The mood became awkward as everyone in the room slowly turned to look at Han Qingyu with expressions of either amusement or resignation. 

They weren’t surprised that Han Qingyu hadn’t returned them. It was the fact that none of them noticed he hadn’t that caught them off guard.

“I really did forget, though. I wasn’t pretending,” Han Qingyu said calmly under everyone’s stare.

It had actually just come down to a single passing thought. At the time, he had considered this as collecting a fee in advance. Girl, you should be happy about this, you know. The way things stand, it means I’ve decided to protect you once we’re inside. That’s going to cost source energy, so this is a reasonable charge. If I don’t collect first, I might hesitate two extra seconds before I swing, unable to stop myself from grieving over the waste. You’d end up dead.

“That’s not it,” Yin Caixin insisted, stubbornly shaking her head before gesturing toward He Tangtang. “When he opened up his device to give my core back, you glanced over. How could you not have been reminded?”

Low laughter went around. 

Meanwhile, Yin Caixin kept her gaze fixed firmly on Han...