Opening Her Heart

The G-class train sped steadily across the North China Plain, like a silver shuttle piercing the deepening Twilight.

Outside the window, the Imperial Capital's brilliant lights gradually gave way to harvested wilderness and the dark outlines of distant mountains.

The lingering glow of the sunset cast a warm golden sheen over the carriage, softening the contours of Chen Xi's profile.

Li Jingyi sat by the window, her gaze occasionally sweeping over the scenery flashing past outside.

But more often, her eyes rested on the man beside her.

Her fingers were naturally intertwined with his, resting on his warm knee as a silent intimacy and understanding flowed between their fingertips.

After the awe of attending the Imperial Capital's military parade and the companionship they had shared day and night these past few days, their relationship had entered a brand-new, unspoken stage.

The air was filled with a sweetness and tranquility.

Chen Xi's other hand unconsciously rubbed the smooth edge of his phone, but his gaze was not focused on it.

He was immersed in the turmoil within his heart.

The era-defying equipment displayed during the parade, especially the parts whose truth he knew, were like a key that had opened a tightly sealed door in his heart.

He longed to share with Li Jingyi that grander, truer universe into which he had poured countless efforts—not the brutal details of mountains of corpses, seas of blood, despair, and terror, but humanity's tenacity in struggling to survive within a dark galaxy, and the deeper reason he had chosen to bring fragments of that world's technology back here to quietly strengthen his homeland.

He believed that, with Li Jingyi's perceptiveness and intelligence, she would understand the weight and necessity behind it.

Yet every time the words reached his lips, he forced them back down.