Chapter 61: The Apartment and Qionglin

Luo Qi truly could not handle the aftereffects of experiencing Space Travel for the second time, and he fainted straight away.

He fell into a dreamless sleep; given the constant mess in his brain over the past few days, this was a rare moment of relief. This sleep was very deep, and although it did not last long, he still gained a sense of calm. It was as if he had previously been a balloon rising endlessly, with a fragile rubber membrane as his only armor, and the string tied below was a root that could not reach the soil; but now, faintly, a little weight had been added to his roots, keeping him from drifting aimlessly toward the inverted Abyss above.

Luo Qi woke up in peace and slowly opened his eyes, only to be suddenly horrified to find himself still soaking in water. A "Boom" went off in his brain; this shock was no small matter, and his body instinctively struggled violently, resulting in a cramp in his leg, which caused him to slide entirely into the water.

He choked on a mouthful of water in utter bewilderment, and a pair of hands reached into the bathtub, passing under his armpits to lift him up. He coughed, panicked and at a loss, his muscles tensed all over, and the pain of the cramp in his leg still stinging him.

"Luo Qi." A deep voice called to him, continuing to drag him out of the water, "Calm down."

His vision cleared, and he saw Du Zhengyi's face, saw the silver chain in the middle of his collar, and saw his shirt sleeves rolled up high, his arms wet. Only then did he realize he had been gasping violently, as if trying to squeeze the last breath out of his lungs.

"Luo Qi." Du Zhengyi's voice grew softer, his brows furrowing as if he had just tasted bitter medicine.

"Du Zhengyi!" He cried out in pain, then felt like a puppy, anxiously venting his grievances to the only person he could trust.

This was truly stupid. He abruptly clamped his mouth shut, swallowed his gasps, and calmed his hyperventilation. His eyes were still darting around frantically, looking at the surrounding environment; all he saw was an ordinary bathroom, decorated with the most common, honest, large white tiles. He lowered his head and saw that he was sitting in a bathtub, half-submerged in a tub of warm water.

"Are you okay now?" Du Zhengyi observed him and slowly let go of his hands.

His eyes were still wide open, but he nodded, and Du Zhengyi carefully released him completely.

"I put you in the bathtub to help you recover your body temperature and let you take a bath while I was at it," Du Zhengyi said. Even he found the look of extreme horror on Luo Qi's face just now a bit shocking, and perhaps for this reason, he added, "I'm sorry."

Even though Luo Qi was slow-witted at this moment, he still had some reaction; he slowly raised his head, his large, black eyes looking at Du Zhengyi in confusion. Du Zhengyi was not some kind, brotherly youth; no matter the time, apologies did not really fit his style, especially since his current role was that of a savior.

Du Zhengyi saw that Luo Qi had recovered his spirit, and the two looked at each other for a while, as if both found it hard to accept that such a heavy, life-and-death bond had suddenly formed between them. Especially since this bond was one where one party was severely indebted to the other; neither of them was quite used to being the giver or the receiver.

"Do you need me to... help you bathe?" Du Zhengyi assessed his condition and asked hesitantly.

Luo Qi shivered.

"Fine," Du Zhengyi said, relaxing a little. "You're sensible. I found some clothes and put them on the washing machine by the door; you can change into them after you bathe."

"Where is this?" Luo Qi asked, feeling that this place did not look like a hotel.

"Where else could it be? In your situation, there's nowhere else you can stay," Du Zhengyi said. "This is my home."

After he finished speaking, he waited a while longer, seeing that Luo Qi's state of bewilderment seemed even heavier than before, and concluding that he wouldn't have anything more to say for a while, he turned and walked out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

Luo Qi sat in the bathtub for a long time, finally thinking that if this had been a few days ago, god, he would have jumped up immediately and turned the bathroom upside down. It was Du Zhengyi's home; he always felt it would hide many secrets and have many mysterious quirks to dig up. Having the chance to be in Du Zhengyi's home felt like finally getting the opportunity to turn Du Zhengyi upside down and give him a good shake to see how many strange and bizarre things would fall out.

But the winds of change had blown, and things had changed too fast. The genius-to-the-point-of-defying-heaven Du Zhengyi was not a difficult puzzle to solve; the ridiculous thing was that Luo Qi now wished he could turn himself upside down and give himself a good shake to see exactly how many secrets he could shake out of himself.

Sometimes it is not hard to uncover someone else's secrets, or at least it is not something that makes one's mind chaotic, but to uncover one's own secrets is like trying to lick one's own nose. Not only is standing on a stool useless, but it is also quite disgusting.

Luo Qi retreated back into the water, feeling a bit drained at the thought of how terrified he had been just now.

He leaned back in the bathtub, slowly relaxing his body in the warm water, and felt a long-lost comfort. This comfort made his brain grow chaotic, to the point that when the water in the bathtub had almost gone cold, he realized he hadn't heard any noise since he woke up; it was as quiet here as if he had returned to his former life.

Du Zhengyi poured himself another cup of tea and sat on a cushion on the floor, the shape of the cushion somewhat resembling a meditation mat. He allowed himself to think of nothing, enjoying a rare moment of ease.

The door behind him opened, and Luo Qi shuffled out. By now, he had become somewhat accustomed to Luo Qi's dragging footsteps. They were slower than the average Mage, and the soles of his shoes spent more time grinding against the floor—lazy, that was Luo Qi's unique rhythm, inversely proportional to the speed of Luo Qi's thinking.

"Brother—" Luo Qi walked halfway and called out to him from behind, dragging his feet, his speech slurred and filled with reluctance. It sounded like his mental state had recovered quite a bit, at least no longer in that abnormal state of extreme shock.

He turned his head and saw Luo Qi wearing his shirt and trousers, with the cuffs of the pants rolled up—it was hilarious. But he couldn't laugh now; he had to pretend to be deep and calm as he pointed to another cushion on the floor, signaling that Luo Qi could sit down.

Luo Qi walked over with a dejected face. He poured a cup of tea for Luo Qi, who sat down properly; his posture on the cushion was almost comically upright, and he even deliberately avoided looking around. In fact, Luo Qi's spirit had recovered at least half; by rights, his gossipy spirit should have recovered quite a bit too, and he should be especially curious now. But it seemed the massive blow and mental trauma had indeed made him much more mature.

"I didn't think you would come to help me."

He watched Luo Qi speaking honestly and slowly realized that sometimes this child's biggest problem was being too earnest; even if he seemed like a clown, at the end of the day, he was still too earnest.

"If you want to say thank you, forget it, don't be so earnest," Du Zhengyi interrupted what he was about to say. "I didn't intend to do it at first, then I just went with the flow; there's nothing to talk about."

A flash of frustrated shrinking crossed Luo Qi's face. Du Zhengyi looked away, no longer watching him, but the window was too high for him to see outside, and sitting facing the wall was also like being a fool. He had never thought he would bring someone else to where he lived, so when he chose the house, he hadn't thought about today.

"But you saved my life." Luo Qi didn't care how strange it was to sit under the window sill; the room wasn't big anyway, and he seemed to have gathered his courage again. "Saving me from dying in a ridiculous way is something I must especially thank you for."

"No one can die with dignity," Du Zhengyi said. "People are very ridiculous when they die."

Luo Qi felt his spine bend under the weight of Du Zhengyi's reply. Someone as awesome as Du Zhengyi shouldn't say such things, but now Du Zhengyi's expression was indeed somewhat unhappy.

Luo Qi was silent for a while, and Du Zhengyi didn't speak either, making the atmosphere even more oppressive.

Luo Qi sat up a bit straighter. "Regardless, according to Chinese culture, you saved my life, so now you should be responsible for my life."

"Is that what Chinese culture says?" Du Zhengyi turned his head. "Are you an old man on the street trying to scam people?"

Luo Qi grinned. Du Zhengyi glared at him for a while, looking at his smiling face in disbelief. After a long while, Du Zhengyi said, "God, you really have no heart."

Luo Qi put away his smile, though he rubbed his face, and the expression on his face was still very happy. He shifted on the floor, curled up, and lay down, resting his head on the cushion.

"I can lend you the bed today; go sleep on the bed when you're tired," Du Zhengyi said flatly.

"No need," Luo Qi murmured. "I feel more secure here."

For a long time, Du Zhengyi did not answer him, only slowly drinking his tea. Luo Qi closed his eyes, and after a while, Du Zhengyi reached out and placed his hand on his face, covering his eyes and forehead with his palm.

Du Zhengyi no longer remembered if he had a younger brother; it seemed he did, and it was said he did. Leaving home at a young age made his memories of siblings very faint, but he probably thought now that if he had a brother, he would be about like this. In his heart, he felt some irony toward him, wanting to belittle him every now and then, yet he was also moved by the unquestioning reliance he provided. Because of this, a great deal of guilt arose in his heart, and he didn't know what to do, even constantly revising the things he had originally insisted upon.

A thousand miles away, Qionglin.

The search work in Qionglin finally made phased progress. A group of the unluckiest of the unlucky, assigned to search in the forest, was designated to the area of the garbage dump. This group of Mages were the marginalized figures among the Qionglin Mages—two people with autism and three eccentrics were to finish the Qionglin garbage dump.

This garbage dump was connected to various rooms in the central building of Qionglin by a series of complex Teleportation Magic. Mages used these systems to process garbage automatically; after garbage was sent here, it would be left for at least three days. Every three days, specialized Mages would come to clean the garbage; most of the work was decomposition, a type of Magic operation opposite to summoning and condensation, converting existing entities into basic matter.

The five marginalized Mages responsible for the search wandered aimlessly through the garbage dump. The autistic Mages said almost nothing, but one of the three eccentrics was full of curiosity about this garbage dump. While it was called a garbage dump, it was also a massive marketplace for privacy; from glowing Magic roses to letters that hadn't been burned according to the rules, there were simply too many secrets to be dug up here, and visiting this place openly was also a great adventure.

This eccentric inevitably walked deeper and deeper into the garbage dump. Just then, a High-energy radiation was as conspicuous as a large lightbulb in the dark night. He couldn't help but walk over; at that time, he never imagined that this moment in the garbage dump would become the peak of his life. Afterward, not only did he have the opportunity to have a deep talk with the Great Mage Zuo Yu, becoming a good friend who could sit and talk heart-to-heart at any time, but he was also received by the Venerable of Qionglin, and was just a little bit short of points to earn the Great Mage medal.

Later, he wrote many articles, published in the Mages' journals, describing his cautious and meticulous search work. His extremely rigorous work attitude led him to discover the invaluable and significant Qionglin Defense Crystal in the garbage pile. Afterward, he believed that he had actually thought of it long ago: the Lotus Burner would not risk taking away this Crystal that would cause all the Great Mages to hunt them down, so the most appropriate method was, of course, to hide the Crystal temporarily to buy himself time to act. It was impossible to hide a Crystal with surging energy in the Shengdian in the center of Qionglin surrounded by Mages, so the only way was to throw the Crystal into Qionglin's garbage recycling system. As time passed, he decisively believed that he had actually thought of it beforehand, which was why he had searched the garbage dump so earnestly and found the guardian Crystal.

In the end, that was what he told the Venerable and others; at the internal commendation meeting for Mages, he was elevated to a very high level, compared to the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes.

The only flaw was how to explain that there were no traces of any Mage touching the Defense Crystal.

His explanation for this was that the Mage who shut down and stole the Defense Crystal was a deeply hidden genius who had invented a latest method to counter the Defense Crystal, capable of neutralizing the Defense Crystal's absorption of his energy, thereby leaving no traces.

A High-level Mage in Qionglin, Han Yi, attacked his explanation, believing that his method of explanation fell entirely into agnosticism—in other words, it was all bullshit. But he had already turned to write a new hundred-word article, calling on everyone to raise their vigilance and be wary of the appearance of new Magic formulas, and he even received many worried responses from Mages. Therefore, Han Yi's words did not attract much attention, especially since Han Yi had actually walked into the attack range of the Scavenger during this Qionglin search, a stupid act that made it hard for people to believe if his sanity was normal.