Chapter 869: Su

Heimu gently took the flower back from her palm.

He then held the crystal flower up to his eye, observing the newly appeared pale gray patch lying quietly beside the blue petals, its edge faintly blending with the blue yet not overlapping, like two pigments placed separately on the same canvas.

"Just now you said, Ailixiya gives each hero a monochrome crystal flower, one per hero. This flower——"

She turned the flower halfway between her fingers, "——It's not monochrome. It has already collected four colors: pink, blue, orange, plus your pale gray."

"It's activating some mechanism. After collecting all thirteen colors, it might trigger something—unlock the core area of Letu, or open a door sealed by Aha's lock, or perhaps directly awaken Ailixiya."

Su slightly tilted her head, her perpetually closed eyes facing the direction of the crystal flower in Heimu's hand, her eyelashes trembling faintly in the gap of her eyelids.

She fell silent for a moment.

"Hmm, it's possible."

"Past World Paradise itself is a vast memory‑data complex. All heroes' existence, imprints, and memories are interconnected within this system. If the crystal flower is some kind of key or indexer of this system, then collecting colors essentially reassembles the scattered nodes. Once all nodes are lit, the system will naturally respond with the next step."

Heimu leaned back on the chair, turning the crystal flower halfway between his fingers, letting it cast another scattering of refractive specks in the sunlight.

Suddenly, an electronic alert sounded in her ear.

She raised her left hand to swipe open the system panel.

Ying's voice came through the comms channel, still calm in tone but speaking a beat faster than usual.

"Black Curtain Lady, we've detected an anomaly at a spot on the northwest side of the island."

Heimu listened, then tapped his index finger once to acknowledge.

She uncrossed her legs, leaned forward from the chair's backrest, folded her hands on her knees, and turned her dark‑purple eyes toward the silhouette opposite her, still with eyes closed, on the other chair.

"Ying over there has found something." Her tone was casual, but when her gaze fell on Su she subtly scanned him up and down; Su's condition had improved a little, yet he remained just as deeply slumped in the chair.

"If you're willing to come with us, I can try to force‑break the area's restrictions. Although the spatial lockdown's encryption layer is a bit thick, a brute‑force breach could tear open a passage in a few minutes."

Su listened to this, and his eyelashes twitched slightly.

She slowly turned her face toward Heimu's direction.

The expression that had relaxed a bit while discussing the crystal flower with Heimu now regained a layer of hesitation.

She didn't answer right away; instead, she first tightened the ten fingers clasped on her knees a little, then loosened them, as if making a difficult decision in her heart.

Her lips moved slightly, then she gently shook her head.

Her gray‑brown hair slid down from her shoulders as she shook her head.

"No need."

Su's voice returned to its usual calm gentleness in Past World Paradise, though a hint of apology could be heard if you listened closely.

"In my current state, my perception is sealed off by seventy percent, and my spiritual output is capped; if I really went along, I'd probably just be a drag."

Afterwards, a faint smile rose at the corner of her mouth.

"Someone who needs help just to break the seal and leave this beach, following us into unknown territory—the sight would be too beautiful; I couldn't bear to watch."

Heimu looked at her, fell silent for a moment, then shrugged and his tone returned to casual.

"Understood. Keep sunbathing, and I'll fill you in when we get back——"

Su let out a light sigh of relief.

Just then, a faint scraping came from nearby as a small stool was dragged across the sand.

Ge Lei Xiu rose from behind the drawing board, her ice‑blue shoulder‑length hair lifted by the sea breeze, a few strands sticking to her cheeks; she brushed them away, then cradled the sheet of paper just taken from the board and walked carefully to Su's side.

"Older sister Su."

Ge Lei Xiu's voice was soft.

She extended the paper with both hands, the surface facing Su, her own face half‑covered by the paper, revealing only the calm, clear eyes above it.

"It's for you. I've finished drawing it."

Su slightly turned his face, his closed eyes toward Ge Lei Xiu, and reached out to take the paper.

"Thank you, Ge Lei Xiu." His voice was warm as usual, the corner of his mouth lifting into a soft arc.

Then he slowly opened his eyes; his wine‑rose pupils glowed with a clear, dark light beneath the parasol's shade.

Then his gaze fell on the paper.

Upon seeing the paper's content, Su felt as if a block of ice had been slapped onto the back of his head.

Even his back lifted a few inches off the chair's backrest.

His wine‑rose pupils widened at a visible speed.

The paper showed a woman—more precisely, a depiction of himself.

He wore an extremely simple swimsuit, in soft white and misty black.

Gray‑brown hair spread across the chair, eyes closed, lips slightly parted, bearing a faint half‑smile, as if sending a silent invitation to whoever stood outside the frame, with two faint suspicious blushes on his cheeks.

The neckline cut lower than appropriate, and the straps on his bare white legs were redesigned into a style that looked extremely embarrassing.

Moreover, the pose was far from ordinary reclining!

One arm loosely draped over his forehead, the other hand's fingers hooked the end of the waistband, as if undoing it or tightening it.

His waist twisted slightly to one side, the swimsuit outlining his lines with exceptional clarity; the angle of his crossed legs positioned the gilded ring on his thigh exactly at the most eye‑catching spot.

The subtle rise and fall of his chest with breathing was rendered in exquisite detail, the curvature beneath the soft white fabric hinted at by pencil shading, barely visible.

The lip color was rendered with a darker stroke, looking as if he had just bitten them.

The composition, pose, and lighting of the whole scene would feel utterly natural in some indescribable setting.

In the lower‑right corner, Ge Lei Xiu's characteristic childish handwriting wrote a line: "Older sister Su's swimsuit·special edition?"

The heart was drawn lopsided, but the lopsidedness was done with extra earnestness.

Su's fingers clenched the paper, the joints pressing deeper creases into its edge.

Her lips moved, as if forming words, yet also as if swallowing back an emotion about to burst forth.

Her other idle hand slowly lifted, paused mid‑air, then rested on her knee with fingers together.

Reason String rang wildly in her mind, tearing it, tearing it, tearing it, but her hand did not move.

Because Ge Lei Xiu stood right in front of her, both hands neatly clasped together in front of her, the white off‑shoulder uniform was gently fluttered by the sea breeze, and her eyes calmly watched Su's expression change.

She tilted her head, the golden hair ornament swayed between her hair, there was no self‑awareness on her face, only pure curiosity.

"Sister Su? You don't like it? I drew it very seriously; for every line of the swimsuit I traced it three times for you. The light and shadow also used three layers of overlapping colors, as Sister Ying taught me last time."

Su's mouth corner moved again.