Chapter 291

"Mother is well; receiving your letter is like seeing you in person."

"Spring sunlight filters through the plum branches, casting dappled, sparse shadows on the stationery."

"She sits on the stone bench, wrapped in an indigo-blue cheongsam that envelops her porcelain-white figure, like a fragment of heavenly light cut from an ancient painting."

"Her black hair is coiled into a low bun; a few red plum blossoms drift down and happen to land in her hair, which she leaves untouched, allowing that splash of color to adorn her. As the brush turns, the silver-white bracelet on her wrist sways lightly with her strokes, like a pool of jade water brushed by the spring breeze."

"The plum blossoms bloom and then fade; I occasionally catch a whiff of loneliness from their fragrance. I again recall our childhood together, conducting research in No Man's Land."

—— (just a separator line? It's a line with just "——". We need to translate it? It's just a dash line; we should output same? Probably we keep as is? The instruction: translate each line. The line contains just "——". That's not Chinese characters; it's punctuation. We should output same? Probably keep as is. We'll output "——". No translation needed.

Chainsaw person.

"This, this……!"

Den ci's apple in his mouth went 'pop' and fell to the ground.

That feeling……was like his heart being pierced by the tentacles of a leech demon, an instant icy cold sensation swept over his whole body, he froze in place unable to move. His pupils contracted sharply, his mouth unconsciously opened slightly, even his breathing stopped for a few seconds.

Eyes already fallen, his mind even more completely occupied by that graceful figure——the motion of a woman in an elegant cheongsam writing a letter with a pen, replayed every second in his mind: the lowered eyes when holding the pen, the two glowing white legs under the stone table, and that expressionless face……Den ci suddenly felt his mouth dry, unconsciously swallowing saliva.

"Den ci, can't you move your eyes off someone else's legs?" Pawa's voice came from beside his ear.

After staring for a while, Den ci slightly turned his neck, only then realizing Pawa was even more eager than he was, just short of bringing a telescope.

"Tch, you're not any different, you're enjoying it yourself……"

Pawa snorted disdainfully upon hearing that: "I'm not like you; that woman looks cultured, I wonder if she's won a Nobel Prize."

Zao chuan qiu carried out two plates of hollow noodles from the kitchen, his tone calm: "It's not hard to guess; this person must be the Ruan mei that Black Tower lady often mentions."

"Ruan mei? The genius club member who's with that robot?" Pawa made an "oh~" sound, "She probably won a Nobel Prize, right?"

"Even if they had, they probably wouldn't bother to claim it; being glanced at by Intelligence, compared to having peaked in a specific field, in this world of geniuses, such an achievement is hardly worth mentioning."

Like Pawa and Den ci, Zao chuan qiu's gaze was also drawn to Ruan mei. What surprised him wasn't her beautiful appearance, but a feeling completely different from that of geniuses on the same level as Hei ta and Luo si gu mu.

Her voice carried an extremely indifferent flavor, as if after weathering countless storms, she had permanently locked away some fervent aspect of humanity inside a laboratory.

"Is it an illusion……"

Zao chuan qiu hoped he had misheard.

——

"Warm little cottage, infinite thriving species and life—life back then was unforgettable. I prematurely understood the vastness of the universe……"

"……"

"The scene shifted; in the icy snowy extreme cold, the expedition team's searchlights cut through the blizzard, drawing pale beams like several trembling swords stabbing deep into the snow."

"A thin layer of white mist covered her oxygen mask, yet the girl was oblivious; she stood on tiptoe behind her mother, her pupils reflecting a distant scene that could be called eerie."

"The snow mountain was wriggling."

"That wasn't an avalanche——it was a colossal giant formed from countless eyeballs, now awakening. Each eyeball was embedded in rotting tumors, chilling to the bone. Its trunk was deeply buried in the snow mountain, faintly visible were black branch-like structures resembling human bones, slowly opening and closing with the rhythm of breath, emitting a roar like ice cracking."

"Amid countless people's piercing screams, the girl's gaze was like that of someone excitedly standing before a candy shop window, as if that indescribable creature were not a monster that had taken countless crew members' lives, but a candy waiting for her to peel off its wrapper."

"Birth, growth, withering…… lamenting the course of life is the origin of my thoughts. I have begun to know that I crave something pure."

——

Teyvat, Sumeru.

"Pure……"

In the rainforest outside Huacheng Guo, Ke lai was repeatedly savoring Ruan mei's earlier words when she suddenly seemed to think of something, looking up at Ti na li beside her and saying, "Master, you don't think Ruan mei miss wants to study the Star God, do you? Honestly, I really can't think of anything in the universe purer than the Star God."

After just going through the universal locust disaster in its entirety, Ke lai had a new understanding of the Star God. Originally she thought all Star Gods were supreme beings who could do as they pleased, but now it seems some Star Gods might not even have human freedom.

Reproduction has been following its mandate from beginning to end, never pausing for a moment; although it has brought myriad disasters to the universe, she indeed could not imagine anything that could better represent the word 'pure' than it.

"I do think this is possible, but wouldn't researching the Star God be too crazy?" Ti na li pondered, stroking his chin.

Although the genius club members are not ordinary people, this Ruan mei miss still seems to be a mere mortal, completely different from Luo si gu mu. The power displayed by the Star God is truly extraordinary; a little carelessness could affect countless star systems in the universe.

"I think when Ruan mei miss stared at that monster, there wasn't a hint of fear in her eyes; perhaps the Star God now is just like when she looked at that monster as a child."

But why is she researching the 【Star God】? Could it be that she wants to become an envoy of 【Wisdom】, wielding extraordinary power like the Black Tower Lady?

——

"'Attachment…… relates to the insular cortex that controls anxiety and pain, and the nucleus accumbens that creates desire.'"

"'The laws of emotion can be easily dissected; when children receive random rewards, they become…… more obedient.'"

Ruan Mei stood in the observation deck, the infinite expanse of space unfolding before her, stars scattered like shattered diamonds across the black curtain. Her gaze calmly rested on a distant, fairy‑tale‑like, multicolored planet, as if the planet reached out a tiny hand to wave at her.

"'When I realized that even cultivating a planet could be this simple, I began to feel…… empty.'"