Good Person

Chapter 896: Good Person

Their late-night talk continued well past midnight. Hesta came away deeply moved, having glimpsed a family life within the Habitable Zone in a way she had never imagined before.

Remembering Ava's words—"The Quicksilver Needles should truly go among the residents of the Habitable Zone"—Hesta found it even harder to sleep. Thoughts churned through her mind as she processed them alone. When clearer ideas began surfacing one after another from the depths of her consciousness, Hesta could not resist getting out of bed and stepping into the corridor. She opened her phone, eager to share what had happened tonight with Ksenia.

But there was already an unread message from Ksenia, timestamped yesterday at 4:45 p.m.

Hesta opened it. There was only one very short line:

"Where are you?"

Hesta held her phone in confusion for a moment.

Then, in the next instant, a terrible sensation of plunging from the clouds struck her—

"I was just about to tell you. Can we move it to the afternoon after tomorrow? My adviser is coming back to school tomorrow afternoon, and I want to go over the data with her tonight."

The afternoon after tomorrow from three days ago... that was yesterday...

Hesta's scalp went numb, as if she had truly been struck by electricity. She immediately called Ksenia, but the moment the ringing began, she realized it was two in the morning. Just as she was about to hang up, the line went busy—Ksenia had cut off the call.

Ksenia was not asleep. She was still awake.

In the dormitory, Ksenia lay in bed with red-rimmed eyes, watching her phone screen light up again and again. Hesta's explanatory messages arrived one after another, and she read each one with surging fury.

Fine. Just fine. Ksenia gripped her phone so