Qin Zhilu seemed to be a person who never looks back
by M1zushiHe hadn’t rested since returning from the mission. Knowing he’d sleep for a long time once the report was submitted, he decided to return [God-Hunter] to Jiang Xiao
.
When Jiang Xiao opened the door and saw An Yu, he was too surprised to speak for a moment.
“Thanks, it was very useful,” An Yu said, handing [God-Hunter] back and his eyes lingered on Jiang Xiao’s face.
In just a few days, Jiang Xiao looked significantly more worn out—his fair skin had turned pale, and his usual crazy agressiveness had disappeared, leaving him looking somewhat fragile.
An Yu politely inquired, “What happened to you?”
“I…,” Jiang Xiao’s voice was hoarse, “I’m fine…”
An Yu suddenly remembered that he locked himself in the room on the day he borrowed the weapon, so he asked again, “What have you been doing these past few days?”
Jiang Xiao froze.
Considering his usual arrogance, it was rare for him to feel at a loss, yet now, looking into An Yu’s golden eyes, he saw his own reflection,
—A fragile, pitiful, even laughably inadequate figure.
He was about to lower his head in a bitter smile when his mind suddenly went blank and his whole body froze in place.
An Yu also froze.
Though Jiang Xiao was blocking the doorway, An Yu could somehow see into the room behind him.
Jiang Xiao lay curled up on his bed, his upper body hunched, the snake tail and octopus limbs spread messily around him, creating a kind of tragic beauty.
Trembling, he held a new gene reagent gun to his chest.
Similar guns lay scattered on the bed, all of which had been injected into him over the past three days.
Poppy genes.
After An Yu and the others left, Jiang Xiao scoured the Spire’s historical mutation records, discovering that plant-based mutations were most likely to awaken healing abilities. Among them, low-entropy poppy genes had the highest probability.
However, triggering infection with low-entropy plant genes to mutate again was very unlikely. Over the past few days, apart from the excruciating pain brought by exposing himself to foreign genes, he had gained nothing.
Sweat from the pain stuck locks of hair to his face. He almost hallucinated from the pain. As he lay on the bed and took a deep, helpless breath, his vision almost blurred.
After what felt like an eternity, he tremblingly raised the gene reagent gun once more.
—Go to the Healing Department.
That day, when those four short words popped up from the system, it felt like a punch to the gut.
Clenching his teeth, Jiang Xiao injected the gene reagent into his vein once more.
An Yu suddenly pulled himself out of the memory.
Jiang Xiao also came to his senses, his red eyes momentarily empty, and hoarsely said, “Sorry, I’ve been trying some new training techniques lately, and it’s exhausting.”
An Yu could only stare at him in surprise.
Billy had mentioned before that healers were extremely rare, and if a Protector’s initial mutation didn’t yield healing abilities, the chances would only decrease over time.
Jiang Xiao was simply moved by his ambition.
An Yu hesitated. “New training techniques… Maybe it’s not worth it. You’re already a strong offensive type.”
“No.” Those red eyes suddenly turned resolute. “I have my own ambitions.”
“…Alright.” An Yu paused. “Well, then I wish you sucess.”
“Thank you. I’ll keep trying.” Jiang Xiao clutched his bow and respectfully bowed to An Yu.
Even in his weakened state, his back stood straight as an arrow.
On his way back, An Yu pondered the trigger for memory recall.
It hadn’t worked with Joseph or Huang Zhou.
But when he looked at Aiko in the mirror, it had succeeded.
And just now with Jiang Xiao, although there was no mirror, when Jiang Xiao looked at himself through An Yu’s eyes, the trigger had succeeded again.
The Poet had hinted, “Become one with them, then view yourself.” The key wasn’t becoming one with them but “view yourself”—the person whose memory was being accessed needed to be in a moment of “self-examination.”
After analyzing it a few more times, An Yu reluctantly packed his unfinished red bean fish cakes and went downstairs to knock on Billy’s door.
“For me? Really?!” Billy’s mouth couldn’t close. “No way! Mr. Corner delivering me a midnight snack? I… I… I’m a bit flustered!”
Even as he claimed to be flustered, he was already snapping photos on his terminal. Before An Yu could stop him, the post showing off his snack delivery was already up on the forum.
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“Is it infected? Let me take a look.”
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“Billy.” An Yu suddenly called him, his tone serious.
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An Yu didn’t answer. After a long pause, he looked away and said, “Your hands are too strong.”
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“What is it now!” Billy raised his hands in surrender. “Look carefully; I haven’t touched you!”
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An Yu’s voice was soft, almost murmuring, “In my eyes, you seem… different from before…”
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Countless reflections of each other seemed to echo within their gazes, and suddenly, An Yu felt a deep plunge into the depths of his consciousness.
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The wounds resembled deep gashes from a massive beast’s claws, but beneath the claw marks, there was also extensive bruising, the patches of dark purple overlapping with the crimson blood.
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“Old wounds on top of new ones—must hurt like hell.” Billy rummaged through the medical kit and pulled out a small round jar that An Yu was all too familiar with, letting out a chuckle. “You and he are really share the same fate
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Qin Zhilu silently glanced at the corner of the medical kit.
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An Yu snapped out of Billy’s memory, staring blankly into space for a while.
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His emotions, his feelings; they were never revealed to outsiders.
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An Yu averted his gaze and looked down at the small needle mark on his arm.
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Ling Qiu once told him, when you don’t know what to say to someone, just compliment their looks. And if you really can’t manage that, just say they look young.
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Sure enough, Billy froze for a second, then blushed. “Ha, well, I’ve been exercising more lately, eating lighter too, haven’t touched sweets in ages… How about I buy ten boxes of whole wheat bread from you?”
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It felt like hauling home a whole crate of bread from the supply station, only to open it and find that none of the labels bore his or Ling Qiu’s name. He didn’t recognize any of the names on those labels, didn’t know who they belonged to, or to whom he should return them. He could only sit there, staring at the box full of bread, hungry and lost.
When An Yu returned to the 199th floor, Qin Zhilu was still at his desk, writing reports on his behalf.
Qin Zhilu’s room was spacious, like an empty snow cavern. All the cabinet doors were seamlessly embedded into the walls, leaving only a single desk and bed lonely in the empty space.
An Yu had never been curious about anyone’s memories before.
He had seen many people’s memories—sometimes by accident, sometimes deliberately to test his abilities—but never once had it been because he genuinely wanted to see.
Yet now, he suddenly found himself wanting to look into his Commander’s memories, anything could do.
Qin Zhilu put down his pen and looked up, “What’s wrong?”
An Yu found himself at a loss for words. “I…”
“Hmm?” Qin Zhilu set his pen aside and fixed his gaze on An Yu. After a long pause, his voice softened, “Does the injection site still hurt?”
“No, that’s not it…”
They stared at each other in silence—An Yu was certain that, at this moment, Qin Zhilu was not scrutinizing himself through An Yu’s eyes. He was simply looking at him, solely and intently.
This shouldn’t have triggered his ability.
Yet, that familiar sense of disorientation suddenly enveloped him, and in an instant of overlapping consciousness, he was pulled into Qin Zhilu’s memory.
To his surprise, there were no stories, no conversations, not a single person. The emptiness was so vast that he could almost hear the wind sweeping across a snowy plain.
Qin Zhilu seemed to be a person who never looks back.
In his “memory,” there was only a boundless, desolate world, and within it stood a solitary, towering, pitch-black spire, cold and unyielding.
Author’s Note:
[21 People who are afraid of the cold]
In the Spire, there is one High-Level Officer who detests the cold more than anyone.
Rather than being afraid of the cold, it’s better to call it a deep-seated aversion to it.
Xi De had an unfortunate childhood; his stepfather, who ran a cold drink shop, would often lock him in the freezer as a form of abuse.
Because of this, he despises wind, snow, and anything cold.
When he discovered he had likely mutated into a fire-wielding phoenix, he was ecstatic.
With his first breath of flames, he carbonized his stepfather to death.
He was only 18 years old when he joined the Spire.
Initially, those in the Black Tower hoped that Law could oversee Xi De, but Law suggested that Xi De could be directly established as a High-Level Officer, and it was clear that he held high expectations for him.
Xi De lived up to those expectations.
He had none of the hesitations typical of someone his age; he fought fiercely, loved battle, and thrived in combat.
Wherever the golden glow of the phoenix arrived, all the aberrants in the Sky would submit.
In the Spire, he is the only one who truly does not miss human society.
Despite his youth, the Protectors like to call him “Mr. Xi De.”
Few people pay attention to his real name, Bai Wushuang.
He chose this name himself. He hoped that his life would be free from any wind or snow.
Snowflake Fragments
[Bo (1/3)]
[The Crane in the Sky]
Before my mutation, I had just submitted my college applications.
The Main City’s top university seems out of reach for many students, but for me, it was a given.
So, when I awoke after the surprise attack to find black cloud markings spreading across my neck, there was indeed a brief moment of disorientation.
But that feeling quickly faded. Even with a change of battlefield, I was still Ya Sa, the top student.
Every cold and strong wind at high altitudes will blow beneath my wings.
I will eventually become like the Commander—decisive, composed, and courageous in battle.
Mutation is nothing to me.
I don’t miss human society, nor will I yearn for my old school.
When the staff asked for my codename, I chose “Bo.”
—The crane high in the sky is strong enough to fight everything.
Perhaps my sorrow is that I’ll never return to humanity.
But fighting to the death for humanity—that will surely be my enlightenment.
Snowflake Fragments
[Chao Wu (1/3)]
[The Boy on the Balcony]
They all say Bo is a solitary, lofty existence.
Compared to the bright flames of Mr. Xi De, Bo’s cold pride makes him difficult to approach.
Strangely enough, the Bo I know is gentle.
His heart is soft, caring for Lord Xi De and later helping both An and Ning.
Only sometimes, he’ll stand on the top of the Spire, staring into space while holding a soda.
At those moments, I wished I could wrap my hair around him and hug him.
One time, I actually did that, and I even muttered some nonsense.
We stayed in that position for a long time before I realized what I was doing.
I was so panicked that my hair fell off his body.
But he crouched down, gathered up my seaweed-like, tangled hair and wrapped it around his shoulders like a scarf.
…
I still remember what he said that day.
He said, “Being embraced does feel really warm, after all.”
M1zushi: i was listening to mili while translating this and goddamn Between Two Worlds goes hard af
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