Chapter Thirty-Eight: Forget her Not

Zetian dreams from Li Shimin’s perspective of his partner Wende: their training under Strategist Sima, synchronized piloting of a Vermilion Bird husk, and the desperate battle where Shimin’s power overwhelms Wende, consuming her mind. Zetian wakes sobbing, realizing she has experienced Shimin’s real memory of killing Wende.

Shimin comforts Zetian as she apologizes for sharing the trauma. He admits enduring nightly guilt and confusion over why he lived while Wende died, describing his life as a series of impossible choices. Zetian counters that pilots lack agency and places responsibility on strategists and commanders who engineered the system that kept sending girls to die.

Recognizing they will soon return to the Great Wall, Zetian proposes using any influence gained after the counterattack to reform pairing practices. She challenges the assumption that girls are inherently weaker in spirit pressure, noting social biases that suppress testing of talented girls.

As Zetian analyzes inconsistencies—especially that Wende was deemed Shimin’s equal yet died—she suspects the pilot system may be technically rigged against girls beyond skewed pairings. Shimin balks at the idea but concedes it would not surprise him.

Zetian concludes that the truth is likely buried at the highest levels. She proposes forcing a confession from a senior strategist on the eve of the counterattack, when their prestige will shield them from immediate repercussions, vowing to hand-deliver “karma” to those who made them suffer.