Chapter 486 - 500: Dividing Line

An Ning followed the scavenger mother and daughter to the so-called West District slum.

To call it a slum might not be entirely accurate, but the place was undeniably poor—the kind of poor you could see at a single glance.

All the houses were self-built shacks, the kind propped up by a few wooden planks and covered with a straw curtain.

Here, even a low-slung mud-brick house was considered a mark of wealth.

The people here had no light in their eyes, only a vast numbness. They worked numbly, lived numbly.

An Ning’s arrival was completely out of place, and she drew stares from most of the residents. Some gazes were more brazen, the kind that felt like they were stripping you bare with their eyes.

An Ning had an effective counter for such gazes.

She casually picked up a rock from the ground, her eyes fixed on the man’s... unmentionable region. With a squeeze of her hand, the rock crumbled to dust and drifted from her fingertips.

An Ning shot him a defiant look. ’You got a problem? Come and try me!’

After An Ning had crushed seven or eight rocks along the way, every single one of those leering gazes vanished without exception. Some of the onlookers even began to tremble.

The little girl leading the way looked on, her expression shifting from surprise to admiration, and finally to intense curiosity.

"Eat more, exercise more."

An Ning’s words extinguished the light in the girl’s eyes. She never had enough to eat.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—"

An Ning felt a little guilty.

"It’s okay. We’re used to it."

The woman led An Ning to the place where she and her daughter lived. It was a space less than five square meters, covered by a broken plasterboard—likely the most dangerous kind, containing asbestos. The floor was just the original packed dirt.

A wooden plank that couldn’t be called a bed, a home that was drafty from every direction... In the bitter cold of winter, An Ning found it hard to imagine how they survived.

"Have a seat."

The woman shyly handed An Ning a wobbly stool whose four legs barely held together.

"Thank you."

An Ning sat down without any sign of distaste. The mother and daughter across from her waited for her to speak.

"If you don’t mind my asking, why do you live here?"

"Ah... we don’t have any money, and it’s free to stay here..." The woman trailed off before continuing, "Actually, we’re not from Beijing. I came here with my husband to find work. Everyone said life is good in the big city, that you can make good money, so we came."

"We’d only been here a month when my husband died at his construction site."

"The boss gave me five hundred yuan in compensation... I foolishly took the money and went back, only for my in-laws to kick both me and my daughter out. I don’t have any family of my own to go back to, so I took my daughter, snuck onto a train, and came all the way back to Beijing."

’An Ning didn’t offer any commentary. Sometimes, it seemed suffering only sought out those already burdened by it. Misfortune always strikes the weakest link.’

"Earlier, you mentioned not wanting your daughter, and disappearing like the others. What did you mean by that?"

"Oh... that. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but several people have gone missing from around here recently. No one has seen them for a long time. We don’t know if they really disappeared or just went somewhere else."

"Let me tell you, there are a lot of women here like me. Widows whose in-laws were too cruel, and many more whose husbands are still alive but abuse them. In short, we’re all women who have suffered."

"It’s chaotic here, and there are bad people, but there are some good people, too."

An Ning listened intently as the woman spoke with a sigh. She then asked for more details about the people who had gone missing.

There were men and women among them. These were people living off the record, so when they disappeared, no one filed a police report.

Her questions answered, An Ning left the mother and daughter’s home. She didn’t leave any money behind out of kindness; she knew they wouldn’t be able to hold onto it, and it might even put them in danger.

As An Ning walked out of the slum, she extended her spiritual power, taking in a complete overview of the area.

Just as the mother had said, there were many women. Some struggled to get by, while others compromised, attaching themselves to a man or selling... certain things, all for the simple sake of survival.

An Ning retracted her spiritual power, her thoughts weighing a little heavier.

’Even here in the slum, women were still the vulnerable ones, and men still held themselves a class above.’

’This contradicted the education An Ning had received growing up. Among the interstellar humans, only contributions mattered, not gender.’

She turned to leave.

Snow began to fall.

White snowflakes drifted down. Standing on the dividing line, An Ning extended her spiritual power and saw two different worlds.

On one side, children cheered, running and jumping in the streets. They were delighted by the falling snow, even hoping for it to come down heavier so they could build snowmen and have snowball fights.

On the other side, adults and children alike scrambled into their drafty shacks, pulling out anything they could find for warmth, trying to block out the snow that was falling ever more heavily.

There was no anticipation on their faces. Many of the barefoot residents were filled with fear—fear of the cold that would follow the snow, fear of getting sick in that cold, and most of all, fear of getting sick with no money to treat it.

’Oh, Teacher... what a difficult puzzle you’ve left for me.’

An Ning retracted her spiritual power. The higher the position she occupied, the more she realized just how difficult it would be to fulfill her teacher’s wish.

’She wanted to do it right, but sometimes she truly felt powerless.’

’There were so many things that money alone couldn’t solve.’

An Ning departed, her steps a little heavier than when she arrived. ’The road is long and the burden is heavy,’ she thought. ’I’ll just have to take it one step at a time.’

After leaving the slum, An Ning first went to find Yu Zheng.

At Yu Zheng’s home, An Ning sat in an armchair, giving him his instructions.

"Contact Director Zhao and push the patent application forward. Once the patent is approved, proceed with the plan we discussed for utilizing the patent fees."

"Second, I plan to build a school. A school for girls, with no age limit, dedicated to teaching practical skills. Draft a plan for this first. We’ll take it step by step. If you need money, come to me."

"Third, give Yin San a raise. Let him hire his own people and expand his team to investigate the missing persons case in the West District slum."

An Ning laid out her instructions one by one, and Yu Zheng noted them all down.

"Yu Zheng, don’t be afraid to be bold. Hire who you need to hire. I trust you."

"Yes, I understand."

An Ning was about to leave Yu Zheng’s home when she ran into Li Chengze, who was just getting back from work.

"Master!"

Li Chengze excitedly cried out, "Master!" Without waiting for An Ning to ask, he blurted everything out in a rush.

"Master, I was just about to look for you! I received an invitation from a university abroad. Do you think I should go?"

"I’m worried that since I’m so talented, what if they don’t let me come back? But I also really want to go and see for myself what the gap is between us and them. Master, what should I do?"

’What should he do?’

An Ning clapped a hand on Li Chengze’s shoulder. "Go, and don’t worry. If anyone dares to detain you, your Master will be there. I’d break you out of prison if I have to."

Li Chengze looked at An Ning.

"Master... why do I get the feeling you sounded a little excited when you mentioned breaking someone out of prison?"

"Hmm, did I?" An Ning feigned a glance toward Yu Zheng and asked with a straight face, "Was it that obvious?"

"Master—!"

"Hahaha, alright, just go. I’ll be here for you no matter what, so don’t worry."