She tried hard to turn her face sideways, opening her eyes blurred by tears, trying to find the familiar face from the side or the door.
"I believe that no matter how difficult it is for you, you will be able to overcome it and reach the other shore in your mind."
"Unfreezing successful!"
It always felt like a lot of things happened while she was sleeping that she didn't know about.
Gradually, the outline reflected on the crystal coffin gradually became clearer.
"Come with me, I'll take you out of here!"
Vera was about to say something, but at this moment, there was a violent slamming of the door behind her.
Whether it's the house, the windows, the shards of glass on the floor, or the book on the desk...
Having said this, the woman was silent for a while, and a free and easy smile suddenly appeared on her blurry face.
Unexpectedly, I was comforted in the end.
"You can go anywhere, across the Mediterranean, and across the Atlantic... to a place called Princeton, where you will find the hero who can save you."
"go quickly."
Tears rolled down from the corners of his eyes unconsciously.
Vera was about to say something, but the little girl in front of her suddenly raised her index finger and lightly tapped her lips.
That petite, thin figure is incompatible with everything here, and it makes people feel very distressed to see it. However, that young and beautiful side face does not have too much sadness written on it. There was a reassuring tranquility in the sapphire eyes, as if everything here had nothing to do with her, and her whole body was immersed in the slightly yellowed book in her hand.
"Actually, many times I envy him for being able to live such a pure life. As for when this feeling turned into admiration, maybe even I can't tell clearly."
The rotten windows were covered with withered vines, and the cross window frames looked like tombstones.
For some reason, at this moment, she looked like a princess in a fairy tale, lying in a crystal coffin.
"Later, he went to a far away place."
Although she couldn't see the handwriting on the book, Vera clearly remembered the name of the book.
As if he was surprised by her courage, the monster had a surprised expression on his face, but that expression soon turned into a cruel smile, and he strode towards her with his fist in hand.
Although that moment was as long as a lifetime, so much so that she almost forgot the feeling of warmth.
The girl raised her head helplessly, staring blankly at the sister in front of her who was exactly the same as herself.
Just as he was hesitating whether to say something, the girl sitting at the desk—her childhood self—suddenly took the initiative to speak.
"In addition to the story about you, there is also about Princeton and many people. And from his tone, I can clearly feel that he is deeply concerned about the students he taught and the people he helped. I feel proud and proud from the bottom of my heart.”
Looking at herself lying in the crystal coffin, the mysterious woman continued.
She believed that nothing would happen to her, as if there was always a voice in her ear, telling her so.
At the same time, it was also the last birthday gift given to her by her mother who left the family.
But this time, she didn't flinch anymore, but clenched her right fist and stood there bravely.
That inexplicable peace of mind came from nowhere, but it guarded her as if it really existed.
"If... I mean if there is a one in 10,000 possibility."
I don’t know how long I have been sinking in that darkness.
"But it is a fairy tale after all..."
Vera's eyes swayed slightly, and Vera, who was silent for a moment, nodded vigorously.
For a moment, Vera's pupils shrank.
The hot feeling imprinted on the forehead was as if it happened a minute ago, but it seemed as long as a century.
At that moment when her eyes were opening and closing, she opened her hazy eyes again and saw the chandelier on the ceiling, the white mist rising around her, and the faces full of joy.
"Who are you… "
"That is a place farther away than any distance or time. Although I have thought about following him, in the end I did not do so."
That was the sound of breathing.
But a dream is a dream after all, and all the beauty and suffering here seem to be separated by an opaque veil. She was like a deer wandering in the forest, unable to see anything but the occasional dapples through the shade of the trees.
At the same time, under the illumination of that light, everything around him began to collapse.
"I-"
The slender fingertips lingered on Vera's face for a moment. When she was about to reach out and grab the hand and ask what happened during her sleep, everything in front of her suddenly disappeared.
"Like in a fairy tale?"
"Fundamentals of Algebraic Geometry"...
"Although he is talking self-righteously, but... he is probably a very important person to you."
Looking blankly at the little girl in front of her, Vera unconsciously let go of her hands holding her delicate shoulders.
"...It was really a moment."
Perhaps hearing the soft chanting, the girl sitting at the desk raised her sapphire eyes and looked at her quietly.
With sawdust flying, a nightmare-like monster broke in from the door.
"A woman's intuition tells me that your view of him may not be as innocent as it appears. But now, it seems that these are all things for the future."
Grothendieck's masterpiece, the bible of algebraic geometry!
"Although we may have met several times before, this face-to-face communication like now is probably the first time."
"Of course... maybe you can imagine."
"But one thing is for sure, I love him very much. When he promised me to give me a star and leave a legend about us on it, you can't imagine how touched I was at that time."
But there was nothing there, only the shouts of doctors and nurses echoing in my ears...
Almost immediately, the wooden door behind her suddenly collapsed.
With a weak smile on her face, the little girl, who was only about seven or eight years old, said in a gentle voice.
"Incredible, how did you find me?"
Children playing and playing can be seen outside the window, but everything there seems to have nothing to do with the world inside the house.
It was a dark room. The floor was covered with bottle caps and glass shards left by broken wine bottles. In the corner of the dirty room lay a broken vase and a torn and broken picture frame.
"I hope you can take care of that idiot."
Just when she felt that her consciousness was shaky and almost falling asleep, there was a slight sound in her ears.
As if emerging from the deep sea, her five senses were cut off, followed by a hint of coldness and noisy sounds, coming from all directions and wrapping her up.
A faint smile appeared on the face that was blurred by the fog.
"...A long time ago, I often heard him talk about you. He once told me that you were his favorite student and the most talented of all the students he taught."
The movement was so loud that it was comparable to the artillery in Donetsk. Not only the floor and windows, but also the entire room trembled.
Vera opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but no words came out.
With her lips trembling slightly, Vera couldn't help but read out the three letters.
Vera knew that this was a dream and everything in front of her was her imagination, but she still tried hard to see her appearance clearly.
Vera suddenly felt that her heartbeat seemed to be stuck by something, and a little pain surged from the depths of her soul.
"But... this is my home. Where else can I go but here?"
What was placed in front of her seemed to be a mirror leading to the past, and what was reflected in the mirror was the cowardly, evasive, and fearful version of herself in childhood...
Time seemed frozen at this moment.
"He still has a lot of things he wants to do that he hasn't finished yet, and I will do the rest for him. Whether it's about the world or about my promise... "
"Yes... He will wake you up from your nightmare like a prince."
Yes, compared to an ugly duckling like herself, she is undoubtedly more like a princess. Her long black hair hangs peacefully behind her back, and there is an indescribable dignity and elegance in her every move.
That was a long, long dream.
Of course, not all good things remain in this quagmire-like vortex.
At least, there was the girl sitting at the desk.
And that feeling of uncertainty made her feel a little nervous for no reason.
"She's awake!"
“EGA…”
It was so long that she thought she would never wake up.
There was a glimmer of hope in the girl's eyes. Although it was very weak, it was so bright in the darkness.
A ray of light passed through the curtains and lit up the entire dark room. The monster fell backwards wailing as if it had been punched by something. With the sound of falling to the ground, it turned into a mass of fragments like a broken wine bottle.
Surprisingly, the person who came to the crystal coffin was not the handsome and brave prince in the fairy tale, but a beautiful princess.
However, it was not blown against her ears, but softly against a glass window.
"Lu Zhou..."
"Thank you for coming to visit me... You must be a brave person to find this place, at least much braver than me."
Seeing the girl with a fearful expression on her face and huddled up subconsciously, Vera got the courage from nowhere and bravely stepped forward across the glass shards on the ground and grabbed her shoulders.
It was as if she had fallen into some kind of beautiful memory. There was a hint of sweetness in her smile, which also gave her voice a hint of inadvertent ease and cunning.
Everything is like a collapsed sand dune, including Vera herself standing in the center of the whirlpool, falling and falling freely toward the bottomless darkness.
"He's gone, but I'm still here."
Suddenly, a meter of sunlight suddenly shot through the layers of fog that surrounded her, causing her to close her eyelashes unconsciously.
From the smoke, Vera saw a face that made her tremble with fear and anger.
As he spoke, the relaxed voice suddenly took on a hint of loneliness, even sadness.
However, at this moment, a miracle suddenly happened.
"... However, the kind of thing that can only happen in fairy tales is really impossible in reality."
"If there is any misunderstanding, he has never been to Mars, and he has never encountered any accidents there. He just wanted to rest anonymously for a while because he was too tired, so he hid himself quietly... At that time , I am no longer in this world, and you just happened to wake up."
As if she didn't hear her voice, the princess, who was separated from her by a layer of haze, whispered softly in a voice as sweet as a pipe organ.