| PN | Doubt | 169
Until Qi Chao left, the shadows in the trees didn’t come down.
He wasn’t surprised by this. If resentment were so easy to dissolve, Shen Yuxi and his teacher wouldn’t have needed to build this trial ground.
The progress was slow.
Even though he was prepared for it, a trace of urgency still rose in Qi Chao’s heart. No one knew when this plane would choose to self-destruct.
By the time he got home, it was already 9 p.m. In the living room, only Shen Yuxi remained, sitting on the sofa. He was holding a pillow in his arms, staring coldly at the projection screen.
Hearing the noise outside the door, Shen Yuxi straightened his posture slightly. When Qi Chao walked in, his indifferent expression vanished without a trace, and his peach-blossom eyes softened with affection as they looked at Qi Chao.
“You’re back?”
Seeing the warmth in Shen Yuxi’s eyes, Qi Chao’s gaze also softened. “I’m back. Where are Qi Yang and the kids?”
"The kids have already gone upstairs to sleep, and Yangyang has also gone back to his room," Shen Yuxi said, pausing for a moment before continuing, "You've worked hard outside. I made some porridge—have a bowl."
Qi Chao didn't refuse Shen Yuxi's kind gesture. Smiling, he gave a soft "mm" and followed him to the kitchen.
"I went to the trial ground this afternoon," Qi Chao explained his whereabouts as he looked at Shen Yuxi's face, pale and bloodless.
His fingertips lightly brushed Shen Yuxi's cheek. "Yangyang told me that if things continue like this, this plane will gradually collapse. To stop it, I need to borrow the power of the Mother Tree."
Shen Yuxi had already learned from Ayu that Qi Chao went to the trial ground that afternoon.
Combining that with Qi Chao's earlier remark at lunch, which pointed out that his illness was linked to the world's consciousness, Shen Yuxi had already guessed that Qi Chao's actions were related to it.
But Shen Yuxi didn’t understand what dealing with the world's consciousness had to do with the Mother Tree.
"Yangyang told you all this?"
Shen Yuxi’s eyes darkened slightly. As an outsider, how did Qi Yang know so much?
Qi Chao didn’t deny it. Taking the bowl of porridge Shen Yuxi handed him, he replied, “I told you before, I came to this plane through the Craftsman System. It’s the same for Yangyang. These skills of his were learned in another plane. If it wasn’t something he was absolutely certain about, Qi Yang wouldn’t have told me.”
“Is that so?”
Shen Yuxi’s eyelashes trembled slightly. In this light, the differences that set Qi Yang apart from Qi Chao seemed to make sense. He raised his gaze to Qi Chao and asked, “Will what you’re about to do put you in danger?”
“Not for now.”
Qi Chao explained to Shen Yuxi that he planned to ease the resentment of the shadows and why it was necessary. “Those children won’t hurt me.”
This was a completely different path from the one tied to the trial ground.
Shen Yuxi heard this and looked at Qi Chao, whose eyes were filled with a gentle smile.
He didn’t fear death. As long as the people he cared about could accompany him in passing, Shen Yuxi felt that death wasn’t something terrifying.
But Qi Chao wanted him and the children at home to live. Perhaps Qi Chao even wanted to help the Blue Star people who were nearing extinction, which was why he couldn’t just sit back and watch the plane self-destruct.
He is a man—soft-hearted and kind to the extreme.
As Shen Yuxi thought this, his fingertips curled slightly into his palm. He asked softly, "Is there any way I can help you?”
“There’s no need.”
Qi Chao declined. He placed the bowl of porridge on the table, then leaned down, his palm gently brushing against Shen Yuxi’s cold cheek. “You’re still not feeling well, are you, Brother Shen? Just stay home and rest.”
“I’m fine,” Shen Yuxi replied, his tone gentle but with an unmistakable firmness.
Qi Chao looked into Shen Yuxi’s beautiful peach-blossom eyes, but he didn’t relent. Instead, he pressed a kiss to the corner of Shen Yuxi’s eye and lowered his voice. “No one knows what side effects the plane’s influence on your body might have. Please rest at home, okay? Otherwise, I’ll be worried.”
The existence of the world’s consciousness left Qi Chao deeply unsettled.
Just the thought of the plane’s consciousness being able to make Shen Yuxi sick so easily stirred a deep fear within him. He worried that something might happen to his Brother Shen one day.
Shen Yuxi hadn’t expected Qi Chao to be so concerned about him. He was momentarily speechless, then softly reassured him, “It’s okay. Look, from the time I fell ill until now, nothing serious has happened. That means the world’s consciousness has its limitations. Otherwise, I’d have been in trouble long ago.”
Qi Yang had said the same thing.
Still, Qi Chao couldn’t truly set his mind at ease. The incomplete world’s consciousness felt like a ticking time bomb.
It all came down to him being too weak.
Qi Chao thought this, his heart sinking slightly. He lowered his head and repeated, “Brother Shen, you’re not allowed to intervene in this anymore. All you need to do is take good care of yourself and enjoy happy days with the kids at home—that’s enough.”
This was the third time Qi Chao had repeated himself.
Shen Yuxi, knowing he couldn’t change Qi Chao’s mind, had no choice but to agree for now.
However, in the future, whenever Qi Chao planned to leave, Shen Yuxi would ensure that Ayu’s eye followed him closely.
Just as Qi Chao worried about Shen Yuxi, Shen Yuxi worried just as much about Qi Chao.
After soothing Shen Yuxi, Qi Chao urged him to go upstairs. Qi Chao then went to the kitchen to wash the bowl of porridge. Once the bowl was clean, he didn’t return directly to his room but instead headed to his younger brother’s room.
At that moment, Qi Yang was sweet-talking the system.
In front of Qi Chao, Qi Yang acted like a normal, tough, 1.8-meter-tall man. But before the system, he automatically adopted a more delicate persona, with crying and whining as standard behavior.
"Baby, is it because I ignored you earlier that you’re ignoring me now?"
Qi Yang’s tear-filled eyes made every expression on his face seem so natural. “If I count to three and you still don’t respond, I’ll get mad—”
And when he’s mad, it’s really scary.
Before Qi Yang could finish his dark transformation warning, the door suddenly opened. In an instant, Qi Yang’s expression shifted to calm, so quickly that it left the system dumbfounded.
“Brother, you’re back? How’s the progress with replenishing the Mother Tree’s energy?” Qi Yang asked seriously.
“No progress yet,” Qi Chao replied, pausing briefly. He made no mention of what he’d overheard outside the door.
As an elder brother, Qi Chao had no intention of meddling in his younger brother’s love life. But hearing that his brother had feelings for a system made him question his approach to upbringing.
Still, who his brother chose to love was his brother’s own freedom.
With this thought, Qi Chao looked at Qi Yang and said, “Tomorrow, I’ll tidy up the storage room and turn it into your workshop. You can use it to work on your capture device.”
“Alright,” Qi Yang replied without any reluctance, and even seemed a bit relieved.
As a mechanic, nothing besides his brother, his baby, and cold machines could stir Qi Yang’s emotions.
The "capture device" was just a name Qi Yang had casually given it; its purpose was to locate the world’s consciousness.
Qi Chao nodded, trusting his younger brother. If Qi Yang said he could make it, then he undoubtedly would.
“The plane you lived in before coming here—it was dangerous, wasn’t it?” Qi Chao probed cautiously.
Before Qi Chao’s passing, his brother had been just an ordinary mechanical model designer.
Now, whether it was Qi Yang’s understanding of planes, his enhanced skills, or even his feelings toward the system, all of it revealed that his brother had been through far more than he had imagined.
Qi Yang gave a half-hearted series of “mm-hm”s, brushing off the question.
Deep down, Qi Yang felt a bit uneasy. After all, his understanding of these things came from his knowledge in the first lifetime.
To him, the previous world had been peaceful—too peaceful, even.
There was no need to reveal the truth about the true world’s circumstances to his brother. Qi Chao could be meticulous at times, yet surprisingly careless at others, making Qi Yang occasionally question how his brother’s brain worked—like in the first lifetime, or now, in this puppet world.
Thinking about the two younger brothers his brother had in this world, Qi Yang’s expression darkened again.
Qi Chao, feeling a bit sleepy, didn’t notice the change in his brother’s expression. After speaking, he waved and left the room.
---
The next day, after clearing out the storage room, Qi Chao took Qi Yang to inspect the workspace. Once Qi Yang confirmed everything was in order, Qi Chao picked up his suitcase.
After saying goodbye to Shen Yuxi and the children, he prepared to return to the trial ground.
A crimson eye floated behind him.
Qi Chao didn’t ask Ayu to retract the monitoring. The trial ground had no signal, and his family had left the monitor active out of concern for his safety.
“We’ll bring you lunch on time,”
Shen Yuxi stood before the vortex, his tone gentle as he said, "If you refuse this, the rest of us—and the children will all be upset. So don’t even think about declining."
Qi Chao opened his mouth to respond, but Shen Yuxi placed a hand on his arm to stop him.
The puppets only had a vague understanding of what their father was doing. Qi Chao had protected them so well that, most of the time, the puppets were like ordinary human children, blissfully unaware of worry and immersed in the happiness of having their dad and father by their side.
Hearing that they’d be delivering lunch, Qiu Qiu, with her princess hairstyle, immediately raised her hand high. “Qiu Qiu will definitely help deliver it!”
Qi Chao chuckled helplessly, warmth flooding his heart.
He gently placed the floating crimson eye onto his shoulder and nodded, joking, “Then I’ll be looking forward to your visit.”
---
Far away in the trial ground, the shadows on the branches seemed particularly restless. They howled in the impenetrable darkness of the forest, their cries echoing with fury and frustration.
But upon closer inspection, it was clear that all of their indistinct, black mist-covered faces were turned in the same direction.
They were all staring at one spot.
The very place where Qi Chao had sat the day before.
They longed for the arrival of the humanoid Mother Tree, yet they also dreaded it.
When the vortex appeared, the shadows on the branches seemed to sense something and immediately fell silent.
"Good morning," Qi Chao stepped out from the vortex and greeted the shadows on the branches. Some of the shadows didn’t respond, while others, like feline creatures, hissed a warning.
Qi Chao smiled, and just like yesterday, he started chatting with the shadows, his gaze flicking over them as he searched for a way to purify them.
But even when the children arrived to deliver lunch, he still hadn’t come up with a concrete plan.
That afternoon, it was Qiu Qiu and Moss who came to deliver the food.
Qi Chao gently ruffled the heads of both children, chuckling as he watched Qiu Qiu flutter around him, her transparent wings fluttering as she zipped through the air.
For a moment, Qi Chao’s attention shifted, and he didn’t notice the subtle restlessness among the shadows on the branches. Their black mist swirled uneasily around them, as if they were conflicted about something, but didn’t dare to act.
After sending the two children back home to rest, Qi Chao stopped chatting with the shadows.
He planned to spend two to three hours every day repairing the deformed puppets in the trial ground. This time, he had even packed his suitcase with the necessary tools.
On one hand, it was a chance for him to rest his mouth, and on the other, he didn’t want to waste his rest.
Ever since the trial ground had been cleared, the deformed puppets had fallen into a kind of unemployment. Thanks to the Mother Tree’s power, Qi Chao could see the deformed puppets every day, either running laps around the trial ground or burrowing into holes.
If only one or two puppets did this, it might seem like a boring routine. However, with thousands of them doing the same, it almost felt like they were playing a game.
This was one of the reasons Qi Chao hadn’t disturbed them.
Yesterday, when the deformed dolls had gathered around the Mother Tree, it reminded Qi Chao that he still needed to help repair their bodies. Since it was his break time anyway, it wouldn’t interfere.
He stood up, and with the Mother Tree’s power, quickly located one of the hiding deformed puppets.
Unlike the shadows, the deformed puppets were a bit shy when they first saw Qi Chao, but they were friendly toward him.
The deformed puppets knew that the man before them was Shen Yuxi’s partner and the humanoid Mother Tree, who provided them with energy day and night.
After Qi Chao explained why he was looking for them, the deformed puppets quickly agreed to let him repair their bodies.
They returned to the branches, where the puppets and shadows were gathered.
To help the deformed puppets relax, Qi Chao spoke in a playful, smiling tone, constantly comforting them. Soon, the puppets loosened up.
"Xiao Ruan is very strong. Just hold on a little longer."
Xiao Ruan was the name of the deformed puppet.
It was the first time anyone had smiled and called him by name, gently treating his injuries.
The deformed puppet didn’t know what to say and simply nodded awkwardly, unsure how to respond.
When Qi Chao left to find the deformed puppets, the shadows on the branches began to howl again, like unruly children who didn’t know how to hold onto their father and resorted to causing trouble to seek attention.
But when Qi Chao actually returned, the shadows fell silent once more.
They watched quietly as Qi Chao treated the deformed puppets, observing him as he smiled and comforted them, and also as he concentrated, using his mental power to soothe the injuries in their meridians.
Not a sound was made.
After the deformed puppet left, Qi Chao stood up and was about to speak to the shadows when he noticed something strange. His smile faded slightly, replaced with confusion.
One, two... fifty.
Why was there one less shadow?
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