Barrier of Light

It was so quiet in the ward that you could hear the needle drop.

It was as if time had stood still.

The long leaves in the vase by the window no longer swayed, and the flicker-free white light fell on the faces of two figures standing and lying on the bed. The two looked at each other in silence. They were obviously father and son, but they looked like strangers to each other.

"Let me...see you."

Zhao Qi raised his hands helplessly and then lowered them. He came empty-handed because he knew... his father lacked nothing.

"sit down."

Having just finished communicating with the Central Continent Council, Zhao Xilai's thoughts were in chaos. He took a deep breath and raised his hand to signal his son to find a place to sit. The ward was very large, but Zhao Qi sat beside the bed.

In fact, it’s not like he didn’t bring anything with him…

He brought a necklace.

The necklace was on the inside of his clothes. He only had to reach out to take it out. Zhao Qi's fingers began to tremble. As long as he was close to his father... he could not help but feel "awe" and "fear" in his heart. .

"I'm glad you came to see me."

The old man looked at his son meaningfully, but there was not much relief in his tone.

Zhao Qi forced out a smile with difficulty.

He wanted to say something, but countless thoughts were blocked in his mind for a moment. What could this be... was it a greeting or an encouragement? For a moment, his thoughts were pulled back to the long night many years ago. When he was a child, his father Already standing at the highest point of Dadu, he ran desperately, hoping to get a little bit of praise.

But it's a pity.

That cold, aloof figure did not look like his father, but a majestic mountain. No matter how hard he tried, that distant and ethereal man would never reach out to him.

approval? Recognition? Inspiring?

His childhood was filled with loneliness and failure.

A voice sounded slowly, like a thunderbolt from the blue, shattering Zhao Qi's chaotic thoughts.

"What happened in the Liberty Hall...was your doing, right?"

Zhao Qi's pupils shrank, he turned around awkwardly and looked at his father blankly.

The old man said softly: "Lu Nanzhi's spirit has been exiled... If you want to do this in the auditorium shrouded in [Dream], you need Xiao to release the authority of the spiritual link. As far as I know, you are the only one who can free People of action.”

Cold sweat appeared on Zhao Qi's forehead.

His smile was a little stiff, "Father...what are you talking about?"

"About a year ago, a mysterious person from the old city contacted you using an anonymous communication method. With the help of that mysterious person, you began to cooperate with the South Bay faction and successfully reached several deals. Transaction... In the board of directors of Huazhi, some people are starting to look at you with admiration." Zhao Xilai lowered his eyebrows slightly, "I have paid attention to these businesses, and I have to say that what you have accomplished is amazing. Ye Ningqiu, who has always refused to give in, , were willing to bow their heads in negotiations and sacrifice most of their interests to seek cooperation with Huazhi. These transactions shocked the entire board of directors... At that time, Xiao Cui asked me to investigate the identity of the 'mysterious person'. "

"But I didn't do that."

"It's not because I only care about interests... but because you are my son." Zhao Xilai said calmly: "No one knows you better than me. You have never been a hero, and you will never do anything desperate. You can't control the wind and waves, and you can't cause big troubles. If there are no accidents... you will probably be a coward in this life."

This sentence sounds uncomfortably true and even crueler.

The smile on Zhao Qi's face disappeared little by little.

He looked at his father and couldn't think of what kind of person... would say such things to his own flesh and blood.

coward……

coward……

Who is willing to be a coward?

"Last month, you hid alone, but you were actually injured." Zhao Xilai said lightly: "I didn't dare to borrow healing sealed items because I was afraid that I would find out... I had my teeth knocked out, and I still needed to If you swallow it in your stomach, what is this but a coward?"

Zhao Qi was startled.

"You dare not speak out... because you are afraid that something more serious will be exposed." The old man's words were like a knife, scratching Zhao Qi's heart, "There is no revenge, just because you have no evidence and you were beaten in the old city. Then I didn’t arrange the [Celestial Eye] on the side, so I was punished for my bad luck, and since I couldn’t find any evidence, I had to let it go.”

The man sitting next to the bed was obviously a young man, but he was extremely useless. He stretched his shoulders, lowered his eyes, and his voice became lower and lower: "Did...Liu Yi say that?"

The old man said calmly: "Does she still need to talk about this kind of thing? How can there be anything that can be hidden from me in the capital?"

"The person who silently supports you is 'Xiao'. In those several businesses, Ye Ningqiu's setback is not a miracle, just because she is also Xiao's puppet." Zhao Xilai's tone was not disappointed, as always "So... all of this can be explained. The ultimate goal of the Long-term Foundation is to dilute the power system of the metropolitan area, starting from the congressmen, disintegrating the two huge groups bit by bit, and only mentally controlling one One person is not enough, even if that one person is important.”

"Xiao hopes you can take over Huazhi."

Zhao Xilai looked at his son, "Supporting you is... the simplest and most crude way."

The reason for not contacting Lu Nanzhi is because the risk of contact with Lu Nanzhi is too high. Madam hates the Jiujiu Foundation. Once the bewitchment fails, Xiao will bear a devastating blow.

Similarly... among the Huazhi faction, who else is more suitable to contact than Zhao Qi?

there is none left.

However, Xiao's biggest miscalculation was that he overestimated Zhao Qi's ambition and courage.

"That night, the night you were beaten... I went to the old city to find the owl." Zhao Xilai's words no longer contained the meaning of questioning or rhetorical questions. He directly used declarative sentences to tell the truth that Zhao Qi had concealed. He clicked and shook his head: "He gave you a spiritual sealed artifact...and it's not the first time. Nan Zhi had suffered from 'insomnia' for a while. The crow's rage was also related to that incident. He’s looking for the murderer, and you should be lucky that no evidence was left behind.”

"Otherwise...he will really beat you to death."

at this moment.

Zhao Qi felt something crack in his heart.

He looked at his father... He felt that this was not only a mountain that had been weighing on his heart for many years, but also a cage. His father watched everything that happened in Dadu, and everything he did could not be hidden from his sight. , those little tricks and little ideas, it’s just that he didn’t want to expose them.

"Yes……"

Zhao Qi stood up slowly, smiled and confessed: "I did what happened in the Free Auditorium."

After saying these words, the heavy stone in my heart was instantly put down.

Relieved.

"You want to kill Lu Nanzhi and inherit the banner." The old man looked at his son, still expressionless.

"No……"

Zhao Qi felt that his whole body became lighter and his fingers seemed to no longer tremble. He reached out and took out the necklace from the inside of his clothes.

"I am using this sealed artifact..."

Zhao Qi looked at the necklace like a man possessed and murmured: "You only need to wear it for a short while, and your consciousness will be...exiled forever."

"How can exiling a spirit be considered... killing?"