"Essentially," Ji Shanqing said, sitting in Exodus's cockpit, speaking softly, "when the pocket dimension activates, and Ah Quan 'walks' to the pocket dimension from the warehouse, he unknowingly creates a passage between the two spaces, like the Great Deluge."
"He doesn't realize it himself," Yu Yuan added.
Lin Sanjiu gripped her combat trousers with both hands, nodding nervously. "So... our plan is to drive the spaceship through when he opens the passage?"
"It sounds reckless, but technically, it's our best option," Ji Shanqing said. "The passage is only open for a fleeting moment. We have to pass through it instantly and emerge on the other side, or we risk getting trapped between the two spaces."
"Since Ah Quan is the one who opens the passage, he isn't at risk," Yu Yuan said.
"I understand," Lin Sanjiu said, nodding. The dimension's passage could be an instant jump or stretch nearly a thousand kilometers; no human speed—even her own agility—could guarantee she'd make it through before it closed. Using Exodus was their quickest option.
"Besides, we can't leave the spaceship behind," Ji Shanqing added with a smile, his eyes sparkling. "After all, this is our home."
Lin Sanjiu nodded.
"I hope we don't end up stuck in the dimensional space with the ship," she muttered, her palms sweating at the thought.
Everything went smoothly, almost unbelievably so, thanks to Ah Quan's reluctance to make things difficult. They retrieved the humanoid tems, brought the small aircraft into Exodus's dock, and boarded the ship, waiting quietly in a narrow alley outside the fruit stand for the next activation of the pocket dimension.
Ah Quan seemed to be the only one who didn't want the pocket dimension to activate.
He kept circling the ship, tapping on the hull, and pestering Lin Sanjiu with trivial questions like, "What did you have for breakfast?" or "Can I borrow a book?" or "Tell me about your last world."
Ji Shanqing eventually handed him a communicator, telling him to use it instead of hanging around under the ship. He warned that if the pocket dimension activated suddenly, Exodus might not turn quickly enough to enter the passage.
For over a month, Ah Quan sat obediently at the fruit stand, clutching the communicator with a pout. The pocket dimension never activated, but his worry seemed to grow with each passing day.
The silence after noise is often heavier—Lin Sanjiu knew this well.
"Ah Quan is far stronger and more resilient than I am," she said with a sigh one day during a meal. "Ten years of isolation would have killed me. Even if I survived, I couldn't just watch people come and go like he does. I'd probably do anything to make them stay, no matter how dark it got."
"That's because your psyche is unhealthy," Yu Yuan said flatly. "Your desperate need for emotional connections is pathological. It probably stems from your childhood—"
"What right does an emotionless Veda have to judge?" Ji Shanqing snapped, irritated. "You don't even need to eat. Why are you here?"
Yu Yuan didn't get upset. "Are you angry because you don't want me criticizing Lin Sanjiu, or because you're ten times more obsessive and pathological than she is?"
Ji Shanqing didn't respond, instead staring at the fork in his hand as if debating whether to stab Yu Yuan with it.
Lin Sanjiu sighed softly and gave Ji Shanqing a gentle kick under the table.
"I wasn't born without emotions," Yu Yuan explained. Since he didn't need to eat, his mouth was free to talk, and no one could stop him. "Think of them as modules that I chose to remove later on. The modules are gone, but I still have the hardware to run them. So when Xie Feng's memoir started playing, I took on her memories and emotions as my own—because that part of me was blank."
"Just talk about yourself," Ji Shanqing warned.
The veda, unafraid and unbothered by the warning, continued, "But you—I've thought about this for a long time. The only explanation for your indifference to the memoirs is that when you became a Veda, you retained only your feelings for Lin Sanjiu, not the capacity for emotions themselves. These are two entirely different things."
Ji Shanqing looked down at his plate of eggs and fruit, saying nothing.
Lin Sanjiu had felt a faint suspicion about this herself.
Only when the topic of "Sis" came up did he erupt with a storm of raw desire, crazed obsession, and deep, abyssal fear. All his emotions twisted together, directed solely at Lin Sanjiu. Beyond her, Ji Shanqing was indifferent to everything else.
He had long shed his other emotional capabilities, like a bird shedding its feathers.
It didn't matter how many memoirs played; he no longer had the "capacity" to feel anything unrelated to his sis.
"It's not like that," Ji Shanqing said, suddenly looking up. He forced a smile at Lin Sanjiu. "Sis, don't listen to his nonsense."
He didn't realize his face had turned red. The flush of blood seemed to mist over his jade-like features, leaving him flustered and panicked, as if pleading with Lin Sanjiu not to believe Yu Yuan. In that moment, Lin Sanjiu understood.
Ji Shanqing was afraid she'd be scared of him. He knew he wasn't normal.
Lin Sanjiu gripped the handle of her spoon tightly, her knuckles white.
What could she say? What words could possibly convey even a fraction of her feelings for Ji Shanqing? Or what could she say to truly reassure him, to make him relax without feeling fearful or suspicious?
No words came to mind, but the longer she stayed silent, the faster the color drained from Ji Shanqing's face.
Yu Yuan, oblivious as a Veda, didn't notice the change in atmosphere at all. He seemed to be there just to ruin breakfast, with nothing in front of him, not even a glass of water. He glanced at the two of them, breaking the silence once more.
"In other words, your situation is perfect, so perfectly matched, like a pair of puzzle pieces fitting together seamlessly. But I believe that no amount of communication will help because pathological fear and obsession can't be eased with words. That's just the reality."
Both of them slowly turned their heads, eyes locking onto Yu Yuan.
"Do you disagree?" the Veda asked, clearly misunderstanding. "I think my analysis is accura—"
His sentence was cut off by a sharp chirp from the communicator on the dining table. Ah Quan's voice followed, filled with urgency, "Get ready! The pocket dimension is about to activate!"