CH 184

luckykoi [Translator] 小锦鲤吐泡泡॰°ₒ৹ ๐॰°ₒ৹ ๐॰°14-17 minutes

The night was deep and strewn with looming dense clouds.

On Dumont Highway, a flamboyant hot-red hovercar led the way while an understated matte black hovercar followed behind. The headlights spilled light that silently rippled past like water. wI6MWx

Yan Suizhi remembered Fitz had once mentioned: No matter what Gu Yan thinks, even if unilaterally, I consider him a friend.

He had always wanted to tell her—’It’s not unilateral. Gu Yan feels the same.’

Chrysanthemum Garden.

At certain moments, friends always had an unspoken understanding hanging between them.

When he followed Gu Yan to the ground floor, Fitz didn’t directly say anything. 7edDL4

She stared hard and long into their eyes for a while, then suddenly smiled—a relieved smile, as though setting down a weight. Then, she took out the virtual key to her space hovercar, waving it around. “The office is a bit stuffy; I feel like going out for a joyride. Wanna come?”

Gu Yan’s face instantly went doubt. He looked at her, then headed up to retrieve his coat. “Let’s go.”

Yan Suizhi saw no reason for that look until they got onto the hover road.

This lady, who claimed to be going for a joyride, had chugged across Dumont Highway at the lowest possible speed limit. Anything on four wheels could have overtaken her.

o6fxK2

That being the case, she still had the audacity to direct the hovercar to the fast lane, then continued to test the minimum bound of the legal speed limit.

Eventually, Lawyer Gu was unable to resist turning on the inter-car communication to connect with Fitz ahead, coolly asking, “Miss, do you know what it means to go on a joyride? I suspect I might have misheard you—did you mean taking a stroll?”

Fitz’s laughter carried across the comms channel. “Don’t be mean. Even your intern isn’t afraid of you, so why would I be? To tell you the truth, I don’t usually ever drive on hover lanes alone. This is already lightning speed for me. If you’ve any objection, feel free to voice it. I’m not going to speed up anyway.”

Gu Yan was momentarily silent. “Then what made you decide to choose a space hovercar when buying cars.” QAd3zY

“Because it’s chic.”

“…”

Gu Yan shut the inter-car comms.

Yan Suizhi understood Lawyer Gu’s temper too well. He simply had a tongue that could give people frostbite, but it was more biting the closer the relationship was. Look there; despite his sharp words, after hanging up, he still followed behind Fitz’s car to their destination without fuss. L6rAxy

After an hour on hover roads, they were long out of Fa Wang District, now cruising along a mountain pass at the outskirts.

There was even a time difference between their present location and the heart of Fa Wang District. When they started on the scenic road up the mountain, it was 12 midnight local time.

This mountain had the highest elevation in the area, with a windcatcher at its peak that was open all day. If there ever was the inclination, no matter what hour it was, one could head up to the viewing platform overlooking the entire forestry.

The windcatcher was always crowded in the spring and summer, but was unpopular in the cooler seasons. 8Zhbco

They had picked the perfect time. The viewing platform at its highest floor was empty.

Fitz opened the skylight with ease, and the shaded roof withdrew to the side, leaving only colossal glass without supports or seams, the starry sky expanse caging down on them unobstructed.

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He met Miss Fitz’s eyes and nodded with a faint smile. Then, he turned his head over, tickling Gu Yan’s ears, mouthing a question to him, “Did she point to the north or to the south? Which planet is that?”

Gu Yan moved his lips. “To the west. The brightest western star on a winter night sky is Planet Skybridge.”

It was one of the wonders of all habitable planets in the alliance. The sky was perpetually dyed copper-gold like fire due to its unique atmospheric composition. On top of that, the nearest planet to it, half-obscured by its own moon, was a silver-bright inverted crescent stitched across this sky like a bridge in the clouds.

Thus its name. dPweRX

It was rumoured that all inhabitants of Planet Skybridge were pure in heart; passionate and romantic like their ever-constant skies.

Yan Suizhi wasn’t acquainted with that many people hailing from there, but from the few that he did, especially considering Miss Fitz, this belief did seem rather reasonable.

He asked Fitz, “Do you often come here late at night?”

But this young missy actually shook her head, saying, “No, it’s too deep into the woods. I dare not come alone, lest the next thing you know you’ll be seeing me on the headline news.” A59pSM

She winked at the two lawyers, saying unblushingly, “I was waiting for the chance to catch a person or two who makes me feel safe, and cajole them to accompany me on a trip out. The view here at night is one of a kind. I’ve wanted to see it for a long time, yet was never able to dupe anyone over—until today.”

Yan Suizhi admired the distant band of stars with his hands propped on the railing, and he shook his head, smiling when he heard this. “Miss, it isn’t that easy to get onto the headline news.”

“Yeah, but you know. After working at some places, you start to have misconceptions of the world, like there always being perverts every hundred metres or so.” Fitz counted on her fingers. “Like at police stations, courthouses, the prosecutor’s office, hospitals, law firms. That sort.”

She paused before adding, “Although I don’t fight lawsuits and am only responsible for the admin side of things, I am still exposed to all types of criminal cases every day. Also, due to my family… I’m sometimes quite prone to extremes, especially in my first two years at Southcross. It was to the point where I almost became delusional that someone was out to get me. Then I found a good method to save myself from falling into paranoia.” MD 1IH

Yan Suizhi casually asked, “What is it?”

“On the weekends off, head to the various plazas around De Carma, or even someplace in the alliance. A welfare institution would do too. Order a coffee or something sweet, and find a serene corner to sit for an afternoon.”

Yan Suizhi started minutely.

It was a method he used to tell his students a long, long time ago to relieve stress. Only it was in private settings, such as at his birthday parties, and only his direct students would have heard him. io9Das

Though Fitz wasn’t one of them, she still did something similar, which could also be a type of chemistry friends had.

“You’d always see a lot of passing moments, sitting in those places.” Fitz’s eyes were hooded in her recollection.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

Many would gather around a travelling musician, quietly listening to a whole song before paying their compliments. There were some who shared a bench to rest their feet and would strike up merry conversation. Someone would pick up a child who took a tumble to the ground, and someone would smile adoringly at another person’s pet as it pranced by.

“And every time I catch those moments, it counteracts the many negative thoughts I have. Like there aren’t that many perverts out there and the majority of people are kind and gentle.” Fitz shrugged. “Of course, that’s just what I personally believe. But there was an incident that amused me for a long time.” ja PWi

At that, she slid a look in Gu Yan’s direction.

Anything related to Gu Yan piqued Yan Suizhi’s interest. “Oh? Do share.”

“There are always some among the new arrivals at the firm every year completely enamoured by our Lawyer Gu’s handsome face. Men and women both, but it’s like he’s got a signal blocker on, you know? The sort of—any human or animal within an eight kilometre radius of him are all uniformly classified as living creatures, regardless of gender… do genders even exist in his world?” Fitz spiritedly roasted Gu Yan.

“—You know the like. Anyway, when I first joined the company, he didn’t even spare me a glance. I suspect that he didn’t even register whether the new HR was male or female.” 392FAG

Miss Fitz was taking the opportunity to air her complaints.

Yan Suizhi’s eyes were curved with a smile.

Gu Yan really wanted to retort, “It wasn’t that bad, I’m not blind“, but he didn’t like to interrupt others and so he grudgingly allowed her to carry on with her nonsense.

“Then time passed and, coincidentally, there was once that I went to sit at a welfare institution and watch children play, the donors and volunteers interacting with the children—and Gu saw me. I don’t know if my behaviour reminded him of someone or something, but in any case, after that, his attitude had softened towards me. For a while I even thought that he had a crush on me, but I later realised that I was wrong.” dTCm2W

“…”

Gu Yan mutely pinched the bridge of his nose, exasperated.

“Did you drink before getting into the car?” Gu Yan asked.

“Nope,” Fitz said, “Why do you ask?” YwNST9

“Nothing much, it just seems as though you’re a little… excited tonight,” said Gu Yan.

Fitz nodded. “Not ‘seems’; I am excited. It’s really nice to know that you guys are doing the same things as me.”

“You didn’t know before?” This came as a bit of a surprise to them.

“Not really.” Fitz said, “You guys aren’t at the law firm often, so how would I know what you’re up to? But I did have speculate a bit…” WaQdkU

She looked at Yan Suizhi and said, “It started when you first came in with your registration document. Because it’s truly not often that I receive someone with a slate as blank as yours. I didn’t know which side you were on at the time, if either. But I wanted to stir up a bit of trouble for Southcross, take in a volatile element or two. So I accepted your registration document without a question. As it turns out, I have a pretty good eye.”

“Why?” Gu Yan trained his eyes on her.

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Why are you siding with us? Why are you working at Southcross? That was what they had wanted to ask back at the law firm.

Fitz said, “Because of my parents, I guess.” ET9Kp0

“Your parents?”

Fitz nodded. She gazed at the faraway star in the west, seemingly taking a walk down memory lane. “Yeah… my mom, mainly. Our family was well-to-do in my childhood, pockets so deep that we couldn’t spend it all. She was eventually inspired by her mother and grandfather to dabble widely in investments. She got involved in many industries. Medical, shipping, raw materials, and even military, to name a few. Later on, she invested in two medicinal mines on Helan. But… it was those two medicinal mines that destroyed my family.”

“She was imprisoned and passed away there. Because of this, dad kept falling sick for three whole years, wearing down his immune system so badly that even being moved to a sterile room didn’t help. He eventually succumbed to sickness.”

Medicinal mines? cQUsd7

Imprisoned?

Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan exchanged a look; the more they listened, the more familiar it seemed. Frowning, they contemplated it for a moment before tentatively asking, “What are their names?”

Fitz said, “My dad is Gregory Fitz, a teacher. My mom is Marge Lucy.”

“Lucy?” gpKW9

“Yeah, what about it?”

Both of them simultaneously recalled the things that Joe had shown them from his sister’s video diary, in which a garden party was being held at the Manson Manor.

A young and accomplished lady, bearing the surname Lucy…

Who likewise owned two medicinal mines, also married a teacher, and was similarly incarcerated shortly afterwards, taking her own life in prison. 8jhkG2

Her story had made both Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan emotional when they first heard it.

But never had they imagined that she would actually turn out to be Fitz’s mother.

Fitz said softly, “Sometimes it made me sad, and I would wonder why couldn’t my parents be saved with the present state of healthcare and medical tech in the alliance? I was so convinced that there must have been some kind of conspiracy underfoot. But then I realised that maybe the conspiracy wasn’t here, but elsewhere.”

“I learned something when I was almost out of university—the two medicinal mines my parents left behind were taken over by a shell corporation that was, in fact, owned by the partners in Southcross. So I applied to the law firm.” g yoKt

Over the years, she had been hiding within Southcross’ admin systems, slowly building herself as the firm’s information hub. But the many distractions made it difficult for her to see beyond Southcross, to reach the bottom of it, and to find out who else was involved. Naturally then, she was also unable to tell who stood on the same side as her.

“For a long time, I felt alone. It was stark. Not knowing who I could help, or who could help me.” Fitz gazed into the distance, a few points of starlight pooling in her pretty eyes. “But strangely enough, I wasn’t afraid. I had this inexplicable confidence that what I’m doing must be working, that someone is actually standing with me. I just have to be patient.”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

“So you know why I’m so excited tonight? Because I read the run logs and I knew. That I finally, finally no longer have to guess and wait.”

Fitz smiled as she turned her head to regard them. “At last, I’m no longer alone; can there be any happier occasion?” XkfmSa

Yan Suizhi mused and said gently, “There is truly none.”

The wilderness was quiet through the window, sweeping verdure in rise and fall.

The inky night was infinite, immense, seemingly dormant with the great unknown.

And yet overhead, the sky was waxed in starshine. Of planets light-years yonder vaulting the horizon, a vast river of twinkling light whereon stars constellated. femBo7

Just as how there were always some roads in this cosmos—once set foot upon, you’d be safe in the knowledge that you’re never alone.

Edited by snoflakesun