The two of them walked along the sidewalk outside the park for a while.
Ye Chenfeng suddenly stopped, his expression turning serious.
“Are you... only visible to me?”
Qiyu froze for a moment and blurted out, “How did you know? My invisibility has several modes. Basically, I can choose who gets to see me. It’s very basic technology—optical alteration combined with blocking the optic nerves.” Only after she finished did she realize what he had asked. “But how did you figure it out?”
Ye Chenfeng’s expression remained perfectly solemn.
“Because... I’ve got a gorgeous woman walking beside me, and not one man on the street has turned around to look.”
He paused, his tone growing even more serious.
“That’s highly abnormal. So I figured I must be the only one who can see you.”
Qiyu opened and closed her mouth, unable to think of anything to say for a moment.
She swept the surface of his consciousness with a mental probe—he was serious. One hundred percent serious. He had genuinely deduced that she was still invisible because “not one man had turned around to look.”
Sharp-eyed. But what a bizarre reason.
Ye Chenfeng took a few steps, then suddenly turned around, his eyes lighting up.
“Your civilization is insanely cool. Even science-fiction writers wouldn’t dare make something like that up.”
Before Qiyu could react, he had already continued.
“I’ve got a good friend who’s a bus driver too, but he has a really cool hobby—writing novels. He’s always complaining to me that he’s out of ideas. If your civilization were turned into a novel, it’d cause a sensation around the world.”
Qiyu’s expression slowly darkened.
“You don’t believe me.”
“No, no, no—” Ye Chenfeng hurriedly waved his hands. “I really do believe you, but think about it. I may believe something like this, but will anyone else? You can’t just tell everyone you meet, right?”
Qiyu tilted her head, not quite understanding what he was worried about.
“If you put it in a novel, everyone will take it as a story, and nobody will take it seriously. But the things you want to say will already be in there.” Ye Chenfeng spread his hands. “Isn’t that the most low-key way to do it?”
Qiyu blinked. She thought the idea was pretty interesting and was just about to continue telling him about energy conversion—
“Our energy system is incredible too. It can convert positive-emotion energy into—”
“Stop, stop, stop.”
Ye Chenfeng held up a hand, his face stern.
“Are you telling me too much?”
Qiyu stood frozen in place, her mouth still open.
“Some of this... must be classified, right? You can’t just talk about it freely, can you?”
Only then did Qiyu’s brain catch up.
She had nearly explained the principles behind the energy-conversion device. That thing—the extraction and conversion mechanism for positive-emotion energy—was indeed covered by the confidentiality clause in the adventurer code. Along with the energy core, mental technology, and weapons systems, it was an absolute secret that could not be disclosed to outsiders.
She had genuinely forgotten.
She had been having so much fun talking, and the person in front of her put her so completely at ease that she had forgotten she was alone in another world on a mission. She wasn’t in Utopia chatting with friends.
Qiyu pressed her lips together and gave him a slightly sheepish smile.
“...Thanks for reminding me.”
Looking at her expression, Ye Chenfeng couldn’t help sighing.
“This is your first time traveling far from home, isn’t it?”
Qiyu did not deny it.
Ye Chenfeng walked a few more steps, then suddenly stopped and looked at her with complete solemnity.
“You came from so far away, and I don’t really have anything to give you...”
Qiyu’s eyes lit up instantly.
A gift. This was one of humanity’s oldest and most delightful forms of interaction, and the people of Utopia were no exception. Her eyes shone as she stared at Ye Chenfeng, her face full of anticipation.
Ye Chenfeng chuckled inwardly, though his expression was unbelievably serious.
“I’ll give you... two sentences.”
He cleared his throat.
“Kindness must not mean losing your boundaries, and goodness must not be without an edge. No matter who you meet, always keep a card up your sleeve.”
Qiyu’s expression froze.
Three lines slowly appeared on her face.
She had finally seen it for herself. The extent to which this Earthling refused to play by the rules had already exceeded the limits of her comprehension. Could you even give someone words as a gift?
She knitted her brows and stared at Ye Chenfeng.
“...That was three sentences.”
Ye Chenfeng continued looking straight at her, still perfectly serious.
“It was two sentences... and a half. As long as there’s no period, anything separated by commas counts as one sentence.”
Qiyu’s brain stalled for a moment.
She instinctively called for Little Maya in her mind.
Little Maya was silent for 0.3 seconds before replying, “According to the grammatical logic of Chinese, what he said... is not wrong.”
Qiyu and Little Maya crashed at the same time.