【Zhou Ye】The Foot of Time

After that, Zhou Zekai went on a long-term mission.That time point is too critical, and if it is changed, it will even affect the history of the universe for tens of billions of years. Gallifrey not only sent as many as [-] soldiers, but also sacrificed a time lock.

That is the last means of guarding the timeline by the children of time.

As the name suggests, the time lock is used to lock time and isolate any means of traveling through time. Once the lock is locked, everything that happens within its specified number of years and geographical location cannot be rewritten, because no one can enter this place again. For a while, this place.Because it is extremely complex and difficult to manipulate, its use is controlled by the parliamentary court, and in the hands of those wise men who monitor the timeline of the universe day and night, only when it is maliciously changed at an extremely important point of time, Garifrey has to fight back will be used.It is precisely because of the existence of the time lock that every time Zhou Zekai is summoned urgently, Zhou Zekai will rush to the task location at the first time. Otherwise, if the task is too important and locked by the time lock, he will become a person who arrives late. "deserter".

It was precisely because of this that Zhou Zekai was unable to meet Ye Xiu during the breaks in the middle of the war as in the past, and he couldn't even deliver an email.

It seems that even longing has become the most vacuum in the universe.

This war was as expected and difficult. Almost when the first battle started, a comrade in arms died.She was shot in both hearts by the Dalek at the same time, which gave her not enough time to respawn to avoid Death's scythe.The funeral was very simple. TARDIS, who had been faithfully accompanying her all the time, was the best coffin. The Children of Time took off their military caps to see her off. Even Huang Shaotian, who was famous for his talkativeness, was unusually silent.

When it comes to death, people are always afraid.

But what they need to protect is more terrifying than death.

"Sooner or later, the universe will be finished by these bastards!" Huang Shaotian poked the can, talking non-stop, "They only know - if we change this history, we will be able to reach the pinnacle of the universe! Shit! Just them Let's do it casually, how many time rifts have crossed from here to there? It would be better to swallow their history sooner or later!"

Zhou Zekai opened his can in silence, although he agreed with Huang Shaotian's opinion, but since there was a natural mismatch between talking too much and talking too little, he just had to listen.

"I don't think we are soldiers at all. We are repairmen, and we sew and mend behind these people's asses every day. If the timeline can be changed casually, we would have blown up their home planet by hand. Let's see where they come from People keep coming to bother us? The universe is almost broken, okay, we can’t even repair ourselves with three heads and six arms!”

Hearing Huang Shaotian's complaints, Zhou Zekai couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

In the long time war, countless fixed points of time have been changed. Even though the time lords tried their best to repair it, it was like a nail embedded in the wall. After being pulled out, there was still a deep black hole left on it, which could not be healed. ——The same is true of time, and the time rift is born because of this.

But if the time rift that only brings or takes things away, like on Earth, passing through Hangzhou, China and Cardiff, England, it can still be called controllable, after all, it is just an exchange of quality.However, there is a second kind of time rift in the universe, which is the black hole of time that all time lords shy away from.The things caught by this kind of time rift will never exist, and will be completely erased from the coordinates of time and space—if what is swallowed up is a planet you have visited before, then that time The travel experience will be stripped from your memory.

These cracks may appear anywhere in the universe, and the energy escaping from these cracks will turn into a terrifying time storm. Once torn apart by the storm, the fragments will be scattered to any time and space along with the cracks. Place.

And the number of cracks that a universe can carry is always limited.No one knows where the critical point is, when it will erupt, and then affect all time and space.But at least at this moment, at this moment, they are still there, which shows that their efforts have not been in vain.

"It can't be helped..." Another Time Lord said, "We always have to protect the universe."

"If a wise man hears this, he will definitely say you are stupid." Huang Shaotian shook the fork in his hand, "The last time Zhou Zekai and I were promoted to lieutenant colonel together, he told us about this problem and told us not to Think of how great the current job is, we do this for ourselves.”

The fork that Zhou Zekai brought to his mouth stopped, Huang Shaotian's words reminded him of that time, after the promotion ceremony was completed, the old man stared at him with a pair of old eyes that seemed to be able to see the end of time, and said extremely wise words— —

"Protect the universe? No children, why do you have such ridiculous ideas? The universe does not need our protection. When the crack swallows everything, all the stars disappear without a trace, and everything is compressed to the origin, a new one will be born. Explosion. At that time, countless galaxies will weave a magnificent map with the expansion of the universe, those shining stars will bring light to this vast world, and the miracle of life will bloom on the quietly rotating planets The universe will still be the universe, and the starry sky will still be the starry sky, but there will be no us anymore."

"The only thing we've been saving is ourselves."

"The technology of controlling time should not be mastered by people, but since we have this power, we should be responsible for its sequelae... I think I should be grateful that I am old enough now, I am afraid I don't have to see it with my own eyes The end of the universe and time. Children, I hope you will not live to that day."

All I could think of at that time was that by then, I would never exist again, so wouldn't everything I did now be useless?I'm really not reconciled.

But now, thinking of these things again, Zhou Zekai felt that the future made him ache every breath.

In the next 30 years, another comrade-in-arms died, and three comrades were forced to be reborn-those orange light spewed from their bodies, and familiar faces were replaced by strange ones.

"Rebirth...what's it like?" During the interval of the battle, Zhou Zekai still couldn't help asking the major.

"...I am still alive, but I am indeed dead. The past me is completely dead." He spread his fingers in front of his eyes, and there was obvious bitterness in his smile, "The past me is like a dream. I used to hate What I love and what I like are so unreal. I used to hate white, but now I feel like I like that empty color like crazy - even these are no longer the same, I really don’t know if this is considered alive. Hey you say , Those couples who still love each other after rebirth, how do they do it? If I get married, after rebirth, I find that I don't feel anything for my partner, how terrible it would be..."

Zhou Zekai could only remain silent.

"Lieutenant Colonel Zhou...you have a lover, right?"

Zhou Zekai was stunned for a moment: "You know?"

"Of course, your key—it is hung with another one, that is the key of TARDIS." The major gestured, and Zhou Zekai lowered his head following his line of sight—he was grasping them unconsciously, as if he could Take some solace in it.

"Lieutenant Colonel Zhou, for the sake of the one you love, take good care of yourself...don't be reborn. You will never know what you will become, even for your face, you can't change it, can you?"

This kind of ridicule did not win Zhou Zekai's smile, he said after a moment of silence: "...the most desired look."

"What?" The major almost didn't react, "Oh, you mean that some people will become what they want most? Do you really believe that? Well, some people do, but that's too few— — Or, there are very few people who can aspire to that level, but the level of "I like black hair" is simply impossible. I always have brown hair. If I have a lover, I am afraid I will die I don't want to be born again."

Zhou Zekai just shook his head and didn't say anything more.

It's just that when 100 years passed and this bitter and long war finally ended with Garrifrey's victory, Zhou Zekai could only put a flower on the major's locked TARDIS.In the end, the black-haired man failed to find a love he was willing to die for.

When he hugged Ye Xiu tightly again, Zhou Zekai couldn't say a word for 10 minutes.The older lover, sniffing the smell of gunpowder on his body, didn't say anything, but hugged him firmly and with a strength that ordinary people would even feel pain.

"Ye Xiu."

"……Um?"

"I will protect the universe."

"...Damn it, the way you almost cried just now almost strangled me to death, just want to reiterate your ideals to me? Can you say it in a serious way, brother? I almost thought what happened to you."

"It will be done."

"...Yes, No.1 on the assassination list of evil forces, who else can save the universe besides you, right?"

"Ah."

He smiled, and more thoughts were not turned into actual words.

——I will protect this universe, not only because it is vast and beautiful, not only because it breeds countless creatures, but also because it bears our footprints.From meeting to now, there is still a distant future.I will not allow our memory, the land we set foot on together, to be swallowed by time rifts before the universe dies...

Not even a second earlier.

What you already have, you don't want to lose.

Zhou Zekai felt that this was probably the reason why Ye Xiu always said that he was still too young.

Ye Xiu said that Zhou Zekai was still too young, he still had too much experience and hadn't reached his level.The time lords travel too fast, and they are always unwilling to stop for some people's sophistication. Some creatures may be able to understand those worldly things at the age of ten, but these children who are favored by time always have to draw dozens or even hundreds of years. Only then will the rusty heartstrings be plucked.

When Zhou Zekai finally felt that these words made sense, he could already clearly feel the passage of time on Ye Xiu.

The years are like flowing water.

Such words and sentences often appear in the books that Zhou Zekai read, lamenting that time flies like an arrow and people die like this.But for Ye Xiu—the Ye Xiu that Zhou Zekai saw, it was the bottle containing the river of time that was gradually pouring out the liquid inside.When Zhou Zekai buried his head and piled up bricks layer by layer on the tower of his own age, it seemed that Ye Xiu was dismantling his tower bit by bit, and sent those bricks to Zhou Zekai one by one, so that he could Build your own tower soaring into the sky.

Ye Xiu was indeed much younger than when he first met.

So when Zhou Zekai celebrated his 330th birthday, he didn't even want to tell Ye Xiu how old he was.

"Can I still despise you for being old? You are definitely not as old as me. I am almost seven hundred years old. But I remember Shaotian told me that you guys prefer to celebrate every 110 years old, right? Honestly, you Is 550 five years old now or 440 four years old?"

"...Do you know Huang Shaotian?"

"Of course, I was annoyed to death by him during the Earth Defense War... and he used the deformation arch to become a human and stayed in Guangzhou for a while. At that time, he was a neighbor of Wenzhou, and he was almost taken into training by Wei Chen. Ying——in short, this guy is quite famous in Glory's archives. Hey, when did you learn to change the subject?"

——I have learned it a long time ago. At that time, you still said that I have learned badly in the past 200 years.

But in the end Zhou Zekai could only lie with a smile: "440 four."

"...You are so young, it seems that we have to work harder to have fun in time - let's go, where do you want to go?"

"Work?"

"You can do whatever you want to do at any time, otherwise why do you need TARDIS, just walk around."

Zhou Zekai felt that his birthday was terrible, even worse than the 220th birthday he spent on the battlefield closed by the time lock.Before, he couldn't understand what kind of mentality those people who would hide the bad things had to whitewash the peace, and now he finally understood.

That feeling is not good at all.

But no matter what, Zhou Zekai didn't want to see Ye Xiu's expression on the winter night of 2022 again.

It's just that no matter whether it is good or bad, lies will eventually need to be filled.In the dark, the knife of time will always stab the vital point with great precision——when he was really 440 years old, he finally received that long-overdue bill, but it was only one bill, but it was always Overnight, let him go bankrupt.

That was a notification from the mother planet, Jiali Frei.

When he received it, he had just attended the promotion meeting at Gallifrey, and he had already become a senior colonel—only one step away from the "General Zhou" that Ye Xiu called.

After the conference, at the gate of his Tardis, he once again met the old man who guided him when he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. The oldest wise man among the time lords would only appear in special circumstances In front of people, most of the time, they are in the seats of the parliamentary court, monitoring the dynamics of countless time rifts.Only when the soldiers are promoted and commended, the wise men will temporarily leave the court to honor or offer blessings to these warriors guarding time.

But at this moment, the old man was waiting at the door of his Tardis.

"Son, did you find the answer to that question?"

Still thinking about the other party's reason for coming, Zhou Zekai listened to the old man's question.He couldn't help being stunned, and said: "Do you remember?"

"Of course I remember." The old man tapped his temple with his index finger, "We watch over the children of every moment, and you are all extremely important."

"...the answer is found. But the question...is more."

"There are always more questions than answers." The old man moved his body, dragging his red and gold robes slightly on the ground, "This universe is like this. There are always more unknowns than knowns. Even we have too many Things you don’t know. But there are many things, knowing is not necessarily better than not knowing, is it?”

Zhou Zekai gave a soft "hmm" and remained silent for a few seconds before saying, "Sir, something is destined to happen one day, but you don't want to see it... What will you do?"

"Of course I will accept it." The old man replied without hesitation, "I have been trying to reduce the number of time rifts all my life, if it is destined to happen, I will not change it, especially what happened to me. Our timelines are too complicated, changing a small detail at will will cause earth-shaking changes-I am afraid that there will be so many cracks that will grow that there is no need to wait for the cracks to slowly swallow time and matter in the universe, the entire universe will be there. Die completely in an instant—no one wants to be an executioner who murders the universe." The old man smiled with relief, "It's like this is the last time I see you."

"Sir, could it be that you..." Zhou Zekai's words came to an abrupt end.

"Yeah, I've lived long enough." He looked out the window, the orange sky was so warm, "It's been tens of thousands of years, it's time to end-this is my answer, I was born again in the first time I'll know when I die. Maybe it's this feeling of waiting to die that makes me a wise man."

Zhou Zekai didn't know how to react for a moment.

"Don't show that expression, child. I said I was lucky, and I wouldn't live until the end..." The old man took out an envelope from his sleeve, "If I'm not mistaken, you should be 440 is four years old, right?"

Zhou Zekai didn't understand why the old man would care about his age, but he still answered truthfully: "Yes."

"Here's your summons," he held it out with his bony hand.

Zhou Zekai accepted it somewhat dazedly - this was the first time he received such a call, so...primitive.But the more original, the more infallible.He rubbed his thumb over the golden name printed on it, but saw the military rank on the back——

General.

"...No, it's for my future self." Zhou Zekai pushed the envelope towards the old man again.

The old man stopped his movements: "No, there is no mistake, it is for you. The future you refuse to accept it on the grounds that he has already taken it when 440 was four years old."

Zhou Zekai was stunned, and suddenly felt that the envelope was as hot as magma.

"There is nothing absurd in the timeline, my child. This is what has happened—" the old man suddenly turned his ear, "Hush, listen."

Zhou Zekai raised his head slightly, and in the distance, children's singing could be heard. It was an ancient ballad by Gallifre, and it was sung for every traveler who was about to drive the Tadis on the road——

"Go on, child of my time. Hear us sing, the song of praise for you. The end of the road is the beginning of another. Fear not, all known and unknown. Go on, of my time Child. Don't stop, it's not time for you to rest. This is the lord, the longest tour. The vast universe is a gift to you..."

"Go on, child of my time..."

Zhou Zekai listened quietly for a while, then turned around and said, "Sir, I—"

But the area around Tadis was empty, and the wise man in the red robe with golden piping had quietly left.Holding the envelope, he tore it open amidst the urging singing.

"Go on, child of my time..."

Inside the envelope was a small metal coordinate card, but it was encrypted. Zhou Zekai had no way of knowing the exact number. Before he was sent to that point in time by TARDIS, he would not know when and where it represented. .

"On the long road, you will never get lost..."

He walked into the Tardis, and the closed door still couldn't block the singing—because he was too familiar with the singing, he clearly knew every word of the lyrics and every transition of the tune, which made it impossible for him to close it In my own brain, the song continued to echo in my mind.

"Every first time, you have to be brave to try..."

He stood in front of the bridge, holding the metal card, with lingering hesitation in his heart.

"Don't be afraid, all the known and the unknown..."

He didn't want to know anything about the future, he figured it wouldn't be a good thing.

"Go on, child of my time..."

He... wanted to see Ye Xiu.

"—no one wants to be a universe-murdering executioner."

"The time traveler does not yet know the future, and does not know that he will become an executioner."

He couldn't help shivering, then lowered his head, only to see that the metal card had been inserted into the card reading slot.

The sound of the engine began to "whoosh" - he couldn't move his body at all, he could only look at the screen, and watched the messy numbers on it finally stabilized, showing the time he was in, it was a very In the distant future, a future node that he had never imagined, and the location was something he had never imagined before.

Gallifrey is the most mysterious and sacred place.

council chamber.

A strong sense of ominousness swept through his whole body. He almost ran away from the bridge, pushed open the door of TARDIS, and looked up at the top of his head at the moment of rushing out—above the famous transparent dome of the parliament court. , is a dark curtain-like night sky, as thick as a piece of ink that cannot be melted, so dark that no flaws can be found.

Not... not even a single star.

"...The last council member has arrived. General Zhou, please take your seat." A wise man in a red robe with golden piping pointed to the only vacant seat on the round table. Under Zhou Zekai's eyes that could even be called frightened, he hurriedly said Said, "Now we can start discussing-the universe has begun to collapse, the future has completely disappeared, and it won't be long now, and then the past will be swallowed..."

"Everyone, what else can we do?"

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...You must have never seen an author who tried to avoid the plot by dragging the plot...so I deleted and deleted...

I feel that my mood is exactly the same as that of Xiao Zhou... What should be faced is still to be faced... Finally, I have come to this point...