Soft and Blurred

The days had grown soft and blurred.

How many times had he opened his eyes on the yoga mat now?

Fang Qi had stopped counting.

In the safe room, the fluorescent light always cast its steady, gentle white glow.

No sunrise, no sunset, no ticking clock.

He only knew that every time he woke, curled against his chest was the warm, soft girl with silver hair.

The white gauze over her right eye had shifted slightly askew, and her amber left eye would meet his gaze the instant his eyes opened.

She was like that every time.

Every single time, she’d watch him all night long.

“Master’s awake,” she’d always say.

Her voice was soft and syrupy, a playful smile on her pretty face.

“Liguang will make breakfast.”

Breakfast was, as usual, reheated canned food, now paired with increasingly rich side dishes.

At some point, Liguang had found an unopened jar of honey in one of the maze’s rooms.

And so, a thin layer of sweetness appeared on the biscuits.

Then they’d push open the door and step into that ever-shifting corridor.

The maze had changed too.

Starting from some unknown day, Fang Qi no longer felt that suffocating pressure when he opened the door.

The mosaic tiles in the hallway had shed their sickening, murky gloom and become bright and mellow.

The pixels on the walls looked like a whole stretch of polished colored-glass fragments, each one refracting light from some unknown source.

The floor beneath their feet still gave slightly when stepped on, but it no longer swallowed him like quicksand.

It felt more like...

Stepping on a thick layer of sponge?

Fang Qi had even tried standing still for several minutes—his soles only sank a few millimeters before stopping.

That unnerving sensation of sinking was gone.

Even more curious, the floor changed color.

As he held Liguang’s hand and walked slowly, the pixels underfoot shifted from pale gray to light blue.

When he pulled her into a run, the light blue turned into leaping pink and purple.

When he stopped and pulled her into his arms...

The pink and purple bloomed outward into a warm, soft white.

Utterly beautiful.

And once Liguang discovered this, she began to mess with him on purpose!

Two steps forward, one step stop!

A hop, then a spin!

She watched the colors churn and shift beneath her feet like a painter’s palette, thrilled beyond measure!

The silver hair at her nape slid to one side, and Fang Qi saw the battery number flickering in the display window on her neck.

57%.

Fang Qi simply reached out to tuck the silver hair back, then gave her earlobe a gentle pinch.

That little plastic star was cool to the touch.

“Master, look—it’s so well-behaved!”

She tilted her face up to smile at him.

In her amber eye reflected the patch of light slowly shifting into pale gold beneath them.

Fang Qi pinched her earlobe again.

Why had this maze changed like this?

He didn’t know.

Those once-suffocating mosaics had suddenly become docile, even eager to please.

How strange.

But he found he no longer cared to chase the answer.

It was fine, wasn’t it?

And so, they began naming the rooms they discovered.

The first to be officially named was a room full of glowing fungi.

It had probably once been a fungal cultivation chamber—from the silhouette of the inverted culture racks, Fang Qi could faintly recognize the features of a laboratory.

But now, all those fungi had been mosaic-ized.

They’d become clusters and clumps of glowing pixel masses.

They sprouted from the walls, the ceiling, and the gaps between fallen equipment.

Deep blue, cold white, soft purple, pale green... each clump had its own unique color.

They looked like shimmering fluorescent jellyfish from the deep sea, planted on land.

And the most magical part—they swayed gently along with Liguang’s singing!

That day, Liguang stood in the center of the room humming that tuneless melody...

Those glowing clumps rippled outward like a wheat field touched by wind, starting from the nearest cluster, wave after wave.

With the rise and fall of the melody, the glow pulsed and dimmed.

On high notes, they shone bright as stars; on low notes, they dimmed to faint glimmers.

Fang Qi leaned against the doorframe, watching it all.

Watching his Liguang stand in that sea of stars, her right eye veiled in white, her left eye closed, a faint curve at the corner of her lips.

Her whole being wrapped in that gentle light.

So beautiful.

Everything was so beautiful.

“Let’s call this place ‘Mushroom Glow Hut’!” he blurted out.

“That’s terrible!” Liguang immediately opened her eye in protest.

After a long argument, they settled on the name “Star Sea Cabin.”

The name Liguang chose.

Fang Qi thought it was a bit random.

But Liguang pouted and begged, so he gave in.

Later...

They found more rooms like this.

Behind one door was a low hill.

Or rather, a hall with an uneven floor.

The mosaic had shaped the ground into a series of rolling slopes.

The strangest part was that those pixel hills would gradually change height as people approached!

When Fang Qi walked to the top of a slope, the ground beneath him quietly rose a few inches; when he walked down into a dip, the little hills on either side receded like a retreating tide.

Liguang ran happily among the hills, and every step she took was accompanied by an extremely soft, delicate “pop,” like stepping on bubble wrap!

They named it “Living Hills.”

Behind another door was an extremely quiet space.

The moment he stepped in, Fang Qi felt his own breathing amplified tenfold, his heartbeat thundering like a drum.

He could even hear the faint hum of Liguang’s core running.

But beyond that, all other sounds vanished.

Only his heartbeat, and Liguang’s gentle footsteps behind him.

Liguang tried to speak; her voice was muffled as if wrapped in cotton, soft and barely traveling half a meter.

Fang Qi stayed in that room for less than ten minutes before pulling Liguang out.

That absolute silence made him realize for the first time that his own heartbeat was too loud!

Liguang, however, thought it was nice, saying she loved hearing her master’s heartbeat and breathing!

He called it “The Silent Room.”

Behind another door, there was nothing but fog.

Fog that could dampen your eyelashes.

It was probably some kind of environmental simulation chamber, where the density of the mist would change on its own.

When they first walked in, it was thin as a veil; deeper in, it grew thick enough that even Liguang couldn’t see clearly!

She clutched Fang Qi’s hand tightly, her voice drifting through the fog—soft, yet so close.

They fumbled through the mist for a while, and when they reached its densest point...

Above their heads, a patch of aurora began to flow impossibly slowly.

Ribbons of blue-green light, faintly appearing and disappearing within the fog.

Like a reflection of the sky.

Fang Qi looked up at that aurora and felt...

As if he were in a dream he couldn’t wake from.

He called it “The Sea of Mist.”

Liguang called it “The Cloud Pavilion.”

Neither could convince the other, so in the end...

That room got two names.

Fang Qi had completely stopped keeping track of time.

They went to the “Upside-Down Castle,” and among that inverted ruin, they found another vintage vending machine that still worked.

Inside, two long-expired cans of coffee were stuck. When they drank them, the coffee had a pixelated, burnt bitterness.

They went to the “Sea at the End of the World” they’d visited before, where Liguang kicked up streams of glowing sparks across the pixel water with her bare feet, and dragged him in, insisting he come into the water too.

They also went to the "Mirror Echo Hall," where Fang Qi hummed a random tune, and the sounds in the whole room became a mess. Liguang laughed, and then the sounds in the room only got even more chaotic!

Fang Qi's favorite moment now was pushing open the safe room's door every day, and Liguang would grab his hand, tilt her face up, and ask him:

"Master, where are we going to explore today?"

He would deliberately pause for a couple of seconds, then say one of the names they had come up with together—

"Let's go step on bubbles at Living Hill?"

"Let's sunbathe at the Light Cocoon!"

"Let's go see the auroras at the Mist Sea!"

"Master, that's called Cloud Pavilion!"

Then she would happily swing his hand and drag him running down the hallway!

The pixels beneath their feet turned into cheerful pink-purple with each step.

The walls along the corridor pulsed with soft light in a steady rhythm.

Fang Qi could feel...

The entire maze was trying to please them.

Those mosaics were no longer eroding anything.

No more suffocating shrinking corridors. No more turning pushed-open doors into walls.

They began to actively offer up beauty.

Brighter colors. Softer lighting. More wondrous rooms.

They turned shattered ruins into seas of stars, abandoned laboratories into concert halls...

Making this place into a paradise belonging only to Fang Qi and Liguang.

Just as Liguang had said.

It was fulfilling their wishes.

Fang Qi didn't know the reason behind it.

Was some hidden power of Liguang's at work?

Or had this space of chaotic rules somehow developed a strange self-awareness?

Or maybe...

He didn't know.

He wasn't sure.

And he didn't want to find out anymore.

...

That day, they didn't go out.

Fang Qi sprawled on the yoga mat, his head resting on Liguang's thigh.

Her silver hair spilled down from her shoulders, carrying a sweet strawberry scent, landing beside his cheek.

He lay face up, looking at her.

The white gauze over her right eye was already slightly worn at the edges.

Yeah, it was time to change it.

"Master, don't move now."

Her fingers slipped through his hair, and then she clumsily began braiding small plaits for him.

Her motions were really clumsy.

Under her fumbling touches, Fang Qi's scalp itched a little.

He didn't speak. He just lifted his hand and pinched a lock of her silver hair hanging near his cheek.

Soft. Silky.

He wound that strand around his fingertip, loop after loop.

The edge of the white gauze over her right eye brushed lightly across his forehead.

Warm breaths, one after another, landed on his face.

Carrying that strawberry sweetness.

The little star on her earlobe swayed.

Fang Qi pinched the tip of her silver hair and gave a gentle tug.

Liguang let out an "mmm," and lightly tapped his forehead with her finger.

"Master, don't be restless. Liguang hasn't finished braiding yet."

So Fang Qi stayed still.

He kept playing with that strand of silver hair, staring at the fluorescent tube on the ceiling...

Feeling her clumsy fingertips trace across his head, stroke by stroke.

He thought, a few more days of this wouldn't be so bad.

A few more days...?

No need to look for an exit.

No need to think about all those messy things.

No need to face all those riddles he couldn't understand.

Just the two of them, deep in this maze...

In this laboratory where the light never went out, among those mosaics that only wanted to please them...

Living on, day after day, just like this.

When she leaned down, he glanced at the nape of her neck where her silver hair parted.

98%.

Nice.

Almost full.

So reassuring.

And supplies... seemed to be endless, too?

Liguang could always find new supplies from somewhere...

Anyway...

Fang Qi closed his eyes.

Just wait a little longer.

Wait a little longer...

No rush.

Really, no rush.

He fell asleep.

For the first time in a while, he had a dream.

In the dream, he was running across a grassland.

In the distance stood a giant tree, its branches heavy with glowing fruit. When the wind blew, the whole tree made a crisp ringing sound.

He could no longer even tell if this was a dream or if he had already woken up.

After all...

What they experienced when they woke up was even more fantastical than any dream.

The wind from the grassland blew toward him, carrying a distant voice.

The voice was faint and fragmented, like a young girl whispering by his ear.

What was she saying...?

He closed his eyes and listened carefully.

And then he heard...

"Senior!!! Fang Qi!!!!!"

A sudden, piercing, furious shout!!

It tore through his eardrums!

The sound jolted him so hard he gave a sharp shudder.

Fang Qi: "?!"

Wh...?!

"You, get your head—"

"Wake up already!!!!!"

Huh?!