Night’s Nomenclature

The occupants of the convoy that had just arrived were descendants of the corporations, the real bigwigs in the city.

Since they were hiding instead of stepping out, the girl thought the two men were not of as high status. Otherwise, they would've already recognized each other.

These people threatened to kill them; if they really knew one another, they would've at least said something.

Coming to this conclusion, Qin Yiyi felt a little happy… It was good that he wasn't one of those bigwigs.

Their whole family disliked those city giants.

Those big men had never treated ants like them as human beings.

However, Qin Yiyi discovered that the boy seemed to be thinking about something as he frowned.

Not far away from them, Li Shutong looked at his student. "What's the matter, what did you see that's gotten you so solemn?"

Qing Chen turned his head and whispered, "Teacher, I saw my classmate."

When the woman called Yinuo rolled down the car window, the person Qing Chen saw in the passenger seat was, shockingly, a helpless Nan Gengchen…

The burly figure of the woman, the domineeringly huge off-road vehicle, the flames spurting out of the silver exhaust pipes — all these made Nan Gengchen appear to be out of place.

So…

Qing Chen suddenly didn't know whether to laugh or cry, the rich woman who had been keeping Nan Gengchen was that robust Li Yinuo?

No wonder he moved to District 1, he was indeed the close acquaintance of a big figure…

Still, this Li Yinuo sure had a rather strange taste. She was born with a strong physique, but she liked weak, small-framed boys.

At this moment, while everyone else was enjoying the beat of the music, Nan Gengchen was buried in his seat with a look of utter hopelessness, staring vacantly at the windshield…

He even wanted to cover his ears.

Maybe this was the price of being a kept man.

This guy didn't have the slightest idea that his deskmate was hiding in the woods next to him.

Li Shutong glanced at Qing Chen. "Do you remember the name Li Yinuo?"

"Yes," nodded Qing Chen, "She's included in the list of Li Family names you gave to me. Li Yinuo, the eldest granddaughter of the Li family, someone the patriarch is deeply fond of."

Li Tongyun once told him about an older sister who treated her really well in the Li Family, but he didn't know whether or not it was her.

The three generations of the Li Family had many descendants, and above Li Tongyun, there were more than ten older sisters and brothers[tfn]Not strictly siblings, cousins are counted as well[/tfn]. The little girl didn't mention her name, so Qingchen had no way to determine anything.

He looked at Li Shutong. "Teacher, what's the goal of this autumn hunting? Is it to hunt wild animals?"

Li Shutong shook his head. "They don't dare to hunt the animals, they only dare to hunt humans."

"Humans?" Qing Chen was stunned, this was something he truly didn't expect.

"There are many people like Guo Huchan who live illegally in the wilderness," Li Shutong explained, "Some are prisoners who escaped from the city, and some are civilians who have always lived in the wilderness because they don't want to be oppressed by the corporations. Although it's difficult to survive, they have more freedom out here. When the corporations start chasing after them, they'll rely on the borders of forbidden lands to survive by escaping there to hide from the corporations' troops."

Therefore, the aim of the so-called autumn hunting was not to hunt wild animals, but to kill the people who were living illegally in the wilderness!

Along the way, Qing Chen had seen some small settlements in the wilderness.

There were humans responsible for assisting the sophisticated machinery in production labor, however, most of the processes were now completed by a large number of machines, so there wasn't much need for human labor anymore.

In the Outer World, Qing Chen previously concluded that time travelers would not only transmigrate to the 19 cities, but they would also appear sporadically in other places.

Therefore, those who appeared sporadically should be located within these small settlements in the wildernesses.

"Why do the corporations pursue these people?" Qing Chen asked.

"Because they keep trying to raid the production bases. Guo Huchan was arrested when he led his team to raid production base no. 1192," answered Li Shutong.

"Teacher, what level is Guo Huchan?" asked Qingchen.

"Level B," Li Shutong replied, "So in the autumn hunting team just now, there must be a B-level master from the corporation mingling inside to escort this group of young people."

"Are all of them direct descendants of the corporations?"

"No," Li Shutong shook his head. "They're all wastrels. At this time, the chosen candidates of direct descendants are either holding a post in the federal army or in charge of a separate department in the company. Those in the autumn hunting teams are just collateral descendants who are too much of a failure to get promoted."

Looking at the passing convoy, the words ‘privileged brats' came to Qing Chen's mind. "So there's a lot of corporations' elites in the federal army?"

Li Shutong smiled and said, "Heng Society has caught a lot of time travelers and asked a lot of questions. What's interesting is that many people from the Outer World think the corporations directly control the entire federation, but this isn't the case. They use all and every branch of industries to indirectly control the federation. Technically speaking, they still claim that this is a democratic society."

"To let the corporations' descendants kill whoever they want is not democracy," Qing Chen flatly stated.

Li Shutong smiled. "The emperors never disappeared, they've just changed into new clothes."

The terms Inner World and Outer World had also gradually spread over here.

In fact, there wasn't much difference. They only needed names to distinguish the two worlds.

Li Shutong looked at the distant convoy and spoke, "However, their autumn hunting started early, so we can't continue moving slowly. At this rate, the Yellow Daylilies would have frozen by the time we reach them."

Once he finished talking, Li Shutong walked up to Qin Cheng and asked, "Can we hitch a ride? I see there's still some space in your pickup truck. Both of us can sit in the cargo, and we'll pay you for it."

On the side, Qin Yiyi suddenly pointed at Qing Chen and said, "You can hitch along, but you have to be nice to him."

Li Shutong was surprised, what kind of twist was this?

He didn't expect his student to receive quite the warm welcome regardless of where he went.

Qin Cheng pulled Qin Yiyi away and politely explained, "This girl is not sensible, living in the wilderness has made her character just as wild. Hitching a ride is fine, but what's your destination?"

Li Shutong smilingly answered, "Wherever is fine. How about this, we'll come along, and when we want to alight, we'll pay the fare according to the distance covered."

As Qin Cheng hesitated, Qing Chen took out a bottle of antibiotics from his bag and handed it to him. "Deposit."

"Alright!" Qin Cheng finally agreed.

While speaking, Qing Chen glanced at his teacher.

The timing of this trip was definitely not coincidental.

Li Shutong clearly knew the consortiums' autumn hunting was about to begin, and he even knew where Qin Cheng and his family were headed to.

But Qing Chen couldn't understand, didn't his teacher say he brought him out so he could try to open the first layer of genetic locks? Looking at it now, it seemed like he had another purpose…

Translator: Zee