Chapter 685: The Luo Qi Paradox (They demanded I write a new title and not be lazy o(*￣︶￣*)o)

Chu Jin gazed at Du Zhengyi, not answering his question, but Du Zhengyi saw sorrow in her eyes. His heart sank to the bottom.

"According to our original plan, when Luo Qi went to university, his parents would gradually guide him to unseal his Seal. Although this process wouldn't be pleasant, it would be relatively gentle, and Luo Qi would gradually accept the gates of the Mental World opening to him. He would also gradually recover his proper Mage Ability; the university stage is precisely when a mage truly learns Magic. But..." Chu Jin said.

She sighed and complained, "But one day, Luo Ruian suddenly seemed like a different person; he refused to act according to the original plan."

"Luo Qi's relationship with his parents is indeed a bit strange. Occasionally, when he mentions things from his childhood, I can feel his parents' love for him. But his grades are poor, and his parents never blame him; he says he wants to go to the human world, and his parents completely agree. This didn't make Luo Qi feel respected; instead, it made him very sad. He believes he is too incompetent, which led his parents to have no expectations for him, and this is also the main reason for his estrangement from his parents. His Baba seems easygoing and open-minded, but only when it comes to arranging which world Luo Qi's future belongs to does he become very arbitrary and dictatorial, handling things very impatiently. He loves his son, this is beyond doubt; he has already sacrificed everything for his son. But he also has an abnormal detachment from his son," Du Zhengyi said. He hesitated for a moment and tentatively asked, "Are Luo Qi's parents afraid of their own son?"

Chu Jin's expression also hesitated, "I cannot answer this question for them, but I think the actual situation is more complex. It's more like they don't know what the best thing to do is, so they act erratically while caught in a dilemma."

She pondered for a moment and continued, "Luo Qi likes the human world, and our whole family hopes to see this situation. When he was very young, his maternal grandfather often took him to play in the human world, and he received almost the same education as human children when he was young. Our greatest hope is that he slowly unseals his Seal, successfully conceals his identity as a Mind Mage, avoids the covetousness of the Magic World, and lives peacefully in the human world. But you know this is a double-edged sword; Luo Qi will have a very difficult time in our school. Not only is his Magic Ability extremely low, but his excessive fondness for human culture also makes him a... strange minority among the Mage Apprentices."

Du Zhengyi thought she might have wanted to say "weirdo," but she really didn't want to use that word to describe her nephew.

"When Luo Qi was a child, he would come home crying about being bullied, and his family would go to seek justice for him, but gradually... by the time he was about ten, he stopped saying anything. Occasionally, when he was bullied too severely and couldn't hide the marks in time, my sister would still discover them. But by then, Luo Qi had grown up, and Mama standing up for him only hurt Luo Qi's self-esteem more. The next time, Luo Qi would only hide it more carefully, and he would no longer confide in his parents; their relationship became more distant day by day. When my sister asked too much, he would tell her that no one could order other classmates to stop discriminating against him; either he had a problem and deserved to be bullied, or the world was wrong. When he said the world was wrong, his Baba became somewhat reactive, and I heard they argued very fiercely. At that time, I had already entered a new project team and had even less time to contact my family. By the time my project was nearing its end a few years later, Luo Qi was already in university. I thought he had long been unsealing his Seal step by step, but I didn't expect Luo Ruian and my sister to tell me that they didn't intend to unseal Luo Qi's Seal anymore. They changed their decision, deciding that Luo Qi should be an ordinary person, go to the human world, go to the Otherworld, and never return to our world again. We had a fight; they warned me not to overstep. Luo Qi is their son, I cannot interfere with their parenting style, and they forbade me from seeing Luo Qi."

It sounded like madness, Du Zhengyi thought silently. Luo Qi's growth Coordinate unfolded in his mind, the timeline extending, and he guessed the reason for their insanity.

"But Luo Ruian's idea was truly too crazy. He wanted to continue to completely suppress Luo Qi's Magic, which would bring tremendous mental pressure to Luo Qi. He is not some ordinary Mage; he is an A-Grade Mind Mage. With such vast Magic power blocked by a precarious dam, a dam burst is an inevitable future. The later the dam bursts, the worse the timing of the burst, and the greater the harm to Luo Qi. For a long time, I didn't understand why Luo Ruian was so extreme. I wanted to communicate with my sister alone, but the result was also an unhappy parting."

Du Zhengyi didn't speak. He somewhat wanted to stand up and walk out, leave this place, and avoid the topic that was about to be discussed. However, he naturally sat still; enduring pain was already an instinct for him. But his expression had probably already revealed too much. Chu Jin didn't need to be a Mind Mage; as long as she was born into a family skilled at seeing through people's hearts, she could guess what he knew and guess that some things could be said now.

"Luo Ruian is your attending physician, right?" Chu Jin said softly.

"Yes," Du Zhengyi said.

"I only learned about this from Liu Li by chance a long time later. Knowing this, many puzzles were solved," Chu Jin said.

She continued, "The turning point of everything happened that day. Luo Ruian was urgently summoned by Pei Shu to handle an emergency at Qionglin... no, it should be said, an emergency at Gushan. The emergency Luo Ruian went to handle was to save you. You were attacked by severe Mind Magic that day. Pei Shu is a Mind Archmage but is not specialized in healing, yet Luo Ruian is a genius in this regard. When he was saving you, he came into close contact with the damage in your mind; he must have discovered that the damage... was very familiar. I think the shock he received at that time must have been great. Aside from Mind Magic, he knows very little about other things. During that period, he tried to find a way to pull me out of the project team and asked me many questions about Time Magic."

Du Zhengyi lowered his head and picked up his coffee cup to take a sip. His breathing and pulse didn't change at all. When he raised his eyes again to look at Chu Jin, his gaze remained gentle.

"You knew it long ago?" Chu Jin asked.

"Knew what?" Du Zhengyi countered.

"You know I am a Calculator; I am skilled at Calculation, but Calculation contains too much content. All important Magic is related to Calculation. Time and space are the two most important types of Magic. I know you are skilled at space processing, but perhaps you also know a thing or two about Time Magic. When time cannot be directly observed, it can be viewed through Calculation. Sometimes, problems related to time are counterintuitive, but Calculation can explain the truth. One of the principles of time is that time will do its best to eliminate the paradoxes generated by backtracking in time. Therefore, when calculating, if certain observable phenomena generate a short-term contradiction with the Calculation Model, it means someone has backtracked up or down the river of time," Chu Jin said.

"The First Law of Time, the principle of time correction," Du Zhengyi said, his voice steady. "Time will self-eliminate the paradoxes generated by backtracking or forward-tracking in time. A Spacetime Paradox will trigger oscillations, but the oscillations will tend toward the original timeline."

"Yes. So you know that the person who killed you is Luo Qi," Chu Jin said, looking straight into the eyes of the Gushan Guard.

"I haven't died yet," Du Zhengyi said.

Chu Jin didn't speak.

"Indeed, I will always die in the near future from the mental damage caused by Luo Qi. But on the previous timeline, I had already died the first time I met Luo Qi. On the current timeline, that Luo Qi said it wasn't him who killed me last time; it was a group of Mind Mages who killed me together. I believe what he said, because when we met this time, there was indeed a group of Mind Mages who broke into Gushan. They used a strange method to link together and launch an attack on me. They weren't of any use this time because the Luo Qi who backtracked destroyed their link. Then, because he wanted to seize control of Gushan, he launched an attack on my mind again," Du Zhengyi said with his head lowered, as if speaking of someone else's cause of death at someone else's funeral. "I already died last time. Time will naturally correct the Spacetime Paradox generated by the fact that I didn't die this time. I will live for a while longer, but an early death is the inevitable ending; it is time using Luo Qi's hand to kill me. I have never blamed Luo Qi; this has nothing to do with him, no matter which Luo Qi it is."

Chu Jin looked at him for a long time. Her nose was a bit red, and there was a heavy sound when she breathed. She didn't shed tears, just couldn't speak for a long time.

"Does our Luo Qi know?" Chu Jin asked.

"He doesn't know. It's best if he never knows," Du Zhengyi said.

"Oh, you've started to empathize with his Baba, wanting to hide the cruelest truth of this world from Luo Qi just like him," she joked.

Du Zhengyi smiled.

Chu Jin said, "I discovered that someone backtracked in time. Specifically, I discovered that Luo Qi backtracked in time. Luo Ruian also discovered it; of course, he could recognize his own son's mental traces. This terrified him; it was more terrifying than any future we had imagined. We also vaguely understood one thing: the future we arranged for Luo Qi instead deeply hurt Luo Qi, and Luo Qi triggered the greatest taboo of our world. This is quite impressive; I'm even a little proud of my nephew. I destroyed all relevant calculations in the Calculation Institute, covering up the numerical traces left by Luo Qi's time travel. That ostrich Luo Ruian only thinks that our Luo Qi is his son, and that other thug has nothing to do with him. He chose a more conservative approach; he just wanted to keep our Luo Qi safe. He wanted Luo Qi to never know he is a Mind Archmage for the rest of his life; he wanted to hide Luo Qi far away in the human world. As for whether Luo Qi would have more serious problems because the dam burst too late, he chose to gamble. But you know, the worst situation for Luo Qi is for the dam to burst under some dangerous circumstances. If he awakens his ability while far away from the Magic World, where no one can help him, he will be drowned by his own mind. He will become a madman, a soul lost in the hell he created, needing you all to clean him up as a High-Reaction Mage."

Du Zhengyi understood why she was a good friend of Liu Li's teacher; she was as wise and courageous as Liu Li. Luo Qi's trait of being extremely bold might also be inherited from his mother's family. Du Zhengyi agreed with her view. When he first met Luo Qi, Luo Qi's dam was already crumbling. He was already able to see through Pei Shu's mental disguise on his own, and in the deepest prison under Qionglin, he was able to see through the collective work of ancient Mind Mages.

He suddenly remembered what Luo Qi had chattered to him about at the time: there was an anime character on the prison wall, why there was a human anime character, and why that anime character led him out of the prison. Of course he could recognize it; that was the mark he had left for himself.

He withdrew his chaotic thoughts, thinking about the move Chu Jin had made; she was a more inconspicuous chess player.

She said, "Based on the First Law of Time, it is easy to make a simple inference: since Luo Qi moved toward accepting his own destiny and becoming a Mind Mage in another spacetime, this Luo Qi will too. I have a different opinion from his parents; rather than letting Luo Qi suffer in self-exploration, it is better for me to push him. After Calculation, I believe that moving your position is the smallest set that produces the greatest positive impact. I'm sorry, I still have to apologize to you. Even a Calculator has their own tendencies, or to put it bluntly, selfishness. I can't help but help the youngest child in my family, even if doing so is very cruel to you."

"No need to apologize," Du Zhengyi said calmly. "Actually, I should have died again half a month ago, but it was interfered with by Luo Qi, so I can still continue to sit here."

Chu Jin pondered for a moment. "It seems the vortex triggered by Luo Qi is like a spacetime malfunction. Perhaps because his birth was itself a mutation of a life form, a malfunction of the Progenitor Mage's Life Magic. The Head Venerable—this term is Pei Shu—is responsible for eliminating the malfunctions of the Progenitor Mage's Magic, ensuring everything can continue to run smoothly. I hope he doesn't have the ability to eliminate this malfunction this time."

"I originally thought that if Luo Qi were within the Qionglin sequence, he wouldn't be considered a malfunction. But once it is discovered that there are two Luo Qis in this world, Qionglin's attitude toward dealing with Luo Qi will become firm. What I am confused about now is that Luo Qi himself doesn't know that there are two of him in this world, but half a month ago, he concluded on his own that he needed to hide and could no longer see Pei Shu. Does Calculator Chu have any clues about this?"

Chu Jin frowned. She thought about it seriously for a moment, but finally shook her head.

Du Zhengyi suddenly thought that Chu Jin was not even curious about his question. This question itself meant that the two of them had lost contact recently. Chu Jin was not anxious, which meant that the person who broke into the Calculator's workplace today was probably Luo Qi. This Luo Qi.

?? Friends who are short on books to read can also take a look at the new book "Do Not Enter the Cage"; I am trying to explore new styles and themes to tell stories.