Chapter 95: It was a good day.
The prophecy of the guesthouse owner from many years ago came true. In just one night, Luquan was once again filled with clear lake water.
The morning light appeared on the mountain peak, piercing through the heavy gray haze.
Bai Xiaoyuan and her sand cats sat on a slope, still feeling dizzy from a hangover. Lei Chi walked over and sat down beside her. Bai Xiaoyuan noticed his clothes were soaking wet.
“You went into the water too?”
“Mm.” Lei Chi lowered his head and saw several sand cats jump into his lap, warm and soft. “Couldn’t find him.”
“Below is the underground water vein. It’s impossible to survive after falling in,” Bai Xiaoyuan said. “Is there something wrong with Qin Yeshi’s brain, making you guys go fish for whatever?”
“Fishing for bodies,” Lei Chi replied. “If we don’t, it will affect the water quality of Luquan.”
The temperature of the underground water vein beneath Luquan was extremely high. After the water gushed to the surface, it gradually cooled down but still maintained a temperature of around fifty degrees, a veritable hot spring. They took turns diving into Warehouse No. 0 all night to search, but no one could last too long in such temperatures.
“What was his name, anyway?” Bai Xiaoyuan asked. “He definitely wasn’t Zhou You. Zhou You was an identity he stole.”
Lei Chi looked at Luquan in the distance. The spring water steamed with heat, reflecting the gradually brightening sky.
“He had no name,” the young werewolf said in a low voice. “Everything he stole didn’t belong to him. Qin Yeshi said to just refer to him as ‘Zhou Mou’ in the report.”
A person who yearned for a name and an identity never received a complete name even in death.
“Qin Ge said that Zhou You… the real Zhou You, had once given him one,” Lei Chi told Bai Xiaoyuan. “But before he could tell him, Zhou You died.”
Bai Xiaoyuan looked at Luquan and didn’t speak for a long time. Lei Chi had heard some things from Qin Ge. Bai Xiaoyuan’s adoptive father, Bai Fan, had died here in an accident.
Lei Chi had no more candy. He fumbled in his pockets for a while but found nothing and was suddenly a bit disheartened. Bai Xiaoyuan was in low spirits now, and he wanted to cheer her up.
Bai Xiaoyuan herself, however, pulled out two pieces of candy from her pants pocket. They were the fruit drops Lei Chi had gotten from the flight. She took one for herself and placed the other in Lei Chi’s palm.
The two ate the candy. A small flutter of joy rose in Lei Chi’s heart, but he didn’t dare to be certain just yet.
Someone from the bottom of the slope called out to him, “Team Leader Lei, Captain Qin said there’s no need to fish anymore. The Western Office has asked the Yetis to help us find them. We don’t have to go into the water!”
Lei Chi: “Okay!”
He breathed a sigh of relief and savored the candy in his mouth.
“I drank too much, I’m dizzy,” Bai Xiaoyuan said.
Lei Chi quickly interjected, “Then you should go back and rest with Qin Ge and the others’ car first.”
Bai Xiaoyuan looked at the gradually brightening sky. The fresh morning light illuminated her slightly flushed face and sparkling eyes. She didn’t look at Lei Chi, but her body swayed a little and leaned against his shoulder.
Lei Chi immediately dared not move. He was stunned for half a day before managing to say, “My clothes are wet.”
Bai Xiaoyuan: “I know.”
The sand cats leaped into Lei Chi’s lap one by one, then disappeared one by one. In the end, only seven or eight remained, huddled around Bai Xiaoyuan and Lei Chi. One was lying on Lei Chi’s knee. Lei Chi suddenly stopped hesitating. He raised his hand and gently stroked the little cat’s ears and the back of its head.
The sand cat wagged its tail and shifted into a position closer to his body heat in his lap.
At this moment, Lei Chi felt he was the happiest person in the world.
The entire Spiritual Harmonization Department had secretly run off to the Western Office. Everyone dared not linger for long and decided to head back immediately after the matter was resolved.
The people at the Western Office still wanted to give Xie Zijing a farewell party, but Xie Zijing had already returned to Hospital 267 with Xie Liang. Qin Ge stayed at the Western Office to write the “Sea Area” patrol report on X. This day, while he was busy typing, someone was peeking in from outside the window.
He looked up and was startled.
It was a moving furball. Not only was its face covered in long white hair, but its hair was also a uniform snow-white. When he walked in from the door, Qin Ge was dumbfounded. This fellow looked like a wild man. On his entire body, only his lower half was covered with a pair of wide trousers; he didn’t even have shoes on his feet.
“Hello, Section Chief Qin.” This person extended his hand to him for a warm handshake. “I am the deputy director of the Western Office.”
Qin Ge had met a Yeti.
Each of them had thick fur to resist the cold, was tall, and had a rough voice. The Yeti in front of him indeed spoke several degrees louder than others. He chattered for a long time before Qin Ge understood that he was talking about X’s matter.
The Yetis had been searching the underground water vein for several days and finally found his remains near another spring eye.
“Half-eaten by wild beasts,” the Yeti said. “We have many wild beasts here too. Some are so fierce that even Yetis are afraid.”
A sense of melancholy filled Qin Ge’s heart. He couldn’t quite describe the feeling inside him—both resentful and yet empty.
“The only one who can be put on trial is Lu Qinglai,” he said.
“He has already paid the price. Being eaten alive by wild beasts is not a good end,” the Yeti chuckled and slowly moved closer to Qin Ge. “Uh… Section Chief Qin.”
Qin Ge was puzzled. “Mm?”
“Can you write me a letter of recommendation?” The Yeti pulled out a few sheets of A4 paper from his thick fur. “This is a child from our Western Office, sixteen years old this year. He hasn’t been to school, but he has learned skills from many teachers. Can he go to your Human Resources Planning Bureau?”
Qin Ge scratched his head. “I can write a letter of recommendation. But I can’t guarantee he can definitely get into the Human Resources Planning Bureau. They look at academic ability when recruiting.”
The Yeti moved even closer. Qin Ge could almost see the earnestness in his bright, round eyes. “Help us, Section Chief Qin. This child is really smart. He can become a great Yeti. Yetis are also a rare race among special humans. I heard you wrote a letter of recommendation that allowed a Sea Child to successfully enroll in the Human Resources Planning Bureau. Please help us again.”
Qin Ge: “Xiao Hai? You know about Xiao Hai?”
Yeti: “We heard from the Human Resources Planning Bureau yesterday. That Sea Child can take the academic ability test, which means there’s great hope.”
Walking out of the Human Resources Planning Bureau office, Hai Tong couldn’t help but sneeze.
Zhang Qian quickly protected the form in his hand. “Don’t get it dirty.”
The mother and son’s faces were filled with unconcealable joy. Xiao Hai had passed the review. He could take the academic ability test held at the end of the year. As long as he passed the test, he could become a new student at the Human Resources Planning Bureau next year.
This was the beginning of his fate being changed.
Zhang Qian was so happy she could barely speak coherently. “That’s great… we’ve met so many good people… that’s great.”
Xiao Hai was half a head taller than Zhang Qian. He put his arm around his mother’s shoulder and walked with her in the warm sunlight.
“Xiao Hai, do you want to look for your parents?” Zhang Qian asked. “You have great prospects ahead of you.”
Xiao Hai quickly answered, “I don’t want to.”
Zhang Qian looked at him. “If they knew you were such a good child, they definitely wouldn’t have abandoned you.”
The young Sea Child looked silently at the woman before him. He suddenly realized that his fate had not just changed at this very moment.
On that night when he was wailing in the deep alley, when Zhang Qian carried him back to the shop, his fate had already been altered.
“I only have one mother,” Xiao Hai said. “Whether they know how good I am or not, that’s not important. Even if I’m not good, you don’t care, right?”
Zhang Qian touched his face. The alien gills on his face twitched slightly in her palm, a sign of the Sea Child’s nervousness.
She hugged her son.
The two walked forward and forward, but after a few steps, Hai Tong suddenly stopped. He squatted on the ground, covering his eyes, his shoulders trembling.
When he received the notice of passing the review from the person in charge at the Human Resources Planning Bureau, the person in charge was all smiles. He said many things to Hai Tong. The Human Resources Planning Bureau recruited very few Sea Children each year. Among special humans, races like Sea Children, Tea Matrons, and Yetis were all classified as “rare.” Because they were rare, their numbers were small; because they were rare, even fewer managed to survive.
You are important. The person in charge affectionately held Hai Tong’s hand. Hai Tong was not good at speaking, but in his dozen or so years of life, he had learned from many people how to perceive emotions. Disgust was hard to disguise as liking, and displeasure was equally hard to feign as enthusiasm. But the person in charge’s excitement was obvious. “Xiao Hai, whether it’s for our Human Resources Planning Bureau, for the entire Sea Child community, or even for all special humans, you are very important. Your appearance will surely fill some gaps. Quan Nu, Qing Meizi, and the Mermaid leader have all written letters of recommendation for you. You have already won their trust and recognition. You will become a remarkable figure in the future!”
“He… he said I… he said I was important…” Hai Tong tried to stop his tears, but he couldn’t control them. At that very moment, he hadn’t realized what these words meant to him; but now everything was too perfect. He and his mother stood in the sunlight and shade, in the dry wind, and he suddenly realized the force of all the affirmations.
Zhang Qian had given him love without any conditions. But he still needed others’ affirmation: to confirm that he was valuable, that he was important, and not forever the one who was negated, abandoned, and insulted.
Endless courage welled up in his heart. He even believed he could overcome and surpass all obstacles.
Qin Ge brought several documents to the special ward of Hospital 267, where Xie Liang was undergoing treatment.
To ease Xie Liang’s condition, Qin Ge visited him every day. Xie Liang was sometimes lucid, sometimes muddled. When lucid, he would hold onto Xie Zijing and cry his heart out. When muddled, he would tremble in his hospital bed, mumbling something unknown.
Xie Zijing stayed by Xie Liang’s side every day. He took a long leave, and even Qin Ge could only see him occasionally.
Fortunately, as Xie Liang recovered, Xie Zijing could start to tell some jokes.
“Xie Weiran brought Jiang Yong over,” Xie Zijing told Qin Ge. “My dad wanted me to become sworn siblings with Xie Weiran. Xie Weiran was terrified. Her crab’s shell even popped open and it lay on the window playing dead.”
Qin Ge: “Jiang Yong? Did it have any effect on your dad’s emotions?”
Xie Zijing sat with him in the corridor, taking the documents from Qin Ge’s hand to look at them closely. “No. The two of them hugged and cried as soon as they met. After crying, they started reminiscing about the past.”
No one touched the parts that were too painful. Just talking about the past was enough to soothe the two old men’s hearts.
Jiang Yong’s “Sea Area” was damaged when he escorted X into Warehouse No. 0. X had tried to attack Xie Liang, and he had blocked the fierce surprise attack for Xie Liang.
The documents Qin Ge brought were related to Lu Qinglai. Some parts needed Xie Zijing’s confirmation.
Lu Qinglai’s encounter with X happened after he met Xie Zijing. From the state of Xie Zijing’s “Sea Area,” he learned that someone had the ability to destroy a “Sea Area.” The excited Lu Qinglai, after much trouble, found X and promised to take care of him and help him, as long as X told Lu Qinglai how to destroy a “Sea Area.”
“This is an innate ability. Lu Qinglai can’t learn it,” Xie Zijing said, looking at the documents.
Not only did he not learn it, but he himself fell into the trap set by X. He became a complete slave to the pleasure bestowed by X, infatuated with X’s ability, and infatuated with X himself.
Xie Zijing finished reading the documents, a look of surprise on his face. “So his initial research direction was the connection between the ‘Sea Area’ and personality.”
This was a new field that Lu Qinglai had been researching since his university days. When he took the Psychological Adjuster certificate exam and was inspected by Zhang Xiao, his “Sea Area” was still completely normal.
But X was good at stirring up storms in the “Sea Area.” Intense fear, pain, and depression, followed by intense pleasure—these overly extreme emotions quickly disrupted Lu Qinglai’s own regulatory system. His research on personality and the “Sea Area” began to go off on a tangent.
Xie Zijing smiled slightly. “So both Bi Xingyi and I were his experimental subjects.”
“Zhou You destroyed the ‘Sea Area’ and implanted false memories, while he, when you sought him for spiritual harmonization, gradually changed your personality,” Qin Ge nodded. “Repeated negation can cause a person to gradually collapse from the inside out, especially those who are already unstable.”
It was like injecting a virus into a weak patient. The existing resistance was already weak, and the highly invasive virus entered without any hindrance.
Xie Zijing signed the confirmation documents and handed them to Qin Ge.
“He wanted to gain X’s recognition, right? X directly used suggestion to influence people, while he could influence people by changing their personality,” Xie Zijing said, leaning back in his chair. “But X only saw him as a servant, a tool.”
Qin Ge remembered the few questions Lu Qinglai had once asked him.
Can personality be destroyed? After being destroyed, can it be reshaped? What is most destructive to personality?
Lu Qinglai could only stop there. He was only interested in destroying personality, but he didn’t ask Qin Ge: what is it that can keep a person sane and from collapsing?
Qin Ge held Xie Zijing’s hand, their fingers intertwined.
People live in this world, encounter all kinds of people, and form complex relationships that cannot be severed. Every kind of relationship is the cornerstone of being human.
Small hates, small loves, are dissolved and magnified in complex relationships, finally sinking into the depths and becoming the underlying color.
“Xie Zijing is very important to me,” Qin Ge said. “The lion is very important to the rabbit.”
Xie Zijing was amused by this sudden sentence from him.
“What are you doing?” he said, leaning close to Qin Ge’s ear. “If you say any more strange things, be careful I’ll eat you.”
Qin Ge looked at him seriously. “Really important.”
“Then do you love me?” Xie Zijing asked.
“Mm,” Qin Ge nodded.
“Not formal enough,” Xie Zijing said. “Let me think.”
Xie Weiran came out of the hospital room, supporting Jiang Yong. As soon as Jiang Yong saw Xie Zijing and Qin Ge, he couldn’t help but start whimpering again. After seeing them off, Xie Zijing pulled Qin Ge and strode into the hospital room.
Xie Liang’s spirits were still good. His back was straighter, and he could already sit up in bed with the help of an assistive device. Seeing Xie Zijing and Qin Ge walk in, the old man smiled. “Section Chief Qin, hello.”
All his hair had been shaved off, and his body was covered in scars, but compared to that day, his spirits were much better.
He liked Qin Ge very much. After learning that Qin Ge was the fifth Psychological Adjuster, he often chatted about past exam matters and his interactions with Zhang Xiao during the intervals of Qin Ge’s harmonization.
Seeing Xie Zijing and Qin Ge holding hands, a flash of surprise crossed Xie Liang’s face.
“Dad, I’ve never properly introduced Qin Ge to you,” Xie Zijing said loudly, standing in front of Xie Liang’s hospital bed. “I’ll lay it all out today. He is my lover. He is very important to me, and we are going to live together in the future.”
Qin Ge’s face flushed red. He looked at Xie Zijing, then at Xie Liang, at a loss.
Xie Liang nodded with an “oh” and, after a moment of silence, said to Qin Ge, “It must have been hard on you.”
Qin Ge: “N-not at all.”
Xie Liang: “Xie Zijing is a silly person.”
Qin Ge: “No, no, he’s very good.”
Xie Liang: “Then don’t call me Teacher Xie anymore. Call me Uncle.”
Xie Zijing quickly interjected, “Call him Dad.”
Qin Ge: “Uncle.”
Xie Liang laughed for a while, then said with some melancholy, “There are so many things I don’t know.”
But he quickly cheered up again. “There’s plenty of time. You guys can tell me slowly.”
Xie Zijing thought for a moment. “Do you know how Qin Ge and I met?”
He moved a stool and sat by his father’s hospital bed, beginning to tell a story. Qin Ge closed the window a little, but some wind still blew in from outside.
The sky was clear and blue, with continuous green trees.
It was a good day.
Epilogue
In March, in the courtyard of the Crisis Office, the dogwood bloomed again in a continuous stretch, covering a whole wall.
The new employees were all deceived by the rumor that “taking a photo with the dogwood will make you rich.” Whether in the morning or afternoon, Qin Ge could see many people taking selfies and photos under the trees.
In the office of the Spiritual Harmonization Department, almost everything had been cleared out. Bai Xiaoyuan and Tang Cuo were tidying up the odds and ends on their desks.
“Is everything taken?” Qin Ge reminded.
“All taken, all taken,” Bai Xiaoyuan said, picking up a small cardboard box. “Then I’ll go upstairs first? I’m in a hurry to get to dinner.”
“Is Qing Meizi here?” Tang Cuo asked.
“Yes. I also brought your sister’s photo album,” Bai Xiaoyuan said, thought for a moment, and confirmed again, “Is it to have Qing Meizi sign his own photo and write ‘my love’ on Quan Nu’s photo?”
“Yes,” Tang Cuo said with a grim face. “She’s so obsessed with the Qingquan CP now. She once swore to me she would never ship real people.”
Bai Xiaoyuan: “You don’t understand our fun.”
She happily left the office with the cardboard box.
Qin Ge had also finished packing. “I heard from Xiao Liu that Lei Chi is not only reading werewolf and vampire books now, but has also started to get into Qingquan CP fanfiction.”
Tang Cuo was shocked. “It’s all Bai Xiaoyuan’s fault!”
Qin Ge: “Don’t tell Xie Zijing, he might be devastated.”
Tang Cuo also picked up a cardboard box and walked out. “Then I’m going upstairs too.”
Qin Ge finished packing everything and stood in the middle of the office, somewhat dazed.
The evening sunlight cast itself from the corridor, spreading across the floor. A year ago, in the same place, his Sentinel had leaned against the door frame, smiling and looking at him.
A year had passed too quickly, but so many things had happened.
The Harmonization Department had made great contributions in the case of Lu Qinglai and X. After Cai Yi was promoted to Secretary-General of the Special Management Committee, he specially approved the spacious vacant office on the top floor of the Crisis Office for the Harmonization Department. Today was moving day.
Qin Ge’s phone vibrated. It was a call from Xie Zijing.
“I’ve finished listening to the trial.” The trial of X and Lu Qinglai had finally begun. Xie Zijing had specially taken half a day off for it. “I’m going to pick up Dad from the hospital now. How about you?”
“I’ve finished packing too.”
“Then I’ll come back to the unit and go with you,” Xie Zijing said. “Oh right, Xiao Hai passed the academic ability test. Should we prepare a gift for him?”
“Let’s discuss it when we meet,” Qin Ge said, picking up his cardboard box. “See you in a bit.”
Qin Ge carefully closed the door. He heard the faint sound of the wind. Dust motes tumbled in a beam of light, a vast expanse of white.
The door was completely closed.
(End of main text)
(Extras will begin updating on December 27th. Thank you, everyone.)
Author’s Note:
The main text is finished. Thank you everyone for your companionship over these past three months. I wish all my friends who are also taking exams today good results.
There are many things I want to say, but I don’t know how to say them at the moment. Everything I wanted to say has been said in the story.
I hope that everyone, no matter what kind of days they are in, will work and study hard, and live life seriously (this is also for myself).
By the way, the earliest character to take shape in this story was Hai Tong. Xie Zijing’s initial setting was [a hero who wanted to slay a dragon but ended up becoming an evil dragon himself]. Lei Chi’s setting was a vampire, but later I thought a werewolf was more interesting.
