344: Chapter 344 Shen Bingtong's True Identity

Late night.

2:00 AM.

The roof of the Shelter.

-170 degrees.

The wind is strong.

Strong enough to knock an adult off their feet.

But Shen Bingtong stands very steadily.

She wears a thin grey coat, standing on the edge of the roof.

Long black hair dancing in the wind.

The hem of her coat flapping loudly.

Her expression is calm.

As if standing on a balcony in spring, letting the wind blow.

This is her daily routine.

2:00 AM.

The roof.

One hour.

Rain or shine.

Of course, there is no rain on the ice plains.

Only wind.

And cold.

Today is different.

When she stepped onto the roof, she found someone was already there.

Lin Yuan.

He is wearing cold-weather gear—he does not have Shen Bingtong's constitution that is immune to the cold.

He is leaning against the ventilation pipe on the roof, hands in his pockets.

As if he had been waiting for a while.

Shen Bingtong's footsteps paused.

About half a second.

Then she continued walking over and stood beside Lin Yuan.

There was about a meter of space between them.

The wind passed between them.

Silence.

Ten seconds.

The sound of the wind filled all the gaps.

Lin Yuan spoke first.

"There is a silver energy inside you."

It wasn't a question.

It was a statement.

As natural as saying "It's very cold today."

Shen Bingtong's body stiffened for an instant.

Very short.

Too short for an ordinary person to notice.

But Lin Yuan is not an ordinary person.

He noticed it.

Shen Bingtong regained her calm.

"How did you know?"

Lin Yuan: "My people detected it."

He glanced at her.

"And—you are standing in -170 degree wind without a coat. That in itself is the answer."

Shen Bingtong didn't speak.

The wind continued to blow.

Her black hair drifted in the wind, occasionally sweeping across her cheeks.

Her light grey eyes shone with a faint light under the moonlight.

Not grey light.

It was silver.

Very faint.

So faint that if you didn't look closely, you would think it was a reflection of the moonlight.

But that wasn't moonlight.

That was her own light.

Shen Bingtong was silent for a long time.

So long that Lin Yuan thought she didn't intend to answer.

Then she spoke.

Her voice was flat.

As if telling someone else's story.

"You know Ling Shuanghan."

Lin Yuan didn't speak.

"Then you should know about the cleanser."

Lin Yuan still didn't speak.

Shen Bingtong glanced at him. This man's silence wasn't because of shock, but because he was waiting for her to finish.

Like an interrogator.

A patient, non-interrupting interrogator.

"When the Everwinter World was cleansed, a clone of a cleanser was hunting down survivors. A human female used her Superpower to backlash against it. A portion of the cleanser fragment's energy merged into that female's body."

She paused for a moment.

"That female later became pregnant. When the child was born, the cleanser fragment had already completely fused with the fetus."

The wind seemed to grow stronger at this moment.

"That child is me."

Lin Yuan turned his head to look at her.

Shen Bingtong met his gaze.

"I have been different since birth. Not afraid of the cold. Not infected by the frost curse. My Spiritual Power is far beyond my peers. But my eyes—"

She pointed to her own eyes.

In her light grey irises, the silver light was more obvious than before.

"At certain times they turn silver. The same silver as the cleanser."

Lin Yuan looked at those eyes.

Silver.

Indeed, it was silver.

Exactly the same color as the cleanser's eyes that he had heard described in Luo Qinghan's memories.

Shen Bingtong withdrew her gaze and looked at the distant ice plains.

"My mother hid my identity to protect me."

Her voice was still very flat.

But when the word "mother" came out, there was a barely perceptible tremor.

"But she died when I was twelve."

Sound of the wind.

"After that, I have been hiding. Hiding from humans. Also hiding from the cleanser."

She finished.

Like closing a book.

Shutting it.

Not intending to open it again.

Lin Yuan was silent for a few seconds.

Then he said: "Let's go. To the command room."

Shen Bingtong looked at him.

"There is one more person who needs to hear this."

...

Command room.

2:30 AM.

Lin Yuan, Shen Bingtong, Ling Shuanghan.

Three people.

Ling Shuanghan was woken up.

She was wearing a military coat over her pajamas, her hair a bit messy.

A woman over a hundred years old being woken up from bed, her complexion wasn't very good.

But when she saw Shen Bingtong, her expression changed from "not good" to "very complex."

Lin Yuan briefly explained the situation.

After hearing it, Ling Shuanghan was silent.

Then she asked a question.

Not "Are you really an Ash Seed?"

Not "Is the fragment inside you stable?"

Not any question a normal person would ask.

She asked:

"What was your mother's name?"

Shen Bingtong was stunned for a moment.

"... Shen Ruobing."

Ling Shuanghan closed her eyes.

The command room went quiet.

Shen Ruobing.

Deputy Commander of the Seventh Legion of the Everwinter World.

On the day the cleanser descended, she led the Seventh Legion to hold the line.

Covering the retreat of Ling Shuanghan's main force.

The three-thousand-man Seventh Legion.

Fewer than two hundred returned.

Shen Ruobing was not among those two hundred.

Ling Shuanghan always thought she had died.

Everyone thought she had died.

So she hadn't died.

She survived.

She got pregnant.

She gave birth to a child.

And then she died when the child was twelve.

Ling Shuanghan opened her eyes.

She looked at Shen Bingtong.

Looked for a long time.

"I knew your mother."

Her voice was very soft.

So soft it was as if she was afraid of disturbing something.

"She was a good soldier."

Five words.

No more.

But the weight of these five words, only those who had experienced that war would understand.

Shen Bingtong's expression fluctuated.

For the first time.

The first time since she arrived at the Shelter.

Her lips trembled slightly.

Her eyes reddened slightly.

But only for a moment.

Then she regained her calm.

As if opening a door, then quickly closing it.

Ling Shuanghan turned to Lin Yuan.

"In the Everwinter World, I killed an Ash Seed."

Her tone returned to calm.

"That Ash Seed killed three hundred people after losing control. People in the village. Old people, women, children. Three hundred people."

Shen Bingtong's fingers curled slightly.

"But—" Ling Shuanghan glanced at Shen Bingtong.

"She has lived for over twenty years without losing control. This shows her fusion rate is very high. The fragment has already completely adapted to her body."

Lin Yuan: "So she won't lose control?"

Ling Shuanghan: "I cannot guarantee it."

She paused.

"But the probability is very low."

Lin Yuan nodded.

He turned to Shen Bingtong.

"Do you want to live?"

Shen Bingtong was stunned.

This question was too direct.

She had prepared for many possibilities.

"Are you dangerous?"

"Can you control yourself?"

"Are you willing to be monitored?"

"Can you guarantee not to harm people in the Shelter?"

She had prepared answers for all these questions.

But she had not prepared an answer for this question.

"Do you want to live?"

This question bypassed all defenses.

All the wariness.

All the camouflage.

It poked directly at the thing deepest inside.

Shen Bingtong was silent for three seconds.

"... Yes."

One word.

The voice was very soft.

But very certain.

Lin Yuan: "Then stay."

Shen Bingtong looked at him.

"Aren't you afraid I'll lose control?"

Lin Yuan: "I am."

He said it very frankly.

"But the probability of you losing control is lower than the probability of the Ice Coffin Society attacking again. I will not give up a useful person because of a low-probability event."

Shen Bingtong: "... Useful?"

Lin Yuan: "You are not afraid of the cold. You can operate in an environment of -300 degrees."

He looked into her eyes.

"The places the Ice City passes through have temperatures below -300 degrees. You are the only person I can currently send in for reconnaissance."

Shen Bingtong was silent.

She looked into Lin Yuan's eyes.

There was no sympathy in those eyes.

No fear.

No disgust.

No curiosity.

Only calm calculation.

As if looking at a data report.

"Your constitution is A. Your cold resistance is S. Your reconnaissance value is SS. Comprehensive assessment: Stay."

That was roughly the feeling.

If it were someone else, Shen Bingtong might have felt offended.

Treating a person as a tool—isn't that an insult?

But she didn't feel offended.

Instead, she felt relieved.

Because sympathy can turn into disgust.

Fear can turn into murderous intent.

Pity can turn into abandonment.

Only a relationship of interest is the most stable.

You are useful to me, so I keep you.

This is the most reliable promise in the Apocalypse.

More reliable than any sweet talk.

"Okay," Shen Bingtong said.

"I'll stay."

Two words.

Crisp and clean.

As crisp as when her mother accepted the rearguard mission back then.

Ling Shuanghan watched this scene from the side and thought to herself—As expected, she is Shen Ruobing's daughter.

...

Shen Bingtong left.

Ling Shuanghan also left.

Before leaving, she glanced at Lin Yuan, wanting to say something but stopping.

In the end, she said nothing.

Wearing the military coat, hair still a bit messy, she left.

Only Lin Yuan was left in the command room.

He was just about to turn off the lights—the door was pushed open.

Luo Qinghan.

She didn't knock.

This meant the matter was urgent.

Or she was very anxious.

"Are you sure?"

Luo Qinghan stood at the door, her tone much more serious than usual.

"The cleanser fragment inside the Ash Seed—what if that deeper entity locates the Blue Star through the fragment?"

Lin Yuan leaned back in his chair.

"It has already located it."

Luo Qinghan's brows furrowed.

"It located it when I absorbed the authority fragment," Lin Yuan said. "One more Ash Seed won't make the situation worse."

Luo Qinghan opened her mouth.

Wanted to retort.

But she found she couldn't.

Because he was right.

The energy fluctuation of the authority fragment was far stronger than the cleanser fragment inside an Ash Seed.

If that "deeper entity" wanted to locate the Blue Star, it would have already located it through Lin Yuan's authority fragment.

Adding one more Shen Bingtong wouldn't make the signal stronger.

Just like a searchlight is already turned on in a room, and you light another candle—does it make a difference?

No.

Luo Qinghan sighed.

"You are always like this. Calculating all the risks, then choosing an optimal solution."

Lin Yuan: "Not the optimal solution. The optimal solution under current conditions."

He paused.

"If conditions change, the solution will change too."

Luo Qinghan looked at him.

"What if she really loses control?"

Lin Yuan glanced at her.

"Then I will handle it."

The tone was very flat.

As if saying "Then I will take out the trash."

But Luo Qinghan heard something else in this sentence.

Not understatement.

It was absolute confidence.

Not blind confidence.

It was confidence based on strength.

The authority fragment inside Lin Yuan had a natural suppression effect on the cleanser fragment.

If Shen Bingtong lost control, he had the ability to suppress it at the first moment.

This was not a guess.

This was a fact.

Luo Qinghan was silent for a few seconds.

"You know," she said, "sometimes I feel like you are not a human."

Lin Yuan: "Hm?"

"You are like a computer. Everything in your eyes is variables and probabilities. People are variables, emotions are variables, life and death are variables. You input all the variables, calculate an optimal solution, and then execute."

Lin Yuan thought about it.

"Is there any problem with that?"

Luo Qinghan: "... No."

She turned and walked toward the door.

When she reached the door, she stopped.

"But a computer wouldn't run to the roof at 2:00 AM to wait for someone."

Lin Yuan didn't answer.

Luo Qinghan left.

The door closed.

The command room went quiet.

Lin Yuan leaned back in his chair, looking at the ceiling.

Luo Qinghan was right.

A computer wouldn't run to the roof at 2:00 AM to wait for someone.

But he went.

Waited for twenty minutes in the -170 degree wind.

Froze quite a bit.

If he were really a computer, he should have had Xia Bingli bring Shen Bingtong to the command room for a talk.

Warm.

Efficient.

Saves time.

But he didn't.

He chose the roof.

Chose the cold wind.

Chose to stand in the place Shen Bingtong went every day to wait for her.

Why?

Lin Yuan thought about it.

Probably because—talking to someone in the place where they are most relaxed makes it easier for them to tell the truth.

Hm.

That must be the reason.

It must be that reason.

Lin Yuan turned off the lights.

The moonlight from outside shone in.

The moon on the ice plains is very bright.

Much brighter than before the Apocalypse.

Probably because there are no pollutants in the air, the moonlight can shine to the ground without obstruction.

And probably because of the reflection of the ice plains.

The moonlight shines on the ice surface, the ice surface reflects the moonlight back to the sky, and the sky scatters the moonlight down again.

So the night on the ice plains is not dark.

It is silver.

The same silver as the light in Shen Bingtong's eyes.

Lin Yuan closed his eyes.

There are three things to do tomorrow.

Defense upgrade.

Ice layer exploration.

And—figure out a way to make Shen Bingtong utilize her "usefulness."

As for whether she is an Ash Seed.

As for whether she will lose control.

As for what the cleanser fragment inside her means.

Time will give the answers to these questions.

Lin Yuan is not in a hurry.

He is never in a hurry.