263: Shift in thinking

Wei Ziqing slowly pulled his fist from the tree trunk, shattered wood chips sliding from the gaps in his armor. His voice dropped, carrying a deeper pain:

"He stabbed his own mother with his own hands... Do you know what that means for a child? It's a lifetime of pain, a lifetime of guilt.

This trauma will haunt him like a ghost forever. His life... it might be ruined just like that."

He shook his head violently. "It's all because I wasn't fast enough, didn't react in time, wasn't sensitive enough! I was clearly nearby, I clearly could have..."

Lu Jianchuan watched Wei Ziqing's trembling shoulder plates, remaining silent.

He was an idealist, but at this moment, facing a comrade mired in self-reproach, those grand theories about "Perfection" were stuck in his throat, and for a moment he didn't know how to begin. He had lost before, so he understood this weight.

Shen Mingyuan took a half-step forward, standing slightly ahead and to the side of Wei Ziqing. His voice came through the shadow armor, calm and clear, with a sense of emotional detachment characteristic of a lawyer:

"Wei Ziqing, don't say that. Heroes are also human, and humans will have things beyond their reach, making choices in a flash that seem best at the time but may be deeply regretted later.

No one can truly be infallible or flawless. Even with the most powerful strength, there will always be situations that push one to the limit, facing trade-offs where it's impossible to save everything."

At this point, Lu Jianchuan finally found his voice. He reached out, his palm covered in silver-white armor plates gently pressing on Wei Ziqing's tense shoulder, his voice low and sincere:

"Shen Mingyuan is right. Heroes are also human, and humans make mistakes, making decisions that seem wrong in hindsight... I am the same."

He paused, images and pain from deep in his memory surging up, his tone becoming heavy:

"When I first gained this power, in that warehouse... because of my arrogance and conceit, because I thought I could control the situation and make the 'right' decision... I lost the person most important to me, my Master."

The strength in his hand increased slightly, as if to convey this painful realization, "So, don't be so hard on yourself. We all carry regrets of failing to save someone, but that's no reason to stop or to blame everything on being 'not strong enough'."

Wei Ziqing's body remained stiff; he didn't look back or pull away from Lu Jianchuan's hand, remaining silent.

Sensing this subtle change, Lu Jianchuan continued, "What's important is not to let this moment of powerlessness, this 'imperfection,' lead you into making the wrong decision—like immersing yourself in endless self-blame, or going to the other extreme.

There is still a chance to make amends, for us and for that child. As long as we are still standing here, still moving forward, still striving to 'do better next time,' there is always the possibility of moving toward that direction of 'Perfection'."

After Lu Jianchuan and Shen Mingyuan finished speaking, Wei Ziqing nodded silently, and his body under the armor seemed less stiff. He appeared to have accepted the consolation, suppressing that boiling self-reproach and powerlessness back into his heart.

But only he knew that something had already changed.

Watching the medical staff load the unconscious Little Stone and Reiko, who was still struggling on the brink of death, into the ambulance, Wei Ziqing's gaze beneath his goggles coldly swept over the pool of foul blood nearby that had flowed from the Immortal.

In his heart, a hard and dark thought emerged like a reef, never to be easily washed away again.

Lu Jianchuan was right; heroes are human, they can be powerless, and they can make mistakes.

Shen Mingyuan wasn't wrong either; things in the world are rarely perfect, and forcing Perfection is futile.

He "understood" all these principles.

But when he closed his eyes, Reiko's faint breath before dying, saying "Hold me again," and the thick blood on Little Stone's hands, mixed with that Immortal's mocking sneer, would burn repeatedly in his mind.

What they spoke of were the limitations of a "hero."

But what was surging in his heart right now was the flaming rage of a "human."

"If... if you beings, wearing human skin, have long since treated the cries of your own kind as nothing... if you can orchestrate the tragedy of kin killing kin as a play to amuse yourselves... if, amidst the cries and pleas for mercy of others, you can only taste the sweetness of dominance, as if humans are nothing more than livestock you keep, their lives and deaths at your whim, worthless... then."

"Then, between you and me, there is no longer any talk of 'equality'."

"Since you have abandoned the qualification to be human, I will no longer measure you by the rules used for my own kind."

"For every bit of pain you inflict, I will make you pay back a hundredfold."

"For every life you treat with contempt, I will make your demise long, clear, and full of regret."

"I will use the most precise methods to make you 'deliberate' with every trembling nerve before you take your last breath—"

"Whether the thought of pushing others into Hell is worth exchanging for your own eternal torment."

"This is not justice."

"This is a reckoning."

Lu Jianchuan's hand was still on Wei Ziqing's shoulder; he could feel the violent power in the other's body seem to subside, but something else, more subtle and harder, seemed to have settled.

Wei Ziqing's silence was too absolute; beneath that posture of nodding acceptance, it was as if some important part had quietly slipped into the shadows. It was an intuition; Lu Jianchuan had experienced loss and the temptation of darkness, and he smelled a similar hint of danger.

Frowning slightly, he looked at Wei Ziqing's profile, a faint worry rising in his heart. He wanted to say something, but the "calmness" Wei Ziqing displayed made it impossible to speak. Perhaps he was just overthinking? After such a tragedy, some abnormal silence was normal, right?

Shen Mingyuan had already begun communicating the situation with the arriving GUPA on-site commander. His attention was focused more on intelligence integration and follow-up procedures, so he didn't immediately notice the quiet, dramatic change brewing within Wei Ziqing.

The subsequent cleanup and wrap-up work that night were fully taken over by GUPA. Shen Mingyuan, Lu Jianchuan, and Wei Ziqing returned to the city in an official vehicle after taking energy supplements to alleviate their exhaustion. Fatigue came like a tide, and everyone urgently needed real rest.

The next day, near noon, the three met in a quiet restaurant booth Lu Jianchuan was familiar with.

Sunlight shone through the glass window, falling on the teacups on the table with a warm glow.

Wei Ziqing seemed to have returned to his usual self, wearing simple sportswear, head down and focused on eating, occasionally looking up to join in a few words of small talk about the case's aftermath or daily trivia. His tone was calm, even lacking some of the typical youthful flightiness, appearing exceptionally composed.

But it was precisely this "composure" that made Lu Jianchuan, sitting across from him, and Shen Mingyuan, sitting to the side, simultaneously feel a sense of strangeness.

His gaze was too calm, like a bottomless cold pool after a storm; all intense emotions were locked beneath the surface. There was no longer the near-breaking anger or pain of last night, nor the sharp, youthful vigor characteristic of a sword-wielding boy.

Lu Jianchuan and Shen Mingyuan exchanged a look, both seeing similar doubts in each other's eyes.

Taking advantage of the gap when Wei Ziqing got up to go to the restroom, Lu Jianchuan lowered his voice, his gaze still following Wei Ziqing's back with concern: "He looks... like he's much better, but..."

"But it feels like he's completely locked something away, or... transformed it into something else," Shen Mingyuan added, his knuckles unconsciously tapping lightly on the table.

"What happened last night had too much of an impact on him. That sense of powerlessness and anger, if not given a proper outlet, can easily distort a person's baseline for judgment."

Lu Jianchuan was silent for a moment, finally sighing softly: "I believe in him. I believe in the sense of justice and kindness at his core. He will eventually find the right path and make the right decisions."

Shen Mingyuan picked up his teacup and took a sip, his gaze behind his lenses sharp and pragmatic: "I'm also willing to believe in him. But as his Senior, or rather... as a fellow traveler who has experienced a bit more than him, 'belief' cannot be everything."

He looked at Lu Jianchuan, his tone steady but serious:

"We also have to make some 'preparations.' Not to interfere with or question him, but to ensure that if he might... slide toward an extreme we don't want to see, or be guided by his emotions into making decisions he'll regret in the future, we can be there to give him a pull, or at least let him know there are other choices. That's what a Senior should do, isn't it?"

Lu Jianchuan looked at Shen Mingyuan and nodded, his voice low and firm: "Yeah. You're right. We can't let him make decisions he'll regret for the rest of his life."

Just then, Wei Ziqing walked back with no particular expression on his face. He sat back down and naturally mentioned:

"By the way, is there any further news from GUPA regarding the interrogation of the 'The Fellowship' and that 'Hundred-Eyed Immortal Lord'? I have a feeling that these guys who use people for Alchemy and poison to control minds won't have just this one stronghold."

His topic was direct and his goal clear, pulling everyone's attention back to the unfinished threat.

Lu Jianchuan and Shen Mingyuan glanced at each other again, tucking that worry away properly for the time being.

"The interrogation is being stepped up; as soon as there are leads, we'll know immediately," Lu Jianchuan replied.

"Mm," Wei Ziqing nodded, his gaze looking out at the busy street through the window.