I didn't urge Xu Qiuyan to go inside. Instead, I looked at her. "Is there something you want to say to me?"
"I'm sorry. I didn't know my mom would suddenly bring this up. It was entirely her own idea. I never mentioned it to her, nor did I ever complain to her. You know, my relationship with her has never been that good."
She looked a little embarrassed. I smiled. "I know. Besides, you don't need to apologize for this. The one who should be sorry is me. Only now have I realized that even I don't know what I truly want. It always feels like if I try to do right by one person, I'll end up letting someone else down. Qiu Yan, sometimes I really wish we could go back to the time when we had just reunited."
"Yes, that time was wonderful. But we can't go back now, can we? Sometimes I wonder, if we weren't ourselves—if we were just ordinary people from Little Ancestral Hall Entrance—would things be simpler? Would we be happier?"
Perhaps.
She said, "You don't have to agonize over this. Just let things take their course. I've figured it out too. I only want to be like them. As long as I can see you and stay by your side, that's enough. Why think so much about it?"
With that, she walked straight through the door, and I followed her inside.
I discovered that I had returned to the residence Ouyang had arranged for us. But I wasn't in my own room—I was in the Doctor's makeshift laboratory.
The others were here too, but judging from their expressions, they were clearly sluggish and dull, almost as though they had gone stupid.
Even Xu Qiuyan, Qianqian, and Ying Gou stood there blankly. They