113: Chapter 113 Tears of Reunion and Altered Memories

"Mom... Mother?"

Su Qingyu's sob-filled call wasn't loud, but it struck like a bolt of thunder, sounding exceptionally clear amidst the noisy Recruitment Site.

She no longer cared about her image or her composure as a manager. Like a madwoman, she pushed aside the wraiths queuing for registration and stumbled toward the middle-aged female ghost whose soul-body was dim.

The surrounding wraiths and underworld soldiers looked on in astonishment. Zhang Hao was also stunned, craning his neck to watch the spectacle. Even Lin Chen, who was explaining the "Employee Handbook" to Little Red Clothes, glanced over slightly.

Su Qingyu rushed in front of the middle-aged female ghost, her hands trembling. She wanted to grab the other's arm but feared it was just an illusion that would shatter at a touch. Tears rolled down her pale cheeks like pearls from a broken string.

"Mom! Is it you? Is it really you?" Su Qingyu's voice was choked, filled with unbelievable ecstasy and bone-deep sorrow. She remembered clearly that her mother had passed away from illness when she was in high school—it was a pain she would always carry. Why would she appear here? On this Barren Bone Plain of the Underworld, as a lonely, helpless Wandering Soul?

The middle-aged female ghost was startled and looked up blankly. Her face was indeed seventy to eighty percent similar to the mother in Su Qingyu's memory, only paler, more transparent, with hollow eyes and a trace of numbness and cowardice from long-term wandering. Looking at the emotional, tearful beautiful girl before her, she seemed somewhat at a loss and subconsciously shrank back.

"Who... who are you? You must have the wrong person." The female ghost's voice was light, carrying the characteristic driftiness of a ghost, her tone unfamiliar and distant.

"I'm Qingyu! Mom! I'm your daughter, Su Qingyu!" Su Qingyu felt as if a knife were twisting in her heart. Her mother actually didn't recognize her? "Look at me! Look at me closely!"

The female ghost scrutinized Su Qingyu. A faint ripple appeared in her hollow eyes, as if she had caught some familiar feeling, but it quickly returned to blankness. She shook her head. "I don't... I don't know you. I seem to... have forgotten many things."

By now, Lin Chen had walked over, and Zhang Hao also hurried to the side, looking ready to enjoy the drama.

"Boss, she..." Su Qingyu looked at Lin Chen for help, her eyes brimming with tears.

Lin Chen didn't speak. He just looked calmly at the middle-aged female ghost. His gaze seemed able to penetrate the soul-body and see deeper things. A few seconds later, he frowned slightly.

"Soul Code check: confirmed to be Su Qingyu's biological mother, Lin Chens Mother." Lin Chen directly invoked system permissions for a quick scan and confirmation, then pointed out the problem. "However, her core Memory Blocks show signs of being forcibly sealed and tampered with by external forces. The parts regarding the living world and her family have been almost entirely erased."

"What? Tampered memories?" Su Qingyu felt like she'd been struck by lightning. Who was it? Why would they do something so cruel to her mother?

Zhang Hao chimed in from the side, "Is it a standard Underworld procedure? Like drinking Mengpo Soup?"

"Doesn't look like it," Lin Chen denied. "Mengpo Soup is a cleansing, a formatting waiting for a rewrite. Hers has been locked, and a large amount of disorganized junk information has been stuffed in. The technique is crude but effective, like... some kind of malicious seal."

He looked at the female ghost named Lin Chens Mother and asked directly, "Do you still remember how you died? What happened after death? Who tampered with you?"

Lin Chens Mother was intimidated by the invisible pressure emanating from Lin Chen. Her soul-body trembled slightly as she tried to remember, a pained expression appearing on her face. "Death... seems like a long time ago... How did I die? I can't remember... I only remember drifting constantly, very cold, very hungry... Later, there seemed to be several fierce 'Lords'... they captured many ghosts like me... They... they used painful needles to pierce our heads... then... then everything became a blur..."

Her intermittent narration provided limited information, but the content made Su Qingyu shudder. "Lords" capturing ghosts? Torture? Tampering with memories? The waters of this Underworld were deeper and murkier than imagined!

"Mom!" Su Qingyu could no longer hold back and hugged her mother. Although her arms passed through that cold, illusory soul-body, she could still feel a throb of blood-connected connection. "No matter who did this to you, I will find them! I will definitely restore your memory!"

Lin Chens Mother was somewhat at a loss by Su Qingyu's sudden hug. Her cold soul-body was stiff, but the vitality and warm obsession belonging to a living person coming from Su Qingyu seemed to touch a sealed corner deep in her soul. For the first time, an emotion other than numbness appeared in her hollow eyes—a faint ripple called "attachment."

"Qing... yu?" She subconsciously and awkwardly repeated the name.

This single call made Su Qingyu cry even harder.

Lin Chen looked at the mother and daughter separated by the boundary of life and death. He rubbed his chin and said to Su Qingyu, "The memory seal can be forcibly broken, but it requires a large number of nether talismans, and the process might cause secondary damage to her fragile soul-body."

"Boss, how many nether talismans are needed? Deduct them from my account! If it's not enough, I'll pay it back slowly later!" Su Qingyu said without hesitation, her gaze incredibly firm. That hundred-million nether talisman bonus felt so meaningful at this moment.

Lin Chen glanced at her and said nothing. He simply raised his hand, and a thick, pure nether talisman energy emitting a soft glow was slowly injected into Lin Chens Mother's soul-body. This wasn't a violent break but nourishment and investigation.

As the nether talisman energy was injected, the dim parts of Lin Chens Mother's soul-body began to glow slightly and became more solid. Her pained expression eased, replaced by a sense of peace.

Meanwhile, Lin Chen's system interface rapidly refreshed with data streams, analyzing the structure of the memory seal.

After a moment, he withdrew his hand and said to Su Qingyu, "The seal is very firm and is linked to her soul's origin. Forcing it open has a 30% chance of causing her soul to dissipate. However, I've found a clever way."

"What way?" Su Qingyu asked urgently.

"Use nether talismans to 'buy' back her sealed memories," Lin Chen said, his words shocking. "The essence of this seal is a form of 'theft' and 'storage' at the soul level. I can track it back, find that 'memory storage point,' and then buy it."

Zhang Hao listened, dumbfounded. "Mem... memories can be bought too?!"

"In the Underworld, theoretically, everything has a price," Lin Chen said indifferently, then began operating the system. "Scanning associated 'Memory Black Market'... Located target Memory Fragment... The other party's asking price... fifty million nether talismans."

Fifty million!

Su Qingyu gasped. This was almost half of her bonus! But she didn't hesitate for a second. "Buy it!"

Lin Chen glanced at her and tapped his finger.

[Ding! Paid fifty million nether talismans. Successfully purchased target 'Memory Fragment (ID: Lin Chens Mother - Core)'. Item transferring...]

A faint light flashed, and a ball of light like mist, flickering with sporadic images, appeared in Lin Chen's hand. He casually pressed this memory light ball into Lin Chens Mother's forehead.

Lin Chens Mother's body shook violently, her soul-body erupting with intense light. Countless sealed images flooded into her hollow mind like a tide—

Her daughter learning to walk, her daughter receiving an admission letter, her own final instructions by the hospital bed, her muddled wandering after death, being captured by several "Ghost Messengers" wearing eerie black robes and crying-face masks, being tied to a stone pillar covered in runes and enduring the pain of soul piercing, those precious memories being forcibly extracted and replaced with chaotic fragments...

"Ah—!" Lin Chens Mother let out a shrill scream and crouched down, clutching her head, her soul-body fluctuating violently.

"Mom!" Su Qingyu stood by nervously.

A few seconds later, Lin Chens Mother's screams gradually subsided. She slowly looked up. Her eyes, which were originally hollow, were now filled with pain and fear, but even more so, with a regained clarity and immense excitement! She looked at Su Qingyu, and tears (ghost tears are grey energy) gushed out.

"Qingyu! My daughter! It really is you!" This time, her call was filled with genuine maternal emotion. She opened her arms, trying to embrace her daughter, though it was still illusory.

"Mom! You finally recognize me!" Su Qingyu sobbed uncontrollably. Although they couldn't truly embrace, the souls of mother and daughter were tightly bound at this moment.

All the surrounding wraiths and underworld soldiers fell silent, quietly watching this touching yet heartbreaking scene. Even Little Red Clothes hugged her doll tighter, a hint of emotion appearing in her pale eyes.

Zhang Hao rubbed his non-existent nose and muttered, "Damn, this is making me feel... something."

Lin Chen stood to the side, his expression still calm, but a barely perceptible ripple passed through the depths of his eyes. He waited for the mother and daughter to calm down slightly before speaking, his tone carrying a hint of coldness:

"The memory has been bought back, and by the way, it came with a little 'gift'."

He pulled up the system interface, which displayed additional information parsed from the memory light ball—images of those black-robed, crying-face masked "Ghost Messengers," as well as a clear mark on their arms: a twisted, seemingly weeping Thousand Faces Symbol.

"It seems the ones who captured your mother and tampered with her memories are our 'old friends'." Lin Chen looked at Su Qingyu, the corners of his mouth curling into a cold arc.

"Thousand Faces Cult?!" Su Qingyu understood instantly, a fire of rage igniting in her eyes. These persistent bastards had been crippled in the living world, yet they actually stretched their hands into the Underworld! They even targeted her mother!

(Hook: Lin Chen marked a spot flashing with an ominous red light on the Underworld map—a suspected stronghold of the Thousand Faces Cult in the Underworld. A new revenge was about to begin.)

Lin Chen cast his gaze toward the vast, dark depths of the Underworld Development Zone. He lightly tapped a coordinate on the system map, highlighting it. It emitted the same disgusting aura as the one in Lin Chens Mother's memory.

"Exactly," Lin Chen's voice carried a hint of excitement. "For the new zone development, we need to find a few blind fools to set an example."

"This time, we'll settle the score, with interest."

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