A Playboy's Life in Snow Lotus

The atmosphere aboard the Swordfish airship was actually quite grim. Han Qingyu was facing the situation of a friend trapped in an enemy camp with life and death unknown for the "first time." Anxious and at a loss, his inner turmoil showed on his face, cold and somber. This made him begin to look a bit like his former self. To the others, had things stayed calm and uneventful, they mostly wouldn't have minded Han Qingyu taking a little longer to recover. The Qingzi they had now was a once-in-a-lifetime sight: gentle and amusing, occasionally dazed and endearing. Once this village was passed, there likely wouldn't be another shop down the road. In Wen Jifei's words, this wasn't even what nineteen-year-old Qingzi had been like. He was different from before, and different from even further back. This might have been because of the sense of security the people around him gave him after he woke up, or perhaps because the flood of information after losing his memory had left him somewhat bewildered. But Zhe Qiuhong had said that the core reason was that his Yanxiu was slumbering; that will, along with the Fanaticism of the magma characteristic, was locked away. She had also said this period of suppression would last no longer than a year at most; if things moved fast, with just the right stimulus, he might recover in a matter of months. *So... he isn't about to recover soon, is he?* everyone in the cabin was wondering. He Tangtang grew a bit flustered at the thought, feeling that once Qingzi had free time on his hands, he would probably be in for a miserable time. The Little Prince felt the same way. He had been "suppressed" by the former Han Qingyu for far too long; having finally seen his voice and standing rise recently, he was truly worried that once a certain Han recovered, things would revert to how they were before. *Still, it's better if he recovers as soon as possible, isn't it? If Qingzi recovers, we won't have to worry so much about Shiheng,* He Tangtang suddenly thought. Even Zhu Jiaming could not deny having that same mindset and thought. Such confidence needed almost no rationale. Their trust and reliance on "that Han Qingyu" had never truly disappeared. "Don't worry too much, Qingzi." Wen Jifei reached out and patted Han Qingyu on the back. "From the looks of it, Shiheng should be running around with Ye Jian. As long as nothing major happens, his safety shouldn't be an issue." Ye Jian held a high status in Snow Lotus; that was well known. Furthermore, while the man bore the reputation of a traitor, the impression from actual contact made it impossible to simply judge him as evil. ………… Antarctica, the subglacial city. In a large hall constructed of light blue glass, men and women in white robes formed long queues, doing their best to appear calm and free of panic. As Ne's most devout believers and warriors, they had always been taught—and believed themselves—to possess a spiritual realm and aspirations beyond mortal men. Yet, in the end, they still needed to eat. The subglacial city had finally begun enforcing a strict food rationing system. It had been blockaded for over three months now, during which all external communication and resupply had been cut off. This state of affairs was very likely to drag on, possibly exceeding half a year or even longer. "Say, you haven't actually spent much time here, have you?" Liu Shiheng reached out and pulled Ye Jian back from a fork in the corridor. "This way." Ye Jian nodded. They were also on their way to line up for food. Snow Lotus had always preached the concept of absolute equality in the subglacial city. While Ne was certainly exempt, figures beneath Ne as important as Ye Jian genuinely received no special treatment at this time. "Since that's the case, and you can't leave now either, just stick with me here from now on," Liu Shiheng said nonchalantly, joining the back of a line. Someone offered him their spot, but he declined. Ye Jian fell in line behind him and let out a wry chuckle. "Stick with you?" "Yup." Young Master Shiheng soon proved with facts just how well-connected and popular he was here. When the female official distributing the food discreetly slipped two whole steaks extra into his meal box, Ye Jian watched with wide eyes from the side, holding a pinch of spaghetti and a single small, sliced portion of steak. Then, Young Master Shiheng simply gave the female official a wink... The female official hesitated for a moment, then tucked an extra steak into Ye Jian's meal box as well. The whole process was quiet, without a single word exchanged. "No wonder I haven't heard you complain about hunger these past couple of days," Ye Jian whispered as the two walked back. "Even with rations so scarce, you haven't touched your emergency stores." "Emergency stores, naturally, are only to be touched when you can't survive otherwise," Liu Shiheng said with a smile. When the time came to dig into his hoard, he wouldn't do it alone; for instance, the female official who had just dished out food for them would certainly get a share. *This is called knowing how to navigate the world. You great fighters usually don't understand that,* Young Master Shiheng kept to himself. *Crash!* A commotion suddenly broke out behind them. People in the cafeteria were beginning to protest over not getting enough to eat. All that spiritual conditioning and self-cultivation ultimately seemed powerless against appetite and hunger. The clamor of protest quickly spread, and amidst the shoving, someone's source energy erupted... Taking advantage of the racket, Ye Jian leaned in, looked at Liu Shiheng, and murmured in a swift whisper, "I was wondering—your enthusiasm toward Alice, could it actually be to pry out that?" "That," of course, referred to what Liu Shiheng had mentioned to him before: the Yanxiu remains. Ye Jian thought to himself that even if the remains truly were in Ne's hands, something so monumental would in all likelihood be beyond Alice's knowledge. She was merely a secretary, after all. "Wrong." A brawl had broken out behind them, but Liu Shiheng answered calmly, "I would never treat something as sacred as courting women as a tool, and I certainly wouldn't use Miss Alice like that. Doing so would get her killed." With the tenth-generation device last time, Liu Shiheng hadn't actually asked Alice either, because he knew full well how grave a matter it was. He had merely mentioned his worries about Han Qingyu and the others while chatting with her, and then Alice had suddenly gone and done it. It had left him both grateful and filled with lingering dread... In the end, it had been discovered, and Alice had come within a hair's breadth of dying at Ne's hands. "Fair enough." Ye Jian smiled and gave a small nod. *Bang, bang bang bang...* In the cafeteria behind them, the six people whose source energy had flared during the shoving and protest suddenly detonated into six bursts of bloody rain. Blood showered down, pattering onto the floor. The entire hall fell dead silent. Ye Jian stopped in his tracks and glanced back. Liu Shiheng stopped as well, his shoulders trembling slightly. Not daring to look back, he took a moment to steady himself, then said, "Can't eat here anymore. Go back and eat on your own. I'm heading over to Alice's." With that, Liu Shiheng pulled a small stainless-steel flask from his pocket and tossed it to Ye Jian. ………… Carrying the meal box, he walked down the long blue glass corridor he had traversed countless times. In a transit room of roughly fifteen square meters, Alice was staying there as usual. Aside from the occasional appearance in the little blue chapel, she seemed to be here constantly, never leaving. At a small round glass dining table, coils of spaghetti lay on a plate. Alice was also eating. Because of the imagery of flesh and blood in her mind just now, she hadn't added any sauce, though naturally she felt no fear either. Sometimes, even Alice herself didn't know whether this counted as her having killed those people. The meal box made a light clink as it was set on the glass table. Alice looked up, and Liu Shiheng sat down. This was a situation she had long grown used to. He came often, so Alice showed no surprise; after a glance, she calmly went back to twirling her spaghetti. A steak coated with herbs was placed onto her plate. "Oh, you don't have a knife? Never mind, just bite into the whole thing like this," Liu Shiheng said, demonstrating by spearing a whole steak with his fork. Alice considered it for a moment, speared the steak, and took a bite. And just held it up like that. "Speaking of which, it's been over three years already. Are you really not planning to go take a look at my room?" Liu Shiheng asked, then lowered his voice. "Is that pervert Ne forbidding you from leaving this place?" Alice looked up and, two seconds later, offered a faint smile. "I'm sorry, but I have no such intention." "A pity. I really do have a wonderful bed, quite perfect for Miss Alice to lie back on and listen to jokes." Young Master Shiheng seemed to always be like this: accustomed to expressing his lecherous notions without the slightest pretense, turning what ought to have been subtle into an open scheme and frontal assault. In the early days, Alice had nearly killed him because of it. If not for the entity in the void planning back then to use him to lure Han Qingyu and Shen Yixiu, he would have been dead long ago. Later on, when the void lost patience, it had turned into Alice protecting him. Suddenly, neither of them spoke. Alice rarely initiated conversation to begin with, while Liu Shiheng was mulling things over in his mind. The transit room felt like a cafe sparse with patrons, where two strangers had sat down at the same dining table, saying nothing to each other, each buried in their own meal.