Hunt her

The hoverbox suddenly projected a three-dimensional star map, and two flashing points of light were rapidly approaching each other.

Shen Yi's voice, mixed with the noise of quantum interference, said: "Your business trip destination was never Mars... it was the abandoned observatory on Vega where we first met."

The box suddenly contracted into a wrist guard and fastened to her hand, with the Star Key fragments resonating within the armor's layers.

At the end of the hyperspace tunnel, Jupiter's red eye of the storm is clearly visible.

Yan Xu saw a blue light flashing regularly at the center of the storm, forming a pulse that was perfectly synchronized with the star key in his gauntlet.

The recording of Shen Yi's last words, "I'll come to be with you in a couple of days," is playing on a loop in the armor's built-in processor—the countdown shows 47 hours and 33 minutes remaining.

Yan Xu's fingertips traced the stardust crystals on the surface of her wrist armor, and the blue light from the hyperspace portal refracted into tiny starlight in her pupils.

The armor formed by the levitating box suddenly emitted a buzzing sound, and twelve crystals lit up simultaneously, forming a ring of light around the coordinates of Vega.

"Now." Shen Yi's afterimage suddenly materialized, her virtual finger passing through her hair and pointing to the star map. "Jump coordinates locked."

The armor suddenly released gravitational waves, twisting the surrounding quantum foam into vortexes.

In the instant the feeling of weightlessness struck Yan Xu, he heard a crisp sound of metal deforming coming from the cargo hold—the miniature reactor disguised as a toiletry bag was overloaded, storing energy for the upcoming interstellar jump.

Shen Yi's projection blurred, and the last sentence, mixed with electromagnetic noise, pierced the eardrums: "Remember, the password to open the box is the date we met..."

Hyperspace suddenly collapsed, and Yan Xu was thrown into an unfamiliar star field.

The blue-white light of Vega enveloped the dilapidated observatory, while the countdown on the wristband was ticking faster—47 hours turned into a bright red 24 hours.

She touched the contract runes that appeared on the armor, and the box unfolded into a worktable, revealing antimatter fuel tanks hidden in the folding space.

Shen Yi's signature was engraved on the surface of the jar, next to which was a newly emerged line of small print: "On this business trip, I hid the entire solar system for you."

Yan Xu's fingertip lingered on the surface of the antimatter fuel canister, and Shen Yi's signature suddenly glowed.

The hum of machinery echoed from deep within the ruins of the observatory, and a new trajectory appeared on the star map projected by the gauntlet—a dotted line piercing through the Orion Arm, its endpoint being the astronomical telescope they had repaired together when they first met.

The star key fragments inside the armor plating suddenly heated up, resolving Vega's spectrum into a set of coordinate numbers.

"You always say I don't know how to pack." Shen Yi's voice suddenly came from inside the armor, with a familiar teasing tone.

The workbench automatically unfolds its second layer, revealing a quantum communicator folded within nanofibers, with real-time images of Jupiter's storms flashing on the screen.

Yan Xu discovered that each cyclone contained a tiny rune at its center, which corresponded perfectly to the contract patterns on her wrist guards.

The observatory suddenly shook violently, and the ceiling peeled off, revealing the starry sky.

The moment the countdown on the wristband reached zero, Shen Yi's virtual image stepped out of the stardust crystal and reached out to press down on her hand, which was about to activate the warp drive: "The password is 0809—the day you fell into my arms."

Yan Xu's finger hovered over the start button on the quantum communicator, and the warmth of Shen Yi's materialized hand emanated through the armor.

Suddenly, a holographic projection of their first encounter appeared on the metal floor of the observatory—an image of her stumbling and falling into his arms while clutching parts of an astronomical telescope.

The fragments of the Star Key inside the gauntlet suddenly floated up and pieced together to form a complete star map between the two.

"The luggage is on the fourth level of the folding space." Shen Yi lightly tapped her wrist armor with his fingertips, and the nanofibers unfolded into an interstellar travel suit, each piece of equipment inlaid with breathing stardust.

He picked up the curvature engine adjuster disguised as a makeup mirror, suddenly flipped it over, and the mirror displayed a real-time view of the depths of Jupiter's storm: "Look, I've even planned the route to accompany you."

Fluctuations from spatial folds were felt outside the observatory, and twelve stardust crystals automatically arranged themselves into an escort array.

Yan Xu discovered that even the mouthwash cup in the so-called business trip gear was a miniature ecological cycle system, with the gravitational balance formula between Vega and the solar system engraved on the bottom of the cup.

Shen Yi embedded the last crystal into the star-shaped hair clip in her hair, and the ruins of the entire observation station suddenly began to reassemble, with the metal walls flowing into the outline of a spaceship.

"Now," he pressed the star key emblem on her wrist guard, "it's time to head off to our first date."

The moment Yan Xu's fingertips touched the Star Key Emblem, the spaceship transformed into a streak of light and leaped into the hyperspace passage.

The distorted nebula outside the porthole suddenly coalesced into Shen Yi's holographic smiling face: "There's a surprise in the fourth layer of luggage."

She opened the folding space and found that the compartment that should have contained a change of clothes had turned into a miniature star field—three singing stars were orbiting a chocolate planet.

"This was reconstructed using the chocolate molecules you stole from the lab last time." Shen Yi's voice seeped out from Hengxing Harmony.

Yan Xu picked up the chocolate planet and took a bite. Suddenly, an alarm sounded on the bridge, and warp coordinates appeared on the wrapper: "Swallow this candy, and you'll be teleported directly to my side."

She smiled and hid the remaining chocolates in the armor's inner compartment, only to discover that each star had a countdown engraved on its back.

Shen Yi's projection suddenly appeared on the navigation panel, and he reached out to wipe the sugar stains from the corner of her mouth: "Don't worry, once the countdown ends, you'll see the fireworks show I've prepared in the Crab Nebula."

The spaceship suddenly turned automatically, and a holographic star map unfolded outside the porthole, with a path composed of supernova debris flashing and pointing towards the edge of the Milky Way.

Suddenly, a fragment of the Star Key on Yan Xu's gauntlet flew out and spelled out the words "See you in two days" in fluorescent light on the control panel.

Yan Xu stared at the words "See you in two days" flashing on the control panel, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing the chocolate crumbs in the armor's interlayer.

The path of the supernova debris outside the porthole suddenly twisted and deformed, turning into countless points of light that reassembled before her eyes—it was a star map navigation that Shen Yi had preset in advance, and each point of light was pulsating at the same frequency as the contract pattern on her wrist armor.

"Even business trip itineraries have to be designed as couple outfits?" She chuckled and opened the fourth layer of the folding space, where nanofibers automatically unfolded into a floating suitcase.

The seemingly ordinary interstellar uniform had color-changing stardust buttons sewn into its lining, which flickered in and out with her breathing.

What surprised her most was the toiletries bag. What appeared to be an ordinary toothpaste tube was actually a miniature curvature engine fuel canister, with Shen Yi's handwritten instructions engraved on it: "Use no more than 3cm per day, otherwise it will directly teleport to my bathroom."

The spaceship's AI suddenly announced: "A spatial fold has been detected in the direction of Vega. It is recommended to activate—" Before the words were finished, Yan Xu's dressing mirror automatically flipped up, and a real-time image of Shen Yi debugging equipment on the space station appeared in the mirror.

Without looking up, he said to the air, "There's an antimatter detector in the toothbrush handle. If you encounter danger, just bite it."

As if sensing her gaze, Shen Yi in the image suddenly looked up and tossed a candy into the mirror—the candy passed through the mirror and landed in her palm, with a new countdown appearing on the wrapper: 47:59:59.

"Remember to think of me." His voice faded away with the ripples on the mirror, while outside the porthole, twelve stardust crystals had been arranged in an escort formation.