Before she died, in a hazy blur, he seemed to shed a tear.
It was a tear.
It was the first time Shen Yi had ever seen Shen Xun cry.
In all her memories, Shen Xun was always the one protecting her, standing in front of her. She had never seen him cry.
But now, he knelt on the ground, his hands covered in her blood, his face stained with tears, his expression completely shattered by fear.
Shen Yi's consciousness was fading, but her lingering senses couldn't help but wonder.
Where exactly did it go wrong?
Why was Shen Xun here?
How could Shen Xun have come?
After grinding through this hundreds of times, her mind was turning over this question rather sluggishly.
Logically speaking, it was impossible for Shen Xun to know she had come out.
Besides, she had only seen Shen Xun on the day of her second reset and reload, said a few inexplicable words to him, punched him once, and then left.
In the hundreds of reloads that followed, she had never gone to look for him again.
He had absolutely no reason to know where she was.
No reason at all to appear at that abandoned construction site.
How strange.
Helpless, Shen Yi could only whisper to him, telling him not to be sad.
She would definitely succeed next time.
...
After waking up from the reload.
This time, Shen Yi lay still for a long time.
In the previous hundreds of times, she had been tireless. The moment she opened her eyes, she would go pick a fight with White Sparrow. The System even thought she was addicted to grinding dungeons.
Even in the later stages, she didn't have any major emotional fluctuations.
That was until Shen Xun's appearance, which made Shen Yi deflate like a punctured balloon.
The night moonlight leaked in through the window, spreading over the thin blanket. Shen Yi stared at the ceiling, her mind repeatedly replaying the trembling sound of Shen Xun calling her name.
After pondering for a long time.
Shen Yi gently asked the System, "I want to know, what is the deal with White Sparrow? Why would he ask something like, 'Aren't you tired after so many times?'"
"And Shen Xun, why did he come over?"
The System sighed, its tone carrying an unprecedented solemnity:
[You have repeated it too many times, Shen Yi. This is not a game. Shen Yi, Xiao Yi, they are all real people. If you keep restarting over and over again, they will find out sooner or later.]
It was the first time Shen Yi learned that reloading too many times could actually cause something like this to happen.
How was this any different from telling a ghost story?
The moonlight fell on her profile, illuminating her features faintly. Shen Yi hugged her knees, lowered her head, and muttered to herself:
"But there is no other way."
"...What else can I do?"
The System also knew she had no choice.
It was indeed the truth.
It felt a bit melancholic: [It is very easy to mess up space and time this way, especially with that Shen Xun. It is the first time I have ever seen someone break free from the restrictions.]
This world was a comic book.
And their endings were predetermined.
No matter what choices they made, the ending they headed towards was set in advance.
A thousand efforts and ten thousand changes could not overcome the simple fact that destiny was hard to defy.
Shen Yi was the first person to jump out of this framework.
Only she could change all the established plots.
And a situation like Shen Xun's, where he broke away from the original framework and stepped out.
Was truly rare.
[Maybe a little bug occurred. You looping back and forth so many times caused a disruption in space and time. There will not be any accidents next time.]
Shen Yi softly replied with an "oh."
She was actually quite happy to see Shen Xun come.
In the moment before she died, at least she was not alone.
However, it was best if this kind of bug did not happen again. To someone with memories, it was a form of cruelty.
...
Another reload.
Time reset to zero, returning to that day.
Shen Yi exchanged blows with White Sparrow, completely abandoning any martial arts etiquette.
As long as the situation was disadvantageous to her, she would decisively reload and start over.
She did not care about the process, only the result.
But this time, an accident happened when she was leaving.
Logically, Shen Yi's nighttime movements should not have alerted anyone.
Her suitcase was already packed, the guns and knives clicked into their slots one by one. But just as she turned the doorknob—
She opened the door and saw Shen Xun standing right outside.
She did not know how long the young man had been standing there. His black, curly hair was messy, and his dead, silent eyes stared straight at her.
That look was very strange.
From the initial lifelessness to a hint of bewilderment later on, it was as if he did not know why he was standing there either, only that his body had reacted before his consciousness.
Shen Yi's heart could not help but start pounding wildly.
It was important to note.
Shen Xun had never come to find her late at night before.
What exactly was going on these past few times?
She steadied her breathing, wiped her face clean of any expression, opened the door, leaned half her body out, and kept her tone as casual as possible.
"Do you need something, brother?"
His silence lasted a bit too long.
He just looked at her, his gaze slowly moving from her face down her entire body.
Shen Yi felt a bit unnerved by his stare.
And she could not figure out the current situation.
"Aren't you going to sleep yet?" So she deliberately yawned, her tone lazy, like any impatient sister who had just been woken up:
"If you are not going to sleep, I still need to."
She ignored his bizarre behavior of suddenly coming to find her and prepared to close the door as if nothing had happened.
The moment the door was about to shut, the young man's hand reached over.
Without any warning.
He raised his hand and grabbed Shen Yi's wrist.
That hand was very cold, the temperature of his fingertips like a winter that had never warmed up.
The young man gripped tightly, his five fingers clasping her wrist bone with a force so great it felt like he was holding onto someone who would disappear at any moment.
He said, "Don't go."
Just two short words, his voice a bit hoarse.
Shen Yi looked back at him, completely stunned.
Shen Xun stood before her, the young man's face very pale.
Still, not a trace of expression could be seen on his face.
But Shen Yi had known him for far, far too long.
His eyes were like an undercurrent surging beneath an icy surface, very heavy, and even a bit desperate.
Shen Xun's hand still held her wrist, that abnormal body temperature seeping through the skin of her wrist.
The young man's eyelashes lifted.
There were glistening tears.
"Please."
"Don't go."
Those few words.
Made Shen Yi's breathing stop for a second.
She remembered some things.
Right before she died, he had shed tears too.
It really... was a tear.
"Brother," Shen Yi spoke, her voice softer than she anticipated. "What do you mean?"
She was still acting.
Only this time she acted terribly, the end of her sentence dropping, carrying a softness she had not even heard in herself before.
Shen Xun's black curly hair fell down, covering most of his face, revealing only the curve of his jawline and those eyes with lowered lashes.
Shen Yi could not see his expression clearly.
And suddenly she remembered what the System had said earlier.
[They will find out sooner or later.]
After a long time.
The young man finally looked at her. "You died in front of me, many, many times."
At this moment.
Shen Xun seemed to finally break down.
His reason and logic completely shattered at this moment.
Shen Xun continuously saw the figure of her dying in his memories.
Time and time again.
The same scene, different times, the same ending.
Shen Xun was in a state of half-understanding towards any emotion.
No one had ever taught him what pain was. He could not understand the emotions of the vast majority of people, nor could he understand why someone would cry so heartbrokenly for a departed person.
But now, Shen Yi's death had taught him the true meaning of pain.
That was the first time he had ever touched such despairing sorrow.
The scene of her death played on an endless loop in his mind.
The intense emotions almost drowned him.
For a moment, Shen Xun could not even tell if the scene before his eyes was real, or just another lingering phantom from his memories.
"Shen Yi."
The light in the room illuminated the tear tracks covering the young man's face as he stared at her, utterly numb.
Tears streamed down his cheeks.
In her eyes, Shen Xun had always acted like a grown-up ever since they were children; nothing could ever disturb his composure.
But at this very moment, he was truly just a sixteen-year-old boy terrified of losing her—fragile and completely at a loss.
He was on the verge of a breakdown.
"How am I supposed to save you?"
Shen Xun practically shouted those words.
Completely unable to control his emotions, he just stared at her, his eyes filled with a bottomless grief.
It was as if he were begging for an answer.
It was such a pitiful gaze.
He looked at her as if she were someone he could never hold onto. Even though she was right in front of him, he still felt she might vanish at any given second.
Shen Xun reached out and pulled her into a tight embrace. Like a lost child who had finally found someone to cling to, he could only choke on his sobs, crying out the exact same phrase over and over:
"...How can I possibly save you?"
