Chapter 72: The Bomb Disposal

Du Zhengyi opened his eyes. The annoying female ghost who had been hovering around him had vanished. Outside, sunlight cast striped shadows across the floor through the blinds, and the blizzard had also disappeared without a trace. Luo Qi was sitting on the floor, hugging his knees beneath the window. His face was pale and haggard, and his pitch-black eyes were wide open, still filled with immense fear. But, he had appeared after all.

Du Zhengyi walked slowly across the room, reached the end, and stopped in front of Luo Qi. He was not very good at comforting people, nor did he have any experience in taking care of them; under normal circumstances, no one needed his care or comfort, so he was actually at a loss for what to do. Furthermore, such a situation had never happened before: if a person wasn't properly pacified, they would self-destruct, and the lethality was quite astonishing. This... this was effectively like being a bomb disposal "expert"...

He looked down at Luo Qi from above. Luo Qi's hair was very black, and the sunlight reflected a healthy luster off it. Yet his hands rested weakly on his knees, his wrists thin and pale, like someone who had just recovered from a long illness.

After hesitating for a long time, Du Zhengyi reached out a hand and placed it on top of Luo Qi's head. After a long while, he only managed to say, "Don't be afraid."

Luo Qi stiffly raised his head to look at him, his lips trembling slightly as he mumbled something. Du Zhengyi didn't hear clearly and leaned in closer. "What?"

"I'm sorry." Luo Qi's trembling voice grew louder.

Du Zhengyi remained stiff in that posture for a moment, sighed, and sat down with his back against the window base, just like Luo Qi. "What is there to be sorry about? It's not something you should be blamed for."

"You don't blame me? Then who should be blamed?" Luo Qi choked up, bent over, and buried his head deeply between his arms. "I'm like a monster."

"Otherwise..." Du Zhengyi drew circles on his own knees and said indifferently, "Otherwise, just blame me. I've never minded taking responsibility."

Luo Qi didn't respond to his words, though the long silence itself implied a question.

After a while, Du Zhengyi had no choice but to continue on his own. "I didn't originally intend to go to the Profound Forest to save you. It was Guan Xinyue who used her grandfather's Crystal as a bargaining chip to hire me to help you settle your trouble, so I went back to find you. I arrived too late, so in the end, I didn't really play any major role. If you want to be grateful, you should go tell Guan Xinyue; if you want to assign blame, I can take one-third of the responsibility."

Luo Qi didn't move, but he was indeed listening to his words.

"Look, the world is just like this. No one is any better than anyone else. If you really look into it, everyone is a monster."

"Do you think I'm actually stupid?" Luo Qi said, muffled in his arms. "Which is easier: snatching something from a little girl or snatching a person out of the Profound Forest?"

Du Zhengyi laughed and leaned back against the wall, relaxed. The room was very quiet, yet not entirely silent; the sun-filled space was punctuated from time to time by the sound of Luo Qi sniffling. Du Zhengyi sat quietly, feeling comfortable for a rare moment. Such an afternoon was slowly evolving into the most lazy and peaceful moment he had experienced in years.

It was hard to say how much time had passed—probably when Luo Qi finally finished secretly wiping away his tears and snot—when he suddenly raised his head, his face full of panic, and grew tense. "Are they... dead?"

"No," Du Zhengyi said leisurely, knowing exactly who Luo Qi was talking about without asking. "One fell down the stairs while running away and broke his ankle, though he should have crawled downstairs by now. The other one intended to jump off the building, but I dragged him back, and then he fainted."

Luo Qi stiffened for a moment, especially when Du Zhengyi added a soft jab, "Two trashy brats, they almost scared you to death. Tsk."

Luo Qi's face slowly turned red, and he was too embarrassed to turn his head. Du Zhengyi caught a glimpse of his expression and finally felt relieved; this normal appearance was even better than when he had first returned yesterday.

"Don't be embarrassed, you almost scared them to death too," Du Zhengyi said with a smile.

"That..." Luo Qi said, "You really are a good person."

"If I'm going to receive a 'good person' card, I'd rather get one from a pretty girl," Du Zhengyi said nonchalantly.

"You really are a good person. You even saved that human," Luo Qi said.

Du Zhengyi realized that this remark followed the earlier conversation about saving Luo Qi; he understood what Luo Qi meant. For some reason, he felt a sense of relief. He didn't need Luo Qi to thank him, nor did he need Luo Qi to appreciate his kindness. If Luo Qi held a grudge against him for some reason, he wouldn't really care either. That was already his norm when dealing with people daily; perhaps he himself wasn't such a good thing either. Sartre said hell is other people, which was the reason he didn't like dealing with others; he was truly weary.

He didn't know if Luo Qi was exceptionally kinder than others, or exceptionally smarter, but the result was that he was exceptionally easier to get along with than others. Yet, this made him think of the heavy darkness in Luo Qi's Yajian. Where did he usually hide those dark things, and how did he struggle against his own darkness? Du Zhengyi wasn't very clear on that, but in the end, he didn't really care about other people's business.

Du Zhengyi was a very practical person. Watching Luo Qi recover so quickly—the speed of his psychological recovery was astonishing—he asked the question he was most interested in. "How did you recover so quickly?"

There was some confusion on Luo Qi's face; he couldn't quite answer the answer to this question clearly. "I don't know. Didn't Majiang say that the process of controlling Telepathy is an instinct in itself? Maybe it's like riding a bike or roller skating; if you adapt for a while, you'll eventually find your balance?"

Du Zhengyi nodded. "That is indeed the case. Although true Telepathy is very rare, it's not exactly bizarre when it comes down to it. Most Mages have a little bit of elementary Telepathy, and even sensitive humans can often guess what others are thinking, although they not only cannot control this ability, they aren't even aware of it."

He thought for a moment and continued, "But your magnitude is truly too great. Compared to this magnitude, the speed at which you adapted to the balance is astonishing. Just now, you identified that it was me and immediately retracted your Yajian. How exactly did you manage that? Is it clear in your own consciousness? Could it be that you were manipulating it unconsciously?"

"I know this," Luo Qi said immediately, looking a bit happy that he could finally answer a question.

Du Zhengyi couldn't help but be amused.

But then, Luo Qi's next sentence made him jump up from the floor abruptly.

"Didn't Majiang say I needed an Anchor Point?" Luo Qi said honestly. "I used you as an Anchor Point, so the moment your true form appeared, I felt it immediately."

"What?" Du Zhengyi practically roared, his face as dark as the bottom of a pot as he stood up. "How could you..."

Luo Qi was startled, shrinking back until he was pressed against the windowsill, blinking in fear. "What's wrong? Did I infringe on your rights?"

"You..." Du Zhengyi stopped mid-sentence, his throat choked up.

Luo Qi's sluggish mind began to turn, searching for where his mistake lay, and finally arrived at an empty set. "Don't scare me," he said.

Du Zhengyi also understood the half he didn't say—I might explode. Once again, Du Zhengyi very much wanted to beat him up.