prisoner of time

At that moment, he couldn't refuse Yan Tuo's request.

He couldn't keep him stuck like this anymore.

He finally broke the time cage that imprisoned the other party with his own hands, and let the other party return to his own track—this is what he should have done in the first place, and he came here to reverse this mistake.

Everything should go back to the way it was, and he should... go back.

The world of the Kingdom of Time is on the verge of destruction, and the light of time in the world has long been dimmed. The moment the barrier of the prison was broken, Yan Tuo was unconsciously dragged along with the whole world to a gray death.

He just stood there quietly watching the figure move away step by step, getting farther and farther away from him step by step, getting closer and closer to the gray nothingness.

That's the way it should be.Any existence has its time limit, and once the time limit is over, existence ceases to exist.

Just because it cannot last as long as eternity, everything that happens during the existence of these tiny existences is so precious: to strive for a goal, to smile in order to hold the hand of the one you love, to cherish it. Saddened by the passing of things, people try to make their existence more exciting and meaningful just because everything they experience and possess is short-lived and impermanent.

He has seen too much death and destruction, he has seen too much disappear forever, he should have been indifferent, he should have regarded it as normal, he should have returned to his past after solving this mistake.

But when he saw that figure was really about to be swallowed by gray and die, he couldn't help but chased after him and grabbed the opponent's hand.

"Don't go..."

Yan Tuo froze for a moment, then stopped in his tracks.

Shi Shi looked down, and his hand had already grasped the opponent's wrist.

In that split second, he possessed physicality.

From now on, he has an existence in this world, from now on he will be restrained by himself, from then on he has a bondage, and has the past, present and future.

He will never go back.

But he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

He raised his eyes with a smile, bent down and kissed Yantuo's forehead, and said to the ignorant young man in front of him, "Let's go, Tuotuo, let's go back."

"Where are you going back?" Yan Tuo followed him in a daze, and asked suspiciously, "Who are you? Who am I?"

He is just an ordinary person, and it is very rare to be able to maintain consciousness when he is in the torrent of time and is on the verge of extinction.

"I am time, the one beside you who has been silent."

"Shi... silence?" Yan Tuo tilted his head and looked at him.His thoughts are chaotic, and if he doesn't speak, he automatically replaces him with other concepts.

"Well, let's call it this."

Time is the most rhythmic and restrictive, he will not stop, let alone retreat, the reversal of time is equivalent to denying himself.

But he wanted to give it a try.

"Let's go back to your kingdom."

He reversed the flow of time and brought the kingdom of time back to before Yan Tuo was born.And this time he also appeared together. He became the teacher of the state and was regarded as the spokesperson of time, but he forgot his original origin and identity.

Until the past reappears, the whole world inevitably comes to the point of destruction once again.Looking at the blurred statue of the god on the shrine, he finally remembered everything.

But this time, at least he has a physical body and can hold his lover in his arms.

"It's not your fault." He knelt on the ground and hugged the young emperor who was kneeling in front of the statue and prayed from behind, "Tuotuo, all of this has nothing to do with you and me. Whether you love me or not, the whole world has nothing to do with it." The fate of destruction cannot be changed. This is the law that all operations follow, and it is not your fault."

Yan Tuo turned his head to look at him in a daze, as if he didn't understand what he meant.

"You forgot all about it." Shi Yan sighed softly, took him into his arms, and pressed against his forehead, "Tuo Tuo, none of this is your fault. I just want you to understand that there is always something impermanent in this world Law, what you love may be irretrievable, and if you want to be buried with this world, it will only leave me in pain, so I will never allow it."

Yan Tuo and Shi Yan were next to each other, and he involuntarily closed his eyes.

He saw the galaxy shining and magnificent, flowing slowly and rhythmically under his feet, some stars were infinitely bright, while others were already gray and dim.

He saw himself. At that time, he was still the emperor of the kingdom of time, but there was no time seal in the kingdom. The successor was an old priest from the accompanying capital, who would come to the temple every month to serve the gods. Greet him respectfully.

He devoted all his time and energy to this country. He didn't have the heart to talk about love, but only wanted to hope that the country of time would be more prosperous.He respects God and loves the people, is diligent and fair, and is deeply loved by the people. He also thinks that he has done nothing wrong with his heart, and has nothing to blame.

But the disaster still came as expected.Just like his memory in this world, drought, heavy rain, flood... After the flood, there will be even more terrifying barrenness, and the whole world is on the verge of destruction.The torrential rain in the capital continued all day long, and there was mourning inside and outside the imperial city. Everyone was praying, and death was just a matter of sooner or later.

However, after he woke up, the whole world suddenly became quiet.Everyone around him disappeared overnight. He stumbled and ran to the temple in the rainstorm, praying to God for salvation, but he understood a fact during the long torment and suffering - he was trapped in a still place. in time.

The god statue in the temple became his only sustenance and communication object, and the god statue really gave him a response one day. They talked about everything like a confidant and lover, expressing their feelings to each other with simple words written on the floor... …He didn’t know how long he had been in this state. The other party refused time and time again to redeem the kingdom of time, and he was not allowed to leave here, but he gradually collapsed in such an empty single-person world .

However, in the end his lover agreed to his request, let him go at this moment, pulled him back from the brink of death, reversed time, and started everything again.

This time, he is still the king of the kingdom of time, but there is a young national teacher, Shi Yan, in his kingdom.

"So do you understand?" Shi Jin kissed his eyes tenderly, "I am time. You are blaspheming God, but you are innocent. Everything you do pleases God. How could I And punish you? The destruction of this world is just its inevitable result, the time belonging to it has been exhausted, and it will no longer exist."

"Then can you...save it?" Yan Tuo asked cautiously and pleadingly.He had asked this question countless times to Shi Yan who could only write in that empty temple, but this time he was still eager for a different answer.

Shi Yan looked at him quietly, and shook his head slightly: "I can't."

The rain curtain outside the temple was getting heavier, and pale lightning seemed to tear through the entire sky. Even standing in the temple, one could hear the sobbing prayers and pleadings of the monks and priests outside.

The existence higher than God is present in the temple, but it cannot be saved.

The world will soon be completely destroyed again, only this time, there will be no reversal of time and space to bring it back from the brink of destruction.

It is precisely because he is higher than existence that he understands that life and death, existence and destruction in this world have their own number and cannot be changed arbitrarily.

"Then let me go." Yan Tuo stood up holding Shi Jin's arm, but his face was calm and calm. He raised his head and kissed Shi Jin's chin, and said softly, "I am the king of this country." , I should guard my country and my people until the last moment, this is my responsibility."

"At first, I was most worried about you. I was afraid that you would be dragged into the world of mortals by me and tempted to break the precepts, so that you would not be able to return to God's side and be an envoy of God. I hope that my sins will not implicate you... Now that I am like this, I Don't worry about it."

Shi Yan slowly closed his eyes and did not speak.He didn't tell him that he couldn't go back.With consciousness and self-existence, he will only recall his appearance in endless time, walking through the long river of time.

He's engraved in his "being" and he won't stop loving him until time runs out too.

"Okay." He responded quietly, lowered his head and kissed the young emperor's chest.

But he still can't learn to refuse his request, he will always respect his decision, so he still just stands there, watching him guard his country and his world, step by step towards destruction...

Watching him, step by step, always walk out of his reach.

From now on, he will be forever and ever, asking for nothing.

------------

The summer was so hot this year, Yan Tuo was entangled in the thoughts in his heart, restless in the room, irritated, finally stood up, changed into the white gold silk robe he went out, and ordered the attendants on both sides: : "Go to the temple."

The young emperor arrived a little abruptly. He got out of the car, waved his hands to the guards on both sides, motioned to keep quiet, and walked into the temple accompanied by two attendants.

The master of the temple was standing in the courtyard with his hands down. He was wearing a silver robe with wide sleeves, and his long black hair was scattered around his waist.He looked up at the trees in the courtyard, and when a gust of wind blew, countless bedoro leaves fell, brushing against the corners of his robe sleeves, falling to the ground, and falling into his pale gray eyes.

At that moment, countless scenes flashed before Yan Tuo's eyes. His past and old dreams fell away like the flying leaves of Bedoro--the star river, the reincarnation of the world, the inevitable destruction three years later, and the two times he followed the world. To perdition, and twice caught by the same hand:

"Don't go."

The first time he turned back time for him; the second time he gave him infinite time, and then threw him into the river of time.

Yan Tuo slowly turned his gaze back, the national teacher's gray pupils were looking at him quietly, as if he had been waiting for him here for a long time, and also like an old friend who finally reunited after several lifetimes of life and death in the world of mortals.

There was a distance of three steps between them, Shi Jin looked at him so quietly, and said, "Tuo Tuo, have you remembered everything?"

Yan Tuo closed his eyes and nodded slightly.

"Why did we come back here again?" He opened his eyes, still filled with sadness and puzzlement immersed in memory.

Shi Yan sighed softly, and embraced him in his arms:

"At that time, I saw that you were about to dissipate, so I still made a selfish choice. Yan Tuo, I can't do this. After letting you do all that, I left again."

"So I held you back and gave you endless time, allowing you to return to the river of time and experience different worlds. I give you time to experience, I give you the freedom to explore, I give you the opportunity to try, I hope you can see different scenery, and no longer be persistent and decisive in one thing, and I will not hesitate to use myself; I will give you inexhaustible time, let you be the only exception, and give you the supreme Privilege, I hope you can see all the scenery in the world, and finally look down on everything in the world, and come back to me."

"You can abuse your time, you can spend too much, you can procrastinate as much as you want, because time will never leave you, you will never lose time, this is a privilege carved into your soul."

"There is also a time limit for all these freedoms. Until I find you again, I will not be tolerant and indulgent, and I will not let you leave again."

"After I held you back to let you enter the river of time, I reversed the time again, and brought the kingdom of time back to three years before the time of destruction. Then I allocated half of my power to guard here, and made this world the same as ours at the beginning. Our memories are sealed here together, and we will not come back here until the conditions of the seal are met. If the conditions of the seal are not met, we will continue to travel through the different worlds of the river of time together as before. .”

"This is a knot between you and me, it is the beginning, and it is also the place we will return to. So in all the worlds we experience, there will be reflections here: from the empty city of time where I found you again, to At the same time, the elf tree of time embodies life and destruction, the sea of ​​stars that resembles the river of time, the eye of time that can connect the past, present and future, the mirror that can predict the future, and I reverse time again. Every step is a metaphor for our future. Where we came back and our past."

Yan Tuo looked at him puzzled: "...why is the mirror that predicts the future also a metaphor?"

Shi Jin stretched out his left hand to caress his cheek, and said softly, "Tuo Tuo, if the future can be predicted, it actually indicates one thing: the future is unchangeable. If the future can be rewritten, then this part cannot It has been predicted. Some future results may be deviated and different in details, but the final outcome on a macro level cannot be changed.”

"For example, the trajectory of a person's life can be changed through subjective efforts and changes in the objective environment, but for most people, the ending of mortal death cannot be reversed."

"The metaphor of the mirror is like this. You can change many aspects of the kingdom of time in the next three years, but its ending is predetermined. Even if I let time stand still here for so long, as long as its time starts to move forward flow, its outcome will not change."

"The things we are persistent and cherished by you may be lost or even completely lost in the end. Not all the things you insist on will exist forever and will not dissipate. Tuotuo, your responsibility has been fulfilled, you have to learn to let go. You not only You are the king of the kingdom of time, you are the king of the elves, you are the king of the interstellar empire... those worlds will eventually be destroyed, sooner or later, there are always some things that you cannot accompany them to the end. "

"But you have me. I will never leave, and I will always be with you until the time passes."