A Different World

Han Qingyu's body was fine, and his current state would not last very long. His situation was different from General Jiang's. By freezing his conscious mind, he had successfully avoided the mad erosion brought on by the aftereffects of the molten trait. Knowing this was enough. For Wen Jifei, having known Han Qingyu in his youth and then journeyed alongside him through these past five years, he knew just how much had changed. Over these five years, across this world, far too many things had been utterly transformed. Han Qingyu, too, had evolved step-by-step from an ordinary high school graduate and Azure recruit into the figure known to the outside world as Major Qing, The King, Azure's Starlight, and the leader of Stream Vanguard. He had grown stronger every step of the way, and in doing so, the burdens he shouldered had quietly multiplied. After witnessing him so many times clinging to his stubborn narrowness while choosing to raise his blade and charge into the darkness and despair, seeing that boyish version of him again by chance brought Wen Jifei quite a bit of joy. Along with it came a sappy warmth and a wave of emotion. *Letting him stay confused like this for a while doesn't seem like a bad thing,* Wen Jifei thought. Even so, he made no effort to coordinate everyone's actions. People could mess around however they pleased. After all, an opportunity to bully, torment, and even tease Han Qingyu was exceedingly rare. They had been threatened by force, "bullied," and dominated for far too long. Besides, whether they told him the truth or not hardly mattered; either way, it would feel completely unreal to him. "Let's go," Wen Jifei called out to Wu Xu with a smile, gesturing for them to take different routes. Inside the house at that moment, Han Qingyu had just bolted out the door. So when He Tangtang, the Little Prince, and the rest rushed over, they missed the sight of Han Qingyu getting beaten up that they had been looking forward to. "How come he gets to run away while you're beating him?" He Tangtang asked, dissatisfied. "Mm, he's been like that since he was little," Zhang Jiexia replied, turning around. As she wiped away her tears, she could not help chuckling. Qingzi's comrades soon left as well, leaving only the mountain-dwelling couple inside the house. They had a son named Han Qingyu. For nineteen years, that fact had been utterly ordinary, but now... "How does it feel? You just gave that someone—Major The Qing—a sound thrashing," Han Youshan said, wrestling with the foreign title as he tried to make a joke. "The one I hit was my son." Zhang Jiexia sniffled, shaking out her hand. "And I didn't even dare use much force." "Couldn't bring yourself to?" "No, my hand hurts. His hide is way too thick. If you don't believe me, go try hitting him yourself next time." Zhang Jiexia wiped away tears with a lingering smile, then called out, "Qingzi's dad." "Yeah? What is it?" "To be honest, my head has been swimming this whole time, like I was living in a dream. It wasn't until Qingzi woke up and I laid hands on him that I finally snapped back to reality and realized all of this is real." "Yeah, I felt pretty much the same. Watching you beat him was the only thing that made it feel real to me, too." Han Youshan smiled and glanced out the door. "Will Qingzi be all right running off like that? He still looked completely dazed to me." "He'll be fine. We should take this chance to catch our breath first. From now on, we're really going to be the parents of Major Qing—who even knows what that'll be like." Zhang Jiexia gave a laugh that was half a sob, then glanced toward the doorway as well. "As for him, their Xu'er will definitely keep an eye on him anyway. That boy doesn't talk much, but anyone can tell he's truly good and dependable." "That's true." Han Youshan nodded in agreement. Looking up again, a hint of excitement showed in his eyes. "And did you know? Wu Xu is actually their strongest fighter right now! I heard them say that on the latest Dome Leaderboard, Wu Xu is tied for seventh place. Do you know what the Dome Leaderboard means?" Terms like "strongest fighter" and "Dome Leaderboard" rolled off his tongue effortlessly, without the slightest hesitation. "I don't know... and I don't care." Zhang Jiexia had actually heard about the Dome Leaderboard as well, but her mind was elsewhere. Sniffling, she looked at her husband and said earnestly, "Do you know what I'm most worried about right now?" Han Youshan shook his head blankly. "Dead. Iron. Straight. Guy... Do you know who that refers to, and what it means?" Han Youshan shook his head again. "Your son, Dead Iron Straight Guy Han Qingyu." Zhang Jiexia recounted the title He Tangtang had told her, along with all of Han Qingyu's exploits over the past five years, before concluding, "So, even if he's a hero, it's useless, understand?" "..." Han Youshan was completely dumbfounded. With that kind of dead iron obtuseness, no matter how much a girl liked him, she would probably be driven away in frustration, wouldn't she?! After pondering this for several seconds, Han Youshan asked worriedly, "Then what do we do?" "Isn't that what I'm trying to figure out? Maybe we should take advantage of his memory loss while he's still obedient..." Zhang Jiexia muttered as she turned the thought over in her head. *** Wu Xu stood relaxed on the high slope across the road, arms crossed over his chest, watching. Down below, clad in hospital scrubs and wearing a look of utter bewilderment, Han Qingyu stood at the fork in the path not far from his house. With a blank and helpless expression, he looked left, then right. *This is actually kind of amusing,* Wu Xu thought, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly in a rare ghost of a smile. Soon, he spotted Zhe Qiuhong, Milla, and Rusty Sister creeping out nearby, while on the other side were Wen Jifei, He Tangtang, Yang Qingbai... Sure enough, quite a few people were hiding nearby to enjoy the show. "Where's the Little Prince? Why didn't he come?" Wen Jifei asked in a low voice. "He just took a few people to block off the village paths—blocking our remaining people too," Yang Qingbai said with a wink and a mischievous grin. That meant Zhu Jiaming was deliberately preventing Han Qingyu from asking around and finding out the real situation too quickly... "No wonder there's nobody on the road! That's going too far... haha." Wen Jifei chuckled alongside He Tangtang and Yang Qingbai. Since Zhe Qiuhong was standing over there watching, playing along like this was definitely harmless. It felt a little unfair to Qingzi, but they couldn't help it—this was simply too entertaining. This was Han Qingyu, the man whose heaven-splitting strike had ended the Zenith War... Yet right now, he knew nothing. To him, this altered world was too foreign and too bizarre. "...What on earth happened?" At this moment, just as they had expected, Han Qingyu was completely lost. *All I did was take a nap during the post-exam vacation...* *And a brand-new brick building has sprung up on our family vegetable plot.* *On top of that, a bunch of weird people seem to be living in it.* *What's even weirder is that Mom and Dad seem really familiar with them, on great terms even!* Han Qingyu was certain none of this was a dream. His dash outside under the "beating" just now hadn't been out of fear of getting hit, but because he had suddenly felt that Comrade Zhang Jiexia was acting rather strange today. Although his mother had occasionally "swiped" at him while he was growing up, she had always been kind and reasonable. If he had truly tried his hardest and still failed to pass, his mother would have been too busy worrying and comforting him to do anything else. *How could she possibly hit me? And say such bizarre, baseless things?* *Messing around everywhere, trying to reach the heavens, doomed to be single... The part about worrying I'd stay single was something she used to say before, but as for the other two, they know me better than that.* If there hadn't been too many bizarre things happening at once for his emotions to process, Han Qingyu would have felt deeply wronged and aggrieved by now. *Besides, there's no way I only scored 250 points! Even if my English is terrible, I...* Out of sheer reflex, Han Qingyu finished the rest of his internal monologue in English... The passage was long enough to constitute a full 120-word essay. He swallowed hard. *I...* This shook and terrified Han Qingyu far more than anything he had seen or heard so far—because he suddenly knew English! And by his estimate, it was fluent enough to converse naturally with foreigners. *Holy... crap! Stop, stop, don't think about it... don't think about it yet. I'm not in my right mind right now.* Growing increasingly panicked, Han Qingyu took several deep breaths to calm himself down. After a moment's thought, he decided to walk along the path and look around for himself. The village road hadn't changed much. He turned around, but had not walked far when— "Qing..." The wife from the neighboring Ma family, carrying a vegetable basket, stepped over the field ridge by the roadside. Seeing him from a distance, she uttered just a single syllable before freezing in place. "Auntie," Han Qingyu greeted as he walked over. "Ah! You're... out for a stroll?" "Yeah." Knowing that this neighbor loved to embellish rumors and gossip, Han Qingyu instinctively held back from asking her anything. With that brief exchange, they brushed past each other. *She recognized me. Aside from looking slightly surprised, our conversation was completely normal... Did Auntie Ma not notice that a whole new building and a group of strange people suddenly appeared in our vegetable garden?!* With his mind still hazy and confused, Han Qingyu could sense many things were wrong, but his head was swimming and panicky, leaving him incapable of orderly reasoning or sound judgment... Full of suspicion, he continued forward. Within a few steps, two boys around seven or eight years old came into view. Han Qingyu searched his memory thoroughly, but could not recall ever seeing them before. Yet by all rights, he should have known them. Fenglong'ao wasn't very large, and people rarely moved in or out... Whose children were they? Han Qingyu couldn't remember no matter how hard he tried. Right then, "Hey, hehehe! Source energy burst, Hammer of Sky-Shattering!" one of the boys yelled, leaping down from a roadside dirt mound while brandishing a toy weapon. The weapon was a thick rope tied to a square block of wood. *A meteor hammer? Wait, what's that?* Han Qingyu then noticed a rectangular object tied with cord across the boy's back... It looked like a cardboard box from royal jelly, only painted black. It was normal for young boys to make bamboo swords or wooden spears as toys—Han Qingyu had played with those himself growing up—but this particular gear felt rather novel. "Hey, ha... Rusty Sister Dimple Slash!" the other boy countered across from him. His weapons were much more ordinary: two bamboo swords, one strapped across his back and the other held in his hand. "You're not allowed to actually throw it!" the boy with the meteor hammer yelled anxiously after hearing the move's name. "I know. Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish..." The boy with the dual blades called back. As he ran, he spun the bamboo sword in his hand, mimicking a blade whirling through the air, and charged toward his opponent in an arc. Circling around his opponent, he turned. And caught sight of Han Qingyu.