While the horse girl child standing beside her, hand in hand, bore a pure yet restrained smile.

That child had been well‑behaved since youth and was curious about everything concerning her.

On the occasional days she returned from Peace Beauty District to Boundary Gate District, that child, ever‑present like a little shadow, stood before and behind her.

Moreover, the child knew inside out every competition she had entered.

The only rebellion was the child's refusal of Peace Beauty District coffee… which doesn't matter much, since Zhouri Ningjing herself isn't attached to that drink either; indeed, she would send her some Peace Beauty District coffee beans.

Coffee beans are always innocent.

Although they already carry the origin's mark and flavor at the moment of production, different post‑harvest roasting and brewing can still bring out a varied splendor.

But in many cases, people care only about the former.

Origin, or talent.

Horse girls sent to Peace Beauty District often do so not because of the mandate to seek the horse girl's soul, but because they cannot meet the admission standards of the central Tresen in Boundary Gate District.

After all, she herself never aspired to Peace Beauty District from childhood.

From the very start, Zhouri Ningjing's relationship with her parents was relatively harmonious.

The father would often complain about her violent rebelliousness during her school days, while the mother would also shield her daughter when the father scolded her.

The younger daughter, Chazuo, would always watch anxiously at such times as her older sister was being scolded.

Such an ordinary family of four, if not for Chazuo's fondness for the girl who loves to run, they would wish to see her run even faster.

She really didn't need to accept the special recruitment invitation from Anmei District.

But now…

She snapped her purse shut, slipped it back into her clothing pocket, and her dark‑gold eyes held the indifference she had learned in Anmei District.

Chazuo no longer remembers the sister she once looked up to, and she herself has long been off the track.

But that child has now reached the age to step onto the track herself.

She possesses a talent even more outstanding than her former self.

She has the running talent to gain admission to Central Telesen, yet she also happens to possess such an outstanding medium's talent.

It once made her delighted to approach in the form of a spirit body, and she kept that form for a long time afterward, to the point that even her subordinates couldn't help but exclaim:

"Is being a ghost really that great? The boss keeps showing up looking like that all the time!"

Zhouri Ningjing naturally couldn't be bothered to refute the rumors, nor did she want to introduce her sister to her subordinates.

After all, anyone who knows her only needs to have seen Mancheng Chazuo to easily guess their relationship.

But such speculation is seriously lacking evidence; anyone would hesitate a moment, then sigh that the two 'really are like sisters.'

Moreover, in this day and age—whether of flesh or soul, methods to change one's appearance exist—so even the eyes can deceive.

By comparison, the credibility of feeling is much higher.

But the sensory line linking the two sisters—that soul bond even tighter than blood ties—now also needs consideration for shielding, or even a temporary cut.

She undoubtedly cherishes that bond.

Such an intimate bond lets her sense Chazuo's emotions, state, and even whereabouts.

After Zhouri Ningjing's life restarted, this is the sole anchor point that can still feel familiar and unchanging.

Now that anchor point hasn't been pried loose, but it has been altered in a way she dislikes.

She might think of it as leaving Chazuo some personal space.

Let her sister step onto that track, chase the speed dream she's cherished since childhood, and she herself ought to loosen her grip a bit.

But she still harbors some lingering gloom and irritability.

Especially since Chazuo mentioned in the call that 'the trainer is quite troubled.'

Trainer!!!

Quite troubled?

Are you sure it wasn't that guy's direct suggestion?

Zhouri Ningjing has always been ready to ascribe the worst possible motives to that trainer, because whenever she interacts with him, she recalls the guy who nearly wrecked her plans.

Honestly, the two don't resemble each other.

One side is the boss of a rival gang in Anmei District; the other is a new trainer and mercenary.

The former bears ill will, while the latter is still fairly friendly toward her.

Yet the latter can give her a sense of threat far surpassing that of the former.

【Her target has always been you; don't let her down】——Aomo Lindun

Such a message came through, not via phone channel but through the very network of the data world.

That is to say.

A contempt‑filled pop‑up window, as if it were staring directly at one's own expression!

——What did you say to my beloved younger sister?!

The already complex emotions suddenly found an outlet.

She wanted to, but couldn't directly question that point.

Even if the other party remained tolerant and kept her words and deeds confidential… no, rather, precisely because of that tolerance, she grew all the more furious!

If the other party were a simple, clear‑cut troublemaker, she wouldn't feel so vexed and irritable.

"Fuck!"

She kicked the wall beside her with vicious force, yet Zhouri Ningjing stared somewhat dazedly at the wall she had just kicked through.

Her shoes, which looked like mere little leather shoes, had embedded metal and shock‑absorbing design, fully capable of shaking the walls of this data realm.

Kicking through the wall was hardly surprising.

But after kicking through the wall, as cracks kept spreading outward and even the lighting fixtures on the floor and ceiling began to shake, her expression and state of mind inevitably changed.

Especially right after, she clearly heard a booming "OrbSupremeCalibur!"

When that ultra‑loud, earth‑shaking reverberation sounded, her expression became no different from that of the startled Chazuo.