"Thank you."
George still respected Xinghe, so he did not make things difficult for her. He led his men away to give them some privacy. Shi Jian by then had realized the gravity of the situation. He and his men looked at Xinghe in silence.
Xinghe met their gazes and said directly, "The top officials decided to send all of you to a small island. You will have a good life there, and they will not harm you."
Shi Jian was not so easily fooled, he demanded, "Why should we be forced to live on this island and be escorted there in this manner like we're fugitives?"
"I am sorry, I had no idea they would come to this kind of decision. They wanted to separate you all from normal human society."
"Why?" Shi Jian asked in agitation, but as he did so, the answer already came to him.
"They want to punish us for our sins?" he asked with a gloom over his face. Xinghe did not answer, but the meaning was clear. Shi Jian and the guys' faces darkened.
"They really think we are guilty? But we have not harmed anyone! We did not pose any real threat to the society; we were forced by He Lan Yuan."
"He's right, didn't we help take down He Lan Yuan?" one man could not help but shout out angrily.
"Plus, we even handed He Lan Yuan to them, so why can't they trust us?"
Xinghe said solemnly, "I have tried to come up with a solution, but there is nothing that can be done. I am sorry."
When Xinghe said so, they knew this was already over. This was because on Earth, she was their only ally; no one else would lend them aid.
"Miss Xia, tell us the truth, do they plan to quarantine us forever?" Shi Jian said in a shaking voice. Facing their anxious eyes, Xinghe was at a loss for words. Even Mubai and the rest had to turn their eyes away.
"Yes," Xinghe answered with finality.
Shi Jian and the guys looked at her with shock and despair. The biggest reason they returned to Earth was for freedom, but now, they were going to be quarantined again. Would they never escape the destiny of being controlled?
"But why?" Shi Jian's eyes were blazing with fury. "It is not our fault! We were controlled by He Lan Yuan since we were children. We could not do anything, and no one came to our aid during those hellish years. None of you have any idea the lives that we have led! We lost hope, and now finally, after so many years, we are back on Earth and freedom was dangled so sweetly before our eyes… but we are going to be forced back into restriction and regulation… Why can't you let us lead a normal life‽ We just want to be normal human beings like you, why must you take that away from us?"
"Miss Xia, this is too cruel. You lit up the hope in us, and now you're extinguishing it again, is it all a big joke to you?"
"I can no longer survive a life in quarantine, so if you want me to continue a life of captivity, I'd rather die."
"Miss Xia, this is different from what you promised. You all said, after we return, we can go anywhere we want and do anything we want. So those promises were just lies all along?"
"Miss Xia, we believed you so dearly, but you have playing us for fools!"