At first, the sudden crack that appeared on the surface wasn’t all that obvious. It stretched across the shimmering, iridescent deep blue orb like a river faintly visible through a dense forest when viewed from high above.
Without anything blocking it, someone might have noticed. But at that moment, it was tucked inside a box, cut off from all prying eyes.
So the little orb, now split with a seam, kept trembling nonstop, causing the black square box to shake lightly as if desperately trying to catch someone’s attention.
“The soonest we can head out is in two hours? Got it. Then I’ll wait for A Qiang to pick me up at the neighborhood entrance… Wait, no, it won’t just be me. Tian Ge, hold on while I check.”
The person next to the box was still on the phone. As a voice came through the receiver, his gaze shifted.
The small orb right beside him shook wildly without pause.
But his clear, faint gaze skipped right over the short square box, which wasn’t even in his line of sight. Instead, he first turned to the blue-eyed man at his side and asked softly, “Do you want to come with me to the North Pole?”
Xie Wufang’s answer was obvious. “Sure.”
Yu Bai then looked at the other three companions.
Yan Jing perked up his ears to listen, staring at him with eager anticipation as he rubbed his hands together excitedly.
He Xi’s young face was full of longing, tinged with a bit of shyness. She gave a bashful smile.
Yuan Yuxing’s eyes were bloodshot. He was rolling up his sleeves aggressively and growled under his breath, “You guys go ahead. I’m heading to the police station to deal with those bastards!”
Yu Bai glanced around at them all and nodded. Into the phone, he said, “There are four of us… Yeah, all my friends.”
Hearing this, Sun Tiantian inexplicably felt that it wasn’t all that surprising for Little Bai to suddenly have a few friends.
It was as if things were meant to be this way.
“Alright, alright, no problem! It’s a shame I’m out on a business trip these next couple days, or I’d join you.”
He asked, “Anything else you need help with? Just say the word!”
Yu Bai did have one more thing.
“Tian Ge, could you prepare a set of tools for me to take on the plane?”
“What’s the big deal? What kind of tools? What for?”
“For chipping through ice layers and burying stuff.”
Crack.
A new seam suddenly split across the beautiful, deep surface of the small orb.
The chicken-wing-filled buns shared with his friends were all gone, and a new journey was about to begin. Yu Bai gazed at the brilliant sunrise ahead and took a deep breath, his mood subtly complex.
What a life, always full of drama.
But he was pretty looking forward to the North Pole scenery.
Yu Bai zoned out for a moment. Just as he was about to pick up the square box that was shaking so hard it seemed ready to leap into his arms, he suddenly felt a bit lazy. He turned to Yan Jing instead.
“Want to stick the Doom Orb in your bag?”
After all, Xie Wufang had said that the Doom Orb was in a calm phase right now, having expended some of its power. There was no worry about it suddenly going out of control.
No need to carry it so carefully in his hands.
That would just be exhausting.
“You got it.” Yan Jing, who was on the phone requesting time off, didn’t look closely. He casually grabbed the square box from the chair and shoved it into his carry-on backpack. “Yeah, I can’t make it today… Probably not tomorrow either.”
The person on the other end of the line snapped irritably, “You called out sick yesterday with diarrhea! What’s your excuse today? Gonna claim diarrhea for three days straight?”
“No, no!” Yan Jing chuckled. “Not diarrhea today or tomorrow.”
“It’s a round trip to the North Pole!”
“What? Say that again—”
Hearing his boss’s shocked voice, Yan Jing felt his mood lift even more.
Though when he’d grabbed the box just now, his hand had inexplicably shaken a little.
Probably just from the excitement.
The North Pole!
A free trip with a private jet the whole way!
After hanging up, Yan Jing zipped up his backpack without a second thought about the minor hand tremor. He turned to Yu Bai. “Should I go home and grab some winter clothes? When are A Qiang and the others getting here? Think I have time for a quick run home?”
Just a few dozen minutes ago, he’d been living in snowy winter days. Now he was back in the sweltering summer with short sleeves and shorts. Honestly, he kind of missed bundling up in thick clothes.
Yu Bai felt the same.
“No need to go home. I’m not grabbing anything either.” A hint of amusement lit his eyes. “Let’s go buy some mink.”
One hour later, in a mall that had opened early for the day.
Yu Bai and the others, dropped off by the bodyguards including A Qiang, weren’t even the first ones there.
He bought up nearly the last remaining stock of mink fur coats from the summer section.
Yu Bai had always been frugal, saving everything except for living expenses. He rarely felt any urge to spend.
He wasn’t even sure what all that saved money was for.
But right then, buying out-of-season mink fur coats in the summer made him feel, for the first time, that spending could be enjoyable.
It gave real meaning to the job that brought in his income.
Oh, right. He still hadn’t written the next installment.
Yu Bai hadn’t decided what to write yet.
Not for lack of inspiration—quite the opposite. There were just too many unforgettable fragments.
The life-or-death endgame and farewell beyond it; the snowy winter descending amid summer; the distant North Pole suddenly within reach…
At the mall counter, unusually bustling even for morning, Yu Bai looked at He Xi bundled up in her fluffy coat and praised, “That one you picked is really cute.”
A blush spread across the little girl’s delicate face. A bit anxious, she asked, “Brother Little Bai, is this coat super expensive?”
She hadn’t gone home for clothes either.
But the North Pole meant thick clothes for sure.
“Not expensive for adults.” Yu Bai smiled and ruffled her hair. “It’s a gift for you.”
She blinked in surprise, then her eyes curved happily. She whispered, repeating, “A gift for me?”
“Yeah.” Yu Bai nodded seriously. “Thanks for traveling with me.”
After a pause, he added softly, “Don’t worry about your dad. I’ll tell him you’re staying at a classmate’s for a couple days.”
Yu Bai still wasn’t sure how to fully help He Xi escape her awful father.
But he wouldn’t let this strange little girl, who had once appeared out of nowhere in his bathroom, go back alone to that booze-soaked house like he had the first time they met.
And she was no longer that helpless, terrified child who could only hide in the walls and cry after a beating.
Dressed like a bear, Yan Jing admired himself in the mirror and chimed in eagerly. “Yeah, no need to fear him. If he dares bully you again, I’ll give him another punch!”
Xie Wufang was the only one who didn’t need a thick coat.
His gaze landed faintly on Yan Jing’s backpack sitting off to the side. It lingered for a moment before Yu Bai’s voice interrupted.
“Little Xie, want to try this one?”
Yu Bai walked over holding a black coat, a touch embarrassed. “I think it’d suit you really well.”
Of course he remembered that Xie Wufang didn’t like white.
Yet he always wore white shirts because of humanity’s admiration for men in them.
From his experiences in the Go Timeline, Yu Bai thought black looked better on him.
Xie Wufang quickly looked away and took the coat. “Sure.”
A faint smile bloomed in the man’s gray-blue eyes.
Crack.
Inside the dark backpack and the little square box, the deep blue orb, shaking nonstop, angrily split with a third seam.
People bustled around, the noise drowning everything out. No one noticed the backpack’s faint tremor.
A sales clerk, stealing a moment of downtime, yawned and complained to her coworker, “I haven’t slept enough. Man, starting work this early sucks.”
“At least there’s overtime pay. Hang in there.” The coworker glanced at the crowded scene and shook her head with a laugh. “Today’s weird. It’s like New Year’s around here. Never seen mornings this busy.”
“Yeah, I heard the down jackets are almost sold out. In this heat? What are people doing buying that stuff?”
“Guess a lot of folks woke up feeling cold. I kinda did too—nearly threw on a thick sweater to head out this morning.”
“Whoa, same here. But I’ve got tons of winter clothes already. No urge to buy more… Though for some reason, I’m really craving a look at some snow right now.”
“Snow? Come to think of it, I feel like I dreamed last night that it snowed in our city…”
As winter impressions quietly swept the summer hemisphere, sweaters and down jackets inexplicably flew off the shelves.
In Skystar City, especially favored by the snowfall, searches for “snow” skyrocketed that day.
In a certain police station on a certain street in Skystar City, family members looked at the hunchbacked old man holding a paper scrawled with writing, their expressions varied.
But for now, none of that had anything to do with Yu Bai and the others.
Because they were aboard a private flight bound for the North Pole.
A long contrail stretched across the clear blue sky, streaking over the bustling scenery below.
In the spacious, comfortable cabin, it was the first long-haul trip for the three humans. They chatted excitedly and gazed at the views at first. After the in-flight lunch, drowsiness set in, and they drifted off to sleep, utterly content.
The flight to the North Pole was a long one, taking more than ten hours.
During those long, quiet hours, the human slept soundly, while the god remained utterly silent.
Meanwhile, in the dim luggage rack, the backpack, and the small square box, the small ball’s uneasy trembling had finally subsided.
…Not that anyone noticed or cared.
Its deep blue spherical surface was now covered in a dense web of cracks, hazy, indistinct white glows seeping from the fissures like a soft, dreamlike halo—ethereal and beautiful.
The only gaze directed toward the luggage rack lingered there briefly before shifting away, drawn to the gently shifting scenery beyond the airplane window.
In those lake-like eyes, indescribable ripples stirred.
This was the scene that greeted Yu Bai when he awoke from a sleep as light and soft as feathers.
Beyond the window stretched the vast, dark horizon, but the slightly curly black hair of the man beside him was even darker than the night. The cabin lights, dim and faint, softly caressed the sharp angles of his pale profile before fading into the thin fabric of his richly colored pure black turtleneck sweater.
In that stark, exquisite contrast of black and white, his rare heterochromatic eyes stood out all the more strikingly. Now, at the faint sound of Yu Bai’s movement, they turned toward him.
Yu Bai’s mind still foggy from sleep, he plunged straight into that deep, gorgeous gray-blue lake—and promptly lost himself in a daze.
…No wonder it was the black sweater he’d picked out at a glance.
It really suited Xie Wufang perfectly.
Their eyes met in a moment of silence, until the man—with his complex, inscrutable expression—finally spoke first. “I have a question for you.”
Yu Bai snapped back to his senses, mildly surprised. “What?”
Xie Wufang appeared to be lost in thought.
“If a true living being were born from the Doom Orb,” he said, pausing for a beat, “…perhaps something like me.”
“Would you still bury it in the North Pole?”
Yu Bai froze, stunned.
What did he mean by a “true living being”?
This weird little ball that could understand human speech—was it actually going to hatch something?!
If it really did, well, that would depend entirely on what came out of it, and then he’d figure out how to deal with whatever it was.
This question had come out of nowhere. Yu Bai’s thoughts raced in a whirlwind, leaving him at a loss for how to reply.
His gaze flickered uncertainly as, on impulse, he fired back: “Would you?”
Xie Wufang’s answer was crisp and decisive. “Yes.”
His deep voice cut through the air—short, forceful—lingering in the hushed cabin where everyone else still slumbered. The human watching him so intently found himself dazed all over again.
In that instant, Yu Bai forgot all about handling things on a case-by-case basis. His mind filled only with the breathtaking beauty right in front of him.
As if compelled by some strange impulse, he nodded. “Then I would too.”
After all, he had no idea what to do. Following the god’s lead couldn’t possibly steer him wrong.
…No, really, it was mostly that this black sweater was just too damn handsome.
Way too perfect for Xie Wufang, with his black hair and blue eyes.
Before the god’s devastating beauty, humanity surrendered in abject defeat.
