Chapter 132 – Returning Home
Alliance, February, Year 250.
The research on the simulated signal of Abyss No.1 went extremely smoothly, and this underground city developed rapidly and prosperously under everyone’s efforts.
In contrast, the Alliance no longer desperately needed data from the bottom of the abyss.
Shi Yuan and Lu Tinghan became much more relaxed. They only needed to make distant trips once every half a month to debug instruments, spending the rest of their time in the shelter, organizing the data sent back by monitoring instruments.
After five years of accumulation, the room of the two of them was filled with countless memorabilia, with 99% of them brought back by Shi Yuan. Since the room couldn’t accommodate them all, Shi Yuan expanded his territory outward, and the public areas were adorned with beautiful leaves and sketches by Lu Tinghan.
The flowers they raised together by the bedside also thrived. Shi Yuan’s small flower pots couldn’t hold them all, so they had to be transplanted outdoors.
They spent several days studying how to move the flowers, and in the end, the blossoms bloomed lushly outside the escort ship, creating a particularly stunning sight.
Shi Yuan observed them for a long time every day.
“I guess I have a talent for raising flowers,” he said.
Lu Tinghan commented, “Indeed, you do.”
Shi Yuan continued, “I have the same talent for raising pets.”
Lu Tinghan remembered the grotesque fish, each one uglier than the next, and fell silent.
However, the flower sea became more and more lush.
Shi Yuan also showed the flowers to Zhou Qian, Qi Hong, and Ke Zhengrong: three tombstones standing under an old tree, with light blue glowing leaves and branches resembling deer antlers, emitting a faint light throughout the tree.
The names and life stories on the tombstones were carefully engraved by Lu Tinghan. His handwriting was beautiful, and so were the engravings. Every time he and Shi Yuan came here, they brushed away the light blue leaves on the tombstones, and Shi Yuan presented a large bouquet of flowers.
The leaves were soft and shiny, and the flowers were beautiful. The heroes rested in a dream of mottled light and shadow.
“…It’s truly a wonderful world,” Lu Tinghan said. “I never thought I would have the chance to see such a scene.”
On this day, he and Shi Yuan walked through the vine-covered mountain valley and stayed up late to gaze at the night sky.
“Yeah,” Shi Yuan said, “I feel the same way.”
He nestled in Lu Tinghan’s arms and yawned. In the blink of an eye, Lu Tinghan leaned down and kissed him, and he immediately smiled.
“Shi Yuan,” Lu Tinghan whispered in his ear, “If the day of parting comes, infect me.”
Shi Yuan paused for a few seconds. “Huh?”
When they were in the main city, Lu Tinghan took a bullet for him, on the verge of death, and yet he said not to infect him, to let him die as a soldier. It was a belief and a conviction, to be born as a human and to face the end in that identity.
Lu Tinghan suddenly said this, and Shi Yuan’s tail bent into a puzzled question mark.
“I changed my mind. If it’s for you, there’s nothing I won’t do.” Lu Tinghan joked, “I hope you won’t dislike me then.” He patted Shi Yuan’s head. “That’s all I wanted to say. It’s time to sleep now.”
Later, Shi Yuan went to the singing mushroom forest several more times and soaked in the hot springs. “Polar Night” occurred twice, with each period lasting one or two months of darkness, followed by a burst of stars overhead, ushering in a bright daylight.
The lighthouse-like beam of light was always there.
It pointed directly to the universe, directly to the way back home. It was a miracle that belonged solely to Shi Yuan. The number of monsters decreased gradually, and perhaps one day the abysses would also disappear. Following the guidance of the young god, they would return to their original homeland.
Shi Yuan and Lu Tinghan waited day by day.
They walked over unfamiliar or familiar mountains, stepping on fallen leaves.
“You know,” Lu Tinghan told Shi Yuan, “they eventually told me that secret.”
Before parting, Su Enqi said there was a secret about Lu Tinghan that he didn’t know.
“What is it?” Shi Yuan asked.
Lu Tinghan replied, “When I first became an Abyss Watcher, there was an issue with my psychological evaluation report: I was indeed influenced by you. Mental infection is irreversible, but Su Enqi and Chai Yongning decided to give me another chance. In the third evaluation report, I returned to normal.”
“Ah,” Shi Yuan widened his eyes.
“It’s a miracle. No one has had an experience like this. Anyway, I wasn’t infected by you and managed to live well until today,” Lu Tinghan smiled. “Looking back now, I had a vague sense that something was wrong at that time.”
—Every late night, he would have strange dreams.
In the dream, xuejian flowers bloomed abundantly, and he found himself at the bottom of the abyss. The terrifying black mist transformed into a young boy, with devil horns on his head and a wagging tail. He joyfully said, “You’ve finally come to find me!”
He had a pair of eyes as dark as the abyss.
That happiness was genuine, sincere, and passionate. Just by seeing it, Lu Tinghan couldn’t help but smile along.
“Yeah,” Lu Tinghan said, “I always manage to find you.”
He reached out his hand to the young boy.
The dream blurred and dissipated in the morning light, never to be recalled again.
Years went by, and Shi Yuan said, “I don’t want to infect you.”
He curled up his tail, feeling somewhat uneasy.
“Well, I know,” Lu Tinghan rubbed his head. “After all, you’re a good abyss.”
Shi Yuan exclaimed, “Wow! Purr purr purr…”
Lu Tinghan continued, “After learning about this, I kept wondering what was going on. I’ve encountered more severe contamination, more than once, and my mind remained unaffected. Why did I have problems only with you? Now I understand, perhaps it’s because I wanted to understand you too much.”
On the day they first met, an 8-year-old Lu Tinghan held Shi Yuan’s hand and talked about his love for humans and cities.
Shi Yuan didn’t understand, but he remembered the deep love in Lu Tinghan’s eyes for his homeland.
Lu Tinghan didn’t remember that encounter, but ten years later, he still came to the side of the abyss as promised.
The abyss lay between heaven and earth, and the figure of the young man in his memory was blurred. Every time he dreamt of midnight, the old friend returned with a purring sound. Lu Tinghan would always wonder, he wanted to understand this lonely soul a little more.
He wanted to get closer.
Even if it was just a little bit.
Lu Tinghan knew what the monsters were thinking, and it was later confirmed that he could always find Shi Yuan.
Lu Tinghan said, “I was thinking, maybe it’s not that you wanted to infect me, but it’s my own thoughts. After all, I’m the only one who can understand you in this world.”
Shi Yuan tilted his tail in confusion.
“It’s nothing,” Lu Tinghan smiled, “Just consider it me talking to myself. Now, what would you like to eat tonight?”
At the end of that year, the moment of parting arrived.
It was a beautiful day, with flowers blooming in the field and mushrooms playing a soft melody. The sketches on the wall depicted vivid scenes. Shi Yuan sat by the bed, holding Lu Tinghan’s hand, looking at his closed eyes and his familiar face. The words “I will come back to find you” echoed in his ears.
Professor Guan had told Shi Yuan that the monsters he infected were actually killed by the black crystals, and the newly born ones were not the same monsters. That’s why the monsters were so afraid of Shi Yuan.
Shi Yuan controlled the intertwined life and death of time, but he wondered, if he infected Lu Tinghan and turned him into a monster, would Lu Tinghan still be his Lu Tinghan?
His Lu Tinghan was truly, truly wonderful. He kept his promises, untangled the knots in Shi Yuan’s tail, gave him enough head pats every day, took him to eat delicious food, unhesitatingly took fatal bullets for him, and even was willing to give up his last line of defense to be infected by him.
More importantly, Lu Tinghan always respected him.
When Shi Yuan first came to the city, he didn’t understand anything and constantly asked Lu Tinghan various questions about social customs and common knowledge. Lu Tinghan patiently answered, but let Shi Yuan make his own choices. He said it was a unique story belonging only to Shi Yuan, and no one had the right to interfere.
He walked through the passage of time with his little monster.
And so, Shi Yuan finally understood courage, love, and home.
Now, it was time for Shi Yuan to make a choice again.
He didn’t infect Lu Tinghan back then.
He wanted to respect Lu Tinghan’s position and bottom line as a human being.
Lu Tinghan convinced everyone to let Shi Yuan participate in the “Deep Dive” project, believing that he could create miracles.
Shi Yuan was also willing to believe in Lu Tinghan, believing that the only human who could understand monsters, the one who had once been influenced by him, had another bond with him beyond infection. Ultimately, they would follow the tide of time and return to each other.
The memories returned to that night many years ago, when the boy and the child held hands, the boundless wasteland, and the time flowing back with snow blossoming. They saw the path back home.
“…I’ll be waiting for you to come back,” Shi Yuan smiled and told Lu Tinghan.
The little monster and the human general, an incredible combination, stood together in their own positions, accompanying and protecting each other, making their respective choices.
This was their unique story.
In the 259th year of the Alliance, the first abyss disappeared into the starry sky.
In the following years, more abysses left, and their young god fell into a slumber.
For the abysses, time was so fleeting. He had been asleep for thousands of years before encountering Lu Tinghan. In the blink of an eye, in the sea of flowers, he finally heard the familiar voice calling out to him.
“Shi Yuan!”
Shi Yuan bent his tail, stretched his waist, and raised his head—
“Wow!” he said. “Lu Tinghan, you’ve come to find me again!”
Death was like a long and dark dream. Lu Tinghan journeyed alone, unable to see the end.
The experiences from decades ago still changed something: he yearned to be close to Shi Yuan, just as the consciousness of monsters was a converging river. At that moment, their souls merged.
Eight-year-old Lu Tinghan stood in a rainy night with flowers blossoming, following the voice calling him and finding the lonely abyss. Almost thirty years later, in that vague dream, he heard Shi Yuan’s voice again.
Only he could always find his little monster in the world.
He pushed forward with all his might, he could feel the strength of his heartbeat, and in the long river of souls, they were spiritually connected again, sharing strength, and even the whistling time could not stop it.
He reached out his hand toward the source of the voice—
“Come with me,” the voice of the young man echoed in his ears. “Find me once again.”
A translucent dark crystal fell into his palm.
The dream suddenly faded away.
Lu Tinghan awakened Shi Yuan from the long slumber, and now it was time for him to wake up.
He opened his arms and hugged Shi Yuan tightly.
…
“That’s the story,” Lu Tinghan told General Li Cheng.
Having listened to the two’s past, General Li Cheng was filled with emotions and didn’t know what to say for a moment.
Lu Tinghan bid him farewell. Before leaving, General Li Cheng said, “Thank you.” He paused for a moment and added, “Thank you to both of you and everyone else.”
Thousands of words were expressed in those few sentences.
Lu Tinghan smiled. He didn’t say anything, just nodded and turned to walk towards the vehicle in the twilight.
The vehicle drove through the streets, buildings silently standing, forming a path to welcome those returning home in the evening.
Finally, familiar buildings appeared before him. Lu Tinghan got off the car, pushed open the door, and went inside.
Shi Yuan suddenly popped his head out from behind the couch, wagging his tail happily. His eyes were bright as he said, “You’re back!”
“Yeah,” Lu Tinghan smiled. “I’m home.”
He opened his arms and hugged Shi Yuan tightly.
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