[03:30:21]

Suddenly, three pristine capsule pods appeared on the teleportation platform.

The pod doors opened, and three figures dressed in black combat uniforms emerged from the capsules, with a “7” emblem on their chests.

In the busy but quiet Third Command Center, someone screamed, shattering a glass.

Immediately, all the people who had been working day and night rushed over, cheering.

“It’s Team Seven!”

“Team Seven is back!!!”

“Ahhhhh!!! Team Seven is back!!”

“Why are there only three people?”

“Hurry, notify the Chief Commander and Director Wang!!”

Two minutes later, amidst the commotion, three more capsule pods quietly appeared on the teleportation platform.

Inside the capsule, the transparent panel lit up.

In the slightly glaring light, Song Qinglan saw a mechanical arm handing over a nutrient solution. He took a few sips, still unable to shake off the nausea from the aftereffects of the jump, when the panel displayed another message.

[Welcome back, Song Qinglan. Welcome back to the Sky Vault.]

[Congratulations, you have completed 13 A-level missions, 21 B-level missions, 2 ultra-S-level missions, and 1 S-level mission. Current rating: ***.]

The rating result was garbled; the system seemed unable to process such a complex mission load, quickly correcting the display to: [Current Rating: Pending.]

Seeing these numbers, Song Qinglan had the mechanical arm retract the nutrient solution, then released the safety seat button and opened the capsule pod door.

“Captain Song!”

“Captain Song!!”

Teammates and staff quickly gathered around.

Emerging from the capsule pod with Song Qinglan were Li Chun and Zhou Mingxuan.

The excitement was palpable as the inspection officers quickly arrived on the scene, performing preliminary health checks one by one.

Song Qinglan, wearing a vest, slightly bent down to allow the inspector to measure his blood pressure and pulse, his gaze sweeping through the crowd. He saw Li Chun and Zhou Mingxuan, who had returned with him, as well as Tang Qi, Tang Le, and Duan Wen, who had returned slightly earlier. But the thin, frail figure was nowhere to be seen.

His heart sank, and Song Qinglan scanned the entire area again, then turned to check the capsule pods.

The six capsule pods stood quietly on the teleportation platform.

Zhou Mingxuan also noticed: “Where is Consultant Ji?”

Duan Wen: “Consultant Ji?!”

Tang Le exclaimed: “What the hell? Didn’t we come back together? Where did Consultant Ji go?”

“Quick, check if he’s still in transit!”

“Report! Team Seven is still missing one member!”

“Enter search mode, we need to confirm the last jump’s time coordinates!”

……

Ji Yushi did not return as expected.

The return of the long-missing Team Seven caused a massive sensation within the Sky Vault.

Especially after the news spread that only six of the seven members had returned, the discussions reached unprecedented levels.

Where did Team Seven go? Why did only six return? What happened to Ji Yushi, who was seconded from Ning City… Any one of these topics could provoke endless curiosity.

Unlike last time, when they were intercepted and sent back to the bubble world, this time, they were returned by the Sky Vault system, so the physical condition of Team Seven was relatively good. After the inspection officers conducted their preliminary checks, they were allowed to rest temporarily in their respective rooms at the Team Seven training ground.

Everyone understood, just like in the bubble world, this arrangement had another layer of meaning: only after they had cooperated in explaining everything that happened and completed their psychological evaluation reports would they be allowed to go home.

As the captain, Song Qinglan was not allowed to rest. Upon returning to the Sky Vault, he was immediately subjected to a three-hour interrogation by the Inspection Department.

Inspection Department Office.

After finishing his fourth glass of water, the sky outside was fully bright.

The assistant pulled open the blinds, and sunlight shot into Song Qinglan’s eyes.

The long-missed sunlight in the real world shone into his pupils, making him feel dazzled, but he did not raise his hand to block it.

The Minister of Inspection rushed in early in the morning, clearly not well-rested. However, due to the return of Team Seven, the burden in their hearts was lifted, and their attitude was much more amiable than usual, indicating a desire to let Song Qinglan go rest soon.

Before ending the conversation, he asked Song Qinglan, “Do you know why we discovered your disappearance so quickly?”

Generally, the Inspection Department only intervenes to investigate when guardians have been out of contact for more than 24 hours past their planned mission completion time. But Song Qinglan already knew that the Third Command Center discovered their disappearance on the very day they departed, May 17, and had been searching for them ever since.

However, perhaps due to the previous successful interception by the bubble world, the so-called ” Sky Vault of all eras” altered the time coordinate concealment, leaving the Inspection Department with nothing to show for their efforts.

The air conditioning was set high, and Song Qinglan had draped a shirt thrown to him by the Minister of Inspection over his shoulders.

He hadn’t had time to shave, and the somewhat scholarly appearance did nothing to soften the sharp, unyielding aura he exuded.

Hearing the question, Song Qinglan squinted his dark eyes in the sunlight, showing no sign of fatigue.

There was no doubt that even after these missions, if Song Qinglan went straight to the fighting ring now, he wouldn’t necessarily lose.

“Relax a bit,” the Minister of Inspection smiled, then provided the answer, “We discovered your disappearance so quickly because of your phone.”

Song Qinglan remembered.

“A few seconds after you departed, Minister Wang, who was still in the Command Center, received a phone call,” the Minister of Inspection said. “The caller was you.”

In the bubble world, at the last moment before being intercepted by that world.

Ji Yushi had dialed Minister Wang’s number.

The Minister of Inspection continued, “We searched your locker and found your phone, still in a powered-off state. How could someone in transit make a phone call? But fortunately, this doesn’t rank too high on the list of strange occurrences in the Sky Vault’s decade-long history.”

Time and space.

In an era that mastered time-space jumps, the Sky Vault was born, along with the people who worked for it.

“So we were convinced that it was only a matter of time before we found you,” the Minister of Inspection asked the final question, “Captain Song, where do you think Consultant Ji might have gone?”

Song Qinglan crossed his arms, his demeanor calm as he replied, “I don’t know.”

The Minister of Inspection said, “Let me put it this way: when Consultant Ji joined the Sky Vault, he filled out a goal wish form long ago. He joined the Sky Vault for a reason, but unfortunately, he didn’t have enough points and hadn’t passed the psychological evaluation. Of course, his performance has always been excellent, so it’s possible that he was forced to stay in another time and space. If you know anything, we hope you can help us find him as soon as possible.”

This was a subtle reminder.

No matter what Song Qinglan said, the Sky Vault would send inspectors to that year to track down Ji Yushi.

If Song Qinglan could inform them sooner, they could stop Ji Yushi before anything happened.

“You should have seen the settlement notice in our personal mission ratings? After completing the mission, each of us received a reward: the opportunity to travel to any time-space, as long as it doesn’t affect the timeline,” Song Qinglan said. “It was given by that higher authority Sky Vault… Maybe the higher-ups should immediately investigate its permissions. We don’t need rewards that keep hijacking our people.”

To those in the real world, they had only been gone for a month.

But to everyone in Team Seven, the time they had actually experienced was far longer.

Song Qinglan’s tone was polite, but not particularly courteous: “But rest assured, I believe Consultant Ji won’t do anything to disrupt the timeline.”

Leaving the Inspection Department, Song Qinglan’s expression was as calm as water.

He walked through the brightly lit Sky Vault base, past the teleportation pods, past many offices.

With his tall stature and long legs, he walked swiftly, encountering many familiar colleagues along the way.

Knowing that Team Seven had returned minus one member, the usually gossipy crowd noticed his poor expression and hurried pace, greeting him only conservatively.

Minister Wang stood at the end of the corridor, dressed in a pearl white suit and high heels, clearly having waited for a long time.

“Xiao Song!”

As soon as she saw him, Minister Wang extended her arms.

Song Qinglan bent slightly to embrace her: “Minister Wang.”

This wasn’t Professor Wang from the bubble world, but the real Minister Wang.

For a moment, Song Qinglan felt a sense of dislocation, as if it had been ages.

Minister Wang patted his back comfortingly, and when they parted, her eyes were already red. It was unclear whether she was comforting Song Qinglan or herself.

The sentimentality of the middle-aged female leader brought warmth to Song Qinglan, softening his tense expression.

“You’ve worked hard. When I heard you were back, I rushed to the Sky Vault and finally got to see you,” Minister Wang said. “After so many missions, this is your first encounter with the Inspection Department. Those people are like that—whether you need rest or not, they strictly follow the rules.”

Song Qinglan nodded: “I understand.”

Minister Wang had personally trained Song Qinglan and knew his temper. She had come here so early out of concern that he might not cooperate.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly; otherwise, Song Qinglan wouldn’t have been released so quickly.

Minister Wang composed herself and said gently, “The news has already been released. Your families have been notified, but there’s still a lot of follow-up work to be done in the coming days. Once everything is settled, you can all go home.”

This was standard procedure.

Song Qinglan understood as well.

But then Minister Wang added, “As for Xiao Ji’s situation… We’re temporarily unable to explain it to his family, which is a bit difficult to handle.”

Minister Wang was not Ji Yushi’s direct supervisor and did not manage the Inspection Department, so she knew nothing about Ji Yushi’s personal matters, nor was she aware of his desire to return to over a decade ago.

To her, she was more concerned that something might have happened to Ji Yushi, or that he was stranded in some time-space.

Song Qinglan was silent for a moment, then said, “I’ll contact Minister Lin.”

Minister Wang nodded and then said, “Old Lin heard you were back and called to inquire several times, saying that Xiao Ji’s cat is nearly depressed. Xiao Ji’s family members are all cultured people. His father is a professor at Ningcheng University, and his brother is also a teacher, so it won’t be too hard to explain things to them—”

“Ji Yushi’s cat?”

Song Qinglan remembered that before Ji Yushi left, he mentioned that he missed his cat. But now, it seemed he didn’t miss it that much, or else he wouldn’t have run off.

“Yes.” Minister Wang walked with Song Qinglan to the staircase, “He has three cats. When his family couldn’t take care of them due to some circumstances, they sent one to Director Lin.”

Ji Yushi’s adoptive father was friends with Director Lin, so this wasn’t surprising.

However, Minister Wang’s words gave Song Qinglan a vague sense that something was amiss, but that feeling quickly faded during their conversation.

After chatting a bit more, Minister Wang patted his back and kindly said, “Shave your beard and get some rest. Go ahead.”

Why was everyone so focused on his beard?

Song Qinglan didn’t have time to worry about that and quickly stepped into the Team Seven training ground, where the five other team members were sitting, looking like they hadn’t slept.

“Captain Song.”

“What did the Inspection Department say to you?”

“Damn it, why aren’t they in a hurry to find Consultant Ji?!”

After spending so many days together and going through experiences that would take most people years, the team had grown close.

Everyone was worried about Ji Yushi, especially Li Chun, who was usually carefree but now felt so guilty and self-blaming for being the reason they returned in batches that he wanted to bang his head against the wall. Even though the gap between their two returns was only two minutes, he still thought it was his fault—as if nothing would have happened to Consultant Ji if he hadn’t been separated from Captain Song.

Song Qinglan briefly told everyone about the conversation, only leaving out Ji Yushi’s decision.

Zhou Mingxuan, who had been silent all this time, finally asked, “Captain Song, do you know where Consultant Ji went?”

Everyone was shocked—did Song Qinglan know?

Song Qinglan didn’t deny it, but he didn’t admit it either.

Others might have seen from his expression that they shouldn’t ask further, but Zhou Mingxuan, knowing him well, wasn’t afraid.

“When you were saying goodbye at the central block, you asked Consultant Ji to wait for you, saying there was something important he needed to seriously consider,” Zhou Mingxuan said. “If it weren’t for you mentioning ‘that year, I’ll go with you,’ I would have thought you two were getting together.”

“Damn, it did seem kind of like that at the time,” Duan Wen added. “I didn’t think it was odd.”

“Agreed,” Tang Le raised his hand.

“It didn’t seem like a serious conversation; it felt more like you were pursuing someone,” even Tang Qi chimed in. “I’ve seen Li Chun flirt with girls, and it’s pretty similar.”

Song Qinglan: “…”

Zhou Mingxuan smirked and then asked, “So, did Consultant Ji use his reward to go to another time-space?”

The room fell silent.

No matter what Consultant Ji chose, once the door was closed, it was a matter within Team Seven.

As long as Song Qinglan wanted to, he could handle these people.

But after all, they weren’t fools, and they genuinely cared about Ji Yushi. Song Qinglan had no choice but to vaguely respond, “Hmm.”

Tang Qi said, “But wait, didn’t Consultant Ji agree to wait for Captain Song?”

Everyone who had witnessed the farewell remembered this detail.

Tang Le shook his head and said, “At first, he didn’t agree, but later it seemed like he did.”

Duan Wen added, “He said something like ‘ha sa la mu?'”

Tang Le confirmed, “Yes, that’s it. Doesn’t it mean everything went well?!”

Everyone was talking at once, making Song Qinglan’s temples throb.

“You must have heard wrong.” At that moment, Li Chun, who was squatting on the ground, raised his hand weakly and said, “Although, um… ‘ha sa la mu’ actually means ‘I like you.'”

Everyone: “!!!”

Instantly, the training ground fell silent enough to hear a pin drop.

Song Qinglan lowered his hand from rubbing his temples and stiffly turned his head: “What did you say?”

Li Chun glanced at Song Qinglan, remembering the captain’s PTSD, and sheepishly said, “During those boring days in the space capsule, when we couldn’t party every day, I learned it from Big Beard, planning to use it to flirt with girls when we got back.”

He recklessly added, “But why would Consultant Ji say that! I wasn’t there, and I’m just a bad student… Maybe you all pronounced it wrong, so it must be my mistake!!”