39: Chapter 39 Sir, you're finally back

1,500 steps...

1,000 steps...

500 steps...

A journey that was already long was stretched infinitely by the torment.

Countless times, Su Chen felt that Zhuge Jinyu was about to lose her grip and pass out.

But in the end, she still persisted and crawled to the summit.

Finally, after the last, exceptionally heavy kowtow.

Amidst the wind, the nearly exhausted sobs of Zhuge Jinyu finally drifted over.

"We're here... Huang Ying, I've crawled to the summit."

"Sir... can you see?"

A brief silence.

Su Chen felt his mirror body and the delicate body behind him collapse onto the ground simultaneously.

Zhuge Jinyu's body seemed to have no strength left, yet she still suppressed her exhaustion and calmly instructed Huang Ying.

"Fetch some water."

"And help me change my clothes."

"If Sir truly wakes up and sees me in this state, he will be heartbroken."

After a flurry of activity.

Su Chen felt his mirror body being gently picked up.

Someone was using a cloth soaked in hot water to meticulously wipe his mirror surface.

The movements were extremely light, yet incredibly gentle.

As if the mirror in her hands was her most precious treasure.

Then, everything returned to silence once more.

Su Chen, having accumulated strength for a long time, finally managed to open his eyes.

Less than ten percent of the fog on the mirror remained.

It could only obscure the most critical parts of his facial features.

Outside the mirror was an extremely crude stone chamber.

The walls were bare, containing only a table, a couch, and a lamp.

Zhuge Jinyu sat on a low stool in front of the table, her back to him.

She had changed out of her soiled robes, which were soaked in rain and blood, and was wearing a clean white garment.

Her wide sleeves hung down, covering her jade-like hands.

Her snow-white hair was not tied up, cascading like a waterfall over her thin back.

A few strands of hair clung to her pale cheeks and neck, revealing traces of sweat, rain, and blood.

She just sat there quietly, gazing at the chaotic wind and rain outside the window.

Su Chen's gaze fell on a section of her wrist, which hung by her side and was slightly exposed from her sleeve.

Her skin, originally as white as jade, was covered in purple bruises and scabs that had not yet fully dried.

Especially her forehead.

Although she had deliberately used her bangs to cover some of it.

Su Chen could still see that her smooth forehead was a bloody mess, with the edges already turning a bruised purple.

A cultivator in the Integration Realm has a body tempered to be comparable to a magical treasure, rarely injured by ordinary means.

What kind of determination must it take to choose to seal away one's own cultivation?

To climb three thousand steps and kowtow nine thousand times?

Su Chen felt his throat ache unbearably.

In fact, at the beginning, he had always treated the "Angel Investment" as a game.

One only needed to cultivate the subject into a success without any emotional attachment.

Once the investment was successful, he would leave this world.

Zhuge Jinyu, the Great Qian Dynasty.

They were really no different from the characters he pulled in games or the maps he stayed up late to grind.

He had actually always known about Zhuge Jinyu's little thoughts.

But Su Chen had always treated her unspoken "love" as just a blush programmed into a game character.

But right now, the sight of the Young Prime Minister had completely changed his perspective.

She was just an ordinary, living, breathing girl with feelings and flesh and blood.

And he, this "Sir", was the only sustenance for her survival.

Without him, she would lose her emotions, her light, and the meaning of her life.

Su Chen wanted to speak.

He wanted to ask her what had happened in the past six months.

He wanted to ask if she was in pain.

He wanted to tell her he was awake, that he was right here.

But the words were stuck in his throat, unable to utter a single syllable.

How should he ask?

Ask her how she went from overwhelming momentum to total defeat?

Ask her how she watched, helpless, as the recovered homeland was lost again?

Ask her how she dragged her wounded body and the crumbling dynasty, climbing this three-thousand-step path of despair, one kowtow at a time?

Ask about the wounds on her forehead, the pain in her body, the despair in her heart?

Every question was too cruel, too blunt.

It was like tearing open her already bleeding scars.

How could he bear to do it?

Zhuge Jinyu seemed to sense something.

Her delicate body trembled slightly.

Yet she did not immediately choose to lower her head and look at the mirror.

She just maintained that gazing posture.

After a long, long time.

Then, she asked in an extremely soft voice.

"Sir... have you woken up?"

"Are... you awake?"

Su Chen remained silent for a moment, then gently replied, "Yes."

Zhuge Jinyu lowered her head abruptly.

Su Chen could clearly see her pretty face.

Haggard.

Pale.

A shocking wound on her forehead.

That pair of fox-like eyes, which were originally dead and silent, now held a glimmer of spirit after passing through the negligible light on the mirror's surface.

"Sir..."

"Do you know?"

"This time, you slept for a full two years."

"In these two years... so many things have happened."

"It is now... the tenth Spring Festival since we first met."

She did not cry, nor did she make a sound.

She just bit her lower lip tightly.

Perhaps she had experienced too much in these two years.

She had already forgotten what it felt like to cry.

She reached out with those hands covered in scars and bruises.

Carefully, as if holding the most fragile bubble in the world.

She pulled the mirror tightly, tightly into her embrace.

"Sir."

"You have finally returned."

"Jinyu is so scared."

"Scared that you would never wake up again."

"Scared that I wouldn't live to see you witness..."

The rest of her words were swallowed by her sobs.

She just repeated these few sentences, gently pressing her forehead against the mirror.

"It's good that you're back, it's good that you're back..."

The wind and rain outside the window had turned into wind and snow at some unknown moment.

The wind and snow wailed.

Su Chen looked outside the mirror at the girl who had kowtowed until she was bloodied for his sake.

A thousand words finally converged into just two sentences.

"Xiao Yu, don't be afraid."

"Sir is here."

Su Chen understood that he should do something for her.

【"Host?"】

【"Actually, when Zhuge Jinyu captured Wudu City during the Northern Expedition, your mission for this investment was already basically completed."】

【"Sima Yi is the ancestor of the Sima Family who was defeated by the first head of the Zhuge Family a thousand years ago."】

【"The world line of this world seems to have shifted; logically, he should absolutely not have appeared in this era..."】

【"Actually, if you choose to ignore Zhuge Jinyu now and return directly to the Blue Star, you could still obtain a barely decent rating..."】

"System, I probably won't wake up again, right."

Su Chen's voice was very calm.

【"..."】

【"Yes, Host."】

【"The energy is truly exhausted this time; your next slumber will be an eternal sleep in this world."】

"System, let's discuss something."

"Can you make an exception and help me?"

【"?"】

"I want to do something for her."