Chapter 33: So to Speak, “My” Choice!

Consciousness slowly rose from a warm, shallow slumber.
No shrill alarm clock.
No grimy sunlight squeezing through a window crack.
No lingering stench of failure clinging to the walls of the “Hive.”
All I smelled was a faint, fruity fragrance of coffee.

(…What a lovely scent…)

My brain, still swimming in the comfort of deep sleep, let out an instinctive sigh.
(…Looks like another fine day.)

I lazily opened my eyes and sat up.
The place around me was no longer ███████—
Instead, it was a high-rise luxury apartment at the city’s summit.
Spacious, bright, stripped to the minimalist essentials of a world-class designer.

From floor to ceiling stretched massive windows, glass clear as water. Beyond them, New Seaside’s beating heart sprawled wide open, a priceless painting unfurled at my feet.
Zone A. The Sky District.
The very heights I once gazed up at… now lay beneath me.

In the morning light, skyscrapers gleamed with a frigid metallic brilliance, flashing back diamond-like sparks.

I reached for the newest Huawei MAX on the nightstand and opened the finance app with practiced ease.
On the screen, the latest project I spearheaded at Sky Group—the AI interactive system code-named Prometheus’ Fire—was driving stock prices into a surging red curve, bold as morning wood.

“Heh…”
A faint smile touched my lips. The world was in my grasp.

And why not?
I was Lin Yu, Chief Concept Designer directly under Sky Group HQ.
Twenty-eight. Perfect résumé. Boundless prospects. A winner in life.

“Darling, you’re awake?”

A gentle female voice floated in from the doorway, soft enough to melt ice.
The heavy walnut door creaked open. A woman in a pure white linen apron stepped in with a steaming cup of coffee, smiling.

(So that was the scent…) I thought.

Her black bob framed a composed, intelligent face. She wore a soft white blouse, and the sunlight streaming behind her haloed her in a warm golden glow.
She approached, leaned down, and planted a feather-light kiss on my sleepy forehead.

Her lips were soft, warm, tinged with coffee’s bitterness.
“Good morning, A-Bing.”

Smiling, I wrapped my arms around her supple waist, so slender yet brimming with life.
I wanted to tease her. But the instant I held her close, something flickered through my mind—cold, metallic, fleeting as a knife’s edge.

(…Huh?)
(…A-Bing…? Why did saying that name feel like touching steel?)

Gone in a blink, like a foolish illusion.
(…Didn’t sleep well last night?)

I shook my head, banishing the unease.
I hugged her tighter, burying my face in the sweet warmth of her chest, inhaling deeply.
(What nonsense… I’m being silly.)

***

An hour later, I stepped from the shower in a fresh robe.
Breakfast was ready.
Toast golden at the edges. Sunny-side-up eggs, crisp outside, molten inside. Iberian ham shimmering with rich oils.

As I enjoyed the perfect meal, my phone’s holo-display lit up: a video call from Mother.
I accepted. My parents’ familiar faces filled the air.
But their expressions were nothing like the ones ███████████ from memory.

“Son! Eating already?” Mother’s voice was as booming as ever, threaded with irrepressible pride.
“Look at you, all skinny again! Are you overworking? Listen, no matter how urgent the project, money’s endless but health isn’t!”

“Mm.”

Father cleared his throat, adding in his clumsy, taciturn way:
“Your mother’s right. I saw Sky Group’s quarterly report. Your project’s contribution rate was the highest. Well done.”

He paused, and then—rare for him—smiled. Pride softened his awkwardness.
“…You’re truly my son.”

Their words filled me with warmth.
Yes. This was how it should be.
I was no longer ███████████. I was their pride.

***

After the call ended, my sister Lin Xue sent a secure message.
A video.

She wore a lab coat, standing in a cutting-edge bio-lab. Gone was the usual ███████████ scrutiny in her eyes—only unrestrained excitement and gratitude.
“—Brother! We did it! We really did it!”

She babbled like a child handed a new toy.
“It’s all thanks to the special research fund you donated to RuiKang Biotech last month! My Alpha Protein Reconstitution project finally had a breakthrough!”

“Brother, thank you! Truly thank you! You gave my dream wings to fly! When this gets patented, the first profit share goes to your account!”

I smiled as I watched. Calmly replied: “Silly girl. Your dream is my dream. If you ever need more funding, just ask your brother.”

Yes. Now it was me supporting her dreams.
No longer the useless, pitiful brother hiding in her shadow.

“Wait…”
(What am I thinking? When was I ever useless?)
(I’ve always been outstanding!)

I shook the thought away, but the harder I pushed, the more it nagged.

***

At work, I “ran into” Wang Wei.
He was sharp in business-casual, hair neat, confidence radiating.
Now CEO of a rising virtual idol company, backed by Sky Capital.

“Linzi! Finally!” He hugged me like we were still in college.
“Lunch is on me! Our valuation just multiplied tenfold after Series A!”

His eyes shone with gratitude.
“If not for your investment when I was at my lowest, none of this would exist! You’re my true angel investor, brother—thank you!”

I punched his chest lightly.
“Cut it out. I believed in you, not the project. Your success is yours.”

Yes. No longer ███████████ with cheap beer and skewers ███████████████.
I was his patron. His benefactor.

***

Later, in the elevator to Sky Group’s top floor, I “bumped into” Luo Shaotian.
Gone was the ███████████ boy I remembered.
Now he wore a navy uniform, epaulets gleaming—the youngest Chief Inspector of New Seaside’s Major Crimes Division, a hero to the people.

He cut off a call, turned, and saluted me with full solemnity.
“Good morning, Designer Lin.”

His eyes, always warm like sunlight, now brimmed with heartfelt respect.
“Your personal donation of five million to the Fallen Officers’ Relief Fund has been received. On behalf of our force, and those families… I salute you.”

“It’s entrepreneurs like you—creating value while shouldering responsibility—that allow us to fight without fear. You are this city’s true hero.”

I accepted his words with a smile, serene.
Yes. No longer ███████████.
I was the hero behind the heroes.

***

Life, career, family, friendships—
Everything flawless.
This was the happiness “Lin Yu” deserved.

And yet…
Happiness flowed like a dream too beautiful to end.
Time lost its measure.
Moments blurred into lifetimes.

Success. Marriage to A-Bing. A daughter, Lin Siying—“longing and brilliance.”
Perfect. Complete.

…So why did my chest ache with emptiness?
Why did nightmares plague me—visions of blue pleated skirts, suffocating tentacles, screams that weren’t mine, a thunderclap voice crying:
“██!!!”

I would wake in tears, hollow, clutching my chest.
(Did I lose something? Something vital?)

No. Impossible. My life was perfect.
I forced the thought down with whisky, with laughter, with applause.
(I lack nothing.)

***

One afternoon, A-Bing suggested cleaning the storage room.
“…Old junk, things you’ll never look at again. Let’s throw them out.”
“Sure.” I smiled.

Inside: yellowed textbooks, dusty trophies, old photos.
Until, deep in the corner—
A box.

Inside lay a jagged hexagonal crystal, gray, half-clouded, sharp-edged like an unfinished weapon.
Dark smoke swirled inside, faintly shifting.

(…What is this?)

It didn’t belong. Not to this perfect life.
Ugly. Wrong.
(Trash.)

I pinched it between my fingers, repulsed, to toss it out.
Cold bit into my skin. Light refracted—
And suddenly—

Blue storms. Aurora. A fragile silhouette standing within.
(So familiar…)

My lips moved, trying to call out—
“████████████”

But my mouth was sealed.
If only I could speak—!
Say it—! Remember—!

That silhouette…
That thunderous voice—
“Every rookie I take ends up dead!”

The dam burst.
Everything I had forgotten, abandoned, smothered beneath this “happy nightmare,” roared back like a black flood.

“I remember… I remember… I remember!” I cried and laughed all at once.
“So that’s who I really am—”