298: Chapter 301 Chen Shuyin: Thank you for showing me the stars.

The engines of the luan niao starship hummed steadily.

That was a spatial engine capable of folding galaxies, yet at this moment, it was as gentle as a dormant giant beast.

Jiang Chen stood on the observation deck, his hands resting on the railing, his fingertips feeling the faint, almost imperceptible vibrations coming from the depths of the universe.

This was already the third month of the expedition.

He could no longer remember how many interstellar pirate dens blocking his path he had blown up, nor how many priceless black boxes he had salvaged from ruins beyond the Wasteland.

Academician Chen Shuyin walked up behind him.

She had already changed out of the stern white lab coat she usually wore.

At this moment, she was wearing a pure white off-shoulder gown, which she had modified herself using interstellar anti-radiation materials; in the dark universe, she looked like a lily blooming on the edge of an abyss.

"Are you tired?"

Academician Chen Shuyin asked softly, handing him a cup of warm coffee.

"Tired?"

Jiang Chen laughed.

He took the coffee and took a sip; it was brewed with spiritual spring water brought back from a cultivation planet, and he could even feel a faint sense of vitality. "After staying in a man-eating place like the Wasteland for so long, this kind of stability actually makes me feel a bit unreal."

He pointed to the breathtakingly brilliant galaxy ahead.

It was a silver ribbon formed by countless stars, nebulae, and dust, painting the most magnificent patterns on that dark curtain.

"Look over there."

Jiang Chen said softly, "Three months ago, we were still being strangled by those guys from Eagle Sauce over a silicon-based chip."

"Now, we can just casually punch a hole between galaxies."

"Tell me, is this the victory of technology, or... is my luck just ridiculously good?"

Academician Chen Shuyin stood by his side, gently brushing back the bangs disheveled by the stellar wind.

On her cold, detached face, there was now a faint smile capable of melting ice.

"I don't know if this counts as luck."

"But in my eyes, this is called 'reconstructing logic'."

She looked at Jiang Chen, her eyes full of admiration, no longer the scrutiny of looking at a research subject, but a profound gaze belonging to a woman, to a lover:

"Three years ago, you were the most inconspicuous slacker at Tianhai University."

"Three years ago, we couldn't even maintain that tiny laboratory, racking our brains all day for that pitiful amount of funding."

"It was you."

"It was you who took me out of that cramped basement."

"It was you who showed me that those so-called 'laws of physics' are merely cages drawn by this universe for the weak."

"It was you who showed me these true, vast, endless stars."

Jiang Chen was silent.

He looked at this cold female scientist who had walked out of the lab, yet now, for him, had taken off her white lab coat and was willing to cook for him in that dilapidated warship.

To say he wasn't moved would be a lie.

In this universe where the law of the jungle prevails, and even gods fight to the death over territory.

This ordinary, yet fervent companionship.

Is the most irreplaceable treasure.

"Old Chen."

Jiang Chen turned around and gently tidied the hair scattered on her shoulders, his tone uncharacteristically lacking that rogueish air, instead revealing a reassuring steadiness:

"I used to think that conquering the universe was to prove how awesome I was."

"Now I understand."

"Being an interstellar overlord, being a galactic village chief, these are actually meaningless."

"The reason I'm going through all this trouble..."

Jiang Chen paused, looking at Academician Chen Shuyin's slightly flushed profile, and said softly:

"Is because I want to leave a playground big enough for our children."

"I want them, when they are born, to look up and see not surveillance cameras, not that high wall, but true—freedom—that no god can control."

Academician Chen Shuyin's eyes grew warm.

She turned her head, her gaze crashing straight into Jiang Chen's deep, calm, yet infinitely domineering eyes.

At this moment, she heard the sound of her own heartbeat accelerating.

That was a more violent vibration than when the Curvature Engine started.

"Jiang Chen."

Academician Chen Shuyin called out softly.

She stood slightly on tiptoe; those hands that usually maintained a sense of distance were now actively wrapping around Jiang Chen's neck.

"Don't say things like 'take me to see' anymore in the future."

"Because, whether you want to go to that barren land of death, or to that most dangerous battlefield, or even to the end of the deepest dimension."

She looked at Jiang Chen, her eyes flashing with a kind of nearly insane, yet utterly intoxicating affection:

"Wherever you are."

"That is my universe."

The tenderness in Jiang Chen's heart, which had been forcibly suppressed, finally erupted at this moment.

He didn't resort to his usual glibness, didn't say any more nonsense about "selling spicy strips" or "being a village chief."

He just gently put his arms around her waist, and their bodies, under the effect of microgravity, seemed to be drifting towards that starry sky.

The distance was so close that they could feel the trembling of each other's souls.

This was the most silent and grand confession during interstellar travel.

"Okay."

Jiang Chen lowered his head and gently kissed away the flush caused by excitement on her ear, his voice hoarse and gentle, "No matter where we are in the future, our mahjong game must go on forever."

"Even if this universe restarts, we must set up a table again in the embers."

Academician Chen Shuyin leaned in his arms, gently closing her eyes, feeling this brief and precious peace, a satisfied arc hanging on the corner of her lips.

She knew that what awaited them next was a battle of destiny against gods and the unknown.

But so what?

Since they had already seen these brilliant stars.

Then there was nothing to be afraid of.

However.

This tenderness did not last long.

The previously steadily moving luan niao starship suddenly shook violently for no reason at this moment.

That was not just the tremor of the spaceship.

That was the entire space, in front of them... shattering.

"Beep—!"

A cold, piercing warning that seemed to explode directly in the brainstem rudely cut off this romance.

On the screen, in the deep space radar map, appeared a—high-dimensional tear zone—capable of paralyzing the entire warship.

That was the sign that the high and mighty "The Keeper," having grown tired of this over-budget "ant game," had decided to enter the field personally to clean up.

Jiang Chen pushed Academician Chen Shuyin away abruptly; the playfulness belonging to the "village chief" turned into a chilling murderous aura capable of suppressing everything in this instant.

He turned his head, looking at the torn deep space, a cold sneer, cruel to the extreme, curling at the corner of his mouth:

"Old Chen, it seems our couple's time has been ruined by those blind idiots."

"Since they want to die so much..."

"Then we shall..."

"Send them on their final journey."

He walked back to the console.

That hand, once again, pressed steadily onto that Law of Causality handle.

"Jiang Chen, no matter where we go in the future, I will accompany you."

Academician Chen Shuyin said softly, but without hesitation, she sat back in her seat, her hands typing rapidly on the screen, providing the final computing power support for Jiang Chen's operation.

She looked at Jiang Chen's back, there was no fear in her eyes, only that touch that had long since merged with him—

Ultimate madness.