Beyond the Zenith

On the way through the town, they stole a sheet of tarp used to block out the rain, left money behind, and draped it over the hole in the van’s roof. It also served to partition off the rear of the van so that Shen Yixiu and the girl never saw each other.

When the sky was barely light, they dropped the girl off at a street corner on the opposite side of town.

As she got out, they repeated their earlier warnings once more: “This involves classified counter-terrorism operations by a national intelligence agency. It’s extremely sensitive. Don’t tell anyone about it and don’t mention meeting us. It’ll be dangerous for you if you do.”

Frankly speaking, even if the girl did talk, it wouldn’t matter much. From her perspective, all she had personally witnessed and experienced was basically the average kidnapping. The higher-ups of the Ninth Army would handle the remaining scene cleanup and follow-up coordination with the relevant authorities.

On the drive, they had learned that this composed and well-behaved girl was a first-year high school student.

“I promise not to tell anyone,” she repeated this several times for good measure, then bowed to her rescuers at the curb. “Thank you, Elder Brothers.”

Turning to He Tangtang alone, she bowed again. “Thank you, Uncle.”

He Tangtang was speechless. Shen Yixiu aside, he was actually the youngest of the group.

“Well, go home and study hard.” Wen Jifei gave her this piece of heartfelt advice before parting—the kind of thing people of their country couldn’t resist saying—despite scoring a mere 230 on the Gaokao himself.

“Okay... goodbye.”

“Goodbye.”

The girl stood at the street corner, waving until the van disappeared from sight. The people from the national intelligence agency were really something. It was reassuring.

***

After dropping the girl off, the van followed the provincial highway for a long time before finally turning off at a mountain creek valley. There wasn’t a soul around to see them pull into the woods and conceal the vehicle.

The five of them walked upstream along the creek until they found a pool ringed by large rocks that provided cover on all sides. They then fanned out to check their surroundings.

After confirming it to be safe, they set the case of energy cores on a flat rock and opened it once more. Eighteen blue crystal energy cores sat inside, light shining through them like gemstones.

Han Qingyu sat down and got straight to the point. “Let’s split them.”

The other four watched him in quiet contemplation.

After a long moment, Shen Yixiu broke the silence, sounding uneasy. “Is this... is this really okay?”

The boys all turned to look at her.

By now, Liu Shiheng and He Tangtang had more or less figured out that Shen Yixiu wasn’t some artificial intelligence or robot. Though they didn’t yet know her name, they at least knew she was a real person.

The four figured this hesitation was natural for a child raised in the Coalition. Her conscience and sense of discipline had simply caught up now that the initial excitement had worn off.

“Is this just a one-time thing? Or will we... keep doing this?” Shen Yixiu asked, not noticing their reactions at all.

It was hard to read her emotions from behind her faceplate, but her tentative words about the future seemed to indicate her stare was expectant. Hopeful, even.

“First taste of honey?” Wen Jifei asked with a grin.

He Tangtang made a confused sound. “What?”

“We’ve only just pulled one heist, and Iron Maiden’s already planning which direction the front door of our bandit hideout should face,” Wen Jifei joked.

Everyone gradually broke into laughter.

Embarrassed, Shen Yixiu glanced at Han Qingyu. Didn’t you say we’d make money together from now on?

The laughter soon died down, leaving an awkward silence as the group tried to figure out how to split the loot. It was their first time, meaning there were no established rules, and nobody wanted to speak first.

“I...” Liu Shiheng raised a hand, wincing as the movement pulled at his back wounds. “By all rights, a liability like me who won’t put his life on the line shouldn’t get anything. I’d still like one, though. I want to see if I can get even a little stronger.”

Han Qingyu glanced at the wounds covering his back. “Take two.”

Liu Shiheng shook his head. “One is enough.”

With that, he reached out and placed a single energy core in front of himself.

“I’ll pass,” Wen Jifei said next, staring back at the slightly startled faces with folded arms. “I’m not the type to be polite for the sake of it. You all know that—well, except Iron Maiden because we’re less familiar—but I didn’t hold back before when Little Qing offered me cores. It’s just... After last night, I really feel like they’d be wasted on me. I plan on going back and working on my shooting first. I’ll take my share once I figure out how to actually be useful.”

“Then I’ll set yours aside for now,” Han Qingyu decided, settling the matter.

“So, my turn?” He Tangtang asked, then went straight to it. “I want two. I can’t afford to be polite about this. If I fall any further behind Little Qing and Iron Maiden, I won’t even be able to help out. What would be the point of keeping me around?”

“Alright.” Han Qingyu nodded and placed two cores in front of him.

All eyes turned to Shen Yixiu.

After a brief silence, she said, “Then I’ll take two as well, if that’s okay? I’d be happy with that. It takes me an entire month of sparring just to earn two. As long as we keep—”

“Keep what? You think there’s someone to rob every day?” Wen Jifei cut in. He and Han Qingyu both knew that Shen Yixiu needed energy cores to stay alive.

“Then... three?” Shen Yixiu asked, uncertain.

“Take four for now,” Han Qingyu suggested. “This has nothing to do with how much you need. We’re looking at what you contributed. The four of us would have been done for if you hadn’t been there last night.”

Four blue crystal energy cores were placed in front of Shen Yixiu.

There was no reaction from Shen Yixiu for a long time.

Then, a soft sobbing came from within the metal shell.

The others chuckled fondly, and Shen Yixiu forced herself to stop out of embarrassment. She couldn’t even cry real tears.

Eleven cores remained in the case; the other four eyed Han Qingyu with wide grins.

It had long become second nature for Wen Jifei, He Tangtang, and Liu Shiheng to treat Han Qingyu as the core of their little survival group. It had happened gradually, as he delivered miracle after miracle and gave them something to believe in. For them, it was perfectly natural for him to claim the lion’s share.

Shen Yixiu mulled over this for a long time, then said nonsensically, “You’re the army of our group.”

She probably meant something more along the lines of: You hold this team together. You’re the organizer, the leader. Without you, it falls apart.

Han Qingyu smiled. “I’ll take four too. The rest goes into savings.”

“Savings?”

“Yeah.” Han Qingyu nodded. “We agreed to keep making money together, didn’t we? Then there’s no rush. We’ll save them for later.”

With that, he took four cores for himself and closed the lid on the remaining seven.

Nobody objected.

“The question is where to keep them. Where do we stash them?” Liu Shiheng asked. “We’ve still got a while before we get assigned to district platoons.”

That was the real problem. Han Qingyu had kept his cores in the barracks before, but Lao Jian had repeatedly warned him that it wasn’t safe.

“Do you trust me?” Shen Yixiu eventually asked. “If you do, you could hide them at my place. My family has a standalone house on the base, and I have an entire floor to myself. The only thing is, I need energy cores so badly, so if you’re worried—”

“We trust you,” Han Qingyu interrupted.

“Mn.” The others all nodded.

“Still, your family... A standalone house? Which Eraser official are you related to, exactly?” Wen Jifei couldn’t help but ask.

Shen Yixiu looked at him, then glanced at Han Qingyu. “I can’t say.”

“Oh, that’s fine then.” Wen Jifei let it go.

Han Qingyu nodded. He had a rough idea, but it was better left unsaid.

Thus concluded the division of the spoils.

Wen Jifei and Liu Shiheng exchanged a long look before voicing their shared thoughts.

“So... the two of us will sit out of operations like that for now.”

“Yeah, we dragged you down last night. If it had been just the three of you, you would have been even stronger without us there.”

“We’ll train on our own for a while and see where we stand.”

“Right. The thing is, that leaves just three of you, and none of you can drive. Maybe you should recruit one or two more?”

It was a fair point. The only question was who.

They needed a capable person.

Someone trustworthy and reliable.

Someone close to them.

Someone...

“What about that Eldest Gourd?” Shen Yixiu asked earnestly.