Chapter 305: Bonus Chapter

When An Xuefeng’s kiss landed, Wei Xun lazily looped his arms around him in return. An Xuefeng controlled his strength and lifted him, carrying Wei Xun to the bed. It was Wei Xun’s room, a wide and soft double bed. Yu Hehui had gone to deal with Mutual Aid Alliance matters; Tong Hege had taken the cat and the nearly-hatching Boss Maggot with him. Neither of them was here.

There were only the two of them in the room.

An Xuefeng turned over on the bed and let Wei Xun rest against his chest. He looked at the soft white hair stirring against Wei Xun’s forehead in his own warm breath, and without thinking he smiled. Then he closed his eyes. The deep bond between many Tour Guides and Tourists formed at night, in the realm of mental projection, where the deepest secrets of a person’s soul lay hidden; countless memories that no one wanted outsiders to see, tender and fragile.

Even between bonded partners who trusted each other completely, fully opening oneself required relaxation. It was not unlike emotional therapy in that way; soft lighting, a gentle low melody, a hot bath beforehand, perhaps a calming incense to settle the nerves, a closed and safe room; all of it helped two people open up more easily to each other.

But An Xuefeng’s extraordinary self-mastery meant he had no need of any of that. He could open himself entirely to Wei Xun without assistance. His eyes fell half-shut, and this time Wei Xun entered his mental projection with no effort at all.

“Wooo…”

A whale’s call rose through the air, ethereal and pleasant, brimming with joy. But when Wei Xun opened his eyes, there was no orca, and no ocean. The space around him was pure darkness, so deep his hand disappeared in front of his face. Only two points of dim light existed.

One was a vivid red path of blood stretching out beneath his feet. The other was a cemetery bathed in dusk, directly ahead.

“Hm?”

Wei Xun made a puzzled sound. The last time he had entered An Xuefeng’s mental projection was before they went into the Beijing Suburbs Funeral Palace. He remembered entering as an orca swimming through blood and reaching the second layer of the projection, carrying the orca across the blood path toward the cemetery, before finally collapsing at the cemetery’s edge and being expelled from the projection.

He hadn’t expected to appear directly in front of the second-layer cemetery this time.

“The orca?”

Wei Xun didn’t enter the cemetery first. He looked around for the orca’s presence, and only after confirming it wasn’t there did he let his gaze settle on the cemetery itself.

In An Xuefeng’s mental projection there would certainly be a reflection of him. The solitary orca in the ocean before; what then lay inside this cemetery?

The blood path stretched all the way to the cemetery gate, and something about it gave Wei Xun a faint, inexplicable feeling. He stopped hesitating and walked forward, pushing open the narrow, rust-eaten gate. The moment his hand touched it, a dim amber light descended, like a faded old photograph. Wei Xun didn’t panic; he stayed calm and observed his surroundings carefully.

Gradually, he began to hear sounds; indistinct at first, then growing clearer.

“Hmph. A ten-year cycle?”

Young, firm, forceful, carrying a touch of restlessness and soaring confidence.

“Then let our generation be the one to break it.”

Wei Xun recognized the voice immediately. It was An Xuefeng’s, essentially identical to the young An Xuefeng from the poster.

Break the ten-year cycle.

The first time Wei Xun had learned about the ten-year pattern, he had thought something very similar. He hadn’t imagined that An Xuefeng, who had stood at the top barely after entering the Agency in his decade, had felt the same way.

“Boss, we’re all with you on this one!”

Another male voice, deep and resonant, full of trust, accompanied by loud laughter. Wang Pengpai’s voice.

“Come on, stop dragging your feet; I’m already through a whole bottle! Nobody goes home sober tonight!”

An energetic young voice with a faint northeastern accent. That was Tong Hege.

“All right, all right, stop feeding Xiao Le alcohol, he’s only nine! I catch you doing that again and I’ll knock your block off.”

A clear, spirited female voice that Wei Xun had never heard before. But a nine-year-old Mao Xiao Le placed this as the “first generation” Return from ten years ago, which meant this voice had to be Wu Lecheng.

Amid the lively, celebratory noise, what sounded like a send-off banquet before a departure, one voice remained calm in the middle of the commotion.

“If we follow standard Agency rules, our survival probability is eighty-nine point nine eight percent. But under this operation’s plan, our probability of success drops to fifty-five point nine five percent. I recommend everyone write their wills.”

That was Bai Xiaosheng’s voice.

“Die and you die, so what’s so scary about it?”

A young, childish voice, but carrying a great deal of aggression, sharp and slightly strident; the stubborn, single-minded nine-year-old Mao Xiao Le.

“As long as I kill more people, dying’s fine by me!”

“What Bai Xiaosheng said is right; we may not all come back from this one, and we don’t have a Tour Guide with us, so the probability of mental contamination leading to loss of control isn’t low.”

A steady, composed voice, very familiar. Yu Hehui.

“I’ve already written my will. But…”

His voice softened suddenly, carrying a trace of a smile.

“But there’s not that much pressure at the end of the day. Tall people hold up when the sky falls, and with that many great Tourists and great Tour Guides on the front line, it might all be resolved before it even reaches us.”

“Exactly!”

“Yu Hehui’s right!”

“Write a will? Not me, not a chance!”

“Haha, Bai Xiaosheng, you’re thinking about your childhood sweetheart back home, aren’t you?”

The conversations overlapped in warm, lively bursts, everyone talking at once, shouting and laughing, overflowing with youthful energy. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] Then the light dimmed, like nightfall arriving, and the voices gradually receded until they were gone entirely.

A figure appeared in Wei Xun’s field of vision, a silhouette. Tall and straight, short hair neat, broad shoulders tapering to a lean waist, dressed entirely in black combat clothes, military trousers, military boots, the Return Journey Saber at his back.

The young An Xuefeng.

Not a single sound around him. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] The silence was faintly eerie. Wei Xun swept his gaze across the space and found no headstones anywhere; the cemetery he had seen from outside seemed to have disappeared.

But the second-layer projection’s An Xuefeng had finally appeared, and Wei Xun wasn’t unsettled in the slightest. He walked forward and came to stand beside the young An Xuefeng.

And at that moment, he faintly heard something. Indistinct figures began to materialize ahead of them; too hazy to make out any real faces, only rough shapes and sizes. The moment these shadows appeared, the sounds that had vanished returned, and the noise of battle rose with them: the roars and shrieks of unknown creatures, human screams, the brutal sounds of tearing and crashing. It was harrowing.

“Captain An isn’t here yet, another wave of enemies coming up ahead, we can’t hold them much longer!”

An anxious male voice, accompanied by a sharp intake of breath through gritted teeth. Yu Hehui.

“Hold on, trust the captain; he’ll be here any second, and then we’ll cut all these bastards down together!”

Wang Pengpai’s voice was hoarse, but still full of unwavering trust.

“Come on, Captain An, everyone’s here, we’re just waiting for you!”

Tong Hege’s voice.

“Tactical setup is complete. If you move now, Captain, our success rate rises to ninety-nine percent.”

The shadow seemed to turn and look back toward them. That voice had to be Bai Xiaosheng’s.

But the young An Xuefeng still stood exactly where he was, motionless, as if he couldn’t hear any of it, like a stone statue.

Wei Xun, however, had grown interested.

If he was reading this correctly, this mental projection might be representing something from the battlefield ten years ago. The battlefield was exactly what Wei Xun found most fascinating, though after a moment’s analysis he felt a pang of disappointment.

These images were probably not real. From the brief accounts Wang Pengpai and the others had given before, An Xuefeng had been fighting at the very front throughout, holding back the most dangerous enemies, and had driven them back and killed them several times over. The final failure had actually come from a traitor at the rear.

So, what was in front of him was a false scene, most likely a distortion shaped from some of An Xuefeng’s most painful memories, designed to draw the young An Xuefeng into taking action.

Just as Wei Xun was thinking this, the clamor suddenly surged, as though something truly terrifying had arrived. Even Wang Pengpai’s voice rang out in stunned shock, and then came the cries of collapse and rout; countless voices screaming in terror and despair, punctuated by the sounds of brutal tearing and the voices of many people calling out An Xuefeng’s name.

“All our brothers are gone, Captain; Sister Cheng, Sister Cheng is dead.”

“Yu Hehui didn’t come back. I think he…”

“Tong-ge, Tong-ge, hang on just a little longer, don’t close your eyes, don’t close your eyes.”

“Xiao Le, Xiao Le, come back!”

“If the captain won’t move, then I’ll go avenge everyone — let go of me, I’m going in with everything I’ve got!”

“Captain, Captain, why won’t you move? What are you waiting for?”

“Should I act?”

When the cries and calls reached their most agonizing pitch, the An Xuefeng who had been completely silent finally spoke. He didn’t turn around, but Wei Xun knew he was speaking to him, or perhaps just speaking out loud. Either way, it didn’t matter.

“Why wouldn’t you?”

Wei Xun replied. The young An Xuefeng paused, then finally turned his head partway, looking down at him, voice low and rough.

“You know this is a projection. None of it is real.”

This young An Xuefeng could actually perceive that the space before him was a projection?

Even inside a mental projection, he remained cold and clear-headed.

But was it precisely that cold clarity that kept him trapped within it?

Wei Xun raised an eyebrow and studied the young An Xuefeng’s expression. When Wang Pengpai and the others screamed in despair, something shifted in An Xuefeng’s face. It was obvious; facing his comrades being torn apart and killed, even knowing it was a projection, he could not remain entirely unmoved.

Death after death was a brutal torment for him. But because he knew it was a projection designed to goad him into acting, his cold, clear intelligence refused to let him move.

So, the projection simply kept tormenting him.

“So, what if it’s a projection? What would it cost you to act?”

Wei Xun said with a light smile and took his hand. The young An Xuefeng instinctively tried to pull away, but for reasons he couldn’t explain, the person beside him gave him an inexplicable sense of familiarity. So, he didn’t let go. He held on instead, and explained with quiet calm:

“My mental state is on the verge of collapse. If I act and sink into the projection, the consequences could be severe.”

“Why is your mental state on the verge of collapse?”

Wei Xun asked again, and An Xuefeng, with uncharacteristic patience, continued to explain.

“Because there’s no Tour Guide with us…”

“I’m your Tour Guide.”

Wei Xun smiled, and his tone was unusually gentle. He extended his hand toward the stunned An Xuefeng, and the ring on his finger caught the dim light.

“I’m your linked Tour Guide.”

Wei Xun repeated it. He tilted his chin up. The difference in their heights was real, but the certainty in his expression put them on level ground.

“Trust me. You won’t lose control.”

The young An Xuefeng listened to him, and the strength in that voice, the absolute confidence in it, made something in him want to believe. He reached out in return, unable to help it, and pulled the small Tour Guide into his arms. He heard Wei Xun laugh softly, felt him tug at his collar, and then came Wei Xun’s voice against his ear, warm and smiling.

“Come on. My back.”

“Then we go in.”