Mei, I Absolutely Won't Let Go (Continued)

44, Mei, I look forward to spending the rest of my life with you.

A week had passed since the braking failure incident involving Train 956.

Naturally, Xu Qi hadn't had a moment of peace during that week.

At the hospital, he had to constantly receive visits from city officials, as well as deal with harassment from countless reporters. Even... people from the central government had come looking for him.

They said they wanted to name him one of China's Top Ten Most Inspiring People of the Year.

Xu Qi had refused outright from his hospital bed. His reason was—I hope I can still have some peace and quiet for the rest of my life.

Of course, there were a few other things worth mentioning.

For example... his Exoskeleton Armor.

Under normal circumstances, a complete military-prohibited item appearing among civilians would absolutely warrant a strict investigation—even if its owner had just saved the lives of everyone on a train.

But... Eden had taken care of all that.

It had to be said that Eden's return had come at an extremely opportune time.

On the surface, she might have seemed like nothing more than a woman who could perform at Vienna's Golden Hall, whose net worth was roughly one hundred billion, who was a major shareholder in several luxury brands, and whose media company was the second-largest in the world.

An utterly ordinary woman.

But when it came to dealing with a country, Eden still possessed an unknown identity of her own. It allowed her to effortlessly suppress every abnormality displayed by the Golden Courtyard during this incident.

She suppressed them all.

Did that count as being a rich lady?

Of course it did.

But perhaps every rich lady in the world would be stripped of that title in her presence.

It was truly difficult to imagine that the master of the Golden Courtyard would be such an extraordinary woman of the modern age.

Another thing worth mentioning was that while Xu Qi was stopping Train 956, the Golden Courtyard had also experienced some significant and insignificant incidents.

They had no intention of hiding them from Xu Qi, either.

According to what Pardofelis had seen when she returned home—

Golden butterflies had danced through the air, while the terrorists beneath parachutes had drifted down one after another like falling leaves.

The parachutes had been their finest burial shrouds.

The scene on the ground had been even more terrifying. Pardofelis said that by the time she returned, Jie Ge had already driven over a cement truck and was stuffing things inside it.

Pardofelis didn't know what exactly Jie Ge had put in there. In any case, after receiving a reply of "Don't ask," Jie Ge had driven the cement truck to the construction site.

For a moment, Xu Qi felt... as though he were reading a novel.

Of course, when other people watched him do all these things, they probably felt... as though they were reading a novel, too.

Xu Qi didn't stay in the hospital for long. He was discharged soon afterward.

His company was very considerate. They told him, "Come back to work whenever you feel like it," and gave Xu Qi a full year of paid leave.

That was... pretty nice.

There was another piece of good news: Mei had finally moved into the Golden Courtyard.

According to her, "Someone has to keep an eye on Xu Qi, so he doesn't go and do anything stupid again."

I won't... I really won't this time...

Of course, the best news of all was undoubtedly that Xu Qi and Mei had become a couple.

Everyone in the Golden Courtyard offered them their blessings upon hearing the news. After all... it was Mei. They all knew her well.

Only the innocent Griseo had asked foolishly, "Does that mean Big Sister Mei is going to sleep with Big Brother Xu Qi? Mm... Will Griseo still be able to find Big Brother Xu Qi at night and listen to his stories?"

Even now, Xu Qi hadn't forgotten how flushed Mei's face had been that day.

After all, he remembered it perfectly clearly.

"If you survive, this body of mine will be yours."

Mm...

Xu Qi looked forward to that day.

During this incident, the name Anti-Entropy had also appeared repeatedly within Xu Qi's field of vision.

To begin with, the professor definitely knew about them. Mobius had never intended to hide that fact, either. And judging by the reactions of everyone in the Golden Courtyard...

They probably all had some degree of understanding of that organization.

Since that was the case, Xu Qi didn't need to worry about it too much.

After all, everyone who could live here was a monster-level existence.

"What? You say me? How could I possibly be a monster?" Xu Qi had always felt that he was merely an ordinary person.

Mm, that's right.

An ordinary person who could withstand twenty Gs of gravitational acceleration, clearly possessed an absurdly powerful sixth sense, and had even begun to develop Mental Power to a certain extent.

New Type?

Xu Qi refused to acknowledge such a thing.

And so, the final matter concerning this incident was naturally... Xia Ya.

······

Inside the detention center, Xu Qi met Supervisor Xia Ya, whose hands were shackled.

He was as handsome as ever. Even though Xu Qi had completely ruined all his plans in the end, it was still impossible to see any sign of dejection on him.

"I'm surprised you chose to come see me."

Xia Ya looked at Xu Qi, then at Mei beside him. He wore a smile, and a trace of delight showed in his eyes.

"This is your girlfriend, right?"

Mei's expression was extremely complicated. She could tell that Xu Qi... still respected this master of his. His master, and also his father.

"What are you planning to do from here on?"

"Wouldn't it be the death penalty? At best, life imprisonment."

Xu Qi only smiled at Xia Ya without saying anything.

Then Xia Ya suddenly burst into loud laughter.

"Someone like you couldn't possibly have failed to prepare a way out for yourself."

"Perhaps. To be honest, I've thought about many things during my time in prison... I still stand by my beliefs, because I don't think it's possible for humanity to truly understand one another.

"Only by continually enduring pain will humanity continue to advance. But... I won't do anything else. What you said was right, both the first half and the second half."

"Which part?"

"What truly needs to be destroyed are the people whose souls are shackled by gravity."

That was the first half.

"But many people will die because of it. That is undoubtedly wrong! What use is there in creating a world that doesn't know how to cherish the human heart?"

That was the second half.

Xia Ya agreed wholeheartedly with both of these completely different statements.

"Actually, you really don't need to do anything else, Xia Ya."

"Hmm?"

"Have you ever considered one possibility?" Xu Qi glanced at the surveillance cameras around them. He didn't continue and instead fell silent.

But Xia Ya seemed to have heard something. He sat motionless in his original seat, apparently lost in thought.

"Visiting hours are over. Goodbye... Master."

Xu Qi walked all the way out of the detention center and only after getting into the car did Mei suddenly ask,

"What did you and Xia Ya say at the end?"

"So you really sensed it..."

The corners of Mei's lips lifted slightly, her expression seeming to say, Who do you think I am?

"At the end, I used that function called the NT Chatroom."

"New... Type?"

Even though Xu Qi had told her about it, Mei was still somewhat skeptical of its existence.

"Yes. I told him..."

If one day all humans awakened to New Type and became New Humans, allowing them to communicate directly through their minds, would that mean the day humanity truly understood one another would finally arrive?

"Although it sounds unlikely, having a little dream is always a good thing for people."

"You really dare to say that..."

Xu Qi suddenly turned his head toward Mei.

"Mei."

"Hmm?"

Xu Qi suddenly leaned forward and lightly kissed Mei on the lips.

As the girl's face turned completely red, he smiled and said,

"I look forward to spending the rest of my life with you."

45, I can lean on Aponia's shoulder. Can you?

On the balcony outside the Golden Courtyard, Xu Qi sat peacefully in a lounge chair, enjoying the tranquility of the moment.

A great hero? That title was... still somewhat strange to Xu Qi. He wasn't someone who cared much about fame or profit. Alysia's livestream had made him incredibly famous.

By now, probably everyone across the country knew that there was a madman who had used Exoskeleton Armor to push a subway train that couldn't stop.

People online had mixed opinions about it.

There was no shortage of people mocking him: "Is this some kind of publicity stunt? Is his brain broken? Only an idiot would think of pushing a train, right? What a joke. Anyone who thought of doing something like that must have something seriously wrong with their head."

Xu Qi's mindset was quite peaceful. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to bathe in the sunlight on the balcony like this.

Others said that Xu Qi was about to join Bilibili, and that he should take the opportunity to exploit the traffic as much as possible.

Mm... hard to say.

Xu Qi could simply laugh it off, but Mei couldn't. She was still sharing a room with Alysia and was specifically seeking out those haters to argue with them.

Oh no. Am I going to become a "big brother" now?

But Xu Qi immediately shook his head.

No. I'm not nearly handsome enough.

While he was thinking about random things, someone who surprised Xu Qi slightly slowly stepped onto the balcony and approached him.

Xu Qi turned his head. The first thing that entered his sight was, as expected, the proud bosom of this nun who always presented herself with compassion. Truly, the sea embraced all rivers, and greatness came from tolerance.

Aponia wasn't wearing her nun's habit today. Instead, she had put on casual clothes, giving her a very relaxed appearance.

She placed a hand on Xu Qi's shoulder and spoke softly.

"I finally remembered that train braking failure incident... At the time, quite a few children had endured too much despair. Many of them were sent to my church, hoping that I could seal away their memories.

"There was one person among those children—his name was Xu Qi."

Aponia stared steadily at Xu Qi.

"Having that desperate and painful memory stimulated and awakened again can't have been a good thing, can it, Xu Qi? You must have... endured a great deal."