White Li felt she was truly a genius.
Just like in some disaster movies, before the catastrophe erupts, the protagonist seems able to foresee the future, leading those who believe in them to evade disaster, surviving through countless hardships.
And now, she was going to be that protagonist.
Even if she couldn’t tell the truth, she could at least hint at it, right?
She didn’t have the ability to save everyone, nor was it necessary to save everyone.
Then she would just save those who had shown her kindness.
Even a weirdo needs a weirdo’s morals!
Thinking this, the bit of guilt in her heart was suppressed.
The playground during break was lively. Some were playing soccer, others were chasing and roughhousing, and teachers clutching lesson plans hurried past.
The sunlight was good, feeling lazy on the skin.
White Li sat on a bench, head bowed, fingers unconsciously picking at the peeling paint on the seat.
Lin Du stood before her, looking at her with some confusion.
“What’s wrong? Calling me out so suddenly?”
White Li took a deep breath, calming herself.
She mentally rehearsed what she wanted to say. She couldn’t mention the plan directly, couldn’t talk about weirdos, and couldn’t bring up Madam.
She raised her head, meeting Lin Du’s eyes.
“That…” she paused, “you should leave City A as soon as possible.”
Lin Du was slightly taken aback.
“…What’s wrong?” he frowned. “What do you mean?”
White Li opened her mouth, but something suddenly seemed to clog her throat.
Something surged up from her gullet, blocking her windpipe, blocking her vocal cords, blocking all the words she wanted to say.
“Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough—”
She started coughing violently, bending over, hand covering her mouth, her entire face turning bright red.
“Hey, are you okay?”
Lin Du stepped forward, patting her back.
“I-I’m fine…”
White Li straightened up, gasping for air.
What was going on?
Why did her throat feel blocked whenever she tried to speak about the plan?
Refusing to believe it, she silently repeated “Paradise Project” in her mind again.
An intense feeling of suffocation assaulted her again, as if a hand were choking her throat.
White Li’s pupils contracted. It was the tea from that day!
The tea Madam gave her contained some kind of restriction. It wasn’t just that she couldn’t speak about the plan; she couldn’t even hint at it.
‘As expected of Madam,’ she thought with a bitter internal laugh. ‘It seems she’s going to any lengths to ensure this plan proceeds smoothly.’
Wait…
If that’s the case, would Madam know what she was doing right now?
White Li froze in place, her mind racing through various thoughts.
Wasn’t this how it worked in novels and anime?
People under a restriction, once they harbor rebellious thoughts, would explode on the spot.
She stared blankly for a few seconds, then pulled out her phone, glancing at the screen.
No new messages, no abnormal alerts.
She breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed it was just a simple confidentiality measure, without real-time monitoring functionality.
“What did you want to say?”
Lin Du’s voice pulled her back to reality.
He had already sat down beside her, tilting his head to look at her, a trace of concern in his gaze.
“Don’t rush, take your time.”
White Li cleared her throat, coughed a couple more times to confirm her throat was fine, then spoke.
“I had… a dream yesterday.”
“A dream?”
“Yeah, a very strange dream.” White Li racked her brains to organize her words. “In the dream, City A… might… perhaps… encounter an unprecedented disaster.”
After saying this, she felt her throat get pinched again.
But at least she got it out, even if it was as useless as a fart.
“The kind no one can escape,” she added.
Lin Du looked at her, not responding.
White Li felt uneasy under that gaze and quickly continued, “Anyway, that’s the general idea. The dream was especially vivid, so I think… you should call your family and leave here quickly. Just treat it as going on a trip, come back after the trouble passes.”
She paused, then added another line, “If nothing happens, just treat it as me letting out a fart.”
“But…”
“No buts!” White Li stomped her foot, springing up from the bench. “I know what I’m saying doesn’t even make sense to me! I know it sounds like the ramblings of a lunatic! But…”
She took a deep breath, looking at Lin Du.
“Whether you believe me or not, I just felt I had to warn you.”
After saying this, she suddenly felt a bit ridiculous.
A weirdo, urging a human to leave a city about to be taken over by weirdos.
Who would believe it if it got out?
Lin Du looked up at her. The last rays of the setting sun fell on his face, dyeing his brown eyes a warm orange.
“I believe you.”
“…Huh?”
White Li blinked, doubting her ears.
“You really… believe me?”
“Mhm.”
“You don’t think I sound crazy?”
Lin Du didn’t answer directly, just patted the spot next to him, gesturing for her to sit.
White Li hesitated for a moment but sat back down.
“Maybe you have some unspeakable difficulty,” Lin Du said, looking at the distant playground, his tone flat. “Or maybe you really dreamed a very vivid scene.”
He turned his head to look at her. “I believe you either way.”
White Li opened her mouth, unsure what to say.
“After all,” Lin Du smiled, “we’re friends.”
Friends.
That word landed in White Li’s heart, light yet heavy.
She lowered her head, staring at the tips of her shoes.
Friends.
In her past life, she had friends too. Friends to game with, friends to grab skewers with, friends to complain about advisors with.
But those friends and this friend before her seemed… different.
She couldn’t pinpoint how.
“Don’t overthink it.” Lin Du patted her shoulder. “Let me tell you about my childhood.”
White Li looked up at him.
“Okay.”
Lin Du’s gaze drifted towards the distant sunset, as if looking at a place far, far away.
“My father, before the Otherworld Disaster, was a firefighter.”
His voice was soft.
“He rarely came home, and I rarely saw him. In my memory, he was the quiet type, but always decisive and resolute in action, or you could say stubborn.”
White Li didn’t speak, listening quietly.
“But on the day of my elementary school graduation ceremony, he came.” A slight curve appeared at the corner of Lin Du’s mouth. “My mother came too. They sat together in the audience, watching me receive my diploma.”
“I was very happy. That was one of the few occasions in my memory where they appeared together.”
“But not long after, a weirdo appeared on a nearby street.”
Lin Du’s voice held no inflection, but White Li could feel something churning deep within him.
“It was a monster with a huge physique. Police weapons couldn’t even scratch it. Wherever it walked, houses collapsed, cars overturned, people scattered and fled.”
“The teacher and my father settled us into an underground shelter.” Lin Du paused. “Then he rushed out.”
“Rushed out without a second thought.”
White Li remained silent.
“He told me: Even if he was just an ordinary person, even if his strength was limited, he would still uphold the justice in his heart and do his utmost to save more people.”
“No matter how much I called for him, he didn’t look back.”
Lin Du lowered his head, looking at his hands.
“He never came back…”
White Li opened her mouth, wanting to say something comforting, but could only manage two words.
“My condolences…”
“I hated him back then,” Lin Du continued. “Even if he hadn’t gone out, the police or military would have come to evacuate people and defeat the weirdo. If he could have stayed safely with his family, maybe my mother wouldn’t have been depressed for so many years.”
“But later…”
He looked up, gazing into the distance.
“I gradually understood his way of thinking.”
“He loved this city. Loved every person here. Even if he didn’t have that much power, he couldn’t just stand by and watch.”
Lin Du turned his head, looking at White Li.
“So even if there really is some disaster, I won’t leave this city.”
His gaze was calm, but firm.
White Li lowered her head. “Should I say you’re just trying to look cool, or that you really have your own sense of justice…”
She didn’t know what to say.
She only knew that this person before her was different from anyone else she’d ever met.
“But, White Li…”
Lin Du suddenly spoke, his tone a bit lighter.
“Thank you anyway.”
White Li’s heart stirred slightly as she looked up at him.
“Don’t thank me for anything…” She turned her face away. “Just treat it as me being crazy.”
Lin Du smiled.
“But sometimes,” he said, “you really do act quite like a girl.”
White Li’s face flushed instantly.
“Bullshit!” She jumped up. “Are you sick? I’m a tough guy! A tough guy, got it?”
Lin Du looked up at her, the curve of his mouth lifting a bit more.
“Small ones are cute too.”
“Who’s small?! Rounded up, I’m five foot seven! Five foot seven!”
“Alright, alright, five foot seven.”
“You clearly don’t believe me with that tone!”
Lin Du stood up, brushing the dust off his pants.
“Let’s go,” he said. “Class is about to start.”
“Oh…”