How could one day be enough?

It really wasn’t enough at all.

Ji Yushi returned to his private training room as if nothing had happened. As he closed the door, the mechanical arm scanned his body.

It quickly emitted a red light and promptly handed him a bottle of mineral water and a towel.

This was because it detected an irregular heart rate and sweat on his skin, assuming that the lifeform had just undergone intense training or vigorous exercise, not realizing it was due to a recent confession.

Ji Yushi took the mineral water and downed half of the bottle in one go, but Song Qinglan’s words still echoed in his ears.

Even though he hadn’t seen Song Qinglan’s expression when he said those things, he could now vividly imagine it, picturing his arrogant demeanor.

“I don’t want to be just your friend, and I don’t want to be just your captain. I want to openly take care of you, so you don’t dare run off, so you don’t have to carry everything alone. I want to be with you, to hold you, to—”

To do what?

Ji Yushi gripped the bottle tightly, feeling his face heat up again.

Even if he was “bent,” that was still a pretty straightforward way to say it!

Ji Yushi wanted to calm down. He tilted his head back and finished the remaining half bottle of water in one go. The mechanical arm then took the empty bottle away.

Calming down failed.

Straight guys are too blunt.

Ji Yushi took off his black combat uniform and stepped into the shower.

As the warm water enveloped him, the scene of them jumping from the aerial track into the water in the bubble world resurfaced.

The lake water pressed against his eardrums, and countless small bubbles floated upwards in front of him.

Song Qinglan had turned him around, wrapping his long arms around his waist, holding him tightly in his embrace. The handcuffs that bound them were as cold as the lake water, but the chest pressed against him was solid and warm.

He clung tightly to Song Qinglan as they were pulled out of the water.

With every move, he could feel the hidden strength of the muscles beneath Song Qinglan’s skin.

Ji Yushi shook the water from his hair, bracing himself against the wall as the shower water ran down his forehead, eyelashes, and chin.

He let the water run over him for a long time, but his thoughts remained restless.

He turned off the shower, pulled a large towel from the side, and wrapped it around himself before walking barefoot out of the shower.

Another scene appeared in his mind.

The bathroom doorway in the space capsule.

Song Qinglan, emanating cold air, leaned lazily against the wall. A leaf, picked up from the rainforest, was stuck behind his ear, and he held a small black-and-white handheld game console. Hearing a sound, his deep black eyes looked over: “All the high scores on the leaderboard are yours?”

Ji Yushi was drying his hair as he returned to the training room.

It didn’t take long for his hair to dry, and he pressed a switch, saying, “Rest mode.”

The mechanical arm retreated to the side.

The walls lit up, and a small, fairly comfortable-looking bed slowly descended in the center of the room.

Ji Yushi climbed onto the bed and lay on his side in a somewhat tense position.

A faint sound reached his ears.

The room’s air conditioning was set to a high level, and the mechanical arm, detecting his body temperature, gently pulled up the blanket, covering him from his feet upward.

“It’s me.” That person had wrapped him in a dirty blanket, holding him tightly, and softly said, “Don’t be afraid.”

Ji Yushi blinked slowly.

Even though his heartbeat was still irregular, his thoughts were still in turmoil, and his palms were still hot, he closed his eyes.

After going through the Rubik’s Cube, returning to that year, and being questioned by the Inspection Department, Ji Yushi’s body was exhausted. He thought he wouldn’t be able to sleep, but even in this state of heightened brain activity, he drifted off.

In his dream, he was running.

Countless monsters chased after him.

He was stuck in a wrecked car, his nose filled with the smell of blood, and in his despair, he saw a large hand with clearly defined knuckles reaching out to him.

They ran together.

Suddenly, the ground beneath him disappeared, and he felt himself falling from a great height.

The intense feeling of weightlessness jolted Ji Yushi awake, and he realized he was so hungry that his stomach was cramping, and his chest was practically touching his back.

He had slept for almost ten hours.

Ji Yushi sat there for a moment, slowly recalling the end of his dream.

Inside the overturned train, Song Qinglan had grabbed onto the bathroom’s shelf, his face flushed as he used his other hand to hold onto Ji Yushi at the last moment.

Ji Yushi ran his fingers through his hair.

He sighed.

Even after sleeping, he didn’t feel much better.

“Consultant Ji, have you made up your mind?!”

As soon as Ji Yushi stepped out of his private training room, Zhou Mingxuan squinted his small eyes and asked with a smile.

Ji Yushi: “…”

“Don’t take too long to decide. Our Captain Song is in high demand!” Zhou Mingxuan added as he took off his wristband, “Come on, let’s go eat.”

Ji Yushi looked around and asked calmly, “Where is everyone?”

Zhou Mingxuan replied, “They all went ahead. I figured you’d wake up soon, so I stayed behind to wait for you.”

The Jiangcheng branch of the Sky Vault was practically the headquarters for the Guardians of China. In addition to over a hundred official Guardians, there were hundreds of staff members and trainees, making up a total of over a thousand people. With such a massive system in operation, not only were there several command centers, but there were also four dining halls.

Guardians typically dined at the Guardian dining hall, and when Ji Yushi had previously come to Jiangcheng for training or had just been transferred there, he had always eaten with the trainees. He had never been to the Guardian dining hall.

As the two of them left the training ground, Ji Yushi noticed that quite a few people were staring at him.

“It’s not every day you return from an A-level mission after a whole month. You’re already famous,” Zhou Mingxuan explained. “And since you were the last to return, people are even more curious about you.”

The Sky Vault may be a high-level research institution, but there’s nothing it had more of than gossip. If it weren’t for that, Ji Yushi’s gossip wouldn’t have spread from Ningcheng to Jiangcheng, and the impression of him and Song Qinglan among the people at the Jiangcheng branch likely still remained at the stage of being at odds with each other.

With Ji Yushi returning late, some people speculated whether it had anything to do with their supposed discord, which is why Ji Yushi was receiving so many curious looks.

As they walked, they passed by several departments of the Sky Vault.

Zhou Mingxuan casually introduced them and added, “When you first arrived, you should have gone through these procedures. But… well, it was all just a misunderstanding!”

Ji Yushi said, “I didn’t want to interact with you all back then either.”

Zhou Mingxuan scratched the back of his head, “Thinking back, we were pretty dumb back then!”

Ji Yushi didn’t mince words, nodding in agreement, “Yes.”

“Damn!” Zhou Mingxuan laughed, pushing open the door to the dining hall, “This way!”

Everything felt like yesterday, yet so much had changed.

It wasn’t until this moment that Ji Yushi truly felt they had returned to their original time and space.

The large Guardian dining hall was made of glass walls, shaped like a well-cut diamond.

In the evening, the fiery clouds burned red in the sky, and through the glass dome, the magnificent orange-red seemed within reach. From the glass walls, one could see the dense high-rise buildings of the city and the traffic moving through the city’s aerial roads.

In an instant, the view through the glass curtain wall changed.

The high-rises disappeared, replaced by the low-rise buildings of the city from a century ago. The roads were wide, and the sky was a deep blue—this was the view of Jiangcheng from a hundred years ago.

The so-called glass walls were nothing more than holographic projections simulating time’s reversal.

Unlike the Guardians who were indifferent to it, Ji Yushi stared in awe for a couple of seconds, surprised at the difference in hardware between the Guardians and Recorders. The level of importance placed on the two was obviously completely different. He didn’t know if all national time management departments were like this or if it was just theirs.

The dining hall was almost empty now that peak dining time had passed.

Team Seven had chosen a table nearly three meters long, each occupying a section. Each one of them was tall and imposing, looking as fierce as ever, lounging around as if on vacation, chatting leisurely.

“Consultant Ji!” Li Chun was the first to spot them, standing up eagerly and wiping a chair with his hand, “Sit, sit, sit!”

Zhou Mingxuan gave Li Chun a shove on the head, “Suck-up!”

Li Chun glared back, “What do you know!”

“Consultant Ji!” Duan Wen, sitting at the other end, tossed something across the table, “Catch!”

Ji Yushi caught it easily and looked down to see it was a bottle of sweet-and-sour flavored nutrient solution.

They needed to supplement with this stuff for a few days after a time jump.

Duan Wen said, “Drink up!”

Ji Yushi accepted it with a polite “Thank you.”

There were only five people present, and Song Qinglan was nowhere to be seen. Feeling slightly relieved, Ji Yushi was caught off guard when Tang Le asked, “Consultant Ji, have you made up your mind?”

The table fell silent.

Everyone was looking at Ji Yushi.

“You must have made up your mind by now!”

“Hahaha!! I knew it!”

“This isn’t something we should be asking about; let’s wait for Captain Song to ask himself!”

Ji Yushi: “…”

Should he not have come out to eat today?

Tang Le didn’t seem to care about the answer, just grinned and continued with his nonsensical chatter.

Everyone else followed suit.

The fact that the captain had turned gay, passionately confessed in front of everyone, and that there was suddenly a new couple in the team didn’t bother them at all. Aside from a bit of teasing and banter, they were like high schoolers in their excitement, simple and endlessly enthusiastic.

After drinking the nutrient solution, Ji Yushi’s hunger didn’t subside much.

Everyone else had almost finished eating, and as Ji Yushi looked up to see where he could get something to eat, his gaze met the newly seated, refreshed Song Qinglan.

His beard was shaved, and his hair was neatly trimmed.

Song Qinglan’s clean and handsome face was once again on display, his demeanor sharp and domineering, though his tone was lazy: “Look, if there’s anything you don’t like, don’t eat it.”

“Hey! How could there be anything not to like!”

“Like, like, we like everything, especially what Captain Song picked out—Consultant Ji loves it all!!”

In an instant, the group regressed into elementary school students, jeering and teasing.

It became clear why the seat next to Ji Yushi had been left empty.

A tray was pushed in front of him, filled with an assortment of snacks, porridge, pasta, vegetables, and meats, all presented in delicate bowls, clearly a lot of thought had gone into it.

Ji Yushi: “…”

He really shouldn’t have come out to eat!

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Ji Yushi picked up his utensils and calmly said, “Thank you, I can do it myself next time.”

Song Qinglan agreed.

He didn’t do much after that, just joined in on the casual conversation, allowing Ji Yushi to fill his stomach without feeling too uncomfortable under his gaze.

When Ji Yushi finished eating and thought he could finally leave, he thought he heard Song Qinglan say something like, “Thirteen hours left.”

Ji Yushi: “?”

Song Qinglan didn’t look at him or make any movement, his expression unchanged.

“Your consideration period has thirteen hours left.”

The pleasant male voice came through the subcutaneous communicator, entering Ji Yushi’s mind.

Ji Yushi instantly realized that their communication channel hadn’t been disconnected yet. This was the first time Song Qinglan had spoken to him through the private channel.

In a way that only the two of them could hear.

He watched as Song Qinglan picked up a bottle of water from the table, twisted the cap open, and took a sip.

Then the deep male voice sounded in his mind again.

“Consultant Ji, time is passing so slowly.”