Chapter 987 [Observation] He no longer wanted to learn.

...

Inside Xiaoqian's room.

After R called Morataya away, he smiled slightly and looked at the child on the bed who was listening to their conversation with his eyes closed. "You heard everything, didn't you?"

Xiaoqian opened her eyes, sat up, and turned to look at R, nodding slightly. "Yes, I heard everything."

"So, is there anything you want to ask?" R asked, holding a teacup and smiling at him.

Xiaoqian remained silent for a long time before asking, "Does being specially trained mean that I was already under their care before I was born? Or rather..." He paused slightly before continuing, "My birth was controlled by them from the beginning?"

R looked at him quietly, pondered for half a second, and was about to answer him with gentle words when another voice answered even faster than him.

"Your birth was a carefully planned experiment for them."

Suddenly, the man reappeared out of nowhere, sitting by the bedside. He glanced at Xiaoqian and answered lazily.

Xiaoqian: "..."

He looked at the person hidden in the platinum cloak before him, paused slightly at what he was saying, lowered his eyelashes, and seemed somewhat saddened.

Seeing this, the man reached out and rubbed the boy's head, making him shake back and forth.

Xiaoqian: "?"

R coughed lightly, got up and came to the side, gently removed Mr. Qian's hand from Xiao Qian's head, and then smoothed Xiao Qian's hair.

Noticing that the man glanced at him, R smiled and withdrew his hand, then looked at Qian who was looking at him gently, "Go ahead and ask."

Xiaoqian glanced at them one by one, and was so interrupted that he almost forgot what he wanted to ask.

He paused for a couple of seconds, then looked calmly at R with his soft, amber eyes. "Special... in what aspect? Is it the experiments on me and Xiao Ye?"

"Hmm...more or less, it's just a bit complicated to explain." R sat down again, smiling as he looked at Chihiro.

"The experiments they conducted on you were to establish a 'life connection' with you among those they selected, so that if either of you were injured, you would feel the same pain. I think you and Xiao Ye have already experienced this feeling."

Xiaoqian nodded quietly, listening attentively as he continued, unaware that her husband had already embraced her.

R said gently, “However, while the other person will recover from their injury, the pain you feel from them and the harm you suffer will accumulate in your body in another form. For example, various diseases, which cannot be treated in conventional ways.”

Xiaoqian nodded knowingly, then lowered her head somewhat sadly.

After a long pause, his voice rang out clearly, "So, they told me to be gentle and obedient so that I could use this personality to befriend the targets they had their eye on, because that would make it easier for them to conduct their experiments."

R paused, seemingly surprised that Chihiro would realize this, but he still nodded. "Yes."

"Hmm..." Xiaoqian responded softly, but when she looked up again, her expression didn't change, only a hint of sadness in her eyes. "Then... should we stay away from them?"

"If you want to protect them."

"need."

R's gentle voice blended with Mr.'s cool and languid voice.

Xiaoqian looked up at the teacher.

The other person had their head down, and he was able to meet their golden eyes.

Xiaoqian was stunned for a moment.

The man pinched his cheek, his tone tinged with weariness, but his words were even more cruel than R's.

"You'd better not get too close to them anymore, it will strengthen your bond. Those red-haired demons will be plotting against you, they'll want to kill you. If your bond with them reaches a certain point, it means they'll be in trouble too."

“You are special, which is why, even though you are symbiotic and almost share a sense of empathy, they cannot understand your suffering from illness.”

"You're not suited to getting too close to anyone."

R glanced at the completely stunned Xiaoqian, then looked at the gentleman and asked with his eyes: Sir, isn't what you said a bit too extreme?

The man did not respond, as if he had not received the question in his eyes.

R: "..."

The man put Xiaoqian back on the bed and tapped his forehead with his fingertip. "Alright, you can get some sleep now."

Although Xiaoqian didn't feel sleepy, he felt a little drowsy when he ran his fingers across his forehead, and he closed his eyes and fell asleep in a daze.

The man looked at him, casually pulled the blanket over him, yawned, and turned to leave the room.

R glanced at Chihiro and followed behind the man helplessly.

"Sir, it can't be as serious as you say, can it?"

As the man turned the corner of the stairs, he chuckled softly upon hearing this. "Those guys certainly don't intend to kill him, but they're bound to make a move. Besides, can you be sure he won't run into them again?"

"...Indeed, but what was the reason you frightened the child, sir?"

Although R is supposedly all-knowing, there are times when he really can't understand Mr.

“That’s interesting,” the man said casually. “Besides, it’s not a bad thing for him to know that he will die in the near future.”

R's lips twitched slightly. "...Will he really die?"

The man chuckled, his languidness turning into something rather wicked. "Who knows?"

R: "..."

He said that the gentleman's nature was wicked.

Bertrand: "..."

Behrfinger: "..."

"Chi-chan, you're so good to us."

The two choked up, turning to look at Qianzhu with teary eyes.

Qianzhu smiled but remained silent.

“No wonder Chino-kun always treats Bertrand and Dudu with such a distant attitude.” Liu Qingyao frowned. “But why? They still seem to sense each other’s pain later on.”

Morataya snorted lightly, her tone sarcastic, "Guess if someone did something behind the scenes?"

The crowd glanced at Asa discreetly, not quite secretly.

Seekers snorted in dissatisfaction.

Their little one suddenly and inexplicably lost vital signs again, it must be because Death did something to Chino.

Damn Death!

Sensing the resentful gazes of the crowd, Asa lowered his eyelashes and gave them no reaction whatsoever.

You'll get used to it.

It's not like we haven't experienced it before.

R followed the man to the attic. The next second, he caught several pieces of paper that flew from the man's hand, glanced at them, and then put them away.

"So there's something else special about him, sir, otherwise you wouldn't care about him so much."

The gentleman was already sprawled on the beanbag chair. R walked over and sat down in the chair next to him, holding a cup of herbal tea and a cup of black tea.

He handed the herbal tea to the gentleman.

The man lifted his hood, revealing a slightly youthful face, took a sip of the perfectly warm tea, and lazily squinted his eyes.

“It is indeed a bit unusual.” He replied simply, then seemed to fall asleep as if deep in thought. After a while, he asked R, “What do you think about that little guy calling me Dad?”

"Pfft—! Cough, cough cough..."

R was so startled by the tea he had just taken a sip that he spat it out. He casually placed the teacup on the table next to him, covered his mouth with one hand to cough, and waved the other hand to wipe away the tea stains. His usually calm and composed smile suddenly showed a different expression.

"Hmm? How could you be so careless?" The man slowly opened his eyes and patted his back.

R's lips twitched, and after taking a breath, he adjusted his glasses. Elegance quickly returned to him, but the smile was still there.

"Sir, what did you just say? Perhaps I misheard you."

He was so surprised that he even used honorifics that he hadn't used in a long time.

The man glanced at him sideways, his golden eyes narrowing again. "You heard me right."

R opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, the man paused for a moment and then said something surprising with a sleepy look on his face, "Why don't you let him call you Dad?"

R: "..."

He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again, his deep blue eyes filled with speechlessness. "Sir, do you know what you're saying?"

"I know." The man's voice sounded listless and weak, like someone who was being forced to chat while half asleep. "He was a spiritual particle that I separated many years ago. He had no self-awareness. I just never expected that some demon would take him out and cultivate him into a human."

R paused, then frowned. "So, he's a small part of you, sir?"

"More or less, but not quite, since he now has his own consciousness and thoughts." The man swung his legs leisurely.

"..." R was speechless for a moment, then sighed and helplessly rubbed his forehead, "It seems there's a little trouble."

He glanced at R, who had gotten up and gone to the window to get some fresh air and calm down, while the man, still sprawled on the sofa, remained unmoved. He slightly lifted his eyelids and looked at him, a vague smile playing on his lips. Two seconds later, the smile was hidden behind his teacup, and he closed his eyes again.

Bertrand looked completely bewildered: "...Huh?"

“…Uh?” Behrfinger looked confused.

"Huh...?" Liu Qingyao frowned.

Kawasaki Machi stared blankly: "What??"

"Huh??" Morataya looked surprised and doubtful.

"...?" Asa looked stunned, then looked down at Benshan with confusion and doubt. "Benshan, what was said in that clip?"

The red team was dumbfounded: "???"

The black player was dumbfounded: "...???"

Thousand bamboos are bamboo: ('')

He glanced around and saw the loading icon above almost everyone's head.

He paused, and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly again, but he quickly calmed down.

...

When Xiaoqian woke up from her nap, it was already the morning of the next day.

R arrived almost at the last minute. Seeing that he had woken up, she handed him a glass of warm water and said softly, "Drink some water first."

"Thanks……"

Xiaoqian took the water glass and thanked him in a slightly dry voice.

“…You’re welcome.” R paused for a moment, a strange look on his face, then replied with a forced smile, “How did you sleep last night?”

Xiaoqian thought for a moment and replied softly, "It's fine."

"That's good." R nodded slightly and waved his hand. A steaming breakfast appeared in front of Xiaoqian. "Have breakfast first. I'll take you outside for a walk later, and then we can talk about some things about you."

"..." Xiaoqian paused for a moment while drinking water, and nodded in response after finishing the water in the cup, "Okay."

"Call me if you need anything." R reached out and patted his head before getting up and walking outside.

Xiaoqian watched his departing figure, tilted her head slightly in confusion, looked at the breakfast on the small table in front of her, and only started eating after two seconds.

After he finished eating, R appeared precisely at the right time, waited for him to wash up, and then picked him up and walked out of the room.

Once they stepped out of the church, he put Xiaoqian down, took his hand, and followed him slowly with his small steps.

Xiaoqian looked around at her surroundings with some curiosity.

Doesn't it snow here?

R smiled slightly and replied, "Generally speaking, it's spring-like here all year round, but it can snow if you want to see snow."

Xiaoqian paused for a moment before nodding.

They didn't intentionally hide anything about magic from him. Although they didn't say it explicitly, Chihiro could guess what R meant after a little thought.

He wasn't surprised.

For him, the years he spent at the experimental base were also... magical, weren't they?

Are all the people here like you?

Chihiro didn't know what the power of the R Association was called, so she had no choice but to ask.

R's eyes crinkled, a slight smile playing on his lips. "Of course not, but they can use magic crystals to unleash magic."

magic?

Upon hearing this, Xiaoqian replied knowingly, "I see. So this place isn't connected to other places?"

"Naturally, this is a small, independent world, and the only way to leave is through a magic circle."

R specifically took him to see the magic circle that led them away from here.

It is somewhat bustling and complex.

Xiaoqian glanced at it twice and then looked away. He didn't know magic, so there was no need for him to remember so much.

R smiled, a hint of teasing in his voice, and asked, "Do you want to learn magic?"

Xiaoqian looked up at him with a slight hint of confusion, then gently shook her head. "I don't want to."

"Why?" R raised an eyebrow slightly.

“If everyone could learn magic, they wouldn’t need to carry magic crystals,” Xiaoqian replied calmly, but he had a smile on his face and looked very gentle.

At first glance, others only thought that the two, one big and one small, were somewhat similar.

The little one seemed a bit shy because it was in an unfamiliar environment, and couldn't compare to R, the old fox.

R chuckled and used her other hand to smooth Qian's hair, which had been ruffled by the breeze. "What if I told you you could learn it? Would you learn it?"

Xiaoqian thought about it briefly, but ultimately shook her head.

"I'm still not planning on it; it feels a bit too much trouble to learn."

He felt he had learned enough and didn't want to learn anymore.

Recalling the gentle words those red-haired gentlemen and ladies always spoke to him, Xiaoqian lowered her eyes slightly and looked at the small stones by the roadside.

R looked at him quietly with a smile in her eyes.