Silence.
"I was too childish... too careless." The boy bowed his head, his voice as faint as the moonlit frost on the table. "I was too arrogant."
"I always thought the enemy was far away, and that as long as I made up my mind, I could protect everything." The thoughts that had kept him tossing and turning these past days gradually spilled from his lips. "I thought we had just won a bitter battle, that a bright world awaited us... I thought that the next time I encountered them, I would surely be ready."
Silence.
"I thought that ever since I left Fenghuai-" His voice suddenly caught. He covered his face with both hands, his voice slightly hoarse. "...I hadn't wasted a single moment."
"But that wasn't true."
"I was wrong, Miss Ming... I'm actually stupid and weak. Two months ago, they easily took everything around me away. Two months later, a different group casually did the same thing again-and I still can't find him!"
"..."
Pei Ye drew a deep breath, his voice slowing a little. "So I thought, I have no right to talk about everything in Bowang City. I should keep pursuing them without a moment's pause, just as I'm doing now, so that every day they open their eyes, they feel a cold blade one step closer to their throats... Now I've found two of them, and killed them."
"So I'm a little happy, Miss Ming."
"..."
"...Thank you for listening to all this boring talk, Miss Ming." Pei Ye turned toward the woman. She had been listening quietly all along, the moonlight seeming to soak into her white robes.
"But she would be very sad," the woman said softly.
"...What?" Pei Ye froze.
"If you had 'done the right thing' back then." The woman