Chapter 30: A Happy Thing
In the Poseidon Era, if there were thirty days in a year without snow, it could be called a very good year.
No snow wasn’t just about the absence of snowflakes; it was also reflected in the temperature, humidity, and air pressure. In the White Tower academies, the high-rise buildings, with their mix of old and new era features, stood tall, and the shadows of the buildings and landscape forests were much more distinct than usual.
Because of this rare good weather, more students were strolling outside during the lunch break. A few of them happened to see Xu Xunyue and Zhu Hui leaving the infirmary together.
The few classmates exchanged frantic glances, wanting to talk, but were wary of the high-level Sentinel’s extremely sharp hearing. They only gathered together and whispered after they could no longer see the two of them with their normal vision.
“What do you think is going on? Didn’t Zhu Hui say he was fine? Why did he stay in the infirmary for so long?”
“Ahem, ahem ahem—”
“Tsk, do you even have to think about it? A Sentinel and a Guide in a partnership, alone in a room. What do you think would happen?”
“So you really believe what they’re saying on the campus forum? Bro, how come I remember you saying yesterday that if these two’s bond went smoothly, you’d take off your own head and kick it like a ball?”
“So why is Zhu Hui rolling up his right sleeve? Is this some kind of uniform style for a certain army? Even though the sun is out today, it’s not that cool, right… And this kind of attire, if I remember correctly, you get points deducted if you’re caught by the discipline department?”
“Idiot, do you think he’ll get caught? Seriously, I think he was wearing something on his right wrist…”
“Wasn’t it a terminal?”
“No, it looked like—a black rubber band?”
“…”
The few who had been keen on gossiping suddenly fell silent.
However, what they didn’t know was that their discussion, which they thought they had started only after Zhu Hui was far enough away, had actually been heard by the person in question all along.
This was the difference between an ordinary high-level Sentinel student and the Chief Sentinel. If you hadn’t faced it directly, it was hard to know just how big the gap was.
Zhu Hui’s sharp hearing was always on, just short of using his Sentinel talent. At this moment, hearing the topic of conversation heading toward the effect he wanted, a smug smile leaked from the corners of his lips.
“What’s wrong?”
Xu Xunyue glanced at him, asking a question he already knew the answer to.
“Did your classmates see your new bracelet?”
“New bracelet,” this was a teasing way of putting it. In reality, it referred to the hair tie Xu Xunyue had given him.
Zhu Hui was surprised. “You heard it too?”
“No,” in terms of normal sensory acuity, a Guide was indeed a bit inferior to a Sentinel. “But I thought it might be something like that. It seems I guessed right.”
Zhu Hui smiled with a bit of shyness, then simply let his smugness show.
He announced very proudly:
“Hmph, they’re so envious. Teacher Xu’s hair tie is on my hand, and Teacher Xu with his hair down is so handsome. But this person is already married to the young and handsome Sentinel beside him, and the two of them are now going to eat together.”
“There’s simply nothing happier in the world than this.”
The contentedness of his tone and the lightness of his steps also completely embodied the happiness in his heart.
The sound of the wheelchair wheels rolling on the road was soft and constant, indicating a steady, unhurried pace. After listening for a long time, it even had a harmonious rhythm.
The two of them were indeed on their way to the public cafeteria in the White Tower’s second corridor.
Xu Xunyue nodded with a serious expression and went along with his words:
“Yes, young and handsome, with numerous merits, the holder of the highest historical scores in all practical combat courses at the Sentinel Academy, one of the five S-ranks in this year’s instantaneous explosive force test, the only S-rank in the Sentinel Academy’s graduating class stability coefficient test, reaction speed can reach four decimal places in seconds, the holder of the longest continuous use of a high-level Sentinel’s talent…”
Zhu Hui already felt that something was not right. As he listened, when the last sentence came out, his face flushed red.
It was unknown what he was thinking of.
“Wait, wait, brother—how do you remember all that?”
Without even noticing that he was blinking rapidly, Zhu Hui just used a pleading tone, stammering and unnaturally changing the subject.
“Some of the data above is not generally required to be collected, but it’s tested along the way during evaluations. I don’t even remember this kind of thing…”
“You just showed me the data you tested at the training grounds yesterday. Of course I remember it all.”
Xu Xunyue said with a calm expression, his gaze frank and with a hint of a smile, making it completely impossible to figure out whether it was an intentional mention with a teasing intent, or just stating a piece of data.
Seeing Zhu Hui stammer, he kindly changed the subject:
“Then let’s not talk about this. After we eat, remember to go with me to the staff to apply for a relative’s pass before you go back to the first corridor for class. If you feel unwell in the afternoon, you must contact me in time.”
Considering that un-graduated Guides and Sentinels had weaker self-control, in order to prevent malicious harm, crowd riots, and the induction of bonding heat, both the Guide Academy and the Sentinel Academy stipulated that students without a pass could not freely enter or exit the other academy.
This didn’t mean that students from the two academies had no contact at all. Some courses and lectures were for both Guides and Sentinels, and at that time, everyone would go to the second corridor. If there were missions or emergencies, the academy would also issue temporary passes based on the actual situation.
And for someone like Zhu Hui, who was relatively stable and had already bonded with a Guide, he was qualified to apply for a relative’s pass to the Guide Academy.
Zhu Hui very cooperatively followed the change of subject. His ears caught the word “relative,” and he directly threw his previous embarrassment to the back of his mind, his eyes shining as he nodded to show he understood.
Xu Xunyue continued.
“Then, it’s no problem for you to tell me the detailed process in the training room again, right?” he said pointedly. “Now should be a suitable time?”
Zhu Hui coughed lightly. “Of course… I don’t know if you’ve heard of this person before. He’s from the Yi family, named Yi Chengli.”
“I’ve heard of him.”
Xu Xunyue wasn’t involved in politics before he resigned from his post, but he had heard of the old noble families in the center of the Imperial Capital. Using the Xu family, where Xu Mengwei and Xu Yan’an were from, as a control group, the family Yi Chengli belonged to was much larger. They had also been quite active in recent years and were one of the few prominent families in the Imperial Capital since the Poseidon Era.
Yi Chengli seemed to be the most talented of the Yi family’s younger generation. Although he was no match for his own Sentinel, his own Sentinel was on a different level from others… In short, Yi Chengli’s strength should be quite good, and it was natural for him to receive the family’s attention.
Their family liked to bring the younger generation of students to banquets whenever they had the chance, to show their faces in front of various figures and pave the way for the future. If Xu Xunyue remembered correctly, about a year ago, during the Sentinel Academy’s annual leave, Yi Chengli had been taken to the annual banquet hosted by the Emperor to expand his network.
So, this Sentinel student might indeed have had contact with the Emperor.
As Xu Xunyue listened to Zhu Hui speak, he felt that he could investigate this person more carefully.
Meanwhile, the noble Sentinel being discussed was sitting in a narrow temporary detention room, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
According to the White Tower’s data statistics, the rate of Sentinel students losing control was no lower than that of Sentinels who had been in the cataclysm zones for a long time. But looking at the actual cases, it was very clear from both reason and fact that:
It was basically the low-grade Sentinels who lost control.
For someone like Yi Chengli, a noble Sentinel who had also held the position of “strongest in the grade” in the years Zhu Hui had left the White Tower and the academy, and who was about to graduate from the Sentinel Academy, it was really not supposed to happen.
The Sentinel Academy had specially prepared two types of sealed rooms for out-of-control Sentinels: the confinement room and the temporary detention room. The former was slightly more spacious and had basic living facilities, but it had 360-degree surveillance, no windows, and no lights. As long as the door was closed, it was pitch black inside, no different from being deprived of vision.
This was for young Sentinels who had lost control and caused a riot, but not to the extent of being taken to the Imperial Capital prison. They would live here for a period of time. Occasionally, when the Imperial Capital prison was full, some younger criminals with lighter sentences would also be sent here.
And the temporary detention room was a place that many low-grade, low-level Sentinels had briefly visited. It was narrow but had light, and electronic devices and personal terminals could be used with restrictions. It was often used as a punishment for minor incidents.
In the White Tower, nobles didn’t have many privileges. So Yi Chengli, who had been subdued and had not hurt anyone, and who had gradually come to his senses with the help of the school doctor, was sitting here.
According to the academy rules, he had to stay here for 12 hours. As long as there were no abnormalities, he could be released. During this period, he could just wait, or he could contact the outside world and ask someone from the Imperial Capital’s mental soothing chamber to come and help, for further examination and treatment—of course, the latter depended on personal financial resources.
Yi Chengli had the financial resources, so he was now contacting the mental soothing chamber he often went to during his holidays through his terminal.
“Time? The sooner the better—what? You’re busy today? Are you sure you can’t come?”
“If I have to wait for a long time, then forget it. Do you have any other mental soothers with a high compatibility with me? Help me find one and recommend them. I’m in a hurry, this is really urgent.”
“Send him all my previous soothing records from your place. Tell him to come quickly…”
“What happened… I don’t know what happened. I don’t even know why this happened to me…”
The more he spoke, the more his lips trembled. Cold sweat slid down his forehead and dripped onto the pale floor of the temporary detention room.
“At that moment… I felt like there were so many voices in my head, so noisy that my head was about to explode. I just wanted them to be quiet… I just wanted them to be quiet, but I didn’t even know I had also launched an attack in reality… By the time I reacted, I had already been controlled by a classmate. Yes… speaking of which, I should also thank him…”
“Could it be a symptom of contamination? No, no, no, you know, I’ve never been to a cataclysm zone. I haven’t even been to an Undeveloped Zone. And the school doctor looked, he said he couldn’t find anything specific, so I thought of asking you guys from the soothing chamber. Isn’t it said that some abnormal phenomena can only be seen by the most top-tier high-level Guides? After all, you guys are more professional…”
In the afternoon, the graduating class of the Sentinel Academy was having a free-for-all hand-to-hand combat class. The training room was filled with the muffled sounds of blows.
In a corner of the training room, Zhu Hui, who had finished his combat quota early, took off his course equipment, walked into a rest room, and closed the door.
He opened his personal terminal, and at the missed call from five minutes ago, he clicked on the encrypted callback.
His personal terminal instantly switched to privacy mode, which meant that the current content would be blurred sonically, so that no one outside the call could hear it. At the same time, it would monitor a ten-meter radius around the user. Once it captured any information with malicious emotions or intentions, it would automatically cut off the communication and send an alarm to the terminal user.
The terminals produced after the Poseidon Era did not have this function. Only by winning at an auction in the Imperial Capital, or by personally entering a cataclysm zone to pick up old products, could one replace the commonly used terminal type after registering and reporting it. And the terminals at the Imperial auctions were actually also found by the military in the old cities of the cataclysm zones.
Both Zhu Hui and Xu Xunyue used this type of terminal.
After about five or six seconds, the other side connected.
“Hello? Why are you calling at this time? You should be in class, right? I thought I’d have to wait for a long time.”
“I was just fighting with a classmate. I’ve already finished my quota… I asked the administrative teacher at the academic affairs office yesterday, and she said you weren’t at the academy. I couldn’t reach you on your terminal either. I thought something had happened to you.”
The young Sentinel sat on a high stool in the rest room, one leg propped on the ground and the other bent, frowning slightly. This appearance, compared to the coldness he showed in front of his classmates, had a bit more mystery.
“I’m not dead, I’m not dead. I’m recuperating at my niece’s place. She’s a palace physician now, and her knowledge of health preservation is quite good…”
“Qiu Ye.”
The voice on the other end paused. After a long moment, he took a deep breath and said:
“Alright, alright. Why are you so serious at such a young age? Ahem, seriously now, living near the palace is also conducive to me observing the movements here. I’m already a disabled retired officer. The Emperor can’t do anything to me.”
“Then what was the situation with you yesterday?”
“Haha, hahahaha, it’s just… I accidentally slept for six days. A widowed middle-aged man’s body is just like this. Student Zhu, you have to understand.”
Zhu Hui was silent for a moment.
“…I can’t help you with this. You should pay more attention to yourself.”
The man on the other end, named Qiu Ye, had a hearty voice and sounded like he was in his forties. From the way he spoke, one could tell he was a rather friendly person.
He was a consultant in name only at the Sentinel Academy. A few years ago, when Zhu Hui had just awakened as a Sentinel and came here, he could often meet him.
The other probably saw him as a good seedling and often taught him some fighting and wilderness survival skills. It was just that after Zhu Hui joined the army early and the physical distance between them grew, their contact gradually decreased.
It was only in the first half of this year, when Zhu Hui’s team had an accident on a mission to the Diamond Sea, and he came back to the Imperial Capital and stayed for a few months, that he reconnected with Qiu Ye on his terminal.
But it had indeed been a long time since he had seen Qiu Ye in person.
Those rumors of “breaking through after being broken” were probably just rumors after all. The impact of his bonded Guide’s death had never dissipated. It was just that with the passage of time, the surface of the pain had been washed away, so at first glance, it was a blank slate.
Qiu Ye heard his words of concern and was quite happy on the other end of the terminal. He said:
“It’s a small matter, a small matter. I’ve seen that the palace has been quite peaceful these few months. If you’re back for the last few months of school, let me know when the grade has an outdoor practical activity. I’ll go over if I have time. Maybe I can have a couple of rounds with you.”
“Okay, but I just ran into something here…”
Zhu Hui briefly recounted his conflict with Yi Chengli.
“That kid? That shouldn’t be right?”
Qiu Ye was obviously a little surprised.
“He’s quite dissatisfied with you, but his dissatisfaction is mainly because you’ll be one step ahead of him as soon as you arrive. No matter what, it’s not to the point of hating you so much that he’d resort to messing with himself to screw you over—did anything happen to you?”
“No, my brother… ahem, Xu… yes, he solved it for me.”
Qiu Ye: “…”
Qiu Ye: “What did you say? Wait—oh, you’re married!”
Zhu Hui hummed in a very restrained way, as an affirmation.
He actually really wanted to show off his affection. He couldn’t help it. He wanted to show off his affection to everyone now, tell everyone that he and his brother were the best in the world, and then “casually” reveal the hair tie on his wrist.
If he were on the phone with a peer Sentinel or a comrade-in-arms with whom he had a good relationship, he might have directly sent a three-second video to show off his newly acquired exquisite bracelet.
But Qiu Ye had taught him many useful things before, and his own situation was special. Zhu Hui found it a bit difficult to talk about himself and Xu Xunyue, afraid that his emotions would overflow and touch the other’s scars.
This “scar” was not some artistic expression. It had a professional medical term, “spiritual scar,” which specifically referred to the after-effects of a Guide or a Sentinel who had experienced a near-death state, similar to PTSD. It was fine if it wasn’t triggered, but once it was, it would be devastating, and one might even instantly lose consciousness and head toward destruction.
However, Qiu Ye did not avoid this topic. He was a little dazed after he reacted, and his tone was a little teasing.
“Look at me, I’ve been sleeping so much these few days… I’ve even forgotten what month and day it is. Tsk tsk, you’ve gone from a single young man to a married man. How does it feel?”
“It’s good… very good. He is very good.”
Zhu Hui really wanted to be restrained, but he always felt that if he was too restrained, what he said would always sound a little off.
Those flat, unimpressive, and emotionless neutral adjectives were not suitable for describing his feelings for his brother.
It wasn’t just “good,” it was “very good,” and his brother was also a very, very good person.
Qiu Ye laughed out loud upon hearing this.
“You’re even blurting out this kind of term. It seems you and Guide Xu are getting along very well? Hey, I wonder who it was who complained to me about this marriage half a year ago. It was me who kept persuading you that this marriage probably wasn’t simple and that you should give it a try…”
A faint blush appeared on Zhu Hui’s face, a restrained smile on his lips.
“…But you have to think carefully about whether you want to tell him our speculation,” Qiu Ye suddenly changed the subject and said seriously. “I haven’t had much contact with Guide Xu, but I’m… at least 70-80% sure that he’s a good person. He shouldn’t be a problematic person. Anyway, you’re married to him, so you can judge for yourself. What I want to say is that between partners, many things will inevitably become something that needs to be faced together.”
“Although we don’t have many clues at the moment, if we continue down this path, we’ll either be crushed by the Emperor, or we’ll have to fight against him.”
“You have to think about it early, decide whether to tell him or not. If you don’t, then prepare a strategy to deal with accidents in advance. If you do, then take the initiative to tell him. Don’t wait until something happens and he finds out passively. A partner should have the right to know, right? Be careful he doesn’t get angry then.”
“…I know.”
Zhu Hui sighed, a rare occurrence.
“But I want to protect him. I wasn’t by his side before. I don’t want him to get hurt again now.”
In terms of his perception of his brother, he and Qiu Ye were of course different.
Qiu Ye hadn’t had much contact with his brother, but he had. Qiu Ye was 70-80% sure that his brother was a completely good person; he was 100% sure that his brother was a good person.
His brother had once gone deep into a cataclysm zone, and had also provided support in the Undeveloped Zones for many years. He had experienced peace, pain, peaks, and valleys, so his current state was a choice made after the storm.
With his brother’s accumulation, maintaining his current state, being safe and sound without any burden, was already very good.
It was also relatively friendly to him. He didn’t have to worry about his brother getting hurt again. These few days, whenever he thought of the injuries his brother had suffered, he would get angry and want to cry, much more painful than his own injuries.
And how much had he experienced?
Although it sounded pretty good, compared to his brother, it wasn’t enough. Becoming a Chief at the same age of twenty, his battlefield had just begun. He should be the one to accept more violent disasters, and then grow and grow again in the midst of disaster.
His brother had already experienced so much, his brother had already been injured. He didn’t want to drag his brother into this mess.
His brother had saved him when he was a child. Then he would protect his brother now.
