The next day, Azure Star, Fog City.
Qi Zhimu woke from his sleep and saw an unfamiliar ceiling.
...To be precise, it was unfamiliar at first, then familiar; after all, it belonged to the memories of his past life.
Shaking off the lingering sleepiness in his mind, he recalled the events of the previous night.
His unexpected reunion with Herta on the Astral Express still left his heart fluttering with a touch of excitement.
If not for the urgent issues with the simulated universe that needed solving, perhaps the entire night...
However, they were young and knew restraint back then; how could they be any less so now?
During the repair of the simulated universe, Herta confessed to him that one of her original intentions for building it was to find a way to bring him back.
Now that she had reunited with the person she thought of day and night, she bluntly stated that the importance of the simulated universe had suddenly diminished.
He gently told Herta that the simulated universe was not just a tool to find him, but also her masterpiece as a genius.
They could fully focus on their own affairs just like they did a long, long time ago, and then spend their leisure time together.
The simple companionship and support they gave each other back then were the important pillars that allowed them to reach this point.
Without that experience, there would be no future like the one they had now.
Herta took his words to heart, displaying the focus and rigor of a genius. She troubleshot all the issues in the simulated universe with astonishing speed and completed the repairs in the shortest time possible.
By the time the work was finished, it was late at night. The two returned to this old house in Fog City, filled with memories, and fell asleep peacefully in each other's arms.
Tucking away these warm memories, Qi Zhimu reached out to his side.
The bed was empty, but he could still feel a bit of lingering warmth where his fingertips touched.
An elegant fragrance of purple lilies filled the air—the unique scent that belonged to Herta.
Up so early?
Qi Zhimu listened carefully to the sounds in the house, a look of surprise flashing across his face.
Occasional clattering and the faint sound of running water—the noises were quite familiar. He hadn't expected Herta to be in the kitchen.
Tossing back the covers and getting dressed, Qi Zhimu quietly stepped out of the room and headed to the kitchen.
Under the warm light, a long, slanted shadow stretched across the floor.
Qi Zhimu didn't make a sound as he peered inside.
The scene inside made him want to laugh, and he leaned against the doorframe to watch with interest.
Herta had her back to him, wearing a domestic apron and standing prettily before the stove.
In one hand was a spatula, and in the other, she held a beginner's cooking guide from who-knows-where, her brows furrowed in concentration.
On the cutting board lay the ingredients she had already prepared.
It was just that the shapes of those ingredients were... peculiar, cut into uneven, rough chunks.
Qi Zhimu could tell that Herta, the genius famous throughout the galaxy, probably hadn't cooked at all in hundreds of years—she likely hadn't even stepped into a kitchen much.
Now that she wanted to make breakfast herself, she could only cram at the last minute.
As he watched, Qi Zhimu realized things were taking a bit of an odd turn.
Herta seemed to feel that ordinary ingredients weren't perfect enough. Every now and then, she would reach into a nearby space and pull out items that looked like ingredients but were actually quite strange.
Qi Zhimu had seen several of them in the curio collection catalog at the Space Station.
He hadn't seen the actual items at the time and thought they had been lost during the Antimatter Legion's rampage, but it turned out Herta had been carrying them with her.
Using curios as ingredients wasn't exactly rare for Qi Zhimu; he himself could hand-craft Plum Blossom Wine, which was also a curio.
Thus, he didn't speak up to disturb her, wanting to see what Herta could whip up.
However, when Herta picked up a golden curio that looked exactly like cheese and tossed it into the pot, alarm bells rang in Qi Zhimu's mind.
His sharp intuition, honed from walking the line between life and death, was constantly sounding warnings.
As the golden cheese hit the pot, a high-energy Imaginary reaction rapidly gathered at the bottom.
To put it simply, that pot was about to explode.
The moment a blinding flash of fire erupted from the pot, Qi Zhimu's figure vanished from the doorframe, leaving an afterimage in the air.
Before the fire could fully spread, he had already reached Herta's side, extending his left arm to wrap around her slender waist and pulling her back.
Bang—!
A deafening explosion followed immediately.
The shockwave, carrying high-temperature air currents, swept out, leaving the entire kitchen in a mess.
Pots, bowls, and pans shattered, and thick smoke billowed out.
Qi Zhimu paid no attention to the kitchen's disastrous state. After steadying himself, his gaze swept over Herta with concern.
He carefully checked her from head to toe to ensure she hadn't been affected, finally letting out a small sigh of relief.
Herta didn't panic; she looked up and met Qi Zhimu's eyes.
Embarrassment flooded her heart, and a faint blush quickly rose on her fair cheeks.
She had intended to get up early to cook a breakfast filled with love for the person she cared about and give him a surprise.
She hadn't expected to fail before even starting; not only did she almost blow up the kitchen, but he had seen the whole thing.
As a member of the prestigious Genius Society with numerous extraordinary achievements, failing to handle a mere kitchen was simply too humiliating!
Herta bit her lower lip, momentarily unsure of where to put her hands.
Seeing her embarrassment, Qi Zhimu smiled slightly and smoothed down her slightly ruffled hair.
"It's good that you're not hurt. Let me do it."
His tone was gentle.
With that, Qi Zhimu rolled up his sleeves and stepped into the kitchen, where the smoke had yet to dissipate.
He quickly cleared away the dangerous shards on the floor and turned on the ventilation system to suck out the smoke.
After a detailed inspection, he had to stop.
"It looks like we'll have to go out to solve our breakfast problem."
Qi Zhimu turned to look at Herta standing outside the door and spread his hands helplessly.
The cooking utensils and everything else were unusable.
Hearing this, the embarrassment on Herta's face vanished.
She curled her lips into a confident smirk and let out a light hum. Clenching her right hand, a scepter shaped like a key appeared.
Herta lifted the scepter and tapped it lightly toward the messy kitchen.
In the next second, a miraculous scene unfolded.
Ripples visible to the naked eye appeared in space, and all the damaged parts of the kitchen, including the scorch marks on the walls, began to reverse.
Shards pieced themselves together precisely in mid-air, and the charred marks quickly faded away.
In the blink of an eye, all traces of the explosion vanished, and the entire kitchen returned to its pristine state.
The destroyed ingredients were whole again, even reverting to their unprocessed state.
Miraculous. A hint of surprise flashed in Qi Zhimu's eyes.
He walked to the stove, which was as good as new, and lightly touched the surface; there truly wasn't a single trace of damage.
Holding the scepter, Herta walked over with light steps, a proud smile playing on her lips as she asked.
"Do you know what kind of method this is?"
Qi Zhimu rested his chin in his hand, musing for a moment, then raised his index finger.
"Local time reversal, a conceptual application of Chronology technology once proposed by the United Government. It seems you've mastered this technique to perfection."
From a scientific perspective, this answer was more or less correct.
But after hearing it, Herta gave him a miffed roll of her eyes and wagged her slender finger in front of him.
"Wrong. Guess again."
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