—The truth, it seemed, was that only heartlessness and injustice could pave the way to victory and greatness.
A hand abruptly halted between Man Huai Zhi and Ke Yiyi. The owner of the hand wore a hooded sweatshirt, the hood pulled up and a cartoon-style mask featuring stark white teeth covering their face. Two swords were slung diagonally across their back.
Were it not for the independent observer badge pinned to their chest, no one would have associated this attire with an observer.
“Please maintain your distance.”
Li Yuyi gazed at the mere foot of space separating him from Ke Yiyi and Man Huai Zhi. He offered neither a gesture nor a glance to signal Man Huai Zhi to retreat; he simply stood there, unmoving. In fact, he hadn’t even spared a single glance at Man Huai Zhi’s face throughout.
“I posed no threat to her safety.”
Man Huai Zhi looked at Li Yuyi. Though he had previously conducted investigations into all observers dispatched by the various academies, this individual’s data was inexplicably incomplete. A portion of the information had been classified and was unavailable to Xuanji Star. It was likely that this particular data remained confidential even on Vega.
“Just as salvation is not defined by the savior, so too is a threat defined not by the one threatening, but by the one being threatened.”
Li Yuyi subtly rephrased a statement once made by Cui Wei, and Man Huai Zhi’s eyes grew perceptibly colder. He had already added this Vega native, who had reappropriated Cui Wei’s words, to his mental list of unfriendly individuals.
“I was merely catching up with an old friend.”
As Man Huai Zhi uttered the word ‘old friend’ with such placidness, Ke Yiyi felt an inexplicable tremor in her heart.
‘What am I even thinking? This is hardly the time for such thoughts…’
“Catching up, you say, when you’ve pushed your old friend to retreat step by step?”
Li Yuyi lowered his gaze to Man Huai Zhi’s left foot, which had stepped forward but not yet receded. Man Huai Zhi, taking the hint, withdrew his foot and stepped back several paces, re-establishing his distance from Ke Yiyi.
“May I now continue catching up with my old friend?”
“By all means.”
Li Yuyi swiftly retreated. Man Huai Zhi noted his footwork and instinctively looked at his face, but the mask obscured everything.
“Have we met before?”
“Those who practice the ‘False Fall Step’ are not uncommon in the Eastern Continent. Perhaps we met in a dream.”
Li Yuyi didn’t linger. After a few quick strides, he reappeared on the opposite side of the street, pulling the headphones from his neck onto his ears, clearly intending to ignore anything Man Huai Zhi might say next.
He turned his head slightly, his gaze drifting, as if by chance, towards a man smoking behind a tree. This man had remained close to Man Huai Zhi all along and also wore an observer badge, indicating he was Man Huai Zhi’s companion.
The other man sensed Li Yuyi’s gaze, turned his face, and their eyes met. Both assessed the other before returning to their own affairs.
Even without having seen his file, Li Yuyi could deduce the man’s name: Lei Ji, a Colonel Commissioner from the Military Discipline Department of Xuanji Star’s War Ministry, stationed with the ground forces. Judging by his uniform, he was now likely an Assistant Inspector General in the Bloodsoaked Army’s Inspection Province.
****
“Big Brother Man, you’ve changed. You weren’t like this before.”
Ke Yiyi sighed. Though they stood close, she felt an invisible, thick barrier had grown between them.
“I haven’t changed. I’m simply doing the same things I did in the past.”
“You used to be playful and witty, yet never offensive. You were upright and brave, always stepping forward when things happened, never tolerating evil, but you would never harm others, nor would you support actions that harmed others. You were full of a sense of justice. Why are you now defending Xuanji Star’s war crimes?”
“Little Ke, don’t you understand yet? These war crimes were all imposed upon Xuanji Star by Vega. They branded our cause of liberating the Yan people as aggression, and our expulsion of the Western puppet regime as destruction. They slandered and demonized us.”
“Is Vega itself pure and flawless? Did Vega not bomb the civilians of Canghai City? Did they not instigate the Heting Massacre? They utterly refuse to mention their own sins, instead unilaterally imposing what they perceive as crimes upon Xuanji Star. Think about it, am I wrong?”
Ke Yiyi fell silent. Vega had indeed bombed Canghai City civilians and had indeed carried out the Heting Massacre… She felt there was something wrong with Man Huai Zhi’s words, yet she couldn’t pinpoint what it was, so for a moment, she could only respond with silence.
Seeing Ke Yiyi remain quiet, Man Huai Zhi sighed softly and spoke earnestly.
“Little Ke, you must distinguish right from wrong. Don’t be swayed by the propaganda of those Westerners. Everything you see is carefully filtered and fabricated information by Westerners, it’s untrue. They attempt to brainwash you with this information, making you trust them, and then work tirelessly for their cause.”
“Big Brother Man… the remains of Vega’s fallen have yet to be fully cleared. There are detailed records of war crimes confessed by captured Xuanji Star personnel. Many bombed-out buildings still stand there today, like this Worldly Affairs City.”
Ke Yiyi looked around, particularly at the ‘Family of Five Building’ which was visible at a glance. Man Huai Zhi followed her gaze, observing her from the corner of his eye, but his expression remained as amiable and unperturbed as ever.
“Before the war, this was a very prosperous city in the entire Cloud Mountain Peninsula. It was only because of Xuanji Star’s invasion that it became this way.”
“I know. I came here with the army during the World War.”
“You came here? Then you should know the suffering of the people…”
“Little Ke, you’re mistaken. It’s precisely because the Vega puppet regime, for its own selfish interests, refused to surrender and incited countless Yan people to rush to the battlefield under the guise of ‘defending their homeland’—when in reality it was to consolidate their rule and systematically eliminate the Yan population—that we had to use the most ferocious offensive to swiftly crush Vega’s defenses. Only then could we…”
“You’ve changed.”
A hint of disappointment flickered across Ke Yiyi’s face. She didn’t understand, truly didn’t understand. They were both human, so why could Man Huai Zhi ignore the deaths of Vega’s people?
Every word he spoke sounded as if he were considering the Yan people of Vega, yet weren’t the very Yan people he claimed to care for the ones dying under Xuanji Star’s artillery? Furthermore, many other ethnic groups had fallen to Xuanji Star’s guns. Why did Man Huai Zhi not even mention them? Were they not considered human?
“Big Brother Man, you truly have changed.”
While at the police academy, Ke Yiyi had received psychological education. She clearly remembered a lesson on the relationship between environment and people. Humans are easily influenced by their environment, subtly changing over time. As the saying goes, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ Someone who doesn’t eat sweets, living in an environment where people are obsessed with them, will quickly integrate into that sweet-loving culture. Even if they know an obsession with sweets isn’t beneficial for their health, they will unconsciously assimilate into the environment, accepting its culture and customs.
Man Huai Zhi was exactly like this now. Although it wasn’t his original intention, he had gradually been assimilated by the Xuanji Star environment, adopting its way of thinking, to the point where he seemed indistinguishable from other Xuanji Star people. Yet, in her heart, Ke Yiyi still regarded him as an unusual exception, believing that his essence remained the Man Huai Zhi of the past—upright, brave, and full of a sense of justice. It was just that the Xuanji Star environment had altered his outward behavior. As for why she considered him an exception… Ke Yiyi didn’t dwell on the question, though she knew the answer deep down. Even the most demanding person would hold their beloved in high regard, giving them considerable leeway, and a former beloved was no exception.
“Little Ke, I sincerely invite you to join our cause. Don’t you want to, like in the past, work with me to…”
“I’m sorry, I have to go back.”
Ke Yiyi interrupted Man Huai Zhi. Although she knew it was impolite, she truly didn’t want to continue the conversation. She walked away without looking back, feeling utterly exhausted, as if the burden that had momentarily lightened had been pressed back upon her. As she reached the corner, she instinctively glanced back at Man Huai Zhi, who still stood there, his amiable expression unchanged from the past.
‘Though his outward demeanor has been influenced by Xuanji Star, his true self remains the person he was before—upright, brave, and full of a sense of justice… It’s just a pity that his sense of justice has been exploited by Xuanji Star, leading him down a misguided path, to the point where he sees Xuanji Star’s actions as his own righteousness. This isn’t stubborn delusion, but rather his own unawareness.’
Even though after this territorial exchange, they would once again be separated, perhaps never to cross paths again, Ke Yiyi still hoped he would awaken, that he wouldn’t continue to be deceived on this wrong path, sinking ever deeper. She didn’t look back again, fearing to see a look of disappointment on Man Huai Zhi’s face. She couldn’t respond to his invitation, but she also didn’t want to witness such an expression from him.
‘Let everything from the past… remain in the past… No more reminiscing… it’s useless, it only adds to the pain.’
Ke Yiyi now seemed to grasp the meaning of the phrase, ‘Better never to have met than to meet again.’ She had once thought it merely a singer’s melodramatic lament, but now, she realized it held a certain truth. Had she not come to this territorial exchange, had she not seen Man Huai Zhi, still holding no hope that he was alive, her state of mind might have been much better than it was now.
“Should I not have come with him?”
Ke Yiyi noticed Li Yuyi following behind her. He never caught up, merely maintaining a respectful distance, clearly not wishing to disturb her.
“Regardless, he is your old friend. If you hadn’t come, you would have felt uneasy. You simply followed your own instincts. Don’t chastise yourself with right or wrong; many things in this world cannot be simply categorized as such.”
“But we said many… incompatible things. Some were also… inappropriate.”
Ke Yiyi paused twice, finally choosing two neutral words.
“Actually, Xuanji Star’s propaganda is just that. He merely repeated the official, self-contradictory narrative. Incompatibility was inevitable, as even Xuanji Star’s own officials constantly change their rhetoric when they speak.”
“As for ‘inappropriate,’ there are no reporters here, no outsiders. You didn’t say anything that goes against your identity. What fault is there in that?”
Ke Yiyi turned her head slightly to look at Li Yuyi and nodded to him.
“Thank you.”
“No need to thank me. It was just a few words.”
Li Yuyi turned off the music in his headphones, the previous song still echoing in his mind.
‘Trying to forget, yet repeatedly remembering.’
‘Carefully hidden, always revealing itself.’