From the end of the world

Chapter 248 I Won’t Let You Run Away
There was still a lot of time left before the agreed one-hour alone time was over. I leaned against the wall in the corridor, silently looking at Ma Zao in the room.

Ma Zao seemed to be performing a one-man pantomime. Her face wrinkled in annoyance like a bun. She hugged the pillow tightly, then threw it aside. Then, she seemed to lose all her strength and fell backwards, lying on her back on the bed.

She stared blankly at the ceiling, her face showing joy, distress, and even sadness. Although I couldn't see her specific thoughts like a mind reader, I could figure them out. But I couldn't predict what decision she would make in the end, and whether she would accept my feelings.

After a while, I don’t know what she thought of, her expression suddenly changed, she sat up straight, and her expression became embarrassed.

"Um... Zhuang Cheng?" she asked quietly, "... are you watching?"

It seems that she realized that I might have peeked through the thermal signature. I have never concealed my ability in this area, but in this situation, I certainly cannot admit it out loud. I can only pretend that nothing happened. She seemed to be unable to judge whether I was peeking or not, so she returned to the rhythm of daze and contemplation.

After an hour, I returned to the room. When she saw me come in, her expression wavered, but she quickly calmed down. It seemed that she didn't know how to talk to me for a while. I took the initiative to open the topic and asked her what she thought.

She seemed to understand that she could not avoid this topic. She lowered her head and hesitated for a moment, and finally gave me an answer that made me happy.

"I...I want it too..." she said in a voice as thin as a mosquito.

I suppressed my excitement and didn't rush her, waiting for her to finish her words.

She took a deep breath, then regained her normal voice and said, "I want to be with you, too... Don't leave me."

After getting a definite answer, I could no longer bear it and hugged her. She made a surprised sound, and two seconds later, she slowly hugged me back. I hugged her even harder.

"You said so yourself," I said seriously. "I will never let you get away."

"……Um."

There was also an irrepressible dependence and joy in her voice, and then as if making a promise, she said softly: "I won't run away...as long as you don't hate me."
-
After going through so many twists and turns, I finally told Ma Zao my true feelings, and Ma Zao finally believed and accepted my true thoughts.

At this point, the hidden danger between me and Ma Zao can be said to have been completely removed. A big stone in my heart finally fell to the ground, and it seemed that even my body became lighter. Things were going so well that it was a little unreal, as if I was dreaming.

However, this is not a dream. This is just a description of my current happy state of mind. I also want to learn from Ma Zao to throw my body on the bed and roll around to express my happy emotions. But in front of her, I still hope that I can act more stable, so I took out the mask of calmness again.

She looked deeply into my face and then mentioned something.

"Zhuang Cheng, this ring..." She took off the black rope lock heart ring on her left middle finger and wanted to give it back to me. I didn't reach out to take it, but just lowered my head to look at it.

The ring is now damaged. Although it originally looked like it was woven from black iron wire, it now looks burnt, as if it had been mercilessly burned by flames.

Lu Youxun was right. Even if I cooperated throughout the whole process, the Black Rope Locking Heart Ring could not survive after being used on a superpower of my level. From the moment Ma Zao pulled his hand out, the Black Rope Locking Heart Ring lost the ability to keep the wearer's hand in a phantom form. This prop has been with me for a while. It has helped me a lot during this period, and I have developed some feelings for it. Now seeing it become like this, I still feel a little regretful.

But I immediately thought of Ma Zao's power of return.

“I should be able to repair the ring, but I don’t know to what extent,” she said.

"Can't it be completely repaired even with the power of time travel? Is it because this is not an ordinary item but a magic prop?" I asked.

"That's not the case. Even magic items can generally be completely repaired. It's just that the difficulty of repair varies depending on the damage." She said, "Destruction involving time and cause and effect is of course difficult, and excessive levels of destructive power will also make repair difficult. Your power is too strong, and the fact that I was 'burned by your flame' itself is mysterious and will hinder my repair."

"The fact itself is host to mystery" is not uncommon in mysticism. In many places, rituals and ceremonies often feature performances that imitate myths and legends. Some religious believers also believe that they can gain the power to exorcise evil spirits by reciting the words said by saints in the scriptures. This kind of imitation behavior is to borrow power from deeds that happened at a certain moment in the past.

However, most of the deeds that borrowed power were done by gods and immortals. Even if it was a great deity of a mortal, the mortal would be deified to a certain extent. It seemed that throughout the ages, people believed that leaving power in deeds was the work of the gods.

Since I am considered a Great Impermanence Qualifier, it seems reasonable that I can do this. Moreover, my flames already have the property of burning cause and effect, which can also be said to be a kind of "destruction involving cause and effect". Even with the power of time reversal, it is not easy to erase the destructive deeds I left behind.

"Even if this ring is repaired, you don't have to return it to me. Just consider it a gift from me to you," I said.

"Is it possible?" She was surprised. "This ring will be very useful to you, right?"

"It's ok."

I didn't mean to give this ring as a "ring for that purpose", I just felt it was a bit weird to take something off her finger and give it back. If I need it in the future, I can ask her to help me.

Ma Zao probably didn't have that kind of knowledge, and just regarded it as the second gift I gave her after the red GPS bracelet. She nodded after thinking about it, put it back on the middle finger of her left hand, looked at the ring with nostalgia, then looked at the bracelet on her left wrist, and a happy smile appeared on her face.

(End of this chapter)