“I could have guessed that too! It's all your fault, Aivmey. She definitely knows about the Dawn Society. You announced your identity, so obviously, she could track it back to the Six of Hearts!” the little assistant, Dumi, complained.
“She deduced it through logical reasoning, alright? From now on, I’m not calling you 'little assistant'; I’m calling you 'little piglet',” Aivmey sighed.
The girl’s face turned red with anger, puffing up like a steamed bun. She stomped her foot and waved her fist. “Is no one going to explain it to me?”
“Alright, don’t be angry.”
Seeing that no one else was responding, Tang Xin stood up to comfort the girl, pulling Dumi to the side.
“Look, it’s actually quite simple.”
“If we look at it from Yuzu’s perspective, we need to break the solution into four stages, corresponding to the four questions Aivmey asked.”
“Question one: ‘Do I know the card?’ Based on the rank he provided, she didn't know. If the rank were something like K or A—ranks that only appear once in the set—she would have known immediately, right? So, Yuzu was certain the rank had to be one of J, 2, 5, 6, or 9.”
“Question two: ‘Can you know for certain that I don’t know the card?’ Based on the suit you heard, you could be certain that she didn't know. Ranks K and A only have one card each, corresponding to Clubs and Spades. If the suit were one of those two, she would have had the possibility of locking onto the card directly. By saying this, Yuzu eliminated Clubs and Spades. The card could only be a Heart or a Diamond.”
“Question three: ‘After knowing the information from the second question, I now know the card face.’ Think about it—the only overlapping rank between Hearts and Diamonds is J, right? If the rank were J, she still wouldn't be able to determine if it was a Heart or a Diamond even if she knew the rank. By answering this, Yuzu eliminated the rank J.”
“Question four: ‘Now that you have the information from the third question, you also know the card face.’ Since J was eliminated, if you knew the suit, you could know the card face. J being gone means that suit cannot have two or more possible ranks left. Diamonds has J, 2, and 5. Hearts has J and 6. Therefore, Yuzu confirmed it was the Six of Hearts.”
Tang Xin blinked. “It wasn’t that hard, was it?”
Dumi nodded in sudden realization. Although her brain hadn't fully processed the speed of the logic, she understood the general path to the solution.
“As I thought, I hate these little games.”
“Miss Tang, you’re so kind! Not like those two, who only know how to bully me!” Dumi laughed cheerfully, showing two little canine teeth, and took Tang Xin’s hand. “Let’s go, the snacks aren't finished yet.”
Seeing the lively side of the two girls, Aivmey shook his head, his gaze returning to Xu Xiaoyou.
“So, Miss Xu, are you interested in joining our Dawn Society?” Aivmey asked. “I think they would be very happy to welcome you.”
Xu Xiaoyou had already made a general judgment in her mind. The Dawn Society, the Dawn Agency. Elite members of the agency joined the society and received a corresponding suit and rank.
“I’m curious—what exactly do you do?”
Aivmey’s expression suddenly became solemn. She saw a look in the young man's eyes similar to Jian Liu's: a resolve hidden deep within, as if he were prepared to face death.
“Watching the dawn.”
It was the shortest possible answer.
“Watching the dawn?” Xu Xiaoyou raised an eyebrow.
“Yes. We are the watchers of the dawn. we move forward to plant a seed in everyone’s heart—a seed of light called ‘Dawn’.”
“It sounds like a fairy tale a mother would tell an infant at their cradle before bed,” Xu Xiaoyou remarked.
“Yes, it is a fairy tale. A story of a swarm of butterflies throwing themselves into the flames for an ideal.”
"We walk on the back of the city, playing a game against entities that bring oppression and fear to the people. We rush through one crisis of civilization's destruction after another, burying broken worlds with our own hands, and dedicating our blood and lives to the new world time and again. We move forward by feeling for the bones of our fallen comrades, one after another, sparing no sacrifice.”
“I knew a long time ago that this world is unfair, cruel, and heartbreaking.”
Aivmey leaned against the window curtain with his arms crossed, his beautiful eyes strangely calm as he gazed at the distant mountain peak—the magnificent academy that the vast majority of people in the Star of Art could only look up to for their entire lives.
It sat on the peak like a gargantuan beast, embracing the stars and shining alongside the night sky, yet it pressed down on the people at the foot of the mountain until they could barely breathe.
Scenes from the past became clear in his eyes.
He was born into a family where the most outstanding artist of the generation was his enlightenment teacher. As long as he wanted it, any beautiful girl could be his playmate. Raised in luxury, he was destined never to see the scenes at the bottom of the mountain; his personality was arrogant and willful.
He remembered clearly an old butler who had been responsible for taking care of him from the moment he was born until he was eight years old. He had always hated that old man because every time they met, the man would put on a fawning, pleasing expression and always loved to mention his daughter—a woman who had married into the family because an uncle had made a mistake, only to die of illness. So, during afternoon tea one day, he mentioned this to his mother.
That old man vanished from his sight forever. It was only when the man was packing his things to leave that Aivmey learned he had a grandson the same age as himself.
Since the moment the orphanage system was fully implemented, ordinary people like him had no right to raise children privately.
He saw that morning when the old man left with his grandson. His hunched back looked like he had aged twenty years in an instant; that loneliness deeply stung Aivmey’s heart.
He later found out that after his daughter died, the old man had taken responsibility for secretly caring for her son, hiding him in the kitchen—specifically, in a cellar dug years earlier. For all those years, he had avoided the family's notice, living with his grandson in that dark, sunless hole.
After leaving the family, the old man was thrown into prison by the tuners for violating the regulations of the Starry Movement by raising a child privately. His grandson then entered an orphanage with terrible conditions; within a few years, he became a street thug, smuggling contraband in the Keyboard District, sinking into self-destruction.
He finally knew why that man had fawned over him so much, mentioning his daughter over and over. He finally knew why every time the man left his room, he would conveniently take fruit from the glazed fruit basket.
He finally understood the dark, lonely look the old man gave him before he left.
This event had a huge impact on him. It was the first time he had seen the world of the people at the foot of the mountain, realizing that a single sentence of his could decide the fate of a poor man’s family.
Aivmey rubbed his brow, his thoughts slowly returning to the present.
“So, what about the ordinary people with no talent? Are their lives wasted from the very beginning?”
“From the start, do they have no right to enjoy life, no right to make any choices?”
“From the moment they are born, the moment they let out their first cry, are they destined to face this sorrowful world?”
“The people of this world are too small; they don't even have the right to choose whether to perish.”
“People can only watch with open eyes as their bodies turn into rotten grease, watching fear burst through their ribcage and bones.”
“What we must do is not save them, but give them the right to choose—the right to choose whether to waste their lives, the right to choose death. Before the platform of the twilight train bound for the end of the world, we give them the right to choose whether to get on or off.”
Aivmey squinted and smiled. “So, Miss Xu, are you interested in joining us?”
“I’m sorry, I’m not interested in your grand cause,” Xu Xiaoyou said, waving her hand. “But I respect you. He who carries firewood for the multitude must not be allowed to freeze to death in the snow, nor be trapped by thorns.”
“The world always needs a few idealists.”
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