Legend Management Bureau Chapter 126

[ … words ]

The immortals in front of the screen were slightly taken aback. Was she speaking to them?

“I have sent your Controller to London in 1993. I know he speaks no English and knows no magic. Theoretically, I am the only one who can help him return. If you want him to go back to your China, I need a good price.”

Dong Qianqiu immediately felt that things had taken a turn for the worse. She had sensed something was off just moments ago. Had Chada really been acting this whole time?

The immortals were at a loss for what to do. They all looked silently toward the Queen Mother of the West sitting in the front row. Her face flushed with faint anger, as if she had just suffered a terrible humiliation. Beside her, the Weaver Girl was constantly trying to soothe her.

“I wish to speak with her,” the Queen Mother of the West declared.

Dong Qianqiu immediately whispered something to a sound transmitter. The transmitter walked over to the Queen Mother and said,

“Your Majesty, if you hold my hand, you will be able to speak with the person in the legend.”

The Queen Mother of the West gave a slight nod and grabbed the person’s wrist. Then, she spoke in an indifferent tone, “Operator from England, what is it that you want?”

“Oh? You must be the esteemed Queen Mother of the West. Someone is paying to have your country’s Controller killed. If you can offer me more money, I will discuss this business deal with you.”

“I want valuables worth ten million pounds,” Chada replied.

The Queen Mother furrowed her brows slightly and asked the Weaver Girl beside her, “How much money is that?”

“According to current exchange rates, one pound is equal to about eight or nine mortal yuan. Ten million pounds should be around eighty to ninety million yuan.”

“A sum close to a hundred million… that’s not much.” The Queen Mother pondered for a moment before asking, “Little girl from the British Empire, to extort us in our own country, aren’t you afraid you won’t live long enough to spend this wealth?”

“I will not be,” Chada’s tone turned icy again as she replied to the Queen Mother. “Your country is very wealthy, and your status is lofty. Why would you kill me over this amount of money?”

The Queen Mother’s face flushed red. With her temper, she would absolutely tear this person to pieces, but she truly couldn’t throw away her dignity to do so right now.

Just as she was about to speak, the Weaver Girl held her back.

“Your Majesty, do not be so hasty to reply. Let us see what the operator named Du Yu has to say first.”

Upon hearing this, the Queen Mother felt the Weaver Girl’s words made sense. She shot a glance at Dong Qianqiu, who tacitly understood.

“Du Yu! Can you hear me?” Dong Qianqiu asked.

“I can, Sister Qianqiu. What’s wrong?”

“There’s a situation with Chada!”

“Yeah, I know.” Du Yu nodded. “What did she say? Did she straight up rebel, or does she want money?”

“You…” Dong Qianqiu was a bit confused. “You knew?”

“Yes.” Du Yu nodded. “I was very curious to see what she would do, so I intentionally walked right into the tiger’s den.”

“What exactly is going on?”

“Sister Qianqiu…” Du Yu pulled the letter written by Chada from his pocket and slowly unfolded it. “Point the screen at this letter and ask the audience there if anyone understands English.”

“Oh… is there something strange about this letter?” Dong Qianqiu asked.

“If I’m not mistaken, this letter makes no mention of letting me return,” Du Yu explained. “After all, this letter is composed entirely of words. If she truly intended for me to return to August 1888, it theoretically should specify the time, but there isn’t a single Arabic numeral on this page. No matter how poor my English is, I can still recognize the twelve months.”

Startled, Dong Qianqiu exclaimed, “You knew something was wrong, yet you still went?”

“Because Chada’s pocket watch is genuine,” Du Yu said. “That pocket watch acts like a magical artifact that displays the exact current time. It must be an item meant to ensure their ‘Controllers’ don’t easily get lost when traveling through time. The whole watch is incredibly worn, as if it has been used for hundreds of years, and the photograph inside has clearly been caressed for a long time. So, I am genuinely curious: does Chada really want to ask for my help, or does she simply want to harm me?”

“You put yourself at such a massive risk merely out of curiosity?”

“Risk? No, no, no.” Du Yu shook his head. “You forgot, we use a ‘machine’ to time travel. You can actually recall me at any moment.”

Dong Qianqiu froze, as if suddenly remembering something.

“That is true… Then this Chada…”

“They have never used a time travel machine, so they blindly believed in their own abilities.” Du Yu sighed and said, “Tell the Queen Mother to just play along with whatever Chada says for now. Once I figure out the situation over here, I’ll find a way back.”

Upon hearing this, the Queen Mother’s expression softened. She whispered to the Weaver Girl, “As expected of this boy. He has quite a sharp mind.”

With that, she raised her voice and asked, “Do any of the immortals here understand English?”

All the immortals slowly lowered their heads, much like students afraid of being called upon by a teacher.

“Hmph!” The Queen Mother was rather displeased. “Just how busy are you all? It would only take you a few months to learn a language. Do you not even have time for that?”

The immortals dared to be angry but didn’t dare speak up. They had all been deified in ancient times; why would they ever study English? Besides, speaking of being “busy,” the Queen Mother was absolutely the most idle immortal in the Heavenly Court. If she hadn’t even bothered to learn it herself, who else would have the time?

“Um…” A frail, long-haired girl slowly raised her hand. “Are you the Queen Mother? I… I know English.”

The Queen Mother turned to look. The girl was dressed in a very modern style, indicating she must have passed away not too long ago.

“Oh?” The Queen Mother raised an eyebrow slightly and asked, “What is your name?”

“Your Majesty, my name is Qu Xi,” Qu Xi said softly. “I am a university student.”

“A university student? Excellent. Go quickly and see what the letter in that boy’s hand says.”

Qu Xi nodded slightly and walked up to the screen. After studying it for a moment, she announced, “Honorable immortals, the person who wrote this letter played a little trick. They didn’t use ordinary English, but rather ‘Middle English.’ This is the language used in England between approximately 1150 and 1500. Even if it looks somewhat similar to modern English, much of the grammar, vocabulary, and spelling are completely different. It absorbed a lot of French and Latin terms, so even an ordinary person fluent in English would struggle to read it.”

“Oh?” The Queen Mother was a bit surprised, not expecting this girl to be so knowledgeable. “Little girl, if no one can recognize it, how do you know what it is?”

“Your Majesty, I majored in ‘Ancient Western Literature’ in university. I studied this language on my own during my free time,” Qu Xi explained.

Xiao Qi blinked in surprise. No wonder Qu Xi had looked like she wanted to say something when Du Yu had her investigate these legends earlier.

So this was actually her area of expertise.

“Little girl, hurry and translate that letter for the immortals to hear.”

“Understood.” Qu Xi nodded, then slowly read it aloud:

“To myself, code name Feather, Pen, Cloud. I originally thought the two of us could only communicate through the diary, but I never expected to one day write a letter to you. I am deeply sorry, but Cassie will encounter danger tomorrow at noon. Although this man promised me that he would save Cassie, I cannot easily trust him. After all, the current me has suffered enough from placing my trust in others too easily. I cannot rely on someone else to save Cassie; I can only rely on myself. As for this man, do not kill him, but do not let him go either. He is a good person, and I can use him to make a large profit. Cassie will be resurrected soon. That is all.”

Dong Qianqiu relayed Qu Xi’s translation to Du Yu word for word.

“Oh?” Du Yu felt a bit surprised. “Isn’t Chada being quite gentle here?”

“What are you going to do next?” Dong Qianqiu asked.

“No matter what, I need to save that little girl first.” Du Yu said, a hint of sympathy in his voice. “The child in the photo looks incredibly adorable. I can’t just stand by and watch her die.”

Du Yu couldn’t get his bearings, but he knew that if Chada truly wanted him to deliver this letter, his landing spot wouldn’t be too far from the 1993 version of her. All he could do was search quietly along this street.

“By the way, Sister Qianqiu.” Du Yu suddenly thought of a question. “Is there any basis for this rule about ‘never seeing yourself in a legend’? What happens if you do?”

“What our country refers to as ‘never seeing yourself in a legend’ is probably different from what Chada means. We are referring to the fact that you cannot watch your own legend replay on the screen. When the Legend Management Bureau was still in the Heavenly Court, this exact issue occurred. A True Immortal saw his own legend and took the sound transmitter at the time hostage, demanding to forcibly intervene and alter his current outcome. The incident had a terrible impact. Ever since then, we established the rule of ‘never seeing yourself in a legend.'”

“Oh?” Du Yu asked curiously. “What happened to that True Immortal later?”

“He was cast into the Hungry Ghost Realm,” Dong Qianqiu said with a sigh. “The Immortal Realm had never had a similar case before, so it was very difficult to convict him. At the time, the Queen Mother of the West insisted on a heavy sentence, and from then on, no one dared to cause trouble in the Legend Management Bureau.”

“I see… So to put it bluntly, there wouldn’t actually be a problem with seeing yourself, right?”

“I can’t say for sure, since no one from our country has ever tested it. You know Zhan Qisheng’s cultivation method; he is a Time True Immortal who exists outside the cycle of reincarnation. That means there is only one Zhan Qisheng in the entire world, so even if he travels back to the past, it’s impossible for him to meet himself. As for you…” Dong Qianqiu silently shook her head and continued, “It should be very difficult for you to meet yourself in a ‘legend.'”

“Not necessarily.” Du Yu flashed a mischievous grin. “Who says I can’t be a legend? Maybe one day our bureau will catalog the ‘Legend of a Legend Operator.'”

“Is that so?” For some reason, Dong Qianqiu actually felt a bit happy upon hearing those words. “Then I’ll just have to wait and see.”

Du Yu walked a few steps forward and spotted a telephone booth. It was the only telephone booth on the entire street.

Outside the booth, a chubby little girl squatted on the ground, staring at an injured butterfly. Du Yu recognized the girl as Chada’s daughter, Cassie.

But where was Chada?

Du Yu noticed a woman with a great figure inside the telephone booth. She wore a light-colored mini dress, and her blonde hair was held back by a sky-blue headband. At this moment, her back was to Du Yu as she spoke into the phone.