“That’s true,” Charlie wade sighed. “Antarctic winter is brutal. Without shelter, survival would be nearly impossible. Even if I could manage, you, Miss Grace, and Miss Song probably couldn’t.”
Lin Wan’er continued, “Why not change the approach? Have Helena pull a few strings so we can reach Argentina and join the ship, saying we just want a ride to see Antarctica and will return with the vessel. That kind of small favour is easy to grant. Once we’re there, Young Master can use psychological suggestion on the crew. Let them finish their work and leave normally, while tacitly accepting that we stay behind and keeping it quiet.”
Charlie wade nodded lightly. “That works. Either way, let’s get there first.”
Helena agreed. “Miss Lin’s plan is feasible. Once a station is sealed for the winter, it is forgotten for months. As long as the people involved keep quiet when they return, no one back home will know what happened. Next summer the same frontline researchers will go back. If they stay silent, no one will ever find out.”
Charlie wade snapped his fingers. “Then it’s settled. Helena, please help us make the arrangements. We’ll head to Argentina and catch that ship.”
Helena nodded, then added, “Mr Wade, if you stay after the ship leaves, you may be in Antarctica for several months. There won’t be another vessel to bring you back.”
“That’s fine,” Charlie wade said. “The main purpose is secluded cultivation. When I’m immersed, a few months will pass in the blink of an eye.”
He turned to Lin Wan’er. “Miss Lin, conditions in Antarctica will be far harsher than here, and leaving once winter sets in is difficult. Would you prefer to return to Aurous Hill first?”
Lin Wan’er shook her head. “If this servant returned to Aurous Hill alone, I would spend every day worrying about the Young Master and be unable to settle my heart. I might as well accompany you. While you are in seclusion, I can read books and practise calligraphy. I will manage somehow.”
Helena listened with some alarm. She could hear that Lin Wan’er no longer hid her feelings for Charlie wade at all. She was privately astonished that a girl so young could fall for a man nearing thirty, and even more puzzled why Charlie wade always kept her by his side.
Charlie wade himself understood Lin Wan’er’s attachment. For years she had shouldered everything alone while raising and protecting many children. She had been forced to be strong and carry heavy burdens.
Now she no longer had to care for those foster children or bear responsibility for others. She could finally be a young girl again. With Charlie wade able to protect her to some extent, she could at last experience a lighter, more relaxed life. A little dependence on him under these circumstances was perfectly natural.
Moreover, deep down he felt that if Lin Wan’er was willing to go to Antarctica with him, that would actually be the best outcome. He quietly worried that if he left her behind, she might encounter danger.
So he readily said, “In that case, Miss Lin, please prepare plenty of daily necessities and entertainment. Life at the pole can be very dull otherwise.”
Helena added from the side, “Once Antarctic winter arrives, the closer you are to the South Pole, the shorter the daylight. By May you’ll enter polar night, which lasts over two months. Nothing but ice, snow, and darkness all day. Life will be extremely depressing. Miss Lin, it really would be better not to suffer through that.”
Lin Wan’er smiled, completely unconcerned. “As long as I can be with the Young Master, how could I feel depressed? If it were you, would you be willing?”
Helena had not expected the girl to be so direct. The counter-question instantly turned her face crimson.
Indeed. Sub-zero temperatures, months of polar night without seeing the sun; who in their right mind would volunteer to stay there for months?
Yet the moment she imagined spending those months with Charlie wade, all sense of gloom vanished instantly.
But she knew perfectly well that as a reigning queen, disappearing for a few days was fine; people would just think she was on holiday. Disappearing for months, however, would drive the entire nation into panic.
At that thought, Helena gloomily muttered to herself, “Maybe I should just abdicate. Let whoever wants this rotten crown have it. I don’t want to be queen for another single day.”
