Chapter 1584 That Was a Very, Very Long Dream

It was a long, long dream.

At one point, it was so long that she thought she would never wake up.

It was a dark room, the floor was covered with bottle caps and glass shards left by broken wine bottles, a broken vase lay in a corner of the messy room, and a torn and broken picture frame.

Withered vines covered the rotting windows, and the cross window frames looked like tombstones.

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.

Of course, in this quagmire-like vortex, it's not that there are no good things left.

At least, there was the girl at the desk.

That petite and thin figure is incompatible with everything here, and it makes people feel distressed, but there is not much sadness written on that immature and beautiful profile. There was a reassuring tranquility in Sapphire's 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.

Although she couldn't see the writing on the book, Vera clearly remembered the name of the book.

"EGA..."

Fundamentals of Algebraic Geometry...

Grothendieck's masterpiece, the bible of algebraic geometry!

At the same time, it was also the last birthday gift given to her by her mother who left the family.

With her lips trembling slightly, Vera couldn't help but pronounce the three letters.

Perhaps because of hearing the soft chanting, the girl sitting at the desk raised her sapphire-like eyes and looked at her quietly.

For a moment, Vera's pupils shrank.

What stood in front of her seemed to be a mirror leading to the past, and what was reflected in that mirror was the cowardly, evasive, fearful self in her childhood...

Just as she was hesitating whether to say something, the girl sitting at the desk—that is, her childhood self—suddenly took the initiative to speak.

"Unbelievable, how did you find me?"

"I--"

Vera was about to say something, but at this moment, there was a loud knock on the door behind her.

The movement was huge, comparable to Donetsk's artillery, not only the floor and windows, but the whole room trembled.

Looking at the girl who curled up into a ball subconsciously with a fearful expression on her face, Vera found courage out of nowhere, bravely stepped forward across the glass shards all over the floor, and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Follow me, I'll take you out of here!"

The girl raised her head helplessly, and stared blankly at her sister who was carved out of the same mold as herself.

"But... this is my home, where else can I go?"

"You can go anywhere, across the Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean...to a place called Princeton, where you will find the hero who can save you."

There was a glimmer of hope in the girl's eyes, although it was very faint, it was so bright in the dark.

"Is it like in a fairy tale?"

Her eyes flickered slightly, and Vera, who was silent for a moment, nodded vigorously.

"Yes...he will wake you up from your nightmare like a prince."

"But it's a fairy tale after all..."

Vera was about to say something, but the little girl in front of her suddenly raised her index finger and tapped her lips lightly.

A weak smile appeared on her face, and the little girl, who was only about seven or eight years old, said in a gentle voice.

"Thank you for coming to visit me... You must be a brave person to find this place, at least much braver than me."

"I believe that with you like this, no matter how difficult you face, you will be able to overcome it and reach the other shore in your mind."

"go quickly."

Unexpectedly, in the end, he was the one who was comforted.

Staring at the little girl in front of her in a daze, Vera unconsciously let go of the hands that grabbed her slender shoulders.

Almost instantly, the wooden door behind her suddenly collapsed.

Accompanied by the splash of sawdust, a monster like a nightmare broke in from the door.

From the smog, Vera saw the face that made her tremble with fear and anger.

But this time, she didn't flinch anymore, but clenched her right fist and stood there bravely.

The inexplicable peace of mind came from nowhere, but it guarded her side as if it really existed.

She believed that she would be fine, as if there was a voice in her ear telling her so.

As if surprised by her courage, the monster showed a surprised expression on its face, but that expression soon turned into a cruel smile, and strode towards her with fists in hand.

However, at this moment, a miracle happened suddenly.

A ray of light passed through the curtains, lighting up the entire dimly lit room. The monster fell backwards howling as if it had been punched by something, and with the sound of falling to the ground, it turned into a mass of fragments like a broken wine bottle.

At the same time, under the radiance of that light, everything around began to collapse.

Whether it's the house, or the windows, or the shards of glass on the floor, or the book on the desk...

Everything is like a collapsing sand dune, including Vera herself standing in the center of the vortex, falling and falling freely towards the bottomless darkness.

I don't know how long I have sunk in that darkness.

Just when she felt that her consciousness was faltering and she was about to fall asleep, a slight sound suddenly came from her ear.

It was the sound of breathing.

However, instead of blowing in her ear, it softly blew on a piece of glass.

For some reason, at this moment, she is lying in a crystal coffin like a princess in a fairy tale.

Gradually, the silhouette reflected on the crystal coffin became clearer.

Surprisingly, it was not the handsome and brave prince in the fairy tale who came to the crystal coffin, but a beautiful princess.

Yes, compared to an ugly duckling like herself, she is undoubtedly more like a princess, with long black hair hanging quietly behind her, and her gestures are indescribably dignified and elegant.

Vera knew that this was a dream, and everything in front of her eyes was her own imagination, but she still tried hard to see her appearance clearly.

But the dreamland is a dreamland after all, all the beauty and misery here are separated by a layer of opaque tulle. And in it, she is like a deer wandering in the forest, except for the occasional mottled through the shade of the trees, she can't see anything.

"Who are you……"

As if she didn't hear her voice, the princess who was separated from her by a layer of haze spoke softly with a melodious voice like a pipe organ.

"Although we may have met a few times before, it is probably the first time that we have such face-to-face communication like now."

Staring at herself lying in the crystal coffin, the mysterious woman continued.

"...A long time ago, I often heard him talk about you. He once told me that you are his favorite student and the most talented of all the students he has taught."

Vera opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but couldn't say a word.

It always felt that while she was sleeping, many things happened that she didn't know.

And that feeling of uncertainty made her inexplicably nervous.

"In addition to the story about you, there is also about Princeton, and many people. From his tone, I can clearly feel that he is sincere to the students he has taught and the people he has helped. Proud and proud from the bottom of my heart.”

"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 don't know clearly."

"But one thing is for sure, I love him very much. When he promised me that he would give me a star and leave a legend about us on it, you can't imagine how touched I was at that time."

A faint smile appeared on the face covered in mist.

As if caught in some kind of good memory, there was a touch of sweetness in that smile, which also brought a touch of inadvertent ease and slyness to her voice.

"Of course . . . maybe you can imagine that."

"A woman's intuition tells me that your opinion of him may not be as pure as it appears on the surface. But now it seems that it is a later story."

Saying that, that relaxed voice suddenly brought a trace of loneliness, even sadness.

"Later, he went to a far away place."

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

Vera suddenly felt that her heartbeat seemed to be stuck by something, and a little pain gushed out from the depths of her soul.

"That is a place farther than any distance and time. Although I thought about following him, I still didn't do it in the end."

"He's gone, but I'm still here."

"He still has a lot of things he wants to do, but I will do the rest for him. Whether it's about the part of this world, or about my promise..."

Having said that, the woman was silent for a while, and a carefree smile suddenly appeared on her blurred face.

"Although he is self-righteous talking to himself, but...for you, he is probably a very important person."

"If... I mean the possibility of one in ten thousand."

"If there is any misunderstanding here, he has never been to Mars, and he didn't encounter any accidents there at all. He just wanted to rest for a while because he was too tired, so he hid himself quietly... and that At that time, I was no longer in this world, and you just woke up again."

"I hope you can take care of that idiot."

"...However, that kind of thing that can only happen in fairy tales is really impossible in reality."

The slender fingertips lingered on Vera's face for a moment, and when she was about to reach out and grab that hand, asking what happened during her deep sleep, everything in front of her eyes suddenly disappeared.

Suddenly, in the thick fog that surrounded her, a meter of sunlight suddenly shot out, causing her to close her eyelashes unconsciously.

At the moment when the eyelids opened and closed, she opened her misty eyes again and saw the chandelier on the ceiling, the white mist rising around her, and faces full of joy.

As if emerging from the deep sea, the severed five senses came from all directions along with a faint icy coldness and noisy sound waves, enveloping her.

"...It's really an instant."

Although that moment was as long as a lifetime, so that she almost forgot the warm feeling.

Tears rolled down from the corners of his eyes unconsciously.

The scorching heat printed on the forehead seemed to have happened a minute ago, but it seemed as long as a century had passed.

She tried to turn her face sideways, her eyes blurred by tears wide open, trying to find that familiar face from the side or the door.

"Lu Zhou..."

But there was nothing there, only the shouts of doctors and nurses echoed in my ears...

"Thawed successfully!"

"She's awake!"