It was that question again.
Zhou Lin was getting impatient.
"If you can't see them, does this question mean anything to you?"
"Yes!"
This time, the boy answered even faster and louder.
His wide-open eyes were filled with stubborn determination.
"Of course it means something!"
The existence he had believed in for so many years...
The conviction he had clung to despite being denied for so long...
Everyone said he was imagining things. Everyone said he would never grow up, that he was still daydreaming like a little kid...
He wanted to know...
He wanted to be sure...
That he hadn't been wrong to believe!
The old man was a little startled by the boy's shout.
Zhou Lin, on the other hand, was somewhat used to the boy raising his voice now and then.
He stared at the boy.
There was a sharpness in his gaze.
The boy didn't back down in the slightest.
He had a feeling.
If he gave in now, he might never get an answer.
His hands clenched tightly together.
His fingertips turned white.
Zhou Lin looked away.
"I wish they didn't exist."
The boy froze.
That meant...
"Monsters exist?!"
"Really?!"
"Uncle?!"
The boy reached out to tug at the man's clothes again.
The man stopped him with a hand, looking utterly disgusted.
"Keep your distance."
It was the first time Zhou Lin had met a kid who wasn't afraid of him.
Even the guy who was always pestering him to take him on as a disciple wasn't as "bold" as this kid.
The kid practically ignored his intimidating presence completely.
"Oh."
The boy answered blankly.
For a moment, he didn't know what to do with his hands.
"Monsters really exist..."
"Monsters are real..."
The boy kept murmuring to