99: Chapter 99: At the Breakup Scene, a Miracle Descends!

The next day.

Zhou Yu walked out of the dormitory building with dark circles under his eyes.

He had tossed and turned all night clutching the bronze piece; every time he was about to fall asleep, that giant dark red eye would appear before him.

At the entrance of the teaching building.

Shen Nian stood by the notice board, holding a cup of soy milk, her eyes swollen like two walnuts.

Their gazes met in the air.

Both could tell the other hadn't slept all night.

"The rooftop, tonight."

Zhou Yu spoke up.

Shen Nian bit her straw and nodded.

The classes during the day felt like listening through water.

The teacher was lecturing on some higher mathematics, while Zhou Yu wrote the character "break" on his draft paper, then crossed it out.

He wrote it again, then crossed it out again.

By the seventh time, he crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it into the desk compartment.

Over at the library, Shen Nian sat for four hours, her textbook remaining on the third page the entire time.

She flipped through her phone gallery to that day in the East Sea.

In the photo, she was hugging Zhou Yu; the sunlight hit their faces, she was smiling, and he was making a funny face.

Back then, her biggest worry was that he had made her look short in the photo.

Shen Nian locked her screen and placed the phone face down on the table.

Break up.

Break up tonight.

He couldn't keep suffering bad luck because of her.

---

9:17 PM. The rooftop.

The autumn wind blew in, making Shen Nian shrink her neck from the cold.

The moonlight dragged their shadows across the concrete floor.

The lights of the university town in the distance were scattered like stars; the world was as normal as ever.

The two stood three steps apart, facing each other.

"You go first—"

"You go first—"

They spoke at the same time, then fell silent simultaneously.

Two seconds of silence.

Zhou Yu took a deep breath and clenched his fists.

Shen Nian lowered her head, her lips pressed into a thin line.

Then—

"Let's break up."

Once again, at the same time.

Not a word of difference.

The wind in the air seemed to stop.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

"...What?"

Zhou Yu's voice rose by half an octave, "What did you say?"

"What did you say?!"

Shen Nian's voice was even higher than his.

"I said break up!"

"I said break up too!"

"Then why do you want to break up with me!"

"Why do you want to break up with me!"

Once again, simultaneously.

Zhou Yu's brain froze for 0.5 seconds; he pointed at Shen Nian, "You! Shen Nian, you've got some nerve! I haven't even finished speaking yet—"

Shen Nian's schoolbag had already come flying at him.

"Zhou Yu, if you have the guts, say that again!"

The second hit landed on his chest.

The third swung onto his shoulder.

Zhou Yu scurried away, covering his head.

"You're hitting me! Are you being reasonable?"

"You're the one who's unreasonable!"

Shen Nian chased him around the rooftop three times, her fists raining down; the force wasn't great, but the frequency was extremely high.

"I was breaking up to protect you! What right do you have to break up too!"

Zhou Yu slammed on the brakes.

Shen Nian couldn't stop in time and crashed into his chest.

"What did you say?"

Zhou Yu grabbed her shoulders, his voice trembling, "You... to protect me?"

Shen Nian looked up, her nose tip red, her eyes red too.

"You almost died twice following me! Once in the East Sea, once in Hangzhou! Don't you think it's all because of me—"

"Bullshit!"

Zhou Yu's voice cracked.

"I was breaking up to protect you! Those things were coming for me! The bronze piece is with me—"

His hand lunged into his pocket.

As soon as the words were out, he realized something was wrong.

It was too late.

The moment the bronze piece was brought out, his fingers didn't grip it tightly.

"Clang—"

The dull brass bounced twice on the concrete floor, spun, and stopped.

Moonlight shone on it.

The two characters "Kindling" were clearly visible.

The totem of flames supporting the stars shimmered with a cold metallic luster under the moonlight.

Shen Nian's fist hung in mid-air.

She stared at the bronze piece on the ground; the anger on her face receded layer by layer, revealing what lay beneath.

Not surprise.

It was fear.

Zhou Yu thought she was scared and quickly bent down to pick it up.

"This thing fell out of a package my mom sent; I don't know either—"

"Zhou Yu."

Shen Nian's voice had changed.

She slowly, slowly reached out and pulled a bronze piece from the left pocket of her jacket.

Exactly the same.

Dull brass, rough edges.

The front was engraved with "Kindling".

The back—flames supporting the stars.

Zhou Yu's hand stopped in mid-air.

Moonlight shone on the two bronze pieces.

One in his palm.

One in hers.

The autumn wind blew across the rooftop again, lifting Shen Nian's loose hair.

The two looked at each other.

Then, the bronze pieces lit up.

Not one.

Both at the same time.

Golden light seeped from the engravings, as if someone had lit a lamp beneath the bronze surface.

It took only two seconds for the light to go from faint to dazzling.

The bronze pieces left their palms.

The two dull metal pieces hovered one meter above the rooftop, moving closer to each other, slowly rotating.

The golden light exploded in the night sky—brighter than the moon.

The images came.

Not words.

Images.

Living images, poured directly into their minds.

Ancient wilderness, ancestors in animal skins holding stone spears, charging toward a giant black shadow crawling out of a rift in the sky.

Someone was torn apart, and the person beside them picked up their spear from the ground and kept charging.

Northern Song Dynasty, at the foot of the Great Wall, a group of people in coarse clothes knelt around a rift, foreheads pressed against the mud, clutching bronze pieces in their hands.

One of them stood up and used blood as ink to draw a symbol on his chest.

The moment the rift closed, his body shattered.

Middle Ages, on the wilderness before a European castle, a knight in silver holy armor raised a shield to face a giant beast that covered the sky.

The shield shattered, but the person didn't retreat.

The second, the third, the fourth.

Every image carried temperature.

The roughness of animal skin.

The coldness of the Great Wall's bricks.

The stench of the trench mud.

Not "seen".

Lived.

The last image.

Countless broken figures knelt before a ball of golden flame.

No faces, no names.

The armless, the one-eyed, the half-charred.

All facing the fire, backs straight.

Above the flames, eight characters appeared.

"Civilization shall not be extinguished, the Kindling shall burn forever."

Golden light shot into their chests.

A massive torrent of information poured into their consciousness.

Not language, not images.

It was "knowing".

Millennial cycle.

Extinction-level catastrophe.

Three-year countdown.

Kindling—the last line of defense protecting human civilization.

And their ancestors were among those nameless ones who fell and stood up again.

The golden light dissipated.

The bronze pieces fell gently back into their palms, returning to their dull appearance.

Only moonlight remained on the rooftop.

Zhou Yu knelt on the ground.

He didn't know when he had knelt.

His knees hit the concrete floor; it hurt, but he couldn't feel it.

Shen Nian stood opposite him, tears streaming down her face.

Not fear.

It was just too heavy.

The people in those images—farmers, blacksmiths, teachers, soldiers.

Before picking up the bronze piece, they were mortals.

After picking it up—they were warriors protecting human civilization.

Zhou Yu looked down at the bronze piece in his palm; tears fell onto the bronze surface, sliding into the crevices of the engravings.

He remembered that night in the East Sea, the half of a young jaw visible beneath the mask.

He remembered on the Hangzhou highway, that hand reaching out from the void to support the entire bus.

So, from beginning to end, he wasn't unlucky.

He had been chosen.

Shen Nian squatted down to look him in the eye.

"About the breakup..."

Her voice was hoarse, every word trembling.

Zhou Yu clenched the bronze piece.

In the images, no one ever walked the path alone.

"Let's not break up."

The two squatted on the rooftop for who knows how long.

The bronze pieces were cold, but their chests were burning.

The lights of the university town in the distance began to go out one by one; it was early morning.

Just as they were still digesting that millennial memory of crumbling mountains and rivers—

Their phones rang at the same time.

The ringtone was piercingly loud on the silent rooftop.

Caller ID: Unknown Number.

Zhou Yu glanced at Shen Nian.

Answered.

Speakerphone.

A soft, gentle female voice, like someone reading a bedtime story, came from the receiver.

"Zhou Yu, Shen Nian, I am a member of Kindling."