"It's a pity I was too dull-witted to even grasp and master twenty percent of the knowledge my teacher taught me, despite trying my hardest."
"Even so, she never showed any displeasure at my dullness. She accommodated me in almost every way, raising me as I grew."
Qi Zhimu's gentle voice was soft, yet every word was clear.
"They say a teacher for a day is a father for a lifetime. To me, my teacher was more than just a second parent."
"...I can understand Mr. Qi's answer to fate now."
"You little girl, you like to talk about such deep topics at such a young age. When I was your age..."
At this point, Qi Zhimu suddenly went silent.
"What's wrong?" Clarice asked, confused.
"...It's nothing. At eighteen, I was just a reckless lad, not much different from a middle schooler."
"But, Mr. Qi..."
A look of deep concern appeared on Clarice's face, her voice trembling slightly.
"Why are you... crying?"
Qi Zhimu raised his hand to wipe his cheek and felt a dampness. He stared blankly at the tear trace on his fingertip.
"Strange..."
He murmured softly, placing his hand over his chest to feel his heartbeat.
A momentary pang of pain flashed through his heart.
Why?
Just as Qi Zhimu was deep in thought, his throat suddenly tightened.
Sensing the rapid change in his physical state, he forced himself to swallow the crimson blood that was about to surge up his throat.
"Sorry, please excuse me for a moment."
Qi Zhimu walked quickly out of the medical room, returned to his own room, shut the door, and immediately took out a medicine bottle.
He swallowed four pills of the special medicine. As he felt the medicine's power quickly dissolve within him, his expression didn't relax; instead, it grew even more solemn.
He had still underestimated the difficulty of fighting aging.
The effectiveness of the special medicine had dropped significantly. Not only was the effect shorter, but his recent increase in dosage had led his body to gradually develop drug resistance.
He couldn't increase the maximum dosage any further, or the side effects would prevent him from lasting more than two days.
He had to create a new, more effective medicine within a few days.
Otherwise, before his lifespan reached its limit, he would only be able to live out his days as a bedridden, elderly man.
Qi Zhimu had no fear of his impending death; he simply wanted to leave no regrets.
He still had things to finish. He couldn't just lie down and wait for death, and he certainly couldn't let Yu Qintu find out.
He knew very little about Yu Qintu, but he knew well that in terms of being extreme, she and his teacher, Ruan Mei, were undoubtedly quite similar.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have become such close friends despite the age gap.
"Mr. Qi, are you alright?!"
Clarice's concerned inquiry came from outside the closed door.
"I'm fine..."
Qi Zhimu steadied his voice, pretending to be calm. He looked at his white hair in the mirror and his slowly recovering appearance, then sighed silently.
"I suddenly remembered an important matter I forgot to tell my teacher. It'll take about half an hour."
"That's good then."
Although Clarice was still a bit puzzled, she finally breathed a sigh of relief and headed back.
On the screen in the medical room, the treatment progress jumped from 81% to 82%.
Clarice's heart settled, and she looked around.
There were no phantoms, as if what she had seen before was just an illusion.
But she knew it wasn't a hallucination.
Walking slowly through the area where Qi Zhimu's phantom had been, the girl's expression was complex, her thoughts drifting far away.
After an unknown amount of time, she suddenly turned around and stared intently at a certain spot.
No one... but she had a strange feeling, an illusion that someone was staring at her from that position.
Clarice's brows furrowed as she carefully sensed information that ordinary people would find hard to detect.
Having been ostracized and isolated by her peers since childhood, she could clearly distinguish the emotions contained within different gazes.
Was it the gaze of Mr. Qi's phantom?
No...!
Mr. Qi's gaze was always gentle. Even if he stared at her constantly, it would feel like a spring breeze on her face, without the slightest discomfort.
Although the gaze that had seemed like an illusion didn't appear to contain malice, it wasn't necessarily benevolent either.
It felt more like... scrutiny?
Like the way a teacher at the academy looks over everyone when picking class committee members.
Clarice concentrated her mind, as if trying to see through whatever had once existed in that spot.
Unfortunately, she found nothing until Qi Zhimu returned.
"Mr. Qi, do you think... there are ghosts in the world?"
"Why the sudden question?"
"...Just curious."
"That depends on what kind of ghost you mean. If it's the kind from movies and supernatural stories, strictly speaking, they don't exist."
"So you mean, in a non-strict sense, ghosts actually exist?" Clarice suddenly felt a chill down her spine.
"You could say that."
Qi Zhimu glanced at the treatment progress bar, checked the program's runtime library, and continued after confirming there were no abnormalities:
"I've heard my teacher mention that there are some unique energy lifeforms in the universe."
"In their normal state, they don't have a fixed physical form. They can be seen but not touched, or even neither seen nor touched."
"Unless they want us to see them, or we use special abilities and means to see them."
"Have you heard of Pathstriders?"
Pathstriders? Clarice said thoughtfully, sounding a bit uncertain.
"There's a chemistry professor at our academy who is invulnerable to weapons. Whenever there's an accident in a chemistry project, like an explosion, he can resolve it in time."
"The Pathstriders Mr. Qi mentioned are these humans who possess special abilities, right?"
Qi Zhimu nodded. "Humans with special abilities aren't necessarily Pathstriders, but those who have walked far enough on a Path will certainly possess special abilities."
"As far as I know, striders of certain Path factions have the ability to 'ghostify' themselves."
"Which specific factions are they?" Clarice asked.
"One that's certain is Remembrance, and another is Enigmata... I'm not sure about the others," Qi Zhimu pondered.
The Enigmata faction was something Yu Qintu had told him about; Ruan Mei had only mentioned Remembrance.
"Why the sudden question?"
"Um... Mr. Qi, what I'm about to say... please don't be scared..."
"Go ahead."
"There seems to be a ghost here... Not long ago, it felt like something was hiding in the shadows, watching me."
"Is that so?"
Qi Zhimu looked surprised. He pondered for a moment, and his brow gradually relaxed.
"There's no need to worry. If it really is one of those Pathstriders, they likely have no malice—nor would they dare to."
Thinking back to the advice he had written regarding Remembrance, he felt it probably had something to do with a Memokeeper.
Traces of Genius Society #55 had been left here; no one would dare to easily offend a genius.
The above was what Yu Qintu had told him personally.
She also mentioned that a Cremator from the Remembrance faction had once offended her, and she ended up turning them into a special potion... "Then I can rest easy," Clarice nodded slightly... The sky gradually began to brighten with the first light of dawn.
The moment the progress on the screen reached 100%, Durand slowly opened her eyes.
When Clarice met her mother's gaze and saw the familiar maternal love within, her eyes quickly welled up with tears.
Qi Zhimu performed a post-operative check, let out a slow sigh of relief, and gave a heartfelt smile.
"Ms. Durand, congratulations. From this moment on, the trouble of amnesia will leave you forever."