The Adopted Sister is Acting Weird (9)

"Alright, I'll take you there and then come back." Le Xiaowei stood up, opened her bag, and with a wave of her hand, twenty to thirty energy cores appeared inside. They had all been cleaned by her—neat and gleaming.

"No, sis, this is too much." Yuan Qiaoqiao hurriedly took several out and insisted on stuffing them back into Le Xiaowei's arms.

"Come on, you’ll need to pay the entry fee at the base." Le Xiaowei put the cores back in.

If she wanted to level up, these small ones weren’t enough for her anymore.

Le Xiaowei forcefully zipped the bag shut, leaving Yuan Qiaoqiao no choice but to carry the heavy load as they stepped out of the convenience store.

The store was about two hundred meters from the base gate—not too far to walk.

A dim light flickered at the entrance. When they were just a dozen meters away, Le Xiaowei stopped.

"Okay, I’ll leave you here. Any closer wouldn’t be good." She ruffled Yuan Qiaoqiao’s hair.

"Got it. I’ll go then." Though Yuan Qiaoqiao responded quickly, her steps were slow, turning back every few paces. Only when she saw Le Xiaowei still standing there did she finally walk up to the gate.

A few tables were set up at the entrance, surrounded by men in black uniforms gripping guns. Their expressions shifted to surprise when they spotted Yuan Qiaoqiao alone in their line of sight.

"Just you?" The girl in a black down jacket sitting at the registration desk looked puzzled.

Most people arrived at the base in teams. A lone survivor usually meant one thing—the rest of the squad had been wiped out, leaving only this girl to escape.

The thought made the girl’s expression darken briefly.

But survival demanded sacrifices from everyone.

"Name? Do you have an ID tag? Which squad were you with before?" The girl snapped back to focus, her tone brisk.

"Yuan Qiaoqiao. First time here. What’s an ID tag?" Yuan Qiaoqiao blinked in confusion.

"First time? Hold on, fill out this form. By the way, are you an ability user?" A hint of hope flashed in the girl’s eyes.

"No." Yuan Qiaoqiao shook her head.

The girl’s face fell slightly.

As Yuan Qiaoqiao filled out the form with a pen, she glanced back but saw no sign of Le Xiaowei.

A pang of sadness hit her, but she cooperated with the base staff.

"After the form, you’ll need a physical check-up. Don’t worry, it’s all women. If you pass, you’ll have to pay a security tax—thirty percent of whatever food or supplies you’re bringing in for the first entry, then ten percent afterward. If you have energy cores, two will do. If not, it’s fine."

"Oh, okay." Yuan Qiaoqiao nodded.

Just as she was about to leave with the check-up form, she suddenly turned to one of the guards.

"Big brother, I wanted to ask—aside from those who awakened abilities when the apocalypse hit, is there any other way to become an ability user?"

Anyone guarding here had to be an ability user.

Yuan Qiaoqiao clung to a sliver of hope.

The man’s lips twitched in amusement. "That? Impossible. Abilities are innate. But don’t worry, the base has plenty of ordinary folks. Do some work, and you’ll get bread every day. You won’t starve."

Disappointed, Yuan Qiaoqiao followed the girl into the base for her check-up.

Meanwhile, Le Xiaowei had returned to the convenience store. She kicked off her shoes and sat cross-legged on the bed.

Watching Yuan Qiaoqiao fill out the form had stirred an unexpected reluctance in her.

What was this? Was she some kind of heartless jerk?

Le Xiaowei opened her eyes and slapped herself—hard.

Si, about to speak, frowned.

"Xiaowei, turn off the generator. Le Xu is nearby."

Her brother!

Le Xiaowei quickly shut off the generator, plunging the store into darkness.

Soon, two sets of hurried footsteps rushed inside, panting as if fleeing for their lives. Even so, one of them was forcing his breathing under control.

"Boss, why’d you betray him? You always swore loyalty to Brother Xiao." The young man beside Le Xu looked utterly baffled.

Le Xu, clad in a black trench coat, pressed a hand to his chest and moved toward the back room. Finding the door locked, he slumped behind a shelf, catching his breath.

"I’ll explain later. Tonight, we stay put, avoid those things, and tomorrow we grab what we need and get the hell out of this area."

"Boss, are you serious? We just settled in the Southeast Base, and now you want to run again?" Yu Jing thought Le Xu had lost his mind.

"To the Northwest." Le Xu clapped Yu Jing’s shoulder, his sharp eyes glinting in the dark.

Yu Jing’s jaw nearly hit the floor. He reached up to feel Le Xu’s forehead.

"Brother Le, you’re not feverish, so why the nonsense? Brother Xiao just handed you that huge psychic-type energy core—freshly obtained! And you threw it at his head? You even broke his skin!"

Yu Jing was baffled, utterly bewildered.

"Trust me. There are things I can’t explain yet, but the Northwest is our best shot. Their base is the largest. Still new, but full of potential. Fewer people than the Southeast Base, too. If we get there early, we’ll be valued." Le Xu rubbed his throbbing temples, the agony of his past life’s death still vivid.

Yu Jing’s lips quivered.

"I get that, but… what did Brother Xiao even do?"

At the mention of "Brother Xiao," Le Xu’s expression turned icy, his voice dropping to a chilling whisper.

"He killed my sister. Death wouldn’t be enough for him, not even ten thousand times over."

Inside the back room, Le Xiaowei froze.

What?

How did Le Xu know that?

And from the sound of it, he’d turned against Xiao Linfeng—completely different from the plot Si had described.

"Si! Si!" Le Xiaowei called urgently.

"Don’t panic. I’ve figured it out. The original novel’s protagonist was too weak, so to avoid being overwritten by fanfiction, the original world gave Le Xu a cheat—he’s been reborn!"

No wonder the fanfic and original worlds had split into opposing forces, one gold, one white. But the fanfic’s author wouldn’t hold back on giving Xiao Linfeng advantages.

The fanfic’s protagonist, Xiao Linfeng, was a transmigrator who’d read the original novel, knew all the plot points, and came equipped with a system. Multiple abilities from the start—peak performance.

One a transmigrator, the other a reborn soul. Interesting.

"What?! He killed Xiaowei? But… how do you know? When the apocalypse hit, we were stuck here. We never even contacted her!" Yu Jing was so shocked his jaw might as well have unhinged.

Here’s the thing—I replied to a comment yesterday saying Le Xiaowei comes off as a bit of a "Mary Sue." First, let me clarify what "Mary Sue" means.

Originally, the term referred to mythical female figures with divine powers or high status—characters who were selflessly kind and sacrificial. But in modern internet slang, it’s often used to describe someone with an excessive, almost irrational, sense of compassion. In more extreme cases, it refers to characters who sacrifice the interests of unrelated parties to save others, using other people’s suffering to fuel their own moral superiority or personal goals.

First, I’ll admit that my past writing style has influenced this. I generally avoid having protagonists directly kill anyone. Back when I started writing, the broader cultural environment was highly sensitive—protagonists weren’t allowed to kill—so I leaned toward indirect methods, like having others do the dirty work.

Take those thugs who were tied up—they clearly had ill intentions toward women. I didn’t dwell on these minor characters, but their notoriety was well-known among the people on the highway. Le Xiaowei casually said, "Do as you please." Those men had been stranded at the highway exit for so long, robbed of their supplies—who knows if they’d harmed women too? The leader was definitely going to die. Just because I didn’t write it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Second, the male lead, Gu Wei, has an incredibly high-status background in his past life—this is something I’ve carefully outlined in the plot. He’s not just a powerful figure in the cultivation world; he could destroy the world with a single hand. Here’s a minor spoiler: it’s precisely because of his influence that Si has his current strength and corporate standing.

For someone at Gu Wei’s level, it’s hard to care about—or bother personally dealing with—trash. Si has soul fragments, which is why there are so many different versions of his personality.

But Le Xiaowei is different. She’s always been Gu Wei at her core, and by nature, she can’t be bothered to waste energy on scum—unless it’s mission-critical.

Some might ask: "Why didn’t Le Xiaowei just kill that guy herself when Yuan Qiaoqiao was being harassed?"

The answer’s simple. She’d only known Yuan Qiaoqiao for a few days at that point and had no idea she was actually Si. By both fictional and real-world logic, it wouldn’t make sense for her to risk exposing her zombie identity for someone she barely knew—especially with so many witnesses around. What if they noticed something off?

That said, I can confirm this much: if Le Xiaowei had known Yuan Qiaoqiao was her master, Mu Miao, she absolutely would’ve taken matters into her own hands.

Third, Le Xiaowei is, at heart, a product of a harmonious society—just like any ordinary person. Even though she’s an antagonist opposing the main leads, she’s not some deranged maniac out for revenge, like those murderous psychopaths you often see in novels.

If real society were full of people like that, I’d never leave my house—I’d be too terrified to step outside, holed up writing all day.

Oh, and regarding a previous fan question about the plot hole involving Su Qingyun’s child in the last arc—I’ve already fixed it. I added a line clarifying that the child was killed by Zhao Yiyi. This change doesn’t affect any other plot points.

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