The next morning, Cheng Jing led his teammates to the base command center.
After undergoing a thorough physical examination, they would receive identity codes and the necessary information to complete their registration.
As one of the first Awakened superpowers, Cheng Jing’s abilities far surpassed those of most superpowers.
On top of that, his strength was among the best, even compared to many superpowers in the military, thanks to his rare dual-attribute mutation in his energy system.
While the others on the team might not be as powerful as Cheng Jing, they had plenty of real-world experience.
Therefore, even though they were technically a special recruitment team, no one looked down on them.
The military enforced strict discipline and clear duties. Everyone focused on their work, and there wasn’t much intrigue or backstabbing.
The base command center issued direct orders to each team leader.
The team leaders only needed to properly manage their own squads.
…
Jiang Nian let Cheng Jing wear himself out almost the whole night, then slept until noon.
He was watching TV and eating from his tablet when Li Kaiyun called.
Jiang Nian picked up the phone, a little surprised.
“Uncle Li?”
“…”
After a brief signal delay, Li Kaiyun’s slightly low voice came through.
“All right, Xiaonian, do you have a moment to talk? There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.”
“It’s fine. Go ahead.”
Jiang Nian replied with a smile, lowering his head to take a careful bite of the toast in his hand.
“It’s about Xiaoya’s identity registration.”
Li Kaiyun answered, then explained.
“A Sheng told me that the base has regulations requiring all orphans, abandoned children under eighteen, and homeless kids whose families can’t care for them to register and attend the base’s management school.”
Jiang Nian was a little taken aback. The smile on his face faded, and he nodded in response.
“Oh…”
Since arriving at the base, he’d been busy and had temporarily forgotten about it due to the influence of those around him.
He hadn’t expected Nancheng Base to already have a management school at this stage. In his previous life, Z Base was the only one with a management school after the extreme heat waves. As expected, there was a significant difference in strength between the bases.
Though he’d never told anyone, not even Brother Jing, he’d brought Xiaoya here with this idea in mind.
This was probably why Zhou Li had asked them to bring Xiaoya to the base to report.
Li Kaiyun continued:
“There’s no obligation for her to enter the detention school. Since she has been under your care, it’s up to you whether she goes there. The center needs to understand her full situation, including any crimes she committed. Everything has to be recorded truthfully. That’s the procedure.”
Jiang Nian thought for a moment and said,
“I should discuss it with Brother Jing and Sister Qian.”
If he remembered correctly, the base had two types of facilities for minors.
One was regular childcare, and the other was punitive supervision similar to a juvenile detention center. The children would be separated based on age and whether they had special abilities.
Li Kaiyun said,
“I already asked, and they’re letting you decide. There are many kids like Xiaoya in the detention school—those who have awakened their powers and committed murder or robbery. After learning about her situation, Xiaoya herself took the initiative to say she was willing to go.”
“Then let her go.”
Jiang Nian answered without hesitation, sipping milk from the cup at his side. Perhaps being around others like her would make Xiaoya feel more reassured.
This way, their mission was officially complete. Otherwise, if they kept her with them, the incident in Room 1805 would always be looming over them.
“…”
Li Kaiyun fell silent for a moment but still asked,
“Does Xiaoya have a superpower? Is it related to her hands? I noticed that she always wears gloves, even in this heat. She’s also broken out in a rash.”
When Cheng Jing talked about Xiaoya before, he didn’t mention any powers. But recently, Li Kaiyun had grown suspicious after observing her odd behavior, especially her glove-wearing habit.
Even though she’d switched from thick gloves to thin ones, wearing them all day long still wasn’t good.
“Yeah, her special ability is teleportation, triggered when she touches a target with her hand. That’s how she helped her mother kill people.”
Jiang Nian no longer hid it. In any case, if she was going to be supervised, surely the base had ways to detect it.
Hearing this, Li Kaiyun sighed and said,
“A Sheng said that in cases like Xiaoya’s—if she’s guilty and has powers—once she’s detained, she won’t be allowed to contact the outside world anymore. You won’t be able to visit her or ask about her.”
His nephew’s words were vague and incomplete, but Li Kaiyun knew they were actually a hint—a secret way to get rid of troublesome kids, though it was presented in a more humane and gentle form.
“Uncle, anyone who does wrong has to pay the price. Other people’s lives matter too. In the end, we were the ones who killed her parents.”
Jiang Nian’s tone was calm. He knew this because he’d heard Chen Yue’s girlfriend, Xia Weiwei, mention it in his past life.
Juvenile offenders under special supervision at S Base would quietly disappear, depending on the severity of their crimes. They’d become experimental subjects or guides for covert operations. He wondered if Nancheng Base was the same—if it leaned more toward reeducation or brutal punishment.
As the saying goes, severe illnesses require strong medicine, and chaos demands harsh laws. The rules during the apocalypse were different from those in peacetime. Since these people had supernatural powers, the risks were much higher. Sometimes, it was better to take extreme measures than to let things drag on.
If he had killed Xiaoya back then, he might have regretted it. But now, he also regretted not killing her. What a ridiculous contradiction.
Ultimately, it was better to let others do what they couldn’t do themselves and supervise them if they went astray. It was reasonable and justified.
“All right. I’ll take her to register.”
Li Kaiyun had nothing more to say because that was the truth. Being softhearted toward children because of their age wasn’t a reason to turn a blind eye to Xiaoya.
“Okay, thanks for your help.”
Jiang Nian said lightly.
They chatted a bit more before ending the call. After eating, Jiang Nian leaned back on the sofa and let out a deep breath for reasons he couldn’t fully explain.
Sometimes, he felt he had a terrible personality, and his moral standards were too high—standards that hadn’t changed even after he died.
But, on the other hand, people are nothing but bundles of contradictions. Without all these flaws, the world wouldn’t be so complicated.
…
Cheng Jing came back in the afternoon with several sets of uniforms and different styles of gear. He was set to start work the following day.
Jiang Nian took the initiative to tell him about sending Xiaoya to detention school.
Cheng Jing wasn’t surprised.
“That’s good. We know her background, and we were the ones who dealt with her parents. It’s not appropriate for her to stay too close to us. Besides, if you do something wrong, you have to pay for it. It’s best to leave a traumatized orphan with powers in the care of the authorities for proper supervision and education.”
“I thought you’d call me cold-blooded.”
Jiang Nian teased with a smile. Most of his psychological burden came from his lover and teammates. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so hesitant.
Cheng Jing looked at him seriously and shook his head.
“No, it’s just that I don’t have the same experiences as you, so I can’t fully empathize. Otherwise, I should’ve dealt with her back in Qingyun City.”
Before and after the apocalypse, he and the others had been too close to the authorities. They lacked the cold-bloodedness needed to see eye to eye with Jiang Nian about Xiaoya.
But after witnessing all kinds of tragedies on their way to the base, they finally caught up to the rhythm of the apocalypse. Thinking about it now, if it had been any other team, Xiaoya would have died that day.
“All right, it’s all over. Once she’s handed over to the base, she has nothing to do with us anymore. Whether out of humanity or concern for a minor, we’ve done our best to take care of her all this time.”
Jiang Nian sprawled lazily on his boyfriend’s long legs, resting his head on them and narrowing his eyes in contentment.
Just let it be. This way, everyone could be at ease with the outcome.
“Yeah.”
Cheng Jing lowered his head and gently rubbed his thumb along Jiang Nian’s cheek as if soothing a lazy cat.
![](https://cdn.ko-fi.com/cdn/kofi3.png?v=2" border="2" alt Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com){kind=small}
![The Return of The Lord God[quick wear]](https://i2.wp.com/knoxt.space/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/007S8ZIlly1ghl04hyuxyj30hs0owwgu.jpg?resize=85,105 "The Return of The Lord God[quick wear]")
Vivi On EL Chapter 12
it really irks me that they all treat the girl like she’s some cold blooded serial killer. broooo she’s probably traumatized and terrified of her mother and what she made her do.
god please dont let her be another test subject because if she does then idk how i’d feel about MC.
and the fact that the author was actually the one who thinks Xiaoya commited some kind of heinous crime and had to attone to ‘her’ sin rather than making it MC’s flaw out of ruthlessness from living one lifetime in apocalypse made me second guess if im actually the one with questionable moral compass.
because… once again… she’s like what, twelve? forced by a parental figure. not to mention later on mind controlled. and did i mention she’s a literal KID that naturally would be dependent on her MOTHER in such a chaotic situation? i’d know bc i was terrified and couldn’t think for myself when there was a massive earthquake where i live with potential tsunami when i was FOURTEEN.
Ohhh, this situation feels so pointless. They actually cared for her without shutting her off from their group and treated her quite well unlike some prisoner. Now, they’re acting like this? It’s just so dull.
If they really wanted her out of the picture they had plenty of chances on the road to get here or could have at least been a bit harsher with her before just letting her go to some unknown place without knowing what is waiting for her, right?
As i said before, they should’ve just killed her from the beginning.
She is still a kid and most countries has a law of absolute exception from criminal liability for them especially for those ignorant and below 15 (depends on the country). For Xiaoya’s case, she was forcefully coerced without any means of resisting to do the crime (mentally controlled) which turns her into a victim and be under duress – a legitimate defense esp when combined to her having no intent of doing the crime because the law also judges on whether they have the intent and free will. Moreover, if she is not exempted from the crime, her age and disposition will just fall under a child- appropriate intervention program/rehabilitation under Juvie.
This is why, I can’t go with the MC’s view because she is still a KID for goodness sake. She can’t be held liable of the crimes of her mother. Plus, she was with them for how long, surely they can determine whether Xiaoya is a threat or even has any signs of doing crimes. She is also a victim and people deserve a second chance. While I get people get twisted in an Apocalypse, it will still do them no good if they stoop down to the level of those twisted people who kills because of convenience. They do not have the right to judge her and thus do not have the right to kill her. I really don’t like MC’s view on this haaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh
Reading the comments makes me wonder if there’s something wrong with me because I understand the protagonist’s reasoning. I’m not going to explain it because I honestly feel the MC explained it very well and I couldn’t do it better
Agree. Crime is a crime, even though it wasn’t intentional. In real life when we make mistakes we try to do better or correct it. Way before the detention, around the chap with them talking to Zhou li(?) the manager in west. I also thought like what if there are other kids in this situation? What should be done and who should be appropriate to judge them? For the girl, I think going through a detention helps her ease her guilt from what happened and maybe be more open when she grows up, like not be burdened much of her past. Well, that’s my take. Hoping the detention won’t be as bad as taking advantage of killing them. No hate, I just thought the MC kinda make sense too in his perspective.
This guy just sounds too cowardly to face his own thoughts… He admits that the girl is not at fault, being forced (literally, through her mother’s powers) and manipulated into complying with her deranged mother, but he keeps telling himself she’s at fault… to lessen the guilt for not wanting to take care of her, I guess? His thoughts in these last chapters are just annoying.
I agree to rehab to reduce guilt and all that. But I don’t agree with the MC’s perspective on the child.
Here the MC is depicted as immoral again, I understand that on the Day of Judgment morals are questionable but the MC seems blinded and demanding. So I wonder how she views affection with her partner? Is it truly love, or is it just that he’s the only person she can rely on?
I disagree about other teams killing her. She is a child with a powerful very useful ability. I’m sure most teams would have happily gathered her up and turned her into a loyal grateful minion.
She would have done anything for this team but he threw her away, knowing she could end up like he did in his former life, he just didn’t care.
Seriously there’s a big pity party in the comments for this girl. It’s pitiful but these people have no obligations to her whatsoever. And I remember it seemed to be explicitly mentioned that her mother mind controlled her only after the first time when she became unwilling. Was she tricked and manipulated by her insane mother? Yes. But did she abduct another human being for her mother to feed to father? Yes. Honestly, no matter what she’s a terrifying existence. And I would personally be gravely concerned she might snap one day like her mother. Remember that her mother didn’t feel any remorse or guilt whatsoever and who knows if she was genetically predisposed before being triggered.
So immorality is genetic?! If they killed her along with her parents she’d rather br liberated and started her new life in another world new already. If already had suicidal tendencies after they have her in their custody and she finally become normal and tries to live like others but they wanted her to be with another already morally corrupted gang of her own age. I just know that author wants her to be a tool in this story without her own life. If I mean if someone wants to escape from that detention centre and somehow knows her powers, and by a slim chance uses her forcibly and escaped and did irreversible things outside. What would happen then?! The reason and logic are simply broken in her storyline.
I think the author’s morall compass needs to be fixed, …urgently….
I’m glad the more intelligent comments here aren’t caught up in the wave of the author’s dubious morality. We have laws around juvenile offenders for a reason. We have exceptional circumstances and culpability mitigating factors for a reason. We have sentencing leniency for a reason. Honestly, if this is how MC feels, I’m glad she’s out from under his shadow, because no decent person would want a 12 year old girl to be experimented on or turned into a ‘secret mission’ drone by the government because she was forced to commit crimes by her mother with the goal of saving her father. I honestly hope this is the end of it and we never hear about Xiaoya from the main characters ever again, or I might not be able to set aside my disgust with them to finish this book. Author is absurd, I certainly won’t bother reading anything else they write in future.
This ‘moral conundrum’ drama is so dumb, if the author wanted to just have a minor character do something evil and then bring up the argument of what to do with such youths in the apocalypse, they could’ve just written the girl as an active accomplice or have her do something else with full responsibility of her actions.
The actual setup however is the complete opposite as the little girl just obeyed her mother once, had a complete breakdown, tried to got to the police herself multiple times and was completely mind controlled by her mother as a mindless puppet. The mom gives an entire speech about how the kid did everything to STOP her. Xiaoya did do what she could to stop, to get help and was forced into a dead end through no fault of her own. And the MC and the author keep treating her like ‘oh she did evil, she’s a killer, so she must pay for her entire life’, utterly ignoring what she actually did.
The moral conundrum doesn’t make sense, the little girl’s guilt is horrible, and she doesn’t deserve to be handed off to this faceless ‘authority’ and essentially go from being a pawn of her serial killer mother to a pawn of the faceless government using her for experiments or cannon fodder.
I can understand the MC having a screwed moral line because he spent 2 years in an apocalypse, being tortured by his own family and being treated as an experiment, and so he just sees the world differently. It is baffling however that he doesn’t see how Xiaoya, a kid, was manipulated and tricked by her own family like he was. And no actually he was in his 20s when it happened. She’s 12.
I can only hope the MC has an actual growth arc in this.
Honestly, this could have end well when Xiaoya is narrated being handed to authorities, since the team really has no obligation to take care of her. It should have ended with that.