"Elevator going up."
Bai Ying wore a silver tactical jacket, one hand tucked into its loose pocket and the other clutching a photograph.
Her red eyes remained fixed on the electronic display on the wall, watching the floor numbers climb.
It was already the middle of the night. Aside from those on duty, most of the members of Xuanse Cangqiong had gone to sleep.
So Bai Ying was alone in the spacious elevator.
This was her fourth month at Xuanse Cangqiong. So far, she could count the people who had spoken to her on both hands.
She ate alone, trained alone, and went through her routine alone, then returned to a room where she was alone.
Every night, Bai Ying dreamed of her mother, her father, and the friends she had known as a child.
Back then, there were no mechs or monsters. Though her father was busy with his military service, Bai Ying was still proud of him.
"My dad's a soldier! No matter what danger we run into, he'll protect us!"
Whenever Bai Ying proudly introduced her father to her teachers, classmates, and friends, she was met with envious looks.
Even though her father had never once been there for her birthday, Bai Ying never blamed him for the small disappointment she felt.
Determination and self-reliance were family principles. Bai Ying believed that if she could live by them, she could become as outstanding as her father!
When Bai Ying was nine, the family of three finally came together for her birthday. She had never felt so happy.
But the very next day, the Day of Revelation arrived. Monsters emerged from the sea and attacked Hain Country across the ocean.
From then on, Bai Ying never spoke to her father again.
It wasn't until humanity built its first mech, Xingtian, that Bai Ying saw on television that her father had become the first Tieyu.
Even then, Bai Ying still looked up to her father.
When Bai Ying was twelve, the monster Green Rat attacked the city where she and her mother lived.
That night, Bai Ying watched with her own eyes as her mother was pinned beneath the rubble of a collapsing building while protecting her.
She didn't know how many times she had screamed her father's name, but even when the entire city had been reduced to ruins, she never saw Xingtian.
Bai Ying had hated him so much—hated what he'd said, what he'd done, even the mech he piloted!
Ding!
"Elevator has arrived at floor sixty."
Bai Ying came to herself, clutching the photograph of a mother and daughter. She silently stepped out of the elevator and reached the top floor of Xuanse Cangqiong's observation tower.
The bright moon hung in the silent night sky. Brilliant stars shimmered in the cloudless heavens, and in the distance, Zhenhai City glowed like a warm candle, burning quietly behind Xuanse Cangqiong.
But Bai Ying hadn't expected someone to have arrived before her, standing in the night wind.
Hearing the noise, General Chen turned around and saw the complicated expression on Bai Ying's face.
They stood where they were, looking straight at each other.
Bai Ying noticed that General Chen was also holding a photograph—the picture of their family of three on her ninth birthday.
"You..."
"No!" Bai Ying trembled violently, cutting General Chen off at once. "No, I don't want to hear you speak."
Today marked seven years since Bai Ying's mother had left this world.
General Chen slowly closed his parted lips and swallowed his words.
When General Chen fell silent, Bai Ying rubbed her eyes hard, turned away, and walked to the other side of the rooftop.
The cold night wind swept through Bai Ying's loose jacket, and the girl's face disappeared beneath her white hair again. For the first time, the nights at Xuanse Cangqiong felt so cold.
She couldn't bear having someone like that standing behind her!
Two cities attacked by monsters, one mech that couldn't be in two places at once, one cold-blooded order, one soldier who was forever loyal.
He had saved one city from disaster with his own hands, then sent another city into hell with those same hands!
Orders—orders that could not be disobeyed.
Obedience—absolute, unwavering obedience.
He was still the great soldier Bai Ying remembered. Or perhaps Bai Ying should have known all along what he would choose.
But Bai Ying didn't need a soldier. She needed a father who kept his word and could truly protect her and her mother!
So she had poured all her anguish into him, into Xingtian, and even into herself!
The desire to destroy had circled through her mind at every moment. She wanted revenge on the lofty general, on the battered mech, and on the helpless girl she herself had been!
Ironically, she had failed.
At sunset, that old mech had made good on the promise General Chen never had. It had lifted her out of the cockpit and charged alone toward the Aggregate Beast.
In a daze, she seemed to find in Xingtian the weakness she had buried deep in her heart: the girl who had clung to her mother's arm beside the ruins, sobbing uncontrollably.
"No matter what danger we run into, he'll protect us."
Bai Ying murmured into the wind. Warm tears ran down her cheeks and fell onto the photograph in her hands.
"I'm sorry." At some point, General Chen had come up behind Bai Ying.
He had tried several times to raise a hand and touch her shoulder, but in the end, he chose to let her cry alone.
What was Bai Ying supposed to say?
When her father had summoned her after seven years, she hadn't known.
When she first synchronized with Xingtian, she hadn't known.
When she heard the order to retreat, she hadn't known.
Now, faced with her father's apology, she still didn't know.
On countless sleepless nights, Bai Ying's thoughts had returned to that night seven years ago, wondering what she would have chosen if she had been her father.
That question would never have an answer, because she wasn't that man.
She only knew that if she had been in Xingtian's cockpit, she would have rushed without hesitation toward the collapsed building and saved her mother.
That little family was everything to her!
"If you could go back to that night seven years ago, would you have saved Mom and me?" Bai Ying lowered her head, bit her lip, and asked in a trembling voice.
The lights of all Zhenhai City seemed reflected in General Chen's weathered eyes. His hand around the photograph had gone white.
He parted his lips slightly, but found he couldn't say a thing.
In the end, all Bai Ying heard was a sigh.
"You don't have to answer me." Bai Ying took a deep breath, wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, and looked up at the night sky.
The bright moonlight fell on them both, while Bai Ying was shrouded in General Chen's towering shadow.
Suddenly, Bai Ying slipped the photograph into the breast pocket of her jacket, slowly stepped out of General Chen's shadow, and pressed the elevator button, ready to leave the rooftop.
"I hated you, Father."
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