Dahuang City.
Knock, knock, knock.
Early in the morning, Shu was washing up and preparing for another day of work addressing the famine when she heard someone knocking on her door.
She slowly walked over and opened it.
But the moment she recognized the person standing outside, her eyes widened in astonishment.
“Sir?”
Still holding a toothbrush in her mouth, Shu spoke rather unclearly.
“What are you doing here?”
Hongyu stood calmly outside her door.
He smiled.
“Can’t I come visit you without having some particular reason?”
“Although…”
“Perhaps you ought to tidy yourself up first?”
Hongyu pointed toward Shu’s face.
He was referring to how exhausted and unhealthy she looked.
However, Shu interpreted his gesture rather differently.
‘Wait a minute…’
‘Did I seriously just open the door looking like this?!’
She hadn’t even washed her face yet.
She was still in the middle of brushing her teeth.
And after spending the past several days exhausting herself over the famine, the dark circles beneath her eyes had become increasingly noticeable.
“W-Wait!
Wait a moment!”
“I’m sorry!”
Shu slammed the door shut almost instantly.
The gust of air stirred up by the sudden movement even blew through Hongyu’s hair.
Hongyu stood blankly outside.
Fortunately, it wasn’t long before Shu opened the door again.
She had finished washing up, but her exhausted complexion remained unchanged.
Seeing how guilty she looked about it, Hongyu couldn’t help feeling a little distressed.
He sighed.
“Now, who was that little girl who told me she didn’t want Sir to worry about her?”
“I’m not a little girl anymore, Sir…”
Shu guiltily averted her gaze.
“One after another, all of you keep insisting on that…”
Hongyu let out an exaggerated sigh.
“Haah.
I know, I know.
I’ve become an old geezer already…”
Shu, however, wasn’t particularly interested in playing along with his theatrics.
Instead, she asked another question.
“But Sir, why did you suddenly come all the way here to see me?”
“Aren’t you worried about little Dusk and Sister Ling?”
“Those two are probably considerably more mature than you are…”
Hongyu sighed.
‘At least they wouldn’t try to seal away a demon entirely on their own.’
‘What kind of reckless nonsense would that be?’
He felt rather helpless.
However, seeing Shu stare blankly at him after hearing his answer, Hongyu couldn’t help feeling secretly relieved.
‘Fortunately, Shu hasn’t tried using her own consciousness to seal away a demon yet.’
He had just used his abilities to examine Shu’s mental state.
There were no signs of any such changes.
‘Thank goodness…’
‘She hasn’t attempted to bear the corrupting thoughts of a demon within her own consciousness.’
‘There’s still time.’
Hongyu was worried.
Since his arrival had already altered the timing of Sui’s awakening, there was no guarantee that other events would continue following the timeline he remembered.
Perhaps the future was already unfolding in ways entirely different from his memories.
But fortunately, at least in Shu’s case, the situation had not yet reached a particularly dangerous point.
For that, he was grateful.
Meanwhile, Shu was rather surprised by Hongyu’s earlier remark.
‘Could it be that, in the less than ten years I’ve been away, little Dusk and Sister Ling have somehow evolved into completely different people?!’
‘Have the reclusive shut-in and the hopeless drunkard somehow become…
‘Wait, that doesn’t sound any better!’
Leaving aside Nian, who had finally secured herself a government-sponsored position, what about Ling and Dusk?
…
Alright.
Shu had to admit that she simply couldn’t imagine either of them becoming so responsible that nobody would need to worry about them anymore.
After all, back when she was still playing the role of the Sui family’s young mother figure, Ling, Nian, and Dusk had always been the three siblings who demanded the most attention.
“What?
Are you not going to welcome me inside?”
Hongyu smiled at the still-dazed Shu.
“You’re just going to stand there blocking the doorway?”
Then he let out another deliberately sorrowful sigh.
“Haaah…
As expected.
Once a parent gets old, the children inevitably start becoming rebellious…”
“Alright, alright, enough!”
“Sir, stop fooling around!”
Shu couldn’t help sighing at Hongyu’s exaggerated display of sadness.
“You still look so young, for goodness’ sake…”
She stepped aside and gestured toward the interior of her home.
“Come in and have a seat.”
…
…
…
“Shennong…
is it?”
Hongyu rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
He looked at Shu, whose expression was a peculiar mixture of determination and embarrassment, rather like a child whose parents had tracked her down after she’d run away from home to pursue her dreams.
“So this is the ridiculous reason you traveled all the way to Dahuang City?
Simply to fulfill the dying wish of a pen pal?”
“Sir…
That’s not a ridiculous rea—”
Shu tried to explain, but Hongyu interrupted her.
“Of course it’s ridiculous, Shu.”
Hongyu sighed.
“You really don’t need to do this.”
“But…”
Shu froze, preparing to argue again, only to be interrupted once more.
“Let me finish.”
“First of all, I support you.
I support all of you, regardless of what you choose to do.
That has always been my most fundamental principle.”
“You came to Dahuang City to carry on Shennong’s legacy.
You came here for the sake of all the people under heaven.”
“And I know what you’re thinking.”
“‘Isn’t that a good thing?'”
“But don’t you think you’ve placed far too much responsibility on your own shoulders?”
“What about you, Shu?”
“Are you going to keep forcing yourself to continue simply because of some so-called dying wish?”
“Perhaps you can persevere for a hundred years.
Perhaps even a thousand.”
“But can you keep doing this for ten thousand years?”
“Suppose ten thousand years pass, and you finally grow tired of it all.”
“You become exhausted by the burden you’re carrying.”
“Would you really be capable of putting it down?”
“Wouldn’t the thought that abandoning your responsibilities might cause another famine leave you unable to eat or sleep in peace?”
Shu suddenly felt rather guilty.
In her memories, Hongyu had never spoken to anyone in such a serious tone.
Except, apparently, to her right now.
“Sir, isn’t that a little…?”
“Surely humanity won’t still be suffering from famines thousands of years from now?”
“By then, couldn’t I simply…”
“Shu, stop trying to fool me.”
“…”
“It’s the demons, isn’t it?”
“…”
Shu fell silent once more.
The surprise on her face gradually faded into resignation.
‘Well, of course…’
‘How could anything I did possibly escape Sir’s notice?’
‘After all, he’s the Sir who can accomplish absolutely anything…’
“Sir…
you already know?”
“About the demons contaminating the land?”
Hongyu’s words had completely demolished every excuse Shu had prepared.
She could only ask the question tentatively.
“Heh.
I knew it.”
Hongyu smiled.
Unfortunately, the smile gave Shu the unmistakable feeling of a mischievous child being caught red-handed by a parent.
“I suppose that if you couldn’t find another way to deal with the demonic contamination, you were planning to take matters into your own hands.”
“You were going to use your own consciousness to seal it away, weren’t you?”
“…”
Shu had no answer.
Seeing her reaction, Hongyu shook his head and walked over.
A century had passed, and the girl before him had truly grown.
When they’d first met, she had barely reached his waist.
Now, she stood only a head shorter than him.
“Promise me something, Shu.”
“Stop being so hard on yourself, alright?”
Hongyu gently drew the conflicted girl into a reassuring embrace.
“But…
the people of Dahuang City are still suffering from famine…”
Shu sounded distressed.
With her thoughts in turmoil, she instinctively leaned on Hongyu for support.
“Leave it to me.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
Hongyu accepted the responsibility without hesitation.
Although Sui’s consciousness didn’t seem to have influenced Shu very much yet, the sight of her exhausted face stirred something painful within him.
‘Is my heart aching?’
‘Because I can’t bear to watch Shu exhaust herself and sacrifice her own well-being?’
“For now, just get some proper rest.”
Hongyu’s voice was gentle.
Once again, a faint emotional fluctuation stirred within him, so subtle that he himself failed to notice it.
A fully ripened ear of wheat slipped through Shu’s fingers.
The morning sunlight illuminated her beautiful face as droplets of sweat rolled down her cheeks and fell into the soil beneath her feet.
“They’ve all ripened already…”
Shu spoke with a hint of nostalgia.
“The seeds Sir left behind have been cultivated and improved over these past several thousand years.”
“They’re now capable of preventing famine in almost every region of Great Yan…”
For a fleeting moment, she thought she saw a familiar figure sitting in the shade outside a house beneath the rising sun.
The figure raised a hand and waved toward her.
“Sir?”
Shu froze.
But in the next instant, the figure vanished.
“An illusion…?”
She rubbed her eyes and smiled wistfully.
‘What am I thinking…?’
‘Sir has already…
passed away…’
Taking a deep breath, Shu returned to the work she had planned for the day.
‘Sir…’
‘The prosperous world you wished for has finally come to be.’