You Shouldn't Have Come

"Yesterday evening, Police Superintendent Tian from Radiance District came to see me personally. He told me you had escaped and asked me to think carefully about this city's future—about what choice should be made."

The middle-aged blacksmith set down his hammer and the piece of iron in his tongs. He took a hot towel from a nearby rack and briefly wiped down his upper body before putting on a white shirt and the gold-rimmed glasses at hand.

He was a remarkably refined and elegant man. Looking at him now, it was impossible to connect him with the bare-chested blacksmith from a moment ago.

The man named Feng Yanyi, whom everyone in Border Market called Uncle Iron, looked up at Feng Zi with a smile.

"Long time no see, Xiao Zi."

Feng Zi clenched her fists and looked at Feng Yanyi. Her excitement at seeing an elder was obvious, yet she did not show the same straightforward closeness she had with Li Wei.

She merely stood where she was, pursed her lips, and replied.

"Long time no see, Uncle Feng."

Feng Yanyi nodded. He did not say anything more to Feng Zi, instead turning to Li Wei, his gaze clearly carrying a different kind of interest.

"You fight remarkably well, and you've developed an independent consciousness. Other than evolving in the direction of science, I can't imagine any other explanation for such a change in a biohuman."

Li Wei looked Feng Yanyi over from head to toe.

"Then are you a scientist?"

Feng Yanyi smiled without avoiding the question.

"Not anymore."

As he spoke, he turned and took a slender short sword about sixty centimeters long from a nearby rack. Its sharp blade reflected the flickering firelight. Even someone unfamiliar with weapons could tell it was an excellent one.

Feng Yanyi sheathed the short sword and handed it to Li Wei.

"It's for you, a token of thanks for protecting Xiao Zi on the way here."

Li Wei accepted the short sword without the slightest hesitation. He casually spun it twice in his right hand. It was indeed far more convenient than that steel bar.

"Could you give me and my little niece some privacy? Young man, you can walk around Border Market. Tell Thirteen whatever you want to eat or buy, and he'll pay for it."

Li Wei naturally had no objections. He waved at Feng Zi, who seemed as though she wanted to say something but held herself back, then turned and left the blacksmith shop without another word.

Only Feng Yanyi and Feng Zi remained in the scorching room.

Feng Zi's voice was calm, but her dissatisfaction was unmistakable.

"You shouldn't have let 626 leave."

"You spend every day with your head buried in your research projects. Of course, I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it's obvious that you have no sensitivity at all when it comes to getting along with people."

Feng Yanyi picked up the piece of iron he had been forging. After examining it carefully, he placed it into the quenching pool.

As the sizzling sound of hot and cold meeting rose up, he spoke unhurriedly.

"This biohuman has developed an independent consciousness. You should face the relationship between the two of you instead of continuing to hold the same feelings you had for a doll. To be honest, I'm surprised he was willing to help you escape all the way from Afterglow District to here. A reward of an alloy steel sword is hardly unfair."

Feng Zi's expression became especially serious.

"We were helping and supporting each other. Neither of us ever expected the other to give anything."

"If that were really the case, he wouldn't have accepted it after I called that sword a reward."

Feng Yanyi said calmly.

Feng Zi did not want to continue this topic. She met Feng Yanyi's eyes.

"Uncle Feng, you know why I came to Sun City."

"You shouldn't have come."

His answer made Feng Zi's already pale face turn even whiter.

Unmoved, Feng Yanyi leaned against the forge and slowly lit a cigarette for himself.

"Over the years, that Superintendent Tian has planted quite a few of his people in Border Market. The way you barged in so openly, those people must already know. But without communication devices, they'll have to wait until tonight, when the train reaches Afterglow District, to send word out."

"For police officers to get here, it'll take until tomorrow at the earliest. Use the backup identity Old Feng left you and leave while you still have this window."

Feng Zi gripped the corner of her burlap shirt with both hands. She looked somewhat helpless.

"When this city was renamed Sun City, you and my father clearly made a promise together. You said you would make it different from every other underground city."

"Everyone is naive once." Feng Yanyi flicked away some ash. "A lot of things can't be accomplished through passion alone. The rules concerning people in this world have already been set. Your father became a moth flying into the flame, but someone still has to stay alive and deal with the mess he left behind."

He looked at the thin, frail Feng Zi.

"The people living in Border Market are the families of friends who once fought at the front alongside your father and me. I have to protect them in this city. Doing that alone already takes everything I have. If you came to reclaim what your father left behind, I can't offer you any more help."

"After all, I'm no longer a scientist."

The blacksmith shop fell into a long silence.

Only when the cigarette in Feng Yanyi's hand had burned down to his fingers did he casually toss the butt into the furnace.

"Go. Whether you're willing to listen to me or not, you should take the things Old Feng left behind."

Feng Zi pursed her pale lips and followed him with a complicated expression into a storage room beside the blacksmith shop.

"All those odds and ends your father liked collecting from everywhere are here."

It was a cardboard box filled with scattered little trinkets whose uses were impossible to discern. Feng Zi silently gathered all of them up.

"There's one more thing. I don't know whether you're aware of it, but the information I received from Police Superintendent Tian is that Tian'en Company filed a report saying you were abducted by a biohuman and that the two of you eloped."

Feng Yanyi took a drag from his cigarette and spoke after slowly exhaling the smoke.

Feng Zi was very indifferent to this.

"I've already escaped. Of course they can pin any excuse they want on me."

"This isn't just any excuse." Feng Yanyi crushed out the cigarette. "If you hadn't proposed taking away what Old Feng brought to this city, quite a few people in the Sunlight Council would have wanted you to stay and inherit your father's political legacy. After all, you're the most suitable candidate."

"Someone at Tian'en's branch in Sun City wants to discredit you and pull the people who originally supported you over to their side."

"Let them do whatever they want." Feng Zi supported herself against the wall, her expression cold. "I never wanted to save this city, nor did I want to save anyone. I only want to take away what never belonged to those people."

Seeing Feng Zi's frail yet resolute appearance, Feng Yanyi could not help sighing and shaking his head.

"If that experiment hadn't left your body like this, I believe you absolutely could have done it. But there are no ifs in this world. Now even walking normally is a struggle for you. You should take care of yourself first and live well. That is what both your parents hoped for."

Feng Zi said nothing more. She seemed to have lost all desire to communicate with Feng Yanyi. Leaning on the wall, she only wanted to leave this room and leave Border Market.