Chapter 30: In the Name of an Ally

"Because I am afraid that he won't be able to hold on alone."

Jiang Wan’s voice, traveling through the electric current, was clear and calm, yet it struck like a heavy stone, crashing into the already turbulent lake of Xu Yuan and Lin Feifei’s hearts, stirring up a thousand waves.

A deathly silence fell over the dormitory.

Lin Feifei’s eyes, usually so vibrant, were now wide as brass bells, her mouth agape, enough to fit an egg. She looked at Xu Yuan, then at the shattered screen of the phone, her expression a mix of unprecedented shock and absurdity.

Jiang Yi’s... sister?

How could she be calling Xu Yuan? And how could she... make such an unthinkable request?

"Why... why would you come to me?" Xu Yuan finally found her voice. It was incredibly dry, each word squeezed out from her throat with great difficulty.

She didn't understand.

She and Jiang Yi were merely allies who had just reached a "new deal." In the eyes of Jiang Wan, his true family, what was she?

On the other end of the line came a faint, weary sigh.

"Because I cannot find anyone else," Jiang Wan’s voice revealed an undisguised bitterness and helplessness. "Xu, I know my request is abrupt, even rude. But Jiang Yi... he has no one else by his side right now but you."

"He won't tell me anything, and he refuses all my help. I don't even know how he has been doing lately, or if he's been eating on time."

"A few days ago, I inadvertently learned from one of his professors that he joined a competition and that you are his partner. The professor said he seems to be in a slightly better state lately."

"So, I had no choice but to take the liberty of calling you."

Each of Jiang Wan’s sentences was like a gentle blade, slowly yet precisely dissecting all of Xu Yuan’s pretenses.

So, all her clever approaches, masked by the name of "money," were seen by his sister as proof that he was "doing a little better."

So, that seemingly indestructible reef was, in the eyes of his closest kin, so fragile and so... in need of company.

"Next Wednesday’s trial is, for Jiang Yi, a public death by a thousand cuts." Jiang Wan’s voice lowered, carrying an uncontrollable tremor. "All the media will be there. Everyone will look at him with the most cruel eyes, watching how we, the Jiang family, fall from the clouds."

"I will be surrounded by reporters and will be unable to break away; I won't be able to look after him at all."

"I cannot imagine how he will face such a scene alone."

"Therefore, Xu," she paused, her tone filled with the most sincere, almost pleading request. "I don't need you to do anything. I just hope that on that day, you can stand by his side in the capacity of a 'competition partner.' Even if you just stand there and say nothing, that would be enough."

"At least it would make him look... less lonely."

The call ended.

The dormitory remained in a deathly silence.

Lin Feifei looked at Xu Yuan’s face, which had lost all its color and was filled with shock and bewilderment. After a long time, she finally found her voice.

"You're crazy... you’re absolutely crazy..." she muttered to herself, then suddenly grabbed Xu Yuan by the shoulders, shaking her hard. "Xu Yuan! Wake up! You cannot agree to this!"

"Why?" Xu Yuan looked up, her eyes hollow.

"Why?!" Lin Feifei was so angry at the question she nearly jumped. "Do you even have to ask? That is the Jiang family’s mess! It’s a den of dragons and tigers! You are an outsider—why should you be dragged into this?!"

"Do you have any idea what the scene will be like on the day of the trial? Every reporter in Binhai City will be there! If you just stand next to Jiang Yi, within ten minutes, your photos, your identity, and all the dirty laundry of your family will be dug up and exposed to the public!"

"When that happens, how will you face your classmates? Do you still want to finish this university degree in peace?"

Lin Feifei’s words were like a bucket of icy reality, doused over Xu Yuan’s head, instantly sobering her compassion-clouded mind.

Yes.

She had forgotten.

She herself was merely someone struggling to survive in the mud. What right did she have to be a lifeline for someone else?

"And," Lin Feifei said, seeing her wavering expression, "what kind of person is Jiang Yi? He’s a stubborn, hard-headed rock! If he finds out that his sister ‘begged’ you, do you believe he would turn against you on the spot and make you disappear from his world forever?"

Xu Yuan’s heart sank.

She believed it.

With Jiang Yi’s pride, which would rather break than bend, he was absolutely capable of that.

"So, you cannot go!" Lin Feifei said with finality. "From start to finish, pretend you never heard anything about this! This is the best protection for him, and the best protection for yourself! Do you hear me?"

Xu Yuan was silent.

Reason told her that every word Lin Feifei said was correct. Staying out of it was the only, and most correct, choice.

But...

In her mind, uncontrollably, the dream resurfaced.

The little boy in the small suit, sitting alone in front of a birthday cake with unlit candles, being told that "your very birth is a mistake."

He had already faced too many storms alone.

This time, was she really going to be like everyone else and choose to look the other way?

...

The next morning, the independent project room on the fourth floor of the experimental building.

Xu Yuan had not slept all night.

With dark circles under her eyes, she sat at her desk, the computer screen in front of her still displaying the project proposal she had spent the entire night finishing.

At eight o'clock sharp, the door to the project room was pushed open from the outside.

Jiang Yi and Lu Xingyu walked in, one after the other.

Jiang Yi wore his usual simple black hoodie, his expression cold, yet his eyes were strikingly bright. Behind him, Lu Xingyu looked somewhat nervous and excited, cradling a computer tower that looked incredibly sophisticated but had been taken apart into pieces. Seeing Xu Yuan, he immediately offered a shy, ingratiating smile.

"S-Senior, good morning!"

"Hello." Xu Yuan nodded at him, then turned her gaze toward Jiang Yi, who had not said a word since entering and was silently placing breakfast on her desk.

Today’s breakfast consisted of soup dumplings and freshly ground soy milk from the most expensive Western-style restaurant downstairs.

It was still steaming.

Xu Yuan’s heart skipped a beat for no reason.

"Ahem," Lu Xingyu, observing the eerie, silent, and turbulent atmosphere between the two, hurriedly hugged his precious computer tower and sat in the corner furthest away from them. "U-um, Boss, Senior, you two go ahead and talk! I... I need to get my ‘wife’ settled first!"

With that, he put on his headphones and, without looking back, retreated into his isolated world of circuit boards and solder.

The project room plunged into silence once more.

"I read the proposal."

In the end, it was Jiang Yi who broke the silence.

He pulled out a chair and sat opposite Xu Yuan. In his dark eyes was the pure, calm, and rational gaze of a top-tier programmer.

"The concept is grand, and the ambition is just as big." He looked at her, offering a high evaluation. "If it can be realized, it will change many things."

"However," he pivoted, his gaze turning sharp again, "it is missing one thing."

"What?" Xu Yuan’s heart jumped to her throat.

"A soul." Jiang Yi watched her, his eyes like a sharp scalpel, precisely and mercilessly dissecting all her magnificent pretenses. "Your proposal considers business, technology, and even human nature. But it is empty."

"'Deep Sea Echo'—you want users to hear the truest, deepest sounds from their souls here. Yet you haven't even done the most basic user research yourself."

"All your concepts are built only on your imagination. You don't know what those who are truly in the 'deep sea' want to say. Nor do you know what they fear."

Each of his words was like a heavy hammer, striking Xu Yuan’s heart hard.

She knew he was right.

All her plans had only one goal—to win.

To win against Wen Ran, to win against those invisible, dark threads from the past.

She had forgotten the original intention of this project.

"So," she looked at him, her voice hoarse, "what do you think we should do?"

"It’s simple." Jiang Yi took a printed map of Binhai City from his laptop bag and spread it out on the table.

Then, with a red pen, he drew a heavy circle around a specific location on the map.

"Next Wednesday, this place will gather the most people in Binhai City—people who need to be 'listened to' the most."

Xu Yuan’s gaze followed his finger to the spot circled in red.

[Binhai City Intermediate People's Court]

Xu Yuan’s pupils suddenly constricted.

She looked up at him in disbelief.

How could he...

"Did you think I wouldn't know?" Jiang Yi watched her face, which was covered in shock and panic, and the corner of his mouth curled into a faint, almost mocking arc. "My sister called me last night."

Boom!

Xu Yuan’s mind went blank.

"She told me every word you said to her, without missing a beat." Jiang Yi watched her, his dark eyes swirling with complex emotions she couldn't understand. "Including your ridiculous 'condition' that I am no longer allowed to step foot in the library."

"So, you can tell me now."

He leaned forward, bracing his hands on the table, casting a shadow that completely enveloped her. His bottomless eyes stared at her, enunciating each word as if he were about to devour her whole.

"What exactly are you afraid of?"