Chapter 100 - Jiaying

In a luxurious European-style bedroom, Jiaying, who had just been thawed but not yet awakened, was brought in.

She was being looked after by two German girls whom Josh had temporarily hired from the nearby town of Schwangau at the foot of the mountain.

This room was one of the 14 completed rooms from back when Neuschwanstein Castle was under construction.

Although the castle was never fully completed, the 14 finished rooms had always been maintained. With just a little tidying up, they were habitable.

However, due to the special historical significance of the castle, these 14 rooms had been protected as heritage sites, and since the official fall of the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1918, they had essentially remained uninhabited.

The German forces, Hydra operatives, and now Company E personnel who had successively occupied the castle had only cleared a few minimally decorated rooms on the first floor to serve as dormitories, under the constraints of their respective leaders.

In particular, King Ludwig II's royal bedroom had been completely sealed off after his death.

But now that Josh had obtained ownership of the castle, he had no such reservations and directly planned to use the royal bedroom as the future master bedroom for himself and Margot—after all, Ludwig II had died at Lake Starnberg, dozens of kilometers from the castle, so there was no real reason to avoid it.

No one knew how much time had passed before Jiaying suddenly awoke.

The memories of being used as a test subject in the Hydra research facility, watching her fellow villagers turn to ash from contact with the Obelisk, had become her nightmares.

So, after being thawed, it was easy for her to fall into a nightmare.

And when she woke up, there was no time to reflect on the terrifying dream before she immediately sensed something was off.

This time, instead of the cold prison cell, terrifying lab coats, and uniformed soldiers, she faced a soft bed and a luxurious room.

At this point in time, Jiaying was not yet the wise and experienced leader of the Inhumans she would become, but just a rural girl from Xianghu, China in the 1940s who couldn't even read a single character—how could she have ever seen such luxury?

She sat dazed, clutching the down duvet in confusion.

Just then, the bedroom door opened, and a girl dressed in a traditional German maid outfit walked in.

"You're finally awake, that's great!" the girl exclaimed in delight upon seeing Jiaying awake.

However, Jiaying only stared at the girl in confusion...because the girl was speaking German, and Jiaying, who couldn't even write Chinese, couldn't possibly understand a word.

The maid quickly realized this, and rushed out to find Josh because in the entire castle, Josh was the only one who could speak Chinese.

He had anticipated this from the beginning and had instructed the maids to notify him immediately once Jiaying woke up.

Seeing the maid dash out in a hurry, Jiaying guessed she was probably going to get someone. She looked at the open bedroom door with a flash of longing in her eyes, but it quickly faded.

She was just a rural girl from the 1940s with no experience in the world, and after the long period of imprisonment and abuse, she simply didn't have the courage to run away.

So when Josh arrived at the bedroom, Jiaying was still sitting on the bed, clutching the blanket and staring at the open door in a daze.

When she saw Josh, she nervously pulled the blanket tighter and shrank toward the headboard.

"Don't be afraid, you're safe now," Josh said, sitting down on a bedroom chair across from the bed, not approaching the frightened Inhuman girl too closely.

Hearing Josh's words, a flicker of hope appeared in Jiaying's fearful eyes.

Because Josh was speaking fluent Mandarin—the official status of Standard Mandarin had been established after the fall of the Qing dynasty, so it wasn't out of place in this era.

This was her first time meeting a foreigner who spoke Chinese!

"You speak Chinese?" Compared to Josh's standard Mandarin, Jiaying spoke in a Xiangnan dialect.

Fortunately, the Xiangnan dialect was relatively easy to understand. Had it been Minnan or Hakka, Josh—who in his past life was from Zhejiang—might have been completely lost.

"Obviously. My name is Josh Kane. You can just call me Josh," he said with a smile. "The war is over. Those who captured you are dead. You are safe now."

"Really? The ones who took me are dead?" Jiaying suddenly became excited. "Did you save me?"

"Yes, I saved you. The ones who captured you are all dead—killed by my men," Josh nodded to confirm.

"Wahhh..." Although she hadn't verified whether it was true, Josh's words gave her a much-needed outlet. She immediately burst into tears.

"Master, the food is ready!" At that moment, the maid Josh had earlier instructed to prepare food poked her head cautiously through the door.

"Bring it in," Josh nodded. Then he got up, walked over to the bed, and gently patted Jiaying's trembling shoulder. "Alright, don't cry. You've just woken up, your body is still weak. Eat something first!"

But such simple comfort wasn't very effective. The woman desperately needed to vent.

Still, once the maid placed the tray of food on the bed table in front of Jiaying, her crying subsided a little.

Yes, she was tempted by the food.

The meal wasn't particularly extravagant—just a large bowl of soft-boiled egg and oatmeal porridge, some slices of bread, and some ham.

But for Jiaying, it was the kind of gourmet meal she had barely eaten in her whole life.

However, she was still shy. The food was in front of her, but she didn't dare to eat it right away.

"Go ahead and eat—it's prepared just for you. There's more if you're still hungry," Josh said again.

Only then did Jiaying start to devour the food.

She quickly cleaned the plate and even licked the bowl clean.

"If you're still hungry, I can have them prepare more," Josh said with a chuckle, seeing the lingering hunger in her eyes.

"Really?" Jiaying asked cautiously, clearly still not full.

"Prepare more food. Include more meat—steak, lamb chops, chicken," Josh instructed the maid.

Under normal circumstances, for someone like Jiaying who has just been awakened from cryogenic freezing, it would be unsuitable to eat large amounts of food.

But Jiaying was an Inhuman who had awakened vitality, and what she needed was to replenish her energy.

TLN: I checked the wiki and the official term was life force absorption but the author used vitality in the future ch as well so I'll leave it like that.

So Josh didn't have many concerns and simply let her eat as much as she wanted.

"Thank you!" After the maid left, Jiaying finally expressed her gratitude to Josh.

"No need to thank me. This was just a small effort for me. However, now, since the food will take some time to prepare, why don't we talk about your situation?" Josh said.

"My situation? I don't quite understand!" Jiaying was a bit confused.

"It's simple—do you still have any family, or is there anywhere else you can go?" Josh asked deliberately.

This question hit the mark and Jiaying instantly fell into a daze.

Home? Family?

What home? What family?

That demon had captured everyone in Jiaying Village, and before leaving, set the entire village on fire. All the villagers were turned to ash by that strange thing.

Now she was all alone.

As for where to go in the future, she had no goals whatsoever.

In the end, Jiaying could only shake her head in confusion, indicating that she had nowhere to go.

And this was exactly the result Josh wanted.

"You have no money, no family, and no place to go—why don't you just stay with me for now!" Looking at Jiaying's dazed face, Josh revealed a big bad wolf–like grin. "I've got some wealth, and there's no shortage of food for you."

"Thank you, Master Josh, for taking me in!" Jiaying was a bit surprised to hear that the foreign gentleman in front of her was willing to take her in, but quickly reacted and said gratefully.

Josh was very satisfied with Jiaying's tact—subduing this woman was far easier than he had imagined.

One could only say that, in this era, women like Jiaying, who had never seen the world and had been deeply indoctrinated by the old society's ideas from a young age, were just too easy to fool.

Which was fine—it saved Josh from having to use any forceful methods. Anyway, Jiaying would be following him from now on, and drawing some blood or whatever was just a matter of him saying the word.

As for the Inhumans from the future losing the leader they should have had, or Daisy Johnson potentially never being born because of this… Josh only had one thing to say about that:

What the hell does that have to do with him?

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