Genius Club-Chapter 1185 - 42 Copenhagen (Monthly ticket extra!)_2

Lin Xian turned his head and looked at Zhao Yingjun’s oversized straw sun hat:

"You said the same thing as Huang Que."

"Of course."

Zhao Yingjun smiled:

"After all, we are the same person."

"So... for many things, actually, Huang Que and I can empathize. We think about the same things and love the same person."

"This is why I came to Copenhagen... Lin Xian, everything Huang Que did was to let you step on the lessons of failure and move toward success, toward a better life without regrets. If Huang Que could see us now, she would definitely feel comforted."

She closed her eyes, letting the sea breeze brush her face.

It felt as if, standing right before her, was a thirty-something version of herself. In those blue pupils, there was nothing but a young reflection of herself.

"Thank you."

Zhao Yingjun said softly.

On this beach was a brave hero, someone who had traveled across time to guide Lin Xian onto the right path and ultimately delivered him back to her hands.

And now...

It was her turn to take the baton.

In an instant.

She felt her abdomen grow warm.

As if...

As if something inside moved, giving her a little kick.

She suddenly opened her eyes, realizing something!

"Lin Xian, Lin Xian."

She grabbed Lin Xian’s hand and placed it on her lower abdomen:

"Feel it, the baby kicked me just now... it felt like a kick!"

"Really?"

Lin Xian, curious, placed his hand there too.

But.

There was no more movement.

"Maybe it was just an illusion."

Lin Xian smiled:

"I’ve looked it up—it usually takes four months for fetal movement to happen. You’re not even three months along; it’s too early for that."

"Really..."

Zhao Yingjun chuckled softly:

"Maybe the baby sensed something."

She lifted her head:

"Speaking of which, wasn’t it right here that you first heard the name Yu Xi?"

Lin Xian nodded:

"At the time, after Huang Que taught me the two Space-time Laws, she told me never to leave Yu Xi."

"I thought about it for a long time afterward, pondering what Yu Xi was, who Yu Xi could be. It wasn’t until a whole series of events unfolded that I realized Yu Xi was the name of our daughter."

"As for the instruction to never leave Yu Xi, I used to overthink it, imagining all sorts of possibilities. But in the end, I never expected... that the message was neither complicated, nor cryptic, nor roundabout at all."

"She was simply telling me not to leave my daughter this time, not to abandon her and make her an orphan. To stay and grow up with her."

"This must have been Huang Que’s regret. Perhaps, after I died in a certain timeline, she traveled alone across time to our era to save a doomed fate; but doing so meant that she, too, had chosen the world over her daughter, turning Yu Xi into an orphan."

"So... Huang Que must have regretted it in the end, right? Regretted leaving her daughter and allowing her to be used by others."

However...

Zhao Yingjun took two steps forward, closer to The Little Mermaid Bronze Statue, and turned around, shaking her head:

"She wouldn’t regret it."

Zhao Yingjun lifted her head.

The red glow of the sunset silhouetted her face in black.

At that moment.

Lin Xian felt as if Huang Que were standing right in front of him.

"She wouldn’t regret it."

Zhao Yingjun softly repeated:

"Huang Que understood better than anyone: a future without tomorrow carries no meaning. Scraping by, barely surviving for a lifetime, is enough for ordinary people who need not think too far ahead."

"But you, Lin Xian, are different. You aren’t ordinary—you’re extraordinary. You have the power to change all of this, to save a failed future."

"With great power comes great responsibility. Even though we don’t fully understand the true purpose of the Genius Club, there’s one line from its charter that I deeply agree with."

"If you and I were ordinary people, we could live for the moment, drink while there’s wine, and indulge in life for a few days. We could ignore the disasters of tomorrow and the fate of human civilization, because we wouldn’t have the capability to intervene; history doesn’t fault the powerless."

"[But what if... we’re not ordinary?]"

She looked into Lin Xian’s eyes:

"I’m an ordinary person too, yet because of you, I became someone extraordinary. Have you ever thought about why, out of billions of people on Earth, only you possess the ability to dream of the future?"

"I believe it’s because you have a responsibility—a responsibility that no one else shares, a burden even heavier than that of the Genius Club’s brightest minds."

"[With a gift no one else has, you must shoulder the tasks no one else can accomplish.]"

"That’s why Huang Que abandoned her daughter to cross the sea of time to find you... just as I now trust in you. No matter how perilous the road ahead, I believe you’ll succeed in the end, that you’ll save this world, save humanity’s future."

Lin Xian gazed at the silhouette of the woman before him, blocking the setting sun, her figure overlapping with The Little Mermaid Bronze Statue behind her. It felt as though he was having a cross-temporal dialogue.

This, perhaps.

Was the truest essence of Huang Que’s thoughts.

The greater good, versus the immediate family, how does one choose?

But in truth, as Zhao Yingjun had said, without the greater good, there is no immediate family.

Just like the Great Catastrophe of 2400 and the World-Ending White Light of 2624.

Those were merely examples of events that seemed distant, seemingly unrelated...

Yet.

Generation after generation, someone would have to live to see 2400, live to see 2624, and face those disasters.

Many people would laugh dismissively: Why should disasters centuries from now matter to me?

For ordinary people, for those without capabilities, thinking that way wasn’t wrong.

Lin Xian suddenly thought about something else:

The members of the Genius Club—while each had their own calculations—did any of them dedicate themselves to greed, indulgence, and worldly pleasures?

None.

Every single one of them could have used Einstein’s omniscience to enjoy a life of wealth and leisure.

But in reality, what were they doing?

No matter the morality of their actions or their methods, each one desperately sought to create a better future for humanity.

None of them embraced the idea of living for the moment. Even Copernicus, hated to the bone by so many, had been calculating how to achieve his future plans while dragging along his dying body.

"So, Huang Que wouldn’t regret it."

Zhao Yingjun said resolutely from ahead:

"Nor will I, no matter the time."

Whoosh————

A sudden gust of wind swept through, lifting the sand from the beach and stirring it into the sea.

As it swirled, the wind carried off Zhao Yingjun’s straw sun hat, sending it soaring into the open sky.

The pair turned around.

They watched as the straw hat, like a migrating bird, fluttered with the swirling wind, sailing toward the sea, toward the clouds, toward the other side of the world...

Lin Xian stepped forward, standing just behind Zhao Yingjun, and smiled faintly:

"It seems there really is an audience."

"There should be two."

Zhao Yingjun lowered her gaze, placing a hand lightly on her abdomen:

"I’m sorry, Lin Xian. There’s something I’ve been keeping from you."

"Hmm?"

Lin Xian tilted his head, puzzled.

Zhao Yingjun tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear with her right index finger:

"You’ve always said you wanted it to be a surprise, wanted to wait until the baby was born to find out if it’s a boy or a girl."

"But I just couldn’t resist. Out of curiosity, I went to a private doctor and found out the baby’s gender."

She looked up, her expression soft and joyful:

"But… it’s good news for you."

Lin Xian’s eyes widened.

The hint of anxiety in his heart melted away, replaced by elation:

"Really?"

"Yes!"

Zhao Yingjun bit her lip, smiling knowingly as she nodded:

"That’s right... it’s a girl!"

"Haha, you really do keep your word, don’t you? You said Yu Xi would return home, and here she is."

"That’s wonderful."

Lin Xian clasped Zhao Yingjun’s hand tightly:

"See, I knew it! All those little clothes and toys of Yu Xi’s—we don’t need to throw them out. Her favorite three-piece set, we’ll save them for her to use ten years from now!"

"Haha."

Zhao Yingjun laughed, tapping Lin Xian’s nose with her index finger:

"You really are something. I wonder how you’ll explain it to her when she asks why all her clothes and toys are old and outdated."

"No matter how convincing your story sounds, she’d no doubt think you’re just making it up."

"But… I suppose you won’t have to rack your brain over naming the child now, right?"

Lin Xian smiled and nodded:

"Indeed, there’s no need. Our daughter has already been here with us; she already has a one-of-a-kind name."

He crouched down.

Wrapping his arms carefully around Zhao Yingjun’s waist, he pressed his forehead against her abdomen, closing his eyes.

Feeling the lingering warmth of the sunset;

Inhaling the crisp, bubbly scent of the open sky;

Hearing the tender lapping of the waves against the shore;

He softly whispered:

"Yu Xi..."

"Daddy’s here."