"Hmm? Oh, it's fine, as long as it's finished," Bai Cha waved dismissively, happily picking up the milk and starting to drink. The milk was delicious, and Bai Cha squinted happily as she lay back in her chair.
"It's already the sixth day?" Lucifer frowned, looking at the mission team led by Meng Qinghuan on the computer. The time was indeed a bit long.
"Yes, it should have taken three days. Meng Qinghuan estimated seven days," Bai Cha sighed, resting her chin on her hand. "The backup data I left behind before I lost my memory said that Meng Qinghuan is a conservative type. He over-prepares for missions, and generally, the mission time is less than half of his estimate."
Bai Cha believed that she wasn't a fool before losing her memory.
She hadn't lost her brain, only her memory. Moreover, she knew very well that she wasn't a reborn character from a novel. Perhaps she was naturally proud; even with amnesia, her brain would subconsciously, and even without objection, believe her own judgment.
"Is it because your relationship with them is a bit strained now, so you haven't immediately gone to look for them?" Lucifer asked.
Bai Cha's relationship with the current Shadow was a bit delicate, or rather, a bit awkward. Training proceeded normally, and Bai Cha's authority remained top-notch, but both parties felt uncomfortable.
"Yes, after all, I lost my memory. They said my past behavior was different," Bai Cha muttered. "I can understand that. I've forgotten everything. From sharing hardships in the past to being an observer now, we all need time to adapt."
At the last victory celebration, Bai Cha listened from the side as people from Shadow recounted her stories. She didn't doubt that those things were indeed done by her. The strong sense of familiarity and déjà vu told her that it was all true.
But everything was different. She was like an observer listening to her own story, as if the person who had gone through life and death with everyone had become someone else. This made Bai Cha feel strange and lonely.
Bai Cha was recovering her memory, and the current Shadow felt a little unfamiliar to her. The current Bai Cha was unrestrained and casual, even arrogant and wild. This was a huge departure from the indifferent boss she used to be, as if she were another person. The people of Shadow were also adapting to the brand-new Bai Cha.
At night, Ye Feng was awakened by an alarm on Lucifer's phone. Ye Feng would go to bed early, and then Lucifer would come to check the thermostat and whether the doors and windows were closed. As the butler, he would do his best to pay attention to everything related to the Bai family.
At that moment, Lucifer was helping Ye Feng check the room's thermostat temperature when his phone began to ring.
The screen suddenly turned black, and the map was outlined with blue lines, with red light points flashing.
Ye Feng had heard Lucifer talk about this before. It was Bai Cha's lifeline for everyone, a distress signal that could reach Bai Cha from anywhere in the world, a promise Bai Cha had once made to everyone.
Since Bai Cha lost her memory, this thing had never lit up. Lucifer had seen Bai Cha standing in a corner, looking at people who crawled back half-dead but refused to call for help with a look of desolation.
Perhaps it wasn't that everyone no longer believed in Bai Cha, but rather that they felt they owed Bai Cha too much. Now, they thought about giving Bai Cha some comfort instead.
After Bai Cha lost her memory, the two groups who had relied on each other suddenly seemed a bit distant and awkward. And today, this emergency distress signal rang again.
"Master, it's bad!"
Lucifer reacted instantly and rushed to the study.
The study was empty. The window was open, letting in a breeze, and Bai Cha was nowhere to be seen.
"What do we do, Master?"
Yun He returned to Meng Qinghuan's side, exhausted. Half of her body was now engulfed in black smoke, looking even more hideous than Bai Cha did when she was previously corrupted by darkness.
From a distance, the green mountains, clear waters, blue skies, and white clouds showed no abnormalities. They had thought so at first, but no one had expected the Dragon Mother to possess such intelligence and demarcate a small area to imprison them. Such a disguise was a trick to deceive the heavens.
The plants under their feet had withered. The Dragon Mother dared not bring too much power in for fear of attracting the attention of Earth's plane, but this little bit of power was more than enough to deal with Meng Qinghuan and the other seven or eight people.
"Don't look at me, I haven't found an exit," Xiang Nan said, crossing her arms. Rotten blood dripped from the giant bone dragon in the sky, and its dragon's breath carried intense corrosive power.
This was simply not a battle of equal footing.
"I sent a distress signal," Meng Qinghuan said.
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone paused.
It wasn't that others didn't want to send distress signals. It was that most people's communicators were broken. The power of this bone dragon was truly bizarre. After being eroded, even genetic communication would be directly rendered useless. Otherwise, with Yun He's personality, how could she not have notified Bai Cha immediately?
However, the remaining people did not send distress signals immediately. Everyone knew what they were hesitating about.
From the day Bai Cha lost her memory, everyone understood that Bai Cha was no longer the same as before.
The former Bai Cha was calm, melancholic, yet firm. She wouldn't smile so wickedly and wildly like the current Bai Cha, nor would she sit on the windowsill with a cigarette in her mouth, appearing lazy and alluring. She wouldn't appear indifferent and nonchalant about everything.
The former Bai Cha wasn't interested in anything outside of missions. She had no intention of competing for dominance. At most, she would sit in the center of the crowd, letting everyone laugh and joke around her, but she wouldn't be in the thick of it like she was now, raising a wine glass and acting like a victorious emperor looking down on the world after a fierce competition.
The former her considered the overall situation and was cautious in her words and actions. She would never point fingers at anyone as she does now, or throw reports directly in people's faces during meetings when unhappy, as if her every word and action no longer considered the consequences.
Would she no longer care about them?
The people of Shadow were uncertain, but no one dared to ask or try. They were afraid that their Miss Bai had truly disappeared. Moreover, the former Bai Cha had sacrificed too much for them. It was only when they knew of her death that they were shocked to realize that this girl was much younger than them.
Although it might be a bit late, they still wanted to protect her as much as possible, just as Bai Cha had never spoken about her own dangers when they were still inexperienced.
However, they were not her after all. She could resolve any danger, but they seemed to be truly lacking. Meng Qinghuan gave a bitter smile.
"What if Miss gets hurt again? Will she forget us completely?" A girl covered her face and burst into tears. Since Xiang Nan took over, she had never approved of Xiang Nan. Her admiration for Bai Cha was as great as her fear that Bai Cha would completely forget them.
She remembered her first mission, where she finally had the chance to drink celebratory wine with the elders. The first thing she saw was the girl sitting in the center, surrounded by everyone. Even though everyone was around her, that girl still gave her a feeling of being cold and lonely.
She was like a puppet tied with shackles. Even though she was carved into a queen standing on stage and cheered for, it couldn't hide her puppet-like coldness and loneliness.
Unconsciously, she moved closer to Bai Cha. She had seen Bai Cha charging forward, her aura more powerful than any man's, and it gave her a strong sense of security.
That night, everyone was lively, with clinking glasses and loud chatter, but Bai Cha noticed her closeness. She turned her head and their eyes met. It was a brilliance that even the night sky of the far north didn't possess, and it was etched in her heart.
Later, after an unknown amount of time during a mission, Bai Cha accurately called out her name.
"Bai, Miss Bai still remembers me?" She was very excited, not expecting the boss to remember a minor figure like her with mediocre achievements.
"Yes, you were the one behind me at the victory celebration that day," Bai Cha nodded indifferently, but this nod made her willingly surrender.
It was precisely because of this that when Bai Cha looked at her with such unfamiliarity after losing her memory, it became unbearable for her.
The environment of this enclosed space was truly harsh, with no shelter or place to live. As they took turns blocking the bone dragon's breath, despair began to set in.
"Meng! It's starting."
Xiang Nan frowned. She was annoyed by the crying and had intended to scold the girl a few words. But her peripheral vision caught sight of the bone dragon raising its head, and her expression changed again.
Without bothering with anything else, Xiang Nan pressed Yun He's shoulder and flung her behind her. She was already seriously injured, and if she continued to be corroded, she might lose her consciousness.
The golden light of the Buddha had never been so dim. Baimon was not with Meng Qinghuan this time. Their relationship hadn't returned to normal, for one thing. For another, Baimon hadn't expected a B-class mission to have so many variables.
Without Baimon's support, Meng Qinghuan only had sixty percent of her strength. Together with Xiang Nan, they barely managed to block another attack. However, the expressions of both of them changed again. This time, the bone dragon didn't charge up. It was as if it had suddenly become anxious, even melting half of its body in a frenzy to annihilate them.
Before, it had only intended to wear them down to death, but now it was suddenly trying to kill them. Everyone was caught off guard. Meng Qinghuan, without a second thought, shielded Xiang Nan.
"The strategist is more important than the warrior. If anything happens, protect Xiang Nan first. A part of the body can be cultivated again, but the brain is unique."
Bai Cha's words always echoed clearly in his ears. If Meng Qinghuan didn't know that he liked Yun He, he would truly think that Bai Cha was his beloved, otherwise, why would Bai Cha's every lesson be so deeply ingrained in his mind?
Looking at the dark energy cluster just within reach, Meng Qinghuan felt he could barely breathe. He remembered when he was alone and most helpless, Bai Cha had meticulously taught him the methods she had deduced sleeplessly.
He remembered how Bai Cha, who was much younger than him, always stood in front of him during crises, and still remembered to teach him how to handle such situations, how to play chess, strategize, and train.
I'm sorry, Bai Cha. I was so willful before, wanting to pursue some strange freedom. It was most freeing to be by your side. You allowed me to do anything, yet in the end, I failed you.
The sky changed.
The flowing clouds stopped, and the howling wind fell silent.
The incoming dragon's breath was viscous and powerful, but in its descent, three barriers suddenly appeared.
Those three barriers were semi-transparent, one black, one white, and one red. With each layer broken through, the dragon's breath shrank by a circle. Just as the aftershock was about to fall, another dark red force, like a shooting star chasing the moon, collided fiercely with this viscous dragon's breath.
A gust of wind suddenly arose, rustling everyone's clothes. Their long hair fluttered like ribbons in the wind. The girl in front of them put away her playful smile and resumed her former cold demeanor, making everyone momentarily believe that Bai Cha had never lost her memory.
Xiang Nan finally smiled. As expected, it was as she had guessed. It wasn't that Bai Cha had changed, but the environment had changed.
It wasn't that the amnesiac Bai Cha was different from before. Their living conditions were extremely difficult before. Bai Cha couldn't relax. She was exhausted and racked her brains to lead everyone forward step by step. She herself was trapped in pain and couldn't struggle, so she rarely smiled.
But now it was different. Bai Cha had used her life to clear out traitors, awaken Shadow's crisis awareness, purge the world's toxic elements, and eliminate zombies and Asuras that almost brought about the end of the world. The current environment was naturally relaxed and free. It was the future she had created by ending an era. Yet, those people were still reminiscing about her from the previous era.
It wasn't that she couldn't be serious and indifferent like before, just like now.