Lin Xi didn't think too much about it; she directly clicked "Yes." This time, Xue Min's return had an extra confirmation button compared to when Ming Shu and Chi Qiushui returned.
After Lin Xi clicked the second confirmation button, the space-time rift that Lin Zhongxun had just opened was torn open once again.
This was Lin Xi's first time seeing the true appearance of a space-time tunnel up close. Purple, blue, and white nebulas swirled within it, seeming so close she could touch them, yet somehow entirely out of reach.
Lin Xi didn't have to wait long. The space-time tunnel closed, and a woman dressed in a cyan ancient costume appeared before her.
Her features were elegantly beautiful, and her thick, pitch-black hair was tied back in the style of Han Dynasty women.
Xue Min had known for a long time that she would return to Earth with Lin Zhongxun. As the dizziness of crossing over faded, she opened her eyes and immediately searched the room. Her gaze didn't linger when she saw the imposter wearing her skin, but the moment she laid eyes on Lin Xi, her tears fell like pearls from a broken string, dropping one by one.
She stumbled over and, before Lin Xi could even react, pulled her into a tight embrace. Then, Lin Xi felt a gentle touch on the top of her head.
It was a kiss planted by Xue Min.
Lin Xi froze, not daring to move. Neither Chi Xiangping nor her grandfather Lin Zongping were good at expressing their emotions. As Lin Xi grew older and more sensible, intimate gestures between them had become increasingly rare, let alone something like a kiss.
In Lin Xi's memory, she had never received any maternal intimacy. Xue Min's gesture reminded her of the years she spent looking for Ma Yufen, who had disguised herself as Xue Min. She remembered Ma Yufen sitting in the Xue family courtyard, gently coaxing the daughter she had with Luo Qingfeng, occasionally kissing her cheek.
Growing up, Lin Xi had never recalled that scene. But now, as it flooded back to her, she was surprised to find that she vividly remembered the clothes Ma Yufen was wearing that day.
Xue Min hugged Lin Xi, who was now a bit taller than her, sobbing uncontrollably. Her heart was filled with guilt towards her daughter. She felt guilty for missing out on Lin Xi's entire upbringing, and for not being there all these years when Lin Xi faced hardships and needed her mother.
Lin Xi slowly reached out and wrapped her arms around Xue Min. Her nose stung, her throat felt as if it were blocked by a heavy weight, and tears gathered in her eyes.
She tilted her head up, willing her tears not to fall.
Xue Min carried a very pleasant scent. It wasn't overpowering, just a faint fragrance that smelled like a mix of flowers and fruit, incredibly soothing and intoxicating.
Breathing it in, Lin Xi felt as if all the pain she had endured over the past twenty years was being healed. She softly called out, "Mom."
Overjoyed and not knowing what else to do, Xue Min practically shoved every valuable item she had on her into Lin Xi's arms. She had actually prepared an abundance of gold, silver, and treasures for Lin Xi, but lacking a spatial inventory, all those things were kept in Lin Zhongxun's space.
While Lin Xi and Xue Min shared this tender moment on the side, the atmosphere between Lin Zhongxun and "Li Sheng" was fraught with tension.
Although Li Sheng's powers were currently suppressed, his mouth still worked perfectly fine. Looking at his former good brother turned bitter enemy, he let out a cold laugh. "Lin Zhongxun, so many years have passed, and you still have that same foul mouth."
Lin Zhongxun wasn't angry. "I think you're mistaken. It's not a foul mouth; it's a sense of humor. As for you, Shang Ji, we haven't seen each other in years, yet you're exactly the same. Your mind is still narrower than the eye of the smallest embroidery needle."
"Aren't you surprised to see me, my brother?" Lin Zhongxun remained cheerful.
Having transmigrated through so many worlds from modern society and completing missions across various realms, Lin Zhongxun had long since realized a truth: never get angry or lose your temper. For certain people, letting their words or moods cause even the slightest emotional fluctuation was simply a disrespect to one's own life.
Wearing Li Sheng's skin, Shang Ji looked at Lin Zhongxun. Seeing that the man still possessed the same high-spirited youthfulness despite the passing years, a flash of jealousy appeared on his face.
Shang Ji couldn't figure it out. They were both human, so why was Lin Zhongxun the one chosen by the heavens?
It was one thing that the Salvation System had chosen him, allowing someone from a low-level, ordinary world to leap into the ranks of the favored. But even after Shang Ji had schemed to lose him in a space-time rift, he still managed to find his way back.
Just thinking about this kind of luck, this profound favor from the heavens, kept Shang Ji awake at night.
And just as Lin Zhongxun said, Shang Ji wasn't surprised by his appearance at all. How could he be? After investigating Lin Xi, he had guessed that Lin Zhongxun would return. Not wanting to confront Lin Zhongxun directly was one of the reasons he had forced his way to Lin Xi, hoping to strike first.
"Lin Zhongxun, it's time to settle things between us once and for all." Since he couldn't escape, Shang Ji stopped wasting words. Just as he said, their history needed a resolution.
Lin Zhongxun nodded, his expression finally growing a bit more serious. "My thoughts exactly."
He reached out his hand, palm up, and a card materialized in his grasp. With a flick of the card, all the furniture and appliances in the room vanished, replaced by a fighting arena.
Shang Ji's gaze locked onto the arena for a moment. "So, that card really is in your hands."
With a look of hatred in his eyes, Shang Ji leaped forward, landing squarely in the center of the arena.
Lin Xi finally pulled away from Xue Min's embrace, though Xue Min still held tightly onto her hand.
As someone who was there back then, Xue Min held Lin Xi's hand and spoke to her in a gentle voice. "When your father was sixteen, he obtained a Salvation System, similar to the Transmigrator Group Chat System you are bound to now."
Xue Min had returned through the door Lin Xi opened for her, which meant she had come back through standard procedures. Thus, she was also aware of the Transmigrator Group Chat.
Lin Xi tilted her head to look at her. Xue Min found her daughter's expression utterly endearing and couldn't resist petting her head again. The intimate gesture made Lin Xi blush slightly.
Xue Min continued, "Your father met Shang Ji when he transmigrated to the Card World at seventeen. He encountered Shang Ji while trying to save people. Because Shang Ji was having a very hard time back then and was constantly being bullied, your father felt compassion for him. While saving the people of that world, he saved him too."
"According to your father, Shang Ji wasn't like this back then. He was stubborn and hardworking, with an unyielding spirit. Your father always admired people who could grow through adversity. Seeing how hard Shang Ji worked, he shared his understanding of card knowledge and behaviors with him."
At that time, Lin Zhongxun hadn't yet been beaten down by the harsh realities of society. He practically poured his heart out to Shang Ji. He even smuggled items from other worlds for him, such as rare heavenly treasures from cultivation realms, which Shang Ji consumed plenty of.
If it hadn't been for the nourishment of those heavenly treasures, Shang Ji wouldn't have been able to tear through the void, no matter how hard he tried.
"At that time, your father and Shang Ji were truly the best of friends, or you could say they were like a teacher and student as well as friends. Your father was unreservedly good to him."
Hearing this, Lin Xi could roughly guess why Shang Ji and her father had turned into enemies. Sometimes, in a relationship between two people, when one person gives too much to the point where the other cannot handle it, it easily turns into the situation between Shang Ji and her father.
This was the legendary saying: a bowl of rice makes a benefactor, but a bucket of rice makes an enemy.
Lin Xi shared her guess with Xue Min. Xue Min nodded upon hearing it, her words full of pride, "Yes, my daughter is so smart."
Xue Min praised Lin Xi just like she did when she was a child. Such a scene had appeared in her dreams countless times during the years she had time-traveled. When she missed Lin Xi the most, she would even sew a rag doll and keep it at home; whenever she thought of Lin Xi, she would hold that doll in her arms and coax it.
It was only later, when she met Lin Zhongxun, that things got a bit better. However, she had drawn many, many portraits of Lin Xi, which were now all stored in Lin Zhongxun's spatial dimension.
Lin Xi was made even more embarrassed by this obvious tone used for coaxing children. She wouldn't even use such a clingy tone to coax Xiao Yueyue.
Xue Min didn't realize anything was amiss at all. "But this wasn't the main reason. The main reason Shang Ji fell out with your dad was that Shang Ji fell in love with a woman. However, that woman had declared that if she were to marry in the future, she would only marry a genius like your father."
Xue Min's hands trembled as she spoke of this matter. Even now, she still couldn't understand why her family's tragedy was caused by such an absurd reason.
She looked at Shang Ji on the arena, her eyes full of hatred. "Your father was a quester. To ensure his missions could be carried out perfectly, he possessed absolute power in every world he traveled to. In that card world, your father's talent was surprisingly high; no matter what kind of card it was, he could master it."
"People naturally admire the strong. The reason that girl said she wanted to marry a strong person like your father was out of genuine admiration, but it was also to deter those suitors who fawned over her every day. Except for Shang Ji, no one took that girl's words seriously."
"Because your father had said he had a wife. And in that world, the treatment of third parties was extremely harsh. Once someone was found to be a homewrecker, regardless of gender, they would face the most severe moral condemnation and legal prosecution. The children they bore would also be unwanted, and the stigma of being an illegitimate child would follow them for a lifetime."
"So that woman was just saying it, but Shang Ji hated your father to the core because of this."
Since binding with the Time-Traveler Group Chat System, Lin Xi had seen many absurd things, but this was the first time she had seen someone as absurd as Shang Ji.
Before meeting Xue Min and Lin Zhongxun, she had always thought that Lin Zhongxun and Shang Ji had an earth-shattering blood feud, like the murder of their parents. She never expected the reason to be so simple.
"Are you sure there's no mistake?" Lin Xi couldn't help but repeatedly confirm.
Xue Min shook her head firmly. "No mistake. This Shang Ji did it precisely because of this matter. He really has something wrong with his head. He liked someone but didn't pursue her, just waiting for her to come to him. When she didn't come to him and married someone else, he blamed everything on your father, feeling that it was because of your father that he couldn't be with the person he liked."
"He cultivated even harder and drew cards. After he drew a taboo-level card, he traced the place where your father left, tore through the void, and found Earth. He came with the purpose of destroying the world."
Lin Xi looked at the two people raising their cards in the center of the arena, still unable to figure out what the connection was.
Xue Min couldn't figure it out either, and neither could Lin Zhongxun. But from Shang Ji, Lin Zhongxun learned that you shouldn't bare your heart and soul to others. Even if you want to be good to them, it must be within a range they can handle.
Or rather, within a range they can repay.
The two on the arena began to fight, consuming the cards in their hands one by one. Neither of them had it easy. Just in the time it took to say these few words, an animal two or three meters tall appeared behind Lin Zhongxun, and the same happened on Shang Ji's side.
Lin Xi asked Xue Min, "Then what happened when you went missing back then?"
Xue Min looked at Lin Zhongxun and said, "Someone sent me a piece of your father's clothing to lure me to that park. After I went, I saw Shang Ji. He smilingly called me sister-in-law, and then, catching me off guard, he knocked me to the ground. When I woke up again, I found that I was no longer in my own body."
"I followed that person in a soul state for a long time. I watched her pinch you in the night, and I saw her listen to Luo Qingfeng's words about throwing you away..." Xue Min trembled all over at the thought of those events from back then.
She turned around and pulled Lin Xi into her arms. "I used all my strength to attack her. I tried countless times, and finally, just as I was about to succeed, I was captured by the Rescue System. It used its last trace of power to send me away and notified your father about this matter."
"I'm sorry, Xiao Xi. I'm sorry that Mom was absent for all of your growing up." Xue Min blamed herself uncontrollably.
