Return of the Tide
The ship sailed quietly on the night sea. Long Tian sat leaning against the bow, his coat mostly wet, the sea breeze making him feel the fabric slowly drying. He leaned against the gunwale, his gaze fixed on the sea ahead, but for the rest of the time he didn't look back at the water, as if a path that had already been traversed had been perfectly placed in its proper place, no longer needing to be looked back a second time.
The Dragon Shadow hovered at a close angle above his shoulders and back, its wings half-spread, its four eyes slightly lowered, and the layer of light on its forehead continuously illuminating the night sea. After the Light Core was embedded, the edges of its scales gained a faint luster, like an old vessel that had been re-glazed and, after being fired in a kiln, acquired a more substantial texture. Long Tian could feel it shining continuously behind him with a uniform brightness, without needing any additional adjustments.
As the ship passed the end of the light-colored band, the seawater's color returned to deep blue from light gray. The person at the stern adjusted the rudder after crossing the boundary, allowing the bow to move steadily towards the shore without much adjustment. Yu Jin stood up from the hatch and walked to the bow, squatting down beside Long Tian. The light from the dark gray bead shone on the night sea, maintaining a constant distance from the light layer of Dragon Shadow. He squatted beside Long Tian for a while, then asked, "The Light Core occupies a fixed position in the gently sloping structure within your body, like it's embedded in a pre-set slot. You feel no repulsion, no deviation; it operates stably."
Long Tian maintained his seated position on the deck for a moment, then spoke, "It didn't reject anything. The rotation speed of the Origin Return Pearl didn't change, and the new core didn't deviate. It was as if everything had been reserved in its place before the Light Core settled; it was simply placed in order."
As dawn broke, the boat entered the nearshore waters. The outline of Longfish Bay gradually became clear in the morning mist, and the cliffs on both sides of the bay entrance presented symmetrical silhouettes in the rising sun, like two pages of a book opened and held at a fixed angle. After the boat docked Long Tian and Yu Jin went aboard the pier and walked out of Longfish Bay along the dirt road, stopping for a while at a fork in the road. The morning light rose from the slope, illuminating the loose soil on the road with a uniform warm color, and a fine layer of dew clung to the grass by the roadside, gradually thinning and fading under the continuous sunlight.
Long Tian stood at the crossroads for a moment, glancing down at the Dragon Shadow behind him. Even after the Light Core was embedded, the faint luster at the edges of its scales was still visible in the morning light, as if it retained its underlying color under the sunlight. He glanced at it, then looked away and began to walk along the fork in the road. Yu Jin followed behind him, and the two of them walked one after the other across the fields in the morning light, heading towards the stone house along the slope.
When Long Tian returned to the stone house, Long Tieshan was squatting by the stove boiling water. Hearing footsteps at the door, he squatted there for a while, then put the last piece of firewood into the fire. He stood up, dusted off his hands, and turned to stand at the threshold. Sunlight streamed in through the doorway, spreading a bright patch of light across the ground in front of the threshold. As Long Tian stepped across the threshold into that light, the layer of light on the vertical line on the forehead of the Dragon Shadow shadow behind him briefly brightened upon contact with the light patch, maintaining its brightness as it continued to shine into the house. Yu Jin followed him across the threshold, his figure partially cut off by the door frame before fully entering the house. Long Tieshan stood by the threshold, watching them return to their rooms without asking any questions. He sat back down by the stove, lifted the kettle from the stove, and poured hot water into two empty bowls on the table. Steam rose gently above the bowls, forming a continuously moving white mist in the morning light. Before reaching the ceiling, the mist was deflected by the wind from the window and dispersed into the air inside the house.