Genius Club
Chapter 1179 - 40 Dabble (Extra Monthly Ticket Chapter!)_2

Du Yao took another drag on her cigarette.

The glowing red tip of the cigarette flickered in the night breeze, conspicuously bright:

"Actually, I don’t like smoking either. After I came to find him, I quit. But after he passed away... every time I think of him, I find myself lighting one up."

"Smoking does help alleviate grief," Lin Xian said.

"No."

Du Yao shook her head and exhaled through her nose:

"I’m just fantasizing..."

"[That he’d suddenly appear, snatch the cigarette from my fingers, and throw it away while yelling at me, cursing me out.]"

At this point.

Du Yao pursed her lips and lowered her head:

"Self-deception, a hollow comfort."

"He won’t come back. No one will stop me from smoking anymore, no one will scold me seriously anymore."

...

In this moment.

In a haze of memory.

Lin Xian thought of Liu Feng.

Back then, after Liu Feng personally buried Li Qiqi’s coffin, he, too, smoked like this, talking and talking and talking nonstop.

Grieving people are always like this.

Either they talk endlessly, or they binge-eat obsessively, as if stuffing their mouths to prevent their sorrow from spilling out, to digest it quietly as nourishment instead of letting it ferment.

But Du Yao and Liu Feng’s circumstances were slightly different.

Liu Feng grieved for a while, yes, but he understood that closing his eyes under the brilliance of the Star Rain was, for the terminally ill Li Qiqi, the best and most fitting conclusion.

Though life is short, fulfilling a dream and making a wish is, in its own way, a complete life.

But Du Yao...

Her boyfriend died in war, his wishes unfulfilled, his dreams unrealized—a landscape of regret wherever she looked.

"Sorry."

Du Yao exhaled another mouthful of smoke and looked at Lin Xian:

"Sorry for using you as an emotional garbage dump."

"Normally, I’m not this sentimental. It’s just that seeing you reminds me of Tang Xin, of my boyfriend, of so many things from the past. And I end up talking too much."

"But saying it out loud is good. If one day, I also die here on this battlefield, at least... someone will remember the words I said."

Lin Xian straightened from the stone block he was sitting on.

He walked over to Du Yao.

Leaning against the slender wooden post behind him:

"My purpose in coming here this time is to bring you back to China so you can resume your research in the field of brain science."

Du Yao took a drag of her cigarette and shook her head:

"If I leave, what happens to the children here?"

"My mercenaries will take them to safety," Lin Xian replied.

"And what about the other children?"

Du Yao spread her hands:

"The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Somalia... war is everywhere in Africa, innocent civilians are dying everywhere. Lin Xian, can your mercenaries save them all?"

"I’m sorry to disappoint you. Just think of me as a stubborn, hopeless person; I don’t want to go back to research anymore... I came here, I saw hell on earth, and my boyfriend died here. I simply cannot, in good conscience, return to live a peaceful life."

"This is where I realize my value, this is where I’m needed the most. At the research institute, what can I do? Receive subsidies, sit in air-conditioned rooms, attend meetings, deliver award speeches... For me, it’s far less meaningful than saving one more child, one more family here."

She took the last drag of her cigarette.

Tossed the butt to the ground and stomped it out.

Then got up, went to find the mercenaries to ask for cigarettes.

One of the mercenaries handed her a full pack, and even a lighter.

Du Yao returned to sit on the stone block, with a cigarette between her lips. She flicked the lighter with a soft click and brought it close to the cigarette.

Suddenly.

An emptiness on her lips.

Du Yao looked up in confusion.

She saw the cigarette that had been between her lips now firmly pinched between Lin Xian’s thumb and forefinger.

Woosh.

Lin Xian tossed the cigarette behind him and looked at Du Yao:

"Du Yao, one is enough."

He looked into Du Yao’s eyes:

"You want to save lives. I won’t stop you. But let me ask you one question: how many do you want to save?"

"One, ten, a hundred, a thousand, or..."

"[A hundred billion.]"

Du Yao widened her eyes, looking at Lin Xian in puzzlement, unsure of what he meant.

"Do you know how many people Tang Xin’s research has saved?"

Lin Xian continued:

"Tang Xin’s research solved the deadliest side effect of hibernation, an invention just as monumental as Professor Xu Yun’s. As a result, countless terminally ill patients got to sleep in the Hibernation Pod and travel to the future for treatment."

"This includes not only elderly patients but also many children. I personally sent a little girl with congenital heart disease and a paralyzed teenage girl into the Hibernation Pod. Their fates otherwise would have been to await death helplessly in this era, but Tang Xin and Professor Xu Yun’s invention gave them the chance to start anew in the future."

"And your invention could save even more lives than theirs, because your invention isn’t just saving humanity—it’s..."

Lin Xian pronounced each word with gravity:

"[It’s saving the world, saving the future of humanity!]"

Du Yao chuckled lightly.

Shook her head:

"I don’t know what you’re talking about."

"Did you actually go to Hopkins University to read my thesis? Don’t laugh, but it’s basically just gibberish. Honestly, I’m not very interested in brain science; most of my research is just [dabbling]."

"My thesis was just proposing some unrealistic ideas to fool the college professors and graduate by luck. I wonder... did I fool you, too?"

Lin Xian caught on to a familiar phrase.

Dabble.

It was practically Emperor Gao Wen’s catchphrase!