He turned around and saw the teenage boy sitting beside him.
Just like the boy who coldly watched the massacre in the raging fire, just like the monster who knelt in front of that corpse, guarding the girl emptily.
He turned his head and looked at Ryan. His eyes seemed to be shimmering with moisture.
He was ordinary and not tall. Just like every peer around us, he was 平凡 and rather thin.
But Ryan knew at a glance.
He was the protagonist of this script. He was Wang Tao. He was the role he had been playing.
"What on earth is this..." Ryan asked hesitantly.
Wang Tao turned his head and looked at the back of the girl in the front row from afar.
He closed his eyes and said in a low voice, "This is a scene that has always remained in my memory. Many things have become blurred, but only this scene at this moment, I just can't forget it no matter what."
Ryan quietly looked at the boy beside him. He turned his head and also looked at the girl in the front row.
It was quiet and peaceful.
The back of the girl was as beautiful as a painting, a dream that one couldn't bear to part with.
Wang Tao raised his head, as if his eyes were full of vicissitudes.
"This should be the past. Painful memories always make people try hard to forget them, but beautiful memories will be constantly decorated and then flash in your mind again and again."
He turned his head and looked at Ryan gently and said.
"Thank you."
"Thank you for allowing me to return to this moment. Even if it's just for a brief moment, it's enough."
Ryan frowned and also sat down. Looking at him, he said.
"Actually, my ability didn't really succeed, right?"
Wang Tao raised his head, with a smile on his face. He shook his head.
"Is it an ability that can bring the past back to life? Actually, you should have known the answer long ago. After all, this is still a script. No matter how hard you try, there's no way to change it."
"But during those ten minutes, I could strongly feel your intention to make up for that regret for me. So that's why I want to thank you."
He reached out his hand and patted Ryan's shoulder with a smile.
"But although the regret is hard to make up for, in reality, I've also embarked on a hopeful path. Like you, I'm also trying hard to heal the wounds of everyone."
"Even if it's just for a moment."
...
Outside.
Everyone looked at the face of the eight-cross veteran tremblingly.
Even the examiner showed a shocked expression. He stared at his face in a daze, unable to say a word.
Because...
Because the face of the boy named Wang Tao in the picture was almost exactly the same as the face of the senior in front of them.
It's just that he looked more vicissitudes and older.
"What... what on earth is this..." The examiner opened his mouth, unable to hide the shock in his heart.
The middle-aged man didn't say anything. He just looked up, looking at the boy in the picture, as if looking at his past self.
His eyes seemed to be filled with moisture, yet they were full of vicissitudes, like the vicissitudes of the sea.
It's just that at some point, his hand clenched a little tighter.
...
In the classroom.
The two of them sat side by side, feeling the warm breeze blowing in from the window.
Ryan's eyes reflected his face as he said, "Are you saying that you've escaped from that loop and the devil's clutches?"
Wang Tao nodded and smiled, "Yes."
But it wasn't a very pleasant memory.
After that massacre, because of the curse left by his mother, the devil and he were trapped in the time loop together.
Countless loops, repeating constantly.
And the resentment and hatred that came with it were also constantly accumulating and becoming more and more intense.
And until the resentment and hatred accumulated to a critical point, they, along with the classroom and all the resentful spirits in it, were dragged into this Dark World together.
He raised his head and said, "I was lucky. Not long after being dragged into this world, I met a senior Night Healer from the Night City."
"That senior was accidentally involved in that endless loop. But because he was an outsider, he wasn't affected too much. He could have left."
"But he didn't. He tried every means to break the curse left by my mother. He wanted to redeem me and clear the resentment in my heart, so he kept trying."
Speaking of this, he lowered his head and slowly clenched his hands.
"But he really wasn't that powerful. Under the accumulation of resentment, the projection of the devil could almost crush him."
"But he still didn't want to leave..."
...
Outside.
The middle-aged man looked at the scene in the picture, clenched his fists little by little, and closed his eyes little by little.
It was as if those dusty memories were dug out again bit by bit.
He didn't want to leave...
He said he was a doctor.
His ideal was to heal the wounds in this Dark World and let every compatriot dragged into this hell have a better destination.
He had just become a Night Healer not long ago.
It was just a trivial matter that he accidentally encountered during his mission.
He could have completely let it go.
But he still did it.
Everyone listened to the narration in the picture and looked at the weather-beaten veteran with his eyes closed beside them.
They were in a daze, but they just couldn't connect him with the protagonist in the script.
But it seemed...
What they said.
Was his experience.
...
"I was saved."
In front of the desk, Wang Tao raised his head, looking at the ceiling, his eyes full of reminiscence.
"When the members of his team arrived, they found me in pieces from the ruins, but they didn't find that senior."
He slowly reached out his hand, as if trying to grab something, grasping the air emptily.
But he couldn't grab anything.
"I was redeemed."
"But he lost his life."
"So I've been asking myself, was it worth it? I'm just a insignificant soul, and he was a promising Night Healer. Even if he saved me, I could die at any time..."
He looked ahead emptily.
"Was it worth it..."
Then there was a long silence.
Ryan's eyes reflected his face as he said, "Then what's your answer?"
Wang Tao took a deep breath, reached out his hand to rub his temples, and when he opened his eyes again, there seemed to be tears shining in his smiling face.
"I only understood that truth a long time later."
"There's never been anything about whether it's worth it or not. He just tried hard to do every thing that he thought was right. And when all this is put on the scale to measure, it has already lost its meaning."
"He wanted to redeem me, so he did it. That's all."
Ryan looked at the smile under his teary eyes.
In this darkness.
He seemed to be bathed in light.
Ryan knew.
He had already found his own path.
Ryan's mouth curled up, and then he reached out his fist to him and said.
"Ah! I'm also working hard in this direction. It's just that maybe, I can't do as well as the senior you mentioned."
Wang Tao also smiled and reached out his fist to bump against his and said.
"No, you've already surpassed the vast majority of people."