After speaking, Tang Xiao looked up at Jun Tesi, wanting to see his reaction. But just then, a sudden gust of wind swept past, stinging his eyes. Instinctively, Tang Xiao withdrew his hands—one supporting himself on the ground, the other covering his eyes. When he finally opened them again, Jun Tesi was gone.
Tang Xiao waited at the same spot for two or three seconds before confirming—he had really run away.
So… was he embarrassed? Or had Tang Xiao passed his test?
Tang Xiao tried to guess Jun Tesi’s thoughts. If it were the Jun Tesi from before, he would be almost certain that Jun Tesi had left out of embarrassment. But now, he wasn’t so sure.
Tang Xiao stood still for a moment, then sighed quietly. Well, no matter what Jun Tesi was thinking, he had already made up his mind before coming here. No matter what, he would find a way to cure Jun Tesi.
He looked up at the dome ceiling—only to realize that the people who had been hanging there were now gone. He still didn’t know who those people were or what exactly Jun Tesi had done here. There had been no time to ask earlier.
He would ask when he got the chance. Those faces weren’t familiar, at least confirming that they weren’t scientists from the Third Eye.
Since he had decided to restart his research on Jun Tesi, Tang Xiao wasted no time and headed off to inspect the remaining equipment and instruments in the base.
After all, biological research couldn’t be accomplished with intelligence alone. Equipment, manpower, and materials were the foundation of any results. No matter how smart Tang Xiao was, without resources, studying the cause of Jun Tesi’s bodily collapse and finding a cure would be impossible.
With that thought, Tang Xiao went to the lab area where Project 428 had been conducted. He had expected to find only a few pieces of equipment left intact at best, but upon arrival, he discovered that everything was astonishingly well-preserved. There was barely any dust. The white mycelium seemed to have only spread outside the buildings and in the hallways, while the lab areas remained untouched. When Tang Xiao tried turning on some of the equipment, he found that everything was still running perfectly.
Even the coffee left on the researchers’ desks was untouched, as if time itself had stopped here.
Apart from the absence of researchers, everything was exactly as it had been when Tang Xiao left.
Good. The equipment should still be usable.
After checking nearly all the lab facilities, Tang Xiao let out a relieved breath. Everything was still in working condition.
The equipment wasn’t an issue. That only left one problem…
If he wanted to determine the cause of Jun Tesi’s rampage, he needed Jun Tesi’s cooperation. Otherwise, there was no way to conduct an examination. But since earlier, Jun Tesi had vanished without a trace.
Standing in the hallway, Tang Xiao tentatively called out to the white mycelium, “Jun Tesi?”
The mycelium remained silent, as if it were just an ordinary plant.
With no other choice, Tang Xiao wandered aimlessly through the base, searching for any sign of Jun Tesi.
The lab building, the Hope Project lab, the conference hall…
Tang Xiao passed through these familiar places. The base was completely empty, his footsteps echoing far into the distance. At first, he called Jun Tesi’s name while searching. But soon, he realized—Jun Tesi had definitely heard him. He just didn’t want to appear.
Even so, Tang Xiao didn’t give up. He kept walking through the base, treating it as a nostalgic revisit while pondering where Jun Tesi might show up.
The dormitory?
Tang Xiao returned to the single dormitory he had lived in while leading the Hope Project. Everything was still as it had been, as if no one had ever moved in after him. For three years, this place had been a rare refuge—a place where Jun Tesi could reveal himself to the outside world.
Wait—he remembered something was still here.
Tang Xiao suddenly recalled something. Kneeling by the bedside table, he pulled open the drawer.
Inside, a stack of pristine white postcards lay neatly arranged. Tang Xiao’s expression softened. Good, they were still here.
When he left the base, things had been too rushed for him to take the postcards with him. In hindsight, it was fortunate—if he had taken them, they would have likely been lost in battle.
Tang Xiao picked up the postcards and sat on the bed, flipping through them one by one.
Faded memories resurfaced with each written line. There was a time when, doubting whether this game world was real, Tang Xiao had ignored Jun Tesi completely, rejecting him outright. Jun Tesi, not understanding what had changed, had sought Dawson’s advice on how to pursue someone.
These postcards were the remnants of that time.
[I didn’t see you again today, so I’m in a bad mood.]
[Can I come to see you?]
[The moon is beautiful tonight.]
[A rose bloomed outside the base today. It made me think of you.]
Tang Xiao watched as the handwriting transformed from clumsy and awkward to increasingly elegant. He could almost picture the mycelium struggling to grip the pen, racking its mind for the right words to woo a human. Unconsciously, he smiled.
He flipped through the cards until he reached the last one.
[You are water, warmth, oxygen, and organic matter.]
At the final punctuation mark, the ink was slightly blurred—almost as if a drop of water had fallen on it.
Tang Xiao’s smile suddenly froze.
“You’re everything a mushroom needs to grow,” he murmured, then abruptly stood up, gripping the edge of the postcard tightly. Without hesitation, he rushed back to the lab.
The Hope Project specimen storage—empty.
The Project 428 specimen storage—empty.
Where was Jun Tesi…?
Tang Xiao gasped for breath, his gaze darting around. Suddenly, he halted, turned his head, and walked toward the long-sealed Bader Laboratory.
Could he be here…?
Compared to the Project 428’s experiment area and the Hope Project’s research zone, this laboratory was much smaller. Back then, Jun Tesi had been just a small experimental subject, with little research value left, so the containment conditions here were far harsher and more neglected than those of the other two projects.
When Tang Xiao pushed open the door, he didn't see Jun Tesi’s figure and unconsciously let out a breath of relief. But in the next second, from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the photographs pasted on the wall, and his entire body froze as if struck by lightning.
It was… the photos from their escape.
The cities they had walked through, the bustling crowds, the mountains, and the rivers.
Tang Xiao had taken these photos in hopes that Jun Tesi would understand—beyond himself, there was a vast world out there, so many places beyond the laboratory. That place was not worth reminiscing about. He had believed that Jun Tesi cared about him only because he was the first person to reach out to him, that Jun Tesi had never seen the outside world, so he mistook what happened in the lab as everything.
Just as most humans do not see love as everything, as the sole necessity of life, Tang Xiao thought that once Jun Tesi saw how vast the world was, he would gradually forget everything here. After all, being an experimental subject should not have been a pleasant memory for the current Jun Tesi.
And yet, he had returned.
Returned to the place where it all began.
Tang Xiao had gotten something terribly wrong.
That mushroom… never cared about the outside world.
[You are water, warmth, oxygen, and organic matter.]
This was the very first message on the postcards. Back then, Jun Tesi didn't understand human love letters at all—he had simply strained his mind to write down what was truly in his heart.
From the beginning, Jun Tesi had already said it.
Tang Xiao was his everything.
Most mushroom spend their entire lives in one place, slowly adapting to its water, sunlight, and nutrients, disliking abrupt environmental changes.
So when Tang Xiao left, he had returned here, surviving on mere scraps of memory.
What Tang Xiao saw as a painful past—what did it mean to Jun Tesi?
A lump formed in Tang Xiao’s throat, dry and unbearable. He almost fled from the room, barely daring to glance at the photos before escaping that dark, suffocating prison.
Most of the places he had searched in his mind were now crossed out.
But if neither the dormitory nor the lab was the right place, then where else could Jun Tesi be?
Tang Xiao wandered the Third Eye Base aimlessly, not even aware of where he was going. When he snapped back to reality, fine raindrops were falling onto his face. He had walked past the lawn, the white lab coat he had found in the experiment area now speckled with damp marks.
Suddenly, in the rain, a faint bell chime rang out.
A bell?
Oh, right—the Third Eye’s recreational area had a clock tower…
In a sudden moment of realization, Tang Xiao lifted his gaze toward the pointed structure in the distance. He could vaguely make out a shadow near the stained-glass window. His heart stirred, and he changed course toward the clock tower. He climbed the stairs all the way up. Near the top floor, he finally heard the familiar rustling of mycelium.
As expected, he was here.
Tang Xiao let out a breath of relief and took another step upward. “Jun Tesi.”
The chaotic mycelium writhed inside the clock tower, occasionally lashing against the floor, mirroring their master's turmoil. When Tang Xiao peeked his head up from the stairs, he saw Jun Tesi sitting by the stained-glass window. Only his upper body retained human form—his lower half had already transformed into mycelium.
Hearing Tang Xiao’s approach, the pale figure turned his head toward the stairs. “Don't come closer.”
“Jun Tesi?” Tang Xiao tensed. “Are you… are you in a berserk state again?”
Jun Tesi gazed at him quietly—neither confirming nor denying it. His golden eyes, the only color on his body, carried a divine, almost sacred stillness, like a statue in a cathedral. But now, that stillness was shrouded in darkness, its true nature obscured.
His unmoving form contrasted sharply with the frenzied mycelium filling the entire tower. It was like a deceptively calm ocean surface concealing a raging storm beneath—silent, yet dangerously unhinged.
Tang Xiao swallowed hard, but remembering the message on the postcard, he firmly stepped forward.
Snap!
A mycelium lashed against the wooden floor in front of him. Jun Tesi said, “Take one more step, and even I don't know what will happen.”
“It's fine.” Tang Xiao closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and strode into the tower, fully exposing himself to the mycelium mass.
The mycelium hesitated, tentatively touching him. The moment they caught his scent, they almost rejoiced, eagerly slipping into his pant legs and sleeves, coiling around his skin, hungrily attempting to burrow deeper, seeking the sweetest essence hidden within.
Tang Xiao let out a muffled grunt, unable to stop himself from dropping to his knees, his back trembling slightly.
The mycelium instinctively dragged Tang Xiao closer, offering their prey to the main body. Jun Tesi’s gaze swept over Tang Xiao’s flushed face, his voice turning hoarse. “I told you… not to come near me at a time like this.”
Just as he spoke, something suddenly slipped out of Tang Xiao’s pocket. A postcard. Jun Tesi froze. Using a mycelium, he picked it up. His eyes fell on the handwriting.
“...Sorry,” Tang Xiao forced himself to speak despite the itching. “I... I've never apologized to you before.”
“Whether it was saving you or saving humanity, I never asked for your opinion. I'm sorry.”
He had believed it was the best, the perfect answer that could achieve everything at once. But was it arrogance to assume Jun Tesi’s thoughts using human logic?
Jun Tesi's lowered hand trembled slightly, and the mycelium suddenly tightened. Forced forward by the strength behind him, Tang Xiao placed his hand on Jun Tesi’s shoulder and chest, his voice low:
“I’m sorry for hiding the truth about the real world.”
He hadn’t known that the two worlds would merge. He had thought they would never have the chance to meet again—after all, the distance between the two worlds was too vast, so vast that even Tang Xiao had no confidence in finding a way to cross it.
So, at that moment, his only thought had been: Forget it.
He was too tired. He had given up on other possibilities and chosen the most decisive ending.
Tang Xiao: “Jun Tesi, are you in pain right now?”
“...Yes,” Jun Tesi finally spoke, placing his hand on Tang Xiao’s waist. Their bodies slowly drew closer. Tang Xiao’s gaze locked onto Jun Tesi’s golden eyes, those irises shrouded in lingering darkness, their true color hidden beneath the shadows. Their breaths intertwined, bringing back memories of that snow-covered volcanic crater. “But it doesn’t hurt as much as that day.”
The mycelium extended inch by inch, reaching into the warmest, darkest places.
Tang Xiao breathed slowly, trying to relax his body.
“It’s strange,” Jun Tesi murmured. “The one wounded isn’t me... but maybe I’m feeling the pain for you. Otherwise, why wouldn’t you hesitate even a little?”
Suddenly, he tightened his grip.
Tang Xiao’s fingers clenched over Jun Tesi’s shoulder. “...I’m sorry.”
Jun Tesi’s voice softened. “Xiaoxiao, are you wondering... how someone could be so easy to deceive? Someone who believes in you so completely, who even jumped into a volcano for you—only to realize, right at the crater’s edge, that it was all a lie?”
“I never thought that.”
“But that was your plan, wasn’t it?” Jun Tesi said. “Back at that base, you reached out to Third Eye…”
“Thinking about it now, why did they agree to your plan back then? Was it because they had planned it from the start?”
“It wasn’t like that!”
At some point, the mycelium had completely consumed Tang Xiao. His clothes had been torn into rags, and the white mycelium clung to his body. With every slight movement, he couldn’t help but tremble. Instinctively, he reached out to pull them away, his eyes reddening. “Jun Tesi, change back first.”
“Why?” Jun Tesi’s voice came from behind him. Tang Xiao felt a mass of mycelium forming a body, wrapping around his waist. “This is me. What you usually see is just my fruiting body. This... is my true form.”
“Are you afraid?”
Tang Xiao opened his eyes and shook his head. Jun Tesi finally laughed. He turned Tang Xiao’s chin and pressed their lips together. His long tongue entwined with Tang Xiao’s, preventing him from speaking. Between their tangled breaths, Tang Xiao managed to utter, bit by bit, in broken whispers, “I only contacted Third Eye at the final base… I told them… I would deal with the King of Mushroom.”
Jun Wusi listened quietly. “So they knew all of your plan by then?”
Tang Xiao nodded in silence.
“When did you come up with it?”
“...When I spoke about dying together.”
“Tang Xiao,” Jun Tesi didn’t call him Xiaoxiao—a sign of how angry he was. The mycelium unconsciously tightened. “...You’re not being smart. Just a moment ago, you knew how to coax me with words.”
Tang Xiao let out a small sound, his back pressing against the wooden floor of the clock tower attic. His abdomen was folded against his chest. At some point, most of the mycelium had withdrawn, returning to human form. “I wasn’t trying to coax you… ah—”
He bit his lips tightly, refusing to let any sounds escape.
Jun Tesi, however, deliberately kissed the corners of his mouth, prying his lips apart so he couldn’t stay silent. The sound of rain intensified, tapping crisply against the stained glass.
In the cramped attic of the clock tower, the air thickened with the scent of rain. At some point, Tang Xiao had become drenched in sweat, his body trembling with Jun Tesi’s movements. He clung to Jun Tesi’s head, using the last of his strength to whisper into his ear: “It’s fine… even if you don’t believe me.”
“Time… will prove it.”
Jun Tesi froze for a moment, then bent down and held Tang Xiao tightly.
The body in his arms gradually went limp. Jun Tesi lowered his head and saw that Tang Xiao had slumped over, his consciousness slipping away. Gently, he placed him on a clean spot on the floor, watching his slightly furrowed brows.
The last of the mycelium finally withdrew from Tang Xiao’s body. The once-pure white strands were now tinged with black.
They had extracted the remaining toxins.
No matter what, Jun Tesi would never allow Tang Xiao to hurt himself like this again. He could accomplish the same thing in this world without Tang Xiao paying the price.
“...You said it yourself, Xiaoxiao,” Jun Tesi whispered, lowering his lips to Tang Xiao’s furrowed brow, softening it with a kiss. He repeated, as if sealing a vow: “You said it yourself—you’d spend your whole life studying me.”
“I believe you.”
“If you were willing to rewind time for humanity so many times, then no matter how long it takes, you’ll stay with me, won’t you?”
That’s not bad either, Jun Tesi thought.
An endless cycle, a cage of time binding them together. In this never-ending research, there would only be the two of them.
After all, whether or not he was ever ‘cured’ was his decision to make.
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