Selfishness

"Click—"

That was the sound of the safety being disengaged on the gun's back.

Her smile vanished, and the girl before him turned cold. Holding the gun in one hand, she touched the other side of it with her free hand and clicked the safety off.

Seeing this, Li Ke quickly shouted, "Wait, it's me, Li Ke! Jinx, it's me, Li Ke from Black Alley."

"Don't you remember?"

"Li Ke? Don't know him. Let me think, who do you work for? But that doesn't matter." Jinx suddenly smiled, her blue eyes dazzling. She looked at Li Ke, her finger, painted with pink nail polish, pressing the trigger deeper.

"Wait, look, I still have the pocket watch you gave me." Li Ke was speechless. Even though she hadn't been modified by Hextech yet, was she already a lunatic?

Who would shoot a stranger?

He reached for his chest, pulled out a pocket watch, and held it up to Jinx, shaking it twice.

The next second, the gun disappeared from Li Ke's view. A snow-white arm stretched out and grabbed the pocket watch. Li Ke also smelled a not-so-pleasant, but not entirely bad, scent.

It was Jinx's hair. Her small head leaned close to Li Ke's chest, and the scent from her hair wafted into Li Ke's nostrils.

Machine oil and a faint hint of lemon combined into a not-so-wonderful aroma that flooded Li Ke.

"I remember now!" Jinx suddenly clapped her hands and looked up at Li Ke. She stood on tiptoe, leaning closer to Li Ke, her upturned little nose twitching. She looked at Li Ke with joy and said, "Li Ke, you're the Li Ke who fought with Vi when you were kids, right? I remember you're one of Malson's lackeys!"

"Milo hates you guys the most!"

Her words suddenly became more numerous. She circled Li Ke twice, then excitedly pushed him and shouted, "Come inside, let's have a good talk."

"But, this is my home," Li Ke said.

"It doesn't matter, that's not important," Jinx replied.

She pushed Li Ke into his home, then hooked the door shut with her foot. She walked up to Li Ke and naturally sat on the wooden bed. With a snap of her fingers, a small, graffiti-covered lamp on the nearby table lit up.

She curled up, hugging her knees, and looked at Li Ke, her small face full of expression. "I didn't expect you to still be alive."

Looking at Jinx, or rather, Jinx.

Li Ke also felt a sense of emotion. In his memory, Li Ke and Malson had grown up in Black Alley since childhood. Their parents had also participated in the riot led by Vander and died on that bridge.

Because of this, Li Ke and Malson were also Vander's "children." Although they weren't kept at home by Vander like Vi and Jinx, they were children who grew up under Vander's protection in Black Alley.

This was also the biggest reason why the original Li Ke was unwilling to join the gang with Malson and harm Black Alley. In the original Li Ke's heart, he always remembered that tall, gentle man.

Vander was the spiritual leader of Zaun, and now Silco had become the one leading Zaun. In the original Li Ke's mind, this was a usurpation; everything that belonged to Vander had been stolen by Silco.

And now, looking at Jinx before him, Li Ke's heart was filled with complex emotions.

On one hand, childhood memories were influencing him, and on the other, it was the sensory impact of watching Arcane that affected him.

Jinx was a menace, a pitiable yet detestable character.

But he had to admit, the character was very charming. Many said that Powder became Jinx because of her environment in the undercity. However, Zaun only had one Jinx.

Li Ke, Malson, Vi, Ekko—which of them didn't have a childhood like Jinx's? Which of them dared to say they lived in a good environment?

What turned Powder into Jinx wasn't the environment, but love.

Whether it was Zaun or Piltover, many in the twin cities had things they wanted to express to the world, a desire to change it. Vi, Caitlyn, Vander, Silco, Jayce, Viktor, Heimerdinger, Mel, Sevika, even the chem barons of Zaun—they had all, to varying degrees, condemned this world and wanted to change it.

But what about Jinx?

She didn't. From beginning to end, she never complained about the world or condemned it.

Li Ke's understanding of Jinx was that she wasn't dissatisfied with the world. As a child, she lived carefree, with Vander and Vi shielding her from external dangers, like great knights guarding a princess.

Young Powder never worried about her life. She was truly protected too well by Vander and Vi, to the point that a child who grew up in the undercity was soft and naive.

She didn't care about right or wrong. She didn't care who suffered, who was exploited, who was oppressed, who was persecuted, or who died in the alleys.

She only wanted the people around her to be loyal to her forever, to protect her for a lifetime.

What she wanted was to live her own little life well.

Even if it hurt everything around her, she only cared about herself. This was very selfish, and in Li Ke's eyes, it was truly difficult to articulate.

Because this kind of thing was simply impossible to explain clearly.

Li Ke could understand if he gave an example.

Jinx's behavior was exactly like those children who clung to their parents, not wanting them to leave, believing their parents should always be by their side.

But parents always had to leave their children for a short while, because they needed to work, because they had responsibilities to their friends, their relatives, and even the environment around them.

But the child couldn't understand. Selfishly, they would only blame their parents for not being able to stay with them all the time.

From this perspective, Li Ke could understand Jinx's behavior.

She was just a spoiled, selfish, and single-minded "lunatic."

Therefore, Li Ke wouldn't expect to reason with Jinx, because reasoning with a paranoid madwoman was useless, just like adult logic and children's logic were not the same.

"Yes, I'm still alive." His thoughts returned, and Li Ke looked at Powder and nodded.

"It's so good to see you. Then what about Malson? And Nox? Are they all alive too?" Powder swayed her body, moving forward and backward, her two blue pigtails lightly shifting on Li Ke's bed.

Her quiet, non-manic self, Li Ke had to say, was truly adorable.

Her pale face was adorned with smoky makeup, and the tear troughs and bloodshot veins around her eyes added a sense of maturity and brokenness. However, her small doll-like face retained her childlike innocence and naivete, creating a stark contrast.

"Still alive."

"Where are they? What are they doing?"

"Joined the mob."

"Haha, that's strange. I remember Malson being particularly timid. How did he end up joining the mob?" Jinx buried her face in her knees, asking Li Ke curiously.

Li Ke replied, "To survive."