Resurrection Empire

Chapter 1147 443: Farewell to the Dandelion, Sun Ai Reborn

As Ren Zhong's dream unfolded, the environment around the two of them suddenly changed.

The ruined Nameless City disappeared, replaced by a neatly arranged, brightly lit basement, precisely where Sun Ai was born.

In the laboratory outside, Ren Zhong and Sun Miao were whispering to each other.

In the room inside, Tang Shuying was resting.

This scene was precisely the day Tang Shuying successfully conceived.

Next, the scene began to fast forward rapidly.

Within a fraction of a second, Sun Miao and Tang Shuying lived out the rest of their lives.

In the following time, for the most part, only Sun Miao was in the laboratory.

At first, Tang Shuying would return occasionally.

But later on, Tang Shuying appeared daily, having a meal and chatting with Sun Miao, then sitting in a corner of the lab to daydream for a while.

The arrangements and scenes inside the laboratory were also changing rapidly, with equipment getting replaced one after another and the space continually expanding.

But there was one thing that never changed, the wheeled crib where Sun Ai had slept for many days.

Finally, one day, Sun Miao fell down and never got up again.

After Sun Miao fell, Tang Shuying rarely returned to the lab.

Until one day, the elderly Tang Shuying returned, sitting in the chair in front of the crib, staring blankly for a long time, before finally tilting her head and silently passing away.

Subsequently, the scene rapidly disappeared and disintegrated.

Ren Zhong also broke free from the dream.

He and Sun Ai returned to that ruined city once more.

At this moment, Sun Ai still had an expressionless face, with her pupils glowing red, still a cold robot.

Her face remained pale, devoid of color.

Between heaven and earth, the only things representing warm tones were her pink dress and the red gleam in her eyes.

This made her still appear lonely and stern.

Sun Ai's dreamscape remained gray and colorless, with nothing but gloomy skies, gray mist, and mottled black and brown broken stones and bricks.

Ren Zhong still quietly watched her, waiting.

Suddenly, in the corner of Ren Zhong's eye, he caught a glimpse of a rich green glow.

He was initially tense, thinking it was the power of the "Net" infiltrating Sun Ai's consciousness.

But when he calmed down and looked closely, he was shocked with his mouth agape.

Just a few meters away behind Sun Ai, two round, green leaves broke through the dark brown soil and pushed their way out.

Thus, heaven and earth were adorned with a fresh new splash of color.

The green leaves contrasted with Sun Ai's pink dress, suddenly changing the landscape of this dream.

Even though it was just a trace of green, negligible, representing life, it became the finishing touch that brought new vitality to the lifeless world.

Ren Zhong glanced at Sun Ai again, seeing no change in her.

But he didn't know if it was just his illusion; he seemed to sense a hint of human liveliness from the depths of Sun Ai's eyes, along with a faint sadness.

The patch of green continued to grow wildly.

Soon, the two round green leaves withered, but the stem in the middle suddenly radiated five deep green leaves like sunlight.

Serrated leaves spread outward from the stem as the center.

When the five serrated leaves fully grew, the central stem shot upward again, standing upright like a flagpole.

At the top end of the central stem, a small, unremarkable round ball formed.

Then the round ball suddenly opened up, blooming into a bright, dazzling golden flower.

This little golden yellow flower stood tenaciously on the desolate land, impacting Ren Zhong's eyes, gradually awakening memories he had almost lost.

After a blink, the yellow flower quickly shrank and wilted.

Fragmented leaves beneath the flower heads drooped and gathered, withering. Above the flower heads, the leaf structure formed a center that resembled flames.

The center of the "flame" began to reveal a dazzling white glow.

The withered flower head fell off, leaving the white glow standing tall in the wind.

This white glow was a bud composed of countless seeds, each resembling a small parachute.

The countless seeds shimmered with a silver brilliance, like a supernova about to explode.

Finally, a strong wind blew.

Countless comet-like seeds broke away from the stem, fluttering up and about.

The parachute-like structures allowed the seeds to drift with the wind, spreading in all directions of the ruined city before gradually falling.

In the blink of an eye, Ren Zhong saw hills and fields covered in lush green.

These green plants grew between cracks in the stones, in the soil, on top of walls, beside dry bones.

In another blink, these greens blossomed with golden flowers.

After the golden flowers faded, more silver seeds grew.

Although this world was made of mental imagery, his breathing gradually became rapid.

The dandelions had spread all over the land.

Ren Zhong knew what this meant.

These dandelions were memories of himself.

For on Source Star, dandelions had blue leaves, only the dandelions in his own heart had green leaves.

This place was a "dreamscape" created from Sun Ai's memories.

But now, Sun Ai's memories had fused with his own.

The dandelion had always been an obsession he could never shake from his heart.

That girl was someone he betrayed his principles for at the start of his revolutionary path, clearly able to save but ultimately choosing to stand by and watch her die.

At the time, Ren Zhong still feared death, and could not ascertain how many times he could be resurrected.

Back then, he came up with a myriad of reasons to convince himself.

He told himself that he couldn't give up a life every time he faced death.

He said, what if my resurrection count reaches its limit, what if this death is the final one, what then?

She was pitiful, but there were others even more pitiful in this world.

For the bigger picture, he had to let go of the trivial.

Various factors drove him to make that decision.

But as time passed and he restarted his resurrection again and again, in front of others, he was mostly at peace, but only with that girl did his guilt deepen.

He regretted his decision.

Sometimes, he wondered if he had been as decisive then as he was now, would her fate have been different?

Could he have rewritten her life?

Could she have become like Zheng Tian, Chen Hanyu, or Chen Qiao?

But he missed his chance.

This feeling of regret did not dissipate with each resurrection; instead, it grew stronger each time he died and awakened.

Occasionally, he wondered, "Now that I've gotten so used to dying, now that I can be resurrected limitless times, yet back then..."

But Ren Zhong couldn't wallow in self-reproach and had to move forward.

Thus, he always regarded the dandelion as a secret buried deep within his heart, unspeakable to others.

Yet he never expected that this secret would reappear in Sun Ai's memory this way.

Is this the girl telling me her unwillingness?

Or is it her criticizing my then-selfishness and stupidity in my subconscious?

I once told Ma Xiaoling that I am always at peace with myself, yet I was deceiving myself.

"Uncle, don't be sad. If Sister Dandelion knew that her death has always spurred you to bravely move forward, fighting for the liberation of everyone, she certainly wouldn't be sad but proud. Because her death was likely the most meaningful among all the desolate people of Source Star. I also know the biggest difference between you and us, the people of the Nameless City, you genuinely recognize the life of every individual from your heart. We couldn't do it. That's why you have become who you are today, deserving of carrying everyone's expectations and earning everyone's loyalty."

Suddenly, Ren Zhong heard a crisp child's voice.

He snapped back to reality, focusing his eyes forward.

Sun Ai, like a porcelain doll, stood smilingly in front of him, speaking while gently lifting her hand to grab the hem of his pants at the knee.

As Ren Zhong lowered his head, he finally saw the clothes he was wearing.

The same loose white patient uniform he wore when he first woke up.

Ren Zhong nodded, "Hmm."