Central Land · South Capital
He Ao walked alone along the somewhat deserted riverbank. A chilly breeze brushed across his face.
Li Cheng's words still echoed in his ears.
He could understand Li Cheng's implication and clearly sense that Li Cheng really was making arrangements for after his death.
Li Cheng truly wanted him to shoulder the burden of the Research Institute.
His response had been simple as well. "Isn't it a little early for the dean to be talking about this?"
Before anything had been decided, Li Cheng arranging his affairs always made He Ao feel as though Li Cheng were planting a flag.
However, Li Cheng had not actually continued along that topic in the end, nor had he asked He Ao for a promise. He had simply smiled and seen him out of the courtyard.
Perhaps he was not truly arranging his final affairs at all. Perhaps he had merely been testing He Ao's attitude.
But what he truly thought was something only Li Cheng himself knew.
For He Ao, though, he hoped Li Cheng would live.
If Li Cheng could survive and advance to Angel, it would be a good thing both for He Ao and for the Main World.
Of course, He Ao could understand Li Cheng's mindset of preparing for defeat before victory.
But from He Ao's experience, if Li Cheng truly arranged all his final affairs, then at some crucial moment when he needed to fight for it, he might choose to give up.
Sometimes, people stayed alive—especially when caught between life and death—by holding on to a single breath. If they had nothing left to cling to in this world, that breath might simply slip away.
His fingers hovered over the stone railing beside the riverside path as He Ao quietly gazed