Am I dead?

Time, in dreams, flows quietly by in a logic incomprehensible to ordinary people.

Every time Lu Yan falls asleep, his consciousness jumps through time.

He thought he had just closed his eyes and taken a nap, but when he opened them again, seven days had jumped back in time.

On the other side of the second floor, the thick curtains on an empty bed swayed slightly.

Lu Yan gasped sharply and sat up in bed.

"Ouch... my whole body aches."

He rubbed the back of his neck, looked down at himself, and saw that he was still wearing that thin cotton nightgown and was still barefoot.

Lu Yan glanced out the window at the cave that Jian Lake, and thought to himself: When will I be able to wake up? Aemeath is still waiting for me at home.

He stretched lazily, lifted the curtain, and walked downstairs.

"Rover! Have you gotten up yet?" he said loudly.

On the first floor, the Rover was sitting at a workbench, carefully reading a book in his hand.

Little Aemeath sat blankly on the sofa like a soulless rag doll, holding a cup of hot cocoa in her hands, staring vacantly at the leaping fire in the fireplace.

During those seven days, Little Aemeath barely spoke. Even when the Rover tried various ways to feed her and play with her, she would just mechanically swallow the food, and the light in her eyes grew dimmer and dimmer.

The Rover was already planning to return to Rinascita and take her to see Luhes.

The instant Lu Yan's nonchalant voice came from the stairwell.

The air on the first floor seemed to have been suddenly sucked out.

The Rover paused in his book-turning, his eyes widening instantly as he turned to look at the stairs in disbelief.

Little Aemeath, her water glass falling to the carpet with a thud, spilling hot cocoa everywhere. But she didn't care about that; she abruptly looked up at the stairs.

Lu Yan was scratching his cheek, which had a red mark from being pressed down, yawning as he walked down the last step.

When he looked up and saw the two people, one big and one small, staring at him with expressions of utter disbelief, he was momentarily stunned.

Lu Yan subconsciously touched his face, then looked at his pajamas to make sure there was nothing exposed.

A mocking smile appeared on his face. He raised an eyebrow and said in a deliberately smug tone:

"What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Did I become handsome again after sleeping?"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a cry of "Waaah!" was heard.

With a cry, Little Aemeath, like a pink cannonball launched from the gun, sprang from the sofa at incredible speed and pounced directly at Lu Yan.

Lu Yan was knocked back two steps by the enormous force, almost losing his balance.

Before he could react, Little Aemeath's hands were already tightly wrapped around his waist, her face buried in his chest, and she burst into tears.

"You're not dead! Waaaaah... You're not dead!"

Little Aemeath's tears instantly soaked Lu Yan's pajamas. She cried her heart out, her voice even cracking, her hands gripping him tightly, as if afraid he would disappear into thin air again in the next second.

"Rover said you're dead! Waaah... You big liar! You're all big liars!"

Lu Yan's smile froze.

He stiffly lowered his head, looking at Little Aemeath crying uncontrollably in his arms, his mind going blank for a moment.

Am I dead?

I just took a nap, how could I be dead?

Lu Yan suddenly raised his head, his eyes looking through the little girl in his arms and straight at the Rover sitting not far away.

His face screamed, 'So you're saying I'm dead?'

The Rover sat at the workbench, still holding a book in his hand. But he felt a little awkward under Lu Yan's gaze.

She coughed lightly, avoiding Lu Yan's gaze, and turned her eyes to the snowfield outside the window.

"Um..." The Rover's tone carried an unusual hint of guilt, but she still forced herself to maintain her logic, "From the perspective of Solaris and Frequency theory... your Frequency fluctuations at that time were completely zero, with no spatial transfer trajectory whatsoever."

"In Solaris, this... this is called death. I'm just stating a fact."

What the hell is this?! Couldn't you have just lied and said I went somewhere far away? You could have just said I died!

While mentally complaining, Lu Yan gently patted Little Aemeath's back to soothe her out-of-control emotions.

He sensed something was wrong.

He looked at the Rover and tentatively asked, "Rover, how long has it been since you fell asleep last night?"

The Rover turned his head, a complex light flashing in his eyes.

She gave Lu Yan a deep look and uttered a number that sent chills down his spine. "Seven days."

You disappeared for seven whole days.

Lu Yan was completely stunned.

It turns out this dream wasn't a continuous sequence.

For him, closing and opening his eyes was just a moment, but for the person in the dream, seven days had already passed.

Feeling the violent trembling of Little Aemeath in my arms, and looking at her eyes that were red and swollen from crying.

Lu Yan felt a dull pain in his heart.

He couldn't imagine how Little Aemeath, who already lacked a sense of security, had managed to get through the seven days he was gone.

"Sorry."

Lu Yan put away all his joking thoughts.

He crouched down, letting Little Aemeath hang around his neck; the weight in his arms felt so real.

Little Aemeath's cries gradually weakened, until only the occasional twitching of her shoulders and soft breaths remained.

Lu Yan simply held her quietly, comforting her.

After a long while, Little Aemeath peeked out from his arms somewhat embarrassedly, rubbing her swollen eyes haphazardly with the back of her hand. Her starry eyes, which had been lifeless, were now staring blankly at Lu Yan's face, as if trying to confirm whether the person in front of her was real.

Aemeath took a breath, sniffed, and asked, "I haven't asked yet... what's your name?"

Looking at her face, where her voice was still trembling but she was trying hard to appear serious, Lu Yan felt as if a cat had gently scratched his heart.

He reached out and gently wiped away the tears clinging to her cheeks, his eyes reflecting her small figure.

My name is Lu Yan.

He answered, enunciating each word clearly and deliberately, his voice steady and clear, "The 'Lu' of 'land,' and the 'Yan' of 'derived.'"

Little Aemeath tilted her head and repeated the two syllables:

"Lu... Yan?"

The corners of her mouth finally slowly and slightly curved upwards into a smile.

Although there were still tear stains in the corners of her eyes, this was the first smile she had shown in the past seven days.

"My name is Aemeath." She puffed out her small chest, and her voice finally had a touch of vibrant energy.

"Aemeath, what a beautiful name." Lu Yan nodded with a smile.

Looking into her expectant eyes, Lu Yan opened his mouth, the words "I will never leave again" almost slipping out.

But the words were on the tip of his tongue, and he swallowed them back.

In this illogical dream, the next time I close my eyes, it might be another seven days, or I might even wake up.

Although the dream was beautiful, his personality prevented him from making promises that were destined to be unfulfilled; he was merely a passerby caught in the current of life.

He simply reached out again and gently ruffled her slightly disheveled pink hair, whispering, "I'll remember, Aemeath."