"This is so exciting."
Kevin was stomping his feet in excitement while waiting in line to enter. However, the people around him were just as excited, so no one cared.
"Haha, you're exaggerating." Su was much more reserved than Kevin, but he was also looking forward to what was coming. After all, to most people—especially boys their age—Eden was probably a Marilyn Monroe-level public idol... though they were mainly drawn to her voice; her appearance was merely the backdrop for her temperament and talent.
Seeing Kevin so happy, Su couldn't help but feel his own interest rise.
"By the way... where's Lin?"
Su noticed something. Why were only the two of them there? Where did Lin go?
In this vast sea of people, the two of them were like everyone else, yet also... completely different.
"He..."
Kevin wanted to say something, but the crowd in front moved, giving him no chance to speak. Su had no choice but to follow Kevin into the venue, feeling puzzled.
The stage was magnificent and grand, and the audience seating was dense but not crowded. Unlike a typical concert, it was filled with Eden's personal classical style—in other words, an "artistic design."
Despite such a grand and brilliant scene, Su felt a lump in his throat and couldn't speak.
He felt it was a pity.
So Su smiled at Kevin with forced casualness: "Since Lin isn't coming, is that girl you've been pursuing coming instead? Where is she?"
"Huh? MEI? She didn't come?" Kevin looked at Su like he was an idiot. "And who told you Lin wasn't coming?"
"...Huh?"
Su looked at Kevin in confusion, gesturing with his hands. "But isn't Lin supposed to not be coming?"
"...I'm asking, who exactly told you Lin wasn't coming?" Kevin took out his phone to check the time. "He came with us. He just went to the restroom. He's taking a while, though. It's about to start and he's still not back. Did he fall into a hole?"
"You're the only one who falls into holes."
A slightly cold voice retorted to Kevin abnormal guess. They looked over and saw the figure who was bundled up tightly, now sitting comfortably in his seat.
"When did you get in!" Kevin was shocked.
Lin casually waved the ticket in his hand. "We have VIP seats with a private entrance. I was wondering why you were so slow, turns out you went to the general entrance with everyone else."
"Why didn't you tell us!"
"Am I not telling you now?"
"..."
Su rubbed his eyes. He felt something was wrong. Since a moment ago, a sense of inconsistency had been lingering in his heart.
Wrong? Right?
Why did he take it for granted that Lin wouldn't come? It should be "right" that Lin would come. Besides, they were a group of three; there was no reason to think Lin wouldn't come.
"Is something the matter?" Lin voice pulled him out of his thoughts. The moment Su saw Lin, he realized he was covered in a cold sweat.
"I... it's nothing."
...
The songs were beautiful, and Eden was breathtakingly lovely, but Su wasn't in the mood to notice. He felt he must be ill.
He hadn't studied psychology; after all, he would likely become a surgeon in the future, not someone sitting in a room that cost thousands a minute to give people counseling.
However, he believed this heart palpitation didn't stem from a surgical ailment.
"You've used your peripheral vision to steal seventeen glances at me in one minute."
While Su was repeatedly observing Lin side profile covered by the hoodie, Lin suddenly spoke to him in a very faint voice that Kevin couldn't hear.
Su was startled. He didn't even know he had peeked at Lin that many times in such a short period, and Lin had actually noticed all of them. Su had been very discreet, and Lin had been very focused on the music.
"Excluding the possibility that you're gay, the only answer is that you've become suspicious of me. Based on your conversation with Kevin just now, you're wondering why I came to the concert. Can you tell me why you thought I wouldn't?"
This person... what sharp observational skills.
But Su didn't know why he was suspicious of Lin either.
Where did this groundless suspicion come from?
"You don't know..." Lin wasn't very surprised by his answer, still looking far off at the grand figure on stage. "You don't need to worry about it."
Su was more curious about whether Lin cared than whether he himself did. Lin seemed very indifferent to it, as if he had experienced the same thing many times.
Su listened to the music for a while but still couldn't calm down. He quietly clenched his fist.
"I... for some reason, I feel lost about the future."
"..."
"I don't understand why, but after meeting you, a sense of aimlessness arose in my heart, as if I can't see the path ahead."
"...So?"
"So what?"
"So what do you want to do in the future? What a person expects for the future is probably what they want to do later."
"Lin, what do you want to do in the future?"
Lin probably didn't expect to be asked back. He thought for a while before answering quietly: "I want to be a teacher."
"A teacher?"
"The only teacher in a school with only female students."
"..."
This Lin seemed a bit different from the one Kevin described.
Kevin said Lin was someone who liked to be alone and spoke very little. But upon actually meeting him, Su felt that Lin didn't speak little at all, and... he often made some dark-humored remarks and sharp critiques.
In summary, he was a person with a lot of personality.
Lin joke was very effective. Su couldn't help but chuckle, and the gloom in his heart was swept away.
"My future... I don't know yet. I'll be a doctor later, but what kind of people can I save? How many can I save?" A complex look appeared in Su's eyes.
Will I become a good doctor?
...
"Oh my? It seems there is no result."
The Eighth Herrscher stepped out of the mist, standing leisurely before the unsteady Lin.
The others were no longer attacking Lin, and Lin didn't say another word.
The scene fell into an atmosphere that was either a deadlock or a lull. When the Eighth Herrscher's flippant words appeared, the expressions of the crowd shifted once more.
This time, the way they looked at Lin and the Eighth Herrscher was exceptionally complex.
"Three results, and not one of them occurred. So, Lin, are you planning to stay in the dream with them?" The Eighth Herrscher walked up to Lin, a blood-red light flickering in her eyes. "I welcome you~ Whether it's the Qianqi who serves as my vessel or myself, we both admire humans like you."
His eyes were blind, but the Eighth Herrscher still felt his gaze.
This was the realm of consciousness; a powerful consciousness could achieve anything.
"...Don't say things that make me sick." Lin spoke coldly and grimly to the Eighth Herrscher. "Send them back, or else your claim that you won't hurt humans is nothing but a lie."
"But you haven't convinced them yet, have you?"
"They won't agree now, and they don't know where the future will lead, but after leaving this place, they will already use a different way to face the rest of their lives."
"But you still didn't win, did you?"
"That's right, because you cheated." Lin body gradually straightened from its hunched position, and his tone became sharp and powerful once more. "The ones here aren't all the people you've polluted. Those who face life positively were forcibly kept in their dreams by you."
Hua, Sakura, Immer, and even Kalpas were not here.
The Eighth Herrscher knew that once they were woken from their dreams, they would never return to that seemingly beautiful fantasy.
They would yearn for the beauty in dreams, but they would also face the cruelty of reality head-on.
They... no, humans are that kind of creature.