Silent Thunder
The throbbing emotion stemming from the phrase "moisturizing things silently" was like a silent thunderclap detonating in the deepest reaches of Jinyang's frozen heart. The aftermath wasn't a violent destruction, but a long, profound tremor, continuously disintegrating something that had been solid for eons.
He could no longer maintain absolute silence and isolation.
Those forcibly awakened, fundamental insights into "vitality" and "nourishment" seemed to possess their own life force, surging within the core of his rules, seeking an outlet. They clashed violently with the ironclad principle of "Heaven's ruthlessness," which he adhered to, bringing a pain that bordered on rupture, yet strangely... a hint of unfamiliar vitality, like the cracking of ice.
The rhythm of the Heavenly Dao around him grew more erratic, sometimes calm and tranquil, and other times rippled dangerously by the turbulent surge of emotions within. He still rarely opened his eyes, but the tightly pursed lines of his lips, the slight furrow of his brow, and the occasional uncontrollable trembling of his fingertips all betrayed the turbulent waves within him that continued unabated.
He Yuan saw it all.
His monitoring system faithfully recorded all of Xiang Jinyang's abnormal energy fluctuation patterns. They couldn't be categorized as any known system errors or post-traumatic stress syndromes. They were more like... a manifestation of an extremely active inner life activity.
This conclusion caused his computing core to briefly crash again.
Life activities? Within an existence that he defines as a "world-rule aggregate"?
But he couldn't deny what he had seen. Beneath that cold administrator's exterior, something drastic and unfamiliar was indeed taking place.
This realization brings a sense of anxiety that far exceeds the technical difficulties.
He was no longer content with mere observation and data analysis from a distance. A stronger, irresistible urge drove him—he needed to get closer. He needed to more clearly perceive the source of change, to understand the power inherent in the silent influence that triggered it.
His restoration work became absent-minded. More often than not, he would sit silently not far from Xiang Jinyang, his gaze fixed on him for long periods of time. That gaze was no longer a pure scan and analysis, but a focused, almost piercing gaze.
He was "reading" him. Reading every subtle rise and fall of his breath. Reading every unsteady flicker of the regular light around him. Reading the vulnerability and struggle that could not be completely concealed beneath his forced composure.
This silent yet pervasive gaze left Xiang Jinyang feeling more disoriented than any previous form of voyeurism. The gaze, as if tangible, burned into his perception, leaving him feeling uneasy and uneasy. The frozen walls of his heart seemed to be chipping away at this persistent, silent gaze.
He wanted to scold him, to tell him to go away, but every time the words came to his lips, he swallowed them back strangely.
Because in that gaze, he strangely didn't sense any malice, but rather a kind of... extremely confused, stubborn, and even a little clumsy inquiry.
It's like a programmer who is unable to compile code. He is unwilling to give up and can only stare at the screen, trying to see through its essence with his eyes.
This realization left Xiang Jinyang with nowhere to vent his nameless anger, and instead transformed it into a deeper, sticky embarrassment and... a very faint hesitation that he himself was ashamed to admit.
The atmosphere in Jintian became extremely strange.
The two of them were separated by a mere few feet, yet an invisible force field seemed to span them. The air was as thick as gelatin, and every silent glance (even though one person always kept their eyes closed), every subtle shift in their aura, could cause subtle resonances or conflicts in the rules.
It's like a long-lasting, silent tug-of-war.
Until one moment.
After staring at each other for a long time, He Yuan seemed to have made up his mind. He moved very slowly and cautiously towards Jin Yang, moving an inch closer.
It was just a tiny distance, but it was like a huge rock dropped into stagnant water.
Xiang Jinyang's tightly closed eyelashes trembled suddenly! The rhythm of the heavenly way around him instantly tightened, revealing clear vigilance and resistance!
He Yuan's movements immediately stopped. He didn't move any closer, but simply maintained that slightly awkward distance, silently and stubbornly staying there.
It seems like a test, but also like an expression of silent persistence.
Time passed slowly again.
The suffocating sense of confrontation quietly changed because of this insignificant inch of proximity.
Xiang Jinyang discovered that his vigilance hadn't led to any further aggression. The other party simply stood there, like a silent stone. That uncomfortable gaze remained, but it seemed... less aggressive?
His tense nerves inevitably showed a hint of fatigue and relaxation after a long period of high vigilance.
Just when he relaxed a little bit——
He Yuan moved again.
This time, he didn't move closer, but slowly and very gently extended a finger.
There was no power gathered at his fingertips, no code flowing, just ordinary fingers with the slightly cool temperature of his body.
It slowly, with an almost pious temptation, pointed towards the void - not towards Jin Yang's body, but towards a node in the unstable rhythm of the Heavenly Dao flowing around him, which was particularly disordered due to internal conflicts and constantly bursting out tiny sparks of rules.
There, it was the external manifestation of Xiang Jinyang's painful struggle at the moment!
Xiang Jinyang's pupils suddenly shrank! The rules of his body instantly roared and he was about to launch a counterattack!
However, the expected attacks or snooping did not come.
The slightly cool finger stopped just before it was about to touch the violent rule node.
Immediately afterwards, a faint yet extremely gentle thought flowed out from his fingertips.
That thought was no longer a cold code, nor was it the clumsy imitation of "spring" from before.
That is a more direct and purer kind of——
Empathy.
It gently and carefully wrapped around the disordered node, like the softest feather brushing against a burning wound.
No attempt to fix. No attempt to analyze. No attempt to understand.
Just silently conveying a simple message:
'I saw it.'
'I see your pain.'
"I... feel it."
“…”
All of Xiang Jinyang's intentions to counterattack were completely frozen at this moment.
He felt as if he had been struck by invisible thunder, frozen in place, his mind blank.
That thought was too gentle, too... strange.
It was so strange that it was beyond all his knowledge and experience over billions of years.
The laws of nature operate under the rule of the jungle, so where does "empathy" come from? When rules conflict, one must either suppress or obey, so why should one "feel" pain?
But that thought was so real, so unquestionable, it penetrated all his solid defenses and accurately touched the deepest part of his heart, the struggle and torment that even he himself was unwilling to face.
The frozen core, under that gentle touch, made a tiny cracking sound as if it could not bear the weight.
A strong, sour warm current suddenly broke through the dam of reason and surged into my eyes.
He suddenly turned his head and bit his lower lip hard to stop the warm liquid from escaping from his eyes.
However, his violently shaking shoulders and the aura of rules that suddenly became chaotic and seemed about to collapse completely in the next second had already exposed his loss of control.
He Yuan's fingers were still suspended in mid-air.
He clearly sensed Xiang Jinyang's violent reaction. It wasn't rejection, nor anger, but rather... an extreme vulnerability after his defenses were completely pierced.
The flow of code in front of his eyes stopped completely.
An unprecedented, surging panic instantly overwhelmed him.
He seemed... screwed up.
He instinctively wanted to withdraw his hand, wanted to cut off that strand of thought, and wanted to escape as quickly as possible from this airspace that suddenly became incomprehensible and uncontrollable to him.
But just as his fingertips moved slightly, and he was about to withdraw——
A cold, trembling hand, but full of strength, suddenly rose up and grabbed his wrist which was about to retreat!
Skin touch.
Cold and slightly cool.
Trembling and stiffness.
Xiang Jinyang's hands clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white, like a drowning man grasping at a last piece of driftwood. He still didn't turn around, but squeezed out a broken and untuned sound from between his teeth:
“…Don’t…go…”
The sound was extremely light, but it was like a real thunder, booming in the deepest part of He Yuan's perception core!
He froze completely.
All calculations, all logic, all databases, were completely destroyed in the face of this almost pleading "Don't go".
All that remained was the cold, trembling touch on my wrist and the earth-shaking shock brought by those two words.
silence.
Deathly silence.
Only the two people's clasped hands (one holding tightly, the other holding stiffly) became the only living, trembling connection in this silent space.
The silent thunder finally split the darkest night.
Revealing underneath,
Two completely different souls,
The most original,
It is also the most real.
Tremor and confusion.
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