Chapter 113: He Is Getting Older
The old man stopped cutting the fabric. He sat there as still as a statue, silently accepting the intense, questioning gazes of Song Yuqing, Liu Xiaona, Gaha, and Little Meat Bun.
“Are you really our kid, Shen She?” Liu Xiaona squatted down, tilting her head to catch the old man’s downcast eyes. “How did you end up like this?”
The old man kept his head bowed, avoiding their stares.
Song Yuqing opened her mouth to speak, but the words caught in her throat. All she could manage was a heavy, aching sigh.
Finally, the old man pressed a hand to his forehead and slowly raised his face.
“Yeah,” he rasped. “It’s me. I’m Shen She.”
Song Yuqing’s eyes met his. Even though she had already deduced his identity, looking into that deeply weathered, wrinkled face made it incredibly hard to accept the reality.
After a long moment, a sad, gentle smile touched Song Yuqing’s lips. “You’ve worked so hard.”
There was no need for Shen She to explain himself. Song Yuqing already understood exactly what he had been through.
Ever since the day he rewound time to save Nanjiao’s life, Shen She had embarked on a path of no return. The more he utilized his time-manipulation abilities, the more powerful they grew, unlocking an array of different skills. But there was a terrible cost.
Over the past few months, Shen She had traveled alongside Nanjiao across the wasteland, visiting all the major survival bases. Throughout that perilous journey, he had activated his powers time and time again. With every use, his years, his youth, and his very lifeforce had rapidly slipped away.
Liu Xiaona and Little Meat Bun gently lifted Shen She by the arms, carefully guiding him into the supermarket and sitting him down on the chair next to the cash register. Song Yuqing and Gaha followed close behind, gathering in a tight circle around him.
Tears welled in Shen She’s aged eyes. He turned his head away, silently wiping at the moisture before it could fall. Who could have ever predicted that he would age decades in the span of just a few short months?
“Were you in that much of a rush to grow up?” Liu Xiaona scolded, her voice thick with a mix of fury and heartbreak. “It’s like pulling up a seedling just to force it to grow! Did you ever learn that idiom in school? Do you even know what it means?!”
Song Yuqing held her forehead, completely speechless.
Shen She offered a weak, croaking laugh. “…Of course I know what it means.”
“You used your powers constantly, didn’t you? Why were you trying to play the hero? You knew exactly what would happen if you kept overusing your abilities… so why did you keep doing it?!” Liu Xiaona slapped her own thigh in violent frustration, deeply disappointed yet devastated for him.
“Why did you separate from Nanjiao and Xie Hao?” Song Yuqing asked, keeping her expression serious. She was trying to adopt the stern tone of an older sister scolding a reckless child, but it was incredibly difficult. Not only did Shen She physically look like he was old enough to be her grandfather, but it was obvious he had endured countless traumas at such a tender age. It simply wasn’t easy to be harsh with him.
Shen She bit his dry lip, trying to figure out where to begin. “I’ll keep it short.”
“Take your time,” Song Yuqing said softly. She couldn’t help but reach out and gently rub Shen She’s sparse, graying hair, wanting to offer him some measure of comfort and encouragement.
“This feels weird now,” Shen She muttered, though he didn’t pull away from her touch. He just looked up into her eyes.
Song Yuqing paused, a lump forming in her throat as she shook her head.
“No matter how old you look on the outside, you will always be our little brother,” Liu Xiaona said fiercely. She reached out, cupping Shen She’s cheek with her hand. When she felt the loose, cold skin beneath her palm, a subconscious instinct urged her to pull back, but she forced herself to hold on tight.
Shen She gently, yet firmly, pushed their hands away. “You don’t need to do that. I’m not a child anymore.”
Looking at his aged, weary face, Song Yuqing could still clearly see the stubborn little boy from a few months ago who had proudly declared that he was a grown-up.
Liu Xiaona felt a bitter sting in her heart. Back at Base 27, she had always paid special attention to Shen She, the little “adult” who stubbornly carried bricks around the camp. Now, he was an old man trapped in a child’s role.
Gaha and Little Meat Bun stood by quietly, blinking in somber silence.
Xiaoyi, who had been lingering near the employees, watched the exchange with wide, confused eyes. She didn’t dare ask for an explanation. While she didn’t fully understand the relationship between the store manager and the old man, the heavy, suffocating atmosphere in the room was palpable. If she rashly interrupted, she knew she would face the brunt of their grief.
Song Yuqing patted Shen She’s slightly hunched back. “Tell us. We want to know what happened to you. We need to know if there’s anything we can do to help.”
Why had Shen She resorted to selling acid-proof umbrellas in exchange for a single minute of someone else’s life?
She was terrified that he simply didn’t have much time left.
And her intuition was dead on. Shen She was running out of time.
Every single time he activated his time powers, he consumed his own lifespan. And now, just like his failing, elderly body, his supernatural abilities were beginning to decline. The effects of his powers were becoming far weaker than they used to be.
After they had departed from Base 35, Nanjiao and Xie Hao had strictly forbidden him from using his abilities again. However, navigating the wasteland was like Tang Sanzang’s grueling journey to the West to obtain the sacred scriptures—fraught with endless perils. Time and time again, Shen She had to rewind localized time to save the people he cared about.
Even when the victims were mere passersby, his heart simply couldn’t bear to watch them die. Part of it was his inherent kindness; the other part was the reckless, invincible spirit of youth.
Because he had traveled extensively with Nanjiao, whispers of his existence had eventually reached Base Zero.
The power over time itself was simply too miraculous to ignore.
The research institute at Base Zero dispatched envoys to track Shen She down, formally inviting him to participate in their scientific trials—as a primary test subject.
Nanjiao and Xie Hao had vehemently opposed the idea. But Shen She, who had always been so obedient and well-behaved, stubbornly defied them. He chose to follow the envoys back to Base Zero, willingly surrendering himself to the scientists to serve as the hope of mankind.
The price was his youth. He aged rapidly.
He had only left the confines of Base Zero this time because he could feel his clock running out. He wanted to see God’s Supermarket one last time before he passed away.
Reuniting with Song Yuqing and Liu Xiaona made Shen She feel as though he had regained a few years of his youth.
However, everything changed when he stepped into the Future Cinema. On that screen, Shen She witnessed a terrifying, apocalyptic reality. It wasn’t just a zombie overrun—it was true, absolute annihilation. Zombies were nothing. Humans were nothing. All life, all matter, everything was reduced to a swirling cloud of dead ashes.
For the first time in his life, Shen She felt the true, paralyzing terror of death. And yet, witnessing that end only made him more deeply attached to this battered, meteorite-scarred planet.
He swore to himself right then and there that he would do whatever it took to extend his own remaining time, so he could fight to extend the time of this world.
Tears shimmered in the eyes of Song Yuqing, Liu Xiaona, Little Meat Bun, Gaha, and Xiaoyi as they listened to his quiet confession.
“You saw this entire planet reduced to ashes in the future movie?!” Song Yuqing’s heart skipped a terrifying beat.
Shen She nodded grimly.
A suffocating silence filled the room. The staff of God’s Supermarket looked at each other, nobody daring to utter a word. A profound, icy dread settled over them all.
“The cinematic visions are only ten seconds long, and they’re usually disjointed,” Song Yuqing said slowly, trying to rationalize the horror. “You basically have to guess the context. Who knows, maybe you misinterpreted the footage?”
“No,” Shen She shook his head firmly. “The meaning of the imagery was crystal clear. And it was very, very real.”
Song Yuqing went completely silent.
“Alright, let’s put a pin in that for now,” Song Yuqing said, the atmosphere growing so heavy she could hardly breathe. She desperately needed to change the subject. “Tell me… where on earth did you manage to find all those zombie corpses out there?”
Shen She immediately lowered his head again, suddenly looking entirely too sheepish and embarrassed to give her an answer.
