Liuying scooted over slightly, patting the space beside her on the bed with a tender smile.
Anming handed her one of two steaming teacups. "It's quite cold here. Wouldn't want you catching a chill."
"Mhm."
She nodded obediently, not mentioning that genetically enhanced warriors didn't get sick. In Anming's eyes, she was just an ordinary girl—and she loved that.
To live normally. To savor mundane days and simple happiness. No more battles drenched in blood and tears. No more agonizing farewells.
As Anming sat down, Liuying immediately wrapped her arms around his, her bright eyes shimmering with contentment.
It only strengthened his resolve.
Time to tell her everything.
"Firefly."
"I'm listening."
"I promised I'd explain when the time came."
That time was now—just the two of them, away from the Express crew.
Her bare feet, which had been swinging playfully, stilled. She tensed, her expression turning serious.
Anming chuckled, ruffling her hair. "I'm the one who should be nervous. You didn't do anything wrong."
"No."
Liuying shook her head firmly, gripping his hand. "Anming doesn't make mistakes."
It had always been this way. Anming was endlessly kind, giving without regard for cost—or even his own life.
Her trust was absolute. If it came from him, it couldn't be wrong.
That only made his guilt heavier.
"Firefly… do you believe in reincarnation?"
"Reincarnation…?" She blinked but didn't question him, waiting patiently.
"Reliving past events through simulation. Like… the eighteen years we spent together on Grammer. It's how I recovered my memories."
"No!"
Liuying recoiled, her voice trembling. "It wasn't a simulation. Every day with you was real."
The warmth of their embraces. Countless shared sunrises. The summers they'd treasured—
"Not like that! I'm not saying those were fake," Anming hurried to clarify. "But when I first woke up on the space station, I had no memories. The simulations helped me remember."
"So… you forgot me?" Her voice cracked, her eyes glistening with hurt.
SLAP.
Anming struck himself across the face without hesitation. How could he have forgotten her?
"Then came the second simulation—my past on the Yuque."
Liuying winced at the red mark on his cheek but was too engrossed in his words. Everything clicked into place: Fu Xuan's probing stares, her unspoken tension.
"So… how far did you and that Master Diviner go?"
Her fingers dug into the sheets.
Anming bowed his head.
"...All the way."
Gasp.
Liuying's fist clenched. A tear rolled down her cheek.
"Why…?"
Before he could answer, she pounced, pinning him down as her tears rained onto his face. Her hair cascaded around them like a curtain, her sunset eyes blurred with tears.
"You were mine first…"
"My love alone!"
She tore off her outer layer, leaving only the thin fabric that hugged her curves, and pressed him into the mattress.
The summers in Grammer. The promises they'd made. Had none of it mattered?
No—
That love had been real.
Reality and memory warred in her mind as she seized Anming's collar, crushing her lips against his.
This kiss tasted bitter, salted by tears.
Anming couldn't see her eyes—she'd shut them tight, as if afraid to look.
Just as her fingers hooked into her skirt's hem, Anming caught her wrist. When their eyes met, he saw only confusion and desperate love.
"Why?"
"You haven't heard everything."
"I… don't want to."
"Those eighteen years with you in Grammer were irreplaceable," Anming said firmly, holding her shoulders.
"I want more summers with you. More memories."
"Let me build that future with you."
He wouldn't run. Couldn't abandon the past. All he could do was stay by her side—and continue their unfinished midsummer dream.
"So beautiful… it's like a dream," Liuying murmured, cradling his face. "Then let me sleep forever in it."
She was a firefly adrift in the cosmos, chasing the shadow of someone long gone.
She'd never wanted to wake from that summer. If she waited long enough, maybe—just maybe—she'd find him again in some sunlit corner of the season.
"I just wanted to keep you," she whispered, retreating to the edge of the bed.
She'd known about Fu Xuan. Yet she'd come to Jarilo-VI anyway, defying fate to reunite with Anming.
Her choice had been made long before the coin was flipped.
"Firefly, I'm sorry."
"...Do you know what silence means, at times like this?"
"What?"
"Idiot Anming—Mmph!"
He stole her lips before she could finish, smiling against them.
This time, the kiss was sweet.
Outside, snowflakes drifted down—like ashes from a sky long past.
Liuying knew now: she was no longer a firefly without a home.
She'd found her warmth again.
And at last, summer had returned.