In response to Lin Yan's invitation and question, Silco walked into the pavilion and sat down.
He pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and placed it in his mouth. Silco looked faintly at Lin Yan. "I don't believe I know your name."
"Lin Yan." Facing the drifting smoke, Lin Yan waved his palm lightly. A golden light burst from his fingertips, severing the cigarette in Silco's hand. "Apologies, this is a no-smoking area."
Seeing this display from Lin Yan, a flicker of apprehension crossed Silco's eyes. He collected the cigarette without a change in expression. "So, it is Mr. Lin... My name is Silco."
"That brother of mine said you can foresee the future. Could I trouble you to tell me what is going to happen?"
"Is that the only reason you came here?"
"For now, that is the only question." Silco folded his hands and looked up at Lin Yan.
Lin Yan pondered for a moment upon hearing this, his gaze meeting Silco's. "I can tell you about the future, but what is the price?"
"You are not like Vander. You're a smart man. Surely you don't believe everything I do is out of the goodness of my heart?"
As if he had long anticipated that Lin Yan would make such a request, Silco spoke without any hesitation. "If what Mr. Lin says can convince me, then I can agree to one request from you."
"Only one?"
"How many does Mr. Lin want?" Silco's eyes narrowed slightly.
"How about this... if my words can convince you, you will agree to three of my requests." Lin Yan, sitting on the stone bench, held up three fingers.
Looking at Lin Yan's raised fingers, Silco mused for a moment before slowly nodding. "...I agree, but the prerequisite for these three requests is that they do not harm the interests of the Undercity."
"Relax. What good would harming the Undercity do for me?" With that, Lin Yan spoke again. "Since you want to know what the future holds, then you might as well listen to what I'm about to say."
"...After the failed attempt to storm the bridge, you and Vander came to blows. Vander originally intended to drown you in the water, but unfortunately, he couldn't bring himself to be that ruthless in the end. This allowed you to grab a knife, break free from his grasp, and stab him. After this event, you broke with Vander completely, your mind consumed by a single thought: revenge against him."
"The second thing is 'change'."
"—Change by any means necessary."
"You want to change yourself, change the Undercity, change everything around you."
"Your ideas are more radical than Vander's, and especially after your split, there is no one left who can restrain your thoughts or your methods."
"According to the original future timeline, you would secretly build a new faction and find a capable ally."
"That ally's name is—'Singed Hivik'."
The moment he heard this name, Silco's pupils contracted violently. His scalp tightened... How did he know that he had recruited Singed? Silco's heart pounded in his chest, but Lin Yan's words continued.
"The reason for your alliance is that you have taken a fancy to the 'Shimmer technology' he is researching, while he has taken a fancy to the research resources you will be able to provide him in the future..."
"In the future's development, his 'Shimmer technology' will make some progress. And you will use his technology, during a certain future event, to successfully enact your revenge on your brother, on Vander..."
"After your revenge succeeds, you gain control over half the Undercity, just as you envisioned. Your enterprise will be at its zenith, and your industries will even establish connections with the Topside..." At this point, Lin Yan's words came to an abrupt halt, as if waiting for Silco to ask a question.
On the other side, Silco pondered for a moment. He did not ask what the Undercity would look like after he took control. Instead, he asked Lin Yan a completely unexpected question: "So... did he die in the future?"
"Die? Isn't that what you want?"
"If I hadn't seen that letter, then yes, knowing he would die by my hands in the future would have made me very happy."
"But not anymore." Silco stood up and turned to look at the two little ones peeking at them from the window. "The Undercity needs a 'Vander,' and it also needs a Silco."
"For Felicia's two children... and for the Undercity, Vander cannot die."
"I thought about a lot of things after reading that letter... Vander was at fault, but so was I."
"He was able to admit his mistake, and naturally, so can I. After all, it is no shameful thing for a man to bow before the truth. On the contrary, only by recognizing one's mistakes can one make progress." Silco stood up and turned to face Lin Yan, who was sitting opposite him.
"So, you're not planning to kill Vander anymore?" Lin Yan asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No... The most important thing in life is to learn to let go. Hatred can indeed grant a person strength, but it also causes one to lose the most important part of being human—'reason'." Silco raised his index finger and tapped his head.
"However, there is one thing I don't quite understand. When I went to find Singed, I was certain no one was following me. How did Mr. Lin know about it?"
"Could it truly be as Mr. Lin said?... Foreseeing the future?" Silco looked Lin Yan up and down, but it was clear that after Lin Yan had mentioned 'Shimmer,' 'Singed,' and his future plans, he had come to completely believe that this 'Arcanist' before him was not just an empty facade.
Faced with Silco's question, Lin Yan simply shrugged and uttered two words: "It's a secret."
"..."
Silco had no way to respond to that.
"So, aside from asking how I know about the future, are there any other questions you'd like to ask?" Lin Yan took the initiative to ask, seeing Silco seemingly lost in thought.
Silco pondered for a moment before replying, "...Although I believe in the future Mr. Lin has described, I have one last question I'd like to ask."
"Please, go ahead." Lin Yan's gaze fell upon Silco, whose own eyes grew deeper as time passed.
Suddenly, he spoke: "May I ask... is the future Mr. Lin speaks of predestined, or is it unwritten?"
The subtext of this question was not as shallow as its surface. What Silco was really asking was, if the future is predestined, then no amount of struggle can change it, so struggling is useless and one might as well not bother. But if the future is unwritten, then how can one speak of a 'true' future at all?
As someone who frequently analyzed the subtext of leaders, listened to 'Qi Tongwei's little tune,' and had a lifetime of experience, Lin Yan naturally understood the meaning behind Silco's words. Thus, he said:
"The future I speak of is just one of thousands of branches on the timeline. The concepts of 'predestined' and 'unwritten' do not exist."
"In other words, the future is like putting a cat in a box with a vial of alchemical poison. If the poison is triggered, the cat will be poisoned to death, but whether the poison will be triggered is unknowable. If you want to know if the cat is dead or alive, you need to open the box and 'observe' it. Without performing an act of macroscopic observation, you will never know if the cat is dead or alive, so it exists in a superposition of being both alive and dead."
"The future is the same."
"Your every step exists in a superposition of being both predestined and unwritten."
"How the future develops still depends on how you choose to walk it."
"Understand?"