I can rewind time to prevent death

Yan Junze knew his answer was definitely problematic. Without further hesitation, he immediately chose Rewind.

The timeline for the Rewind wasn't long; man and strangeness were once again back to back, hand in hand, looking at the full moon above.

"Look at the moon tonight, how round and beautiful it is!" Fang Ning spoke up.

Yan Junze remained silent, thought it over carefully, and said softly, "Yeah, it's beautiful. Not only is tonight's moon beautiful, but the moons in the future will be even more so."

No sooner had he spoken than a familiar sense of merging came over him again.

His body and Fang Ning's body once again felt as though they were fusing together.

He dared not take another step forward, or else that heart-wrenching sensation of being torn apart would spread throughout his body.

"Still not right."

He had no choice but to initiate Rewind once again.

Man and strangeness, back to back, hand in hand, stood under the moonlight, both without a word.

Yan Junze's mind raced as he recalled his conversation with Fang Ning.

The first time when Fang Ning said, "Look at the moon tonight, how round and beautiful it is," he had complimented her offhandedly.

As a result, Fang Ning let out a harsh, unpleasant laugh, but she did not merge with him. Instead, after a brief silence, she continued to repeat the same sentence.

After the second time, Yan Junze's answer was tinged with reminiscence, but it immediately led to the fusion with Fang Ning. Experience more content on empire

It seemed that reminiscing was not an option; to this woman, comparing the good memories of the past with her current ordeal was an indescribable pain.

And the third time Fang Ning said, "Look at the moon tonight, how round and beautiful it is," Yan Junze's response was about the future. It contained a hint of advising her to look ahead, but this too wasn't an answer that satisfied Fang Ning.

All three lines of response had to be avoided.

Yan Junze pondered carefully. He couldn't speak of the past, nor of the future; perhaps the present was what Fang Ning desired to possess, the moment she considered the most beautiful might just be this very one.

"Look at the moon tonight, how round and beautiful it is!" Fang Ning's voice rang out again.

Yan Junze cleared his throat and began slowly, "Yes, it's beautiful. Not just the moon, but the time is also beautiful. I'll remember this moment tonight forever."

"Do you still remember the words we said together?" Fang Ning asked again.

"Yes, passed!" Yan Junze rejoiced inwardly.

It really was this very moment that mattered most to Fang Ning; the past, the future—neither mattered at all.

"I remember, of course, I remember."

Making a joke, he had recited it countless times throughout the day; he was even reciting it while eating and using the bathroom. How could he forget?

No sooner had his answer finished than Fang Ning's head, already devoid of hair and wet, gently pressed against the back of Yan Junze's head.

The cold, stiff touch made Yan Junze's heart churn, and the hairs on his back stood on end.

Then he heard Fang Ning whispering softly as if to herself, "I wish this world could be very small, so small that I could see you with a turn around."

Yan Junze's heart stirred, he perked up, and tried to make his voice as gentle as possible as he replied, "I wish this world could be very big, so big that I could hold your hand and never reach the end."

Under the soft moonlight, next to the foul-smelling pond, in a garden full of trash and filth, man and strangeness, back against back, hand in hand, were exchanging terms of endearment.

Yan Junze believed that if this scene were edited and uploaded onto platforms, it would definitely cause a sensation; at the very least, it would not lack in tips. Then Tang Zhengyi might just make it free to watch only the first fifteen seconds, and that would be a big moneymaker.

After saying these loving words, Yan Junze felt both hands tighten; the hand holding his own cold, rigid palm suddenly increased its firm grip.

As if... Fang Ning finally felt something at this moment.

The icy coldness from behind once again got closer to him by a fraction, instilling within Yan Junze the illusion that he and Fang Ning had become inseparable.

However, fortunately, Fang Ning had merely gotten closer to him and did not create the sensation of a complete fusion with Yan Junze.

"What else?" Fang Ning spoke, her voice hoarse and eerie as if laced with an indescribable tenderness.

"Well, there's also..." Yan Junze tried to keep his voice calm and even wore a slight smile as he said, "I don't want promises of mountains crumbling and seas drying up, of next lifetimes, of forever. I just want every second... you're still by my side."

It was over.

As soon as he finished speaking, Yan Junze breathed a sigh of relief.

According to the task hint, all he had to do was make the original promise to Fang Ning to complete this task; and it was thanks to his thorough preparation at the early stage, having mastered sufficient clues in advance, otherwise he would have been utterly clueless now, with no way out.

As he was feeling relieved, unexpectedly, a terrifying sensation came thundering from his back where it was pressed against Fang Ning's, leaving Yan Junze completely unable to react. His body instantly went numb, consciousness vanished, and his vital signs began to rapidly fade away.

[Host detected on the verge of death, "Automatic Rewind on Near-Death" has been triggered, consuming 500 points of Different Dimension Energy]

A familiar feeling surged into his heart, and at first, a white light flashed before his eyes, soon after which he was able to see again.

Yan Junze found himself still back-to-back, hand in hand with Fang Ning, standing together.

But the memory he had just before he made his last promise seemed to involve being pierced by an incredibly strong electric current that knocked him out instantly.

At this moment, the only person who could control such a strange electric shock to attack him was the woman whose back was pressed against his.

"Did I say something wrong?!"

Having nearly died once, Yan Junze stayed befuddled in his current posture, not daring to make any other move. His mind raced to recall the sweet nothings he had heard from Jiang Hao, comparing them carefully with his own memories.

There shouldn't be a mistake.

"I hope the world can be very small, so small that I can see you just by turning around," said Fang Ning once again.

Yan Junze realized that the automatic rewind had taken him back to this point in time.

Clearing his throat, he thought it over, then slowly replied, "I hope the world can be very big, so big that holding your hand, we could never reach its end."

There was nothing wrong with this phrase. Now it seemed that the issue lay with the very last sentence he had said before.

"What else?" After a brief pause as before, Fang Ning asked again.

"Here it comes." Yan Junze took a deep breath, a typical gesture when he felt nervous, and his mind desperately recalled every word, then spoke in segments: "Wishes of mountains crumbling and seas drying up..."

After finishing this segment, he paused and noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

It wasn't this sentence.

Then he continued, "Wishes of another lifetime..."

Still no abnormalities.

It wasn't this sentence, either.

"Wishes of forever, none of that I want..."

Yan Junze paused again, wary.

In fact, he knew that the powerful attack he had just experienced was not much different from the time the Back-faced Woman had suddenly bit him. At such a short distance, the speed and strength of the attack meant he couldn't possibly react in time; his only recourse was to rely on the "Automatic Rewind on Near-Death."

Fang Ning behind him remained motionless.

"It seems it's not that either." Yan Junze hesitated and, after a moment's thought, decided to repeat that last sentence, in case he had gotten a word wrong the last time, "I just want every second you're still at my side."

No sooner had he finished speaking than his body shuddered violently. And just as he was about to collapse, in an instant, his body was sucked onto Fang Ning's back, as copious amounts of adherent secretion oozed out, tightly pressing their two bodies together.