Chapter 147: Fickleness and Agitation

On the way to the meeting, Yang Yi observed that after a night of cleanup, the capital's main thoroughfares were already passable for vehicles, but the broken walls and bloodstains everywhere proved how fierce yesterday's battle had been.

Epidemic-prevention personnel in specialized protective suits were transporting the collected remains of the alien creatures to the incinerator.

Ambulances and fire engines sped past on the road from time to time.

Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion, everything was returning to normal.

Not long after the meeting began, Yang Yi ran into that problem.

Why the alien creatures at the inter-dimensional passage had been drained of life was easy to explain — she was the only one in the other world, there were no eyewitnesses, all the power of explanation belonged to her, she could explain it however she wanted, and even if she said she didn't know, no one would dare make things difficult for her.

But if she really did that, there was no doubt it would deliberately create a rift between herself and the people.

"…There were too many alien creatures there, it was too dangerous, I couldn't find the spatial device right away, so I triggered the evil god's altar in the other world…" Yang Yi said with a flat expression, sitting in a secret meeting room.

The attendees included leaders from the upper echelons of the Awakener Bureau, the Dark Matter and Astronomy Research Institute, the Alien Creature Prevention Research Institute, the Dark Matter and Awakener Energy Research Institute, senior military and police officials, and the central decision-making level, among others.

"We recently spun off an 'Evil God Special Research Group,' mainly to study this evil god and altar. We've currently run into difficulties with the operating principles of the altar… Only Captain Yang has personally approached the altar. We'd like to ask Captain Yang to come over to our place after the meeting to give us some guidance…" said Director Liu of the Dark Matter and Astronomy Research Institute.

Who, as a child writing an essay on 'My Ideal,' didn't say they wanted to be a scientist? And now, a group of top scientists were treating her with such deference. Yang Yi felt rather flattered, and hurriedly said, "Then let's set a time, I'll definitely cooperate."

Yang Yi's attitude eased the originally tense and serious meeting at once, and the expressions on the attendees' faces all relaxed a little.

Only then did Yang Yi suddenly realize that the atmosphere in the meeting had been taut the whole time because, from the start of the meeting, she had been expressionless, and everyone had been on edge because of it.

And because she wanted to distance herself from any connection with the evil god, she had an unconscious resistance to this meeting, and so a certain shadow had fallen across her face.

With the change in atmosphere in the meeting room, only now did she gain a real sense of her own influence.

She looked around, gazing at this meeting room that had gathered the very top figures of the entire Xia Kingdom — these great personages who, two months ago, had been utterly out of reach — all so jittery over a single look on her face. She couldn't help but laugh at herself.

As the faint satisfaction faded, a deeper loneliness slowly crept into her heart.

During the rest of the meeting, she deliberately relaxed her expression.

During the break, she turned on her silenced phone and found a new message from Chris.

"God, please tell me you're okay."

Yang Yi rubbed her brow and replied, "I'm fine."

She didn't know why, but before entering the inter-dimensional space, she had been thinking how nice it would be to see him sooner. But now, she wasn't in such a rush to see him anymore.

She didn't even feel the old thrill at receiving a new message from him, as if she had been saving up to buy a coat she had long dreamed of, and on the day the coat finally arrived, she found she wasn't as happy as she had imagined.

The most exciting time, on the contrary, was the period when the money was almost saved up.

Is that little orange-flavored candy she'd longed for since childhood, that sapphire she had yearned for so long — are they the same?

Yang Yi couldn't help but despise herself, and as if to prove she wasn't so fickle, she immediately added another message: "I'm very busy right now. I'll come find you tonight!"

The next session was about to begin; she had just stood up when a new message from Chen Chen Huanyue came through.

"Yang Yi, is everything alright?"

Yang Yi casually replied with a "mm," put her phone in her pocket, and went into the meeting room.

##

"I'm checking out! Right now!" Chris called his assistant John. "Arrange a private plane for this afternoon, I'm going home."

"Home? Which one are you talking about?" John was a bit bewildered by the sudden call.

"Luocheng — Beverly Estate."

"But your doctor says you have to stay in the hospital for at least half a month…" John said, puzzled. "And right now the whole of Beverly Estate is covered in ammunition fragments and monster limbs that fell from the sky…"

"Then spend the money to clean it up. I don't care how much it costs, it has to be cleaned up by evening!"

"What's the rush… oh—" John suddenly understood, then lowered his voice: "She's coming over tonight, isn't she?"

Chris couldn't help lowering his voice too. "Don't say a word about anything related to her."

"Understood, I'll have the private plane ready right away."

Since the inter-dimensional passage closed yesterday, those familiar-faced security personnel had disappeared. Chris didn't know whether someone was watching him at this moment — he trusted they wouldn't dare show up around Yang Yi, and most likely they had already pulled out.

The discharge procedures were quickly handled. His mother Mary sternly opposed his leaving the hospital, but after he swore he would continue treatment after returning to Luocheng, she let him go.

He had his bodyguards take his mother to his sister's house, then immediately changed and prepared to head back.

While waiting for the private plane, he couldn't sit still. Yang Yi's text message left him full of agitation and anticipation — he hadn't seen her for a full 23 days, and it felt almost as long as a lifetime.

He unconsciously walked to the mirror and examined himself carefully: he had lost a lot of weight, his cheeks were somewhat sunken, stubble had sprouted, and the muscular physique she had so often admired with her gaze had also thinned considerably.

Will she be disappointed when she sees me like this? She must be, after all — she had originally been attracted to his looks and physique, not anything else, anything more intrinsic.

He was almost a little annoyed with himself.

He frowned, picked up a razor, his mind in complete turmoil.

He felt as though she had taken control of him — all his thoughts, all his mind, were on her; he had almost lost himself.

He felt like a runaway train, off its set track, hurtling toward an unforeseeable, dangerous direction.

And he had no confidence at all in his heart. He had never dared be a hundred percent certain of his feelings for her: does she love me? Does she really care about me? Is there really a future for them? … Everything was unknown.

They hadn't been together long — less than two months — and during that time they had seen little of each other. And in those brief moments together, her attitude had been elusive, now warm now cold; she seemed to like him a great deal, yet also seemed not to care about him that much.

Suddenly, the scene from that day resurfaced: her usually cool, aloof face was tinged with a faint blush, her usually calm, deep eyes slightly unfocused, and she said softly:

"I'm caught in your web like a bug, I'm already your prey — can't you see that?"

Yes, she cares about me.

Chris said to himself.

With this agitation and anticipation, he took a private plane back to the Beverly home late at night at 23:00, while in Xia Kingdom it was just past 3 p. m.

He didn't know what time she meant by "tonight," and she was very busy — what she was busy with must concern humanity, concern the Earth — and he didn't want to bother her with something so trivial.

So he took a shower, sprayed on some citrus-scented cologne, and sat on the sofa in the hallway to wait.

The sky was dotted with stars, not a single cloud in sight; the Milky Way glimmered in a great swath of light, making the night seem almost bright.

In such a quiet night, under such a calm sky, Chris's thoughts drifted, and he almost felt that the opening of the inter-dimensional passage and the monsters' rampage the day before yesterday had been a dream.

He fell asleep without realizing it, and dreamed of the day his father left when he was a child.

Back then he was only six; his mother was a theater manager, his father a high school football coach, and his sister attended the same elementary school as him. The four of them lived a quiet, warm life.

But one day, his father suddenly proposed a divorce; he had fallen in love with the new math teacher at the school.

It was a fine spring day, the sun shone brightly, and all things were bursting forth.

Because he refused to forgive his father, he hid in the second-floor bedroom and would not see him off. Downstairs, his father loaded the packed luggage into the car.

"Chris..." his father called out.

He peeked at his father from behind the curtains. His father stood beneath his window, hesitating for a long time. "I'm sorry, son," he said, then started the car and drove away.

He still remembered the scene then: his father drove a black pickup truck; pink roses on the fence nearby were in full bloom, and petals covered the lawn...

"Don't go..." he finally spoke.

A hand rested on his forehead, and a clear yet gentle voice responded from beside him: "I'm here..."

He opened his eyes and found himself lying on the bedroom bed; Yang Yi lay beside him, propping her head up with her right arm, watching him quietly.

"When did you arrive?" He sat up at once.

Outside the window, the sky was turning white; the night was nearly over.

"Just now," Yang Yi said. Her brows furrowed slightly. "Did you wait outside all night?"

Chris suddenly felt his behavior was a bit foolish, and carried a hint of seeking sympathy or pity. He immediately denied it: "No... I just... just..."

Yet in the slight smile curling at the corners of her mouth, he could not think of a good excuse for a moment.

Yang Yi cupped his face, gently kissed his eyes, then kissed his lips.

After a while, she gazed at him: "You've lost so much weight..."

In that gaze, as clear as water, all of Chris's restlessness instantly subsided.

And in that very instant, a thought flashed through his mind like a meteor: If one day, she leaves...