"You didn't sign, did you?"
Hearing this, Nicola couldn't help but ask. It was clear that the strange events happening in Cyra's family were likely connected to Liam Lin.
"I had no choice..."
Gazing out the window, Cyra let out a long sigh, as if her thoughts drifted back to those days.
"My family had already spent lots of money. If we kept fighting, my mom and I may have ended up homeless."
I suddenly felt a pang of sadness. So her father had passed away, no wonder she never mentioned him after coming here, only ever talking about her mother.
Actually, Cyra's father had left quite an impression on me. His open-minded attitude, so different from my parents, had made me envy him for a long time. But who could have imagined that Cyra's family would face such disaster after she went to university?
Fate can really play cruel tricks...
"Then what happened next?" Cysper suddenly chimed in, sounding like a eager gossiper wanting the juicy details.
"You can understand this?" I gave him a surprised look. As the Pope of this world, he was listening intently to events that happened on Earth!
"Why couldn't I understand?" Cysper questioned me back. "Sure, I don't know what things like trucks and excavators are after you talked about them. But the overall story is simple - just a conflict between officials and residents! As Pope for so many years, I'm familiar with these plots. The Ilandra Dominion down south always has dramas like this. Cyra's case is common. Though I've never seen it myself, rumor has it that entire families being wiped out is not uncommon there...It's a pity there are still many in this world who cannot bask in the Lord's grace..."
"But Cyra wasn't an angel before! Doesn't that seem strange to you?" Nicola chimed in with another question.
"Looks like there are things even an angel like you doesn't know," Cysper gave a mysterious smile. "Allow me to let you in on a secret I learned over my many years - there is reincarnation in this world! It's a very obscure matter. So it's not that strange for a former human like Cyra to be reborn as an angel. Most just don't know about it. Cases like hers where past life memories are retained are rarer, but not unheard of."
"..."
Alright, so it was just a misunderstanding. Nicola and I decided not to point out the obvious.
"This Liam Lin, was his father named Jason Lin, the boss of province?"
Returning to the topic, Nicola seemed to recall something and suddenly asked Cyra.
"I remember his eventual fate was..."
"What happened to him?"
I vaguely recalled the name Jason Lin too, but it had been so long ago and I may not have paid much attention then, leaving me feeling like I almost remembered but not quite.
"Let's not digress, I want to hear what happens next!" Cysper stopped our tangent, eager for more of the story's plot.
"What happened next can only be called a miracle," Cyra said quietly, looking at Cysper across from her.
"After signing the agreement and taking that money, I went to a church alone. My mother had taken me a few times as a child, but this was my first time going of my own will."
"As I stood before the crucifix, cursing the supposed injustice of heaven and how the so-called God was neglecting his duties, a brilliant white light suddenly emanated from the cross. Then, someone looking exactly like me appeared out of nowhere before my eyes. He smiled and said, 'Don't worry, the perpetrator will definitely receive his deserved punishment.'"
"Huh? Are you sure you didn't just imagine it? Or maybe you fell asleep and it was a dream?" I asked incredulously. That was Earth! How could such supernatural phenomena occur there?
"Absolutely not! It was daytime, do you think I'm an idiot who can't tell if I'm asleep or not?" Cyra vehemently refuted.
"What happened after proves it was all real! That very night, Liam Lin's family had their incident where they both became hopeless dementia patients! Completely incurable, they couldn't even speak or walk without assistance!"
"Ah yes, I've heard of this bizarre case," Nicola finally chimed in, seeming to recollect the details.
"According to the police investigation, someone had broken into their home late at night. No one knows what torture or trauma Liam Lin and his father Jason Lin experienced to end up in that vegetative state. As the sole heirs of the Lin family fortune, it was essentially a complete wipeout! But strangely, the intruder didn't seem to steal any valuables."
"About half a month later, the police publicly announced their findings that Jason Lin had committed corruption, bribery, abuse of power, and threatening others! I was abroad at the time, but given the wide-ranging implications, it was a huge international scandal. Rumor has it someone had reported him, and there were even more sensational rumors that the whistleblowing evidence had mysteriously appeared on the bedside cabinet of the President - no one knows who put it there!"
"Is that even possible? The President's bedroom is not a place regular people could access, that's too ridiculous to believe!" I naturally didn't put much stock in such rumors that defied common sense.
However, the mention of the Lin family's "wipeout" case did jog my memory a bit. Since it happened in the same city as me, I had heard about it at the time, though I was too busy with exams to pay much attention.
"Not necessarily, you may have forgotten. The media did report that the Lin family's maid testified to seeing an angel appear when the wipeout occurred, so it wasn't just some 'regular person'!" Nicola meaningfully reminded me.
"Ah...now that you mention it, I do vaguely recall something like that!"
I remembered there was gossip about it at our school, since urban legends were popular among students. But then someone dug up that the maid was actually a member of a doomsday cult, so she may have just had poor eyesight and was talking nonsense. Many cited scriptures claiming angels had no physical form, so the maid's mention of wings was impossible! As a result, the rumor became a joke and was largely dismissed.
However, the fact that the culprit behind the Lin family "wipeout" was never found did add an air of mystery to the whole incident.
"So did an angel really appear on Earth?"
This was the crux of the issue, and who could answer this perplexing question? Naturally, all our eyes turned towards Cysper.
"It had absolutely nothing to do with me, I swear to the Lord!" Cysper raised his right hand again.
"I've stayed in this city for thousands of years without leaving. Many can vouch for me. And how could I command angels? So there's no way I could have suddenly gone to that place you call...what was it, Earth? Speaking of which, it sounds like a strange place with so many unfamiliar things - is it some small country in a remote corner of the continent?"
"Of course not!" I rolled my eyes, not feeling like explaining further. For now, I could only tentatively believe Cysper's words, though it only raised more puzzling questions.
If it truly had nothing to do with the Pope, did that angel actually exist?
Setting aside the possibility of the maid's account being false, if Liam Lin and his father really were "eliminated" by an angel, was that angel the same type of being as our current state? If not, then there's no way to investigate further.
But if so, then it means creatures from this world had appeared on Earth before!
That would be extremely intriguing. How did the angel get there? And by extension, if we found that channel, could we perhaps return to Earth too? Though it doesn't matter much to me personally, Cyra's wish to return home may be fulfilled.
Moreover, the "god" that Cyra described looking exactly like her original self (Cyrus) - who was that? Was it really the so-called Yawee? No wonder she mistook Cysper for the "Lord" when she saw him. This whole matter is so bizarre...
"You really don't have any recollection at all?"
With the discussion reaching this point and Cysper still not responding, Cyra finally seemed to realize he may not be the "Lord" she was seeking, and began seriously reconsidering if she had misidentified him.
"I really am not this 'Lord' you're looking for! Didn't I already swear to it just now?" Cysper answered seriously, declaring it so many times that he was almost losing patience.
"So please don't keep forcing that identity onto me, it's highly taboo!"
"This..."
Cyra was truly dumbfounded now, turning her pleading eyes towards me.
I was just as perplexed. If this being who looked exactly like Cyrus wasn't her target, then who else could it be? Surely there couldn't be a third Cyrus look-alike, the odds would be too low!