Chapter 35: The Final Road Home — One Month

After the grandfather finally finished his long story,

the two of them remained frozen in place for a while.

No one spoke.

The grandfather simply sat across from them, quietly waiting.

After a long silence, Xia Jiuwei finally broke it.

“Then… what happens after this, Grandpa?”

The old man paused slightly.

He fell silent for a moment.

“From here on, it’s your story.”

He let out a quiet sigh.

“My story… should come to an end.”

“You can’t stay?”

Xia Jiuwei looked at him, unable to hide her reluctance.

The old man remained calm.

“You know my life has been long.”

“The only reason I’ve lived this long… is because of a promise.”

He paused.

“And now, everything has been completed.”

Xia Jiuwei looked at him.

The words caught in her throat.

She couldn’t get anything out.

“Then… can you stay a little longer?”

Lu Nian’an spoke.

Her voice was soft, but steady.

The old man blinked slightly.

“Asking me to stay… a little longer?”

He repeated it under his breath.

For a moment, it felt like he had heard those words before—long ago, from someone else.

He didn’t answer for a few seconds.

“…Alright.”

“Then I’ll stay for one more month.”

In the days that followed, Xia Jiuwei rarely left his side.

With a wave of her hand, the snow-covered eternal night outside turned into a warm afternoon sunset.

“Grandpa, come here.”

“Stay with me.”

The grandfather’s stories began from his earliest memories.

Though he often skipped vast stretches of time in a vague, summarized way, even that took an incredibly long time.

Death, for him, might already be something gentle.

But she still couldn’t imagine it.

So she began remembering small things.

The pauses in his speech.

The way he held his cup.

Even the way he smiled.

“Ha…Ha…Ha…”

In the world formed by the Domain, laughter echoed endlessly.

Another day like this—she had lost count.

Lu Nian’an stood quietly at the side, watching their interactions.

Watching Xia Jiuwei laugh so freely.

Yet something about her expression felt off.

A faint, unexplainable sadness lingered there.

“Xiao Jiu, Grandpa, take a break.”

Lu Nian’an walked over with a plate of dessert.

Xia Jiuwei immediately ran up, took it, and returned to the old man.

Light steps. No burden.

Lu Nian’an watched her back.

Nothing would happen.

Even she couldn’t bring herself to believe that.

She turned and walked into the manor.

To the bookshelf.

It stretched almost to the ceiling.

Filled with records of everyone they had met along the way.

Most stories were thin volumes.

But this time—

the grandfather’s story had already filled half the shelf.

And she still hadn’t finished organizing it.

Lu Nian’an reached out.

Black shadows flowed from her fingertips.

She wrote and edited between pages.

Turning spoken memories into written records.

Snap.

Another book was closed.

The ninth one.

“You’re not going to stay with her?”

A slightly aged voice came from behind her.

Lu Nian’an paused and turned.

The grandfather stood there.

He hadn’t spoken to her much these past days.

Almost as if acknowledging her presence, but keeping distance.

Lu Nian’an gave a faint smile.

“Because you’re important to her.”

“I won’t interfere during this month.”

The old man shook his head slightly.

“That’s not what I meant.”

He paused.

“You’re important to her as well.”

“Please take care of Summer in the future.”

Lu Nian’an frowned slightly.

“Grandpa, why are you saying that?”

Her tone carried confusion.

And caution.

The old man didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, he looked past her—

at the black books filling the shelf.

“Grandpa! What are you doing—come here!”

Xia Jiuwei’s voice came from afar, filled with laughter.

The old man turned and walked out.

His voice faded into the wind.

“When I was young… I met two people.”

“They had a large study.”

“There were many books… I could read most of them.”

“But the black books… were not to be touched.”

“They never explained why…”

His voice disappeared into the wind outside.

Lu Nian’an stood still.

Her gaze slowly returned to the black books.

And she replayed those words in her mind again and again.

“Grandpa, take me to the next ancient battlefield!”

In the following days, Xia Jiuwei kept asking him for more.

She wanted to see the places he had walked through.

The battles not recorded in history.

The moments that shaped his life.

Under his guidance, the Domain shifted—

reconstructing fragments of the past.

Days passed.

As her time with him grew longer,

her heart filled with joy—

but also something else.

Emptiness.

She had done everything she wanted to do with him in this short month.

Each day was full.

But precisely because of that—

when time began to run out,

she suddenly realized—

she had done everything.

And yet, when she looked back, there was nothing left behind.

Until the final day.

She finally stopped.

The sky of the Domain transformed into a sea of stars.

Silent and vast.

She and her grandfather sat side by side in the wilderness, gazing upward.

A scene he had once shown her before.

And her favorite one.

Xia Jiuwei looked at the stars for a long time.

Then she spoke softly.

“Grandpa… when you were young, did you have a favorite game?”

The old man thought for a moment.

“Probably… ‘Nine Seconds.’”

“Nine Seconds?”

“It was a game played with a pocket watch.”

“Back then, I had seen almost nothing…”

“Something that moved on its own, and reacted when pressed—”

He exhaled softly.

“I couldn’t put it down.”

His voice carried deep nostalgia.

Xia Jiuwei quietly watched him.

Then she took out a pocket watch.

And placed it gently in his hand.

“Then… play it again.”