Leaving the Tower was something Yan Wei had been planning since the end of the dungeon, but Yan Mingguang had been busy rebuilding the rules, always saying “soon, soon,” which eventually dragged on for quite some time.
By the time everything was running smoothly as they had envisioned, more than two years had passed since Yan Mingguang had brought Yan Wei out of the dungeon. Fortunately, Yan Mingguang had been adjusting the flow of time, so not too much time had passed in the outside world.
Yan Wei had initially wanted to invite Lin Qing and the others.
But those two had been at odds over whether to use their combined points to exchange for Pandora’s Box and separate their bodies. Lin Qing and Lin Zhen’s Pandora’s Box had yet to be used, and every time Yan Wei saw them, he was annoyed by their “self-talk.”
Thinking of Lin Zhen’s unpredictable personality, if they went to the outside world, he might just put on a show of schizophrenia right there…
After discussing with Lin Qing and Yu Feizhou, Yan Wei decided to wait until Lin Qing and Lin Zhen resolved their issues before taking them out.
Over the past couple of years, those who were supposed to leave had left, taking nothing and leaving nothing behind. Those who didn’t want to leave, like him, remembered everything and had rooted themselves here, merging with this completely different world, as if they had no connection with another stable civilization.
Only he remembered all those passersby, bringing with him a Yan Mingguang who had no origin.
Before leaving, Yan Wei stood in front of the mirror in his apartment in the Tower world and looked at himself for a while.
“What are you looking at?” Yan Mingguang walked up from behind, reaching out to adjust the scarf that Yan Wei had casually draped around his neck.
Yan Wei continued to look at his reflection in the mirror, catching a glimpse of Yan Mingguang standing beside him in his peripheral vision. He said, “Looking at the traces these years have left on me.”
The young man in the mirror still had a youthful face. After adulthood, one’s appearance doesn’t change much; the bone structure remains stable, and only the skin shows signs of aging over time. Yan Wei hadn’t entered the Tower too late, but it wasn’t too early either, so there shouldn’t have been much change in this regard.
But he suddenly remembered the night before entering the Tower, standing in front of the mirror while washing up, and felt that something had drastically changed.
“Never mind,” he said. “Sometimes leaving and returning is worth celebrating, but the feeling is completely different. I don’t need to find anyone—as for my parents, I was never close to them anyway.”
Yan Wei’s parents had a strained relationship, and he had lived alone since childhood, mingling with all sorts of people, accustomed to a carefree life, with almost no connection to his parents.
Meaning.
He was never someone who cared much about roots or origins, and now, going back to see old friends and acquaintances didn’t hold much significance for him.
Yan Mingguang understood his meaning in an instant: “Then I won’t make up a reason for your disappearance.”
“Mm, no need. Let everything start anew.”
Yan Mingguang finished adjusting the scarf.
Yan Wei turned around, half his face buried in the scarf, his exposed eyes looking up to meet Yan Mingguang’s gaze.
Even with half his face hidden, the slightly curved peach blossom eyes still revealed a smile.
When Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang left the Tower, it was the Qingming season in the outside world, with cool breezes and drizzling rain.
Yan Wei took Yan Mingguang to an office building, where Yan Mingguang handed an unsigned file to the front desk, instructing them to give it to someone working there.
It was a document containing information about the Tower and human emotions, extracted after Yan Mingguang accessed the Tower’s rules, removing all dungeon-related information and leaving only the origins and generation of the Tower. Whoever read this document would understand the cause and effect of the Tower but wouldn’t know that there was a whole other world inside.
After Yan Mingguang finished, they returned to Yan Wei and sat in a coffee shop across from the office building, watching the front desk through a floor-to-ceiling glass window, obscured by the rain.
Several hours later, in the twilight rain, Yan Wei saw a familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar figure take the file from the front desk.
Familiar because it was an old friend, unfamiliar because they hadn’t seen each other in years.
He chuckled and stood up, saying, “Let’s go.”
“Friend?”
“A friend who studies strange phenomena. That unanswered phone call he made to me back then—this is my response.”
Yan Mingguang followed beside Yan Wei as they left the coffee shop.
They walked through the automatic glass doors, and Yan Mingguang opened an umbrella, pulling Yan Wei close under the rain, his gaze fixed ahead.
Yan Wei watched as the man held the umbrella handle with one hand and slowly extended the other, exposing it to the drizzle, catching the fine rain in his broad palm.
It was cool, but not cold.
He didn’t interrupt Yan Mingguang. These hands would touch more reality in the future, eventually becoming so accustomed to it that they would want to shield themselves from the annoying drizzle like any other pedestrian.
Yan Wei idly waited for Yan Mingguang, aimlessly looking around amidst the car honks and splashing water, when he suddenly caught sight of another familiar figure.
At the corner of the street, at a crossroads.
A taxi slowly decelerated and finally stopped by the curb.
Ahead, two women were hailing the taxi. Both looked to be around thirty, not particularly young, with plain but pleasant appearances, the kind of faces you’d see among countless people, the most common style found in alleys and corners.
The two women seemed to be discussing something as they walked up, just as the taxi driver rolled down the window and leaned out slightly, asking, “Where to?”
For the first time, Yan Wei saw Geng Liang without a black cloth tied over his eyes, and with that question, he confirmed it was him.
When Geng Liang left the Tower, besides having his memories erased and a fabricated story to fill the gap of his absence, Yan Mingguang had also restored his senses—after all, in the Tower world, perception could replace these, but in the outside world, they were too important for an ordinary person.
Who would have thought that after regaining his sight and hearing, he would become a taxi driver, shuttling through streets and alleys, constantly on the move.
Yan Wei was both amused and exasperated.
At the corner, one of the women with long black hair named a location, and Geng Liang frowned, “Can’t go there, too remote, no return fares.”
The two women offered to pay double the fare to cover the return trip.
Geng Liang still shook his head, “No, no, it’s too far.”
The two women, who had been waiting for a while, looked disappointed but not surprised at Geng Liang’s response.
The taxi window slowly rolled up from the bottom.
The two continued their conversation, which didn’t seem pleasant. One of them called the other by her full name in a somewhat earnest tone, saying something about her family pressuring her to get married and urging her not to delay. The woman who was called by her full name just shook her head, apparently not agreeing with her friend’s opinion.
Yan Wei caught the name of the woman with long black hair.
It was a very ordinary female name, the kind of pleasant combination of characters commonly used for girls, a name you might call out on the street and have more than one person respond.
It had nothing to do with him. Even Geng Liang was just one of the living people who had left the Tower, someone he recognized but who didn’t recognize him. Passing by was already the best connection they could have.
Yan Mingguang had already withdrawn his hand, and Yan Wei didn’t linger, pulling Yan Mingguang’s arm as they turned and left.
But in this insignificant, bustling street corner, the slowly rising window suddenly paused, then turned and rolled down again.
Geng Liang leaned out once more, as if casually saying, “I just remembered, I happen to be heading in the direction of where you want to go for something. Want a ride? Just the meter fare, no need for extra return payment.”
The two women quickly thanked him, closed their umbrellas, and got into the car.
A moment later, the sound of the engine mingled with the wind, the wheels splashing through the wet ground, carrying a promise from who knows where, heading toward the distant suburbs.
The Qingming drizzle covered the vast expanse, shrouding countless spirits returning to their hometowns.
