Bai Liu walked across the turbulent deck of the plane toward the cockpit, Du Sanying at his side. Objects flew from the sides of the plane, automatically avoiding them.
In front of the cockpit, Bai Liu knocked on the door. The men inside pushed it open with great effort. They stared at the two extra passengers with disbelief, almost instantly drawing their guns and pointing them at Bai Liu's head.
"Who are you guys?! Did you hide on the plane to follow us?!"
Bai Liu wore a thick down hat and an oxygen mask that covered most of his face, so the team member didn't recognize him as the Bai Liu who had caused so much unrest in the Heresy Bureau.
"I was sent here by Tang Erda, former head of the Third Branch of the Bureau of Heresy Handling, to deal with the current situation," Bai Liu said, exhaling a cloud of white breath. He lifted his eyes to meet the team member's directly. "He saw this coming."
The team member lowered his gun. "Are you Bai Liu, the living heretic Captain Tang follows? Did he really send you here?"
Bai Liu nodded.
The team member gritted his teeth, then stepped aside. "Come in. Let's talk."
Inside, the captain sat in the pilot's seat, bloodshot eyes scanning the dashboard that kept screaming alarms. Without looking back, he asked coldly, "- What can you do?"
"As you know, I am a living heretic. I will not be affected by the body parts," Bai Liu replied calmly. "Open the cargo bay door so I can take the body parts and parachute down alone."
The captain's eyes flicked toward him, incredulous. "- You want me to leave a high-risk heretic like those corpses in your custody?" His voice sharpened. "What if you run off with the bodies, or try to do something else?"
"A little leak from this heresy could kill thousands. Do you understand how precious human life is?"
"I know human life is superficial to you, less valuable than money," the captain said, expressionless. "But it isn't to me. I can't take responsibility for so many lives in Antarctica."
"It's not as if you don't have a record. The third detachment of the Rose Factory still hasn't settled its score with you. I won't let you take the body parts."
The co-pilot interjected anxiously: "Captain, this is one way to go!"
Another crew member added, "Captain! Do you really have to let yourself die in four pieces?!"
The captain cut them off, voice sharp: "Enough! Find parachutes and communication equipment for these two. Drop them off and let them fend for themselves. No more words!"
"My mind is made up!"
Bai Liu exhaled calmly. "The lives you want to save are lives. But your life and the lives of your team… are not, are they?"
"Who gave you the right to trade your life—and theirs—for people you consider ordinary?"
"Shut the fuck up!!" The captain clenched his jaw, eyes red and rimmed with unshed tears. "Get off the plane!!!"
Bai Liu remained calm. "They are human, but you are not? Or do you believe you and your team are inherently superior, meant to sacrifice yourselves so others can live? Aren't you afraid to die anymore?"
The crew went silent.
Bai Liu continued, voice measured: "I'm not human. I'm a living heretic, a monster without a moral compass or emotion. You are right: human life has less value to me than money. There is no need to treat me as human."
"In such a critical situation, it is logical in human terms to use my life to save the greater good. Emotionally and ethically, it makes sense. But I am the one who should be sacrificed, not you."
"As for your concern that I might use the body parts… yes, I have that tendency. But you have ways to control high-risk heretics, right?"
Even the Third Branch team member, who had long hated Bai Liu, could only shake his head. "That's for remotely monitoring the corpses, preventing riots by driving regulatory metal clasps into the bones…"
Bai Liu interrupted gently: "Use it on me."
The team member's eyes widened. "But you're alive! There's no anesthetic here. Thirty rings in total. You'll die from the pain!"
"The corpse uses it too, right?" Bai Liu asked, smiling faintly. "I've always been the same kind of monster—or heretic. Isn't it logical to use the same method for control?"
The captain snapped, "Even if you are a heretic, I will not allow this on a living person. Bai Liu, get off the plane—"
"Captain," Bai Liu interrupted calmly, "It's simple: I get hurt once, or five of you die. You choose."
The captain's teeth ground together, muscles trembling. Bloodshot eyes fixed on Bai Liu.
Bai Liu stepped forward, half-bowing, tone sincere: "Captain, you have people you want to save. I have a monster I want to save. I hope you understand and allow me to fulfill this."
The captain rose from his seat, giving it to the co-pilot. He looked at Bai Liu, who remained bowed, and exhaled deeply, fingers flexing weakly from hours of maneuvering. His gaze moved from the two remaining crew members to the white haze outside. Then, closing his eyes, he said hoarsely:
"...Come here. Just put four rings on—wrists and ankles—to control the limbs."
Bai Liu stood, nodding respectfully. "Thank you."
The captain waved wearily. "...If it hurts, speak up if you can't bear it."
Bai Liu was taken to the infirmary, and Du Sanying stood anxiously outside, expecting to hear a scream—or, at worst, a groan. The rings had no anesthetic, and the procedure sounded painful.
But eventually, the only sound from the infirmary was a click, like a stapler stapling a book, repeated four times, followed by Bai Liu's calm voice:
"Is it done? Thank you, Captain."
Du Sanying was about to push the door open, but he stopped. Inside, he heard the sound of someone kneeling, knees thudding against the cold floor.
"You are a heretic, a monster without fear. The Heresy Authority—and we in the Third Branch—will monitor you for the rest of your life and give you no chance to do evil or harm," the captain said, teeth gritted in hatred.
Bai Liu responded steadily, "I know. That's your position. I understand."
The captain's breathing was heavy; he seemed to be crying. His voice choked with sobs, and then came two hard, heavy kowtows.
"But this time, I retract all the personal criticisms I made about you before," he said.
"Thank you for saving the rest of the team, and thank you for saving me."
The two men emerged from the infirmary. Bai Liu gently rubbed his wrist, yellow iodine from sterilization still visible, and a slight deformation where the ring clasp had been driven in.
The captain, his face streaked with roughly wiped tears, nodded. "I'll open the cargo door for you. Go ahead."
Bai Liu led Du Sanying—still unsettled—all the way to the cargo hold.
Inside, the metal crates containing the body parts were arranged in a rough circle, spaced two or three meters apart, with foam and air cushions stuffed between them. Some of the air cushions had been punctured during turbulence and scattered across the floor.
Bai Liu instructed Du Sanying to stand at the cargo hold door, not to approach or even look, to avoid mental contamination, while he entered alone to handle the body parts.
Du Sanying obeyed, standing straight like a sentry. In truth, he didn't need to be told—the boxes gave him an instinctive sense of bad luck and unease.
Less than ten minutes later, Bai Liu emerged, the body carefully wrapped in cloth and a cold suit, deliberately keeping it separate from Du Sanying.
"Go contact the captain," Bai Liu instructed. "Tell him to prepare to abandon the plane and try to find a landing spot with a parachute."
Following the Ice Age game scenario, the odds of saving the plane were slim; it would most likely crash. They needed to act quickly.
Apart from the captain and co-pilot still in the cockpit, the remaining three crew members were waiting at the cabin door, ready to show Bai Liu how to skydive. One would jump to give an aerial demonstration.
To avoid mental contamination, they stayed far from Bai Liu and shouted instructions over the gale.
"If landing on the sea, the parachute comes with a kayak, enchanted with heretical modifications. It withstands extreme cold and expands instantly for a temporary landing site. Don't put anything too heavy on it."
"Make sure neither you nor the corpse falls into the water! The water is freezing, and the body parts would pollute it and alienate the creatures there."
"If you land on land, the package contains a tent and enough dry food for a week. Find a safe spot and take it with you. The Heresy Handling Bureau will track you with a locator and make every effort to find you within seven days."
The three crew members pointed at Du Sanying and shouted, "And Bai Liu, what about this man? Are you taking him? Is he a heretic like you? Will he be safe around the body parts?"
Bai Liu looked at Du Sanying, shivering in the cold wind, and replied, "I brought him because I've always had bad luck. Unexpected things happen in everything I do. This time, I didn't want any surprises, so I brought him to prevent accidents."
The team demanded, "What kind of unexpected situations?"
Bai Liu's eyes flicked toward the crates. "- Like the body parts falling into the wrong hands."
Three minutes later, the side and rear doors of the aircraft opened on the captain's instructions.
Cold wind howled through the openings. The crew stood ready with parachutes, oxygen masks, and cold protection gear. Turbulence grew violent, threatening to throw Du Sanying off his feet. He clutched the handles to steady himself as he donned his gear.
While dressing, the team instructed him on the jump.
"Normally, a tandem jump would have you strapped to him. But both you and Bai Liu are new, so it's unsafe. He's already carrying a body, so you must jump with him and try to land in the same spot."
"The weather here in the Antarctic isn't ideal for skydiving. The only successful jumps so far have been spot jumps, not high-altitude jumps. The view below is all white, and the wind is unpredictable. Don't worry about finding the landing spot immediately—you can locate each other after landing."
"I planned a double jump for safety," one crew member sighed, "but you wouldn't agree."
Du Sanying, awkwardly adjusting the chest strap, paused slightly, almost imperceptibly, and looked up with a forced smile.
"I'll be fine on my own. I'm lucky."
—but not necessarily the kind of person luck would favor.
So far, Bai Liu was the only one who had survived around him.
The team member nodded squarely. "Whether you're human or a living heretic like Bai Liu, please stay safe. Thank you for saving us."
He reached out to help Du Sanying adjust the tangled chest straps.
Du Sanying whispered, turning his shoulder to avoid contact, his head bowed almost to his chest.
"…I'll do it myself. Please, just stand back."
The crew member went first as a demonstration, exiting the cabin and gliding into the dense, cloudy haze, arms outstretched, disappearing almost immediately.
"This visibility is terrible," another crew member frowned. "It'll be too hard to follow the jump. Someone should follow you."
"No need," Du Sanying murmured, gripping the cord of his jump bag. "I'm lucky. I'll keep up with Bai Liu."
The parachute jump began.
Bai Liu leapt from the hatch into thick clouds and icy fog. The cold sliced through his lungs and heart like a million sharpened blades, freezing his limbs so completely that even the pain from the ring clasp seemed distant.
He felt like a camera falling from a great height. Clouds, mist, and the sea filled his field of vision, shifting dynamically, as if he were moving through a high-frame cinematic scene.
Beautiful, ethereal, like the CG opening of a big-budget game. It had a trance-like, unreal coldness, mirrored by the frost creeping across Bai Liu's face.
Below him stretched 14 million square kilometers of ice. Above, the plane teetered toward disaster, its tail beginning to burn. Cradled in his heart was his only friend—and his lover—now broken into pieces.
Who would he be in the future?
[Future] offered no answer, so Bai Liu gave himself one.
In that narrow orphanage, every child longed day and night to be taken away by a strange man and woman—just as they longed for loving parents, caring friends, brothers, and sisters.
They longed for a family that existed only in fairy tales.
Bai Liu had never been part of that selection process.
Xie Ta asked him: [Don't you want a father?]
Bai Liu said: [No.]
Xie Ta asked: [Don't you want a mother?]
Bai Liu said: [No.]
Xie Ta asked: [Sister or brother, don't you want them?]
Bai Liu said: [What's the use of having them?]
Xie Ta, confused: [It seems to be a necessary component of family needs.]
Bai Liu asked rhetorically: [Is there any use for families?]
Xie Ta shook his head. [A family seems to be a venue formed after two people decide to be together, bound by law, morality, and an emotion called love, to remain together forever.]
[Everyone seems to yearn for family.]
Xie Ta asked: [If you had a family without these essential components, is there anything you would like to put into it?]
Bai Liu didn't answer. At the time, he had felt he would never need something like a family.
It was too boring for two people to be tied together forever.
But two monsters… seemed okay.
Now, Bai Liu and Xie Ta had met all the requirements to start a family. If Bai Liu had a family, Xie Ta was it.
He hoped that if there was a future—a future with Xie Ta—Xie Ta would love him forever, and that would be enough.
An unreasonable gust of wind roared as Bai Liu deployed his parachute.