"Alright, you two."
Qin Bai turned to look at Wang Mingyuan and Su Zhan, saying: "Now I need to make him talk, so I won't keep you company any longer."
"Commander Qin, please focus on your work."
Wang Mingyuan nodded and led Su Zhan out of the interrogation room, leaving Jiang City's Aberrant Purge Division.
Su Zhan took one last deep look at the barely-alive President Zhang.
He didn't believe President Zhang could hold out.
No one could hold out.
Even self-destruction had become a luxury.
Death had become a mercy.
Qin Bai wouldn't let him die.
With Qin Bai's extensive experience, he definitely had ways to keep someone barely alive.
President Zhang would talk. Eventually he would talk.
Claim you'd rather die than surrender?
Well then, sorry—take it up with my silver needles.
Take it up with my torture methods.
By then, even the hardest bones would turn to soft mud.
The likely outcome was President Zhang begging for mercy through tears.
Death would actually be liberation.
And confession was the only way to obtain that liberation.
Su Zhan could almost predict what would happen next: President Zhang would hold out for a few days, maybe a week, until his spirit broke completely.
Then he'd clutch at that opportunity like a drowning man grabbing at straws.
Trading information for a quick death.
Fair enough, isn't it?
Heh...
Or rather, President Zhang had no other choice.
If he himself hadn't awakened an SSS-grade Life Soul back then...
He would be exactly like President Zhang now.
The night wind carried the unique moisture from the riverfront as it brushed against his face.
Su Zhan's gaze was complex as he watched the swaying lights on the distant river surface.
"Thinking about what just happened?"
Wang Mingyuan's voice sounded.
Su Zhan only then noticed his teacher had stopped under a streetlight.
Quietly watching him.
That gaze was too penetrating, as if it could see through all his unpleasant thoughts.
"I..."
"Walk with me."
Wang Mingyuan didn't wait for his answer, turning to walk slowly along the riverside path.
They walked in silence for a while.
"You think Qin Bai is cruel."
Wang Mingyuan stopped walking, looking directly into Su Zhan's eyes: "But do you know how his wife died?"
Su Zhan shook his head.
"Qin Bai's wife was made into a living specimen by aberrants, displayed in their art gallery for exhibition. Sometimes we have to make choices."
Wang Mingyuan's fingers lightly tapped the railing: "Do we exchange the suffering of one, ten, a hundred people for the lives of thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions?
Or do we show momentary mercy and let more people bleed and weep?"
Su Zhan remained silent.
If he hadn't been treated that way by Doberman, he might have agreed with Wang Mingyuan's words.
But now... he couldn't.
"This isn't justice."
Wang Mingyuan sighed deeply: "But it's the only way available."
Su Zhan looked at the dark river water.
Not saying a word.
"Do you think President Zhang will hate us?"
Wang Mingyuan suddenly asked.
Su Zhan clenched his fist.
Of course he would hate them, just like he himself had once hated Doberman.
"He's an aberrant from the Transcendence Society, he can make the mist descend upon Jiang City."
Wang Mingyuan took off his glasses, tiredly rubbing the bridge of his nose: "Those children in shopping malls, patients in hospitals—they won't even get the chance to hate.
This isn't a question of right or wrong, Su Zhan.
This is sin we're forced to carry."
Sacrificing the interests of the few to protect the interests of the many.
Su Zhan understood this from Wang Mingyuan's words.
But if that's the case...
Then why did the other party still protect him from Doberman back then?
Very contradictory.
"Teacher."
Su Zhan looked directly into Wang Mingyuan's eyes, slowly saying: "Then why did you save me from Doberman back then?"
He tried to find any clues on Wang Mingyuan's face.
Could it be... the teacher had already noticed something?
Could it be the teacher had already seen he was an aberrant, seen his special qualities, and that's why he saved him?
Wang Mingyuan seemed startled by the question, then slowly put his glasses back on, as if examining a suddenly posed difficult problem.
"Because..."
Wang Mingyuan's voice became very soft: "You were my student for three years."
Su Zhan slightly frowned.
This answer neither reassured him nor made him give up.
What if... what if the teacher had other considerations back then?
"That's it?"
Su Zhan countered.
"Otherwise?"
Wang Mingyuan softly countered.
Su Zhan's breath caught.
How much did the teacher actually know?
That rescue back then—was it out of teacher-student affection, or... some other motive?
"Let's go."
Wang Mingyuan took the first step forward, lightly laughing: "Asking such a simple question, do I really need to say I'm protective of my own?"
Su Zhan was slightly stunned.
This answer was too blunt, so blunt he didn't know how to respond.
"Teaching for ten years, I've lost count of how many students I've taught."
Wang Mingyuan's voice was soft, yet each word was clear: "But those who make me rush to the Aberrant Purge Division in the middle of the night upon receiving news—there really aren't many.
As for Doberman's methods..."
Wang Mingyuan snorted coldly: "My students, if they need interrogating, it must follow the rules. Understand? Next time you ask such a stupid question, copy the 'Awakener Code' one hundred times for me."
Su Zhan stood in place.
If this were before, he wouldn't say he completely believed, but he would have believed at least 70%, and would have felt moved.
But now...
He couldn't even believe 10% of Wang Mingyuan's words, feeling no emotional fluctuation at all.
Now between teacher and student, something called a crisis of trust had emerged.
Su Zhan actually suspected that all the warmth he'd experienced following Wang Mingyuan for so long was deliberately manufactured by Wang Mingyuan for some benefit.
He had returned to that time when Doberman targeted him, when he was cyberbullied, when not a single person in the world trusted him.
He was both an aberrant and an awakener.
And aberrants couldn't trust humans, while humans couldn't trust aberrants.
What Doberman had done to him before...
Was now happening exactly the same way between Qin Bai and President Zhang.
And he was in the spectator seats.
How ironic.
"What are you thinking about?"
Wang Mingyuan's words broke his train of thought.
"Nothing."
Su Zhan shook his head: "Just thinking about Doberman again."
"Ah..."
Wang Mingyuan's expression was serious, his tone gentle: "You can tell your teacher anything, no need to hide things. Ah... these things nobody can change. To use that phrase from the internet—it's not you who's wrong, but the whole world."
Tell you anything?
Can I tell you I'm an aberrant?
Su Zhan shook his head inwardly.
In this world, he truly had no one he could talk to.
Tell humans he was an aberrant?
The next second he'd become a specimen on the dissection table!
Confess his identity to his own kind?
Heh... he'd killed so many aberrants from the Transcendence Society.
Probably the Transcendence Society would make an example of him first!
He stood on the cliff edge between two worlds.
One step forward was the abyss, one step back was a sea of fire.
And the only teacher who had reached out—now he couldn't even tell whether that "protective of my own" was sincere or a trap.
"Let's go."
Wang Mingyuan didn't continue, starting to walk again.
Su Zhan said nothing, silently following Wang Mingyuan.