Everything before her eyes still felt unreal.
It was the same familiar apartment, located in the Ark Base.
The electric piano she had bought, the empty dining table, the snacks in the corner, and the baseball cap Shen Yiyue had given her.
Sunlight streamed in—today was a calm and clear day.
There were no more zombie hordes, no high-level mutated zombies exuding oppressive fear.
Ning Yu’s thoughts drifted, and she suddenly realized something:
Shen Yiyue, when she first returned to this moment, must have felt the same way.
But now…
“Ning Yu, sis?”
Shen Qianqian, seeing Ning Yu lost in thought, couldn’t help but call out to her again.
Ning Yu looked at Shen Qianqian, who was holding her stomach in an adorable way, and reached out to pat her head.
“Good girl, we’ll eat soon. I’ll go call your sister first.”
“Yay!”
Shen Qianqian cheered.
“Can I… sneak a little cake first…”
Her eyes wandered toward the pile of snacks, where a small cake sat, bought and stored away.
It had a custard filling, wrapped in a soft, fluffy brown cake, sealed in a plastic bag, looking especially tempting in the morning sunlight.
“Of course you can.”
Ning Yu knew Shen Yiyue was quite strict with her little sister, usually not allowing snacks before meals, but today was a special occasion.
Watching Shen Qianqian immediately dart over to unwrap the cake, Ning Yu smiled and turned to head toward Shen Yiyue’s room.
Her door was still closed, but Ning Yu knew she was already awake.
Her hand was already on the doorknob when, as if remembering something, she deliberately paused for a moment before turning it.
The blanket in the room was still messy, but Shen Yiyue was already sitting at her desk, writing something quickly with a pen.
“What are you writing?”
Ning Yu stood at the door, leaning lightly against the frame as she asked Shen Yiyue.
Her heart was already pounding fiercely.
In that gray misty space, she had seen every effort Shen Yiyue had made, seen her cry, seen her despair. She had wanted so badly to hold her tight right then.
But now, face-to-face with Shen Yiyue, that impulse was suppressed.
She was afraid she might scare her.
“Hmm… I’m writing in my diary. Ning Yu, you’re not allowed to peek! It’s a girl’s secret!”
Shen Yiyue kept her head down, writing as she spoke in a light, playful tone.
But it was precisely this tone, this act of pretending everything was fine, that was about to break Ning Yu.
She couldn’t help but step forward.
Hearing the footsteps, Shen Yiyue wrote faster, capping her pen and closing the diary before Ning Yu could reach her.
She pretended she had already finished:
“Oh, is it time to eat? I’m done!”
“Ning Yu, you’re so close… you’re not really trying to peek, are you…?”
Shen Yiyue turned her face, knowing Ning Yu was already by her side. As she spoke, she moved the diary further into the desk, afraid Ning Yu might notice something about it.
But the moment she saw Ning Yu’s expression, her words faltered.
Ning Yu’s face showed no emotion, but her eyes were red, and two silent tears streamed down her cheeks.
Shen Yiyue had never seen Ning Yu cry before. She knew someone as strong and resilient as Ning Yu might see crying as a sign of weakness.
But the Ning Yu before her now was truly shedding tears.
Though she couldn’t see her sadness, Shen Yiyue was immediately affected by Ning Yu’s emotions.
“Ning Yu, you…”
Shen Yiyue felt a pang of panic, unable to think of any reason why Ning Yu would be crying.
Ning Yu looked at Shen Yiyue, sitting in her chair, with faint dark circles under her eyes. She had probably been up all night writing in that “diary.”
Honestly, she had just returned from the reset and hadn’t taken a moment to rest.
“You dummy.”
Ning Yu reached out and, without hesitation, pulled her into a tight embrace.
“Huh?”
Even now, Shen Yiyue still wanted to play dumb.
“I said, Sisyphus is a dummy.”
“Every time he pushes the rock to the top of the hill, it rolls back down.”
“Yet he keeps pushing it back up, over and over.”
“Aren’t you tired? Aren’t you sad? Don’t you feel lonely?”
Ning Yu wiped away her tears, careful not to let them fall on Shen Yiyue, but then she saw Shen Yiyue’s face lift.
Her previously relaxed expression had completely vanished, replaced by something deeply complex.
Ning Yu reached out with one hand and picked up a book from the desk. The bookmark was still at the front, as if she hadn’t started reading it yet.
On the cover were the words “The Plague.”
“This was supposed to be ‘Snow Country.’”
Hearing this, Shen Yiyue finally realized what had happened, though she still couldn’t quite believe it.
“You… remember everything?”
She didn’t know how Ning Yu had gained the memories of the previous resets, but her body began to tremble, her eyes wavering.
“Yes, everything. I know all that you’ve done for me.”
Ning Yu looked down at her, her eyes still glistening with tears.
“I… I…”
Shen Yiyue’s lips trembled as she tried to speak, but all the emotions she had bottled up choked her words, turning them into sobs.
All the grievances, all the frustrations, all the loneliness, and the willpower she had expended with each reset.
She had been holding on by a thread, feeling like she was about to collapse at any moment.
Now, hearing Ning Yu’s words, it felt like she finally had a place to release it all.
In that instant, everything melted away.
She buried her face in Ning Yu’s chest and cried loudly, like a child, her sobs clearly audible even through Ning Yu’s clothes.
“I know why you never told ‘me’ everything.”
Ning Yu ran her hand along Shen Yiyue’s smooth black hair, gently stroking the back of her head.
“Because… because…”
Shen Yiyue, still sobbing, tried to speak through her tears.
“If I told you… Ning Yu would always choose to sacrifice herself…”
“I didn’t know… what to do…”
Her hot tears had already soaked through Ning Yu’s freshly changed clothes.
“Okay, okay, I get it. It’s my fault… it’s my fault…”
Ning Yu comforted the sobbing Shen Yiyue, her voice soft. Having seen all the memory fragments, how could she not understand?
In those different parallel lines, the version of herself without memories had simply made the decision she would always make.
Ning Yu leaned closer to Shen Yiyue’s ear and whispered gently:
“You’re not alone anymore.”
“I’m right here with you.”
“Tell me all your grievances, share all your sorrows with me.”
“I won’t make those reckless decisions anymore.”
“Let me push the rock with you, okay, you silly Sisyphus?”
Shen Yiyue blinked, then suddenly smacked Ning Yu lightly, her face still wet with tears.
“You’re the Sisyphus! You called me silly! Stupid Ning Yu!”