As the starship traversed the gear clouds of a steampunk universe, Lin Yue huddled in the corner of the medical bay, her nails digging into her palms. Her memory empathy, like a runaway train, replayed Xia Zichen's "death scene" repeatedly—she saw herself falling, strangled by mechanical gears, saw the gears of his mechanical arm stuck in her shattered wind rune, and heard her own last, shaky words, "Xia Zi..."
"Hold on!" Xia Zichen's star-patterned hand pressed against her forehead, silver light attempting to weave a barrier of consciousness, but it was dispersed by the dark currents surging across her retina. Black Cat leaped onto the console, his gear glasses projecting the chaotic waveform of Lin Yue's brainwaves: "Her hippocampus is forcibly reading all BE endings. We must enter the sea of consciousness and sever the empathy chain!" Lao Zhang's holographic projection suddenly materialized, his wrench tapping the console: "Use star-patterned blood to construct a memory anchor. I'll stabilize the cabin!"
As Xia Zichen's drop of blood merged with Lin Yue's brow, they both plunged into the deep blue sea of consciousness. Countless bubbles of memory floated there, each reflecting "them" from a different time and space—some hugging in cyberspace, some fighting back-to-back in a medieval castle, and still others sharing the last piece of courage candy in the ruins of apocalypse. But at this moment, all the bubbles cracked, revealing spiderweb-like dark currents.
"Look there!" Lin Yue pointed deep into the sea of memories. Countless moments of her own death coalesced into a black vortex, the center of which lay the shattered gears of Xia Zichen's robotic arm. She tried to summon wind blades to slice through the vortex, but discovered her runes had lost their color—from her empathic perspective, her abilities had long since dissipated with death.
Xia Zichen held her hand tightly, and threads of star-shaped light wove a stairway through the sea. "Follow the light. That was our first encounter." In the bubble at the end of the staircase, three years ago in the rainy alley, he had been picking up her fallen coffee beans, and the lavender scent of her hair had first wafted into his nostrils. The moment Lin Yue touched the bubble, all the dark currents suddenly froze into ice crystals. She could hear her own heartbeat in this time and space—a frequency untainted by the shadow of death.
"Memory anchors require emotional resonance." Black Cat's voice echoed from above the sea of consciousness, and the gears of her pocket watch transformed into a ferry, carrying them toward deeper memories. Lin Yue suddenly saw herself smiling in a bubble, clutching a freshly woven star-patterned wristband. Xia Zichen, blushing, was stuffing courage candies into her pocket. "Is this... our honeymoon in the Pastoral Universe?" A faint glow shone from her fingertips, and the dark tide ice crystals began to melt.
But the vortex suddenly accelerated, sucking all the sweet bubbles of memory into darkness. Lin Yue watched herself fall again from Xia Zichen's perspective. This time, she saw clearly that what was reflected in his pupils wasn't death, but the determination of her own wind blades, even as she fell, still trying to carve a path for him to survive. "So in your eyes, I've never been a weakling in need of saving." Her wind rune rekindled, stirring up a purple storm in her sea of consciousness.
Xia Zichen's Star-Embroidered Sword split the center of the vortex, revealing a hidden core of empathy—a chain woven from countless "death" and "protection." Lin Yue's wind, scented with lavender, entwined the chains, causing them to radiate a crystal-like luster. When the two simultaneously called out each other's names, all their memory bubbles burst simultaneously, transforming into countless points of light that reorganized into a rainbow bridge.
In the real medical cabin, Lao Zhang's wrench suddenly turned into a lavender shower, spraying light golden powder on Lin Yue's temple: "This is the preservative of the sea of consciousness, quickly grab her hand!" The moment Xia Zichen did so, Lin Yue's eyelashes trembled violently, and a tear fell on the back of his hand, condensing into a transparent lavender crystal.
"Sweetness +23%!" Black Cat's glasses flashed red. "The empathy link has been transformed into a protective link. Now she can see the memories you wish." Lin Yue slowly opened her eyes. The dark tide in her eyes had receded, replaced by a shimmer of interwoven star and wind patterns. She reached for the gears of Xia Zichen's robotic arm. This time, she touched not a virus, but the small words he had secretly engraved on the inside of the gear: "When the wind stops, I will be your anchor."
The starship pitched violently, and a sea of gear-like buildings passed by the porthole. A broadcast from a steampunk universe rang through the static: "Wanted: Capture the Wind Witch Lin Yue and receive a reward of 100 tons of golden gears; execute the mechanical traitor Xia Zichen and receive the title of Baron." Lin Yue's wind pocket suddenly expanded, and half a candy bar fell out. The word "Courage" on the wrapper had been tarnished bronze by the steam, while a black cat's paw print appeared on the back. "In this universe, your first encounter will be a gunfight, but the scent of lavender will be the bullet's pause."
Xia Zichen twisted the joints of the robotic arm, revealing a dried lavender flower hidden among the gears. "I found it in the ruins three years ago, and I never dared to tell you." Lin Yue was stunned, as the arrangement of the flower's petals perfectly matched the memory anchor in her sea of consciousness. A black cat leaped onto her shoulder, its gear-shaped glasses reflecting the distant image of 13 Gear Alley. "Remember, let him smell you before he pulls the trigger. Whether the sweetness value can turn positive depends on the penetration rate of this empathic memory."
Lao Zhang's holographic projection finally stabilized, and he handed the two of them two pistol-shaped lavender sprayers: "The bullets are concentrated fragrance, remember to aim at his mechanical heart. There... is the nursery that you secretly planted in this universe." Lin Yue gripped the sprayer tightly and found that the grip was engraved with the same pattern as his own wind blade; when Xia Zichen checked the magazine, he saw that each "bullet" was a miniature version of the courage candy.
The starship landed on the rooftop of Gear Alley. Amidst the mingled scent of steam and rain, the distant sound of leather boots treading on metal plates could be heard. Lin Yue took a deep breath, and the wind rune diffused the lavender scent into an invisible barrier. As the muzzle of a gun peeked out from around the corner, she saw Xia Zichen's mechanical eyes flash red. But the moment he met her gaze, the crosshairs in his pupils suddenly twisted into the shape of lavender.
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