Qing Zhi lowered his head silently and looked at someone who was looking up.
"Ah, boy."
He raised his eyebrows slightly and spoke softly, "It's not a good habit to eavesdrop on others talking to themselves."
"I have been standing here without moving. Did you climb over the railing yourself and climb over to my side?"
Nuo Xia spread her hands innocently and said, "I am a young and beautiful young man, so I am not interested in an uncle's self-pity and want to come here to eavesdrop, right?"
You are only twenty-eight years old, are you going to be called uncle?
Qing Zhi was speechless. After a long time, he shook his head helplessly and said:
"I can't talk about self-pity. I just feel that the things I have been insisting on suddenly have no meaning..." He paused here and said, "How should I explain this kind of thing to a kid like you... Young man, you have
Don’t you have something to hold on to?”
"Of course there are, and there are a lot of them."
Nuo Xia thought for a while and said seriously: "For example, insist on exercising for twenty hours a day, insist on taking a hot bath after taking a bath, insist on drinking a cup of hot milk every time before going to bed..."
"That's not what I said..." Qingzhi rubbed his brows and suddenly had a headache.
Gion was right, this guy was more polite and courteous to strangers than anyone else. Once he got acquainted with him, he started talking nonsense, making it difficult for people to distinguish the truth from the lies.
Practicing twenty hours a day? How could there be such a person in this world...
"I mean in terms of belief."
Qingzhi reorganized his language, looked at Nuo Xia and said, "For example, justice, boy, this is the word that will be engraved on your cloak after you graduate. What do you think of these two words...?"
What he said was already very explicit.
After all, he is a time traveler. Thinking of Aoki's faint sense of decadence and laziness these days, Nuo Xia calculated the timeline and could easily think of the O'Hara incident nearly half a year ago.
After that incident, Aokiji must have been in pain, right? The "passionate justice" he originally insisted on gradually faded, and slowly transformed into "lazy justice".
“Read it after translating it into simplified Chinese.”
After thinking for a while, he curled his lips and said, "There's nothing much to say about this, Lieutenant General. Everyone has different ideas of justice. Just stick to it and implement it."
"But this is exactly the problem, young man..." Qingzhi looked up at the night sky. The night was particularly dark tonight. The crescent moon was like a hook, and only a few sparse stars were dotted in the endless night sky.
"For example, you are the star now."
He pointed at one of them and said quietly to Nuo Xia, "You are obviously trying hard to persevere, but the light emitted is still very little. The darkness around you is still the same, so deep that you can't see the bottom. If it were you, this
What should we do when the time comes?”
These words were asked to Nuo Xia, and they also seemed to be asking himself.
"Keep going."
Nuo Xia almost did not hesitate and said very matter-of-factly: "There is heat and light, let alone stars. Even if it is just a firefly, you can do your best in the dark without waiting for the torch."
Qing Pheasant was slightly startled. He looked at the young man for a long time, and then said with a wry smile after a long time:
"...Does that little light mean anything?"
"certainly."
Nuo Xia also pointed to the few sparse stars, "One more thing, you are wrong. Those stars are actually much bigger than the sun. The reason why they are just a little bit in our eyes is because we are far away from each other."
It's just too far away to see clearly."
"But... for the planets around them, that beam of light is extremely dazzling, enough to illuminate and warm the entire world."
Is there such a thing?
Qing Pheasant raised his head and squinted at the stars in the distance.
For some reason, he thought of the civilians he had saved and the pirates he had killed over the years, as well as Sauro who died in front of him a few months ago, and Nico Robin who ran away in tears.
…
"Didn't you just ask me what I think about justice?"
Nuo Xia's voice came over again at this time:
"I can do my best to make this dark world a little brighter, even if it is just as dark as a firefly. This is the way of justice that I pursue."
Qing Pheasant withdrew his gaze from the night sky and looked at Nuo Xia again in a daze.
"But I think things are not that pessimistic, right?"
"After all, we in the navy have so many like-minded people. No matter how small the fireflies are, when they are gathered together, they can at least light up a large area."
The young man's eyes met his, and he suddenly burst into laughter and said in a formal way:
"Of course, people's dreams must be lofty after all. Who can tell what will happen in the future? What if I, a little firefly, can climb up to the sky and become a star in the future?"
"And then, with a sudden bang, a light that is more dazzling than the sun bursts out, sweeping away all the darkness around it?"
"..."
Qingzhi looked at Nuo Xia in silence for a long time, and suddenly felt that Teacher Zefa's decision to let him preside over this assessment for him half a month ago was absolutely correct.
So after a moment, he suddenly laughed: "What an arrogant brat, young man, your ambition seems to have been exposed."
Nuo Xia blinked and smiled shyly.
"However, it's not that easy to change from a firefly to a sun."
Qing Pheasant raised his head leisurely, looked at the vast Milky Way beyond his reach, and said with a smile:
"Before I count on your little firefly to brighten up the world, let me, a little star that is almost reaching the horizon, continue to walk inside and see if I can shine even brighter..."
…………
Two days later, the warship, which crossed the entire windless zone, finally returned to Marineland.
We didn't encounter any unfavorable weather in the middle, but there was a somewhat funny episode.
A pirate group that had just entered the Grand Route from the East China Sea two months ago was originally planning to run away after seeing a warship coming from the windless zone in the distance.
But the captain named "Black Wolf" Tejirk, who had a bounty of 13 million Baileys, didn't know where he got the courage. He ignored the dissuasion of his discerning subordinates and sternly ordered: "Who do you think I am? Come over!"
"Instructions.
Of course, the ending goes without saying much.
No need for big guys like Qing Pheasant and Tao Rabbit to take action, and even the accompanying instructors did not move. Nuo Xia jumped ahead of all the eager companions and swam in to meet him. In just ten minutes, he easily cleared the entire boat.
All pirates were eliminated.
While gaining a small amount of battle merit, the progress of the Sinful Man's Blood required to upgrade the Yongen Swords was also increased from "(278/1000)" to "(430/1000)" in one go.
Another wave of unexpected surprises, very satisfying.
After arriving at the headquarters.
Qingzhi and Zefa met at the port, resigned from the position of temporary chief instructor, and completed the handover work.
Zefa was very satisfied with the performance of this elite camp disciples in this practical assessment.
He couldn't help but be impressed by the amazing performance of several top players, especially Nuo Xia.
As soon as he brought the recruits back to the elite camp, Zefa directly announced the final ranking of this assessment in front of everyone——