Night’s Nomenclature

Qing Chen thought to himself, could there really be people not hungry for power in the consortium?

Although he saw no point in her to lie to her date, he still had his doubts.

At this time, the woman at the bar had stopped everything she was doing and just stared at them, in case something unexpected happened to Qing Shi.

Qing Chen asked again, “Then who do you think is the most likely candidate to win the Fight?”

“Probably Qing Wen or Qing Zhong,” the girl thought for a while and smiled, “Right now, everyone is optimistic about them. Qing Yuan is supporting Qing Zhong in the second round. Qing Xing and the youngest Qing Yi chose to support Qing Wen. Currently, Qing Wu and I are the only ones who haven’t made a decision on who to support yet, and Qing Wu seems to think he still has a chance to win.”

This information was critical for Qing Chen. It seemed like most of the candidates had already selected their leader to support.

Qing Wen was from the main branch, and Qing Zhong was from the second. These two were the popular candidates.

Qing Shi continued with a smile, “But so far, not all the partnerships and alliances are necessarily faithful or real. For example, Qing Yuan has always been ambitious and might have been using Qing Zhong as his protection. That’s what my father said.”

Until the last moment of the Fight, no one would reveal their true intentions.

“It must be very hard for a little girl like you to participate in this kind of conflict,” Qing Chen commented, pretending to be very caring.

“It’s not too bad,” Qing Shi said with a smile, “Everyone knows that I don’t intend to win, so they didn’t make things difficult for me. Their eyes are mainly fixed on Qing Wen, Qing Zhong, and Qing Wu. Oh, let me tell you a secret that even the outside media doesn’t know. Qing Wen has two Forbidden Items on him, more than the rest of us.”

“Did someone help him?” Qing Chen asked curiously, “I read on the news that shadow candidates are not allowed to bring Forbidden Items with them when the Fight starts, right? They have to obtain them through the missions themselves.”

Looks like what the Roaming King said was real, and the candidate who had two Forbidden Items was Qing Wen!

Qing Chen suddenly became interested in Qing Wen.

Very interested.

Qing Shi explained, “It’s not that someone helped Qing Wen to cheat, but the youngest Qing Yi felt that he was not as capable of competing for the Shadow, so he gave his Forbidden Item to Qing Wen in exchange for Qing Wen’s protection. The one Qing Yi gave him is the Forbidden Item ACE-090, the ‘Indestructible Brooch’. It can be used to extend one’s life.”

The Shadow candidates certainly had some creative ways to compete, Qing Chen thought. He didn’t expect that someone would willingly give away a Forbidden Item.

On the other hand, this also showed that Qing Yi must also not be a fool. He gave the Forbidden Item to Qing Wen but publicized the function of the Forbidden Item. Did he do that to inform others about one of Qing Wen’s trump cards?

Only now did Qing Chen feel like he was truly a part of the Fight for the Shadow.

However, Qing Chen didn’t want himself to appear to be too interested in the Fight for the Shadow the first time they met.

He smiled and said, “This is quite a dark topic for sure. Let’s talk about poetry! Do you still remember the poems I wrote?”

He wanted ONE to show him the poems the AI wrote, but ONE refused.

But since he was talking to Qing Shi now, Qing Chen thought he could at least get to know how good ONE’s poems could be. He was interested to see the AI’s literary abilities.

Qing Shi looked at Qing Chen with shining eyes, “Of course I remember, I can recite every poem of yours. Let me recite one to you…”

“Beep… beep, beep, beeeeep!”

Qing Chen’s phone on the table suddenly started making noise. He picked it up and looked at it suspiciously, only to find that there was nothing there.

“What’s wrong?” Qing Shi asked curiously.

“No, nothing,” Qing Chen said with a smile, “Maybe the phone is broken. Keep going.”

“Well, I like your poem “Snow” the most. I will recite it to you now,” Qing Shi said with a smile.

“Buzz… buzz, buzzzzz!”

Qing Chen’s phone rang again loudly, enough so that the woman at the bar not far away quickly walked over, holding the gun holster on her waist with her right hand and staring at him with eyes like those of a hungry wolf.

If Qing Chen dared to make one wrong move, the woman would probably shoot him on the spot.

“I’ve dropped this phone a couple of times before, so it often rings for no reason sometimes.” He knew very well why the phone rang. It was to prevent Qing Shi from reciting ONE’s poems!

Qing Chen sneered in his mind. It turned out that the AI was afraid of this!

The female bodyguard disguised as a waiter walked up to him and said softly to Qing Shi, “Miss, the time is up. It’s against the rules to allow you to meet outsiders in private. Please don’t make it difficult for us anymore.”

“Fine,” Qing Shi sighed, and looked at Qing Chen, “Sorry, I have to go, but I will stay in City 18 for a while. We should be able to meet again.”

“Yeah.”

Qing Shi suddenly asked shyly, “What’s your impression of me?”

“Very good,” Qing Chen replied vaguely.

“Then can you write me a poem? You said before that you write poems in under a minute,” Qing Shi looked at Qing Chen.

Damn it!

Qing Chen’s heart skipped a beat. Why would ONE brag about that?

He pretended to be calm and looked at his phone, only to find two words on the screen: Damn it.

Qing Chen: ???

I have a reason to curse. Why are you cursing as well?

It seemed that even ONE herself did not expect that the Qing Shi would ask for poems on the spot.

Frankly, it is really easy for AI to compose a poem on the spot.

But the AI didn’t want Qing Chen to see her poems!

She would die from embarrassment.

ONE hesitated and sent a message to Qing Chen: How about you make up a poem for her?

Qing Chen said calmly to Qing Shi, “I’ll definitely make one for you next time.”

“Cutie” didn’t give her a poem. What would that have to do with Qing Chen?

Qing Shi said with slight disappointment, “Okay, promise me you will write one next time.”

The female bodyguard left with Qing Shi. Qing Chen sat in the chair feeling physically and mentally exhausted, with a mild headache.

It was only now that ONE sent a message, “I am very unsatisfied with how this transaction went. Why didn’t you write her a poem at the end?”

Qing Chen walked out of the cafe and got into the floating car. He said with a gloomy look on his face, “What are you dissatisfied with? I’m not a wandering poet. I can’t write poems!”

“There are so many good poems in the Outer World. With your memory, you can just pick a random one and give it to her!” ONE said.

“I can’t expose my identity as a time traveler for a stupid poem,” Qing Chen said, “Do you still want me to meet her for you the next time? Don’t talk so much nonsense. Isn’t the whole point just to let Qing Yi believe that you’re a real person? You’re the one who kept on adding extras!”

“Fine, I’ll take your excuse,” ONE said, “I’ve arranged your next meeting to be in three days. After you complete that, I will give you the information that you’ll need to set Liu Dezhu free and the program to hide your identity in the Outer World.”

Qing Chen thought for a moment and asked, “Are your poems really that embarrassing?”

“Where do you want to go now?” ONE asked.

“What did you write about in ‘Snow’?”

“How about I send you to Haitang Boxing Gym to watch boxing.”

“How many poems have you written?”

“Are you done yet?!”

…

…

At the same time, in Qing’s black floating car, the middle-aged woman sat in front of Qing Shi and said calmly, “Miss, that teenager doesn’t look like the so-called collaborator in City 18 that you claimed to meet. I feel that you are hiding something.”

“I am collaborating with him,” Qing Shi said weakly.

“I’ll need to report today’s itinerary to your father and check the other party’s identity. Miss, how do you know him?” asked the woman.

Qing Shi was anxious. She grabbed the ends of her long ponytails and said, “If you really want to do this, I’ll announce that I’m withdrawing from the Fight for the Shadow right now. It’s obviously just a small matter. Why do you have to be so serious about it?”

Seeing Qing Shi threatening her with this, the woman became a little gentler, “Miss, you don’t have to win the Fight, but at least you should try your best. Your father is also very worried about your safety.”

Qing Shi thought for a moment and said, “My father worked so hard to help me get the Forbidden Item for the first round of missions. If he really doesn’t care about me winning, what does he want then? Can’t he just let me announce my withdrawal if he really cares about my safety? So, please don’t interfere with my personal business, otherwise, I will announce my withdrawal from the Fight for the Shadow immediately.”

“I’m worried about your safety as well,” the woman sighed, “The other candidates are ruthless. If they find someone to approach you on purpose, you have to be on guard.”

“Don’t worry, this person won’t hurt me!” Qing Shi said firmly, “Although I have doubts about his identity, I know he won’t do me any harm.”

The woman was a little surprised by how confident Qing Shi was.

“Where are we going next?” Qing Shi asked.

The woman took a look at the itinerary and said, “We have made an appointment with Miss Li Yinuo to meet privately at the Haitang Boxing Gym tonight. If everything goes according to our plan, you will choose her to support the Li family. At present, it seems that she has shown the most potential among the third generation in the Li family and is relatively upright. Working with her would be our safest bet. Li Tongyun could also be a good choice, but she’s too young.”

Qing Shi asked doubtfully, “Li Yinuo is the eldest daughter of the third generation in the Li family, right? With her status, will she be willing to cooperate with a little nobody like me?”

“She took the initiative to contact us.”

…

…

Quick Translator’s Note: Qing Shi’s name 诗 (shi) also means “poem”. I just found that quite funny and worth sharing 😛

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