"Lin Xi, what exactly are you talking about?"
Bryce stared at Lin Xi and asked incredulously.
Although he appears to be asking a question, in reality... judging from Bryce's expression, as his brother, he already knows Lin Xi's plans at this moment.
Bryce refused to accept reality.
“Bryce…”
"Are you crazy? You might be left here forever—and it's already dead, isn't it?"
Bryce raised his voice, his expression becoming unusually ferocious.
“Lin Xi, you’d better think about it again. Xavier… If all else fails, we can think of another way after we return to Earth… There will always be people who want to explore As192 again. You can come with them then. You have many options; there’s no need to do it this way…”
Elisa looked at him with a deathly pale face and said something that Lin Xi had never seen her so incoherent.
Yes, even she, who was closest to Xavier, completely disagreed with Lin Xi's decision.
Lin Xi bit his lip and slowly took a step back.
Then he pressed his hand to his chest.
Xavier may not be dead...
Lin Xi wanted to say something to Bryce and Elisa.
He could feel a faint flame flickering in his chest: it was the spiritual connection between him and Xavier, though that connection was so weak that it seemed to be just a figment of Lin Xi's imagination.
But Lin Xi has persevered until now, relying on that tiny "flame".
“You should go now, Bryce. I’ll find a way back.”
As she spoke, Lin Xi couldn't help but glance at Sith again.
Sith turned around at that moment and looked extremely desperate at the two brothers who were still wasting time. From Lin Xi's perspective, he could see the screen in front of Sith.
Lin Xi knew very well that takeoff was imminent.
There was no time to convince anyone, no time to remember what each other looked like, and no time to say goodbye.
"Bryce, Lin Xi, please—"
The moment his eyes met Lin Xi's, Sith suddenly let out a mournful cry that was almost like weeping. Lin Xi completely understood Sith's feelings; he desperately wanted to return to Earth.
To be honest, Lin Xi is no different.
Meanwhile, Bryce was still trying to get Lin Xi onto the lifeboat.
“We don’t have time to waste, Lin Xi. This is no joke. You should know that you are you, and Xavier is just a…”
"A monster."
Lin Xi spoke on behalf of Bryce.
Strangely, a very faint smile suddenly appeared on his face, which was covered in blood and frozen with pain and sorrow, like a snowflake in winter landing on a person's fingertip and then quickly melting away with body heat.
That smile was fleeting, but it was real.
"But he's my monster."
Lin Xi said.
Then he turned to Sith and yelled at him.
"Sith—Go!"
Lin Xi's shout inadvertently gave Sith a final push. Sith's hand, which had been hovering hesitantly over the button to close the hatch, glanced at the countdown in front of him after hearing Lin Xi's shout, his eyes darkened, and then he pressed the button hard.
"Click—"
It's a metallic sound.
The hatch suddenly slid down—
Bryce, realizing something was wrong, let out a long shout.
"No...Lin Xi!!"
He jumped up from the floor and lunged towards the outside of the spaceship.
But at that moment, the lifeboat door slammed shut in front of him. Bryce crashed heavily into the metal door, a long gash appearing on his head, from which blood gushed out.
Bryce's eyes were bloodshot. He suddenly turned to look at Sith, who was also looking at him.
"Bryce, I have to go back."
Sith murmured.
Then he pressed the takeoff button.
"Buzz buzz buzz—"
At the same moment, Lin Xi, standing outside the window, saw the lifeboat shudder violently, and the modified fuel tank made a clicking sound. The lifeboat itself emitted a regular, low rumble.
Lin Xi's heart jumped, but soon, the lifeboat stabilized right before his eyes and slowly rose into the air—
The next second, Lin Xi felt as if he had been hit hard, and he was thrown out—he was thrown heavily to the edge of the warehouse by the vortex created when the lifeboat took off.
Even from this distance, he could still hear Bryce's desperate shouts.
Lin Xi struggled to slowly get up from the edge of the warehouse. In that brief moment, the lifeboat had already steadily entered the catapult track.
The powerful force generated by the ion generator caused high temperatures and wind pressure, making the entire warehouse creak and groan under the strain, making it almost impossible for Lin Xi to open her eyes.
Then……
With a deafening roar, the spaceship seemed to vanish right before his eyes in an instant.
The tremendous sound and wind pressure caused Lin Xi's world to go blank for a moment.
He was briefly unconscious for about ten seconds. When he opened his eyes again, all that remained for him was a warehouse riddled with holes and an empty railway track.
It was as if Bryce and that lifeboat, who had been shouting at him and begging him to get on the boat just a second ago, were all just his hallucinations.
He has completely lost his way home.
At that very moment, this realization was vividly imprinted into Lin Xi's mind.
Lin Xi felt his vision blurring. He wiped his face hard and realized that it was covered in tears.
"...Be careful, brother."
And best of luck.
Lin Xi murmured to the empty warehouse.
He suddenly regretted not saying those words to Bryce while he was still there.
After all, Bryce and Alyssa were about to embark on a trip that was far from foolproof, and his selfish decision had caused them to waste too much time.
That hastily modified lifeboat might just as Sith said, disintegrating in space before the migration even begins, and his loved ones would be torn to pieces in a place he knew nothing about.
Of course, it's also possible that Bryce and Elisa might successfully return to Earth.
Bryce and Elisa might get married, and they'll have several children. Lin Xi has no doubt that one of them will inherit his name.
But regardless of the outcome, one thing is certain.
That was the last time he saw Bryce in his life.
If she could, Lin Xizhen truly hoped that their last meeting wouldn't be like this, with Bryce surrounded by grief and shock, covered in blood and on the verge of death.
Lin Xi took a long, heavy breath before supporting herself on her knees and slowly getting up from the ground.
Perhaps it was the departure of the lifeboat that relieved him of a heavy burden, or more likely it was his despair and sorrow.
Lin Xi had initially thought he could pull through, but at this moment he felt incredibly heavy. The wound in his abdomen was bleeding profusely; he was weak, had lost too much blood, and could faint at any moment.
Since Lin Xi was born, he had never been as exhausted as he was now. It was as if a voice inside him kept telling him: Give up, give up everything.
“Xavier…”
And whenever he wanted to truly give up, the image of Xavier looking at him in that final moment would appear before his eyes.
And the words it said to him.
"I will be very good..."
"I'll come find you," Lin Xi muttered nervously to herself.
He braced himself against the wall, forcing himself to limp forward.
What seemed like a short journey at first glance now felt incredibly long.
Perhaps sensing the departure of the lifeboats, the lights in the corridors near the warehouse gradually dimmed and then disappeared one by one.
Lin Xi was soon enveloped in darkness.
But he did not stop.
In fact, at this point, Lin Xi could hardly tell that anything was wrong with his surroundings. He didn't even have the ability to think. He was relying entirely on his willpower to walk in the direction from which he had separated from Xavier in his memory.
It felt like millions of years had passed before he finally took his first difficult steps and reached the end of his journey. He could now see the covered bridge in the distance.
A few lights were still lit up there.
Lin Xi steadied himself, squinted, and stared blankly in that direction, trying to see clearly whether the isolation door that had been lowered had been opened by those monsters.
But at that moment, he heard a deep whisper.
The sound was strange, distorted, and evil.
"Oh my God, look at yourself, Dr. Lin Xi, what have you done to yourself..."
Lin Xi numbly took several more steps forward before realizing that the voice she had heard was not a hallucination.
He slowly turned his head to look in the direction from which the sound came.
Then he saw a person.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
