In the early years, it was nothing more than the relationship between a patient's family member and a doctor.
But gradually, the relationship between the two became more like friends.
Even within the Remembrance, Ruan Mei could read the changes in the young girl's feelings for Qi Zhimu through her facial expressions.
It was a familiar look, one she hadn't seen in so many years she had forgotten how long it had been.
During her youth, many students attending the same Academy would look at her with that kind of gaze.
It seemed to be called... liking?
Ruan Mei thought about it carefully.
It likely was.
She could distinguish between the various gazes directed at her.
Some were pure, leaving her indifferent.
Some held motives, making her uncomfortable.
And a very few, no matter how much she examined them, could be summed up in two words: sincerity.
The way Clarice looked at Qi Zhimu was with sincerity.
But why... did she feel a hint of discomfort at the way that young girl looked at AMu?
Perhaps she would need to add a research project on different human emotions in the future.
As for now... Ruan Mei forcibly suppressed the strange feeling in her heart and continued to seek answers within Qi Zhimu's Remembrance.
In the final years of his life, his existence was no different from previous years.
Except, he did not use any method to extend his lifespan.
His bodily functions began to fail, and the Sensory loss sequelae he had once cured returned to haunt him.
"..."
Ruan Mei frowned.
Not to mention Qi Zhimu didn't know how to make that medicine; even if he did, without extending his lifespan, the medicine's effects would be extremely limited.
At the age of 172, Qi Zhimu would occasionally be unable to taste flavors correctly.
Occasionally, he couldn't sense the changes in temperature in nature.
Occasionally, he would lose his sense of touch or his vision.
Occasionally, he would lose his sense of pain; without seeing blood or a wound, he wouldn't know he was injured.
He accepted all of this calmly.
He only made medicine to keep his body in a youthful state, letting everything else take its natural course, unheeded.
He adopted a stray cat for company, and it continued like this until the last three months of his life.
A conversation between his close friend Yu Qintu and Qi Zhimu drew Ruan Mei's intense attention.
"Before I go, I want to ask you one more question."
"Please speak, Senior."
"Do you admire... no, I should say, do you like Intimate form of Ruan Meis name from the perspective of the opposite sex?"
In an instant, Ruan Mei stared intently at Qi Zhimu, as if trying to see something in his face.
"Senior, please do not tease me. I have only respect for my teacher; how could I harbor such disrespectful and absurd feelings?"
Looking at his face, which was full of calm and showed no trace of a lie.
In Ruan Mei's mind, the lonely image resurfaced of the youth stripping away his memories, forgetting that experience, and choosing to silently endure all the bitter consequences.
She unconsciously bit her lower lip, an indescribable feeling of distress surging through her whole body.
It clearly shouldn't be like this... "Take care, Senior. When the plum blossom brew is delivered, please remember to leave a message for Teacher, reminding her to maintain a regular schedule and eat on time."
Hearing it recounted by Yu Qintu and hearing Qi Zhimu say it himself felt completely different.
It wasn't until Yu Qintu left that Ruan Mei realized she had forgotten to breathe for a long time.
In the next second, the sound of Qi Zhimu's violent coughing rang out.
He was coughing up blood.
Keeping the body in a youthful state did not delay the failure of organ functions; on the contrary, it brought side effects.
Coughing blood was a sign.
But he didn't know, treating it only as an ailment of old age.
That young girl named Clarice brought her mother to treat her amnesia.
Ruan Mei's attention was not on the mother and daughter.
Every time she saw Qi Zhimu avoiding others' eyes to hide his aging and physical discomfort, her heart would ache for a moment.
His old age shouldn't have been like this... The young girl performed a divination for him: three of swords, ten of swords, and reversed star.
Ruan Mei saw through the girl's lie at a glance; the results represented by these three cards were bound to be the exact opposite of what she said.
Eternal love...?
No, it wasn't... it was pain, collapse, and falling into the deepest despair.
It was her—it was all things she had inflicted upon AMu.
"Is that residence not far away also your home?"
"...It is not my home."
"Then... why do you clean that residence so frequently?"
"That is my teacher's home. Long ago, she used special means to move her home here, but now she has forgotten to take it with her."
"And trimming the vegetation along the path... why do that?"
"For fear that Teacher might forget the way home."
"..."
Ruan Mei clutched her chest, her emotions in turmoil, her eyes reddening without her realizing it.
She subconsciously stepped back a few paces, bumping into the equipment behind her. Only after tearing off the electrodes once more did she realize that all the memories had been received.
"On her way to a certain destination, Teacher lost and forgot many things... perhaps including her home."
"I firmly believe that if one day she achieves her wish and reaches that destination, she will surely remember many forgotten things and will definitely come home."
"I cannot help her; the only thing I can do is look after her home for her."
Yes... AMu couldn't help her.
But it shouldn't be like this... It was another consequence she had personally brought about, even though AMu had pleaded with her so much back then.
Yet she remained unmoved, with only obsession in her eyes.
"Where is Mr. Qi's hometown?"
"It turned into cosmic dust long ago. Where my heart rests, that is my home."
AMu treated the reborn world as his resting place.
His heart was here; this was his home... and also where her home was located.
But he clearly could have left, so why...?
While searching for the answer, the youth's tender voice exploded deep within her soul.
"Home is very important. Xiao Mu already has no home; Teacher cannot be like me."
"When Xiao Mu graduates in the future, I will go back and help Teacher look after the house."
The promise the youth had upheld his entire life stabbed into her heart like a sharp knife, twisting violently.
Ruan Mei completely lost her composure, no longer able to maintain her calm and rationality.
"...AMu... AMu..."
Throughout her life, she had witnessed betrayals of trust.
Her parents failed her grandmother.
She herself failed her parents.
No one was able to keep their promises.
But... AMu did not fail her.
Even though he had been dead for hundreds of years, AMu was still fulfilling the promise in his own way... though it could hardly even be called a promise.
Ruan Mei had not forgotten her answer back then: "As you wish."
It was just the youth's 'one-sided wish'... an incredibly earnest one-sided wish.
He did not fail her.
But she had lost her Xiao Mu, her AMu, her student... and now, she couldn't find him again.
She couldn't go back to the past, and there was no him in the future.
Would an AMu like this really resent his teacher if he remembered everything at the very last moment?
Ruan Mei's breath trembled as she closed her eyes weakly.
Her progress along the path of Remembrance slowed down, but it did not stop.
A suffocatingly deep night arrived ahead of schedule, just as Ruan Mei had wished.
To cure Durand's amnesia, Qi Zhimu personally acted as a clinical subject and retrieved... everything he had personally stripped away back then.
His facial expression was stiff, and his eyes had lost all their luster.