Hua's Dilemma, Her Father's Probe.

After writing the name in a daze, the girl suddenly woke up as if from a dream, blushing and hurriedly erasing the writing on the car window.

Waaaaah, if Dad or Master Su himself sees this, I'm doomed!

Am I an idiot?

Fu Hua shook her head to clear her mind, glancing at the empty car as she thought.

Why are they still at home?

Bored, the girl drew circles on the remaining white mist on the car window with her fingertips, her eyes looking towards home through the window with a puzzled expression.

Are they whispering something?

Fu Hua didn't feel impatient because of the wait; on the contrary, she wished the time could last a little longer.

For girls, leaving their hometown a little later is an instinctive attachment, and therefore, these agonizing waits become precious moments to cherish.

Slow down, let me...

Let me think about it some more.

My fingertips pressed against the cold car window, and as I applied more pressure, my skin gradually turned white, like the refreshing snow.

A voice inside her kept compelling the girl to make that seemingly selfish decision.

That decision lacked proper reasoning and sufficient justification for implementation.

That idea of restricting a teenager's freedom simply for one's own preferences.

On the eve of my departure, these thoughts once again clamored in my mind like never before.

They seemed to be telling of fear and unease, gradually pulling the girl out of her drowsiness. She gazed at the azure sky, her mind preoccupied, and gripped her phone tightly.

Should I... let Su Qing'an accompany me to Canghai City?

This proposal, though selfish and unreasonable, haunted her like a nightmare, tormenting the girl's honest nature.

The sudden vibration of her phone made Fu Hua look at the screen, which had unlocked itself. It was an email from Lin Xinchán.

[Today is the day Hua goes to Canghai City, right? Wishing you academic success and a happy youth. (*▽*)♪]

When the girl saw cute emoticons, she unconsciously associated them with the expressions Lin Xinchán would make.

Fu Hua's lips curled slightly upwards, and the emoticon she used was almost too vivid and expressive, befitting her personality.

She quickly typed out a reply, hesitated for a moment, and then added an emoticon at the end of her message.

[Yes, thank you, Xin Chan. You'll be starting your formal training soon, right? Good luck then! (˘•ω•˘)]

At this moment, Lin Xinchán, far away in another city, suddenly remembered the subtle relationship between the girl and Su Qing'an that day, and typed out a message within ten seconds.

[Speaking of which, Hua, if you go to Canghai City, won't Su Qing'an eventually find someone new?]

Fu Hua's cute face, which had been showing a hint of joy, suddenly froze.

How can you be so good with words?

What? What? What? You've found someone new!

I'm not Master Su's girlfriend!

No, no, no, Master Su won't be looking for someone else.

"No" seems like a strange answer too.

Just as the little girl's brain was about to overload with shyness and explode, the next message arrived.

Damn it, so what if you type fast?

Putting aside her strange and embarrassed reaction, the girl carefully looked at Lin Xinchán's text message.

[I know this stuff, long-distance relationships are bound to fail, so don't cry then, hahaha, (･∀･)]

Why did you type so many "hahahaha"s? Are you happy?!

The girl's gaze was distant and wistful.

I'll kill you. The next time we meet, it'll be the death penalty.

She hesitated for a moment, then asked tactfully:

[Then... doesn't Xin Chan think it's going too far to send Su Qing'an and me to Canghai City? Maybe he has his own reasons.]

Lin Xinchán responded without even thinking:

[That might be going too far, right? After all, prices in Canghai City are so high, and he wouldn't have anywhere to stay if he went with you. No normal person would go with you unless they're so in love with you that they can't live without you.]

[But ultimately, how would you know if you didn't ask him? Is Hua stupid? If you're curious, just ask him yourself.]

Should I... go and ask him?

In the not-so-spacious living room, the boy and the man looked at each other, speechless for a moment.

"Su Qing'an, what does this world look like to you?"

This was an extremely unusual opening, like a grand and vague topic that a man who was usually not good with words casually brought up in order to prevent the situation from becoming awkward.

What does the world look like in Su Qing'an's eyes?

This should be an extremely boring topic for the person being questioned.

It is empty yet vast, enough to fill with any idea at will.

It might be more suitable as a debate, but it definitely shouldn't have happened on the eve of Fu Hua's departure.

But Fu Xiuran looked at the boy with such seriousness in his eyes.

The blue eyes, weathered by time, were fixed entirely on his face, as if they held a sharp, hard blade, ready to tear apart the boy's indecisiveness in his indecisiveness about whether to reveal the truth.

Su Qing'an understood that Fu Xiuran wasn't just casually starting a conversation; he genuinely wanted to know the answer she would give.

I don't know why...

The man's eyes unconsciously overlapped with those of Kambara Shuichi, both eyes heavy and sharp.

But... do you truly possess Mr. Kanbara's unwavering will to forge ahead even after fully understanding everything?

If you try to approach the truth with only a half-baked understanding, you might as well stay away from this vortex from the start.

Even possessing the martial arts of the Mind's Eye's Eye Realm doesn't mean Fu Xiuran has the same level of awareness as that man. Moreover, the despair brought about by this truth is even greater than the predicament that Kambara Village faced at that time.

Even for the sake of the other person, Su Qing'an would not easily reveal the truth.

To die in the blink of an eye, completely unaware of what is to come, is far better than to die in constant fear and anxiety.

Which one is gentler?

Su Qing'an loathed the situation that required him to make this decision, but reality forced him to choose.

There is no room for escape; whether to speak or not is already a choice.

The boy met Fu Xiuran, and said:

"You should know that everything I've experienced is not on the same level as everything you've ever encountered. It's like comparing a shonen manga to the everyday life depicted on the news—there's a fundamental difference between them."

"Those scenes I witnessed, even if your uncle knew, he would be powerless to change them. Having experienced what happened before, you should understand them better than anyone else. It is precisely because your martial arts have reached the realm of the Mind's Eye that you should be able to understand this fact better than ordinary people."

Even if you know everything, your abilities won't change because of that increased knowledge.

"So why are you so fixated on this?"

Fu Xiuran wasn't angry; he just smiled and said:

"Xiao Su, when did you start to think I wanted to know the truth?"

Su Qing'an said:

"From the very beginning. But this is to be expected; a normal person would react the same way in the same situation."

Fu Xiuran gave a similar yet different answer:

"I've wanted to know the truth ever since your Martial Intent gave me all the answers."

Only after accurately understanding the boy's true nature and his feelings for Fu Hua Fu Xiuran begin to desire the answer.

The reasons and differences are already quite obvious.

The man continued laughing as he spoke:

"You're right. Even assuming that such a monster doesn't possess the abilities you've described, it's still an enemy that normal humans can't handle. Even a martial artist like me, who has toiled for twenty years day after day, would only need one mistake to go to the Yellow Springs."

"Knowing everything like this will only make you more anxious and afraid, isn't that what you're thinking?"

Su Qing'an nodded silently; it wasn't surprising that her thoughts had been guessed.

He never told them a lie from the beginning. Su Qing'an would remain silent about things that might affect their future happiness, but he would speak frankly about everything else.

It was precisely because of this remarkable honesty that Fu Xiuran was able to accept Su Qing'an's existence so quickly.

Fu Xiuran glanced at the old-fashioned car waiting to depart downstairs and said:

"Xiao Su, do you know? Not saying anything is also a form of answer."

"This means that the facts you believe cannot be stated must be so serious as to be irreversible, and this crisis also has the potential to affect our normal lives in the not-too-distant future."

The man didn't expect someone like Su Qing'an to be so honest with him. What Su Qing'an was saying was just a hypothesis without much logic or evidence, a nonsensical judgment made purely based on imagination and experience.

But he was able to glean some truths from the boy's reactions.

Fu Xiuran was confident that he could detect subtle details from Su Qing'an's almost unchanging indifferent expression, which was enough to show that during this period of time, the man did not simply treat him as a guest who was staying overnight.

The reason is simple.

The fact that Su Qing'an could seamlessly integrate into her and her daughter's lives already signifies something extraordinary.

The boy glanced at the man's face and gave a helpless smile.

Fu Xiuran smiled smugly. Su Qing'an's rare reaction amused him, and it also made him realize how much Su Qing'an valued him and Fu Hua.

If you don't care, why bother worrying about whether it will affect you?

He whispered:

"You're really bad at hiding things. Your first reaction to other people's hypothetical speculations is still to lower your head and remain silent. Remember to change that in the future."

Su Qing'an remained silent. If Fu Xiuran had already decided to guess this far, then there was little point in Su Qing'an speaking or not speaking.

He longed to know the truth.

With this fact alone, Su Qing'an believed that she had no right to deprive the other party of their right to know.

The smile on the man's face vanished in an instant. The heaviness of the topic carried a suffocating magic, making the atmosphere as frozen as permafrost. The winter wind seemed to blow through the room, making the temperature bitterly cold.

He said:

"Since you haven't refuted it, then the fact that this crisis exists has been confirmed."

"If we continue along this line of thought, if the specific scope of this crisis were limited to this city, you would have already frankly advised Hua and me to move away from here, right? But the fact that you haven't, while still harboring this concern, can only mean that this crisis... is not limited to just this city."

"So you yourself understand that moving would be pointless, which is why you keep quiet."

Su Qing'an took a deep breath, looked up at the azure sky, and said softly:

"As you might expect, this is a crisis that will occur randomly around the world; it is a large-scale catastrophe that no one can stop and no organization can effectively counter."

"Uncle, I'll ask one last time. Do you really want to know the truth?"

Fu Xiuran did not hesitate. Even though his martial arts intuition had already made him sense the abyss ahead, for his own reasons, he had decided to accept the reality that was destined to appear around him sooner or later.

"That's right."

Su Qing'an was silent for a moment, then asked:

"May I ask why? You don't seem to be obsessed with this out of mere curiosity."

The man laughed, and he said matter-of-factly:

"You said you would protect Hua back then, right? The things you were referring to that could threaten my daughter can only be these truths you're unwilling to admit."

Su Qing'an nodded in agreement:

"Um."

Fu Xiuran continued:

"Xiao Su, knowing the truth might not change anything."

"But I didn't come here to change things. I just want to understand what kind of things Hua and you two will face in the future."

"I want to know the answer to that."

Su Qing'an was stunned; he hadn't expected this reason.

That's all the reason I have.

But that reason alone seems to be enough.

A father's concern for his daughter speaks louder than a thousand words.

It requires neither reason nor logic, nor does it require considering the costs or understanding the consequences.

Fu Hua is Fu Xiuran's only treasure.

After realizing he was unable to protect her, he acknowledged Su Qing'an's abilities and passed on this responsibility to the young man.

Based on this, the man wanted to witness the sheer despair of the ordeal the two were destined to face; otherwise, he could not find peace of mind.

Su Qing'an could understand and accept it.

Fu Xiuran looked at him and said:

"It must have been tough for you to carry these secrets and heavy burdens all this time alone. Perhaps the greatest act of kindness you can do is to keep quiet about them."

So I'm sorry to have disappointed you.

"But please understand how I feel as a father."

An indescribable smile appeared on Su Qing'an's face as he whispered:

How could I blame you?

"My uncle reminds me of an old friend, someone who was also like that, willing to give everything for the one he loved."

"But he died in the end."

The boy's words fell into the room like the final notes of a piano piece, so melancholic and lonely.