(The timeline chapter can also be viewed as a side story. I originally intended to write it last, but according to the current setting, the timelines have begun to influence each other. The personalities of Fu Jianzhi and Ruan Chen from the other timeline are slowly overlapping with those of the two people in the current timeline.)
Fu Jianzhi, one of the youngest and most outstanding geniuses in China.
The reason it is only one of them is because China had another genius who was just as dazzling as Su Ze.
Commander Fu displayed a powerful spiritual talent from a young age, which earned him a place on the Prism Club's monitoring list. His subsequent growth was just like that of all geniuses, and he eventually entered Crescent Bay at the age of eighteen.
The geniuses of Crescent Bay have four paths to growth: Observer, Guardian, Disruptor, and Executor.
The one named Su Ze was the executor. After finishing his course at Crescent Bay, he was supposedly sent out on a secret mission, and that's when the genius disappeared.
Fu Jianzhi is special because he has no specific training direction.
The generally accepted explanation is that Commander Fu is so outstanding that no department wants to let him go, so they came up with a joint training program specifically for him.
The people of Crescent Bay always thought that Commander Fu must be under a lot of pressure because he didn't like to smile, always had a tense face as if the whole world owed him something, and spent his days eating, sleeping, and training, without any hobbies.
Rigid and boring.
There are also rumors that Commander Fu is not fond of smiling because his family did something to wrong him in his early years, which forced him to become a man who does not smile.
When Commander Fu was twenty-two years old, a big news story broke at the Crescent Bay Training Base.
Commander Fu picked up a woman from the entrance of Crescent Bay; she was a very beautiful woman.
Commander Fu carried the beautiful woman, covered in blood, and strode toward the infirmary. The woman was curled up in his arms, barely alive, her eyes vacant as she stared at the starry sky projected onto Crescent Bay, making one wonder if she could ever be saved.
Later, the woman was rescued, and Crescent Bay gained a person who was even less cheerful than Commander Fu, named Ruan Chen.
Commander Fu seemed to have become a different person. In addition to eating and sleeping, he added a new must-do item to his daily schedule—teasing Ruan Chen.
Every day after finishing his classes, he would spend his time in the room of the woman he had taken in, only leaving after curfew.
"Ruan Chen, look how dry my mouth is from talking. Could you pour me a glass of water?"
After sitting by the window for an hour, gazing at the sky with her chin in her hand, Ruan Chen finally stirred, but she merely shifted her position and asked, "Is that patch of sky above us fake?"
This was also the first thing she said after being rescued.
Crescent Bay has stood in this space for thousands of years. Ruan Chen was the first person to come to this space on her own initiative. Crescent Bay held a three-day meeting, trying to figure out how Ruan Chen came to be.
Because Crescent Bay and the secular world are not on the same level.
Even geniuses like Fu Jianzhi and Su Ze need specific passages and instruments to get here, but Ruan Chen, who suddenly appeared at the entrance of Crescent Bay not long ago, seemed to have just gotten lost and wandered around in the wilderness. She tore through the barrier of space and came to everyone's side.
Hearing her finally speak, the usually aloof and stern Commander Fu pulled up a chair and sat down next to her. Staring at her profile, which had gradually regained its radiance over the past few days, he asked in surprise, "What else have you noticed?"
"That door was fake that day too."
"The houses here are fake."
"The winds that have been blowing these past few days and the rains that have fallen are all fake."
Ruan Chen's beautiful face was expressionless as she spoke, seemingly uninterested in where she was or surprised that everything here seemed to come from nothingness.
She was right about everything.
Fu Jianzhi wasn't surprised that someone who had gotten lost and ended up in Crescent Bay could see the strangeness of this space. He asked, "Then what here do you see that's real?"
Ruan Chen seemed to have thought for a long time, yet her answer was also decisive. She didn't look at Fu Jianzhi, but lowered her head and gently poked the back of Fu Jianzhi's hand with a finger whose scar hadn't completely faded. Then she covered it with her own smaller hand. "You really are."
The soldiers training not far away began to whisper among themselves.
"Look, Commander Fu is smiling!"
"Commander Fu didn't just rescue a person, he picked up a pet for himself! Look how much he adores him."
"Shh, don't talk nonsense. I heard that the woman Commander Fu picked up may not have a great background, but the higher-ups value her highly. Maybe..."
From behind the group came the instructor's reprimand, "You dare to gossip about your superiors? You're getting more and more unruly every day!"
Fu Jianzhi looked down at the hand covering the back of his own hand. Even the palm was not warm, and the skin on the back of the hand had a waxy yellow color due to years of malnutrition.
How pitiful.
"They investigated your background and origins. I heard you're from the Ruan family?"
Ruan Chen's eyes, which had been like a stagnant pool, suddenly stirred with ripples. Upon hearing the words "Ruan family," she subconsciously reached for Fu Jianzhi's shirt, as if trying to hide in his arms.
Fu Jianzhi could clearly sense her subtle movements.
He felt a sensation he had never experienced before.
So it turns out... I am needed too.
She needs herself very much.
Perhaps her future is so bright that I can't even look up to her, but right now she is so eager to find shelter with me.
It seems that only I can give her that.
"If the base approves your application in the end, would you be willing to stay?" Fu Jianzhi asked, his tone expectant, as if tempting her. "You can gain a lot here. When you leave Crescent Bay, those who bullied you will kneel at your feet, trembling with fear, begging for your forgiveness."
Ruan Chen's lips moved slightly, and she said something.
"What?" Fu Jianzhi didn't hear clearly.
“I said, it doesn’t seem to make much sense.”
Fu Jianzhi thought for a moment and asked, "Wouldn't it be better to have them apologize to you? You'll be wearing a majestic uniform, and the Ruan family will have to watch their step. I might even try to find a way to bankrupt the Ruan family."
“That’s not very interesting.” Although Ruan Chen still said it was not interesting, his eyes lit up and he looked at the buildings in the distance of Crescent Bay with a serious expression.
"What do you find interesting?" Fu Jianzhi raised his hand in a gesture of surrender. "I'll listen to you."
Ruan Chen suddenly smiled—the first time Fu Jianzhi had seen her smile in days, like a beautiful and alluring rose, stunningly beautiful for a moment.
"It would be interesting if they were all dead."
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