Apology

He Tangtang became the first catalyst that prompted Han Qingyu to begin recovering—not his memories or combat prowess, but his nature and disposition. Before him, the people Han Qingyu had encountered since waking up—his father, his mother, Plague Chicken, Wu Xu—were largely people who gave him a sense of dependability and security. Thus, he had exposed his vulnerability and unease, putting up neither shell nor defenses. Someone like He Tangtang certainly wasn't a real threat either, but he had tried to play petty tricks on Han Qingyu. And so, Han Qingyu's own petty, vindictive streak was triggered. Along with it came his cunning and rebellious nature, just like back when he first met Lao Jian. "Give me the other half of that steel rod," Han Qingyu said, holding out his hand. He Tangtang hesitated. "What for?" "A souvenir." "What's there to keep as a souvenir from this? Let's just forget it, yeah?" He Tangtang took a step back, trying to wriggle out of it. "I want it," Han Qingyu insisted, keeping his hand held out. Left with no choice, He Tangtang had to hand over the remaining half of the steel rod, mumbling weakly, "Seriously, we're really good friends. I was just messing around with you." "I know," Han Qingyu smiled. "..." *Stop smiling like that,* He Tangtang thought to himself. *Whenever you smile like that, something bad happens to me.* Back during that period of idle downtime at the Third Fixed Exploration Site, He Tangtang had gotten into an argument with Caixin. Unable to out-argue or beat her in a fight, he lied to her, saying that Han Qingyu had gone up to the summit of Xilang Peak all by himself that day to reminisce about the past. And so Yin Caixin had gone climbing the mountain. The summit of Xilang Peak was where she had once confessed her feelings to Han Qingyu. When the truth came out, Han Qingyu had laughed along with everyone else. Then, that very night, while He Tangtang was sound asleep... clad in nothing but a pair of boxer shorts, he was strung up under a Swordfish-class airship and flown all the way to the top of Xilang Peak. Because he wasn't wearing an apparatus, by the time he came back, he had already turned into a snowman. "Anyway, it's nice to meet you—whether in the past or now," Han Qingyu added with a brilliant smile, reaching out to pat He Tangtang on the shoulder. At this moment, the "nineteen-year-old" Han Qingyu was genuinely happy. *Aside from Plague Chicken, who's been through it all with me, there's Wu Xu, Zhu Jiaming, and probably more... It seems I've made some wonderful friends over these past five years, a great and interesting bunch of people. And we seem to be really strong!* he thought to himself. When someone has lost years of time, suddenly discovering that precious and trustworthy people remain by their side is undeniably a source of happiness. For Han Qingyu, this mattered deeply. It proved that during those five years, he must have done some things right. Beyond that, another reason for his joy lay in the discovery of his own "strength." Wen Jifei and Ye Wanfen had already told him about it, but knowing something abstractly was one thing, and experiencing it firsthand was quite another. *I can run so fast and jump so high. I crushed a steel rod to powder with my bare hands.* With the mindset and perspective of a nineteen-year-old, this sudden, overwhelming power filled Han Qingyu with novel wonder and excitement. When Han Qingyu returned to the house, his parents and Master Longchi were watching television. His dad naturally ignored him, while his mom didn't even notice he had come back. Only Master Longchi looked up and asked, "Who are you?" "..." Han Qingyu felt a brief flash of sulkiness, followed by a spark of excitement. "Major The Qing. Really formidable. Master, have you heard of him?" Jiang Longchi looked confused for a moment, then shook his head. "Nope." "For all that is..." Wen Jifei had mentioned the phrase earlier, but Han Qingyu hadn't remembered it clearly yet. Jiang Longchi blurted out, "For all that breathes, there is no retreat in battle; our bodies bar the sky?" "One of us," Han Qingyu said, reaching out to high-five him. He then shoved his hand into his pocket, fingered the short piece of the steel rod, and gave it a gentle snap between his index and middle fingers. *Crack.* Snapping off half of it, he found a chair and sat down. He had wanted to find an opportunity to show off for his parents and give them a shock. However, Han Youshan and Zhang Jiexia were glued to the TV, seemingly giving him the cold shoulder on purpose. On Azure's Rejectors exclusive channel, the footage currently playing in the broadcast showed: [A vast and tragic battlefield; a scarred, blurred silhouette standing at the edge of an icy precipice, a banner draped over his shoulder in the biting blizzard. At the summit of a snowy peak, a ray of blue light surged straight into the vault of the night sky, colliding midair with a mass of crimson light descending from the heavens in a thunderous clash... A long blade slashing at an alien fleet from the rooftop of a skyscraper. A sky-shattering war hammer blasting open the shadows upon the ground. Across ice and land, tens of thousands of soldiers fought bloody battles. Death-defying charges, roars of source energy, a forest of dead iron spears. Humanity's source energy fighter jets wove through a sky teeming with enemies...] This was the first time Han Qingyu had seen footage of human source energy soldiers battling alien invaders—and right off the bat, it was on such an epic, high-tier scale. *Thump, thump, thump...* His heart beat fast and heavy. *Is this what the world is like now? The war to protect humanity's planet?!* Han Qingyu was deeply shaken. Even as his blood surged with heat, the shock of such unfamiliarity stirred an involuntary fear within him. Just then, the scene shifted. A suit of iron armor appeared high in the dome of the sky. Beneath a sky stained blood-red and crowded with alien fighters, the colossal shadow of a beast roared... The alien leader's massive frame hovered suspended in midair... The iron suit shot forward, the beast shadow trailing in its wake, and as the combat blade slashed downward, a river of molten lava tore across the sky. The television footage overlapped with his dreams. "That's me!" Han Qingyu took a moment to steady himself, then looked up, only to find both his parents turned sideways, staring at him. Han Qingyu let go of the steel rod, pulled his hand from his pocket, and wiped his sweaty palms on his trousers. Under the circumstances, performing his trick of crushing a steel rod seemed completely pointless. Han Qingyu gave an awkward chuckle, feeling uneasy as he pointed toward the television, where the footage had already transitioned, and asked timidly: "Dad, Mom... does this make you feel proud at all?" "Proud, my ass! Your mother's too busy being furious!" Zhang Jiexia snapped crossly. "Exactly. What's there to be proud of?" Han Youshan grumbled, turning back around. Right at that moment, on the screen, against a blurred background, two heavily pixelated faces appeared in an interview segment. Looking at them, Han Qingyu felt their builds looked familiar... His parents' backs visibly stiffened with tension. Off-screen, a reporter spoke a stretch in English, which someone beside them translated into Chinese. The gist was: *As the parents of Major The Qing, we would like to know your thoughts on this civilizational war and your son.* The room fell into an awkward silence, making the audio from the television ring out with startling clarity. "Well, first off, we're definitely very proud," a man's voice began. "Mm, defending the home and the country... well, defending the world," a woman's voice continued. "To tell you the truth, before this we had no idea our Qingzi was fighting Great Points. He never told us." "So when we saw the TV back then, Qingzi's mother and I were scared half to death. We're just an ordinary family. We never imagined that one day our child would be up in the sky chopping down Daii... Daie." Neither Father Han nor Mother Han had much education or worldly experience, and their Mandarin had only been picked up in recent years while running their shop... As the recording continued, the voice on screen grew choked with emotion: "At the risk of dampening everyone's spirits, we're actually terribly worried, terribly angry, and terribly afraid. But what else can we do? If we don't let him go, and every family, every person refuses to let their children go, won't our world be gone?" "Since someone has to go, since it takes so many, many people to do it... and by chance our boy has what it takes, then let them go." Han Qingyu kept quiet. For one, his emotions were churning, and for another, he didn't dare expose them, even though the truth was glaringly obvious. "It's fake. They coached us beforehand on what to say. If you don't believe me, keep watching. They've interviewed heaps of people over these past few months, and you can tell a lot of them were coached." Zhang Jiexia glanced back at him, tossed the explanation out, and turned away again. "Yeah. Xiao Fei told us back then that whether we accepted the interview was entirely up to us, that Stream Vanguard didn't need to do anyone any favors. We didn't want to at first, but they pressed us with high-minded talk, saying it was for the whole world..." Han Youshan explained. "Wait, aren't Stream Vanguard and Azure on the same side?" Han Qingyu realized, momentarily taken aback. That part of the story was far too complicated, so Wen Jifei hadn't explained it to him yet. "You're asking me?!" Han Youshan, who was equally in the dark, paused before adding, "From what I gather, you lead your own people and work independently, but when trouble comes, you charge in together with them." "Understood," Han Qingyu murmured with a nod, making a mental note to ask Wen Jifei tomorrow. "Then go take a bath and get to bed," Zhang Jiexia said abruptly out of awkwardness. Han Qingyu blinked. "Huh? It's only a little past eight..." "Seeing your face is annoying," Han Youshan grumbled pettily, still smarting over the earlier comment that "Dad, you're pretty weak." ………… That night, Han Qingyu tossed and turned, unable to sleep until late. So many thoughts ran through his mind, so many images flitted through his memory. By the time he finally drifted off, it was probably past two in the morning. Then, he got only an hour of sleep. Suddenly, a crash rang out as the roof shattered—*hualaa!* From the direction of the kitchen. Han Qingyu darted out in his pajamas. Across the hall, his father, Han Youshan, burst out at the exact same time. "What happened, Dad?" "Your mom might've flown away." Han Youshan pointed toward the heights above the kitchen. Because he had tried on the source energy apparatus during the day, Han Youshan was actually physically exhausted today. Even so, he hadn't been able to resist bragging to his wife before bed, boasting about how he had flown into the sky while trying on the device. He had also mentioned what Wu Xu told him regarding the unique safety features of that apparatus and the source energy blocks inside it. Then he had crashed and slept like a log. Until the sudden noise woke him, and he discovered his wife wasn't beside him. So Zhang Jiexia's private trial had likely begun in secret around eleven, hidden away in the kitchen. She had passed out on cue just like him, but taking far longer to wake up. And from enduring the shock to sitting up, then standing, had taken quite some time as well... In the end, she decided to try hopping, just as Qingzi's dad had described. With a low degree of fusion, Zhang Jiexia's jump was naturally neither as high, nor as buoyant, nor as sustained as Han Youshan's. However, rural mud-brick houses were low, especially the kitchen tucked into the corner. With that forceful leap, Comrade Zhang Jiexia shot straight through the roof... The roof broke open, roof tiles flying everywhere. *Whoosh! Crash! Crash!* As Han Qingyu's liquid source energy erupted and he rocketed diagonally through the breach in the roof, Jiang Longchi was already above the roof as well. Only he had faced the wrong direction, putting him a beat behind Han Qingyu. His mom wasn't falling. When Han Qingyu spotted her, in the dim night, she was caught—or rather, held—midair by a pitch-black suit of iron armor. *An alien monster?!* The iron suit bore a longsword on its back. In the heat of the moment, Han Qingyu had no time to judge further. With a thunderous boom, he shot through the air, reaching out with both hands to grab his mother while kicking out at the black armor. Rusty Sister was stunned, cradling Mother Han with one arm as she watched Han Qingyu charge at her. This was the first time she had appeared before Qingzi since he woke up. Because of his amnesia, she had been agonizing all along, not knowing how to present herself to him, how to explain her condition, or how to recapture the ease they once shared. Right now, Han Qingyu wasn't wearing an apparatus, nor did he hold a weapon. In a true fight, he was naturally no match for Rusty Sister. Yet... *Thud!* Han Qingyu's kick struck square against the iron armor's chest. A dull metallic thud rang out, and the iron armor recoiled midair. Yet she didn't dodge. Instead, her iron arm turned gently, first guiding Qingzi's mother toward him. *Thump, thump, thump!* In the blink of an eye, the inexperienced Han Qingyu paid no heed to such details. As his arms wrapped around his mother, he kicked three more times in rapid succession, knocking the iron armor flying through the air... "Han Qingyu, what the hell are you doing?!" Wen Jifei's roar tore through the night. ………… In the Han family's front yard, Han Qingyu landed holding his mother. The iron suit landed not far in front of them, standing upright, silently looking at him. It seemed very strong and was completely unhurt. Nobody on the scene attacked it, which meant... it wasn't an enemy. Han Qingyu felt a moment of bewildered embarrassment. He turned to glance at Wen Jifei, then looked back at the suit of iron armor. *Clack...* The iron suit stepped toward him. Without a word, it walked right past him. Silently, it headed toward the new house... Only at the moment it walked past the crowd did a soft sniffle emerge from beneath the iron armor, followed by: "Stupid jerk." A girl's voice. The aggrieved voice of a young girl. Han Qingyu froze in shock. Zhang Jiexia and Han Youshan froze as well. For not only was this the first time Han Qingyu had heard her voice, it was the first time for Han's parents as well. Once, Han Qingyu had told Rusty Sister that if she ever had nowhere left to go, she should go find his parents. At that time, Rusty Sister had thought that if Qingzi truly died, she would come—come to take care of his parents in his place. But Qingzi was alive now. And since he was alive, Rusty Sister didn't want to meet his parents looking like this. She had threatened everyone not to say anything, and from beneath the iron armor, she had never spoken a word to Han's parents. Han's parents had never seen the person inside the iron armor. They had tried talking to it, but had received no answer. They had assumed it was a special kind of soldier. All they knew was that over the past three months and more, this suit of iron armor had appeared every night, standing guard in the Han family's backyard outside their son's bedroom window until daybreak. Tonight included. "Apologize, you idiot! Hurry up and apologize!" Rusty Sister was terribly hurt. While one couldn't say Han Qingyu was entirely at fault, he was still the one in the wrong. Wen Jifei hurried forward, frantically explaining Rusty Sister's identity and circumstances in hushed tones, urging him on. *Rusty Sister? Shen Yixiu? A girl trapped inside sheet iron who can't come out? Nearly three years younger than me! I used to care for her deeply?* Han Qingyu couldn't wrap his head around it all at once, so he didn't move. *Smack!* Her scalp still bleeding, Zhang Jiexia's eyes were crimson, brimming with tears. She had been listening, and as she listened, she pictured the iron suit outside her son's window every night for the past three months, and the little girl inside that iron armor... She couldn't bear it; her heart ached to pieces. She slapped him hard from behind. "Apologize!" Han Qingyu turned his head. "Hurry up! Go comfort her!" Zhang Jiexia snapped fiercely. "If you don't make it right, don't you dare come back—your mother means it!"