# 18
**Chapter 18: Welcome Back**
Zhao Kongcheng was stunned.
He really hadn’t expected that an ordinary high school student like this would say such things—would have such mature thoughts…
Only now did he realize how ridiculous his earlier attempt to rile up the boy with the usual teenage delusions of grandeur and hot-blooded passion had been.
Lin Qiye was no ordinary high-schooler.
Lin Qiye stood, walked straight to the door, hesitated a moment, then stopped.
“Thanks for telling me so much. I’ll sign the confidentiality agreement.”
With that, he pushed the door and left.
This time Zhao Kongcheng merely sat silently on the edge of the bed, half-rising as if to call him back; after a brief pause he sank down again, powerless.
He knew what this boy represented. He knew he had a mission to bring him in. But…
He couldn’t do it.
……
“Xiao Qi, you’re finally home. Why aren’t you wearing your uniform?”
“Auntie, I was in a rush this morning and forgot.”
“Silly child… Won’t the teacher scold you?”
“Just a couple of words, it’s fine.”
“Ai, Xiao Qi, you only just transferred; you can’t give the teachers a bad impression. Be more careful.”
“I understand, Auntie.”
“Getting along with classmates? They’re not leaving you out?”
“No, we’re fine. They even walked me part-way home, and I did the same for them.”
“Good, good.”
“I’m going to my room, Auntie.”
“All right, sleep early.”
Thud—!
Lin Qiye shut the door, flopped onto his back, and stared at the night sky outside the window, exhaling a long breath.
This world was far more complicated than he’d imagined…
Still, that had nothing to do with him.
After resting a moment he sat up and began undressing. A hard object slipped from his pocket.
Clink-clink!
He looked down, picked it up, puzzlement creasing his brow.
It was a metal ornament, like a Coat of Arms, a bit larger than a one-yuan coin, material unknown, cool to the touch.
On its face two Straight Blades crossed, blades glowing pale blue against a star-strewn night sky—exquisitely crafted.
Beneath the design, in tiny letters, was engraved “Zhao Kongcheng”.
“What is this…” Lin Qiye narrowed his eyes.
He remembered Zhao Kongcheng brushing his pocket while dragging him toward the hotel.
Had the man accidentally dropped it?
He turned the Coat of Arms over. On the back several lines were etched:
*Should the dark night finally fall,*
*I will stand before millions,*
*Blade raised against the abyss,*
*Heaven dyed with my blood!*
“Bold words… Did Zhao Kongcheng write that himself, or is it the Night Watch motto?” he murmured. “He looks too dull to come up with something like this…”
After toying with it a while he set it on the desk, changed clothes, and climbed into bed.
Tonight he had something important to do.
He closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into the Asylum of the Gods within his mind.
In the little courtyard of the psychiatric hospital Nyx sat in a rocking-chair, hugging an assortment of bottles and jars, muttering, a smile flickering at her lips.
If one ignored the cloudiness in her eyes and the odd things in her arms, her noble bearing would have made a beautiful scene.
Soon, Lin Qiye approached in a white doctor’s coat.
To better play the role, he had found the coat in the director’s office and even clipped a pair of plain glasses to the collar.
At a glance he really looked the part.
He stopped beside the rocking-chair and gazed silently into Nyx’s dull, vacant eyes, sighing lightly.
From the mythological texts he’d read, Nyx was indeed one of the oldest and mightiest gods of Greece, supreme in status and power.
But she had one outstanding trait—
She loved having children!
By his count she had borne more than twenty: the famous Death-god Thanatos, Sleep-god Hypnos, as well as deities of sky, fate, doom…
Apart from a few, most were evil gods who plagued mankind the moment they were born; many met miserable ends.
The fragmentary myths gave no fuller picture, but Lin Qiye guessed her present illness might relate to her offspring.
The doctor at Sunshine Psychiatric Hospital had said a male patient, missing his wife too much, fantasized she was still beside him. Could Nyx be the same—missing her children so desperately she took these bottles for them?
But what had happened to those children to provoke such a violent reaction?
And could an ancient divinity truly feel emotion so intensely—or had her divine body and essence been stripped away even before her illness began?
He had no answers.
“Hypnos, don’t worry, your brother will be back soon; he’s just playful…
That Thanatos, always causing trouble—when he returns I’ll teach him a lesson!”
Nyx stroked the flower-vase in her arms, staring into the distance; hope glimmered in her eyes, then clouded again.
She paused, her hoarse voice trembling:
“But…
Three thousand years—why hasn’t he returned…”
Watching, Lin Qiye felt an inexplicable ache.
Who could imagine the once-lofty goddess of night now so helpless, so humble?
She was Nyx—yet also a mother waiting for her child to come home.
“To cure her, strike at the root…” the doctor’s words echoed. He lowered his head, thinking hard.
The root… her lost children.
To heal her, he must start there. But her offspring were famous Greek gods; he couldn’t possibly track each one down and bring them before her.
He didn’t even know whether the Mist had brought them to this world—where would he find so many deities?
Even if he found them, would those evil gods follow him willingly?
Frowning, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration!
Maybe… this could work?
He stood, stared at Nyx a long moment, finally made up his mind, and stepped forward.
In her vacant gaze he walked up to her…
knelt gently,
wrapped his arms around her,
and whispered in her ear:
“Mother, I’m home.”
In that instant her eyes blazed with a light never seen before!!
Trembling, she embraced him tightly; only after a long time did she manage a complete sentence:
“Welcome back, Thanatos, my child…”