"Got it. At least I won't die this time."
Bai Cha lay on the chair, watching Xiang Nan’s departing back. He answered the call from his superior, "I know what I'm doing."
"You know too much, that's the problem. At least tell me a little," the superior said, locking himself in his office. Bai Cha was in charge of security for his office, so he wasn't worried about anyone peeking in. "You won't die this time, but what about next? You're only telling me your plan when it's already upon us. Isn't there an optimal choice?"
"Just do your job. I've already told you what you need to do. Surely you can handle such a small matter," Bai Cha scoffed. "If you want to become active again, wait until my plan is complete. I hate variables."
The superior: "..."
So he was being looked down upon.
"Didn't you resign?" the superior sighed, feeling a bit melancholic. "I thought you were really going to wash your hands of it."
"Of course, I will wash my hands of it, my lord, but not now. A qualified warrior doesn't just leave; that's the style of a mercenary," Bai Cha shrugged. "In short, I'll trouble you to sort out your feelings regarding the upcoming dragon disaster."
After hanging up, Bai Cha closed her eyes. She had been very tired lately, as if all the accumulated fatigue from the past had surged forward, leaving her feeling incredibly drowsy.
She wondered how Yun He, who had been taken away by Meng Qinghuan, was doing now.
Meanwhile, Yun He, who had only recently awakened, had been dazed for quite some time.
Ever since she opened her eyes to dreamlike scenes, Yun He still hadn't gotten used to it.
"Little He, how are you feeling today? Is anything still uncomfortable?" Meng Qinghuan walked in with a meal tray, his bright forehead reflecting the golden sunlight, making him look like a golden retriever.
"Do you want some breakfast? You're still exercising?" Meng Qinghuan sat on the lounge chair in the small courtyard and started eating the sandwich on his tray, mumbling, "There's soy milk today."
Yun He remained silent, dressed in a black and white training outfit, standing quietly in the courtyard. Dew and sweat soaked the legs of her pants and her back, yet despite this, she felt a sense of emptiness.
She remembered the day she finally woke up, having fully inherited Yun He's power. After showing off to her master, she wanted to go and share it with Bai Cha.
Yun He knew that Bai Cha was always under immense pressure, and recently, things had been going from bad to worse. Yun He remembered that the most direct way to improve Bai Cha's mood was to tell her that the person in the shadows had become stronger again or that something good had happened; she cared about them so much.
So Yun He thought that with her greatly increased strength, Bai Cha would surely be comforted if she knew, and then she could comfort Bai Cha too.
Yun He was simple. She didn't understand social interactions or beating around the bush. She also felt a bit dull, only doing her tasks diligently and treating others earnestly. She had no other hobbies. It seemed that simple people and everything around her were her entire world.
Then, she opened her eyes, and everything changed.
An unfamiliar environment, an unfamiliar house, unfamiliar streets. People were chatting and laughing as they bought groceries and walked back. Meng Qinghuan held a plate and asked if she wanted breakfast.
And she, it seemed, had suddenly become useless. Her daily training had lost its meaning, and she didn't know what to do.
"Master? When will our vacation be extended until?" Yun He stood in the center of the courtyard, feeling somewhat uneasy. She had a lingering sense of being abandoned.
"Oh? Why ask that, Little He? You've finally got a vacation, and you're already thinking about work," Meng Qinghuan sprawled on the chair, lamenting Yun He's excessively serious attitude. "Can't you just accompany your master and rest properly?"
She was still a little uneasy, but Yun He had no choice but to suppress her doubts and go to Meng Qinghuan.
Yun He believed Meng Qinghuan's words, but because she was so uneasy, she had also asked Bai Cha. Bai Cha told her to rest well too, but Yun He still felt that something was not right.
"Master, why do we have a vacation?" Meng Qinghuan's cooking was indeed delicious, but the more she relaxed, the more uneasy Yun He became. "Why aren't you watching me train anymore? We used to have at least three hours of daily training even during vacations."
Training cannot be neglected; this was common knowledge for every shadow. Time was the rain, and laziness was the oxygen that would rust even the strongest muscles, making them unable to withstand crises and extreme cold.
Since arriving in this small city, Meng Qinghuan had not trained, nor did he let her train. This period of relaxation had lasted for a whole month.
Just last week, Yun He finally couldn't stand it anymore and resumed her moderate-intensity training.
Yun He liked being by Bai Cha's side. Someone gave her precise guidance and tasks; she only needed to do her job well. And Bai Cha was not a boss who liked to exploit her subordinates. If there was an urgent mission, Bai Cha would take it on herself to let them continue resting.
Why was she thinking about Bai Cha again?
Yun He sighed. The way Bai Cha had descended from the heavens to save her twice flashed in Yun He's mind whenever she felt uneasy about her own comfort.
[Yun He: Miss Bai, are there no more missions recently?]
[Miss Bai: What's wrong?]
[Yun He: I want to continue completing missions. My vacation has been very long. I want to work first, and if there's a vacation, it can be taken later.]
Yun He held her phone and waited for a long time. Bai Cha on the other end seemed to pause for a long time as well. Finally, after five minutes, she received a reply.
[Miss Bai: You are Meng Qinghuan's disciple. Just listen to him.]
She still couldn't get any answers. Yun He looked up at Meng Qinghuan. She wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but she felt that Meng Qinghuan now seemed like an ordinary person.
"What's wrong, Little He? We've finally found a paradise. Can't we just calm down and enjoy it?" Meng Qinghuan propped his chin on his hand, chewing on bayberries in his mouth, his cheeks bulging.
Yun He: "But, our responsibility..."
Meng Qinghuan: "Pew pew pew, hmm?"
He spat out the pit of the bayberry after chewing it thoroughly, accurately tossing it into the nearby trash can.
Yun He: "Uh, I mean, why did Miss Bai give us..."
Meng Qinghuan: "Pew pew pew pew, ah?"
Yun He: "..."
Never mind. Looking at Meng Qinghuan acting like a pea shooter, she was somewhat speechless.
"Yun He."
Meng Qinghuan stopped his unreliable behavior and looked at Yun He's serious and disappointed expression. He suddenly couldn't bear to deceive Yun He anymore. Or rather, faced with responsibility and love, Meng Qinghuan wanted to take a gamble.
Bai Cha had trained him to always see everything, but this time, Meng Qinghuan wanted to take a risk.
Bai Cha understood, but she could never empathize. Bai Cha couldn't truly feel human emotions, but he did.
The feeling of his heart beating vibrantly made him feel as if he had come back to life. This was their forty-third day of being just the two of them, a period that made Meng Qinghuan feel happy and dreamlike.
However, it seemed that only he felt that way.
"Master, are you hiding something from me?" Yun He stared directly at Meng Qinghuan. Meng Qinghuan could tell that Yun He was already angry.
Rather than anger, it was fear. That keen premonition gave Yun He a bad feeling.
Fine, perhaps he should tell her.
Meng Qinghuan sighed, thinking about the day they left, which still left him with mixed feelings.
At that time, the World Competition had ended a long time ago. Meng Qinghuan finally mustered up the courage and knocked on Bai Cha's office door. Seeing Bai Cha's tired and furrowed brow, Meng Qinghuan was momentarily unable to speak.
"Bai... Little Bai, I." Meng Qinghuan wanted to say something, but Bai Cha looked up at him and pushed three contracts towards him.
"Take a good look. Once you sign, you can leave," Bai Cha temporarily put down her work, her tone serious to the point of being indifferent. "One apartment, you can choose the location you like. I'll coordinate everyone's statements, and your salary card will be credited with three months' original salary, and your pension will be fifty percent of your original salary."
As she said this, she pulled out one of the papers.
"The severance pay after leaving the Shadows is enough for you to live a luxurious life, but given that the retirement pension is only half of what it was, I don't recommend you squander it," Bai Cha said. "Yun He was taken away by you passively, so her powers don't need to be sealed. I will reclaim and seal your powers."
"Of course, if one day you use your powers and break through the seal, you'll have only two options: one, find me to reseal it within three tries; exceeding three tries will result in direct erasure or banishment. Two, return to the Shadows and continue working," Bai Cha continued. "Sign, and then you can leave."
No lingering, no sadness, no pleading. It was as calm as if the two of them had never had any interaction, leaving Meng Qinghuan feeling hollow.
It wasn't until Meng Qinghuan, in a daze, brought Yun He to their current home that he finally snapped out of it. Bai Cha, being someone with such detached emotions, might have simply treated her subordinates well out of instinct. Perhaps she didn't have any feelings for him at all, or perhaps he wasn't that important.
Bai Meng had abandoned him.
Or rather, he had abandoned his past self, and thus abandoned Bai Meng along with it.
After hearing about this, Bai Meng remained silent for a very long time, then he left him and went to Bai Cha's office.
Then came the failed negotiation. Bai Meng wanted to stay in the Shadows, and he wanted to take Yun He away. In fact, Meng Qinghuan didn't understand why Bai Meng wanted to leave him. They were resonants, and their hearts should have been connected, but...
"Master!"
Yun He interrupted Meng Qinghuan's thoughts. Meng Qinghuan looked up. Yun He had already stood up, and her expression was filled with anxiety.
The sky was very blue, the color Meng Qinghuan liked. Yun He's face was not as gentle as Bai Cha's; it had a neutral beauty that made her appear more resilient. In this moment, all the time they had spent together flashed through Meng Qinghuan's mind like a slideshow.
There was the look of fear yet resolute determination when he first met Yun He, the tenacity as she fell countless times and got back up again while he trained her, the conscientiousness as Yun He meticulously and never lazily completed missions, and Yun He's silent companionship as she stood nearby when he was quiet...
"Ah He, I like you."
Yun He froze. "What?"
"Yun He, I like you." Meng Qinghuan opened his eyes. Yun He then noticed that Meng Qinghuan's eyes had lost their golden hue, signifying that he had recovered his sight and all his powers had vanished.
"Master, your eyes!" Yun He immediately became anxious. She didn't know when Meng Qinghuan had become an ordinary person.
Could the World Competition have been that intense? Had Meng Qinghuan sacrificed so much to help Bai Cha win?
"Yun He, this is not important. Powers are just accessories," Meng Qinghuan's tone was softer than ever, devoid of its usual flippant demeanor, sounding honest and peaceful. "Or perhaps it is love. I apologize, please forgive my selfishness in taking you away."
So, had Meng Qinghuan lost his powers in the World Competition and couldn't stay in the Shadows, and then out of personal desire, he had taken her away?
Yun He still felt that something was not quite right, but at present, this seemed to be the only explanation. Bai Cha was so short-handed right now, and Cang Liu had only recently sacrificed himself. It couldn't be that Bai Cha had driven Meng Qinghuan away; it must have been out of necessity.
Yun He looked up and saw Meng Qinghuan's nervous expression, which made her relax a little. At least Bai Cha was not in trouble.
The brief silence felt like an eternity to Meng Qinghuan. His ears were ringing, and he dared not look up until he heard a heavenly sound.
"Me too, Master."