Beneath the ice
The incident in the lab was like a biting cold wind, shattering the relaxed atmosphere that should have been on the last day of the training camp. When the sequence group finally submitted their report before the deadline, no one felt joy, only a sense of exhaustion and oppression. The mental strain far outweighed the physical exertion, and Shi Zhiyuan successfully completed the first round of "stress test" in his testing ground.
On the way back, even the usually lively Xu Yi was unusually silent. Zhou Yu pushed up his glasses and suddenly spoke up: "He's calculated it all."
The passage of time paused for a moment, without looking back. He had already known this, but his companion's confirmation still weighed heavily on that understanding.
"What's been calculated?" Xu Yi asked blankly.
“The timing of the error, the time we needed to resolve it, and the optimal moment for him to offer help.” Zhou Yu’s voice was as calm as ever, yet as precise as a scalpel. “He was testing our responsiveness while demonstrating his absolute control. Killing two birds with one stone.” Zhou Yu completed a precise analysis of Shi Zhiyuan’s behavioral patterns, revealing the efficiency and ruthlessness of his strategy.
Yunxi's heart sank. She recalled the look in Shi Zhiyuan's eyes when he handed her the printed paper—no smugness, no pity, only a pure, calm as if observing experimental data. That inhuman gaze was more chilling than any malicious mockery.
After dropping Xu Yi and Zhou Yu off at the bus stop, only Shi Xu and Yun Xi remained, walking back to their apartment complex. Dusk fell, and the streetlights flickered on, lengthening and shortening their shadows. Solitude was a time for healing wounds and confronting fear.
Shi Xu remained silent, his jawline taut. Yunxi could sense the oppressive atmosphere surrounding him, heavier than ever before. Shi Zhiyuan's attack had touched upon his deepest fear—the denial of his own worth.
“Time sequence,” she whispered to him.
He stopped, but didn't look at her; his gaze was fixed on a distant, indistinct point.
“Everything he did today,” Shi Xu’s voice was low, with a hint of barely perceptible fatigue, “was proving to me that he meets Father’s expectations better than I do. Calmer, more efficient, more… without weaknesses.” He clearly understood Shi Zhiyuan’s intention to attack and internalized it as a questioning of himself.
His hand unconsciously clenched the pebble in front of his chest, his knuckles turning white. This was his connection to the real world of emotions, his only token against being "instrumentalized."
“When he was a child, he raised a bird.” Shi Xu suddenly brought up something seemingly unrelated, his voice drifting as if it came from a very far place. “A baby bird that had fallen from its nest, he found it and carefully fed it every day, recording its weight, food intake, and the speed at which its feathers grew.” He was revealing the root of Shi Zhiyuan’s “dehumanization”, a cruel example of how “emotion” is systematized and ultimately forcibly stripped away.
Yunxi listened quietly, a bad feeling rising in his heart.
“Then one day, his father told him that a true strong person should not be entangled by such pointless emotions.” A cold smile appeared on Shi Xu’s lips. “Then, in front of him, he ended the bird’s life.” “Father” was the highest-level formatting tool in this system. He personally deleted the core “pity” and “attachment” in Shi Zhiyuan’s emotional module.
Yunxi gasped, her heart feeling as if it were being gripped tightly by an invisible hand. She directly experienced the cruelty of spiritual castration disguised as "cultivation."
“He didn’t cry, he didn’t even show any expression.” Shi Xu turned his head to look at the gap in the clouds, his eyes filled with unfathomable darkness. “From that day on, I knew that he and I had taken completely different paths. He chose to become what his father wanted most—a machine without emotions, only capable of calculation.” Shi Xu confirmed the starting point of the fork in the road and expressed his deep fear and rejection of that imposed “correct path.” He was afraid that one day he too would be assimilated.
A cool evening breeze swept by. Looking into Shi Xu's eyes, where the pain and loneliness seemed to be consuming him, Yunxi reached out without hesitation and embraced him tightly. This was the most direct emotional intervention, using real body heat to combat the cold memories.
His body stiffened for a moment, then, as if all his strength had been drained, he slowly relaxed, gently resting his chin on the top of her head. He allowed himself to briefly lower his defenses, drawing energy from this warmth.
“You’re not a machine.” Yunxi’s voice was muffled inside his shirt, yet unusually clear and firm. “You have warmth, you feel pain, you feel sadness, and you also… care. These have never been weaknesses.” She gave a definition completely opposite to “father,” reaffirming his value as a “human being.”
She looked up and gazed intently into his eyes: "Shi Zhiyuan may never understand that it is precisely these 'redundancies' that he scoffs at that make you who you are, who you are... the Shi Xu that I will like." She redefined his "weaknesses" as the most precious "core code" that constitutes his uniqueness and endowed them with the value of being loved.
Shi Xu was stunned. He looked into those clear and brave eyes before him, reflecting the light of the streetlamp and his own somewhat disheveled shadow. The cold despair that had gripped his heart seemed to be gradually dispelled by that gaze. Her affirmation was a powerful antibody against the "father-Shi Zhiyuan" system.
He reached out and gently brushed away the wind-blown strands of hair from her cheek, his fingertips trembling almost imperceptibly.
"Mmm," he responded softly, pulling her back into his arms and holding her tightly. It was a promise, a promise to uphold the "humanity" she had affirmed.
This time, it wasn't about seeking solace, but about confirming each other's existence. They formed an alliance against that cold world.
In the distance, the city's neon lights flicker, outlining its bustling skyline. But in this quiet street corner, two young souls embrace tightly, together shielding themselves from the chill of another world. The clamor and rules of the outside world are temporarily shut out; this is a microcosm they define together.
Beneath the ice, cracks had already appeared. But at least for this moment, they had each other's warmth, enough to melt even the hardest frozen ground. The cracks were wounds caused by Shi Zhiyuan's attack, but this embrace proved that, nourished by affection, even the coldest, most desperate frozen ground of the heart could be awakened by spring.
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