The End
Yunhe woke up.
When she woke up, it was just beginning to get light. She rubbed her eyes and drew back the curtains. A pop-up on her phone quietly reminded her: Today is the first day back to work after the holiday. Don't be late.
She returned to the GI Research Institute. Everything there was the same as before, so monotonous that she yawned again. She bought some breakfast from the cafeteria, but bumped into someone on her way out. A man.
—To be precise, he was a very handsome blond man.
She remembered his name. Nixos, the new advisor to the Federal Energy Agency. But then again, what's this big shot doing at GI?
"You remember me?" Nixos spoke before she could ask. He had a fondness for smiling, which revealed a row of perfectly white teeth. Yunhe shrugged, nonchalantly replying, "Well, who wouldn't recognize you, Mr. Advisor?"
It wasn't mockery or flattery. She simply didn't like this person; it was just an instinctive dislike. That's all.
"Wait." Just as she turned to leave with the steamed buns in her hand, Nixos called out to her in a low voice. He pressed, "Do you still remember Shen Huai'an?"
Shen Huai'an? She thought for a moment, then asked with some doubt, "You mean that top scientist from the Earth Alliance? How could I possibly know such a big shot?"
“…” Nixos looked at her with a complicated expression. He quickly chuckled and said, “That’s good. I heard he used to be with GI too. I thought, perhaps you’ve met?”
"No." Yunhe took a bite of her steaming hot bun, waved indifferently with her back to him, and said, "Goodbye, Mr. Consultant~"
This was also the last time Nixos saw Yunhe. It wasn't that Yunhe died afterward, but rather that the world is too big, and often, the one time you meet someone might be the last time you ever see them.
That's all.
——————————
Yunhe lived a very ordinary and peaceful life.
She didn't care about any of that bullshit like global warming or rising sea levels—things that had absolutely nothing to do with her. She didn't even care much about herself.
Her career was so-so but passable; she had a few relationships, but they all ended without a trace. She preferred being alone and living her own life to socializing.
In one relationship, the man clearly proposed to her, but for some reason, at the moment he proposed, a scene suddenly flashed through her mind.
In the scene, there is a man whose face is blurred and unrecognizable, gently calling her "Xiaoyun". She even seems to have a child named Xiaochao.
She tried desperately to see his face clearly. But it was no use. Even after appearing in her dreams several times before and afterward, she still couldn't make out what his face looked like.
Sometimes she even wonders if she's still dreaming, and if everything in the dream is real.
Who can say for sure, right?
Until one day.
——————————
Until one day, she happened to pass by the institute's library and borrowed a book to read.
The book was titled *One Hundred Years of Solitude*. She didn't really understand it, after all, it depicted Latin American society, completely unrelated to her life. But somehow, she borrowed it, and coincidentally, found a faded old photograph inside.
That photo was a group photo.
The photo features her and her former colleagues from many years ago. In the photo, she smiles awkwardly but politely, standing next to a man. The man looks very handsome, the kind of handsome that's almost mixed-race, wearing a white lab coat, and he looks very familiar.
—It's not just familiar.
"...Chen, Huai'an?"
She blurted it out in disbelief!
Everyone knows what Shen Huai'an looks like. After all, almost all forms of human society today were, in a strict sense, constructed by this top-notch scientist; but why, even though she had taken a photo with him, could she not remember him at all?
When exactly did I meet this "big star"?
Thinking this, she picked up the photo and waved it a few times in the sunlight. Then, she froze completely.
—Under the sunlight, Shen Huai'an's handsome face changed. His short hair grew long, silvery-white. His human handsomeness transformed into inhuman beauty, a beauty unique to another species… an incomprehensible beauty.
—Chief Shen, can we see your tail?
—Just so you know. I won't be showing you my tail when the time comes.
Yunhe was stunned. The photo fell gently to the ground as she loosened her grip, like a fallen leaf.
...
After that, she went back to her old laboratory. Somehow, just standing in the center of the lab, she clearly saw certain "scenes" she had never witnessed before:
—My name is Yunhe, and I'm a new employee who just started working here today.
—Hello, Yun, I'm Shen Huai'an, so I'm your senior. We'll be colleagues from now on, so feel free to contact me anytime if you have any questions.
—Hey, Cloud Researcher, give me a bite too.
—It's better to settle for second best than nothing.
—Suddenly, I realized you were quite cute just now.
...
In the cold laboratory, inside the iron cage, someone seemed to be sitting there elegantly, holding a test tube that served as a wine glass, and jokingly criticizing her for "allowing officials to set fires while forbidding common people to light lamps."
Or, even though he's already in dire straits himself, he still nonchalantly tells all sorts of lame jokes to make her happy, while simultaneously making her disliked leaders run wild.
Or, when she loses her ever-present experimental subject, gently say to her, "I'm here."
Or, when she was captured by Jin Lin, he risked serious injury to drag her back to land from the deep sea.
—Xiaoyun.
"Don't be afraid, Xiaoyun. Wait for me for four more days, and I will save you."
...
She tried desperately to remember, but she just couldn't. Her head was throbbing.
If I can't remember, then I won't think about it anymore. That's it.
As for the tears... they're inexplicable. Just wipe them away.
——————————
More than thirty years later.
He got up early, washed up, and went out. He finally had something important to do today: to meet someone.
A person who is about to die.
The journey from the villa to the hospice ward of the city center hospital was no more than thirty minutes. But perhaps she used her short, human life to wait for him.
The doctors did not stop him when he went in. Under the absolute mental suggestion of ancestral memories, no corner of human society could refuse him.
She was lying at the far end of the ward, quietly gazing at the scenery outside the window. He stood beside her for a while before she finally came to her senses.
"Are you... Death?" she asked. Nearly seventy years old, she was both old and ill, but he looked exactly the same as she had when she was in her twenties or thirties.
He won't grow old. Everyone in the world knows this, yet not a single person actually questions it. It's as if she's the only one in the entire world who remains perpetually conscious.
However, none of that matters anymore.
"I am Shen Huai'an." His voice was gentle, but what he said was nonsense.
"You are Shen Huai'an..."
She smiled, a single tear streaming down her wrinkles and dripping onto the blanket: "Yes, you are him."
—That “him” whom she had no impression of, no memory of, yet inexplicably missed her all her life.
He said nothing more. This was the second human he had witnessed dying, but his feelings were completely different now than before.
"Why?" she asked softly, as if talking to herself, "Why...why do this to me?"
Shen Huai'an simply watched her quietly. But his heart—if it could be called a "heart"—felt something different.
It wasn't pain, it wasn't regret. It was just a slight difference, but he subconsciously raised his hand and pressed it against his heart.
He knew what she wanted to ask. So he remained silent.
After a while, he finally spoke: "Xiaoyun, go to sleep. I'm here."
She suddenly became excited. Not because of the words themselves, but because after he said them, he leaned down and gently kissed her increasingly cold forehead.
"good evening."
It was meant for her. It was also meant for him, this most "special" illusion.
Human life is meaningless. If it has any meaning, it lies in the process, not the end.
She gave him the most real and unforgettable illusion. So what he returned to her was also an illusion.
This is the law of the universe.
That's fair.
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