Chapter 33: Do Not Dwell on Mistakes

"Buy me breakfast tomorrow?"

"Hmm." Su Yi nodded, his eyes filled with firm resolve. As the saying goes, walls have ears; with so many people around, he had replied using the same coded language to ensure she understood quickly.

"Why bring that up so suddenly? I thought... you wanted to say something else."

Say something else?

Su Yi twitched his ears. He was becoming increasingly certain of his suspicions. He scanned the room; the teacher hadn't arrived yet. He reached out and pulled the translucent curtains shut, maintaining the seclusion of the back row.

He repeated, "I understand what you mean. Don't worry, I'll buy your breakfast tomorrow."

"Ah—"

Mu Xiaowei felt bewildered. She turned her head slightly to avoid Su Yi's gaze. She truly hadn't expected Su Yi to have absolutely no reaction to the soy milk that had just been suspended in mid-air. Instead, he had started discussing breakfast.

"Could buying him breakfast really make him this excited? But he says he understands my meaning... what is he talking about?"

Mu Xiaowei muttered to herself, eyes half-closed in silence. A moment later, she glanced at Su Yi, trying to glean some information from his facial expressions to unearth his true thoughts. However, the corners of Su Yi's mouth were turned slightly upward, his face showing clear excitement, and he kept glancing toward the hallway.

This feeling...

Could it be...

Is it possible...

Had he wanted to mend their relationship all along? Or, as those boys were teasing earlier, had he taken the "hero saves the beauty" and "repaying with one's body" talk to heart?

What should she do now? How was she supposed to explain this to Aunt Xu? Did Su Yi really not resent her or her father anymore?

Mu Xiaowei suddenly felt her cheeks burning as if held over a fire. Her mind was in chaos, and her dark eyes seemed to be filled with tangled, writhing lines—everything felt illusory and unreal.

"If you want to buy it, then buy it. I’ll eat it..." Mu Xiaowei leaned toward the desk, waving her soft, delicate hand as she spoke in a flustered tone.

She didn't dare look at Su Yi anymore.

"Oh, looks like she understood."

Su Yi nodded in approval as he watched Mu Xiaowei’s performance. The girl’s acting was truly astonishing; she could play the "shy" act so convincingly that even if someone were staring, they wouldn't notice anything unusual.

Could it be that she was a better actor than him? Recalling how Mu Xiaowei hadn't lifted a finger even when she was about to be hit during that ability outburst, could it be that she had planned a trade of "injury for injury" all along, and that was when he had exposed himself?

Still, Su Yi sensed something was wrong.

Did Mu Xiaowei really understand what he meant? Was she truly a powerhouse? Why couldn't he feel any energy fluctuations? Her movements and physical coordination didn't seem like it either.

He was conflicted, truly conflicted.

He always felt something was missing from this temporary alliance contract.

"If these people are intentionally hiding their true selves, they are doing a terrifyingly good job."

Ever since returning to Blue Star, Su Yi had been anxious every day. He always felt that with so many people on Blue Star, it couldn't be that simple.

But whether it was the school teachers, the old man living next door, or Mu Xiaowei, they all felt completely ordinary to him.

Could it be that he was just too strong?

As soon as this thought emerged, Su Yi suppressed it. Arrogance would surely lead to his downfall; he must never harbor such thoughts.

He would have to find an opportunity to test them.

"Commander, did I cause trouble?"

Left in the corridor, Lorie felt guilty to the extreme. The commander had repeatedly warned her not to make any unnecessary moves or expose herself. But her hand hadn't listened; seeing something flying toward her, and knowing it was the commander's drink, she had instinctively caught it.

She had truly failed the commander's expectations.

"Hmm, it was indeed a grave mistake..."

Su Yi didn't deny this. The situation just now had been the biggest slip-up he’d had since transmigrating; his back had been drenched in sweat.

The teacher had arrived by now, circling the classroom while lecturing. Su Yi pulled Lorie back into the corner. She looked deeply depressed, her light blue eyes devoid of any luster. She curled up in place with her head bowed, her state even more dejected than when she had spilled the "strategic supplies."

Terrified of repeating her mistake, she didn't dare move a muscle.

For Lorie, the mission was even more important than her own life. That her original infiltration mission had met with an accident was absolutely unacceptable.

Seeing her in this state, Su Yi picked up the Chinese dictionary and wrote a small note on the title page. He poked the girl’s shoulder to wake her from her self-imposed isolation, guilt, and depression, and placed the dictionary in her hands.

"Do not let the failure of one task interfere with other tasks. The crisis has passed, and since no irreversible damage was done, you must summarize the experience and look forward."

"Those who dwell on minor mistakes and refuse to move forward will never grow."

Looking at the words on the title page, the gloom in Lorie dissipated significantly. She timidly raised her small, delicate face to look at him, as if confirming some kind of answer.

Su Yi nodded slightly. Not knowing if she understood, he gave her a look he considered encouraging.

Calming down to think about it, Su Yi bore some responsibility for this accident. He had been well aware of the risks of bringing Lorie to school but hadn't considered every detail.

As Wastelanders, their instinctive reflexes in the face of danger were their bulletproof vests, their shields—their most powerful, innate weapons.

Yet, when choosing where to place the soy milk, he had failed to consider that it might be knocked over. If he had placed it on the floor, there wouldn't have been any problems.

Everyone makes mistakes; Su Yi never denied his own.

"Commander, how should I make up for it?"

Lorie’s mind was a mess. She wanted to find a way to remedy the situation, but she was still in stealth mode, and doing anything would invite suspicion. Only Su Yi had truly integrated into this world.

She hated that she couldn't be like the commander, who adapted to the external world so quickly and handled everything with ease.

"You don't need to worry about that. Keep reading. I am your commander, and cleaning up a subordinate's mess is one of my necessary responsibilities. You don't need to worry about the rest."

The somewhat scrawled text appeared on an A4 sheet. Although Su Yi turned away to listen to the lecture immediately after writing it, saying nothing more and making no further attempts to comfort her, Lorie stared at the words for a long time.

"The commander's responsibility is to pay for the mistakes I made, so what is my responsibility?"

Lost in thought, she couldn't find an answer. Every time she pondered such things, Lorie felt a deep sense of helplessness, always falling into an endless state of confusion.

However, she didn't let this confusion distress her. The commander said one must not stop moving forward because of a minor mistake.

She picked up the dictionary again and began to read intently.

Mastering the Blue Star language as quickly as possible and becoming "cultured" was another mission the commander had assigned her. She absolutely could not fail this time; she had to improve herself as quickly as possible.

She must never let the commander down.

Su Yi, who was listening to the lecture, wielded his ballpoint pen and caught a glimpse of the change in the girl’s mental state. A curve appeared on the corner of his mouth, and he turned back, feeling at ease.

The speed of her adjustment was quite good. Being able to recover so quickly compared to the last time she made a mistake was a form of progress.

No further waves were caused in the classroom.

The teacher lectured normally, and the surrounding students scribbled away until the bell rang.

He Cheng, sitting next to him, let out a tired and lazy "Augh" sound. He rubbed his buzz-cut hair, sat up straight, and stretched his back vigorously.

"Ai, my bones have stiffened from sitting in the classroom for so long. Guoguo, stop studying. Sleep for a bit during the long break; don't actually get into a key school."

The boy squinted at Lu Guoguo, who was busy harassing her neighbor while her fingers kept moving, trying to spread his own laziness.

"Stop being a jerk. I’m annoyed just looking at you. Get lost, you bottom-of-the-class student." Lu Guoguo gave him a look of contempt.

"Tch, aren't you about the same as me? Come on, let me quiz you—what is the counterpart to 'The Four Treasures of the Study'?"

He Cheng laughed maliciously.

"Brush, ink, paper, and inkstone?"

"I asked what the counterpart is! Not what they are."

"Hmm..." Lu Guoguo pondered for a moment. "Zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting? Or archery and horsemanship?"

"Wrong. The counterpart to 'The Four Treasures of the Study' is 'Ding Zhen of Litang'."

" 'Wen' (writing/culture) matches 'Li' (reason/logic), 'Fang' (room) matches 'Tang' (hall), one-two-three-four matches A-B-C-D, and 'Bao' (treasure) matches 'Zhen' (precious)."

"The most important thing is that the former represents being cultured, while the latter represents being uncultured."

"It's quite obvious you're the latter. If you knew how to adapt and were cultured, you wouldn't be working this hard and still sitting at the same desk as me."

"...!!!"

"Go to hell!" Lu Guoguo reached out with her short leg and kicked He Cheng hard.

Hearing this bickering, Su Yi was rarely amused. In his tense life of surveillance, a little interlude was quite relaxing.

But in the next second, he saw Lorie—who "felt she wasn't very cultured"—blinking as she flipped through the dictionary looking for the characters for "Ding Zhen of Litang," and he instantly couldn't laugh anymore.

"Don't you dare memorize that."