428 “He is waiting for me....”

“Missing someone and not being able to see them is the worst feeling ever.” – Nathaniel Richmond.

historical

Zi Han sat down on the blindingly white floor of the simulator room with his knees bent as he turned the ring around his finger. He couldn’t help but worry about the person he was thinking about.

Was he hurt? Did he eat? Is he sleeping well? Is he waiting for him to come and save him?

These were the questions running around Zi Han’s mind constantly for the past three days ever since he found out that his lover was missing.

Because of the ring on Yi Chen’s finger, Zi Han already knew his lover’s coordinates in space but there was no way of getting there without performing a space jump.

In the past few days, his mother had been turning everything upside down, even Igneous wasn’t spared. Its systems were searched thoroughly for every single data on space jumps. By the time she was done with it, Igneous felt so violated. Its fear of Zi Xingxi grew by a notch.

While she was tormenting Igneous, Zi Xingxi would curse out her husband who wasn’t there. Zi Han had seen his mother cry over her husband and even laugh recalling good memories but he had never heard her curse him this much. She cursed him out so badly that Zi Han didn’t even know where to put his hands and feet.

He just sat there feeling very uncomfortable like everybody else. Zi Feiji who already sat through an earful of curses didn’t want to suffer through it again so he hung around less.

He was more concerned about Zi Han. They had talked about the risks countless times with his daughter but Zi Han didn’t change his mind. He wanted to go and find him no matter the risks.

.....

This was why Zi Han was in the simulator room all this time. Using all the information available to them Zi Han had been trying to perform any kind of jump. He wanted to start small and jump to another planet but it turns out he couldn’t even jump to the kitchen.

After hours and hours of engaging his mental power, he didn’t make any progress. In fact, he was working extremely hard with sweat dripping down his face but it wasn’t working.

His grandfather thought maybe it would be activated after strenuous training. They tried that but all he got was a sore back.

Next, they tried stimulating his mental power to the maximum level and this is what they trying now but from the looks of it, it was going to fail.

Zi Han leaned his head back resting it against the wall as he exhaled deeply.

The fear of failing began to overwhelm him as he sat there staring blankly at the ceiling. His emotions were so chaotic that a tear flowed down his face unknowingly.

It was only when someone called his name through the communication channel in the room did he come out of this state and realised his eye was leaking. He wiped his cheek while answering, “Yah, I am here.”

“Are you okay?” asked Lynn Feng her brows knitted together. She felt like running over there and giving him a warm hug but before she could even take a step, Zi Han stood up and said,

“Let’s do it again.”

Lynn Feng who knew at a glance that Zi Han really needed to rest couldn’t help but say, “You should at least go and take a break. You won’t be able to last long if you keep working like this.”

Zi Han knew she was coming from a good place but he couldn’t afford to rest. Every minute spent resting was another minute of Yi Chen being stuck in that place. Zi Han couldn’t sleep well thinking about that.

“One last time,” he said and Lynn Feng could only comply. While she was inputting the simulation data she continued to say,

“I know you are worried that you will fail... that’s why you are pushing yourself too hard but I believe in you. We all do. We know you can succeed but don’t overexert yourself in the process.”

Zi Han wiped the sweat off his forehead and sniffled before responding, “He is waiting for me. I can’t let him down.”

“I know but if he was here he wouldn’t want you to push yourself too far and hurt yourself, right? Just... just be kind to yourself. We are all worried about you.”

Zi Han nodded his head his scarlet eyes stinging like he was on the brink of tears. He also knew Yi Chen wouldn’t want him to push himself over the limit but with each passing minute, he died a little inside. He now knew full well what his mother had been going through all these years.

Living with this kind of pain was unbearable. Zi Han was pretty sure if he wasn’t there she might have followed him by openly killing all the prime ministers and dying with them dragging them to hell.

That’s how far she would have gone if he never existed. At least he had some hope that Yi Chen was still alive but his mother at the time didn’t have any hope.

The white background changed slowly transitioning into the simulation of an intense battle. He was surrounded by an entire battalion of soldiers ready to fight him and bring him down.

Zi Han took out his dagger and stood in a ready for war stance before attacking the men in hand to hand combat. Lynn Feng clearly witnessed Zi Han’s ruthlessness as he fought through the group of men with ease. This kind of momentum was indeed terrifying but even so, his mental power showed no signs of breaking through to a level strong enough to perform a space jump.

It didn’t take him long before the corpses of the soldiers were piled up in the open field.

Breathing heavily Zi Han retracted his mental power. His vision became blurred as he staggered one step back but he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head to keep himself awake. He clenched the hilt tightly waiting for the second phase to start.