When the spacecraft reached its preset coordinates and the hatch opened, Ruan Mei stood at the top of the boarding ramp, looking down at the snowy landscape below, and suddenly froze.
After several Amber Eras away, returning to this place, she'd assumed her home no longer existed.
An ordinary building with no one living in it, no one maintaining it, could never withstand the erosion of time, especially not for 6 centuries.
Yet now, the house was still there.
It stood quietly atop the snow, clearly visible from above, as pristine as the day she'd left it.
Not far away, there was also a bamboo house she didn't recognize.
Ruan Mei double-checked the latitude and longitude written on the shipping address, confirming that the bamboo house was Rrakavasha's current residence.
He didn't move into her home... hm?
Then what was that...?
Through the curtain of snow, Ruan Mei's gaze locked onto a moving figure in the courtyard.
Even though six hundred years had passed since they last met, even though from this distance the person was no more than a tiny black dot, she still recognized him at a glance: her student, Rrakavasha.
The spacecraft began a steady descent.
The lower it went, the more clearly she could see details that shouldn't exist.
She noticed that the mountain path extending from the Moon-Crossing River to the house remained strikingly visible even under layers of ice and snow, deliberately maintained.
Along the way, the cut surfaces on the branches of tall trees bore obvious signs of recent pruning.
Had Vash trimmed them?
The spacecraft finally came to a stop on the open ground not far from the front gate.
When her feet touched her homeland once more, a sense of familiarity finally flickered across Ruan Mei's always-composed, refined face, something she rarely allowed herself to feel.
Without realizing it, several Amber Eras had passed just like that, time slipping through her fingers while she worked.
Sadly, she still hadn't achieved the goal she'd set back then: bringing back the family she loved, and who loved her. The research remained incomplete.
Ruan Mei stopped before the door, sensing something unusual.
"An energy lock?"
She sensed the special barrier enveloping the entire residence, currently inactive but sophisticated in design.
There was no need to think about it; this was surely her student's handiwork as well.
Stepping over the threshold and surveying the familiar layout inside, memories long blurred by time slowly became clear again, sharp enough to hurt.
She heard the sound of snow being swept in the backyard.
Ruan Mei didn't call out. She naturally walked through the sandalwood corridor and saw that familiar back, her heart lifting with anticipation.
"Va-"
Before the name could leave her lips, a trace of confusion crossed her face.
That wasn't her student, Rrakavasha.
The reason it felt familiar was that over nearly six hundred years, a figure like this had stayed by her side day after day, taking care of her daily life in place of the student who had left, a pale imitation she'd never questioned.
At the same time Ruan Mei spoke, the mechanical puppet had already turned around.
Their eyes met, yet the looks they carried were completely different, one empty, one searching.
"Ms. Ruan Mei, hello. After several hundred years, you have finally returned."
Ruan Mei didn't see any scanning traces in the puppet's eyes. It seemed to confirm her identity the instant it saw her, as though it had been waiting.
"I am a creation of Rrakavasha, a mechanical puppet powered by his memories and acting according to a prime directive."
"...Mm."
Ruan Mei wasn't surprised.
Although she'd never taught Rrakavasha how to build mechanical puppets, he had seen the original design blueprints. It wasn't strange that he could make one; he'd always been talented at learning by simply watching.
Having a puppet around would save a lot of unnecessary time.
"Where is Vash?"
Just like Yu Qingtu back then, Ruan Mei hadn't realized anything was wrong yet.
She asked calmly about her student's whereabouts, never imagining what was going on..
The puppet's next words would shatter her centuries-long composure in an instant.
"Ms. Ruan Mei, Rrakavasha has passed away 489 years ago."
"..."
What did it just say?
Ruan Mei stood dazed in the courtyard, emotions she had never known before surging into her eyes like a dam breaking.
It said... Vash was dead?
...Impossible!
Passed away 489 years ago.. 489...
Thinking of a certain possibility, Ruan Mei suddenly lost her composure entirely, her composure crumbling.
Rrakavasha had been sixty-four when he left her tutelage. She had personally confirmed his lifespan back then; he could live to one hundred and seventy-five.
The day his lifespan ended was exactly 111 years after he left. Add that to 489... six hundred.
Which meant he hadn't used any method to extend his lifespan at all. Hadn't even tried.
"Why... why did even you have to let me down..."
Ruan Mei murmured softly, a grim shadow falling across her face.
"I told you we would meet again after my research was finished. Why didn't you listen...?"
She instinctively searched for reasons to explain Rrakavasha's actions, grasping for any alternative to the truth.
Maybe... it was an accident?
Her heart, on the verge of falling apart, still clung to a final, faint hope, desperate for any explanation that wasn't abandonment.
"Vash died in an accident, right? Tell me, who did it?"
Ruan Mei stared at the puppet, her gaze intense.
The puppet wasn't equipped with an emotion simulation system. When Ruan Mei asked, it answered in an emotionless tone that cut like a blade.
"Rrakavasha did not die in an accident. He passed away naturally when his lifespan ended. Based on emotional readings, it can be concluded that he left peacefully, calmly."
"..."
Ruan Mei staggered back instinctively, her steps unsteady as the ground seemed to shift beneath her.
At that moment, the puppet stepped forward, making almost the exact same motion it had years ago when facing Yu Qingtu.
It opened its chest cavity and reached into the folded space inside, taking out a preservation box with mechanical precision.
"This is the only item Rrakavasha left for you during his lifetime. Unfortunately, its shelf life is only 150 years."
Ruan Mei's gaze fell upon the open box.
Inside was a plate of pastries that looked strangely familiar, the recipe she'd once praised, perfected after years of effort.
From their appearance, there were no obvious signs of spoilage.
She took the box and lifted one piece to her nose with trembling fingers.
The clear, crisp fragrance unique to plum blossoms was still strong, showing no sign of deterioration despite the centuries.
But at this moment, she wasn't in the mood to taste it, nor any mind to examine it further. The gesture felt hollow.
"Did Vash say anything else...?"
"Nothing."
Hearing this, Ruan Mei unconsciously pressed her lips together, a flicker of disappointment passing across her face without her even realizing it.
She had wanted to question him, to ask why he left without even leaving a single word for his teacher, some final message, some closure.
But she immediately remembered that it was she who had told Vash not to disturb her anymore.
After leaving her tutelage, aside from the plum blossom wine sent every year, he had never written a single letter.
The remark column on the shipping forms had always been blank, a silence she'd never questioned.
What standing did she have to reproach Vash? The fault was hers.
...Wait-
That's right, the plum blossom wine!
Ruan Mei suddenly recalled that the plum blossom wine had still been arriving on time even this year, its flavor unchanged from decades past.
If Vash had been dead for many years, then where had this wine come from?
Several possibilities quickly surfaced in her mind, each more disturbing than the last.
The first, naturally, was that Rrakavasha wasn't actually dead, some elaborate ruse.
And the truth she most dared not think about was related to the mechanical puppet before her...
"Tell me, what is the prime directive Vash set in your core?"
The puppet replied with clinical precision:
"1. Periodically cultivate and mound the plum grove, harvest plum blossoms, brew wine according to preset procedures, and finally send you a three-year-aged finished product."
"2. Periodically maintain your residence and the bamboo house, performing daily cleaning."
"3. Periodically prune the vegetation on both sides of the mountain path starting from the Moon-Crossing River and leading directly to your front door."
"4. Aside from the above scheduled tasks, I will remain stationed before your residence in guard mode, preventing any situation that might cause damage to the property."
Each emotionless answer made Ruan Mei's heart churn with indescribable feelings, a maelstrom of emotions she'd spent centuries avoiding.
The possibility she most wished to deny had, in the end, become reality.
He'd spent his final years, perhaps his final decades, programming this puppet to continue serving her. To maintain a home she'd forgotten. To send wine, she barely acknowledged.
All for a teacher who'd told him to forget her.
"Why would Vash do this?"
She asked, her voice strained and her eyes filled with pain.
"There is no relevant memory in the database. Unable to answer."