Chapter 149: I'm Not Leaving Anymore, I'll Stay With You

Jiang Hu stayed in the laboratory for three whole days without eating or drinking.

He completely disregarded his appearance, looking utterly disheveled.

Three days. Three whole days.

Mo Niannian had remained by his side the entire time.

Watching Jiang Hu in such a state, Mo Niannian furrowed her brows deeply.

Countless times, she tried to interrupt Jiang Hu, but all her attempts were in vain.

For the first time, Mo Niannian experienced such an overwhelming sense of helplessness.

[Can't we really contact the Heavenly Dao?]

If worse came to worst, she could just complete a few more tasks.

Seeing Jiang Hu torture himself like this made her feel a pang of heartache.

[We can't establish contact unless we reach another small world.]

Normally, once Mo Niannian's identity in this small world perished, they should have departed. However, because Jiang Hu's malice value had not dropped to zero, the mission was neither a failure nor a success, allowing them to exploit a bug and temporarily remain in this small world.

The bloodshot veins in Jiang Hu's eyes were terrifyingly dense. His clothes were a mess, and the blood on his hands had dried, cracked open, and then dried again.

He looked devastatingly wretched.

What worried Mo Niannian even more was his mental state.

Over and over again, he repeated his experiment.

He muttered under his breath, "How could it fail? How could it fail?"

"No, it has to succeed. It will definitely succeed."

He would definitely succeed.

Mo Niannian did not know what Jiang Hu was working on, though she had a vague guess.

The probability of Jiang Hu succeeding was infinitely close to zero.

Failing yet again, Jiang Hu swept everything off the table in a frenzy.

With the look of a madman, he cried out, "How? How could this happen? How could I fail?"

This shouldn't be happening!

A moment later, he began frantically picking up the items scattered across the floor like a madman.

He squatted limply on the ground, clutching those documents, holding them tightly. "Niannian..."

"Niannian, I truly know I was wrong... Please... Please come back."

"Come back, and I'll listen to you about everything."

"I won't research anymore... I'll stay with you, I'll accompany you no matter what we do... I'm begging you..."

With grief that reached the depths of despair, he was like a trapped beast.

Jiang Hu, who had not shed a single tear since learning of Mo Niannian's death, completely broke down at this moment.

His eye sockets were red enough to drip blood, and he bit down hard on his lower lip.

He tasted the tang of blood.

He desperately suppressed himself, sobbing softly, teetering on the brink of complete collapse.

Mo Niannian quietly watched all of this. Her heart felt as though it were being tightly clutched by a pair of massive hands.

She touched her chest, a momentary look of bewilderment crossing her face.

She drifted down, crouching beside Jiang Hu, reaching out to embrace him.

Her hand passed straight through Jiang Hu's body, and the confusion on her face deepened.

Once again, she covered her chest.

Jiang Hu... Oh, Jiang Hu.

Having gone three entire days without a single drop of water, Jiang Hu eventually passed out in the laboratory. It was only when the person in charge, feeling uneasy about him, came to check on him that he discovered Jiang Hu unconscious.

He had Jiang Hu rushed to the hospital.

After paying the medical fees and returning, he found Jiang Hu already awake, sitting silently on the bed, staring into the distance with eyes full of emptiness.

The person in charge grew somewhat angry. "Jiang Hu, who are you trying to put on a show for by acting like you're half-dead?"

He lowered his voice. "Your life was traded for hers! How much longer do you plan to torment yourself?"

After a long while, Jiang Hu parted his lips. His voice was raspy to the extreme, sounding as though it had been grated against sandpaper. "I know."

That was precisely why he wouldn't easily seek death; his life had been given to him by Niannian.

He would succeed. Niannian would come back.

Jiang Hu's eyes gradually hardened with determination.

Niannian was still waiting for him; he had no time to wallow in despair. Jiang Hu abruptly sat up and yanked out the intravenous drip from his hand.

"What are you doing?" The person in charge rushed forward to hold him down.

Jiang Hu's lips were pale. "Niannian is still waiting for me. Step aside."

"Jiang Hu—" The person in charge was filled with a mixture of sympathy and anxiety. "Mo Niannian is gone. How long will it take for you to accept this fact?"

Jiang Hu straightened his cuffs and stood up. His gaze grew cold, and he said in a deep voice, "Step aside."

He could not afford to waste any more time.

He would succeed.

The person in charge looked at Jiang Hu with eyes full of regret. Such a brilliant genius, completely ruined just like that.

For the sake of a dead person, he was throwing his life away.

Jiang Hu had no intention of arguing further and turned to leave.

Following that, Jiang Hu went into seclusion.

He spent all his savings to set up a small, makeshift laboratory.

He stayed inside the lab day and night, losing all track of time.

He poured every ounce of his energy into his experiments.

Mo Niannian never left, following Jiang Hu around all day long.

She watched as he grew increasingly silent, watching him transition from despair and breakdown to eerie calmness.

This man, Jiang Hu...

No matter what, Jiang Hu had planted roots deep in her heart in his own unique way.

Mo Niannian knew about the experiment Jiang Hu was conducting.

It remained one of the top ten unsolved mysteries in the medical world, and countless people had spent decades failing to conquer this barrier.

For Jiang Hu to succeed was simply too difficult.

Mo Niannian even worried that Jiang Hu would break down halfway through.

Yet, Jiang Hu persisted, repeating the exact same experiment over and over again.

If it failed, he would start all over again.

Mo Niannian had lost count of how many times Jiang Hu had restarted from scratch.

Both Mo Niannian and Jiang Hu stared intently at the tiny cell under the microscope, tension reaching its absolute peak in the room.

The cell slowly divided, and under their watchful eyes, it gradually took on the rudimentary shape of an organ.

"It... It succeeded."

Jiang Hu had not spoken for so long that his voice was dry and hoarse. He stared blankly at the result.

Then, he squatted down, burying his face in his hands, unable to tell whether he was overwhelmed by excitement or sorrow.

"Niannian... You're still waiting for me, right?"

His voice was low and heavy, like a gust of wind that would scatter at the slightest breath.

Jiang Hu's experiment had made a major breakthrough. Having surmounted the greatest technical hurdle, the rest of the process seemed much easier.

Mo Niannian watched with her own eyes as Jiang Hu meticulously replicated her entire body, piece by piece.

Finally, everything was ready.

This body, prepared exclusively for Mo Niannian, was an absolute match for her soul.

Without a moment of hesitation, Mo Niannian dived straight into it.

The adaptation between body and soul required a brief period. Having been deprived of proper rest for far too long, the moment she entered the physical vessel, she blacked out.

Jiang Hu gazed infatuatedly at Mo Niannian. "Niannian... You'll come back, won't you?"

He had reconstructed Mo Niannian's body using the cellular fragments she had left behind.

He had arrived too late; the majority of the cells had lost their vitality. He had exhausted every possible method and failed countless times before finally succeeding in replicating this physical form.

However, the most crucial brain cells were nowhere to be found, no matter how hard he searched.

He had searched the entire ruins, inch by inch, yet not a single trace remained.

Therefore, no matter how closely this body resembled Mo Niannian's, it was still just an empty shell.

He was waiting—waiting for a miracle.

He had once been a staunch materialist, but now he was willing to believe in deities.

The gods would return Niannian to him, wouldn't they?

He reached out to touch Mo Niannian, but worried that his scarred hands might leave red marks on her skin.

Drawing his hand back, he smiled until tears streamed down his face.

He kept a quiet vigil beside the body, pious to the extreme.

He prayed to the heavens, pleading for just one more chance.

After sleeping for several hours, Mo Niannian finally woke up.

She slowly opened her eyes, and Jiang Hu's blood-red eyes, resembling those of a wild beast, instantly came into view.

A smile bloomed in Mo Niannian's eyes. "Jiang Hu!"

Jiang Hu remained motionless, staring fixedly at her.

Mo Niannian stood up and stretched her limbs to get accustomed to them.

The compatibility between this corpse and her soul was remarkably high, and she adapted quickly.

Throughout this, Jiang Hu stared straight at her without making a single movement.

"Jiang Hu, I'm back." Her smile was blindingly bright.

Jiang Hu was like a machine in disrepair for years, showing no reaction whatsoever.

Mo Niannian frowned and poked him. "Aren't you happy that I'm back?"

Jiang Hu finally reacted. Life flickered into his pitch-black, bottomless eyes, growing brighter and brighter until they shone like a river of stars.

He trembled slightly, his voice raspy and low. "Happy. How could I not be happy?"

His voice was shaking.

How could he not be happy? He was so ecstatic he felt like he was losing his mind.

The heavens had finally shown him mercy.

[Male protagonist's malice value -30. Current malice value: 0.]

[Mission accomplished. Does the host wish to leave the small world immediately?]

Mo Niannian raised an eyebrow. [What do you think?]

If she just turned around and left right now, Jiang Hu would surely lose his mind.

The system chuckled. [Then the host can continue playing. I'll take my leave first.]

"Niannian... I... truly... You won't leave again, right?"

Mo Niannian had intended to tease Jiang Hu, but seeing him like this stirred a sense of heartache. She nodded. "I'm not leaving. I'm staying with you."

Jiang Hu lunged forward, pulling Mo Niannian tightly into his arms. "Niannian, Niannian."

His arms exerted force, tightening around her, trapping her securely against him.

Over and over again, he called her name.

Mo Niannian gave him a light push. "We agreed that once I came back, you would listen to me about everything."

"Yes, I'll listen to you about everything." Jiang Hu's eye rims were red beyond belief.

He buried his face in the crook of Mo Niannian's neck, and a patch of her shoulder grew slightly damp.

A soft spot in Mo Niannian's heart melted.

Jiang Hu truly left her with no other choice.

She reached out and returned the embrace.

Fine. She was willing to stay and waste a little more time here.

After all... how could anyone resist someone as heart-wrenching as Jiang Hu?