In fact, after receiving Gray Serpent's notification, Lin Wei didn't rush to leave immediately. Instead, he delayed for a full two days.
During these two days, Lin Wei single-mindedly played a role similar to a kindergarten teacher.
Sometimes he would play with the children with considerable enthusiasm, and other times, with a serious face, he would arrange these children at desks in a bizarre manner, conducting an amateur "classroom game" that, if seen by a real school teacher, would likely cause them to faint on the spot...
How amateur was it?
This unreliable fellow, Lin Wei, would often be lecturing seriously one second, holding a "textbook" he had crammed for just before class, and the next second, he would suddenly digress to other irrelevant topics. He would simply toss the textbook aside, pull over a chair, and start telling the children all sorts of bizarre stories, making these young children exclaim in surprise.
Of course, although the classes weren't taken seriously, Lin Wei didn't skimp on assigning homework "after class."
Faced with the children's pitiful "I don't know how" expressions, Lin Wei would usually point to Yuno, who was sitting in the corner—this is your teaching assistant big sister; she's responsible for everything else.
"?"
Miss Yuno, who had a pot dropped on her from the sky, looked bewildered, her mind full of question marks. Then she had to reluctantly take over the "mess" Lin Wei had thrown at her...
Yuno always felt that this was Lin Wei's way of constantly "forcing" her, to make her, bit by bit, more like a person, rather than an awkward freak. So, although she felt considerable difficulty and pressure, and didn't even know if this game of house would truly be meaningful, she didn't mind cooperating seriously.
"Do you think this is a game of house?"
On the night of the first day, after the children had left, Lin Wei found Yuno sitting alone, dazed, and seriously asked this question.
"Actually, you vaguely feel that what we're doing now doesn't have much practical meaning, right?"
Yuno hesitated for a moment, then nodded with some reluctance.
"But if you think this is the right thing to do, I can continue to work hard."
She didn't want to appear as if she was questioning Lin Wei's decision, because she knew Lin Wei always meant well.
"Actually, it's not just you who knows this is just a game of house. In fact, I know it too, Raven knows it too, and these children, of course, also know it very clearly."
Lin Wei didn't rush to answer Yuno's question directly. Instead, in a gentle and calm tone, he said some words that sounded very much like self-deprecation.
"Although the children have never said it, they all know I won't stay here for too long. The so-called 'learning' will most likely stop again after I leave. At that time, everything will quickly return to how it was—so actually, everyone is like you, knowing from the beginning that doing this doesn't have much practical meaning..."
"Then why..."
Yuno was even more confused.
"Because this is how these children cherish life, Classmate Yuno."
Lin Wei used a form of address that made Yuno pause, almost thinking she would never hear it again in this lifetime.
"They, like you, are also survivors who lost everything in the Honkai. At the same time, also because of special physical mutations, they cannot return to normal social life and can only barely get by in these 'cursed lands' where Honkai Eruptions have occurred and ordinary people can hardly set foot..."
Lin Wei said meaningfully.
"Classmate Yuno, you will therefore be full of resentment towards this world and yourself. Do you think these children, who look young but have also experienced unimaginable and terrifying disasters, are truly ignorant in their hearts?"
"No, I didn't..."
Yuno was about to argue, but when she met Lin Wei's calm, water-like eyes, her heart couldn't help but tremble, and she lowered her head.
"It's okay, don't be nervous or blame yourself. Some things just can't be achieved overnight."
Lin Wei smiled and comforted her.
"A child's world is simpler than an adult's. Time hasn't yet had a chance to make their hearts muddy and complex. But precisely because of this, their hearts are actually much stronger than adults think, even much stronger than adults themselves."
"Do you know why they don't dislike my 'classroom'?"
Lin Wei smiled faintly and answered his own question.
"It's not just because I bring them some strange toys. It's also because this makes these children feel that they are still living in a normal world, where they can have teachers, classmates, and playmates—even if the process itself is real or fake, it's not actually important. At least they have gained real happiness in this process."
"..."
Yuno was silent for a moment, not knowing why Lin Wei was saying these things.
"Do you know why these children accepted you so easily?"
Lin Wei suddenly asked another question that made Yuno's heart tighten. Then, without giving Yuno time to think, he continued to answer his own question.
"Because in the children's eyes, you are actually a child just like them. So, they also want to share their happiness with you, that's all..."
The inner world of children is always innocent and vast. That life force, as precious and vigorous as gold, will always inadvertently brush away the dust shrouding a tired adult's heart.
Besides compensating for her own past regrets, perhaps it was also for this reason that Raven cherished these children so much, Lin Wei thought silently.
"..."
Yuno's heart trembled, then soured. Although she didn't know why her heart soured, she just felt like crying.
"Learn to be a child again, Yuno."
Lin Wei patted her head, his tone gentle, as if encouraging.
"Relearn how to hold chopsticks, how to hold a spoon, learn to eat, wash up, sleep, dream; learn to cry, learn to laugh, learn happiness and sadness; relearn how to be curious about this world, bit by bit rediscover your passion and courage..."
After a pause, Lin Wei continued,
"Then, you will know how to grow up again, know how to become a real adult."
Being with real children, this place, besides St. Freya Academy, is probably the most suitable place for Yuno to live, Lin Wei thought silently.
"Mm..."
Yuno's heart felt even more sour. She mustered her courage and looked up.
"Why, did you suddenly say these things?"
She had secretly overheard some of Lin Wei's conversations with Raven before, but she had never thought there would be these things that made her feel so utterly lost.
"Because next, I have to leave here for a few days—World Serpent's laboratory. I'll probably stay there until the potion for you is finished. During this time, I won't be able to accompany you like I am now."
Lin Wei felt Yuno couldn't help but grab his hand. He smiled and gently held it back.
"So during these few days, I'll have to trouble you to stay here alone with these children—well, saying you're alone isn't right, after all, Raven is still here."
"...Mm."
Yuno hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly nodded.
"Haha, this can also be considered a small 'assignment' for you, Classmate Yuno."
Lin Wei chuckled lightly.
"If you can get along with these children without being nervous or chaotic these few days, then when I'm really ready to leave here, I'll agree to take you with me, to go to the next battlefield together."
To make a "child" obedient, necessary promises and rewards are also essential—this was Lin Wei's old trick that had always worked with these children.
"You... I..."
Yuno, rarely, panicked a little, thinking her unspoken little thoughts had been discovered.
"Hmm?"
Yuno's reaction surprised Lin Wei a little. He looked at her strangely.
"...Mm."
Yuno nodded guiltily, not daring to say anything more.
.........
After the "family" matters were temporarily arranged, Lin Wei finally left Raven's orphanage. At a relatively distant place, he found the "private car" arranged by Gray Serpent as promised. The driver was Gray Serpent himself.
"What a surprise. I thought you'd drop by to see Raven."
Lin Wei glanced at Gray Serpent's profile in the rearview mirror and smiled.
"I didn't expect the dignified Mr. Gray Serpent would actually go out of his way to avoid someone."
Unlike when riding in Raven's car, this time Lin Wei unceremoniously sat directly in the back seat, as if Gray Serpent really were just a driver specially assigned to pick him up.
"Besides the Serpent's embrace, she has nowhere else to go."
Gray Serpent's crimson artificial eye stared straight at the road ahead. He answered in his usual booming voice,
"And appropriately fulfilling a companion's wishes is, in itself, a form of humanitarian care."
"Ha, humanitarianism?"
Lin Wei seemed to have heard something particularly ridiculous and couldn't help but sneer.
"Your World Serpent actually cares about such things?"
Hearing an enforcer of an organization that only creates various humanitarian tragedies suddenly speak to him seriously about "humanitarian care" was, it had to be said, a huge dark joke.
"In this deformed and difficult era, there is no universal value that can cover everything. Only when a person can demonstrate enough value are they qualified to enjoy corresponding preferential treatment."
Gray Serpent paid no attention to Lin Wei's ridicule. Instead, he answered quite patiently.
"Obviously, Raven—or rather, Natasha Cioara, is herself an individual with sufficient value. Therefore, the Serpent naturally doesn't mind satisfying this little whim of hers."
"...That's really an answer in your style, Gray Serpent."
This answer didn't surprise Lin Wei, but he didn't like it either.
"Value"?
Heh, perhaps in his eyes, I also belong to this "valuable" minority, Lin Wei thought with an inscrutable expression.
Thus, he also lost interest in continuing to mock him. He just turned his gaze out the window, watching the yellow sand and various abandoned, dilapidated buildings rapidly retreating on both sides of the road. After a moment, he asked with some listlessness,
"Gray Serpent, you who are always so high and mighty, do you really understand humans?"
Lin Wei didn't know how to evaluate this fellow who was always dressed in black, appeared and disappeared like a ghost, and was so unconventional.
He treated human lives as insignificant, and at the same time, he treated his own life as insignificant, often calmly going to his death for reasons that made no sense at all.
Lin Wei had originally thought this was because Gray Serpent was a collective network lifeform, and each individual Gray Serpent was just a node in this network, thus naturally not caring about life or death.
But it wasn't until the Herrscher of Corruption appeared that he suddenly discovered that individual Gray Serpent entities actually also held a lingering attachment to life and the world...
Hearing Lin Wei's strange, and seemingly somewhat discriminatory, question, Gray Serpent merely turned his artificial eye slightly to look at him in the rearview mirror and calmly retorted,
"Hehe, then, Mr. Lin Wei, do you truly understand humans?"
"...I don't."
Lin Wei was silent for a moment, then said.
"And I don't want to."
He didn't like humans. He found this race absurd and hypocritical, always making up various reasons and justifications for their selfish desires, and righteously demanding others adhere to them.
But he couldn't help but love humans.
Not just because there were many individual humans in the world whom he loved, but also because he himself was a part of humanity—no one can survive alone in a world where "humans do not exist"...
"Everyone naturally measures the world by their own standards; you, me, everyone in the world is like this."
Gray Serpent's voice was still so unhurried.
"But unfortunately, the so-called 'standards' of most people are often set by a few. And these majority often appear even more fanatical in their support than those few, as if it were an absolute truth that has existed since the birth of the world—but whether they truly believe so in their hearts, or are deliberately putting on a display of agreement to cater to others' gazes... Hehe, only they themselves know that."
"Ha! Mr. Gray Serpent has indeed mixed in human society for many years."
Lin Wei sneered.
"It's just that humanity's so-called civilizational progress lies not only in how high its upper limit can be, but more so in the continuous rise of civilization's lower limit—from a barbaric world where people ate people, to a callous world where people could starve to death by the roadside while others passed by without concern, and now to this world where people are in an uproar over trivial matters like theft, robbery, and bullying, which were insignificant in the past. This in itself is already a very great thing."
"Hehe, is this Mr. Lin Wei's 'standard'?"
Gray Serpent glanced at Lin Wei again and said.
"It's just a pity that the more magnificent the castle built on the sand, the faster it collapses when the tide rises."
"..."
Lin Wei was silent for a moment. The desolate small towns constantly flitting past outside the window told Lin Wei that this world was indeed like this.
No matter how prosperous, how magnificent a city was, in the face of a Honkai Eruption, it was like a bubble floating in the air, bursting at the slightest touch, and the bigger it was blown, the easier it was to break.
This was another inconclusive conversation. After this, Lin Wei and Gray Serpent both maintained a basic silence.
"Screech!"
Gray Serpent turned the steering wheel, and the car made a sharp turn into a side road, diving into an inconspicuous cave.
"We've arrived."