The sky curtain makes you a useless class monitor, yet you act arbitrarily for eternity?

in the dark.

Jiang Liyu's cool voice came through.

"Ye Chen".

"I have a task for you."

"Go to Jinling Wuzhong."

"Protect a person named Gu Xue."

"Protect?"

"Master, is Gu Xue a princess from which country?"

"no."

"Whose daughter is she?"

"No, not exactly."

Ye Chen remained silent for a moment.

"How long will I be gone?"

Three years.

"I'll take care of those formalities for you."

"..."

"Master, aren't you an immortal? How do you know these things?"

"……roll."

"Okay!"

The next moment, a system notification appeared in mid-air.

【Ding! 】

[Mission successfully completed.]

Should we return to reality?

【whether】

In the pure white room, Jiang Liyu looked down at the options in front of her.

There is no door here.

There are no windows.

There is no trace of the passage of time.

Scenes from those three years flashed before her eyes.

The boy they picked up from the snow.

That wicked disciple who, after being taken in by her, was always thinking of taking advantage of her.

That wicked disciple who would secretly poison her tea while she was in seclusion, and who refused to admit his mistake even after being beaten.

And there was that wicked disciple standing behind her, stubbornly insisting on protecting her.

The final frame of the image shows Ye Chen's back as he leaves.

He turned around and waved to her.

"Master, wait for me to come back."

Jiang Liyu raised her hand, her fingertips landing on the word "Yes".

"Yes."

The sound was very soft.

But once that word was uttered, the curtain fell on what she had waited for for over two thousand years.

The pure white room began to collapse from the edges.

The light from the walls, the floor, and the ceiling shattered into pieces.

Her consciousness was pulled into deeper darkness.

"Drip—drip—drip—"

A sound from an extremely distant place pierced through the darkness and reached my ears.

The sound of machines running.

The sound of liquid flowing.

There was also a woman's voice speaking intermittently.

The sound came through the thick layer of water and was not clearly audible.

"Auntie..."

"Twenty years have passed, why haven't you woken up yet?"

"If you keep sleeping, in a few years it will be my daughter's turn to come and see you."

"Speaking of which, how come you haven't changed at all?"

"Where did your uncle get this treatment pod that he bought for you before he died...?"

"Tsk."

I want to get one too.

Jiang Liyu's consciousness slowly rose amidst that sound.

She tried to open her eyes, but couldn't even lift her eyelids.

My body felt so heavy, it didn't feel like my own.

After a long while, the image gradually became clear.

A woman in her thirties sat next to the treatment pod, tidying up the things on the table.

She was dressed appropriately, her hair was tied up at the back of her head, and the childishness of her teenage years had faded from her eyes and brows.

It was Li Xiaoran, who was already married.

She picked up her bag from the table and stood up.

"Alright, that's all for today."

"Aunt, I'll come see you again tomorrow."

Li Xiaoran had only taken two steps.

"Beep beep beep—"

The testing sounds in the medical pod suddenly became rapid.

Li Xiaoran stopped and turned around abruptly.

Inside the transparent chamber, a special liquid is rapidly descending.

It's not a leak.

The liquids are being absorbed by Jiang Liyu's body.

"Auntie?"

Li Xiaoran rushed over quickly.

"laugh--"

The sound of depressurization could be heard coming from inside the cabin.

The hatch slowly opened.

Jiang Liyu suddenly opened her eyes.

She raised her hand and ripped off her helmet, her chest heaving violently.

The cold air rushed into my lungs.

Unfamiliar lights came into view.

Unfamiliar walls.

Unfamiliar instruments.

There was also a face covered in tears.

"Auntie!"

Li Xiaoran rushed to the treatment pod, her voice trembling with excitement.

"You're finally awake!"

Jiang Liyu propped herself up against the cabin wall and sat up.

Her body had been asleep for twenty years, and her muscles and bones had not yet adapted to being awake.

But she ignored all of that.

She looked at the woman in front of her, her brows slowly furrowing.

"Auntie?"

"Who are you……"

Li Xiaoran was taken aback.

Jiang Liyu's gaze swept across her face, searching through those distant memories in her mind.

At eighteen, she had just entered the world of "Myriad Realms".

She had never seen such a big niece before.

I've never seen a woman in her thirties call me that.

Li Xiaoran wiped away her tears and hurriedly said:

"Ye Chen".

"You know Ye Chen, right?"

"He is my uncle."

Jiang Liyu's pupils suddenly contracted.

"Ye Chen..."

"Your uncle?"

"right."

Li Xiaoran nodded.

Jiang Liyu's gaze fell on her face, as if trying to find traces of Ye Chen on this unfamiliar face.

"How much time has passed now?"

The smile on Li Xiaoran's face gradually disappeared.

"Twenty years."

"You've been lying in this treatment pod for a full twenty years."

Jiang Liyu's fingers tightened.

"And what about him?"

Li Xiaoran did not answer.

Where is Ye Chen?

Is he still there?

Jiang Liyu looked at her, her voice growing increasingly urgent.

Has he come back?

Li Xiaoran bit her lip and looked away.

Jiang Liyu stared at her.

Is he married?

She asked the question very carefully.

She was so careful, as if she were testing for the answer she most wanted to hear.

Li Xiaoran shook her head.

"no."

Jiang Liyu's shoulders relaxed slightly.

At that moment, she even smiled briefly.

"That's good……"

"He's still waiting for me."

"He should still be waiting for me, right?"

Li Xiaoran's lips trembled.

"but……"

A tear fell and landed on Jiang Liyu's face.

Jiang Liyu was stunned.

She watched as Li Xiaoran turned her head away and raised her hand to cover her mouth.

The woman, who was already in her thirties, tried hard to suppress her sobs, but her shoulders kept shaking.

"but……"

Li Xiaoran had her back to her, and her voice broke completely.

"My uncle is dead."

The expression on Jiang Liyu's face gradually disappeared.

"..."

"On the very day you clear the game."

"He's still waiting for you to wake up in the hospital."

"Later... someone pushed him off the 15th-floor ward where you were staying."

Li Xiaoran's fingers gripped the hem of her clothes tightly.

"No one was able to save him in time."

"By the time they arrived, he was already..."

She couldn't continue.

Jiang Liyu was still looking at her.

"Already what?"

"He's already dead."

Li Xiaoran's tears kept falling.

"He fell to his death."

Jiang Liyu looked at her.

The sounds around me gradually faded away.

The liquid inside the treatment chamber dripped onto the ground, making a monotonous sound.

a drop.

Another drop.

She could still hear Li Xiaoran talking.

But every word became blurry.

Only that one sentence remained, echoing repeatedly in my mind.

Ye Chen is dead.

He died the day she woke up.

She's back.

But he is no longer here.

Jiang Liyu's hand slipped off the bulkhead.

She looked down at her palm.

These hands once wielded a sword and cleaved through a sea of ​​thunder.

I once walked 100 laps with Ye Chen in the game.

She once bandaged his wounds and wiped the blood from his forehead.

She waited for over two thousand years.

She devoted herself to the long years, just so that one day she could open her eyes and see that boy standing in front of her.

But when she returned to reality, she didn't even get to see him one last time.

Jiang Liyu raised her head.

"Take me to see him."

Li Xiaoran quickly shook her head.

"Aunt, you've just woken up; you haven't fully recovered yet."

"Let's go another day."

"take me."

"Auntie..."

"take me!"