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Chapter 1634 Final Chapter: Crossing the Sea [53] "The Great Sage Yang Mermaid and the Unsincerous People Arrive (20)"

Perlo—Detective Locke's expression changed for a moment.

Sure enough it was him!

At that moment, Su Liujin, standing behind Su Ming'an, decisively drew his blade. He transformed into a streak of white light, and in the blink of an eye, the blade pierced Locke's neck! Even Su Ming'an had not expected that Su Liujin could unleash such formidable power.

Blake was instantly enraged and rushed to help Locke up: "What are you doing! Locke! Are you alright!"

Iguler, standing nearby, glanced at him, seemingly understanding the situation.

However, his anger came too late. Locke let out a few hoarse sounds, glanced at Su Ming'an one last time, and collapsed.

The next moment, the world suddenly spun around them, making a cracking sound like shattering glass. The sky collapsed, and cracks appeared in the ground, as if the whole world was breaking apart.

Su Ming'an breathed a sigh of relief; thankfully, his guess was correct.

Suddenly, a shocked voice rang out:

"You rescued No. 0819...?" Ran Bo pointed at Su Liujin. "I haven't participated in this experiment for a long time, but I remember No. 0819 was a member of the 'Petri Dish' project, wasn't he?"

"What petri dish?" Su Ming'an looked up.

Ran Bo adjusted his glasses, a complex pity flashing in his eyes, quickly replaced by a scientist's composure, as he explained in a flat tone:
“The ‘Petri Dish’ project… was a side project led by Edith. They discovered that directly cultivating perfect ‘finished products’ had too low a success rate and consumed too many resources. So they changed their approach…”

"They began to mass-produce a batch of 'basic models'. These 'basic models' themselves had various genetic defects and extremely short lifespans, like mayflies that live only a day. Their value lay not in their ability to grow, but in... that they were living 'petries'."

“A live…petal?” Su Ming’an said softly.

“Yes.” Ran Bo’s tone was flat, as if he were stating the most ordinary experimental data. “Their bodies are the best breeding ground for the closest to a successful ‘perfect product.’ When the ‘perfect product’ experiences any organ failure, gene collapse, or rejection during its growth process… these ‘basic models’ cultivated at the same time become the most perfect organ bank and gene source.”

“Simply put,” Ran Bo concluded, his words piercing like icicles, “the purpose of number 0819 is to ensure that number S-0820—that is, the future Turritopsis dohrnii jellyfish Su Liujin living in Rovasa—can survive and reach its perfect state. This 0819 is S-0820’s ‘spare part’ and ‘biological buffer.’ When S-0820 needs it, it can, and must, give up everything.”

"Therefore, when the binary stars merge, he is still in a human body—he is not a carefully cultivated immortal jellyfish, so he will not transform into a jellyfish. He is not even an independent life, and the world's rules cannot transform him. His lifespan is very short, and his genes will soon break down and he will die."

“According to the final monitoring data…” Ran Bo glanced at the pale-faced white-haired boy, his tone finally carrying a barely perceptible sigh, “0819’s vital signs should have dropped to zero yesterday. The fact that he has managed to hold on until now… is a miracle in itself, or rather, a last gasp of life forcibly prolonged by strong external stimuli and willpower. What did you do yesterday?”

yesterday……

Su Ming'an recalled.

Yesterday, they played the piano together. Su Liujin was learning to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and they laughed and chatted about the fairy tale of the hero and the man-eating flower...

Su Liujin's life should have ended yesterday; it was a brief resurgence, forcibly prolonged by strong external stimuli and willpower.

That is,
Was it "love" that kept him alive for another day?

Su Liujin sheathed her blood-stained knife, turned around, and looked back at Su Ming'an with her golden eyes as she walked back step by step.

Ran Bo's words did not change his expression at all. At this moment, Su Ming'an understood—Su Liujin knew all this from the beginning.

Under the rising sun, the boy walked step by step, his whole body tinged with gold and red.

He smiled gently at Su Ming'an.

"clang--!"

Suddenly, the blade fell to the ground.

Su Ming'an immediately reached out to help him up, took out the life support he was carrying, and injected it into Su Liujin's body.

However, the vitamins had no effect. In fact, their effectiveness had been waning for several days.

"So, the reason I didn't find you in the room when I came back today is because..." Su Ming'an looked down at the pale boy in his arms.

It wasn't that Su Liujin really wanted to get some fresh air and go for a walk; rather, Su Liujin sensed that his death was imminent and wanted to find a place where no one would find him to die, so that Su Ming'an wouldn't see his corpse when he returned.

However, after searching the entire ark, Su Ming'an finally found Su Liujin, who was barely breathing, in a corner where no one paid attention.

In her final moments, Su Liujin mustered her strength, wanting to take a cosmic journey with Su Ming'an, to help him complete the final assassination, and to help him escape the dream...

He knew from the beginning that he was not the Emperor Su Liujin that Su Ming'an knew.

He was just a "little king".

He did indeed incorporate many elements of "Su Liujin," but he himself was only a part of the Su Liujin that Su Ming'an was familiar with.

Therefore, the hope of all humanity cannot be easily rescued by Su Ming'an simply by relying on the cover of a "mother" researcher. What Su Ming'an rescued was merely a "petri dish." The little king was indeed the most successful, deliberately placed in the center of the laboratory to attract everyone's attention, but all of this was merely to cover up the truly successful Su Liujin.

He is the most successful...the most successful "petition dish".

In the correct historical timeline, he would have died on the Ark due to genetic decay before humanity even entered Rovasa. It was S-0820 that would have been deployed into Rovasa, becoming the Emperor Su Liujin that Su Ming'an knew.

The person who drew the "best fortune" was not the little king.

Because the boy had always been so weak, Su Ming'an never considered the possibility that the Su Liujin he knew might not be this person either.

Because he already knew they would meet again in the future, Su Ming'an never even considered the possibility that they might never see each other again, that this person was not the same person.

The boy fell into her arms, his eyelashes trembling slightly, as if he was using all his strength to lift his eyelids.

What was he thinking when he described, "I bear their deaths, and I also bear their love. I have become the future, complete, certain, flesh and blood fully grown, unique—Emperor Su Liujin"? He was constantly reinforcing his impression that "I am Emperor Su Liujin," and he was afraid that Su Ming'an would stop saving him if he knew that he was not the Su Liujin he knew.

What was he thinking as he reminisced about "the gentleness left by No. 024, the wisdom left by No. 287, the resilience left by No. 312, the resilience left by No. 312..."? He himself was clearly just a cold symbol.

He was singing, "Sleep, sleep, little king, in your dreams there will be candy and fairy tales. All of you will gather into a galaxy, all love will return home, and when you wake up, you will be fearless..." What was he thinking? He would never wake up. The little king only existed in this dream. Once Su Ming'an woke up, he would only meet the last Su Liujin. The little king had already died on the ark of history.

As he gazed at the cosmos from the spaceship, speaking of "the meaning of the second child's birth being merely to provide blood and organs for the first child," what was he thinking? Su Ming'an assumed he was pitying the second child, just as he pitied the white-haired youths he had devoured. However, the second child was also himself.

When he made a birthday wish with Su Ming'an, "I hope... that both this leader of the lighthouse and I can realize our ideals and move towards happiness," what was he thinking at the end?

Did he hope that Su Ming'an would wake up soon, break through the barriers of the Radiant Mother Goddess, and join hands with the future Su Liujin to move towards a glorious ideal and future? Or did he hope that time would pass more slowly, that the time for making a wish would be slower, so that he could live a little longer, continue to enjoy his happy daily life, and fully enjoy his last, hard-won, fleeting life in this long dream?
His life began on the ark, and it ended on the ark.

This long and sweet dream was the most precious treasure in his barren life.

……

"But they gave me a dream, in which I became a 'little king.' I learned to uphold my 'rules' with a finger gun, I drew the best fortune and firmly believed it would bring good luck, I felt the cold, and I remembered your promise that 'it won't be cold again.' You and I are here, discussing a case from a textbook on another planet—aren't these moments also real and uniquely mine?"

"Yes, I've surpassed their 'design'."

Su Liujin murmured, as if she were hiding something.

"I didn't lose..."

"I've lost many times, but this is the one battle... I didn't lose to them."

……

But he failed to restrain Su Ming'an.

He played games relentlessly, read books voraciously, and even proposed learning a musical instrument. He knew every second that his life was counting down. But a glimmer of hope shone brightly before him—Su Ming'an. Su Ming'an possessed extraordinary abilities; he could sneak into a laboratory and steal life-sustaining drugs. Moreover, Su Ming'an had divine power; if he absorbed that power, he too could survive.

He might live a few more days.

However, he remained silent throughout. He claimed to be Su Liujin, deceiving himself and Su Ming'an; he believed Su Ming'an would take him away, and willingly woke up from the Little King's dream; he faced the genetic breakdown of his body after leaving the nutrient tank, knowing that the price of freedom was death; he declared that as long as the "Lighthouse Cult Leader" broke the dream, the "Emperor" would wake up to meet him; he helped Su Ming'an understand the situation of the Ark, constantly pushing Su Ming'an to end this dream, which was also ending his own life...

Finally, he proposed a space trip with Su Ming'an, using the last of his life and his final strength to stab the Dream Weaver, Perlo, to death and send Su Ming'an away.

The young king spurred the lighthouse patriarch to shatter this dream.

The young king voluntarily ended his short but happy life.

The young king smashed his own oxygen tank with his own hands.

……

What exactly is "love"?

Sherud taught Su Ming'an that "love" is sacrifice. Naraku taught Su Ming'an that "love" is pure love. Siber taught Su Ming'an that "love" is forbearance and perseverance. Noah taught Su Ming'an that "love" is freedom. Lin Guang taught Su Ming'an that "love" is the courage to die. Su Wensheng taught Su Ming'an that "love" is letting go and holding on. Now, Su Liujin... no, the "Little King" has taught Su Ming'an.

Love is a gift.

Love is knowing everything, yet deciding to return and entrust oneself peacefully.

Love is to regard the brief time spent together as a gift, entrusting it, along with one's unfinished life, to Su Liujin, who is about to embark on the future.

His existence is meant to provide nourishment, but he transforms the "passive" fate of being nourished into an "active" gift.

As Su Ming'an recalled the events, some of the doubts in his mind began to dissipate.

Therefore, the proud and vibrant Jellyfish Emperor who waited for him in Rovasa, fought alongside him, is the "final complete" Su Liujin.

The boy in her arms was merely a leftover, incomplete, and destined-to-die part. He knew his fate from the moment he was born, yet in his final moments, he still did everything in his power to send Su Ming'an away.

The "awakening" he sought was never for himself.

— Rather, it was so that Su Ming'an could go to the real world where the "complete" Su Liujin was waiting.

After the last injection of life support was administered, the boy slowly opened his eyes.

He had secretly left the room earlier, and when he collapsed in the corner, surrounded only by darkness, he lay on the ground like a corpse, and no one knew he had ever existed. He was afraid; he didn't want to die in endless loneliness and fear.

His life had come to an end, but he desperately recalled the moments he had spent with Su Ming'an: birthday cake, piano, smiley face flowers, the little king and his servant... This "love" kept his mind clear, and he held on until Su Ming'an found him.

"Don't leave me alone..." The boy kept murmuring these words as he lay in that corner.

In a daze, Su Ming'an seemed to see the figure waiting in the sea before his eyes.

Don't leave him alone in your dreams.

Don't leave him alone in the sea.

He was always waiting, always enduring, always losing, always being controlled, always being held hostage, always being educated.

The King is the easiest piece to target on the board.

"How did it go?" At this moment, Hui Bai had already explained the truth to everyone and walked over quickly.

"I'm leaving." Su Ming'an gazed at the dreamscape on the verge of collapse.

"What about him?" Hui Bai looked over with concern.

“He will come home too.” Su Ming’an picked up the boy.

Su Liujin was delirious with fever, his white hair drooping over Su Ming'an's neck, his cheek resting on Su Ming'an's shoulder. He mumbled a word repeatedly, as if it were an obsession—"Take me home."

But where is his home?

The laboratory on the Ark was not his home. The strange, colorful planet was not his home either. The original Zhai Star was certainly not his home.

He has no home.

"Parents" are a group of malicious scientists, "relatives" are a group of recycled, blurry flesh and blood, and "friends" are a void dream.

He had nothing.

He had nothing left.

So thin it was suffocating, so pale it was like a grain of sand.

If one had to pinpoint a home, the only one that could be considered home was that shattered, man-made dream of a little king, born with malicious intent.

……

"Home! Where is my home?" Once upon a time, there lived a jellyfish in the sea.

He swam around in the sea, trying to find a home...

[—Twelve Stories, Part One: "A Jellyfish in the Sea"]

……

Su Ming'an carried the boy on his back.

“I’m taking him home. To the Red Tower in Rovasa, where he is the little king…”

After a moment of silence, Hui Bai slowly nodded, turned his back, and said softly, "Go. There's still some time before the dream completely collapses. Perhaps you can find a way to get him out in the last few moments."

Su Ming'an turned around and glanced at Hui Bai. The two of them didn't say much, but they both knew what was going on.

The same applies to Hui Bai and the others; like Su Liujin, they will cease to exist once the dream collapses.

Many of them died before dawn, before Su Ming'an arrived in Rovasa. This long dream preserved a group of long-vanished ghosts. Including Hui Bai, who, after splitting into multiple parts, was already dead.

However, Hui Bai only said, "Take the little king out."

They are already embers of an old era, people who could not face tomorrow. However, Su Ming'an is favored by the world; he may be able to save the soul of a pure-hearted boy. And how can they, who have already tainted themselves with evil and are powerless to stop the experiments, compete with the little king for the last spot?

Hui Bai's towering figure gradually faded into the distance, like sand and dust blown away by the wind.

He didn't look back, nor did he say a word to Su Liujin. He knew he had failed to stop the experiment and had no right to speak to the victims. All he could do was reassure everyone and walk away with his back to Su Ming'an.

If we have another chance to meet, let us meet in a future life where we have cast aside all past ties and have no more entanglements.