The massive aircraft pushed through the clouds, roaring as it landed steadily. As it slowed down on the runway, Lin propped his face on his hand, looking at the brilliant sunshine outside.
After turning on his phone, Lin received many messages—some from Elysia, some from the bearded man.
He checked Elysia messages first. As expected, they were either about being bored and telling him to hurry home or sharing some bizarre gossip. After reading them one by one, he opened the messages from the bearded man.
To be honest, even before opening them, Lin knew what they would say.
"Mr. Lin, I beg of you. I've done everything you asked. Please let me off the hook."
"Leave a path for others so we can meet again in the future."
"You little brat whose hair hasn't even grown in yet—do you really have to drive me to a dead end?!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please, let me go. I'll definitely change in the future."
"I'll compensate those people, make up for what I did. So please, Mr. Lin..."
A dense, messy list of pleas for mercy mixed with profanities. Toward the end, there were more typos, as if the sender's hands were shaking too much to type clearly.
Lin response was simple—
After reading them, he tossed them aside.
If one doesn't want to be caught by their weaknesses, they shouldn't do things that create weaknesses in the first place. From the very start, Lin had decided to hand the evidence of the bearded man's crimes to the judicial authorities once everything was over.
He stood up coldly and disembarked once the plane came to a halt.
...
Usually at this time, Elysia would still be sleeping. Sleeping late and waking late was a habit for almost all streamers.
Lin guessed that Elysia would wake up early today to wait for his return, but he was wrong.
Elysia hadn't slept at all.
She sat on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket, watching TV alone in the cold living room. The unlit room felt as if it were draped in a cool filter. The volume of the TV wasn't high—it was tiny, in fact. It was doubtful if the viewer could even hear it.
The girl's head rested against the back of the sofa, her long hair cascading behind it. Sunlight, streaming through a gap in the curtains, fell upon the pink waterfall.
...Slurp.
Elysia squeezed another carton of milk into her mouth. Why "another"? Because on the coffee table in front of her sat over a dozen empty milk cartons...
One had to admit that a naturally gifted beauty looked good no matter what. Even after staying up all night, Elysia had no dark circles. Lin could only judge her state by her mental energy and the snack wrappers on the table.
Hearing the door open, she turned her head and met the gaze of Lin, who had just removed his sunglasses.
Time felt like a freshwater lake in winter—no one knew when it would freeze or when it would thaw.
"..."
"..."
Elysia gaze became... complicated.
Lin thought for a moment. His phone had been off the entire time yesterday. Before leaving, he hadn't told Elysia he was going to Mu, nor had he said when he'd be back. From her perspective, he had left vaguely, she had waited all night without him returning, his phone was off, and she had no way to contact him.
...It sounded a bit like a husband abandoning his wife to fly far away.
After the two stared at each other in silence for a full half-minute, Elysia finally looked away.
"...I'm hungry."
"...I'll go cook."
...
What kind of existence was this world's Elysia to Lin?
He hadn't found the answer even after two years. When she had accused him of using her as a substitute, it made Lin re-examine himself and this world.
He didn't belong here, but he could belong here.
The personalities of the two Elysias were very similar—so similar that Lin sometimes mistakenly thought that his Elysia had come to this world with him. Only through small details could he feel their differences.
The most direct feeling was... this Elysia got angry.
Even if she was smiling, her emotions would still manifest through her words and actions.
For example, when Lin brought breakfast to her today, she didn't laugh and joke with him as usual. Instead, she lowered her head and silently ate her portion.
She didn't ask where he went last night, what he did, or who he saw...
It was like a wife facing a husband who hadn't come home all night, able only to endure in silence.
And Lin, for a rare moment, found the silence a bit agonizing. He finally understood those people who used to feel incredibly uncomfortable facing his own silence.
"I went to Mu last night."
"Oh."
"..."
With a single word, Lin didn't know how to continue.
She didn't even lift her eyelids, looking as if she might fall asleep at any second.
Fortunately, Elysia eventually spoke: "Did you go to see someone?"
"..."
Lin didn't know how to follow up. He couldn't explain to Elysia what he was doing. Parallel worlds, the Honkai, and himself—none of it could be explained to her.
Naturally, he chose silence.
And the result was...
"I'm full." She put down her chopsticks.
She had indeed finished the food, but compared to her usual habit of dawdling and eating for ages, her finishing in a flash today and preparing to leave the table felt very wrong to him.
Before returning to her bedroom, she stood at the door, her back to Lin, and asked: "Did you go to see someone who looks just like me?"
"No."
"Then was it for the sake of meeting her that you went to Mu?"
Regardless of which Elysia it was, their intuition was sharp. However, this one was far more direct in her expression.
"..."
Lin couldn't refute it. His investigation of the Honkai indeed included the motive of returning to his own world.
"Anything else to say? If not, I'm going to sleep."
"No."
"Okay."
Thud.
The door closed.
...
Elysia buried her head in her blanket, her proud pink hair becoming a tangled mess by her own hands. She closed her eyes and breathed calmly amidst the chaos of her hair.
Has it been two years already?
She hadn't told Lin one thing: before she met him, she was actually traveling the world. Not as someone without a home, but simply wanting to walk across the globe to see different scenery and meet different people.
Being a gaming streamer... was just something she did in her spare time; it wasn't even a hobby.
Yet, after meeting Lin, she had never traveled again. Even going out had become rare because of the streaming.
She couldn't even have predicted her own changes. Why did she suddenly stop?
When she couldn't reach him by phone last night, Elysia felt an indescribable sense of panic. She felt as if Lin would never come back. He would go somewhere completely unreachable and have no more connection with her.
So when Lin returned today, she was actually very happy.
Except...
Click.
The bedroom door was opened.