"I don't much care for expressing myself. I've always believed that doing far surpasses saying." Qin Xin smiled. He held up the Silence Tool in his hand, then added with a note of disappointnt: "You shouldn't have gambled. Because you can't be certain that he and I are the sa kind of person."
He!
The instant Qin Xin uttered the word "he," every question in An Mingyu's heart unraveled. And she knew — no matter how different this Qin Xin might seem, he was still Qin Xin.
But the Blind One didn't address that point. She rely lowered her gaze to "look" at the Silence Tool in Qin Xin's hand, sensing that the tiny cracks on its surface had multiplied considerably since she'd last felt it.
Her expression grew complicated. She asked in a low voice: "Would you grieve for his death too?"
This was unmistakably a classic Destiny-style question — dripping with the riddler's enigmatic air. But as luck would have it, both people present today were sharp minds. Qin Xin heard the question, let his smile fade slightly, though traces of it still lingered:
"The departure of every Torchbearer is enough to fill us with sorrow. Especially ."
"But I think you like smiling more. More than he... ever does." The Blind One lifted her head, her expression quite complicated.
Hearing this, Qin Xin stopped smiling entirely. He shook his head with self-deprecating candor:
"The more you lack sothing, the more you crave it.
If survival weren't so bitter, perhaps I'd be like him — not so fond of smiling either."
They... suffer greatly?
The Blind One furrowed her brow and said nothing more. Silence descended once again. Unlike before, these two no longer spoke to each other with that easy, boundless openness.
After a while, Qin Xin smiled again: "Still, this is a good thing. At the very least, you've given
motivation to keep fighting — shown
that the road I walk isn't as impossibly hard as I'd thought."
"Is it the Torchbearers that are hard... or the world itself?"
Qin Xin paused briefly, then smiled: "Why do you ask?"
The Blind One considered for a mont, then answered with solemn sincerity: "You find
lively. You find the Fate Weaver sunny. So I wonder — she and he, perhaps they're both like you, inclined toward silence?
I don't consider myself a silent person. And Cheng Shi even less so. So it's hard for
to imagine what a world inclined toward silence would look like."
"..." Qin Xin sighed. "As expected of you. Not a single careless word can be spoken before a prophet.
You're right — the world is brutal, every step an ordeal. And it isn't just us. Everyone is struggling."
"What happened?" The Blind One raised her head sharply — but imdiately felt her own question was redundant. Her expression shifted awkwardly. She withdrew the question and lobbed back a cold joke instead: "Never mind. It seems Silence is the biggest winner."
"Watching without acting isn't necessarily winning.
Enough, Ming Yu. I know what you're worried about, but you needn't fret.
What Qin Xin has always aspired to isn't the beauty that's easily within reach — it's the ability and the true heart to protect that beauty.
Rember: Torchbearers were never ant to pass fire just to warm themselves. A roaring torch can only be passed further when it's held far enough from one's own body."
When Qin Xin spoke these words, his tone was so unwavering, his gaze so luminous, that he seed a true lighthouse illuminating the path ahead for every Torchbearer. And the source of that light was the undying sincerity burning at the core of his heart.
Even the Blind One — whose cursed vision was nothing but void — nearly felt blinded by that radiance. She stood stunned for a mont, then shook her head with a rueful smile.
"You really are the sa kind of people. Always managing, in so chance instant, to shake
to my core — and then remind :
You're rely soone fortunate enough to walk beside the Torchbearers. You are not a true bearer of the fire."
Hearing this, Qin Xin's expression flickered. But almost imdiately, he broke into hearty laughter.
"What's so funny?" The Blind One was puzzled.
"I'm laughing because it turns out the gamble I won wasn't yours — it was mine."
"Why?"
"Because... she once felt the sa way you do. But now — she is one."
Is what?! A Torchbearer?!
She beca a true Torchbearer?!
The Blind One's eyes flew wide open — so wide that even her perpetually sealed lids nearly cracked apart from the shock. She stared at Qin Xin in utter disbelief, and only after he nodded repeatedly did she recover, letting out a long, heavy breath before breaking into a radiant smile:
"How wonderful."
"Yes. Truly wonderful."
The two Torchbearers exchanged a few more whispered words. It was only just now that they'd each fallen silent, and it was precisely at this mont that Cheng Shi arrived.
The clown pushed the door open without ceremony. Seeing Qin Xin turn to look at him, he smiled and nodded — then, without uttering a word, directed his gaze straight at the Blind One's back.
An Mingyu felt Cheng Shi's stare. She was mildly surprised — clearly sensing the Fate Weaver had sothing to tell her — so she rose, turned to face him, and beckoned him over.
She was obviously inviting him into the space that the Torchbearers had already sealed with silence.
But Cheng Shi didn't move. He simply stood where he was, smiling at the Blind One, saying nothing.
He wasn't posturing. He had already launched a probe.
But the target of this probe wasn't the Blind One — it was Qin Xin!
He knew Qin Xin was soone who valued consideration and accommodation above all else. Back at the inn, he'd voluntarily excused himself from the room just because his identity might inconvenience others.
This probe was testing whether the "anomalous" Qin Xin would still demonstrate the sa consideration and accommodation.
If yes — if Qin Xin read the situation and quietly made room for Cheng Shi and the Blind One — then at the very least, Cheng Shi could add one more chip to his trust in the Torchbearer.
But if not...
Honestly, Cheng Shi had no backup plan. Even this probe was a flash of inspiration that had struck him the instant before he walked through the door.
He couldn't even be sure: if this Qin Xin was indeed a "discrepancy," would the Mirror Person from another tiline also possess a Torchbearer's will to guard beauty?
He wanted a good outco. But reality denied his request — because Qin Xin stood right where he was, smiling at him, perfectly still.
He really had changed!
The current Qin Xin was definitely one of Ti's "discrepancies"!
If that was the case — what about the Blind One? She seed entirely unsurprised by Qin Xin's reaction. So this Chosen of Destiny, this Torchbearer he'd personally pulled from Death's grasp — was she or wasn't she the sa Torchbearer who had walked with him all day?
Cheng Shi's gaze turned deep and probing. His eyes darted between the two Torchbearers, searching for any sign that they already knew sothing.
And then — just as the scene was about to curdle into awkwardness — Qin Xin moved.
He curled his lips, stepped toward the warehouse door, and as he brushed past Cheng Shi, patted him on the shoulder with a smile laden with aning.
"It seems soone wants an early shift swap. In that case, I'd better go get so proper sleep.
I hope tonight... there won't be any nightmares."
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