"Ayue... I... am sorry..."

  I smiled and kissed away her tears, saying: "The woman I love, she never gives up easily."

  But this sentence touched her, she opened her eyes, tears rolled down again, even choked, grabbed my T-shirt and wiped her nose and tears. I wanted to laugh a little, but my heart was hot. She sobbed and said: "I'm not giving up... I'm just afraid, afraid that nothing will work out. I saw Shen Shiyan die in front of me, one second ago he was still alive and kicking, the next second he was lying there coldly, I really..."

  I've seen the corpse of someone I loved, and I can understand how you feel. When your crying subsides a bit, I take your hand, kiss it, and say: "Jiao Jiao, I can promise you that everything won't be in vain, there will be results. Have you read the Roman Emperor's 'Meditations'? There's a sentence in it: The place where things happen is also their root. Everything has cause and effect, even if the truth exceeds common understanding. A year ago, we met, so if we're about to encounter something unfortunate now, how did we meet a year ago? So we must have a good ending, even if that ending happened before we met. What's the difference? To others, it's a year later, but to us, it's the future and also the past. I don't care at all, as long as I'm with you. With the same logic, since half a year from now, or a year from now, we'll see Shen Shiyan alive and well, even though he won't remember his past or our encounters. History isn't singular, time isn't singular either. There are multiple possibilities, it's up to us. But that doesn't matter, we'll save him. I swear to you, we'll save him. When everything ends, there will be a day when things return to normal. At that time, you can introduce him to Zhuang Yu again. Heaven won't be so cruel, after meeting you, I believe this. They're both good people, they must have a good ending too."

  Tan Jiao remained silent in my arms for a long time before muttering, "Mm, you're right."

  "Aren't you disappointed? Aren't you sad?"

  She nodded vigorously, then raised one hand and made a swearing gesture: "It's me... I saw Shen Shiyan's death, and the way Zhuang Yu walked away without saying a word. It was too sad. How could I give up easily? I'm a great god with 1 million Weibo followers! I have had incredible experiences traveling through time and space, which even Zhuang Yu envies... Ah Yu, I'll follow you wherever you go. You persist for as long as you do, and I'll persist too. We'll walk together until the end. My fate has always been in my own hands!"

  We hugged and kissed each other tightly, then looked at each other and smiled, lowering our heads to entwine in a tender embrace. The cave was still dimly lit, with unfamiliar or familiar people around us, the underground river still invisible to the end. But my heart was calm and warm.

  As long as I'm with her. Homeless, as long as I'm with her.

  ——

  I don't know how long we slept, maybe it was just an hour, or maybe five or six hours. Time underground is hard to distinguish.

  When I woke up again, Tan Jiao was still sleeping soundly in my arms. Suddenly, I found that there was no one around us.

  A quiet deep cave, a vast empty space, a narrow underground riverbank, only I and Tan Jiao are left. The places where the other seven people used to lie down and stay still have traces, but there is no one else.