Chapter 104: Can You Let Her Marry You?

Xu Yunzhou's sentence was like a key, completely unlocking the lock in Wu Xiuyun's heart that had been sealed for over eighty years.

"Mister..."

She finally cried out loud. It was no longer a silent shedding of tears, but crying like a child, whimpering, aggrieved yet relieved.

"Your instructions, Xiao Yun... Xiao Yun hasn't dared to forget for a single moment..."

She backhandedly grabbed Xu Yunzhou's hand tightly, as if using all her strength, choking, speaking intermittently:

"For... fortunately, I did not disgrace the mission..."

Myriad emotions surged in Xu Yunzhou's heart.

Ultimately, he just gently patted the back of her cold hand.

The movement was gentle, carrying a comfort that spanned spacetime.

He didn't say anything more.

At this moment, any language seemed pale.

Any promise couldn't match these over eighty years of waiting and steadfastness.

Any evaluation wasn't worthy of this magnificently turbulent life.

Silence was the highest respect and understanding.

...

Standing slightly further back, quietly watching all this, Lin Ruoxuan looked at this reunion spanning almost a century before her eyes, watching the old woman tightly grab Xu Yunzhou's hand like a child, crying until her whole body trembled...

She suddenly felt somewhat in a trance.

This scene...

Seems familiar?

Memory fragments flashed back and spliced together rapidly in her mind.

Right.

It's that classic sci-fi movie—"Interstellar."

(TL: Spoilers ahead guys. You can skip to the next ... section if you haven't seen the movie.)

The male lead Cooper, in order to save humanity on the verge of extinction, entered the Gargantua star system near that daunting black hole.

He only spent a few hours on that planet swept by monstrous waves.

While on Earth, his daughter Murphy had already gone from that tiny figure tightly hugging his leg, crying and shouting for him not to go...

Turning into a white-haired, wrinkle-covered old person with one foot in the grave, lying on a hospital bed using her last bit of strength to wait for her father's return.

Later, Cooper, who traversed dimensions, finally returned near Earth and reunited with his daughter who was already in her twilight years.

One, his appearance almost unchanged, only having a bit more wind and frost.

One, extremely old, her life like a candle in the wind, yet radiating the final, most satisfied glow due to her father's return.

That scene once made countless viewers sigh and shed tears, lamenting the ruthlessness of time and the wonder of relativity.

Isn't it exactly... this scene right now?

Lin Ruoxuan felt as if she had touched some truth!

She also thought of how, in an earlier plot in the movie, Cooper was inside the "Tesseract" constructed for him by future humans, where time existed in the form of physical bookshelves.

He could see the scenes of every past time point in his daughter's room, like flipping through a three-dimensional, living book of time.

He could see the young Murphy playing in the room, could see her in her rebellious phase slamming the door and leaving, could see her as an adult thinking hard facing the bookshelf...

But he couldn't touch, couldn't communicate, couldn't change everything that had already happened.

Until he comprehended the method of transmitting information through gravity!

Thinking of this, Lin Ruoxuan felt her scalp go numb!

The Tyrant's previous so-called 'Dharma body' state... others couldn't see him, only the people selected by him could perceive his existence...

Isn't that exactly like... Cooper being in a higher dimension, observing the lower-dimensional world?

It's just that the "Tyrant," compared to the initially bewildered Cooper in the "Tesseract," also possessed a more direct communication ability similar to "dialogue"!

And his current "physical body" descending, the so-called undergoing the "Mortal Tribulation"...

Isn't that exactly Cooper ultimately returning from the higher-dimensional space and reappearing near Earth in the capacity of a "rescuer"?

The "merit" he mentioned earlier, perhaps is some kind of "energy" or "authority" to maintain this cross-dimensional existence or intervention!

A framework transcending traditional metaphysics, leaning towards some kind of advanced science or universal law explanation, was established in her mind!

The gaze she directed at Xu Yunzhou's back instantly became incomparably complex.

In those eyes, there was shock, realization, heartache, awe, and a trace of... indescribable desolation.

If her guess was even one-tenth close to the truth...

Then just how long and lonely is the path he walked?

What kind of scene is the time scale he experienced?

What level of existence is the mission or task he silently shoulders?

Lin Ruoxuan felt her fingertips going slightly numb, her whole body involuntarily trembling slightly.

That feeling was like a physicist bitterly searching for ultimate truth, suddenly catching a glimpse of a corner of that sacred formula of the "Theory of Everything" after countless sleepless nights!

Tyrant...

For the rest of my life, no matter what your mission is, no matter how many unknowns and dangers lie on the road ahead...

I will utilize all the resources I possess to help you, to complete it.

Even if it requires me to do things that are beyond redemption!

...

At this moment, Wu Xiuyun's crying gradually subsided.

She still tightly held Xu Yunzhou's hand.

"Mister..."

She panted a few times, her voice weak, yet carrying the relief of having a wish fulfilled:

"Xiao Yun is old... Xiao Yun is about to pass away..."

"Thank you... thank you for still being willing... to come see Xiao Yun one more time..."

Looking at the old woman's eyes full of attachment and reluctance to part, Xu Yunzhou thought for a moment, and using a calm and detached tone said:

"Actually, sooner or later we will meet again in another world."

He paused, his gaze seemingly penetrating the wall before his eyes, looking toward something grander and more essential:

"No need for sorrow. Time... is not a straight line. There is no absolute beginning, nor is there an absolute end."

"The so-called parting is merely... reuniting in a changed form."

These words carried a bit of profundity, a bit of detachment, yet inexplicably carried a comforting, warm power.

Like a higher-dimensional interpretation of life and death.

Song Jiaru beside them listened quietly, a wave of complex and indescribable emotion also surging in her heart.

This feeling...

It's like that novel about an immortal she read in her spare time before.

The protagonist inside, due to some reason, possessed an almost eternal life, his appearance unchanging, his youth eternal.

He had to experience the birth, growth, aging, and death of relatives and friends time and time again.

He stood on the bank of the long river of time, watching the people he loved pass by him, laughing, crying, and ultimately inevitably dying and disappearing.

She looked at Xu Yunzhou's calm side profile that contained endless stories, and then looked at Elder Wu on the bed, whose oil was exhausted and lamp dying, yet radiating a final astonishing glow because of his arrival...

Big Brother...

In the future, will you also come to see me off on my final journey like today?

When my hair is white, my face full of wrinkles, my teeth all fallen out, lying on a hospital bed even struggling to breathe...

And you, still as young as ever, with handsome and clear features, standing by my bed, holding my hand, still treating me as the treasure in your palm, this is the most romantic thing I can think of...

Uh, why did I start singing... occupational disease acting up again!

When I am old, my eyebrows drooping, the lamp light dim and flickering...

(TL: Quoting lyrics from the song "When You Are Old.")

Pah pah pah! Here I go again! Stop immediately!

She hurriedly cut off the inappropriate melody in her mind, but her eye rims grew even redder.

Wu Xiuyun panted a few times, her murky gaze lingering on Xu Yunzhou's face, as if wanting to carve his final appearance deep into her soul to take to the other shore.

Then, she seemed to have mustered her last bit of courage to open her mouth, her voice even weaker, yet carrying a cautious pleading:

"Mister... I... I still have a presumptuous request..."

"Mhm, speak."

Xu Yunzhou looked at her gently.

Wu Xiuyun laboriously turned her head, looking at Xu Xinyi beside the bed who was also covered in tears at this moment.

Her gaze became exceptionally soft, full of an elder's pity and worry for their most doted-upon junior.

"Mister... this is my most doted-upon great-granddaughter, Xinyi..."

She said intermittently:

"This child... has ability, it's just her personality is too proud, too competitive... I'm worried she will later on... in this world, suffer losses, take detours..."

She took a breath and looked at Xu Yunzhou, her eyes full of the meaning of entrustment:

"In the future... could you... please help me, take care of her more?"

"Guide her, teach her... when she is confused, give her a hand... just like... just like how you taught me back then..."

Xu Yunzhou nodded without any hesitation:

"Rest assured, I will."

Wu Xiuyun, however, seemed not to have heard this promise, or rather, she felt it wasn't enough.

She looked at Xu Yunzhou's calm features, then looked at Xu Xinyi's face, whose makeup was ruined by crying yet couldn't conceal her clear beauty and stubbornness.

In her murky old eyes, a decisive and stubborn light abruptly lit up!

She seemed to use all the remaining power of her soul, regardless of anything, continuing to speak.

Her tone carried an almost childlike, unbridled directness and domineeringness that disregarded all worldly conventions and etiquette:

"If Mister doesn't mind..."

She paused, staring at Xu Yunzhou, word by word, incomparably clear:

"Can you... let her marry you?"