Ye Lan nodded, then gave Su Lixiao a meaningful glance.
Su Lixiao understood his intention, bowed to the doctor in farewell, and left the infirmary.
The doctor felt puzzled seeing Ye Lan suddenly send her away.
But when he met Ye Lan’s deep gaze, his heart skipped a beat.
Though it lasted only a moment, he seemed to see an infinite universe in Ye Lan’s eyes, yet in the next instant, those eyes became purely clear.
This clarity contained not a trace of impurity, yet beneath it, whether there was a fathomless depth or a shallow puddle, the doctor could not tell.
The only certainty was that this was not a gaze typical of a student.
The doctor recalled the data displayed on Ye Lan’s terminal when he was first brought to the infirmary:
[Name: Ye Lan
Class: E
Entrance Score: D-
Physical Traits: Strength: C; Endurance: C; Reflex: B; Tenacity: C
Mechanical Modification: 0%
Psychic Ability: No detectable fragments in genome
Psychic Energy: 0
Mechanical Modification Level: 0%
Overall Evaluation: D-]
On paper, a D- evaluation and assignment to Class E seemed entirely reasonable.
But now, the doctor doubted the reliability of these numbers.
Some things could not be represented by data, or perhaps could not be represented at all.
In his career, the doctor had treated countless patients teetering on the edge of life and death.
Some were indifferent to life, some had transcended the world, some embraced death, yet never had he seen eyes as all-encompassing as Ye Lan’s.
It was too strange—was he simply getting old?
Although odd for a man in his twenties to think this, the doctor indeed felt so.
“Thank you.” Ye Lan bowed sincerely to the doctor.
His earnest gratitude left the doctor somewhat flustered.
The doctor waved it off, saying, “It’s nothing. It’s just what doctors are supposed to do.”
“Not just for that, doctor…”
Ye Lan straightened, looking into the doctor’s eyes.
“When you went to the battlefield to rescue me, you should have noticed something.”
“Noticed what? I never went to the battlefield.”
The doctor met Ye Lan’s gaze but, as expected, could read no information in his clear eyes and had to admit defeat.
“Yes, I did go to the battlefield. And it was my people who carried you onto the vehicle.”
“Your willpower is astonishingly strong. Even with the overload shield, being hit by a cruise missile’s shockwave should have knocked you out for at least a week, but you only fainted for two days…”
The doctor suddenly noticed a playful glint in Ye Lan’s eyes.
Being stared at like that was uncomfortable and made the doctor realize that Ye Lan wasn’t interested in discussing his recovery.
‘I really don’t like dealing with smart people.’
“Fine, I probably shouldn’t have told you the truth.”
The doctor, helpless, dragged a chair from the corner and sat down, explaining, “That black mech wasn’t just a simple rule violation—it was an ability runaway.”
“Various factors can trigger an ability runaway. While it isn’t necessarily the academy’s fault, it inevitably has negative consequences. The higher-ups suppressed knowledge of this from the students.”
Ye Lan asked, “Then why did you tell me the truth?”
“What the higher-ups think isn’t my concern. Besides, some students at the time likely noticed it was an ability runaway anyway—this couldn’t be suppressed.”
The doctor’s words were bold, but he didn’t care: “I only cared about whether my conscience could bear it.”
Ye Lan said, “But ultimately, whether it was an ability runaway or not, I was the victim. Ignorant or not, it wouldn’t affect your conscience, so there must be another reason, right?”
“The battle between your girlfriend and the black mech was recorded by many surveillance devices. But you…”
The doctor hesitated, unsure how to put it delicately, then said indirectly, “You know, people always enjoy a spectacle.”
“I know. No one knew my actions.”
Ye Lan had long guessed that the glory of defeating the mech could not be shared with Su Lixiao and would even be twisted against him.
He didn’t blame the doctor, who was searching for polite phrasing, but said it himself:
“Now, I’m either a coward fleeing the battlefield or a rat exposed to public scorn.”
The doctor chuckled, “Maybe both?”
When the black mech appeared, Ye Lan being pushed away by Su Lixiao and fleeing in panic were captured clearly by hidden cameras.
But his heroic bombardment of the black mech using the Wolf Spider vehicle, done from afar while using the Haidley dagger to hack it, was naturally attributed to volunteer assistance—directly unrelated to him.
This led to Ye Lan being insulted far sooner than in his previous life, though it didn’t bother him.
He had anticipated it; what worried him wasn’t others’ scorn but his own inaction.
The doctor, puzzled by Ye Lan’s calm demeanor, asked, “Aren’t you angry?”
Ye Lan smiled lightly: “Angry about what? Nothing to be angry about. As you said, people enjoy a spectacle. Since the mech’s runaway couldn’t be sensationalized, it’s simpler to sensationalize a boy abandoning his girlfriend—nothing complex about it.”
“Also.”
He extended his hand to the doctor, “Return my things.”
“Overload shield fried on the first day? Even engineering couldn’t believe it.”
The doctor pulled a school badge from his coat pocket and tossed it to Ye Lan: “The badge’s shield generator has been repaired. You can use the overload shield again, but for your own safety, I don’t recommend taking direct hits from missiles.”
“Not sure about that.” Ye Lan accepted the badge, half-joking, half-serious: “I might visit you often in the future—remember to give me a discount on the medical bills.”
“Why would you visit the hospital so often?”
The doctor didn’t understand the meaning, but he watched Ye Lan leave the infirmary.