Many years later, if anyone was still alive...
Perhaps they would still remember those four hours on January 3, 2016, and all those people who would never return.
In that massive mission involving the Top Ten Branches, a year in the making, how many had died, and how many had lived?
For the dead, there was resentment, regret, remorse, and release.
For the living, there was grief, anguish, fear, and punishment.
No torture in this world was crueler than memory, because those who bore their memories had to go on bearing even more pain.
10:10 p.m.
A snapped Red Cord hung from Li Guanqi's mangled left limb, fluttering freely in the wind like a severed bond.
That swaying cord resembled the willow branches in his memories, and the colors in that girl's braids.
It flickered before his eyes, drawing his memories back to a time long, long ago.
Lu Caiwei skipped up to Li Guanqi, wrapped herself around his arm, and grinned foolishly at him.
Two little white canine teeth peeked between her pursed lips as she leaned close to his ear and whispered a "little secret."
"Actually, I don't like doing missions at all. I just want to protect you whenever there's danger..."
The Red Cord snapped a second time in the wind. The merciless gale raged so fiercely that it swept this last remnant of longing into the air and blew it away without a trace.
"Protect you..."
"Protect you..."
"You..."
Li Guanqi finally snapped out of his daze and broke into wrenching sobs.
His ravaged body could not catch up with the Red Cord as it drifted farther and farther away. He crawled desperately forward with his last remaining hand, but it was futile.
Just like a bond whose destined course had already ended, the harder