After feeding Nyx her medicine, Lin Qiye withdrew from the asylum in his mind and drifted down into ordinary dreams.
This time, there was no exhausting knocking-dream. Ever since the Mental Asylum of the Gods had bonded with him, he seemed to have shaken off that dream's shackles completely and reclaimed real, honest sleep.
He dreamed a good dream. He dreamed he got into university, made a success of himself, and moved Auntie and Yang Jin into a big house. He dreamed the three of them finally traveled—went to see the mountains and rivers they'd only ever seen on television...
Because of his disability, and a household budget stretched thin at the best of times, there had never been spare money. In seventeen years, Lin Qiye had never traveled—never once left Cangnan City.
Deep down, he had always longed for the world outside.
When the alarm rang, Lin Qiye dragged himself reluctantly out of bed, dressed, and got ready for school.
He had just opened his door when he saw Auntie at the entryway, hurriedly changing shoes on her way out.
"Auntie, why are you leaving for work so early?"
"A new batch of parts came into the factory, and they want us processing them right away. Auntie's off—have breakfast with your brother, and don't be late!" Auntie rattled on.
"Okay."
Just as she was about to pull the door shut, Lin Qiye spoke again.
"Auntie."
"What is it?"
She stopped, looking back at him quizzically.
"It's... nothing." Lin Qiye hesitated, shook his head, and let a smile rise to his lips. "When you get home, I'll have good news for you."
Auntie gave him a couple of puzzled looks, then laughed and scolded, "This child—playing riddles with your auntie now! Fine. Auntie's in a hurry. You'll tell me tonight!"
With that, she bustled out the door, footsteps pattering away down the stairs.
Lin Qiye stood silently in the doorway, head lowered, thinking about who knew what...
Then, abruptly, he lifted his head—like a man who had made up his mind—threw the door open in his slippers,
stood at the stairwell, and shouted down!
"Auntie! I can see!!"
A moment later, Lin Qiye heard the pattering steps below come to a dead stop. Then Auntie's voice floated tremulously up from five floors down.
"Say—say that again?!"
"I can see! I'm healed, Auntie!"
After a brief pause, a much faster set of footsteps came pounding up than had gone down—and before long, Auntie stood panting in front of Lin Qiye.
Her lips trembled faintly, but the corners of her mouth would not stop climbing...
"You can see? Really?"
"Really."
"Is it blurry? Any double vision? Does it hurt? Does light still stab at them?"
"No—none of that, Auntie." The corner of Lin Qiye's mouth lifted, and he reached up and unwound the black satin from his eyes. A pair of strikingly beautiful eyes slowly opened. "I'm really healed, Auntie."
Auntie stared into those eyes, and the tears came flooding out beyond any control!
She laughed. The wrinkles on her face bloomed like petals; a woman past forty, laughing like a child.
In ten years, Lin Qiye had never once seen her smile like that.
Auntie pulled him into her arms, and Lin Qiye could feel it clearly—her body was quietly shaking.
"Good... oh, that's good... our Xiao Qi has finally come through!" Auntie released him, wiped her tears, and said, beaming, "Xiao Qi, Auntie has to get to work. Tonight I'll buy extra groceries on the way home—we're going to celebrate this properly!"
"Thank you, Auntie."
"Right—Auntie's off, then. You be good at school today."
"Mm."
Auntie hurried down the stairs, tears still slipping down her cheeks faster than she could wipe them, her steps lighter than they had ever been.
Lin Qiye watched her go, then turned back inside, his own eyes rimmed red.
The truth was, he'd originally meant to wait for tonight and announce it formally when she got home. But then he'd remembered: in the movies, people who plant flags like that never come to a good end...
He didn't want anything happening to Auntie. Even if it was nothing but superstitious nonsense-logic, he refused to run that risk.
So he'd simply yanked the flag out, torn it to shreds, and hurled it into the Pacific.
Lin Qiye had barely turned around when he found Yang Jin standing behind him, Little Blackie in his arms, eyes rimmed red.
The brothers looked at each other for two seconds—and burst out smiling at the same time.
"Ge. Congratulations."
"Mm. Those sunglasses you bought me can finally earn their keep." Lin Qiye ruffled Yang Jin's hair, laughing softly.
"Let's eat, Ge. Tonight when Auntie's home, we feast."
"Deal!"
Little Blackie poked its head out from Yang Jin's arms and licked Lin Qiye's hand. "Woof—!"
...
No. 2 High.
When Lin Qiye walked into the classroom, the whole room fell silent.
His classmates stared, wide eyes meeting wider ones, lost—until at last someone ventured:
"You're... Lin Qiye?"
Lin Qiye, free of the black satin, arched an eyebrow and gave a small nod.
After a beat of silence, the classroom erupted—louder than ever!
"His eyes are healed?"
"They have to be. He can see!"
"His eyes are so pretty!"
"Right?! How did we never notice—he's actually this good-looking..."
The way the girls looked at Lin Qiye had entirely changed. They clustered together, whispering furiously, their gazes darting his way again and again.
The boys near his desk crowded in too, peppering him with questions about his eyes; when they confirmed that he really had recovered, their astonishment knew no bounds.
"I could always see. It's just that my eyes couldn't handle light. I went to the hospital yesterday, and they've been fine since." Lin Qiye said.
Only then did his classmates remember he had indeed been absent the day before, and everything clicked.
But in that noisy classroom, exactly two people were conspicuously out of tune.
Liu Yuan sat in the corner with his head down, watching Lin Qiye from the edge of his vision, his face a picture of discomfort.
He remembered, with perfect clarity, slamming into Lin Qiye in his scramble to escape that night. After getting out alive, he'd told himself that a blind kid like Lin Qiye could never have escaped that monster. There'd been a pang of guilt—but he hadn't dwelt on it.
What he could never have imagined was that the one who died would be Jiang Qian—while Lin Qiye, the one he'd written off completely... had survived!
And his eyes had healed on top of it!
For a while, Liu Yuan couldn't have said what he was feeling. Embarrassment? Guilt? Deflation? Or... regret?
Lin Qiye had his back to Liu Yuan, but his mental perception caught every splendid shift of the boy's expression, and his eyes gradually narrowed.
Just then, someone else walked up to Lin Qiye's desk.
Li Yifei stood there fidgeting, his expression awkward. He glanced left and right, then bent down to Lin Qiye's ear:
"Qiye... um... could you step outside with me? There's something I need to say."
Lin Qiye hesitated only a moment, then nodded.