I'm not a drama god

Wen Ruoshui had a dream.

In a daze, he seemed to return to the scene of his last meeting with the other seven before he fell into slumber.

"Then... the [Slumber Plan] is settled." At the round table, Lu Xun slowly rose, his gaze sweeping over everyone. "If we're lucky, perhaps some of us will be able to briefly see each other again more than three hundred years from now... If not..."

Lu Xun didn't say the remaining half of the sentence. He remained silent for a long time before speaking again:

"In short..."

"Everything, for humanity."

After bidding each other farewell, the eight men left one by one and returned to their respective bases.

Wen Ruoshui clearly remembers that the sky was azure blue that day. He stood in the corridor gazing at the sky, a gentle breeze caressing his cheeks... It seemed like just an ordinary afternoon, giving one the illusion that they were not about to slumber for hundreds of years, but merely taking an afternoon nap.

As the sun sets, they wake up and leisurely gather together for a hearty hot pot meal, chatting about their work at their respective research institutes and their recent worries.

But in reality, they determined the fate of humanity for the next three hundred years... It all seemed so unreal, like a dream.

"The weather is nice, isn't it?" Just as Wen Ruoshui was gazing at the sky in a daze, Lu Xun walked up to him.

He was wearing a white research lab coat, his hands resting on the railing, gazing at the sky with Wen Ruoshui... His expression was calm, but Wen Ruoshui could read a faint weariness in his brows.

After a long silence, Wen Ruoshui finally spoke: "Old Lu, there's something I'd like to discuss with you."

"what?"

"Give some of my dormancy potion to everyone."

Lu Xun was taken aback, then frowned and looked at Wen Ruoshui, "What did you say?"

“Dr. Chu exhausted himself to create these life-extending dormancy potions… The total amount of the potions is limited.” Wen Ruoshui paused for a moment, “I don’t need to live that long. If I use less, everyone can use more, and the dormancy period can be longer.”

"you……"

“I promised Director Chen.” Wen Ruoshui turned her head and looked earnestly into Lu Xun’s eyes. “I must be the first to sacrifice myself… Only in this way can he have the chance to restart the world.”

He gave Wen Ruoshui a complicated look:

"But Director Chen is already... what if he doesn't come back?"

"I believe in him."

Wen Ruoshui's tone was calm, but her eyes revealed absolute determination.

Lu Xun fell silent. After an unknown amount of time, he sighed softly...

By doing this, Wen Ruoshui was essentially gambling with her own life on whether Chen Ling would return... But even Lu Xun didn't hold out much hope. Chen Ling had been missing for far too long; there was a strong possibility that he had perished in the Gray Realm. Over the years, they had tried every possible means to contact Chen Ling, but all their efforts had been in vain.

But seeing Wen Ruoshui's gaze, Lu Xun still nodded:

"...I understand. I will secretly adjust the drug quota."

Wen Ruoshui hummed in agreement.

Immediately afterwards, the scene around Wen Ruoshui began to rapidly disappear. Lu Xun, the Tian Shu Base, the azure sky—everything receded from him, and his consciousness became hazy, once again drifting between wakefulness and dreams.

After a relatively complete dream memory comes a series of fragmented dreams.

These dreams were illogical, as if they were just fragmented projections of Wen Ruoshui's subconscious.

He sometimes dreamed that he was sitting on a turbulent beach, with towering waves like dark, oppressive clouds sweeping towards him, drenching him completely with icy, bone-chilling seawater.

Sometimes he would dream of an imperial figure in a robe embroidered with golden dragons descending from the sky, his hands reaching out to grab him. He was bound by chains and could not break free no matter what he did, and could only watch helplessly as the giant hand enveloped him.

Sometimes she dreams of a figure draped in a theatrical robe walking towards the pitch-black sea, his form gradually sinking into the darkness, as if he cannot be heard no matter how Wen Ruoshui calls out to him, as he walks further and further away...

Countless nightmares haunted Wen Ruoshui's mind. He watched the figure in the opera robe sink into the deep sea, clenching his teeth and calling out the person's name again and again:

Director Chen!

Director Chen!!

"Director Chen!"

Bang--!!

With a painful cry echoing in the darkness, the glass of the hibernation pod shattered suddenly.

A large amount of liquid flowed from the gap, and a figure wearing a white coat staggered out of it. Perhaps due to insufficient dormancy potion, he was still not fully awake. After muttering "Director Chen" twice, he fell headfirst onto the wet ground.

Next second,

A pair of strong hands steadily supported his body.

Water droplets dripped down Wen Ruoshui's damp hair, spreading across the shoulders of her opera robe. Wen Ruoshui felt a hand gently patting her back, and a gentle voice sounded in her ear:

"……I am here."

The familiar voice swiftly pulled Wen Ruoshui back to reality, and he froze...

He looked up abruptly and saw a familiar face. Strands of sunlight shone through the gaps in the base, illuminating the person, whose vermilion earrings swayed silently in the light.

"Director Chen...?"

"It's me," Chen Ling said softly again. "I'm back."

I am back.

The four simple words sounded like a huge boulder crashing to Wen Ruoshui's ears... He stood there for a long time, and finally a smile appeared on his pale lips.

Establishing a base, the convergence of the Gray Realm, the invasion of Calamity, the Emperor's surprise attack... In these three hundred years, they have experienced too much. They fought hard in the darkness, enduring countless hardships, helplessness, powerlessness, and resentment. It was Chen Ling who gathered them together back then, but he did not appear during those most difficult days.

At this moment, Wen Ruoshui felt as if she had a thousand words in her heart, but when she reached the tip of her tongue, only one sentence came out:

"Director Chen...we've been waiting for you for so long..."

Chen Ling remained silent for a long time, then said, "...I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize. You stayed in the Gray Realm alone to save us back then. We were too weak...we couldn't be of much help to you." Wen Ruoshui was now fully awake. He stood up, his gaze gentle and warm.

"It's enough that you're back."

He took a deep breath, glanced around, and suddenly, as if remembering something, asked in confusion:

"Oh, right..."

"How did you get here? How did you know I would wake up at this time?"

“…I didn’t know when you would wake up.” Chen Ling smiled. “So I came early and have been waiting here for you to wake up…This time, I didn’t want to be late.”