Shen Yi stood in front of the familiar door of her home once again.
It seemed to her that it had been a lifetime since she last saw this door.
She took a deep breath and knocked on it.
Shen Yi had prepared a whole bunch of things to say. She had rehearsed the opening lines countless times on the way here.
What to say first, what to follow with, and the tone should be relaxed. She couldn't start crying right away.
But the moment she saw her parents standing at the door, all the prepared words got stuck in her throat.
The words she had planned to say were all blocked in her throat.
They turned into a sour stream of air that rushed from her nose to her eyes and turned into uncontrollable tears.
She burst into tears without warning.
Even she didn't expect it when the tears welled up.
Shen Yi threw herself into Wen Ya's arms, buried her face in her shoulder, and sobbed loudly.
"I finally get to see you again."
— I finally get to see you again.
As these words came out, Wen Ya's arms tightened suddenly, pressing her whole body into her embrace.
Wen Ya lowered her head and pressed her face against Shen Yi's. Tears silently streamed down her face as her cheek rubbed against Shen Yi's temple.
She thought of that old dream.
In the dream, that girl had accompanied her through many days and months.
She accompanied her to soothe the crying baby and accompanied her to stare blankly at the sleeping child in one silent afternoon after another.
Those times that she thought she had spent alone were never really alone.
"Baby," Wen Ya's voice trembled violently. She closed her eyes and hugged Shen Yi even tighter. "I had a dream, and you were in it."
"But, but I seem to have lost you."
Leaning in her arms, Shen Yi could feel Wen Ya trembling slightly.
Shen Sixing stood behind Wen Ya, looking calm.
His remaining impression of Shen Yi from the previous life still lingered in the recordings and videos. And now, she was right in front of him, within an arm's reach.
The reality of it made him a little dizzy.
Shen Sixing lowered his eyes, made way a bit, and stepped aside. He had to remind them first, "Let's go inside and talk."
Shen Sixing walked to the sofa and sat down. His posture seemed calm, but the instinctive action of folding his hands when sitting there betrayed his emotions.
The whole family sat in the living - room, looking at each other.
Shen Yi sat beside Wen Ya, and her hand was held tightly by Wen Ya.
She interlaced her fingers with her mother's one by one, locking their hands together.
The general story had already been clearly presented in everyone's dreams, including what had happened to Shen Yi before she reloaded the save.
All Shen Yi had to do was to go through it again and fill in the general blanks.
"… Let me tell you a story," she glanced at everyone present and found that they were all staring at her.
Shen Yi carefully chose her words, "When I was six years old, after the world restarted, the gradually awakened world's consciousness found me."
"He told me that he was my system and decided to choose me as the female protagonist. And he gave me a cheat code."
"This ability is called reloading, just like in a game. I could reload the save infinitely on the same day."
"However, as a punishment for using it, I would be sent to an unknown time and space after the use."
"The first time I chose to reload the save was when I was seven years old and met Shen Ruxu."
"He was bleeding so much," Shen Yi's voice was a bit dry. "It wasn't the first time I saw a dead person, but it was the first time I saw an acquaintance die in front of me."
The hand that Shen Ruxu rested on his face stiffened imperceptibly. He lowered his eyes, and his eyelashes covered the color of his eyes. His smile could hardly stay on his face.
He also had that dream.
And he recalled the scene of his first death.
"You mean, when I died for the first time?" Shen Ruxu spoke softly, also a little puzzled. "I also dreamed about it, but I was already dead at that time. You actually ran out. You're so unguarded, Xiaoyi."
His voice had the usual smiling tone at the end.
It was as if he was talking about something that had nothing to do with him. "Generally speaking, snipers and gunmen don't leave immediately after killing someone. You shouldn't have run out to look for me so soon."
Shen Yi immediately turned her head to look at him.
The two of them looked into each other's eyes, and neither of them dodged.
Shen Yi still remembered the scene when she first saw him dead.
In the cold winter, all her cries were buried.
At that time, she thought.
He was so lonely here all by himself.
"I feel like you've always been very lonely," Shen Yi's smile was faint. "You've been longing for friends since childhood, and yet you died alone. How pathetic, Second Brother."
"Seems so. I've always been a bit of a failure in being a person," Shen Ruxu readily agreed without refuting. The always faintly smiling look in his eyes gradually faded, and there was a momentary emptiness. "But I didn't die too lonely. I remember that you stayed with me all the time after I died, Xiaoyi."
After he died.
Shen Yi squatted beside him and quietly accompanied him.
The lingering voice before his death was also her calling him brother.
One after another, from clear to faint.
A person's sense of hearing is the last to disappear, and this process is slower than expected.
And more unforgettable than expected.
— Shen Ruxu.
— Brother.
One by one, he vaguely thought at that time that she was just being too much.
Calling him like this — he couldn't even die in peace.
Shen Ruxu had always adhered to an irresponsible idea, that is, after his death, all the grief, concern, and reluctance would disappear.
Sadness and reluctance were problems that the living should consider.
The dead didn't need to be responsible.
But it was not until he heard her voice before he died that he knew what it meant to be "unwilling even in death".
All the concerns that he thought would dissipate gathered back and filled his chest.
You're being too much, Shen Yi.
Ignoring his somewhat solemn gaze, Shen Yi continued, "Then came the first punishment, and I was sent to Shen Zhizhao's trial ground."
Shen Zhizhao put one arm on the armrest of the sofa and smiled, "Yes."
"That was the first time I saw you."
There, she took out most of the people for Shen Zhizhao.
As for the second time…
Shen Yi's throat was a bit dry. "It was because of Shen Xun."
"That White Sparrow guy was really a pain in the neck," Shen Yi's speech speed quickened, as if she wanted to swallow this part whole. "I probably died many times. After all, he was really difficult to deal with."
The living room was silent for three seconds.
Then Wen Ya let go of Shen Yi's wrist and instead placed her hand on the back of Shen Yi's hand.
"Anyway," Shen Yi smiled, and her voice was as brisk as if she was coaxing a child. "I finally took him out."
Obviously, Shen Xun didn't want to recall that nightmare.
He had seen her die many times as many times as she had died.
Thinking about it, he would rather have died the first time.
Wen Ya turned her head, turned her face in a direction where Shen Yi couldn't see, and quickly wiped the corner of her eye with her free hand.
When she turned back, her eyes were red, and her lips curved into an arc.
"Baby, you're really amazing," she smiled at Shen Yi, and tears streamed down the creases of her smile. "Mom didn't know you... were actually this amazing."
Shen Zhizhao already knew most of it, but when she said it out loud, those seemingly light words still hit his eardrums with a resounding thud, making him involuntarily clench his fists.
Shen Wenta looked up expressionlessly, directly observing the reactions of Shen Xun and Shen Ruxu.
One was silent with his head down, and the other was forcing a smile on his face. Both were extremely quiet.
Shen Wenta couldn't help but think.
These two...
One was more useless than the other.
But then he thought about himself, and it seemed he had no right to say anything either.
After all, Shen Yi had boarded that damned ship twice for him.
At this time, Shen Sixing, who had been silent all along, gently asked, "Then what were you thinking at that time, Xiaoyi?"
Shen Yi was taken aback by his question.
Fragments of past memories came rushing back.
After being killed several times at the beginning, she once had the experience of getting weak in the knees at the sight of a White Sparrow.
"Just...," she hesitated for a moment, her gaze calm, "try again."
If one attempt didn't work, then try again.
It didn't matter if she had to start all over.
This almost obsessive repetition was ultimately supported by a sheer sense of resentment.
She must kill him.
Shen Sixing finally understood the source of her almost unreasonably optimistic and calm attitude during the period when she was forgotten.
It was because she had endured hundreds of such repetitive days and nights alone before.
"Later, it's the story of Third Brother," she quickly tried to steer the conversation away from this heavy topic. "Actually, his matter is the simplest."
"I even asked you all for help. But later, I took care of all the killers on that ship by myself." Shen Yi paused, then looked up with bright eyes, scanning everyone in turn. "This is also quite impressive, right?"
The response she got was her mother's almost suffocating hug.
