Chapter 131: Forbidden Love

"It was probably around March of the year before last." Wang Qi recalled. Xie Liu frowned; March of the year before last was roughly when he had just joined the hunting squad. If he were to push his thoughts further back, Xie Liu shook his head. There were things he could not say, and even more so, things he should not recall. He looked at Wang Qi.

"What happened in March of the year before last?"

Two years ago, Wang Qi was studying at the Kanto Branch. As the northern gateway of the Huaxia Branch, it was the front line against the incursions of the Special Alliance. However, Wang Qi’s abilities lacked any combat utility; he did not join the local hunting squad or the Joint Task Force, but instead entered a local hospital.

Due to frequent fighting, the hospital was always at capacity. Wang Qi’s daily work consisted of treating the wounded. After seeing countless casualties, he gradually realized the cruelty of war. But he was just an ordinary student who would stay at the Kanto Branch for a year at most; even if he realized the cruelty of war, there was nothing he could do about it.

Wang Qi felt depressed about this for a long time, eventually pouring himself into the work of treating the wounded. Until one day.

That day, while treating a patient whose arm had been blown off, Wang Qi heard an emergency broadcast: the northwestern defensive line of the branch had been breached by special forces from the Special Alliance, and hundreds of augmented humans had stormed into the branch.

All personnel in the northwest sector were to be evacuated, including the hospital where Wang Qi worked.

But Wang Qi did not evacuate. He was still treating the patient with the severed arm. When he hid the patient’s medical pod in the basement, the Special Alliance soldiers broke in. Wang Qi watched with his own eyes as many who failed to escape were killed, but because he was hiding in the basement, he escaped death.

Listening to Wang Qi tell his story, Xie Liu roughly understood what he was talking about.

Two years ago, an incident involving an attack by the Special Alliance had indeed occurred at the Kanto Branch. That time, hundreds of Special Alliance augmented humans had stormed the branch, resulting in thousands of deaths. This was the "Kanto Incident" that had shocked the entire city. It was precisely because of that event that the Fantasy City began its cleansing campaign against the Special Alliance's augmented humans, allowing the hunting squads tasked with this mission to rapidly expand within two years to the point of standing on equal footing with the Joint Task Force.

That was far from a minor skirmish. Wang Qi had severely underestimated the impact of that battle. The Kanto Incident had ignited a wave of "anti-augmented human" sentiment across the city. Citizens who had previously been indifferent toward augmented humans began to insist that they should be wiped from the face of the earth. This sparked a global war, a protracted conflict that had not ended even to this day.

However, these were things Xie Liu would not tell Wang Qi.

"But what does this have to do with how you two met?" Xie Liu brought his thoughts back to the present and continued to question them.

Wang Qi thought of the situation back then and smiled. "Speaking of which, it was very fortunate that I met Li’er."

"Li’er?" Xie Liu looked at the cat-woman. She nodded. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Qili."

Then, the cat-woman named Qili began to recall the circumstances of that day.

About two hours after the augmented humans stormed the branch, the hunters launched a counterattack, quickly repelling the offensive. Within a short half-hour, they had sealed the breach in the northwest and driven the intruders back.

Qili had fled into the hospital basement where Wang Qi was hiding while she was being pursued.

Qili had been wounded by an aerokineticist in the previous battle and had fallen behind during the retreat. Seeing her teammates collapse upon contact with the hunting squad, she had fled in a panic and stumbled into the hospital basement.

The rest of the story was simple, much like a soap opera plot: Wang Qi could not bear to see the severely wounded Qili killed, so he hid her and pointed the pursuers in the wrong direction.

Afterward, he treated Qili and, taking advantage of the chaos, brought her out of the basement and hid her in his home.

"Young man, I never expected that someone who looks as refined as you would take advantage of someone else's misfortune to trick a girl into coming home with you," Xie Liu said, dumbfounded. He hadn't expected Wang Qi to be that kind of person.

Wang Qi blushed, feeling a bit embarrassed. "It couldn't be helped; there was nowhere else to hide her."

Of course, Xie Liu was just teasing him. He wasn't serious and continued listening to their story. Because the Kanto Branch conducted intensive searches for scattered augmented humans after the war, Wang Qi kept Qili hidden in his home for an entire month.

The two went from initial hostility to familiarity; gradually, the animosity faded, and their relationship grew closer.

"Was there no heart-wrenching drama?" Xie Liu asked curiously. Both of them shook their heads. Wang Qi said, "Actually, we are both ordinary people. How could we have so many heart-wrenching experiences? It was just the mundane daily life of salt and oil."

After saying this, he gestured toward his wife.

"Li’er had been trained in the Special Alliance military camps since birth, so there were many things she didn't know. She didn't even know how to handle basic living. During the first half-month, she wore me out completely." As Wang Qi spoke, his face was filled with slow-growing happiness.

Qili just rolled her eyes.

The city-wide manhunt lasted for twenty days. Once the alert was lifted, Wang Qi began taking Qili to experience the outside world. For someone who had grown up in an Alliance military camp, everything was new. Every day, Wang Qi took her to try different things, and gradually, Qili’s guard against him lessened.

Indeed, there was no earth-shattering story between them, nor any tragic separations. It was just a plain, daily life. But for Qili, who had only known how to obey orders since childhood, Wang Qi had given her a new world—a world she liked very much.

"And then you two crossed the line?" Xie Liu asked bluntly. The two were startled for a moment before blushing. Qili turned her head away, while Wang Qi stammered, "Well, um, that day I got my graduation certificate. I was a bit happy, had a bit to drink, so..."

"Alright, I won't ask," Xie Liu interrupted Wang Qi, then looked at the baby in the cradle. "When did you find out about this child?"

"About a year ago," Wang Qi replied after thinking. "After I graduated, I didn't return to the headquarters but went to the Huaxia Branch. I heard that they weren't as strict with us graduates from headquarters. You know, Qili’s identity cannot be exposed."

"Qili went with me. We didn't hold a wedding because her identity couldn't be revealed. I found a job at the Huaxia Branch hospital, and Qili became a full-time housewife. In April of last year, we found out about the child." Wang Qi looked at his daughter, his eyes full of tenderness. "I also know there is reproductive isolation between augmented humans and us, so we never planned on having children. But this child was such a surprise. She is a miracle—our Li’er’s miracle."

"But we couldn't stay in the branch anymore; it was too dangerous. So we left, and through some special channels, we exchanged the few merit points I had for cash in this country, traveling up the river, looking for a place to settle down."

"So you found this city." Xie Liu pointed out the window. "Why?"

The young couple exchanged glances. Wang Qi said, "There was no special reason. We had no destination; we just wanted a place to stay. But when we arrived in this city, we saw the peach blossoms on the riverbanks. Both sides of the river were covered in pale red flowers. We thought it was beautiful, so we decided to stay here."

"I bought this storefront and opened a clothing shop, disguising ourselves as ordinary people, and lived that way." Wang Qi held his wife in his arms, his face beaming with happiness. "Two months ago, our daughter was born. I felt that there was nothing left in this world that I could ask for. Everything I wanted, the heavens had already given me."

"I was thinking that in a while, it would be the one-year anniversary of our arrival here. I wanted to take Qili and our daughter out on the river again to see the peach blossoms."

Xie Liu fell silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "But your whereabouts were discovered."

"Yes," Wang Qi nodded. "A while ago was the country's traditional New Year. We followed the customs and celebrated with everyone else. But right then, Qili accidentally exposed her identity. Her hat was knocked off in a shopping mall. Although I quickly picked it up and put it back on her, it was already exposed."

Wang Qi pointed to Qili’s cat ears. He never expected that even half a second would be enough for people from the Fantasy City to notice. On the third day after the New Year, someone came looking for them.

Wang Qi had wanted to explain to the hunter, but the man wouldn't listen. They fought, and Qili, desperate to protect her daughter, killed him by mistake.

Their daughter was only a month old at the time and was nearly killed by that hunter. In her rage, Qili knocked him off the building, and he fell onto an iron fence and died instantly.

Xie Liu kept his mouth shut. So that was how the first one died. Wang Qi covered his head and sighed, "I know there is no turning back. After that, it wasn't just the city's hunters—even the Special Alliance came knocking. Once it happened once, it could happen again. We killed everyone who came to cause trouble for us. Only the last hunter was too strong, and we let him escape."

"We wanted to move, but our daughter is too small to handle the travel. Without a place to go, we could only stay here. We were supposed to leave in three days, and that's when you arrived."

As Wang Qi spoke, he held his head in his hands, his face full of grief. "I don't want to fight, and I don't want to kill, but I have no choice."

Xie Liu finally understood the truth. His mind was a mess. If these two were heinous villains, it would be one thing, but they clearly hadn't done anything wrong. If they were at fault, it was for falling in love—a forbidden love that was not permitted.

Xie Liu had no reason to strike them down. Besides, even if the adults were wrong, the child was innocent. If he killed this couple, what would happen to the baby? Thinking of this, Xie Liu felt a headache coming on. Why did he get saddled with this mission?

The young couple leaned against each other and looked at the contemplative Xie Liu. Qili asked, "I've told you everything you wanted to know. Can't you let us go?"

Xie Liu didn't know how to answer. He wanted to just brush them off, but before he could speak, his expression changed.

"Someone is coming up!"