Chapter 867: Dumb Beauty (Su)

So for now the Task of exploring the small island can only be given to Sakura and Kesi Mo.

The two didn't stay on the beach long before each went their separate ways; Sakura, carrying a Foot-long dagger, walked toward the deep forest on the island's east side, while Kesi Mo, clad in full knight armor, headed toward the reef clusters on the island's west side, and before leaving she specifically told Ge Lei Xiu, "Stay on guard," to which Ge Lei Xiu, without raising her head, nodded and continued her painting.

Heimu coughed once.

The cough was neither loud nor soft, just enough to crack a slit in the solid silence beneath the shade pavilion.

Su's eyelids moved a bit, only a bit, without opening.

The serene smile on her face remained, but the muscles of her cheek tightened slightly for an instant.

Heimu precisely captured this subtle change.

Su was nervous.

Because Heimu's gaze at her, compared with earlier, shifted from a casual glance to a stare, and it was an unmasked, scrutinizing look.

Being the target of such a gaze, for Su, who was now in a swimsuit and could not escape, each second was torment.

Heimu looked at her for another three seconds.

Then, as if having appreciated her embarrassment enough, finally spoke.

"So,"

Heimu propped an elbow on the armrest, leaned forward slightly, gray‑white long hair slipping from the shoulders to drape on both sides of the knees, and asked, "What happened? Why did you become like this?"

Su's lips pursed lightly.

Maintaining the closed‑eye posture, her chin turned slightly toward Heimu, she was silent for a moment, then slowly spoke.

Her voice was still that gentle, calm tone unique to her, with a slight lingering echo.

"To be honest, I don't know."

She tilted her face slightly toward the sea, the sea breeze lifting the long hair on her shoulders, a few strands of gray‑brown hair drifting and landing on the swimsuit fabric.

"Actually, even now I'm still a complete fog."

Su withdrew the hand that had been resting on the armrest, the fingertips gently pressing her temple, the motion carrying a barely perceptible helplessness.

"At that time I was still in Past World Paradise, I can't quite recall which region exactly. Ailixiya suddenly appeared, as usual, smiling brightly, patting my shoulder and saying, 'Su, look, you're frowning all day, how boring, I'll give you a holiday to the seaside to relax, okay?' I wanted to refuse then. She didn't give me a chance to refuse."

Su paused there, the serene smile at the corner of her mouth finally cracked, revealing a hint of helpless laughter.

"When I opened my eyes, the person was already here. Wearing this—this outfit. A coconut with its shell opened lay beside me, and on the lounge chair there was a small note that read 'Happy Vacation'."

She pointed to the small pink‑white striped parasol still stuck in the back of her chair; the note on the canopy, crumpled then smoothed again, fluttered in the wind, "That's the one. On the back there's a line saying the swimsuit was carefully chosen by her, no swapping allowed."

Heimu glanced at the note along the direction of her finger.

The crooked pink lettering on the note reflected the sunlight, truly a formula of supreme pure girlish heart.

She withdrew her gaze, landing again on Su, her eyebrows lifting slightly.

"So you were thrown here directly by Ailixiya? No intermediate steps?"

Su's brows twitched slightly.

Her eyes remained closed, but it was clear she was recalling earnestly.

"Now that you mention it… indeed there weren't any."

She lowered the finger that had been pressing her temple, slowly brushed her chin, and said, "Spatial transfer itself comes with distinct sensations—tearing, weightlessness, compression or stretching—there's always at least one. But that time, there was nothing. It was like blinking in one room and opening your eyes in another."

Su paused, tilted her head, the gray‑brown long hair slipping from her shoulders to drape beside the chair.

That tilted angle let Heimu see the small teal‑blue peacock feather hair ornament behind her ear, perfectly matching the design elements of her swimsuit, likely also part of Ailixiya's "carefully chosen" selection.

"And there's another question."

Su turned her face back toward Heimu, her tone shifting from recollection to analysis, "You said you were restricted of system permissions in this space, right?"

Heimu nodded.

"I'm also restricted."

Su spread both hands on her knees, palms up, fingers slightly splayed, and said, "I've been trying to extend my perception beyond the island, but at the edge of the beach I was bounced back. It's as if the very boundary of the space has been welded shut. Some of my abilities are locked, unable to activate."

"Likewise, I can't leave either. This area—or rather this island—has sealed me here. I only just realized that."

Heimu's finger brushed across the System Panel.

Su's character data unfolded before her, several abilities in the status bar marked with gray "Lock" icons in a small row, looking rather bleak.

Heimu's gaze lingered on that row of gray marks, then he lifted his head to look at Su's face.

She suddenly understood why something had felt off since earlier.

It wasn't Su's attitude, but the overall impression she gave.

Normally Su is steady, thoughtful, each sentence carrying a settled certainty.

But the current Su reacts half a beat slower, her speech rhythm looser than usual, and when confronted by Ge Lei Xiu about her identity she was first stunned then compliant, lacking the usual composure of "calculating all possibilities before acting."

This condition is clearly abnormal; her mind is limited, abilities locked, and that languid posture seems more like instinct and experience coping with the moment, adding a few steps of barefoot, clumsy authenticity on the sand.

Heimu silently tagged Su as a "Dumb Beauty" in his mind, remained expressionless, and refocused attention on the core issue.

"Then I'll ask you another key question."

She lifted her elbow from the armrest, leaned her back against the chair, gray‑white long hair spreading behind her shoulders.

Her dark‑purple eyes squinted slightly in the shadow cast by the brim, her tone shifting from the earlier casual chat to a more serious note.

"When you saw Ailixiya, did you notice anything off? Any detail that seemed strange, even if you didn't pay attention at the time."

Su did not answer immediately.

She kept her eyes closed, her face still holding that quiet smile, but a subtle frown formed between her brows.

She unconsciously raised her right hand, fingertips gently pressing the edge of her lower lip.

Hmm......

Time beneath the shade pavilion drifted quietly for a few beats.

In the distance, the sound of waves crawling up the sand rose and fell, while the charcoal on Ge Lei Xiu's drawing board scratched continuously.

Then Su spoke.

"Eyes."

She said, her voice was half a tone lighter than before, and there was something in her tone that had just surfaced.

"I didn't notice it at the time— or rather, I did notice, but didn't think deeply. Now that you ask, I realize it."

She tilted her head slightly toward Heimu's direction, her eyelids still closed, but she lowered her hand, and her index finger lightly tapped in the air.

"Ailixiya's eyes are pink."