Chapter Eight
The capital of South Korea, Seoul, is only 35 kilometers from the border.
What does 35 kilometers represent?
Let's take Jinling City, where Chen Nuo was, as an example.
It's approximately 45 kilometers from the Jinling Yangtze River Bridge to Jinling Airport.
Do you see it now?
The distance from the northern to the southern part of Jinling, to the airport, is more than 35 kilometers!
Thirty-five kilometers, if you drive, and drive fast, it's just a matter of twenty minutes.
From the border of North Goryeo, firing artillery directly, the shells from long-range cannons can hit downtown Seoul!
There is no need for missiles; the range of long-range artillery is enough!
Now you understand why, when they started messing with medium and long-range missiles over there, M Country got so tense, right?
After all, there's no need for medium or long-range missiles just to deal with South Korea!
Who are they developing medium and long-range missiles to target? Isn't that obvious?!
South and North Goryeo stand opposed and divided. South Korea's capital is so close to the border, and they've considered relocating the capital.
But they simply can't afford to move!
South Korea isn't large; there are just two major metropolitan areas, Seoul and Busan.
Most of the population is concentrated in these two places.
It's not possible to move them just by issuing a government command. Moreover, there are various constraints from the chaebols, the contention of interests, and so on.
「January 6th, three o'clock in the afternoon.」
On the streets of Seoul, Chen Nuo walked out of a convenience store wearing a baseball cap and dressed in a clean sweatshirt, a backpack slung over his shoulders.
Even though these were cheap items bought from a supermarket, he no longer stood out.
Otherwise, if he wandered around the streets of Seoul wearing a school uniform that was clearly in the domestic Chinese blue and white style, it wouldn't take long for the police to come over and ask questions.
As for the combat uniform from "Descendants of the Sun," it had been discarded halfway there.
After hailing a taxi, Chen Nuo got into the back seat. Speaking with a standard Jiangnan accent, he said, "Go to Aewol Pavilion."
The car drove off slowly, and Chen Nuo began to rest with his eyes closed.
He was indeed tired and needed to recover some energy.
When exactly had he met Li Yingwan in his previous life? He could no longer remember the exact date. All he remembered was that when he met Li Yingwan, she was already twenty-two years old. A girl of that age was still considered to be in the prime of her youth. But the first time he saw Li Yingwan's eyes... he felt as if she were already dead.
At the time, Chen Nuo was on a mission: to assassinate a business tycoon from South Korea.
Unfortunately, after he had devised an almost perfect plan, managed to evade the thirty bodyguards surrounding the target's residence, and infiltrated the mansion, he had even made it into the target's bedroom!
Then he met Li Yingwan.
This woman was wearing a black piece of lingerie.
Chen Nuo's assassination target, the business magnate, was pinned to the ground by her knee on his head. At that moment, Li Yingwan was aiming a gun at the magnate's head. She then looked at Chen Nuo as he entered and said, "Bodyguard? You're late!"
BANG!
This woman was insane.
That gunshot not only killed the target but also successfully alerted thirty armed security personnel within the mansion.
More importantly, this woman thought Chen Nuo was the target's bodyguard and even tried to kill Chen Nuo.
As for the result... Chen Nuo used a curtain cord to tie this crazed woman up like a rice dumpling. Carrying her with one hand and wielding a gun with the other, he fought his way out from the heavy encirclement of thirty armed guards.
Chen Nuo took the woman back to the safe house, attempting to interrogate her for valuable information.
Even though he informed her that he too was there to kill the target, Li Yingwan still refused to communicate.
Until late that night.
Put simply, this woman was insane.
When Chen Nuo met her, she had severe alcoholism and dependency issues, as well as... severe mental paranoia!
She smoked more fiercely than Chen Nuo and drank even more aggressively than him.
The night Chen Nuo caught her, in the middle of the night, Li Yingwan tried to seduce Chen Nuo and take his gun, only to end up wrapped in a quilt by Chen Nuo, tied up with a rope, and hung outside the window sill all night.
When the sun rose and Chen Nuo let her down, Li Yingwan asked him in an oddly calm tone, "Don't I look good? Why don't you want to sleep with me?"
Chen Nuo looked at Li Yingwan. "Because, to me, you're just a little girl immersed in fear, scared out of her wits."
Li Yingwan fell silent. She asked Chen Nuo, "Are you really good, that kind of very good? I saw you kill many people last night, and you brought me out."
"I suppose I'm pretty good."
"How good? Be specific."
"In this world, there are probably not many who can stand as my equal."
Li Yingwan stood up, then knelt before Chen Nuo.
"Teach me, help me! I still have people to kill! As long as you teach me those impressive skills of yours, help me kill those people, I am willing to offer myself to you. I can do anything for you... anything!"
"Anything?"
"Anything!"
"Fine," Chen Nuo smiled. "Now, immediately roll back to bed and get some sleep... Ah, right, take a good shower before sleeping. You haven't bathed in two days, reeking of cigarettes and alcohol, plus you were hung outside all night. You stink to death."
Chen Nuo had forgotten many details, but from that day on, Li Yingwan followed him.
He taught her hand-to-hand combat, and it was her first time handling a sniper rifle as well.
Two years later, after Li Yingwan used everything Chen Nuo taught her to kill the last person on her hit list, she knelt on the ground, wailing and sobbing all through the night!
Each time she cried herself into unconsciousness, she would continue crying upon waking!
Throughout this, Chen Nuo, fearing she would cry herself to death, had to knock her out twice.
After the last time she woke up, Li Yingwan quietly went to her own room, much like that first night two years ago when Chen Nuo had captured her. She meticulously cleaned herself, changed into comfortable pajamas, then crept into bed, obediently falling asleep.
She made a rather excessive request of Chen Nuo.
"Could you sit beside me and watch me sleep?" Li Yingwan's tone was earnest, yet childish. "I'm scared of waking up in the middle of the night and not seeing you. I might want to grab a gun and commit suicide."
That night, Li Yingwan finally revealed her past to Chen Nuo: at twelve o'clock on the evening of January 6th, 2001.
That evening, in a mansion located in the Jiangnan District of Seoul, a tragedy unfolded.
It was the tragedy that completely altered Li Yingwan's fate!
Throughout her description, Li Yingwan's tone remained calm.
Frighteningly calm, so calm that... it seemed as if she wasn't talking about something that had happened to herself.
Moreover, during the entire recounting of her story, Li Yingwan did not shed a single tear.
Not a single tear!
"...That night, I remember it was very dark, the wind was strong, and it was cold.
"Mom was scolding my brother for getting into another fight at school.
"I was drinking chicken soup beside them while my brother was making faces at me as he took the scolding.
"And then...
"Then, they came.
"They broke in and brought the news of my father's death.
"My father had been killed by them half a month earlier, and they had been concealing the news. We all thought he was still busy with his business outside.
"But they had already killed my father, then gradually transferred the company's assets.
"After they completed all this, they came for us.
"In front of me and my mother, they killed my brother.
"The brother who had always been so affectionate towards me, who would shoo me away from video games with harsh words, but who would always stand up for me and fight when I was bullied at school...
"In front of me and my mother, they severed my brother's head.
"His eyes were still staring when it happened.
"In front of me, they violated my mother.
"...Then brutally killed her. As she lay dying, crawling and crawling and crawling... she was trying to reach out and grab my hand.
"Then, one of them, with a knife, impaled her, nailing her to the floor.
"After that... the man who killed my mother threw me into the yard.
"He raped me.
"Right there in the yard.
"Right next to the sunflowers my mother planted for me."
When Li Yingwan recounted her story up to this point with a calmness that bordered on cruelty, she just quietly looked at Chen Nuo.
"They didn't kill you?"
Li Yingwan shook her head faintly and said, "They just didn't at that moment. It's just that... probably because I was pretty, the guy who raped me, he probably... hadn't grown tired of me yet. He wanted to take me back with him. On the way, I found an opportunity to jump into the river."
"What happened after that?"
"After that, I managed to escape and found a friend of my father's. He took me in, and then that very night, he raped me too, and then called those people to hand me over to them."
"And then what?"
"While he was on the phone, I took a silver chopstick and blinded one of his eyes—he thought I had passed out.
"Then I seized the opportunity to escape."
"And after that..."
"Don't ask anymore... After that, those six years, I... lived in hell."
Yes, lived in hell.
This seemingly calm and simple statement was like a dagger, piercing straight into Chen Nuo's heart.
That day, Li Yingwan showed Chen Nuo a photo.
It was a family portrait.
The young brother, looking at Li Yingwan with a teasingly scornful yet doting smile.
The mother, gentle and sweet; the father, stern and towering.
And the Li Yingwan in the photo was from before she turned sixteen.
Wearing a snow-white down jacket, a pompom hat, and holding a Winnie-the-Pooh taller than herself. Her smile was sweet and appealing, her eyes pure and joyful.
"From today on, if you tell me to live, I will live. If you tell me to die, I will die. Whatever you tell me to do, I will do. If you tell me to kill, I could annihilate everyone in the world.
"You rescued me from the very bottom of this world's Abyss. I can only cling to you desperately. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, but this is all I can do now.
"My world has been shrouded in darkness. I can only grasp the single ray of light from you—it's truly the only bit of light left."
"No, Li Yingwan. If the world has gone dark, then shine on your own. No one should place their hope for light upon someone else. Anyone can shine on their own, no matter how faint or weak."
That night Chen Nuo looked into Li Yingwan's eyes. "So, learn to illuminate yourself... Starting from today, I will call you Firefly."
The car jerked to a stop at its destination. Chen Nuo woke from his reverie.
Stepping out of the car, he followed the crowd forward, finally stopping in front of a portrait photography studio.
Ten minutes later.
Li Yingwan, sixteen years old and wearing a snow-white down jacket, walked out from the studio.
The cold wind blew, reddening her delicate little face.
She breathed on her hands, rubbed them together, and put on her gloves.
A drunken man staggered past, bumping into the girl and causing her to stumble.
The young girl's eyes widened, and she blurted out, "AISH..."
Before she could finish, her ear was abruptly pinched!
Chen Nuo gripped Li Yingwan's ear and scolded earnestly, "Little girl, don't you start picking up swear words!"
Li Yingwan was stunned. A few seconds later, she reacted with a sassy retort, "Hey! Who are you?!"
Chen Nuo let go and smiled warmly at the vibrant young girl before him. Hmm, indeed, even at sixteen, she's almost as tall as me... those S-tier long legs...
"Hello there, Firefly," Chen Nuo smiled amidst the cold wind.
"Firefly? What are you talking about? Who on earth are you?"
"Me?..." Chen Nuo began. Seeing the girl shiver and hunch her neck, he couldn't help but reach over to put the hood of her down jacket on her head. He gently patted her head, then continued, "I'm a person who fell from the sky, traveling from afar just to help you banish a nightmare."
[PS: So, it really isn't about harem, um... it wasn't in the past life either.]