Chapter 101 Prologue
With his heightened senses, Weston could faintly hear Arcia and the girl talking in the corridor, one sentence after another, so intimate that it was impossible for anyone to interrupt.
He rarely heard Arsia's voice so vibrant.
Weston spent most of her time in the ward quietly lying in bed reading.
When they were in the same room, they hardly spoke to each other.
Because the ward was too quiet, he would be given a suspicious look by the nurses every time he visited.
It's not because of estrangement, but rather because we understand each other's thoughts too well, so there's no need to say anything more.
Regardless of their location or status, driven by a desire to "explore" the world, he and his sister Arcia shared a common way of thinking.
That's why, before Weston raised his hand to knock on the door, he hesitated for a dozen seconds, not wanting to see Shu Ningmiao inside.
This is the only thing he doesn't want to be "seen through" when it comes to Shu Ningmiao's emotions, and he especially doesn't want to be seen through in front of her.
A few polite and restrained knocks earned the girl inside permission to "come in."
The black-haired, blue-eyed youth pushed open half of the door. Arcia had already climbed onto the hospital bed, turned to the side, and peeked out from under the covers to look at him, her eyes crinkling with a smile.
Cornunos has been out of school for several days, and Weston is still wearing the white shirt given to him by the school's lecturers, along with a light-colored woolen coat. He looks aloof and cold, but his demeanor is elegant and refined, like a young master who is naive and ignorant of the ways of the world.
He placed the yellow rose in his hand on the headboard of Arsia's bed, where several identical flowers were already arranged in a vase.
"What a coincidence!" The girl's laughter was full of surprise. "You even brought me flowers."
He stood with his hands behind his back, pursed his lips slightly, remained silent, and glanced subtly at the bedside.
Shu Ningmiao sat on the edge of the bed, one hand on the armrest, her back to him as she looked out the window.
She had clearly just washed up; her half-dry hair was draped over one shoulder, still slightly damp, and her eyes were vacant, even somewhat lost in thought.
Even when she heard their conversation, she didn't react at all, unconsciously turning the terminal in her hand.
He moved quietly, pulled out a chair, and sat down opposite her.
The chair scraped against the floor with a sharp screeching sound. She turned her head, thought for a moment, and then, as if remembering how to address him, said in a slightly perfunctory voice, "Teacher."
Shu Ningmiao had indeed changed her clothes and washed off the blood, but without healing abilities, her wounds wouldn't heal completely so easily.
With each other in check, the two could be completely honest with each other. She wasn't afraid of what Weston might say outside, so she didn't try to hide anything.
The girl was wearing a loose spare hospital gown in the room, with a section of her slender white forearm peeking out from the empty sleeves, and large patches of dark red burn scars winding across the inner skin.
The scars, large and small, vary in color from light to dark. Even just a small patch of exposed skin reveals shocking wounds.
Not to mention the blood scab that stood out like a centipede on her neck when she turned her head.
Weston's fingers clenched suddenly, and his brows furrowed involuntarily.
"Didn't I tell you to behave yourself?" His face instantly turned extremely ugly, and his words were like a sharp knife stabbing into her head: "Where have you been these past few days, not at the medical center?"
Having not heard his harsh tone for a long time, Shu Ningmiao looked away and found it somewhat familiar.
"He went to save the world," Shu Ningmiao said dismissively. "You can still sit in your office and do research in peace? You'll have to pay me protection money from now on, you know?"
Arcia leaned closer to her and stuffed the extra yellow roses from the bedside table into her hand: "I'll pay for him!"
"It seems some people really enjoy playing the hero."
Weston stared intently at the long, seemingly torn scar on her slender neck, each elegant syllable sounding like a spell escaping from between her teeth: "We pay huge taxes to support the army, and you've rendered them useless."
He lowered his gaze: "—Could it be that your family's tradition is also an Achilles-like hero complex?"
“My affairs are none of your business, and you don’t need to use Shu Changyan to test me.”
Shu Ningmiao was already annoyed when he touched a nerve, and her displeasure was evident in her eyes: "You won't be staying at school for many more days, so why bother lecturing me?"
"I'm sorry, but as long as I'm in Cornunos, I'm still your teacher."
Weston's voice trailed off with a cold, sharp laugh, but there was no smile in his eyes: "If you really want to die, or if you're willing to pay any price to leave a lasting mark on this world, why not donate your body to the River Medical Center now? They'll be grateful to you as a complete specimen of an esper."
Arcia then turned around and faced Weston, clenching her fist and lightly tapping the back of Weston's hand twice to signal him to stop talking.
“Whether I live or die, I have value.” Shu Ningmiao glanced at him with a half-smile: “Some people are still alive, but they are almost forgotten.”
"Only you would be proud of this."
Weston coldly raised his chin, his face showing displeasure: "You've ruined yourself like this, do you expect Pigne to give you an award? Congratulations, your brain is perfectly capable of running for a parliamentary representative."
“That would be wonderful—if I were a parliamentary representative.”
Shu Ningmiao glared at him: "The first thing you should do upon taking office is to fire all the teachers who abuse their power and dump all their work on the students."
“I’m glad to hear you still can’t distinguish the difference between the authority of a council representative and the chairman of the board before the final exams.” Weston narrowed his eyes, looking at her with a stern expression. “Guess what grade a teacher abusing their power would give you?”
“I bet a teacher with such poor professional ethics won’t last long enough to be graded by me at the school,” Shu Ningmiao retorted. “Are you addicted to role-playing?”
“Okay—” Arcia sat between the two, spreading her arms to hold one of them down, a faint smile on her face, which she then forced to suppress: “Stop.”
Shu Ningmiao realized that she was used to it, but she shouldn't have argued so rudely in front of Arcia.
She immediately stopped talking, looked down at her terminal, and avoided looking at him.
Weston glanced at her indifferently and said nothing more.
Arsia searched by the bedside, found a book, and pushed it to Weston. Shu Ningmiao caught a glimpse of the book out of the corner of her eye; it was one of the fairy tale picture books, "Superheroes," that she had given to Arsia.
"I'm a little sleepy." Arcia held Weston's hand with one hand and slowly shrank into the blankets with the other, her face flushed slightly, looking genuinely tired. "Brother, can you read me a book?"
She was indeed in much better shape than before, but her body had its limits. Shu Ningmiao could tell that she was running out of energy, so she gently patted her hand.
Weston casually flipped to two pages and obediently began reading the childish stories aloud. His voice was clear but cold, devoid of emotion, and even more hypnotic than when he lectured in class.
Arcia wasn't listening at all. With her eyes half-closed, avoiding Weston's gaze, she mouthed, "Don't be angry."
Shu Ningmiao gave a low hum, finding it somewhat amusing.
The youngest researcher in Pinheis's centuries-long history, a top student who ranked first in GPA for six consecutive years, and a little girl researching the EFA-DFS gene vector.
The three of them sat together seriously, listening to childish questions from a picture book for young children, such as "What does an elephant's left ear look like?", playing a tacit game of pretend.
A moment later, Arsia lay on her side in the blankets and fell asleep peacefully. Shu Ningmiao covered her thin arm that was sticking out of the blankets, and their eyes met for a moment.
Shu Ning gestured for him to be quiet and to talk outside.
The two walked out of the door one after the other. Neither of them spoke first. Shu Ningmiao stopped by the corridor and looked at the lush vegetation outside the window downstairs.
The medical staff were all concentrated in the emergency building to treat ordinary people who had been affected and injured in the past few days; the entire building was empty.
Sensing the silence around her, Shu Ningmiao belatedly realized that this floor only had one ward for Arsia.
Not far away, electronic fireworks occasionally burst in the sky. Although silent, they were colorful, with blue and red sparks colliding in the air and cascading down.
The afterglow of the fireworks illuminated the young man's indifferent profile. From a distance of a few steps, his long, strong fingers grabbed her wrist, which was hanging down by her side.
Weston took a deep breath, feeling a chill run through his blood, yet a menacing flame burned within him.
"They get injured but don't know how to treat it."
Weston held her wrist loosely, as if a little force would leave a bruise.
Having already uttered a sentence, his barely concealed anger seemed to vanish, leaving only a faint, inarticulate remark: "Are you an idiot?"
Shu Ningmiao rolled up her sleeves, raised her elbow and pushed him: "There's no blood anymore, what else do you want me to do? Just walk out and let them bandage me?"
He frowned deeply: "Doesn't it hurt?"
Realizing he had spoken too quickly, Weston turned his head away, casually covering up his previous statement: "If it's not treated promptly, it will leave a scar."
She looked down at her palms and vaguely recalled how, when she was bored, she would bother everyone for half a day even if her palms were just slightly chapped, and she took all the attention and concern for granted.
Her current standard has been lowered to the point that stopping the bleeding means everything is fine, and scabbing means the body is healed.
Although she tried her best to recall her feelings at the time, it is undeniable that her feelings were always limited by her circumstances, even her threshold for pain.
The truth is, she really didn't care about the pain on her body, nor did she care if she would be left with unsightly scars.
Even if she were to wear a gown, expose her skin, and openly display her scars in the world of fame and fortune, it wouldn't have much of an impact on her.
Ke Shu Ningmiao came to her senses, turned her head and said softly, "Isn't it you I have?"
The bright yellow smoke filtering through the window softened Weston's face slightly, giving him a more gentle appearance.
He said coldly, "Clever words and a flattering demeanor."
Seeing that his attitude had softened, Shu Ningmiao took the opportunity to speak: "I have something I want to tell you."
...In short, it's not a good thing.
The emerald green halo in Weston's palm flowed gently from their touching fingertips and wrapped around her forearm. He kept his eyes closed and didn't say a word.
After a while, he raised his other hand and gently placed it on her neck.
Weston's bent-over figure covered her shadow, and the two shadows almost overlapped in the corridor.
After a moment, he quickly withdrew his hand, lowered his eyes, and pursed his lips tightly: "Speak."
"You should go now."
Shu Ningmiao stood by the window and looked at him: "The order after the Pinheid turmoil is beginning to be rebuilt. Now is a good time for you to return to the National Research Center."
Weston lightly touched his brow with his fingertip, and the veins on his wrist throbbed clearly: "It's none of your business to care about me."
No, I wasn't concerned about you.
Behind her, the brightly lit night sky stretched out, and beneath her long, silky hair, her expression was one of intense concentration: "The one who framed you is the director of the National Research Center, and the one who endorsed that person is one of the thirty-seven members of the Central Joint Assembly."
“After the verdict is overturned, you will definitely be put back into that vacant seat in the Central Coalition Parliament.”
Shu Ningmiao mercilessly poked him in the heart: "Future congressman, you've already experienced it once. People with too rigid a spine can't survive in the United Building. Politics needs money, news, and showmanship."
Weston turned to leave, but she caught up with him in a few steps, grabbed his shirt and tie, and gently pulled him back.
"I can pay to pave the way for you to stand on this stage." Shu Ningmiao opened her mouth slightly, looking directly at him: "Everything."
Her face radiated a serene smile, clean, dazzling, and almost excessively beautiful.
It revealed some incredible, dazzling light.
“I know many people will be offering you opportunities soon, but you can only choose me.”
She said, "Because only I will always support you and understand what you want to do."
No, she's talking nonsense, because they're in the same boat, and he has no choice but to agree.
Weston's gaze fell on the top of her head, and he raised his hand to press down on the back of her hand that was clutching her tie: "What do you want?"
It's so easy to talk to smart people.
"I want your say in handling the aftermath of Prometheus."
Shu Ningmiao released her hand, her bright eyes meeting his gaze without flinching: "...and some harmless little help, teacher."
She knew that Weston was only interested in Pandora's research, which meant she didn't have to worry about ever disagreeing with him. Low investment, high return—a near-perfect investment.
Most importantly, the 37 members of the joint parliament have complex backgrounds and relationships, each with their own party and family support, making Weston her only choice.
Weston remained noncommittal, but a trivial and absurd thought vaguely surfaced in his mind.
At this point, they did know to call me teacher.
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Author's note: The tonics are arguing in front of the kids!
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