"Genes are miraculous things," Morin said. "Their scale and complexity surpass any supercomputer. Yet they combine correctly, coordinate perfectly, and express exactly what they're meant to."
"The probability of that happening already exceeds any miracle."
"And then they created a loser like me."
He paused.
"That's what a classmate told me in high school. I still remember it clearly."
"How can someone be that self-deprecating?" Sampson frowned.
"Yeah," Morin thought for a moment. "So now he should be different from before."
"Probably."
...
"Actually, there's something I've always wanted to ask."
Under the soft lighting of the restaurant, Lu Mingfei put the last bite of food into his mouth. He swallowed, wiped his lips with a napkin, and folded it neatly.
All of it was learned from last-minute cramming.
He used it decently.
"Go ahead," Zero said, looking at him.
At that moment, Chip Girl's voice still seemed to echo in her ear, mixed with the crunch of chips:
That loser has changed a lot lately, but his cowardice should still win out. He won't confess. At most, he'll be restless. Even if he does confess after being pushed, you must reject him. Not yet. It's not the time.
Zero waited.
Calmly.
Prepared to reject him.
Then she heard the question.
"Why... did you approach me?"
For the first time, shock crossed Zero's flawless, icy-blue eyes.
She stared at Lu Mingfei in silence.
Those black pupils were deep. Bottomless.
For the first time, she realized she didn't quite understand the boy sitting in front of her.
"Before coming here," Lu Mingfei said with a faint smile, "Boss called me."
"He said some things I didn't really understand."
"Or maybe... things I didn't want to believe."
He looked away, gazing out the window, as if one more glance at Zero would make his resolve waver.
"The person who understands you best is always yourself. It's just hard to admit."
"When I realized I wasn't acting like myself anymore-and I couldn't even explain why-that was terrifying."
"And then there's the part where suddenly everyone is being nice to me."
"It's comfortable."
"But it also feels wrong."
He paused.
"Fortunately, Boss is there."
"Compared to everyone else, I can feel it. Maybe you'd call it intuition."
"Have you ever seen a small animal on a rainy day?"
"Boss is like a man driving a Bugatti Veyron through a stormy night who suddenly spots a puppy."
"It can't even stand. It's soaked, shivering in a corner."
"He gets out, chases away anyone or anything bullying it, then takes it home."
"He feeds it. Trains it."
"It's charity."
"Not because he expects anything back."
Lu Mingfei smiled faintly and finally looked back at her.
This time, he didn't dodge her gaze.
Those ink-black eyes carried a cold clarity.
"At least that person doesn't plot against the dog."
"Even if there are things he doesn't understand himself."
"They still exist."
"So whether you mistook me for someone else," Lu Mingfei stood up, folded his chair, and turned toward the door, "or you're trying to get something from me..."
"Please come directly."
"Don't lie to me."
"Comparing yourself to a dog," Zero said softly, still seated, her voice clear in the quiet restaurant, "don't you feel ashamed?"
"As a lackey," Lu Mingfei chuckled, "as long as Boss treats me well, I don't mind being a dog."
"Especially when he doesn't ask for anything in return."
"That's better than someone being good to me for reasons that aren't about me."
"Don't you think?"
Zero didn't answer.
A moment later, the sound of footsteps echoed again as Lu Mingfei walked out.
"But you've changed," Zero said. "I don't mean the things around you. I mean you."
"With your old personality, you shouldn't have been able to say those things."
The footsteps stopped.
"...Yeah," Lu Mingfei replied quietly. "People change."
The footsteps resumed.
The door opened.
Then closed.
Silence returned.
Zero stared at the empty seat, as if someone invisible were still there.
Then the phone rang.
"Hello?" she answered.
"Zero!" Su Enxi's voice burst through the line, full of relief. "Let me tell you-things between Super Stud and Long-Legs are practically on fire!"
"I feel like we're about to welcome a major general!"
This time, there was no crunching of chips-only the sound of liquid sloshing.
"How about your side?"
"Mission failed," Zero said flatly.
"What?!"
...
"I told him some things and let him decide for himself," Morin muttered in his water-man form while watching fluctuations in experimental data. "I hope he changes."
"And if he doesn't, that's fine too."
"I don't hear much hope in your tone," Sampson said, staring at the small cut on his hand. With so much blood taken, his recovery had slowed.
"It's no big deal." Morin smiled. "People always change."
"Sometimes it's accumulation."
"Sometimes it's a moment."
"That uncertainty is the interesting part."
"I just couldn't stand how miserable he was, so I gave him a hand."
"And a reminder."
"Only when the most critical pawn is rescued by a third party does the original checkmate become fun."
...
As for Morin and Mai Sakatoku-
They were already in the room.
So Su Enxi's claim that the "war" between them was heating up wasn't exaggerated.
Unfortunately, Su Enxi was too focused on Zero's side to notice she'd lost contact with Mai.
"Actually," Morin said, standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, waving his hand to block all electromagnetic signals, "I'm curious about something."
He didn't turn around.
"Have you ever done anything based purely on your own will, Mai Sakatoku?"
Mai had just stepped out of the bathroom. She frowned and sat on the bed, drying her hair, her long, pale legs fully exposed.
"You pick now to talk about this?"
"I can guarantee no one else can hear us," Morin said calmly. "Not even the woman pulling the strings behind the scenes."
"I've probably already ruined plenty of her plans."
"I'm looking forward to meeting her."
"But right now..."
"I want to know you."
"Your past."
Su Enxi had one.
Renata had one.
Why was it that only Mai Sakatoku-the one who was big in every sense-had no backstory?
Just a tool character with looks and curves?
...
Lu Mingfei walked down the road with his head held high.
He felt incredibly brave.
But when he looked at the endless winding mountain road ahead, his head started to hurt.
Maybe he shouldn't have turned hostile so decisively.
At least he could've waited until he had a ride back.
Shamefully, as someone without a car, he'd come on this date in Zero's.
When he realized why Morin had made that call and impulsively flipped the table, he hadn't thought about how to get back at all.
He glanced at the distance and touched his back.
Dragons had wings, right?
Could he turn into one and fly back?
If he did, would the school mistake him for a dragon invasion and launch nukes?
Probably not.
Probably.
He dismissed the thought and kept walking.
A sports car's engine roared behind him.
It was Zero's.
Lu Mingfei pretended not to hear and kept going.
He expected her to drive past coldly. Maybe honk in mockery.
As a noble, queen-like figure, surely she'd be angry after being exposed by someone like him.
But the car slowed.
Then stopped beside him.
The window rolled down.
"Get in," Zero said.
"...."
He couldn't pretend anymore.
He had to admit it.
Even if she had an objective.
Even if she treated him as someone else.
She'd been genuinely good to him.
And yes-
Beauty was justice.
"I don't know where you got your information," Zero said, looking at him, "but you were right."
"You are you."
"Not anyone else."
"So now we can talk differently."
Lu Mingfei weighed his options.
An hour-long walk.
Or a rich woman's supercar.
He got in.
The window rolled up.
The wind was blocked.
The engine wasn't.
The moment he sat down, Zero floored the gas.
The force slammed him back.
He'd driven Morin's Bugatti before-but that was on a straight highway.
This was a mountain road.
Curves stacked on curves.
Hairpins at ninety, even one-eighty degrees.
Sometimes the speed was so high he couldn't even see the road ahead.
It felt like flying.
"Sister," Lu Mingfei blurted out, "even if you're upset or your scheme failed, there's no need to take me with you!"
"If they find the bodies, tomorrow's headline will be 'Shocking! S-Rank and Queen Zero Die Together at the Cliff!'"
He froze after saying it.
Some invisible restraint had vanished.
The Trash-Talk Machine was back online.
But along with it came relief.
And even more tension.
"Since you want to be yourself," Zero said calmly, "there's no need for me to act in front of you."
Her tone didn't match the speed.
Logically, shouldn't someone driving like this be fiery?
Could it be-
That Empress Zero's heart was burning?
Lu Mingfei's thoughts ran wild.
"Are we still running tomorrow?" Zero asked.
"Huh?" His brain short-circuited.
Weren't they supposed to be strangers now?
Or was this how spies worked?
Cards on the table, then straight into a romance drama?
What hurt most was that he realized-
He couldn't refuse.
Not to a request like that.
"...Same time as usual," Zero said.
The corners of her lips lifted slightly.
Lu Mingfei's heart skipped.
On an endless ice plain, deep in permafrost, a pure white flower bloomed.
Cold.
Elegant.
Irresistible.
This damned honeypot!